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4 Signs of Short-Term Thinking and Strategies to Overcome Them

Tactical hell

You find yourself embroiled in several struggles or battles. You seem to get nowhere but you feel like you have invested so much time and energy already that it would be a waste to give up. You have actually lost sight of your goals. Instead it has become a question of asserting your ego.

You need some detachment and perspective. Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run.

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4 Signs of Short-Term Thinking and Strategies to Overcome Them

medium.com

Key Ideas

Short-term thinking

Most of us imagine that we engage in some form of long-term thinking; after all, we have goals and plans. And basically we are in denial about this because it is hard to have perspective about our own decision-making process. The best way to overcome this is to recognize the clear signs of short sighted thinking in our own lives. As with most elements of human nature, awareness is the key.

Unintended consequences

Because we mostly react instead of think, our actions are based on insufficient information. We grab for a solution without thinking deeply about the context of the problem: e.g: We try to cheer up a depressed person by making her realize that her life is not that bad and that the sun is shining, only to find out we have made her even more depressed. She now feels guilty about her feelings, worthless, and more alone in her unhappiness.

Tactical hell

You need some detachment and perspective. Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run.

Ticker tape fever

Many of us have become addicted to the minute-by-minute news cycle, to “what’s trending". We feel like we are connected to the very flow of life itself, to events as they change in real time, and to other people who are following the same instant reports. Once we expect to have some bit of news quickly, we can never go back to the slower pace of just a year ago. Our attention span decreases as well as our tolerance for any obstacles in our path.

Lost in trivia

You feel overwhelmed by the complexity of your work. You feel the need to be on top of all the details and global trends so you can control things better, but you are drowning in information. It is hard to see the proverbial forest from the trees. This is a sure sign that you have lost a sense of your priorities — which facts are more important, what problems or details require more attention.

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A lot of mental and emotional suffering comes from the way we talk to ourselves in our own minds, what psychologists call negative self-talk. In this article we'll cover what negative self-talk really is, the most common types of negative self-talk (sometimes called Cognitive Distortions), and some strategies you can use to identify and start to change your own unhelpful negative self-talk.

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Narrative Habits

The way we talk to ourselves about the events in our lives is subject to the same laws of learning and habit formation that physical behaviors are.

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If our thoughts determine how we feel, that means how we habitually think will determine how we habitually feel.

Mind Reading

It happens when we assume we understand what other people are thinking without any real evidence.

It is a failure of imagination because we often only imagine and focus on the negative aspects.

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The Only 3 Ways to be More Productive

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The reason most people trying to be more productive start at working harder is that it's the most visible form of productivity. As I've continued to study successful people and meet some people that I would consider successful, the biggest factor in their success is courage.

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Working Harder isn’t the Answer

We do it because it's the most visible form of productivity.

It is a way to prove to others that you are doing stuff and checking things off the list.

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Hard work is necessary in order to be productive, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

At some point, you start to be negatively productive.

Prioritize Tasks by Energy Level

It means scheduling your time according to your natural rhythms:

Do your most important work at the beginning of the day if you are a morning person.
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We all have goals that we want to achieve in our lives. These goals may include learning a new language, eating healthier and losing weight, becoming a better parent, saving more money, and so on. It can be easy to assume that the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in the future is caused by a lack of knowledge.

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New knowledge does not necessarily drive new results, especially if your goal is to make progress and not to simply gain additional knowledge.

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“When we practice something, we are involved in the deliberate repetition of a process with the intention of reaching a specific goal. The words deliberate and intention are key here because they define the difference between actively practicing something and passively learning it.”

Learning vs. Practicing

Passive learning creates knowledge. Active practice creates skills.

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