Okay. You've written a little bit about something called the imposter syndrome. What is the imposter syndrome and how can students overcome it?
Okay, the imposter syndrome is like a tape that plays inside people's heads, not just students, a lot of people. Let's do it in a student context though. The tape is like this, so the student is sitting in class, looking around and thinking, "Boy, these people are really good. They get this stuff, they can answer the teacher's questions, they can do the homework, they can do fine on the test. But I," the tape inside the head continues, "I'm really not." Right? I've managed to fool them all over the years, the tape goes, my friends, my family, my teachers, into thinking that I'm this real hotshot who belongs at this first-class university taking engineering, taking science, taking economics, whatever I'm taking. But I know better. The tape continues, "The very next tough question I get in class, the very next hard test that I have to take, that's what's going to finally once and for all reveal me as the fraud, the phony, the imposter that I know I am." Then what happens then is usually too horrifying to contemplate and so at that point, the imposter usually stops the tape, rewinds it, and gets it going again. The interesting thing about that phenomenon is how utterly common it is. But every student playing that tape imagines that he or she is the only one who's doing it and the idea that a lot of people are doing it and that hotshot in the front row with a 4.0 average, the tape is playing louder than it is in anyone else's head, comes as a surprise to them.
The reason that I'm so sure about how common this phenomenon is is that I've given this talk many times to students. So, I am in an auditorium full of students that I'm giving this talk to and when I get to the part about they all think I belong here but I know better, it's like I plucked a guitar string. There is a quiver that goes over the entire audience and eyes dilate and jaws go slack and then they start checking each other out and there's this tangible relaxation that goes over the entire room as they realize this is just a scam. I'm playing on myself and it is a scam. If a student managed to do everything needed to get into this college, to pass all of the entrance requirements, maybe to get through that difficult first year, then obviously, they have the ability to do it because they did it. So, when I make that speech, as I say, it relaxes a lot of students and once you're familiar with that phenomenon, what happens is imposters keep showing up. In my office, not a week goes by that I don't see two or three imposters coming into my office and as soon as they start talking about the problems that they're having, "Okay, here's another imposter." I reach into the left middle drawer of my desk in a file folder there. I pull out a copy of a little column that I wrote on the imposter phenomenon and I say, "Here. Check this out. You might find it intriguing." So, this imposter in my office reads his or her biography and it's high drama. I get the tears from male and female imposters. I get practically screaming. I had one woman student accuse me of stealing her diary. So, it's a really good thing for teachers to know about and it's a very, very good thing for students to know about because we're all playing it. It may surprise you to know that a lot of us have that imposter feeling often and that's something that each of us has struggled with in our whole adult lives as well as some of our students. The power, I think, is in naming it, oh, it's the imposter. Once you realize that that's what you're doing, then it diffuses a lot of the power. You can just remind yourself, "Okay, I know how to do this, I can. This may be something new, but I've met challenges before. I'll meet this one. I can do it," and go ahead and push on. You'll find that as you get into whatever the task may be, that you settle down and you realize you really can do it and you have resources if you have trouble. Right.
So, now, let's turn to something a little different. What do you both do to avoid procrastination when it comes to something you'd really rather not be doing. Do you ever struggle with this?
It's hard to think that two of these. Let me get to you later on that. Yeah. When we figure it out, we'll let you know. No, we definitely both struggle with it as I'm sure you knew when you asked that question. We found some strategies, [inaudible] for each of us that work, but it is still something we struggle with. I like to try to schedule myself if I've got a big task, schedule a small amount of time every day to work on it, to do just a little bit. Not try to do everything all at once but to bite off a small chunk. I've also found it to be really helpful where I keep a to-do list on my phone and if I break the task down into smaller pieces, whats the very next thing that I need to do that's manageable, then that makes it less overwhelming and I'm able to get going on it. Once you get started, it's easier to keep going. Oh, absolutely. This is one area where Rebecca and I are exactly on the same page. So, I use the same strategies. There were two points in the strategy that she mentioned which I'll just reiterate. One is breaking it up into small pieces. If I think I've got to write the book or I've got to write the dissertation or I've got to write the 25-page proposal, it's Mount Everest and it's very hard to get myself to take that first step. But if I say, "I've got to write the first two pages of the introduction to this thing," that I can do. That's not that formidable. So, if I just break it up into small pieces and set easy targets for myself, then I can keep marching. Then the other suggestion that she made which I would agree with is make appointments with yourself. So, if I work well in the morning, I'm a morning person, I think well, I'm clear headed then, then 10 O'clock to 10:30 every morning on my calendar, I make an appointment with myself, I'm going to work on that proposal for that half hour then I'll stop and I'll go back to the rest of my life. Next day, 10 O'clock, assuming I don't have other obligations at 10 O'clock, I'll do another half hour on it. It's incredible how stuff gets done when you can do things on a regular basis and the ones that you're most reluctant to do that you're putting off because I don't want to do that, those are the ones that you've got to schedule appointments with yourself. What a lot of people do is they work on the block of time theory and a time to work on the proposal now or the term paper now, but as soon as it's the weekend, as soon as this fall break or anything like that, that's when I really get it done, and it doesn't work. Among other things, as soon as you get to this block of time, other things rush in to fill it. Also, it can be so long since the last time you worked on it, you forgot what you were doing, and by the time you figure it out and get your momentum back up, the block of time may be over. But the steady appointment to just do the next chunk for half an hour, it'll get done. Some people find some form of accountability is helpful. A charge where they're checking off the stamps or a friend who will check in with them regularly, "How's it going on that project? Are you making progress?" But those kinds of things can be good strategies to. Absolutely. Well, I'm a big believer in the half hour chunk. That time frame seems to work really well for me for something that I'm having difficulty completing. I would like to thank you ever so much for your incredible responses that I think people will find enormously helpful. It's a great pleasure.
好的，关于拖延症，你们有什么应对策略吗？尤其是当面对那些你宁愿不做的事情时。
确实很难想到两者兼顾的方法。让我稍后再回答你的问题。是的，当我们找到解决办法时，会告诉你的。不，我们两个都在努力克服这个问题，我相信你在问这个问题的时候已经知道了。我们找到了一些对我们每个人都有效的策略，但这仍然是我们需要努力的事情。我喜欢尝试安排自己的时间，如果我有一个大任务，我会每天安排一点时间来处理它，只做一点点。不是试图一次做完所有事情，而是一点一点地去做。我还发现，在手机上保持一个待办事项列表真的很有帮助，如果我把任务分解成更小的部分，那么我需要做的下一件事情是什么，这样就不会感到不知所措，我就能开始行动了。一旦开始了，继续下去就容易多了。哦，绝对如此。这是Rebecca和我在同样的立场上完全一致的一个领域。所以我使用相同的策略。她提到的策略中有两个要点我要重申一下。一是把它分解成小块。如果我觉得我得写一本书或者我得写一篇论文或者我得写一个25页的提案，那就是珠穆朗玛峰，很难迈出第一步。但如果我说，“我得写这个东西的介绍的前两页”，那我就能做到。那并不可怕。所以，如果我把它分解成小块，为自己设定容易达到的目标，那么我就可以继续前进。然后她提出的另一个建议，我也同意，就是与自己约会。所以，如果我早上工作得好，我是个早起的人，我觉得我那时候思维清晰，那么每天早上10点到10点半，我的日程表上，我会预约自己，我会在那个半小时里处理那个提案，然后我就会停下来，回到我的生活中去。第二天，10点钟，假设我没有其他义务，我会再花半小时来做这件事。当你能够定期地做事时，你会惊讶于完成的事情有多少，而那些你最不愿意做、一直在推迟的事情，因为你不想做，那些正是你需要与自己预约的事情。很多人的做法是按照时间块理论来工作，现在是处理提案或学期论文的时间，但一到周末，一到秋假或其他什么假期，那就是我真的要完成它的时候，这行不通。其中的一个原因是，一旦到了这个时间块，其他事情就会涌入填满它。
此外，距离你上次处理它已经过去很长时间，你可能忘记了自己在做什么，等你弄清楚并重新找回工作节奏时，那个时间块可能已经结束了。但是，稳定地预约自己只做下一块半小时的工作，任务就会完成。有些人发现某种形式的问责制很有帮助。比如一个打卡的地方，或者是一个会定期与他们联系的朋友，“那个项目进展得怎么样？你取得进展了吗？”但这类事情也可以是很好的策略。绝对如此。嗯，我非常相信半小时的时间块。对于我来说，这个时间框架似乎非常适合完成那些我难以完成的事情。我想非常感谢你们的精彩回答，我认为人们会觉得非常有用。非常高兴。
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