As you may know we (outstanding solutions) are offering a free newsletter with some Maths and coaching tutorials for Leaving Cert. Maths. You can sign up using the link at the bottom.
Here we are going to explore some ideas that can help you become more productive in your studies. The ideas are both easy and extremely powerful. They can be used to help you accelerate your learning not only in Maths but any subject you need to study. The ideas have been well researched and the research shows that many of these ideas were used regularly by regular men and women, who went on to create amazing results in their lives, in business success, sports achievement and amazing feats of learning.
Here’s a little story for you that really sums up nicely why it is a good idea for you to read through this article and put the ideas you are about to learn into action immediately and as often as possible until they become a habit and you can use them automatically, just like the way you can tie your shoe laces, or ride a bicycle without even thinking about it.
Long ago there were two Swedish wood cutters who decided to have a competition to see who could cut the most wood in a single day. The younger wood cutter was feeling very confident. He believed the older man would be slower, tire more easily and that he would have no trouble beating him. So a little after sunrise they both started work. The young wood cutter started hacking away with great zeal and enthusiasm, the older began at a slightly slower pace and had a quiet confidence about him.
After one hour, the younger man, still full of energy looked over to see the older woodcutter sitting down in the distance. He continued to sit there for more than 10 minutes before getting back up to work again. The younger man laughed to himself and kept on cutting away. The next hour came and the older man was seen sitting down again in this distance. The younger man could not believe his luck and happily hacked away at a fresh pine tree. This continued in a similar manner, every hour the older man would sit for 10 minutes while the younger man just battled away, barely taking any breaks apart from a quick bite to eat at lunch.
At the end of the day the two men counted up the trees they had cut and much to the shock of the younger man it turned out that the older man had cut almost 3 times the amount of trees as the younger, stronger man. He just could not believe it and accused the older man of cheating. The older woodcutter asked him why he thought that he had cheated. The younger man replied saying “I noticed that every hour you took a 10 minute break and I didn’t, I kept on going, even while you were resting, it is impossible that you beat me, you must have cheated”. The older man smiled knowingly at the younger one and taught the younger man the one of the wisest lessons he had ever heard, something which separates the great from the ordinary and the successful from the failures. Young friend, I was not resting, I was sharpening my axe!
This article shares with you 3 powerful ideas that you can use to sharpen your mental axe, and cut through large amounts of work, quickly, and easily, and get more done in less time than you might have ever believed possible. (To get access to 7 other techniques then sign up through our website at the bottom).
Ok the first key skill to maximise your productivity is…
Technique number 1: Goal setting.
Goal setting is perhaps the most powerful productivity technique you can use. Numerous studies around the world show that less than 3% of people have clear goals written down on paper. These studies also show that these 3% of people are among the most productive and wealthiest people in society.
The idea is very simple, yet over time very powerful. Goals act like sign posts that help us have more clarity and direction. Writing a goal is like placing a giant red flag off in the distance. If every day you take one or two steps forward towards this flag, some days you walk, other days you jog, and sometimes you run, you will over time, if you keep your eye of the flag, reach any destination you decide upon.
This destination could be getting an A in Maths, it could be getting your dream job, it could be finding a great relationship that brings you a lot of happiness or it could be some other achievement that means something to you. Once you are clear about where you want to go you can figure out the tools, skills, resources, people and everything else you need to get you there. If you don’t have clear, written goals, well then one day you might move a little bit north, the next day a little bit to the west, and the day after around in circles a few times, basically without clear direction your progress towards anything can be slow and random.
As such take a few minutes to write out some goals for yourself. Project forward a few years. How would you like your life to be in 10 years? What would you like to have? What skills would you like to be good at? What type of people would you like to be around? What would you like to own? Also think about what type of person you will have to become in order to bring all of these into reality. Then consider how getting a good leaving cert can help you move closer and set some goals here? Do you want an A in Maths? What about your other subjects? You can then start setting some monthly, weekly and daily goals from this?
We recommend you write out at least 10 goals on a sheet of paper. The keys to goal setting are: Write your goals on paper, and for every goal that is important make out a plan. And for every plan, do something everyday to move you one step closer to your goal! What this means is making out a list of action steps that you will take everyday that will propel you forward towards that which you want. Also whenever you have a decision to make ask yourself, will this move me closer or further away from my goals? Whatever your answer is, take the appropriate action. Be sure to look over and think about your goals every morning before you start your day. Try this for 30 days and you will be amazed at your results.
Technique number 2: Prioritise.
Once you have you daily action steps written out (writing these out the night before is best, because your subconscious mind works on them as you sleep and you can find yourself inspired with new ideas every morning when you wake up). The next step is to prioritise your action steps. What this means is noticing which steps are more important than others.
For example if you were having trouble with Algebra and studying Algebra was on your list, and also on your list was studying co-ordinate geometry, but you were fairly ok with that, then it would make sense to say that Algebra would be more important for you than co-ordinate geometry. Prioristing means doing those activities which are more important before those activities which are less important.
Every morning look at your list of action steps and then ask yourself, which one step on this list, that if I completed it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my life? You can use this question in a more specific way as well. Which one area if I really understood it, would have the greatest positive impact on my understanding of Maths? Whatever your answers, these are the tasks you must focus on doing first before anything else. There’s a lot more to be said on prioritising but try this one idea of focusing on your one single most important step first, for each of your goals, each day.
Technique number 3: Develop sticking power.
This technique is challenging at times but it is also very simple and very powerful. It is simply this. When you decide to do something, decide at the beginning to stick with it until it is 100% complete. If you decide to answer and exam question, stick with it until you have finished it. The same for chores, the same for exercise, the same for everything else you can think of. If you find yourself feeling like finishing early say to yourself a few times “I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!”, and just keep on, keeping on. This builds up your self-discipline and through the power of positive momentum will help you get more done each and every day.
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