Indeed, in my daily life, I can also see the phenomenon of punching in. In recent days, in order to cooperate with kindergarten teachers, I am also helping my 6-year-old daughter practice calligraphy punching 2 1 day. The teacher said that the purpose is to develop good writing habits. I am also doing some punching, punching in early, punching in running, punching in English and punching in parenting theory. ...
Teacher Zhou said that in fact, there is a psychological mechanism behind this phenomenon of punching cards. In order to see clearly, we might as well pay attention to the people who punch in the circle of friends. Although they clock in very hard every day, few people finally succeed. For most people, punching in is just a passionate entertainment feast. In a few days, they will appear in another round of punching, or they will end up dead.
Prevent yourself from entering this state? We must be alert to the following phenomena:
A: Motivation transfer, power distortion
Take the ranking of WeChat sports as an example. It turns out that the WeChat sports ranking is a good thing, because the daily ranking stimulates people's enthusiasm for sports, which can not only keep fit but also socialize. However, from the moment the ranking began, people's motivation for exercise shifted unconsciously: originally it was purely for health, in order to enjoy the beauty brought by sports, now they unconsciously look at the ranking better for their own achievements, and some even bought equipment or used software to "brush" the steps. The same is true for punching in. At first, people's motivation for action is based on learning and growth itself, and the idea that they can easily get up early and enjoy a good time in the future; Exercise and fitness, have a good figure; Love reading, become knowledgeable and wise ... suddenly full of confidence and motivation. For this purpose, punching cards is more like icing on the cake, and people can even continue to act without any willpower support. However, once you start punching in, the task mentality has actually anchored.
As time goes by, enthusiasm fades, motivation weakens, and the difficulty of learning and growing gradually increases. People need stronger willpower to persist. What should they do when their willpower is unsustainable? Just give up? Isn't that telling everyone that you can't? What a pity! In order not to fall into pain, our brain will start the self-protection mode, actively adjust cognition when struggling, and make excuses for ourselves: "It is difficult to learn, but it is not difficult to punch in! As long as the punching is completed, doesn't it mean that the task is completed? " "Since punching in represents completion, why not choose this easy one and choose that difficult one?" Therefore, in the case of weak willpower, most people will unconsciously lower their standards in order to complete the punch-in task. At this time, it is not the most important thing to do more and do less. The most important thing is to complete the punching task. The motivation of human persistence unconsciously shifts from learning itself to completing tasks, and from internal needs to external forms.
Two: cognitive closure, reduced efficiency
Simply relying on punching cards will not only transfer the motivation of action, but also reduce the efficiency of action. This stems from another important psychological mechanism-cognitive closed demand.
The so-called cognitive closed demand refers to people's desire to find a clear answer to a vague question. For example, in ancient times, people did not know why it rained, so the problem of rain was not closed, which made people feel uncomfortable. Therefore, the ancients used tripterygium wilfordii, Dian Mu and the dragon king to explain the reason for the rain. Although these statements are unfounded, they meet the needs of cognitive closure. It is the same to extend this concept to behavior: if something is not completed for a long time, I always miss it in my heart and look forward to an early end; Once this is done, the motivation to do it will immediately tend to zero.
Three: task mentality, split body and mind
Task mentality is very useful in some fields, such as military field. Soldiers must have a strong sense of mission, but in the field of personal learning and growth, mission mentality may not be desirable.
For example, when you run, you always think about how much time you have left to finish, when you read a book, you always think about how many pages you have left to finish, and when you recite words, you always think about how many pages you have left to finish ... This mentality will distract your attention, and it is difficult to devote yourself wholeheartedly to the matter itself, so as to understand the essentials and fun. We can't feel the ease of body, mind, hands and feet when running, the thoughts and feelings of the characters in the book, and the deep connection between the words ... whenever, there seems to be a voice behind us urging us: hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, finish it quickly!
It is difficult for modern people to get happiness, mostly because of this fast pace and anxiety, but in this state, life is so boring that it can't make us enjoy the process, and it will only make our body and mind nervous, anxious, numb and divided.
In order to prevent ourselves from falling into the above trap, we need to use two small strategies:
1 Use records instead of punching in.
After each study, you only take action records and don't punch in. By recording the learning process, you can not only see your own learning track, but also facilitate the weekly resumption. Although it looks like punching in, there is no task pressure of punching in, so you can focus on the activity itself instead of completing the task.
2 When formulating tasks: set a lower limit, not an upper limit. The advantage of this is that there is no burden to complete the goal, and I have just entered the learning state and am full of energy, so I am willing to continue learning according to inertia. After all, learning one more word is an extra gain, and the mentality is completely different. It is easy to immerse yourself in body and mind, and you will not worry about when you can finish the task.