Persisting: "Discipline Equals Freedom": How to Boost Productivity and Make Time Your Friend
By Claire Conner, Harvard-Westlake ’23
“Discipline equals freedom.”
The first time I read this quote from retired naval officer John Willink, I wondered how discipline and freedom were related. I assumed that they were close to being opposites, and at least unrelated. Willink’s explanation resolved my confusion - he wrote that we can only live life to the fullest when the two are successfully linked. We need to have discipline while completing tasks and using a schedule to have the freedom and time to enjoy life.
As a high school student, I soon realized how this idea applied to my peers and me. While doing school or debate work, I often stopped to respond to a meme from a friend, check ESPN or aimlessly scroll through the Twitter kingdom ruled by Chrissy Teigen, Jameela Jamil and AOC. During breaks with friends and family, I would constantly check Slack to stay updated on debate team info and do some flashcards on my phone.
The problem with the “mixed schedule” where work and other activities are combined is that I never had quality time to do anything. I wasn’t maximizing my time, which put me behind schedule with work and prevented me from enjoying my free time, because it wasn’t “free” of tasks.
That is why being disciplined leads to freedom - by choosing to focus intensely on work during work time, I’m able to fully enjoy my free time and have more of it. When I’m cutting cards for a research assignment, I turn off my phone and only work on research. When I’m spending time with friends and family, I focus on conversations and activities with them and ignore non-emergent work-related distractions. I’ve found that this method of time and effort management is not only helpful but essential for debaters because we have many tasks to complete and less time than the average kid.
With this strategy in mind, here are some tips that I’ve found helpful to improve my discipline while working and have more fun during free time:
1. Use a calendar for activities and breaks
I use Google Calendar not just for events and classes, but also for scheduling work time and free time. By sticking to my schedule, I can make sure that I maximize the amount of work I complete while having extra time to socialize, read, play Minecraft or watch Gilmore Girls. (I highly recommend all of these activities!) If I was to watch Gilmore Girls while cutting cards, I wouldn’t enjoy the show and it would take way too long to finish the assignment. Scheduling breaks gives me time to relax and prevent burning out.
I am also mindful of the amount of time I give myself to complete a task. Parkinson’s law states that work will expand to fill the time allotted. Even if something will only take half an hour, if I give myself an hour to do it, the time will end up being filled. By allotting a specific amount of time to complete tasks, I can get more work done in less time. This helps me prevent myself from having to work instead of relaxing or enjoying hobbies.
2. Find a study schedule and environment that works for you
Within the time that I schedule for studying, finding a routine that maximizes the work I finish without losing focus helps me boost my productivity. Some examples of schedule routines are the Pomodoro Technique, or studying in longer, multi-hour blocks with large breaks in between. While it might take extra time and effort to figure out what method works best, the investment will pay off in the long term.
Your study environment is also important - I like to get everything that I might need (water, food, a sweatshirt, extra pens, etc.) and bring them to my study area before I begin to work. I know that if I have to leave my desk during study time to get one of these items, I’ll be more likely to run into a distraction and have difficulty re-focusing on my work.
3. Prevent access to distractions
Distractions are an easy way out of focusing on work, so making it more difficult to be distracted has helped me with time management. Whether you are trying to focus on studying or eliminating work distractions during free time, putting barriers between you and potential distractions such as social media or text notifications will help you maintain focus. This is especially important during the pandemic because our home environments are more distracting than a library or study hall.
I always turn my computer notifications off and put my phone in another room before beginning to study to prevent myself from getting distracted. I also put a sticky note on my door so that my parents and siblings know that I’m busy working unless they need help. Everyone’s study environment and potential distractions are different, but finding methods that help you focus will improve the quality of your studying.
This applies to working during tournaments in addition to studying. Now that we’re all staying at home, there aren’t as many tournament-related distractions like chatter in school cafeterias to distract us. However, we still need to make sure that we’re focused during tournament weekends.
4. Focus on habits, not goals
For most of my time as a student, I’ve made New Year’s resolutions every January to be more productive and “get things done”. Regardless of whether my resolutions were study-related, I often found myself giving up after mid-February.
Focusing on specific habits to achieve my goals has been a much more successful strategy for me. Instead of committing to being more productive in general, I chose to work on a few habits at a time like using Google Calendar every day and turning my phone off while studying.
Writing a plan with specific habits can help us take concrete and achievable steps towards a long term goal.
5. Prioritize what’s important
One excuse that I often have for not being able to finish work is that I “don’t have time”. I often find myself saying “yes” to too many new activities and tasks, which prevents me from making meaningful progress in important activities and having extra time to relax. Going to too many tournaments and taking on extra research assignments when we don’t have time will decrease the quality of our work and make our lives more difficult. This is especially true during November and December - dedicating tons of time to research and tournaments during the shortest part of the season can detract from time spent studying for finals or working on generics. We have the time to do what we value the most, but we need to use it accordingly.
To prevent myself from taking on too much, I make a list every week of my most important tasks and activities in the upcoming seven days. When building my schedule, I make sure to dedicate most of my time to what matters most. Ultimately, we can’t predict everything that will happen in a week, and time might often slip away. However, by doing everything we can to maximize our time and manage how we spend it, we can make the most of every day.
6. Give yourself time and adjust gradually
One thing I learned from working on my calendar habits is that discipline *definitely* doesn’t come overnight. Forcing myself to stick to my schedule 100% every day didn’t work. It’s better to be flexible with your schedule to see what works and give yourself a bit of leeway. This helped me develop long-term habits as opposed to one week of intense and strict schedules and then giving up or burning out. By cutting yourself some slack in the beginning, you’ll avoid slacking off in the long term and become more disciplined.