By Tan De Ting Trina (26S03N, Peer Helper) with Jaden Lum Zi Jun (26S05A)

Greetings, Passionate Pam!

We get it: JC is a time filled with stress, commitments, exams, stress, worksheets—oh, and did we mention stress? It’s only natural that it becomes harder to say no to the gremlin on your shoulder luring you to your phone, or to that last Netflix episode you were going to save for the weekend. 

This tiny gremlin on your shoulder is a little someone we’ve named Ew. Much like the Serpent in Eden, Ew is the amalgamation of all of one’s temptations, and the reason why you can’t bring yourself to get tasks done. Fret not, because for every Ew, there are 20,000 ways to slaughter it—but for efficiency’s sake, we’ll only cover the most pertinent attack strategies in this article. As with all strategies, you’ll first need to address the root causes.

What Feeds Ew

One thing you need to know about Ew is that he is a ravenous little beast that uses, primarily, two things for sustenance: your lack of sleep and your relationship with dopamine. 

Firstly, sleep loss leads to an impaired prefrontal cortex function (responsible for your executive functions, by the way). Ew, being the gluttonous nuisance he is, munches on your sleep deprivation like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, and latches onto your inhibited impulse control. He glues your eyes onto one too many TikToks than recommended (what even is the recommended number, anyway?), leaving you with only a sliver of time for work. 

Now, the distinctly double-edged dopamine. It’s the ‘feel-good’ neurochemical in our brain, where a dopamine hit quickly brings about pleasure, and then is followed by a come-down. Essentially, it’s what keeps us motivated. Thanks, dopamine!

“Oh, then shouldn’t all the dopamine I get from recreation make me even more motivated?” You may ask. Well, Passionate Pam, it turns out that our minds aren’t quite as evolved to cope with the massive releases of dopamine we derive from Instagram reels and TV shows every single day. 

Think about how you scroll through countless posts, repeatedly engaging with such easily available dopamine-triggering stimuli. Ew has effectively catapulted your unsuspecting brain into a dopamine deficit, siphoning out the bits of joy you would otherwise derive from  completing small tasks. Then, you plunge into a state of withdrawal, where when you don’t get that dopamine (i.e. not giving in to your impulses), you feel even worse. Man, we really need to get rid of Ew stat, don’t we? 

Well, look no further, Passionate Pam. Here’s the guide to survival against this ferocious little creature.

What Kills Ew

1. SLEEP

First, let’s tackle the sleep issue. According to NUHS, you should go to sleep from 10-11pm to 6-7am (just in time to make it to school before assembly!). Your melatonin levels start to peak around 10 to 11pm, so this is the peak of Ew’s vulnerability. 

Staying up late disrupts your body’s circadian rhythm, so if you think pulling an all-nighter to study is worth it…it really just follows the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns. You’ll be more likely to succumb to Ew’s coercions the next day. 

If you really want a sustainable study routine, go ahead and use regularly-timed slumber as an arrow to shoot into Ew’s no-no zone! 

2. DOPAMINE MANAGEMENT

Yes, dopamine fasts like banning your own social media usage might be effective, but you need something you feel comfortable committing to first. Rather than completely cutting out bad habits, an alternative attack strategy on Ew is to add on good habits. 

Can’t stop watching YouTube? Why not watch one educational one for two recreational ones? By reinforcing positive habits little by little, you’ll find that they’ll hold a higher proportion of time spent than that of the activities Ew wants you to do. Unleash yourself from Ew’s shackles! 

3. POMODORO METHOD

Another thing that would make Ew squirm, and shriek, even, is the Pomodoro Method. Fun fact: Pomodoro means tomato in Italian, and the method is named that because its inventor, Francesco Cirillo, initially used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to track his work intervals. (Now you’ve learned something new! And Ew certainly wouldn’t like that. Woohoo.) 

Essentially, commit to doing focused work in 25-minute intervals (pomodoros) and take a 5-minute break  for each studying interval completed. Once you get used to it, you’ll start to resist Ew’s blows on your time management. It gives you a reason for, and a limit to, your breaks. It even segments your time so you know exactly what you’ll be doing and for how long, all while being a fun game that keeps you going. 

Who would’ve thought that Ew is deathly allergic to Italian tomatoes?

4. HABIT HACKING 

Onto our personal favourite: habit hacking. Ew takes on a different form in this analogy: your bad habits–like playing Block Blast for a touch too long before you go to sleep. Now think of Ew like a predator waiting to pounce on its prey–you, we suppose (not in a derogatory way, we promise, Pam!). 

You know that there are triggers that will make Ew notice you and attack–like turning on your phone before you go to bed. To escape unscathed, you now need to identify a Habit Hack, something that can easily replace your habit by your change of trigger. A possible one would be putting your phone away—yes, away, not just putting it down—before you go to sleep. 

Not only does this help you avoid Ew’s attacks, it even subdues Ew by giving you a reward: a good night’s sleep. Each time you feel threatened by the frightening Ew, if you are able to identify all of these and make a calculated decision, you might just make it out alive. No promises, though. Kidding. 

5. THE STATE OF FLOW

Have you ever felt completely and utterly absorbed in what you were doing? Well, that’s termed the mental state of flow—or, as the cool kids call it, the Ew-Free Zone (EFZ). It’s what you feel when you’re so immersed in a task that it totally drowns out everything around you (we’re feeling it right now, writing this). 

The EFZ is a positive mental state that allows for intrinsic motivation, a shield against all things Ew. Find an activity that gives you dopamine—just enough to keep you going, but not enough to let you wind up in a Ew-infested dopamine deficit. 

This is exactly what distinguishes an enjoyable activity (one that you like and can actually commit to long-term) from a pleasurable one, and it is key to a sustainable, disciplined studying lifestyle, in which Ew is nowhere to be found. 

6. ROMANTICISING ACADEMIA

Oh, and did we mention that Ew is stupendously, abhorrently, and vehemently ANTI-whimsy? Yes, he hates when you find fun in what’s meant to be boring—but who said they had to be? Why not romanticise academia with lo-fi and sticker-filled lecture notes? Why not make all the important work you have to do also something you look forward to doing? 

By rewarding yourself with something small—say giving yourself a cookie to nibble on while you read—your mind subconsciously associates studying with the same joy you get from said cookie. And that makes Ew sad. Very, very sad. But let’s keep him sad and you focused, Pam! Boohoo, Ew.

7. HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

Ew thrives on—no, is fuelled by the lack of self-awareness and growth. So let’s leave it with nothing to survive on! Journal your activities (the ones worth noting, not how many times you sneezed, etc…) every day and mark each with green (positive) or red (could’ve been better) pens, based on whether the things you did were productive/fulfilling. 

Be your own personal instructor—after all, you know yourself best. Over time, assess yourself and see how you’ve grown after pinpointing what habits need to change, or those that can stay. That way, you can make sure Ew doesn’t. 

8. THE 10-MINUTE RULE

This is pretty self-explanatory. Did you know that you can kill Ew in just 1/144 parts of a day? Always have this mantra in mind: If the task takes 10 minutes or less, do NOT delay it. Ew leeches off of procrastinators, and you need to stay safe! Finishing said task likely takes up much less time than if you were to delay it and complete it in the (hopefully near) future, because then it wouldn’t snowball (along with other delayed tasks) into some freakish, Ew-borne monster. Ew grows quickly, but we’d wager your willpower’s too high for him to reach. 

9. SMALL GOALS

Of course, the previous attack strategies were based on the assumption that you are able to commit to a fully fledged-out plan immediately. And if you’re not, that’s completely fine too. Attacks on Ew are effective irrespective of their start! 

Ew is very conquerable, you see. What some like to do is begin with a small goal. To work toward getting more disciplined, instead of aiming to finish an entire essay in the day, maybe start by aiming to simply complete the first paragraph. That way, if you only get halfway through the essay, you still feel accomplished—and if you finish the entire thing, you’ll feel even better. 

One of Ew’s favourite treats is gnawing on the twinge of disappointment you feel when you don’t meet your (unrealistically set) goals. It’s all arbitrary anyway, so just set your targets in a way that will make you work toward it step by step, while still feeling like you did what you set out to do. 

10. JUST. START.

Yes, the best thing you could possibly do is to just Begin™️. There is no use endlessly scrolling through motivational videos if you never end up picking up your pen (the sharpest weapon that kills Ew, by the way). 

It doesn’t have to be a big start—as long as you know you want to change, that’s already the biggest hurdle and we know you can cross it, Passionate Pam. Heck, by making it this far, you’ve already controlled your impulses and showed that you were focused enough to read through a  whopping 1800 words. And that’s a feat that even Ew is scared of. (Be proud!) 

The End…Is It?

Alright, you’ve officially made it to the end of the survival guide. With these tips, you’ll surely improve your self-discipline (and in the long-term, too). Of course, Ew is an ever-evolving species of gremlin, so you should always be able to adapt your study habits to your present energy level and general capacity for work (and keep persevering!). Impulse control methods—or attack strategies, we should say—are not one size fits all. Try to see what works, and stick to what does. This way, we promise, you’ll finally, truly, vanquish Ew. Strive on, dear soldier!

Sincerely,

Aunt Agony and Uncle Upset

If you need anyone to talk to about any issues you might be facing, do drop by My Rest Space near Marymount gate and talk to one of our peer helpers! We’re open on Tuesday from 2.30 – 4.30 p.m, Wednesday 11.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m., Thursday 2.30 – 4.30 p.m. and Friday 1.30 – 4.30 p.m. If you would like to meet a peer helper on a regular basis, do email us a request at rafflesinstitutionphp@gmail.com or fill in our request form at our website https://rafflesinstitution5.wixsite.com/rafflespeerhelpers/peer-helping-request!