Comments on: The Ice Bath Method: Easing Into Painful Projects

By: Build Momentum « Orgo Hacks – Organic Chemistry Help

Build Momentum « Orgo Hacks – Organic Chemistry Help — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:14:33 +0000

[...] who writes with far more authority than myself in these matters, has a strategy he calls the “ice bath method“. Starting a big chunk of work – e.g. a major project, or a long study session to [...]

By: What is Execution? « Learning Passionate!

What is Execution? « Learning Passionate! — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:35:48 +0000

[...] blog “Study Hacks”. Here is the article to help you with starting your painful projects:http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/09/22/the-ice-bath-method-easing-into-painful-projects/ Share this [...]

By: Richard Shelmerdine

Richard Shelmerdine — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:12:09 +0000

It’s true to ease in early. The human mind and body don’t like rapid change so go with nature and make small adjustments. You’ll be somewhere amazing a year from now.

By: Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:18:22 +0000

My brain works better in small bursts. There’s a lot of research gathered saying that humans can’t do productive creative work for only a few hours a day.

By: Ibrahim | ZenCollegeLife.com

Ibrahim | ZenCollegeLife.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:43:26 +0000

I use the same method when doing pretty much everything (outside of academia). My brain just tends to work better in small bursts, rather than hammering out 8 hours of work on a single task. I always have 3-4 projects going at once, and I switch between them, giving each 30-50 minutes at a time.

By: Hang

Hang — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:37:04 +0000

When I first read your title, I thought of the ice baths used by runners after a long run. In those cases, you actually dunk yourself in as fast as you can bear it because the ice will numb you. I thought that was what you were referring to until the part where you actually talked about swimmers.

By: Snake

Snake — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:49:08 +0000

I know this isn’t germane to the post, but how would you recommend studying for a seemingly hopeless programming class?

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:04:10 +0000

Thanks for the answers, Cal!
Sebastian

By: Charles Gupton

Charles Gupton — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:48:56 +0000

Cal,
Been following your posts for several months and find them VERY applicable to a self-employed approach to projects, as well.

I’ve been a member of Toastmasters for about a year and this approach to writing speeches will be quite helpful, I’m sure. Too often I avoid getting started on my next speech because it’s such a daunting task. Same with a blog post. This method makes it far more approachable!

I see that Sam mentioned the book “Presentation Zen”, in a previous comment. It’s a great book on this topic. Another book for your readers to check out is “Slide:ology” by Nancy Duarte. Both writers have great blogs as well.

Thanks,
Charles Gupton
http://charlesgupton.wordpress.com

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:22:22 +0000

Your dog sounds adorable. Do you have any photos of him?

Why yes, Julie, I do. See the revised introduction to the post.

In the headline it’s “ice bath method” and in the middle of the text it’s: “ice bed method”. Perhaps a mistake?

Fixed.

Is there a method or a thought that influenced your (study) life more than others?

I’m inspired by people like Alan Lightman, or Neal Stephenson, who decided what they wanted their life to be about and then refused to let random crap gunk up that vision.

Kind of unrelated, but do you have any advice for giving conference talks?

Students focus too much on trying to impress the audience that what they did was hard and that they’re smart. The best talks, by contrast, focus on three things:

(1) Why is this problem important.
(2) Why is it hard to solve.
(3) How did we overcome that hardness.

I’ve actually given talks where I put those three questions on the screen. Even though most of my work is mathematical, I use a minimum of actualy math in my talks — it gunks up insight.