Making Fewer Decisions
“Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” - Winston Churchill
One of the biggest reasons people get overwhelmed, I think, happens because of choice. Believe it or not, the more choice people have, the less happy they tend to be. Not only that, but the more choice there is, the more people think something is important. While this could be considered a positive, all it really does is keep people from taking action (which means nothing gets done).
Choice is a double edged sword, and if you’re feeling overwhelmed, this may be a cause. My recommendation is to look for ways for decisions to be made for you, so you don’t have to. To avoid this, I try to tell you on TextFugu exactly what you need to learn one step at a time. That way you don’t have choice, and only actions to take care of. When it comes to things like vocab lists and other study sources, though, you may find yourself surrounded by choice. Should I study this? How about this? Aw shoot, I didn’t study anything at all. You get the picture.
Here are some ways to help alleviate all the choices thrown at you when you’re studying Japanese. Not to make you have to choose or anything, but pick out the things applicable to you and do them – you’ll find yourself much happier, and you’ll find your Japanese getting better too!
- Make sure you’re letting Anki tell you what you need to study and when. Make it a point to check it every day – it will tell you right on the home screen what lists have words to study. Follow Anki’s instructions, and you’ll learn a lot of words in a fairly short amount of time.
- Try not to let studying Japanese be a choice, either. Don’t think of it as something you could do today. Think of it as something you have to do every day (we’ll talk about this more on the next page). That way it’ll become a daily task, and not a daily choice.
- When you have to make choices (about what to study, how to do it, etc), make those choices quickly. You could deliberate over those things for a while, and you’d probably have a higher chance of doing the “right” thing (if there is a right thing). However, you’re also taking away time and energy that could be spent on actually learning. If you make a mistake, no problem. You’ll know (right away) not to do that again, and you’ll slowly train your way towards skill rather than spending your whole life trying to make choices.
- Notice when you’re stalling behind a choice. If you look out for times where you have to make a choice, and you start noticing them, you’ll be able to move forward much more quickly. A lot of times we don’t even notice that we’re spending 15 minutes (and who knows how much intellectual energy) trying to choose something (only to choose nothing at all… or be unhappy with our choices).
Basically, I’m recommending you stop making so many choices. Seems counter-intuitive, and seems like choice should make us happier, but think about the last time you had to buy a computer or a camera or something else with a ton of choice. Even if you pick one of the best things out there, you’ll probably still have that nagging feeling “what if I got that instead?” If you reduce choice, you’ll get a lot more done (and be a lot happier, too). Give it a shot and see if it helps!