How much effort is the right amount?
Some social science research suggeststhis idea that to learn something new it needs to be difficult, but not too difficult.
If what you’re doing to learn is too easy, you get bored and distracted. If it’s too hard, you get discouraged and quit. So learning a new skill takes focused, deliberate practice — and the right amount.
In some ways this is obvious. Duh, Goldilocks.
What I think is less intuitive is that this applies across many domains. This idea first clicked for me when I got a running watch where the most visible metric (other than “current time) is a 7-day load measure (Garmin Forerunner 745, sponsor me Garmin). 7-day load is “green” only if you’re running neither too little nor too much.
“Optimal zone of effort” applies across many domains:
- Running — Training is about finding the least-cost, efficient path to improvement. Not too much, not too little.
- Learning — Studying a new topic is easier with some focus or structure. That’s why it’s a good idea to make your own syllabi.
- Work — I find working really tiring when I get less done, not more. A slow work day seems to be tiring because it’s sub-optimal effort.
Put another way, obviously it’s more tiring to do too much than the right amount.
But it’s also more tiring to do too little than to do the right amount.
Related: The Optimal Level of Optimization