CHAPTER 3

I’LL DO IT LATER, HONEST!

Using a Tomato to Beat

Procrastination

Back in the 1800s, murderers used to love a chemical called arsenic.

(It’s pronounced “ARE-suh-nick,” and sounds like “parsnip.”) Arsenic
poisoned and killed victims in a day. Painfully.
In 1875 two men ate arsenic in front of an audience. People expected
them to die. But to everyone’s surprise, they returned the next day, alive and
well. How was that possible? How can something so harmful appear to do
no damage?
It was a mystery.
We’ll tell you later how the story of the arsenic eaters ended, but . . .
spoiler alert: It didn’t end well for them.
Arsenic is bad for us, but tomatoes are good, right? They are full of
healthy nutrients. I’m going to show you how even a plastic tomato can be
good for you. It can help you learn better. Sound crazy? All will soon
become clear. But don’t eat any plastic tomatoes. That’s not the trick . . .

49
 The Problem with Putting Things Off
I want to tell you about procrastination.* Procrastination means putting
things off until later. It is a problem for many students (and adults!) and
gets in the way of good learning. Procrastination can be a natural thing to
do. Why would you do something you don’t feel like doing? Especially if
you know it’s going to be hard? Why study on Monday when the test is not
until Friday? Won’t you forget it by then anyway?
Here’s the problem. If you procrastinate, you often run out of time. As
you will learn later, time and practice work together to help you cement
new ideas into your brain. If you run out of time, you not only can’t build
learning structures, you also spend energy worrying about it. That’s a lose-
lose situation. Procrastination is the enemy of high-quality learning. But
many students still do it. I want to show you how to beat it.
Here’s the good news. Your inner zombies are going to help you learn.
Now don’t freak out. I don’t mean you have real zombies inside your skull.
That would be gross. But it’s nice to imagine an army of tiny zombies up
there, working hard for you. You want to make friends with them.
So, we need a pinball machine, a headful of friendly zombies, and a
plastic tomato? Who knew? Stay with me . . . I’m a professor!

50
Distraction and Procrastination
Procrastination is a major problem. We have so many
distractions. I always think, “Before I start my homework, I’ll
play a video game.” Before I realize it, I have wasted an hour. I
need to find a way to focus on my homework. I should not be
waiting until the last minute to do everything.
—A math student

51
 Procrastination and Pain
Do you groan when your mom or dad tells you to clean, or practice an
instrument, or start your homework? This is because when you think about
opening that book, or cleaning up, it actually hurts—researchers can see an
area of the brain that experiences pain, the insular cortex, begin to light up.
To your brain, thinking about cleaning your room feels like the start of a
stomachache. But here’s what’s interesting. Once you get started on the task
you didn’t want to do, the pain goes away after about twenty minutes. The
insular cortex calms down when you start the task you were avoiding. It’s
happy that you’re finally getting on with the job.

When you even just think about something you don’t like, it activates a pain
center of the brain called the insular cortex. This can lead to
procrastination. (The helpful zombie here is showing you the location of the
insular cortex.)

So this is my number one top tip to become a good learner. Just get
going. Don’t put work off until later.
Easy for the professor to say, you’re thinking. How can I change my
habits? I’m so used to them.

52
The answer is . . . a tomato!

53
 The Pomodoro Technique
Has she gone crazy? you ask. How can a tomato make me a better learner?
In the 1980s Francesco Cirillo came up with a way to help
procrastinators. It’s called the Pomodoro Technique.
Pomodoro is Italian for “tomato.” Cirillo developed a tomato-shaped
timer, like the one here. Cirillo’s technique is simple, and it works. (Terry
and I know. It is one of the most popular techniques in our course Learning
How to Learn.)

A Pomodoro timer

First, you need a timer. The tomato-shaped timer is great, but any timer
will do. I have a digital timer on my computer. Many people use Pomodoro
apps on their smartphones or iPads.
The technique works like this:

1. Shut off all distractions—your phone, the TV, your music, your
brother. Anything that gets in the way of your ability to focus. Find

54
 a quiet place to work where you won’t be interrupted. If you can
afford them, consider noise-canceling earphones or cheaper but
just-as-effective earmuffs or earplugs.
2. Set the timer for 25 minutes.*
3. Get going, and focus on the task as well as you can. Twenty-five
minutes is not long. You can do it!
4. Now for the best part. After 25 minutes, reward yourself. Watch a
dance video or listen to your favorite song. (Maybe dance to it
yourself!) Cuddle with your dog. Or chat with friends for five or
ten minutes or so. The reward is the most important part of the
whole Pomodoro process. When you’re looking forward to a
reward, your brain helps you focus better.

When you’re done with your Pomodoro, reward yourself!

We’re going to call this whole process, including the reward, “doing a
Pomodoro.”
When you “do a Pomodoro” forget about finishing the task. Don’t say,
“I’m going to finish all my homework during this Pomodoro.” You might

55
finish whatever you’re working on. But don’t worry about it if you don’t.
Just work as hard as you can for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, take
a break. Dip into your diffuse mode with that reward.
You may need to do another Pomodoro later, but that’s okay. You’re
doing the right thing just by working hard on the task. Don’t worry about
how much you do. You will finish. But leave yourself plenty of time. Don’t
wait until the last minute.
When I do a Pomodoro, my thoughts sometimes wander off. That’s
perfectly normal. As soon as I catch my thoughts wandering, I just bring
them back to the task. It’s only 25 minutes, after all. Anyone can do 25
minutes of studying. If I find my thoughts wandering to other tasks I want
to do, or websites I want to check, I make a note on a piece of paper so I
won’t forget, and then I continue with the Pomodoro.
I’ll admit that if I want to keep working after the time is up, I go ahead.
Getting into the flow, where I’m really into doing the task, is a good thing.
But when I stop, I always reward myself. It’s diffuse mode time! If I’ve
been writing (like this book), I listen to a favorite song. Or I get up and
make a cup of tea and look out the window. I don’t write during my break.
That way, the “writing” part of my brain gets a rest.
It’s a good idea to do something during your break that’s very different
from what you have been focusing on. You want to give a rest to the area of
your brain that’s been doing the focusing. If you’ve been sitting while you
study, breaks where you move your body around are often the best.
Some people like Pomodoro timers that make a ticking sound. This
reminds them that time is passing and they are getting closer to their break.
The ticking keeps them focused.
How many Pomodoros should you do in a day? That depends on you.
If you’re pretty self-motivated and just need an occasional poke to get
going, try doing just one or two Pomodoros a day, when you need them.
Some people keep careful count of how many Pomodoros they do in a day
—they often use Pomodoro apps that collect the day’s Pomodoros, kind of
like badges. Look up Pomodoro apps and find one that you like—one of the
most popular ones we know of is called “Forest.”
By the way, don’t switch between tasks when you’re doing your
Pomodoro. Pick a task and work at it until the bell rings. (Of course, if you
finish a task during a Pomodoro, you can start another.) Some students think
they can do several tasks at once, or switch back and forth between several

56
tasks at once. This is called multitasking. But the idea of multitasking is a
mistake. Your focus can only be on one thing at a time. When you switch
your attention, you waste mental energy, and you will perform worse. It’s
like a pinball machine where two balls have been released instead of one,
and you have to crazily try to manage both the balls. You inevitably fail and
both balls drop.

57
Learning Tip: Set a Timer for Your
Breaks—and Learn to Put Off Your
Procrastination!
Just as the Pomodoro timer can be useful for your studies, it can
also be useful for relaxing. Set your timer for five, ten, or
however many minutes make sense for a break. Remember—
taking a break is important so your diffuse mode can help your
learning!
For some people, it takes practice to get used to coming back
to a task after a break ends. A break timer that has a very distinct
and loud sound can be useful here.
Sometimes people find it hard to stop procrastinating. If
that’s the case, a good mental trick is to tell yourself that you’re
going to procrastinate ten minutes later. Meanwhile, during those
ten minutes, look at (or make) a list of what you plan to do. This
will allow your diffuse mode to start thinking in the background
about your tasks and how you’re going to get them
accomplished.

58
 Good Zombies and Bad Zombies
This takes me back to zombies. Sometimes they have a bad reputation.
People think of them as monsters—scary-looking creatures who are under
the control of something or someone else.
But zombies (at least in our book!) are just your habits. There are good,
neutral, and bad zombie habits. (Okay, maybe the bad zombies really aren’t
that bad—they’re just not helpful sometimes.)
What do all zombies have in common? They work automatically
toward their goal (which generally involves eating brains). Nothing distracts
them. They never give up. It’s like they’re on autopilot.

Your habits are like zombies—you can have bad ones or good ones.

We all have a zombie mode—fortunately, it usually doesn’t involve

eating weird substances, like with real zombies. We do things automatically
because we’ve done them so many times before. What are your zombie
mode habits? Throwing your shoes down as you come in from school?

59
Falling into a favorite chair in front of the TV? Or reaching for your phone
as soon as it vibrates? No thinking. No discussion. That’s you in zombie
mode.
Imagine being as focused as a helpful zombie on your studies during
the time you’re supposed to be studying. Practicing the Pomodoro
Technique will help you get there. But you need to defeat your bad zombie
habits on the way.
Studying and texting in the same time frame is a bad habit. It’s your
bad “study while texting” zombie. To defeat it, you can instead train a
helpful zombie—get used to turning your phone off, silencing it, or leaving
it in another room. The new good zombie can allow you to overcome the
bad one!
If your brother interrupts you, train your helpful inner zombie to tell
your brother you’re “doing a Pomodoro.” Ask your brother to stay away
until you’ve finished. If you know you get hungry, have a snack before you
do a Pomodoro. Instead of mindlessly jumping into a new chapter of your
textbook, first do a picture walk, and then take notes on the paper that your
good zombie mode has thoughtfully placed beside you. Replace your bad
zombie habits with ones you know will make things better for you.

60
 Back to the Arsenic Eaters
Remember the arsenic eaters? How did they eat arsenic and not die on the
spot? And what does eating a deadly poison have to do with something as
seemingly harmless as putting things off—procrastination?
The arsenic eaters ate a little bit of poison each day. They trained their
bodies to expect it. They were building up an immunity. They thought they
were getting away with it because they didn’t feel ill.
They didn’t realize it, but they were gradually poisoning themselves.
A little bit of arsenic won’t kill you right away. But it’s very unhealthy.
Over time it does serious damage—cancer and other damage to your
internal organs. Don’t eat arsenic!
How is this like procrastination?
It doesn’t seem like it hurts if you put off your studies a little
longer. Or spend another “few minutes” on social media. But if you get
used to procrastinating, it will make learning harder, because you will
have less time when you do buckle down to learn. You’ll get stressed,
miss deadlines, and not learn things properly. You can get really
behind. All this will make you a less effective student.
Remember, you can build an army of helpful zombies up there,
working hard for you if you make short periods of focused concentration
into a habit. So learn to love that plastic tomato! Or the Pomodoro app on
your phone.

61
 Now You Try! Preplanning to Avoid
Distraction
Write down the things that distract you from the task at hand. For
each one, come up with a new habit to work on. (If you’re
reading this on an electronic device, make your own table on
paper.) Here’s an example to get you started. If you are younger,
you may want to sit down with an adult for ten minutes or so to
get you started.

DISTRACTION: Bad Zombie SOLUTION: Friendly Zombie

My phone vibrates–I stop working. Leave phone on the kitchen table when doing a Pomodoro.

62
Now You Try! Boost Your Reading
Power with Active Recall
We want to give you a sneak preview now of an important
learning technique that will help you in the chapters ahead. This
technique is called active recall. Active recall means bringing an
idea back to mind. Actively recalling key ideas you are learning
has been shown to be a great way to understand them.1
You can probably guess that we’ve been teaching you how
to avoid procrastination so you have more time for important
techniques like active recall.
Here’s how you do it. Before you begin to read a chapter in a
book, first do a picture walk through it. (We talked about this at
the end of the first chapter.)
Then begin reading. Don’t rush. Go back over a paragraph if
it doesn’t make sense to you or if your attention wanders.
(Wandering attention is perfectly normal. It doesn’t mean you’re
not smart enough.) Jot a few words in the margin or on another
sheet of paper about an idea you think is important. If you need
to, underline a key word or two, but not too many.
This is the critical part. Look away from the page and see
what you can recall. What are the key ideas on the page?
Play them back in your mind. Or say them out loud to
yourself. Do not simply reread the page over and over again.
And don’t underline or highlight big amounts of text.
Pulling the key idea from your own mind, instead of just
reading or rereading it on the page, is the critical idea behind
active recall. You don’t need to use recall with every page of the
book. But if you try it on a few key pages, you’ll be surprised at
how this can help.
Research has shown that if you use active recall in your
studies, you will do much better later when you are taking tests.

63
Using recall in your learning means you can perform well even
when you’re under stress.2 And it doesn’t just put information
into your memory—it also builds your understanding.3

The Three Key Steps to Powerful

Reading
1. Picture walk
2. Read with care
3. Use active recall
You can also use active recall as a great general learning
tool. For example, close this book and see how many key ideas
you’ve read so far that you can remember. Once you’ve done
your best, open the book back up and see how it compares!
Recall the information at different times and in different
places. You can use active recall while waiting for a friend,
sitting on a bus, or before going to sleep. There are two important
reasons to use recall in this way. First, you don’t have your notes
or the book in front of you, so you are truly recalling the
information, rather than sneaking a peek. Second, you don’t have
your usual study environment around you. As you’ll see later,
learning in different places can glue the information more
strongly in your mind.

When I was in middle school, I

used to walk to my grandma’s
house for lunch. As I was
walking, I would try to recall
key ideas that I’d just learned in
the class, as if rewatching an

64
 interesting film. This technique helped me
tremendously to excel in my studies.
—Zhaojing “Eileen” Li, graduate of Tsinghua University—
China’s top university

SUMMING IT UP
We all develop habits. They’re our inner zombies. Things
we do without even thinking about them.
Our zombie habits can be helpful or not. Some are great
time savers. But often people develop the habit of putting
off their work—procrastination. This is really bad for
effective learning. It doesn’t leave you enough time to focus
or to soak in the lessons you’ve learned.
Luckily you can change your habits and make them stick.
The Pomodoro Technique is a great way of helping you
to do focused work. Make a habit of it. Shut off
distractions and set a timer to work for 25 minutes. Easy.
Then take a break and reward yourself. Do something
“diffuse.”
When you put something off, it’s hurting your brain.
Just getting going stops the suffering.
Active recall is a powerful technique for learning. Pull
key ideas from your own mind to review them. Don’t just
look at a page or your notes and fool yourself into thinking
that the information is in your head.

65
CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
To make sure you’ve got the hang of this chapter, answer the
following questions. Say the answers out loud to yourself or write
them down or try to teach someone else the answers by
explaining what you have learned.
When you’re done, you can compare your answers with the
ones at the back of the book.
1. What is procrastination?
2. Why is procrastination bad for your learning?
3. What happens in your brain when you think about
something you don’t like or don’t want to do?
4. How would you explain the Pomodoro Technique to
someone who had never heard of it?
5. What is the most important part of the whole Pomodoro
process?
6. What should you do during your break between
Pomodoros?
7. Should you plan to finish a task during a Pomodoro? Why
or why not?
8. What can be good about going into zombie mode?
9. What does zombie mode have to do with procrastination?
10. What was the point of the arsenic eaters story? How does
it link to procrastination?
11. Explain the idea of active recall.

66
Picture walk done, a few end-
of-chapter questions tackled,
and notebook ready for the
next chapter? ☐

67