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Write something about productivity

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Anthony Wang 2021-10-25 22:16:02 -05:00
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---
title: "Productivity Paradox"
date: 2021-10-25T21:58:24-05:00
description: ""
type: "post"
tags: ["life", "productivity", "school", "contests"]
---
Recently, another kid at my school asked me how many hours of homework I do each night, and I truthfully answered, "30 minutes." That totally blew his mind, so I explained that I finish most of my homework at school so I have time for other stuff when I get home. Based on what I've heard from others, I'm quite the outlier in this case.
So how am I so productive with homework at school? Well, the answer is that I hate doing homework at home. I'm always trying to minimize the amount of homework I have to do when I get home, so naturally I end up doing a lot of it at school. It helps that we have 1.5 hour seminars twice a week where I can grind homework. Of course, I'm not constantly doing homework the entire 1.5 hours and usually have an attention span of only 20 minutes. However, it's nice and refreshing to take breaks, check some email and chats, and then get back focused on the homework. Bam! That eliminates most of my homework.
If you had to ask me about my "one weird trick" here, it would definitely be the breaks. It's tough to time and space out the breaks so they are long enough to relax but not too long to interfere with the work. I also adjust the length and timing based on my current situation and mood, such as taking one short break if this big assignment is due next period, or taking a 10 minute Super Smash Bros. Ultimate break (on [exozyme](https://exozy.me/), of course) if I'm feeling tired and terrible. Sometimes my breaks get a little bit too long, but that's the tricky part. Breaks are immensely useful when controlled, and catastrophic to productivity when uncontrolled.
So what about when I get home? This strategy really breaks (pun totally intended) down when I start doing competitive math and programming problems. Why? Because they're way more painful than homework and I just want to take breaks instead doing work. Now it's more about removing distractions.
The fewer distractions, the better. It takes a long time to really channel my focus on difficult contest problems, and any distraction is just going to get in the way. I usually like having around me a small object to fidget with, but that usually turns into a distraction when praciticing for competitions. Of course, it's also possible that it's preventing me from getting distracted by more potent things such as chats and news, so I have some mixed feelings about this.
There's really no "one weird trick" now. With homework, it's usually pretty easy to breeze through, but there isn't really a way for me to effectively focus on something more difficult. If you were expecting some profound conclusion here, the conclusion is that there isn't one. But if you were expecting a blog post about getting better at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, stay tuned for my next post.