Shrink Performing
Focus, executive function, and performing under pressure.
Learning Science (14)
Skill Acquisition
Excellence develops gradually.
Zone of Proximal Development
The learning zone just beyond what you can do on your own.
Dual Coding
Pairing words with visuals gives memory two routes instead of one.
Generation Effect
Generating an answer yourself strengthens memory more than reading it.
Elaborative Interrogation
Asking why facts are true deepens understanding and memory.
Self-Explanation
Talking yourself through material to deepen and check understanding.
Worked Example Effect
Studying full solutions helps novices more than struggling unaided.
Expertise Reversal Effect
The best teaching method flips as a learner becomes an expert.
Split-Attention Effect
Splitting attention between pieces that belong together wastes mental capacity.
Modality Effect
Pairing visuals with spoken words spreads mental load and aids learning.
Transfer-Appropriate Processing
Practice in the way you'll need to perform for best transfer.
Germane Cognitive Load
The good kind of learning effort that turns information into knowledge.
Fading
Slowly withdrawing help so a learner grows independent.
Redundancy Effect
Extra information that repeats what's already clear wastes mental capacity.
Self-Regulation (14)
Delayed Gratification
Today's patience often becomes tomorrow's opportunity.
Grit
Grit is sustained passion and effort toward a goal over the long haul.
Perseverance
Perseverance is continued effort toward a goal despite difficulty and setbacks.
Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is acting on your intentions consistently, regardless of mood.
Willpower
Willpower is the in the moment effort to resist a pull and act on your goals.
Ego Depletion
Ego depletion is a contested model that self control runs on a limited, tiring resource.
Task Initiation
Task initiation is the ability to begin a task without long, unnecessary delay.
Procrastination
Procrastination is delaying a task against your own interest, usually to dodge discomfort.
Prioritization
Prioritization is deciding what matters most and giving it your effort first.
Time Management
Time management is planning and guarding your time so it serves your priorities.
Implementation Planning
A goal survives contact with real life when you've pre-scripted the where, when, and how.
Temptation Bundling
Chain a guilty pleasure to a needed chore so each one covers the other's a flaw.
Precommitment
Remove the escape route in a calm moment so the tempted moment has nowhere to go.
Effort Regulation
Skill isn't only working hard, it's knowing when to push and when to ease.
Human Performance Science (12)
Expertise
Expertise is reliable high-level performance.
Adaptive Expertise
Adaptation is part of expertise.
Flow
Flow is deep, effortless absorption in a task that stretches you just enough.
Peak Performance
Peak performance is delivering your best work reliably when the moment asks for it.
Yerkes-Dodson Law
The Yerkes-Dodson law is a model where moderate arousal helps performance and extremes hurt it.
Choking Under Pressure
Choking is a pressure driven slump where you perform below your true ability.
Performance Anxiety
Performance anxiety is evaluation driven worry and arousal before or during a performance.
Mental Toughness
Mental toughness is the tendency to stay composed and effective under pressure and adversity.
Warm-Up Effect
You don't hit full stride cold, so a brief warm-up buys back the sluggish opening minutes.
Pacing
Match your effort to the whole distance, not just the exciting first stretch.
Choke Prevention Routines
A familiar routine keeps your attention off your own hands when the pressure would make you overthink.
Pre-Performance Routine
The same steps before every attempt make readiness repeatable instead of random.
Skill Development (9)
Deliberate Practice
Purposeful practice creates expertise.
Automaticity
Mastery reduces mental effort.
Mental Rehearsal
Mental rehearsal is practicing a task in your imagination to prepare for the real thing.
Visualization
Visualization is using detailed mental images to prepare, focus, or steady yourself.
Mastery Orientation
Mastery orientation is pursuing tasks to learn and improve rather than to prove yourself.
Performance Feedback
Performance feedback is task focused information that helps you adjust and get better.
Practice Variability
Practicing under changing conditions feels harder now but builds a skill that travels.
Feedback Loops in Skill
Practice only improves you when the result feeds back and changes the next attempt.
Overlearning
Practicing past correct makes a skill hold up under stress, fatigue, and time.
Attention (7)
Attentional Focus
Focusing on the intended effect usually beats focusing on your body.
Quiet Eye
A longer, steadier final look at the target that sharpens accuracy.
Ironic Process Theory
Suppression can summon the very thought or action you're fighting.
Attentional Narrowing
High arousal shrinks the range of what you can notice.
Vigilance Decrement
Sustained monitoring for rare events reliably degrades over time.
Psychological Refractory Period
The mind bottlenecks when two quick tasks arrive nearly at once.
Attention
A limited spotlight that decides what you notice, learn, and remember.
Motor Learning (6)
Motor Program
A rehearsed movement packaged so it runs without step-by-step control.
Fitts's Law
Movement time grows as targets get smaller and farther away.
Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff
Speed and precision trade against each other in most tasks.
Proprioception
The internal sense of body position that guides movement.
Bilateral Transfer
Training one side of the body transfers some skill to the other.
Feedforward Control
Launching an action from prediction rather than reacting to feedback.
Focus (5)
Deep Focus
Deep focus is sustained, distraction free attention on demanding work.
Concentration
Concentration is directing and sustaining attention on one thing despite distraction.
Attention Management
Time management fills the calendar, but attention management decides what your mind actually does with it.
Single-Tasking
The brain doesn't split focus, it switches, so choose one task and let the others wait.
Context Switching Cost
Switching tasks isn't free, since part of your mind stays behind on the last one.
Habits (5)
Habit Formation
Habit formation is the shift from effortful behavior to automatic routine through repetition.
Habit Loop
The habit loop describes a habit as a cue, a routine, and a reward that repeats.
Keystone Habits
Keystone habits are high leverage routines that appear to spark wider positive change.
Habit Stacking
An existing habit is a reliable cue, so let it trigger the next thing you want to do.
Cue Control
Make the cue for the habit you want obvious, and the cue for the habit you don't disappear.
Performing Under Pressure (4)
Clutch Performance
Delivering at your peak precisely when the stakes are greatest.
Reinvestment Theory
Overthinking an automatic skill under pressure breaks it.
Psychological Momentum
A sense of momentum that shifts confidence, effort, and focus.
Yips
When a once-automatic movement becomes jerky or blocked, especially under pressure.
Skill Acquisition (4)
Deliberate Play
Fun, exploratory practice that builds skill and keeps motivation alive.
Skill Plateau
Effort continues but improvement stalls, usually needing a new approach.
Power Law of Practice
Big early gains give way to slower, harder improvement over time.
Errorless Learning
Structuring practice to avoid errors, useful for some memory conditions.
Load and Recovery (2)
Overtraining
Pushing so hard without enough recovery that performance breaks down.
Tapering
Reducing load before a peak moment so fitness shows and fatigue fades.
Memory (2)
Proactive Interference
What you already knew intrudes on what you're trying to learn.
Retroactive Interference
Recent information crowds out what you learned before.
Motivation (2)
Goal Gradient Effect
Nearness to the finish line boosts effort and motivation.
WOOP
Pairing your goal and its payoff with the obstacle and an if-then plan.