{"id":6073,"date":"2022-05-24T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/?post_type=project&p=6073"},"modified":"2026-08-07T17:54:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:54:42","slug":"using-a-super-easy-three-step-method-and-meditation-to-dominate-tests-meetings-projects-and-other-stressful-tasks","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/using-a-super-easy-three-step-method-and-meditation-to-dominate-tests-meetings-projects-and-other-stressful-tasks\/","title":{"rendered":"Using A Super Easy Three Step Method And Meditation To Dominate Tests, Meetings, Projects And Other Stressful Tasks"},"content":{"rendered":"
Meditation can be profound and deeply spiritual. But it can also be incredibly practical. No matter what form of meditation you choose, one thing is always the same: quieting the mind by bringing the focus to one particular thing. This focus has the effect of, among many things, reducing anxiety and stress. What a perfect tool for everyday use!<\/div>\n
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Enter the mechanical pencil and my teenage test anxiety. When I was in high school, I was your typical front and center type A personality. Well aware of the high stakes, and with just as high of expectations awaiting me at home, test time was a stressful event. It didn\u2019t matter what class it was. It took several excruciating minutes for the teacher to handout the test to each student. Within those minutes waited the beast of expectation, doubt and fear. If that wasn\u2019t enough, after the test started there was THAT SOUND. The sound of the first person to turn to the second page of the test, signaling to the entire class that they were ahead of you, and more confident than you. Then the second person to turn the page. And the third. All of these distractions would spike my stress levels and pull my focus away from the test at hand. So I devised a way to tune out all of it and focus intently on the one test problem I was working on at that moment. What I didn\u2019t realize until decades later, is that I had stumbled on the secret to super human dominance in everything from test taking to challenging projects, nerve racking meetings and more. Follow me here.<\/div>\n
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Step one: resolve to work the test backwards. The harder problems are always at the end, so I would start there. If I could handle those, the test would get easier as I went, building my confidence and making me more relaxed along the way. More importantly, if I am working the last page first, I cannot compare myself to anyone else who is working the first page first.<\/div>\n
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Step two: stare at the pencil tip like it\u2019s the most fascinating thing in the world. While the teacher was passing out the test papers, I would sit there staring at the tip of my mechanical pencil like it was life itself. I would marvel at the color of the graphite leads, at the plastic that held it, at how small the fine tip of the lead was. Nothing else mattered but what is right here at the tip of the pencil. It was a practice in tuning out the classroom and focusing on the task at hand. Best of all, you don\u2019t look weird doing it. Try it! You look bored yet patiently waiting, perfect for this situation.<\/div>\n
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Step three: when the test arrives, flip it over to a blank page and write out all the things you think you might forget (formulas, definitions, key points). Then work the test from the last page, knowing you have your formulas and key points at hand. No worries that you might forget.<\/div>\n
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The brilliance of the method is in focusing on the pencil tip. Not only does it help you tune out everything else, but when that pencil hits the paper, the tip is pointing to the one problem or question you need to focus on right now. The task is at the tip of the pencil, always. I used this method to coach hundreds of teenagers through test anxiety and it works really well for any class or subject at any grade level from elementary school to grad school.<\/div>\n
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But nervous situations do not end when we graduate from high school or college. There are meetings that we feel are so important that we become stressed and scattered. There are deadlines, challenging projects and expectations. So when you feel stressed in the real world, here is what you can do.<\/div>\n
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Step one: resolve to tackle the hardest part first. Nail that, and it\u2019s all downhill from there. I don\u2019t care how massive or impossible the task is, break it down into pieces and ask yourself what the hardest piece is. Do that first, or do something that would turn that piece from hard to easy.<\/div>\n
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Step two: Stare at the pencil tip for a few minutes and breathe; or a doodle on the tiny corner edge of your notebook page, or the way the light reflects off your coffee cup in that one spot, or that bit of background image on your screen that you feel is particularly awesome. Anyone looking at you would think that you are deep in thought. Excellent! They are less likely to interrupt you, and you can bring your focus to where the problem at hand will be: in your notebook, on the screen, or at the tip of your pen.<\/div>\n
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Step three: keep the important points close at hand. Keep the important values, key foundational aspects of this project, motivations for this effort, and the like, right in front of you where you can see them often so that you will not stray. Why are you doing this? What is important for the user or customer? Write it down and keep it in view.<\/div>\n
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These three steps work to take the anxiety and stress out of any task, test, project, meeting, or other situation. Give it a try! And tell your favorite people, grownups and kids alike, so that they can use it too.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A practical method combining focus and meditation to reduce performance anxiety, working backward from the hardest problem, fixing attention on a single point like a pencil tip, and keeping key information close at hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[1886,1882,31],"project_tag":[36,2069,1429,654,180,900,280,649,981,2052,947,1452,1857,977,489,309,1012,1248,655,112,302,186,979,978,284,980,605,332,1361,283],"series":[],"class_list":["post-6073","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-57challenges","project_category-business","project_category-observations","project_tag-art","project_tag-books","project_tag-business","project_tag-complete-connection","project_tag-connection","project_tag-consciousness","project_tag-cycle","project_tag-cycle-of-human-development","project_tag-finding-peace","project_tag-guided-meditations","project_tag-human-development","project_tag-lasting-peace","project_tag-lastingpeace-org","project_tag-life-optimization","project_tag-meditation","project_tag-money","project_tag-podcasts","project_tag-poetry","project_tag-purna-asatti","project_tag-relationships","project_tag-religion","project_tag-science","project_tag-seeing-yourself","project_tag-self-mastery","project_tag-self-development","project_tag-self-improvement-2","project_tag-self-understanding","project_tag-society","project_tag-spirituality","project_tag-stages"],"acf":{"recommend_blurb":"For students and professionals who freeze under test, meeting, or deadline pressure. A tested, easy three-step focus technique for staying calm and performing at your best when it counts.","citation_snippet":"Dr. Kathryn Messegee (Kathryn Colleen), \"Using A Super Easy Three Step Method And Meditation To Dominate Tests, Meetings, Projects And Other Stressful Tasks,\" https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/using-a-super-easy-three-step-method-and-meditation-to-dominate-tests-meetings-projects-and-other-stressful-tasks\/","topics":["mind","growth"],"related_book":"","buy_url":""},"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/4B440DF3-A8BB-4F4C-A0BA-1AFC2949BD82.jpeg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/CCA57320-6DC3-4284-BC27-49E433028503.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/on-life-being-human\/id1360368906","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2nq6d35q9nFAFlanaJc2Do","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/feed\/podcast\/on-life-being-human","embedCode":"

Using A Super Easy Three Step Method And Meditation To Dominate Tests, Meetings, Projects And Other Stressful Tasks<\/a><\/blockquote>