I have made notes about some postings from the Study Hacks blog below. I used the text found on the blog whenever possible but it is too radically changed to be considered a quotation.
He needed to learn about X so he built an annotated bibliography on a web page.
It took two hours of hard work to describe the information in his own words and organize it.
Fight Anxious Rumination (highly edited)
He would notice a flaw in his work and worry that his future would be ruined if he didn't find a solution for it.
He would begin obsessively seeking a fix making relaxation impossible.
To calm down he created a ritual to end his day. He would say "shutdown complete".
Then whenever he started thinking about a fix after work he would say.
“I completed my work today. I trust that I have a way to deal with this problem in the future. Therefore, I’m not worried.”
The key point here is that he didn’t try to ignore the urge to ruminate — which rarely works — but also didn’t engage rumination.
In less than month, the urge to ruminate on these issues had become almost non-existent. So long as he did my shutdown each day his mind had been trained to release work-related anxiety.
Focus intently on developing a small number of valuable skills.
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