This document is a talk given by Abe Gong at a local congregation event about effectively managing time and productivity. The talk uses the analogy of the mind as an elephant rider to explain how to align conscious and subconscious minds. Key recommendations include making detailed plans, breaking large tasks into smaller pieces, limiting the number of active projects, frequently measuring progress, setting deadlines but being willing to adjust them, eliminating distractions, and finding ways to keep tasks enjoyable such as through creativity or gamification. The overall message is that willpower is best used by understanding one's mental processes and setting up systems and habits to work with one's natural tendencies.

1. How to ride, eat, tame, etc.
your personal elephant
Abe Gong
Hill Street TED
January 2012
This is a talk I gave at the annual "Hill Street TED" activity that my
local congregation puts together. These are short talks in TED
format, put together by members of the congregation to share
aspects of their life and work that don't get talked about much at
church.
Here, I've taken my slides from the talk, added a script, and revised
the format to better fit the web. After going back and forth, I left
in the Mormon references, even though I know some of them will
be lost in translation. I also added a few slides based on
comments and feedback from people at the talk. This let me put
in more details and one-off ideas that just didn't fit into 10
minutes. Enjoy!
Abe Gong : agong@umich.edu
http://compsocsci.blogspot.com

2. Do you ever lose hours in your day?
I've had days where I'm riding the bus home, and I think "Where
did all the time go? I know I rode this same bus in at 9am, and I
know it's 5pm now. So there must have been 8 hours in
between. But I can't even remember what I did all day, and I
certainly didn't get 8 hours worth of stuff done." For me, the
feeling that comes next is always a sinking one: "Shoot. Now
I'm behind."
By show of hands, almost everyone else has had this experience
and this feeling.
This talk is about nipping these sinking feelings in the bud. As a
special bonus, there will be an elephant on *every slide*.

3. You don't need more time.
Let me start by striking off two suggestions that don't work. I know
because I've tried them. And because a lot of research and
scripture says the same thing.
First, you don't need more time. Each of us has 24 hours in a day.
Wishing to have more time is like a basketball player wishing to
have more arms. Sure, it might be useful, but there's no way to
get more, so there's no use complaining about it.
The question isn't how much time you have, but how to use that
time effectively.

4. You don't need more willpower
Similarly, you don't need more willpower. This might be
counterintuitive, but it's true. Just like time, the question isn't
how much willpower you have, but how to use it effectively.
This may be surprising, so let me explain.

5. Your mind is like
a guy riding an elephant.
Conscious
decision­
making
Subconscious
habits and
desires
Your mind -- yes, *your* mind -- is like a guy (or gal) riding an
elephant. The rider is your conscious mind. This is where
reasoning and willpower live. The elephant is your
subconscious mind. This is where your habits and deep desires
live, below the level of consciousness.
The rider can see a long way off, think things through, and make
plans. The elephant lives in the moment, reacting to things as
they come up -- but it's stronger. MUCH stronger.

6. You can't outpull the elephant.
When your conscious and subconscious disagree about what to
do, the subconscious almost always wins. Using pure willpower,
you can resist for a while -- fight the elephant -- but it's
exhausting. If the contest of wills goes on, you'll almost always
cave in the end.
By the way, this idea -- in fact, this exact analogy -- is one of the
major products of recent psychology. Lots of good research
backs it up. I'll mention some of this research as I go along.

7. As King Benjamin might say...
[T]he [elephant] is an enemy to God, ...
and will be, forever and ever, unless
he ... becometh as a child, submissive,
meek, humble, patient, full of love,
[and] willing to submit …
This duality also shows up in many religious texts. Here, I've
misquoted from the Book of Mormon. I think the gist of the quote
is right, even if the text is a little different.
You can probably think of other passages of scripture with similar
themes. Paul has a lot of good, potentially elephant-themed
counsel in the epistles. In Buddhist tradition, the elephant is
sometimes used as a symbol of undisciplined passions.
Just like time, the key is using the willpower you already have in
effective ways.

8. Now, personal observations.
The rest of the talk is about ways of applying willpower that work
for me. I've been a grad student for 5 years now, which means
I've never had a boss. I once tried an experiment: not emailing
my advisor, to see how long it would be before she contacted
me. The answer: three months.
Since there has never been another person responsible for
keeping me on task, I've given a lot of thought to managing my
own workflow. Over time I've put together a system helps me
get stuff done and enjoy my work at the same time.
Let me stress that these ideas work well for *me*. A lot of the
details will probably be different for you. I hope that you can
draw out principles that work for you, even if some of the specific
practices don't.

9. Make detailed plans.
First, at the start of a project, and periodically as the project
changes, I find it very helpful to make detailed plans.
When I'm planning, the rider is more likely to be in charge. (My
elephant usually gets excited about puzzle-solving, and plays
along very nicely.) When planning, I can see the whole scope of
a project, and make good decisions about how to coordinate
with coworkers and sequence my workflow.
I can also flag places that are likely to be difficult, intimidating, or
confusing -- places where the elephant is likely to need extra
care. Most of the tactics I bring up later work better -- or only
work -- if you've planned carefully up front.

10. Make detailed plans.
For example, this flowchart is the plan for the rest of my
dissertation.
In my field, a typical dissertation is a 200 to 300-page book. I'm a
slow writer, and without this plan, the idea of writing a 300 page
book would be terrifying -- paralyzing. I'd spend a lot of time
thinking about starting to write; the elephant would feel scared
and overwhelmed; and after a short while, my willpower would
give out and I'd go do something else to escape the stress.

11. Eat one bite at a time.
What I've been describing is a classic task avoidance problem --
many people have elephants that are afraid of big tasks. If your
subconscious is like that, it's no good trying to push through
them by force of will. Better to break the problem up into pieces
that aren't big enough to panic your subconscious.
Careful, up-front planning lets you do this. With my flowchart in
hand, I don't have to think about finishing a whole dissertation --
I can just focus on one piece at a time.

12. Corollary: limit your plate size
A corollary to "eat one bite at a time" is "limit your plate size." It
turns out that human beings are not good at multitasking. For
starters, our conscious minds can only attend to one thing at a
time -- try talking to somebody while writing an email about
something different -- so there's no such thing as true
multitasking. The best we can do is rapidly switch back and
forth.
To make matters worse, switching is mentally taxing. It takes at
least a few moments to re-orient your mind to the next task --
more if it's a complex task with lots of details to remember. So if
you switch too often, you end up wasting time and willpower
going back and forth, like a person making a separate trip to the
grocery store for each item. Some tasks are easier to switch
between and some people are better at switching, but nobody is
really good at it -- there's always a mental cost.

13. Corollary: limit your plate size
My elephant tends to get overwhelmed when I have too many
projects going at once, so I've made a firm rule about the
number of projects I'm allowed to have going at any given time.
For me, the right number is about 2 active, and 3 in planning. You
can see these categories on this state diagram: projects On hold
move to In Planning, from there to Active, and from there
(usually) to Success. I've set up specific folders on my computer
that reflect this pattern, and I'm careful to always follow the rules.
This might be overkill for other people, but it works really well for
me. I know I'm not allowed to start work on a new project until
I've moved the folder, and moving folders requires me to make a
conscious decision -- one more chance for the rider to guide the
elephant.

14. Corollary: limit your plate size
Side note: it seems that our subconscious minds *can* do more
than one thing at a time. At least, your subconscious doesn't
always think about the same thing your conscious mind is
thinking about. So it's helpful to be ready to record ideas as they
bubble up from your subconscious. Projects ”in planning” fill that
niche for me.

15. Measure and benchmark frequently
When performance is measured,
performance improves.
When performance is measured and reported back,
the rate of improvement accelerates.
­ Pres. Monson
Another good habit is to measure and benchmark your progress
frequently. Just like planning, benchmarking is good practice
because it gives you more chances to make conscious decisions
and keep control of your elephant.
Here's a quote from Thomas S. Monson (President of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). I first read this quote when
I was on my mission in Japan, and I've taken it to heart in a
really geeky way.

16. Make your progress visible
I've written a special computer program that lives on the laptop
where I do most of my work. Every 10 minutes, it checks my
project folders to see if any files have been changed. This lets
me see exactly when I was working on which projects.
The text on the purple background is part of the log from the
program. The bar chart shows how I spent my time in the last
two weeks.
Feedback like this is super useful, because it lets me see how
much effort I'm putting into each task – it gives me a way to see
progress and feel good about my work, even when the ultimate
goal is a long way away.

17. Reward yourself for small milestones.
Tracking my progress also lets me reward myself for small
milestones – a good way to keep the rider and the elephant
excited about going in the same direction.
My elephant likes peanut butter crackers, playing with my kid, time
on facebook, midafternoon walks outside in the sun, and
permission to work on creative side projects. I use these things
are small rewards to myself for getting things done.
It's much easier to give myself enough (but not too many) rewards
when I have a plan and track my progress.

18. For urgent projects, set deadlines
For high-pressure projects, stringent deadlines can help. They turn
the project into a contest. My elephant is very competitive, so in
the short run, deadlines help motivate me to get urgent things
done.
However, I've found that constantly pushing to one tough deadline
after another leaves me feeling burnt out. It doesn't work this
way for everybody, but I've discovered that too much time
pressure makes me less productive, not more.

19. But be willing to forgive yourself.
The worst is when I miss a deadline. My subconscious elephant
takes contests very seriously, so getting behind deadline is
traumatic and stressful. When things pile up and I feel behind, it
sometimes feels like the rider is carrying the elephant instead of
the other way around.
Fortunately, the solution is simple: forgive yourself. I've found that
when I make a conscious decision to just push the deadline
back, my elephant unstresses and gets motivated again – often
in a matter of minutes.
This is a great example of using the conscious mind to guide the
unconscious. The elephant works hard to make the deadline, but
gets surly when it feels ”late.” Since my conscious mind knows
that deadlines are often arbitrary, I can adjust them in ways that
keep the elephant happy and productive.

20. Eliminate distractions
Okay, I've talked about a lot of tactics to keep your conscious and
subconscious minds in harmony. Let me finish with four more
short ones.
First, get rid of distractions. Attention is mostly a product of your
subconscious mind. By definition, a distractions is something
that diverts your attention, and gives the elephant a chance to
break away in a new direction. Your rider will not be able to stay
in charge when your attention is grabbed by one sight or sound
after another.
”Getting rid of distractions” means putting them in a place where
they are in reach of your conscious mind, but don't constantly
disturb your elephant.

21. Keep your elephant well fed.
Second, I said earlier that there's no way to get much more
willpower. It turns out that there are ways to lose some of what
you have, and being hungry is one of them.
There was a fascinating (and scary!) study that showed that judges
give harsher penalties immediately before lunch, and more
lenient sentences afterwards. In other words, even mild hunger
affects even judges' judgement.
Psychologists speculate that this effect of hunger on willpower is
one of the reasons dieting is particularly hard resolution to keep.

22. Tune in to your creative side
Third, most people enjoy learning and creativity – consciously and
subconsciously. Finding little ways to experiment and try new
things as part of your routine can be a great way to get elephant
and rider going in the same direction.

23. Make it a game
Finally, most elephants like a challenge. The last piece of my
geeky time-tracking scheme is a game. Every day, I get points
for finishing certain tasks, achieving certain milestones, and
spending my time in certain ways. I came up with the rules
myself, and change them whenever I see a need.
The knowledge that I'm competing with myself, minute by minute
has been a surprisingly good motivator. In fact, my elephant is
always nudging me to check the latest score – a small
distraction, but worth it for the benefit of staying motivated about
the tasks that my conscious rider has prioritized

24. Questions? Comments?
Last thought. After the talk, a wise friend made a point that I really
liked: "Everyone's elephant is different. You have to get to know
your elephant to know what will work for you.”
Fittingly enough, this talk has helped me understand my personal
elephant a little better. Going through the creative process (on a
short deadline!) has helped me to work out a lot of ideas that
have been at the back of my mind for a while. It's been a really
fun, interesting, and useful bit of lifehacking for me – a good tag-
team effort by rider and elephant.
I hope you've come away with some valuable new ideas as well.
Thanks!
Abe Gong : agong@umich.edu
http://compsocsci.blogspot.com