Who am I?
I sometimes wonder who am I? Why I am doing things, I am doing, am I passionate about it? can I develop a passion for the things that I am not much interested in?
I was doing a course named Learning how to learn and in this article, I will share with you whatever I have learned.
You know what we humans are trying to do, it’s like trying to use a tool, without having an instruction manual, how to use it, Irony is: The most complex thing that is our brain doesn’t come with an Instruction manual, and course instructors literally said, our brain didn’t come with an instruction manual, so we designed the course.
So this article will be more like a conversation between two friends Cyan and Sanaya.
Sanaya is a psychology student and is curious about how the brain works and practices yoga, meditation, and mindfulness.
Cyan is an Engineering student and is often confused about things in his life, he is quite a lazy person and tries to post-pone things till the last minute, but he wants to improve but doesn’t know how to do it!
So we will be discussing following things:
- How to avoid Mastering the Art of Procrastination.
- Power of Sleep.
- Two modes of mind - Focused and Diffused.
- Chunking.
- Illusions of competence of learning.
- Neuromodulators in brain(Theory of motivation).
It will be easier to use something if we know how to use it!
Cyan: Hey Sanaya how are you?
Sanaya: I am good and doing well, what about you?, how is your Computer Science going?
Cyan: It is the same, I don’t know why but I sleep with a lot of things that I want to achieve, in my head and when I wake up and the sun goes up, I post-pone things and do a little and sometimes nothing in a day.
Procrastination
Sanaya: This is Procrastination(ain’t new, happens with most human beings.😂 )
Cyan: What you just said, pro-crass-what?
Sanaya: Procrastination is more like, you are sitting on your study table and you are doing everything rather than studying and at the end of the day, you have done nothing but made a humongous workload.
Cyan: This is Exactly what happens to me, can you help?
(Sanaya be like, It’s time for some showoff! let me flaunt some knowledge. )😏
Sanaya: We often procrastinate and post-pone things but do you know why we post-pone things! and how can we avoid mastering this Art of Procrastination?
Why I am saying the word Mastering?
If we practice something daily, what we are doing is we are mastering it, isn’t it?
Cyan: Sanaya I know this, but I was expecting something related to the brain, you psycho student!, Can we learn what we don’t want to learn actually procrastinating to learn?
Sanaya: Yeah! It is Possible researchers say, When u look at the thing which you don’t want to learn like studying, can arouse or trigger the Insular Cortex of your mind which can lead you to feel pain or let you feel unhappy, then to avoid this your brain will gradually shift your attention to something which can make you feel good, but this happiness is temporary. but our original question is how not to master the art of Procrastination, so researchers say if u can just do it rather than feeling like not doing if you can just start the work, after a while, you won’t be having that feeling of procrastination.
Cyan: but how to do it, is there anything, how to just start?
Sanaya: You can use the promodoro technique, that focusing for 25 minutes and enjoying relaxation for some time, and trying another 25 minutes session, which can make you more creative and productive.
(Cyan be like, this psycho girl is really intelligent😦)
Power Of Sleep
Sanaya: Tell me how many hours do you take sleep?
Cyan: Let me count, I go to bed at 11 pm, I use my smartphone for an hour there and then I think, mostly I sleep at midnight and I wake up at 6 am, I think 5–6 hrs are enough isn’t it?
Sanaya: No that’s not enough, your body and your brain should get 7–8 hrs of sleep!
Cyan: But, why should I get sleep, actually sleeping is like doing nothing, why should I waste my time sleeping?
Sanaya: Sleep won’t decrease your productivity, instead the right amount of sleep can increase your productivity!
Cyan: How? Is there any scientific evidence, or research.
Sanaya: Yes there is something, you need to know, see You can get rid of toxins accumulated in your mind when you go to sleep, actually you can think of toxins as waste blocked between your brain cells when you sleep, the brain cells shrink and then fluids wash away the toxins. It also helps you learn hard things which you were trying to learn, and let me tell you an interesting fact, you can dream of the stuff you have learned if u have learned or done it just before sleeping, If you can think of something you want to dream of what u have learned, can actually increase the chances of dreaming the content.
Cyan: Probably there is lot to learn!
Sanaya: As I said earlier, we must have the instruction manual of the tool, we want to use.
(Cyan thinking, that’s what worth learning!😬)
Two Modes of mind, Diffused & Focused.
Sanaya: Do you know we have two modes of thinking?
(Cyan Totally Clueless, one brain two modes!🤨)
Cyan: What’s that can you please explain, and how it’s related to learning?
Sanaya: Yeah! Sure my friend, see our brains have only two modes of thinking, to tackle any task, namely diffused and focused, both forms of thinking are equally important and in order to work best, you need to know both, and should master both!
As she lost consciousness of outer things…her mind kept throwing up from its depths, scenes, and names, and sayings, and memories and ideas, like a fountain spurting. — Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
We as humans are always in the search of true periods of focus, concentration, and highly productive sessions and there is where the focused mode of mind comes into the picture, when you are doing a promodoro session, you are into the process of learning, maybe you are trying to understand some literature or doing complex problem-solving in mathematics, physics or just preparing some algorithm for code, it’s more like you are focusing your total attention on that learning session, whatever the stuff you want to learn.
Cyan: If this is the focused mode and we can learn like everything in focused mode, then what’s the need of diffused mode, and what it is actually?
Sanaya: Ruko jara, sabhar karo!(Wait for a while, dear)
Sanaya: Diffused mode is equally important as focused mode!
Cyan: But how my dear Psycho student?
(Sanaya taking a deep breath, uttering words, keep calm sanaya, keep calm, he is your friend)
Sanaya: When our minds are free to wander, wherever it wants, we shift into the diffused mode of thinking, think of it as you are solving a very complex mathematical problem and you are trying hard but you are not able to solve the problem, then what can you do is to go for a walk, or play something, or just do some physical exercise!
Cyan: What will happen, this is just breaking the flow, instead I must try hard, if I just try and try I think will hit the solution.
Sanaya: No, my dear, it is not like what you think!(Yahi to pharak aa jata hai)
Things in life are just simpler, you just need to change the spectacles from which you are looking into it. — Sagar Alwani
Sanaya: Gears at the back of your brain are still running trying to make connections, it can happen you are on break and something pops inside your brain, and you are like Eureka!, how can I miss this, the solution is in front of me, how can I miss this clue, or not that if you just go and start again the same after a break and look it again, it will look completely different and now you know, how to solve it and you can solve it!
Cyan: Yeah, I am getting it, the same thing happened to me, I came back to my home after my physics board exam and I was tired so I went to bed to sleep and after a while, something popped in my mind and I was like, I have solved that problem wrongly, and I was thinking before like, I have done everything correctly, it was a 5 marks question!😭
Sanaya: maybe!🙄
Chunking
Sanaya: Do you know this wonderful technique called Chunking to learn things.
Cyan: Nah! First time i am encountering this term!
Sanaya: Hmm, if you going to learn something well, then who else gonna binge watch Netflix and who will roam around discord servers?🤣
Cyan: Ohkk! don’t embarrass me, leave it. tell me what’s Chunking?
(Sanaya be like 😎)
Sanaya: Chunking is the act of breaking a component into smaller “chunks” of related information. This very sentence you are reading is composed of individual letters that have been “chunked” together to form words and a sentence.
Every skill is composed of chunks that aggregate to form the greater whole. For example, if you want to learn how to swing a golf club, you need to learn several different things: how to grip the club, how to position your feet, the proper stance, how to bend your elbow in the backswing, how to follow through, where to focus your eyes during the swing, how to retrieve your golf ball from the woods, etc.
It would be impossible to learn everything at once since our working memory can only hold only a few items of information at a time. So, decompressing the skill into bite-sized chunks and mastering them one at a time until the act becomes unconscious is an effective way of learning.
Cyan: Yeah, It is easy for a psychology student to say it and use it but, in engineering, we do a lot of calculation stuff, how it will help in engineering where we have to learn or remember complex things?
Sanaya: Relax Cyan relax, this technique is very powerful and you can apply it to your technical subjects too.
Things are easy to understand and remember if you know something about it previously, this means you are using your previously created chunks(actually neural patterns) in order to understand the new stuff.
Let me tell how to do it!
First of all, you have to decompose the things you want to learn in little segments and then learn them, actually organizing them, creating a pattern to learn things(Maybe using some Memory palace technique or using some Mnemonics.)
How to chunk?
- Understand a smaller part of whole.
- Try to build chunk on the existing knowledge(use some techniques).
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Last but most important among all is Practise.
Cyan: But doesn’t it seems complicated?
Sanaya: Every new thing seems complicated in the beginning until you are used to with it.
(Cyan thinking, she is right, I can try🥱)
Cyan: See I learn things but I tend to forget them, even I use a lot of highlighters at that time when I am reading something!
Sanaya: That’s what called as Illusions in Learning.
Illusions of competence of learning
Sanaya: Using highlighters on every other line doesn’t mean you got every line you have read, instead, it can fool your mind that I am getting every line, I am reading, and that’s the trap!
Cyan: Is it? So instead of this what should I do?
Sanaya: You should test yourself and you must try recalling whatever you have read. You can make side notes on the page after reading the topic. you can conclude the things on the empty sides of the page, you can write there, whatever you remember.
Cyan: Sounds good! and then if I want to look at that topic again, by just referring to previously written side notes I can get that topic again, wow, I will try this.
Cyan: ohkk! These techniques seem very effective but last time you were talking about some neuromodulator like dopamine, and you were trying to explain me, can you explain that thing again?
Sanaya: Sure, dear!
Neuromodulators in brain(Theory of Motivation)
No more conversations, just some cool and interesting facts about Human Brain.
It’s hard to learn if you are not into it, but if it’s something you are interested in, then learning is easy, Why’s that?
Most of the neurons in our cortex carry information about what’s happening around us and what we’re doing.
Our Brain has a diffused projected system of neuromodulators that carry information, not about the content of an experience but importance and value to our future.
Neuromodulators are chemicals that influence how a neuron responds to another neuron.
So we will be learning about three Neuromodulators of our human brain.
- Acetylcholine
- Dopamine
- Serotonin
Acetylcholine
A Chemical produced by Acetylcholine neurons. Acetylcholine neurons form neuromodulatory connections to the cortex that are particularly important for focused learning, actually when you are paying close attention to something you learning.
These Acetylcholine neurons project widely and activate circuits that control synaptic plasticity, leading to long term memory.
Synaptic Plasticity: Change that occurs at synapses, the junctions between neurons that allow them to communicate.
Dopamine
Our motivation is controlled by a particular chemical named dopamine. Dopamine Neurons are part of our large brain system that controls reward learning.
It is also responsible for decision making. We can say that it is in the business of predicting future rewards, not just immediate rewards.
It is released when we receive an unexpected reward and also motivates us to do the things which may not be rewarding right now but will lead to much better reward in the future.
Addictive drugs and some special activities can Increase dopamine in our brain and trick us that something wonderful has just happened in fact something opposite has just happened.
Dopamine due to drugs and those activities can be harmful as it can lead to craving and dependence which can hijack your free will and can motivate actions that are harmful too.
Loss of Dopamine neurons can lead to a lack of motivation and something called anhedonia(Loss of interest in things that once gave you pleasure).
Dopamine neurons are part of the unconscious part of your brain. When you promise to treat yourself after a study session, that is Dopamine.
Serotonin
Strongly related to social life and also affects social life. People suffering from depression are prescribed prozac which raises the level of serotonin activity.
The level of serotonin is also closely linked with the risk taking behavior.
It is seen higher risk-taking behavior in people having a lower serotonin level. Inmates in jail for violent crimes have some of the lowest levels of serotonin activity in society.
I hope you have understood and liked the article.
List of References:
- Course, named Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects — https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
- Diffused and focused mode — https://fs.blog/2019/10/focused-diffuse-thinking/
- Mr. Bean in sleep(Image Credits): https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1000/1*uiesOU7rlmqHn1QTr-tQMg.gif
- Sleep, removing Toxins(Image Credits): https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1000/0*wCdd_Pb0Bz_N-zoG.gif
- Synaptic Plasticity: https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain-basics/brain/brain-physiology/long-term-synaptic-plasticity
