Those three essays summarize what I think about learning: it's a full life activity, it needs consistency and it requires a system of habits.
The 4 mistakes that stop you from learning anything; What I learned after a 400km ride on a bike; Habits trump motivation
The 4 mistakes that stop you from learning anything
Just as I started writing this, one of my cats started asking for food. He won't stop meowing until I get up and feed him. He does it because how he feels drives his behavior, just like us.
It is quite obvious how our emotions influence our behavior, but how our behavior influences our emotions is something few people try to understand. We tend to think about ourselves as something apart from our bodies. We say "my arm hurts" as if the body was an outside object. We tend to reserve "I'm in pain" to an emotional struggle.
But there is no body and mind, there is a person.
Just like my cat feels more relaxed after getting a meal, we feel less anxious and more focused if we do the things that energize the brain.
This is what I learned during my first year in the engineering school. I struggled a lot, to the point of feeling that was not for me. I tried every productivity system I could find a book about (it was just before YouTube's launch and we before all the digital productivity influencers).
None of them worked before I solved these 4 things first.
#1. Build a routine
Predictability is important for our brains.
Wake up every day at the same time (including weekends);
Eat more or less the same things at the same times;
Dress more or less the same everyday…
Make your day more boring!
The less you have to decide the more time and energy you have to enjoy a flow state when trying to do deep work. Also, sometimes stepping out of the routine with a beloved one becomes much more special and enjoyable.
#2. Sleep properly
Sleep is probably the most important emotional short term drive for us. You know how angry you feel if you stay awake for too long. You know how hard it is to focus if you don't sleep enough.
To sleep well you have to:
stay away of light at night, go for natural light in the morning;
sleep between 7 and 8 hours if you are an adult;
Light is the key component to regulate the hormones related to sleeping. Sleeping time is necessary to allow our brains do the chemical and logical housekeeping.
After many all-nighters, I promised myself to never skip a good sleeping night again. My well-being and grades dramatically improved.
#3. Do your own food
This have a double benefit: you tend to eat healthier and you use the time to relax the mind.
Try to find a sweet spot between easy doing and the time spent. Just add water and put in the microwave, it is easy but is probably bad for you. If it takes too much time and preparation, you won't do it everyday.
Raw vegetables salads are quite fast to prepare, I always include them in the menu. Try grilled steak and cooked vegetables, they don't take much time and they taste awesome.
Remember, make your day more boring. It includes food. Just don't make it too boring...
#4. Exercise
Mother nature was smart enough when deciding for some rules. One says that "you only pay for what you use". Sustaining a body takes energy and resources. If you don't use much of your body, you don't need much of a body.
This includes your muscles, your heart, your lungs, your arteries. This includes you!
To have energy you must build a strong body. To build a strong body you have to exercise. Simple as that.
Routine is king. Take time implementing yours, experiment what makes you feel more energetic and keep doing it. I took a few years to figure out what works for me and for everyone. I can do it faster.
What I learned after a 400km ride on a bike
In 2015 I completed a 400km audax bike challenge.
To be precise, 396.48km. It took me 24h58m to finish. I saw the dawn on the bike, still energized by the first hour of moving on the road. I climbed many endless hills, that kind of thing you just hope to finish soon. I went from the harsh sun into the freezing coldness of the desertic region I live in Brazil. So many times I just thought with myself "I'm sure I'm a complete idiot by doing this".
Yet, this venture taught me one important lesson.
When things go sour, just keep moving!
At around 60km I started to feel very tired. I had done long distances before, there is no way to crazily start a 400km without ever finishing 300km first, 200km before and being comfortable doing 100km training sessions.
I know the feeling for that mark, and I was unusually tired. I tried to follow the peloton pace just to find myself alone after some time.
I stopped at around the 120km mark just to discover that my saddle was in the wrong position. I don't know what made it move, but small maladjustments in the bike position may do an amazing difference when hours compound. I adjusted the bike, returned to the road just to stop again a few meters ahead.
I sited on the side of the road and declared.
"I'm done…"
That problem hit me so hard I could just think about giving up.
There was staff members monitoring the road to collect the riders with problems. But you potentially have to wait for a few hours on the side of the road. I was waiting for about one hour when a couple friends who were also riding the challenge appeared.
"Let's ride just a few minutes to find a gas station and drink something there."
At this time, I was quite recovered physically.
But I was hopeless.
I agreed just because they insisted a lot. They were right, it was safer to find somewhere better to wait for rescue.
I went back to the bike, now together on a small team.
It took us around an hour to reach one of the challenge's control points. The guy with the rescue truck was on the road collecting people, it would take a few more hours until I could be picked because I was in good shape, I could wait…
I decided to keep going with my friends, just because I hate waiting…
Around the 160km mark we stopped to lunch. We eated and shared what happened so far. We made jokes about the tiredness.
I mean, they did. By that time I was still just cursing that day.
I then realized there was nothing stopping me from finishing the challenge except for my bad mood.
Weather was good, my bike was now fitted, the road was good, I had plenty of food and there was trustful people around.
I was already at 160km, what harm 240km more could make?
I decided to keep going and you already know I finished the whole 400km challenge. From this point my morale kept improving to the point of pushing back the other guys who were giving up later.
I don't ride that much anymore, that will probably be my personal record. But every time I find my self in bad seas I remember that ride. It taught me a life lesson:
Just keep moving...
Habits trump motivation
We are lazy beings.
I learned it watching John Galt, my cat. He sleeps around 14h each day. When he is not sleeping he is resting except for a couple times when he goes crazy running all over the place and asking for someone to play with him. It’s like he came to this world to rest from a previous life full of work (for those who believe in such).
When you spend some time watching other species more closely you start to realize how similar we are. Their bones are very similar to ours, their eyes, their mouths. They have different temperaments just like us.
Our brains are not very different indeed. All basic functions we need to survive were already there, even the emotional aspects: to fear, to feel hungry, to feel angry, to feel in need of affection.
If I don't think about my goals and tasks and take action, my impulse is to rest all day long just like John.
To succeed in long term goals we need to explore this primitive part of our brains.
Habits are automated behaviors. We don’t think when executing habits, we just perform them. Making decisions, even small ones, require energy and build anxiety. Habits spare us from making decisions.
That is why brains are habit building machines.
Brains are all the time trying to find useful patterns in our behavior and automating them so we can go through the day more efficiently (from the perspective of your lazy brain).
Everyday I wake up to find John watching me sleep, patiently awaiting me to wake up. When I get up from bed, he follows me to the bathroom and then sits in front of his food place. I start the coffee machine feed him.
We do this every single day for the last year since he understood my morning routine. Right now, he just came to my office to complete his routine by laying down in my table to watch me type this words.
When I travel, my wife tells me that he stays looking for me during the morning even after she feeds him.
Routine calms him, just like it avoids anxiety in us.
Breaking the routine confuses him, just like it confuses us.
After a habit is established, your brain will actively try to execute it. If you programmed it to be something useful like writing every morning or exercising every day you will just do it.
But it you leave your brain to decide on what to automatize, have no surprise when it decides that endlessly rolling the instagram feed slouched in your sofa is better to you than studying a new skill after a work day.
We are lazy animals just like cats, but we can choose to be something different.