A Better Way to Practice. UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. Mind Hacks News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - Lifehacker. Writing and Health. Writing and Health: Some Practical Advice Writing about emotional upheavals in our lives can improve physical and mental health. Although the scientific research surrounding the value of expressive writing is still in the early phases, there are some approaches to writing that have been found to be helpful.
Keep in mind that there are probably a thousand ways to write that may be beneficial to you. Think of these as rough guidelines rather than Truth. Indeed, in your own writing, experiment on your own and see what works best. Getting Ready to Write Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed. Promise yourself that you will write for a minimum of 15 minutes a day for at least 3 or 4 consecutive days. Once you begin writing, write continuously. You can write longhand or you can type on a computer. You can write about the same thing on all 3-4 days of writing or you can write about something different each day. What to Write About What to do with your Writing Samples Fox, John (1997). Coping with Boredom At Work. Of all the motivational problems that people encounter at work, the biggest may simply be getting through the day.
Psychologists have a great deal to say about the problem of boredom and offer useful clues about how to get through the day without boredom. We can begin with the experimental psychologist's best friend, the laboratory rat. The biggest cause of boredom is easily identified. It concerns how work is measured - in units of time, rather than in units of production, or accomplishment. When hungry rats are required to wait around for a fixed time until they can press a lever for food, they become fairly lethargic.
It is a bit like an hourly worker waiting until 5:00 o'clock to punch their time card and go home. Matters are very different for self-employed people who typically set some goal for themselves each day and stay pleasantly motivated until their objective is reached, at which time they might decide to go home. Anyone with a job is literally a wage slave of course. 5 No-BS Ways to Become Awesome in 5 Minutes. You’re at college and working two jobs. You have a date in 15 minutes. You’re a single parent with a long commute and 5 hours of sleep per day. Or maybe you’re just not ready to make a huge time commitment.
Whatever your situation, tools that can turbo-charge your life fast are handy. The bad news is, long-term change requires time and effort. The good news is, self-improvement techniques and exercises can be very time-efficient. 1. In a recent study, subjects who wrote down their goals were 42% more likely to achieve them than the ones who didn’t. That’s right: a pen, a piece of paper and a few minutes are all you need to near-double your chance of success. 2. Your innermost thoughts are a self-fulfilling prophecy; believing in yourself is crucial to success. Here’s how you can stay positive day in, day out. Get a notebook and write down 3 awesome things you did in the past 24 hours every evening. You’ll be amazed at how much better focusing on your positive achievements makes you feel! Surgeon's Checklist Saves Lives.
By Steven ReinbergHealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A simple checklist that ensures everyone in the operating room is on the same page reduces complications and saves lives, researchers report. The need for improving safety in surgery is vital since there are some 230 million major operations worldwide each year, 60 million of them in the United States. In fact, the average American undergoes nine surgical procedures in their lifetime. "Using a surgery checklist designed for safety cut the complication and death rate by a more than a third," said lead researcher Dr.
To aid in reducing surgical complications and deaths, Gawande's team developed a one-page checklist that can be read aloud like a pilot's checklist before take off and landing. While each surgery is different, there are common safety points for all procedures, Gawande said. The report is published in the Jan. 14 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. More information. How To Take Control of Your Next Job Interview. At the end of every job interview, you'll encounter the inevitable question, "Do you have any questions for me? " While it's an oh-so-predictable event, many job candidates aren't prepared to shine when they reach this final test in the interview.
Failing to ask any questions or asking the wrong questions can send the wrong signals. Stephanie Daniel, senior vice president of career management company Keystone Associates, spoke with us about her thoughts on how job interviewees can take control of their next job interview by asking the right questions. Read on for her thoughts on what to ask and which questions to avoid when it's your turn to interrogate. Asking the Right Questions When the interviewer gives you the opportunity to ask your own questions, be prepared. "Too many job seekers respond to this standard interview question with the standard 'safe' responses," says Daniel. So, what types of questions should you ask? Could you describe your ideal candidate for this job? Inspiration & Motivation.
Reduce stress with 3 operational modes | Tim's Blog. A large part of stress is thinking about something that worries you for too long or in a repeated cyclic fashion. It can happen very naturally, as our minds can be free to wander at any given time in the day. Sometimes we let problems cycle in our minds uncontrollably. This starts the process of worry and the feeling of being trapped or stuck. We begin to feel the pressure. And like a feedback loop, the feeling of stress can produce even more stress – we lose sleep over not getting enough sleep. We begin to run late, because of the pressure of not running late. The loop must be broken. A good way to prevent such insanity is to change the way you think. The initial resistance you may have to dividing up your day this way is that you might miss some opportunity to resolve that problem.
And it’s been shown that reducing stress can increase productivity. So consider spending a set amount of time, maybe in the morning, to think about problems. You will experience great productivity. Reduce Stress by Dividing Your Day into Three Operational Modes. How Music Affects the Brain and How You Can Use It to Your Advantage. Decisions by Thinking of Yourself in the Third Person. Tony Schwartz: The Myths of the Overworked Creative :: Videos :: The 99 Percent. Time is finite, but we act as if it were otherwise, assuming that longer hours always lead to increased productivity.
But in reality our bodies are designed to pulse and pause – to expend energy and then renew it. In this revelatory talk, energy expert Tony Schwartz debunks common productivity myths and shows us how to regain control over our energy so we can produce great work. Tony Schwartz is founder and CEO of The Energy Project, a company that helps individuals and organizations fuel energy, engagement, focus, and productivity by drawing on the science of high performance. Tony has written four bestselling books, including The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, published in 2010, and The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy Not Time, co-authored with Jim Loehr.Tony has also published widely about leadership, engagement, and culture change.
Www.theenergyproject.com@tonyschwartz. The Four Paradoxes of Great Performance. We each long for certainty – the security of simple answers. What, for example, are the specific qualities that make us more likely to be successful? Companies spend millions of dollars trying to define the key competencies for specific jobs. Researchers seek to pinpoint the qualities that distinguish top performers from everyone else. The more time I spend working with leaders at other companies, and leading a company of my own, the more convinced I’ve become that the paradoxical key to great performance – and leadership – is the capacity to embrace opposites.Stoic philosophers referred to this as the mutual entailment of the virtues. No virtue, they argued, is a virtue by itself. Honesty in the absence of compassion becomes cruelty. As Gregory Bateson put it: “There is always an optimal value beyond which anything is toxic, no matter what: oxygen, sleep, psychotherapy, philosophy.”
Instead, operate best when we embrace our opposites in each of the four key dimensions of our lives: 1. Use Your Crappy Boss to Make Yourself a Better Employee. Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds (9780983873105): Scott Berkun. How to Identify and Learn from Your Mistakes. Until mankind realizes that by "Design" is made to "Fail" he will always have a problem realizing his or her mistakes. We are not all created equal? ,some of us are Tall, short, fat, thin, smart and dumb! That is a fact of life you can't ignore! , but we often sure try our best to ignore it! There are many things involved in the human psychology, given so many personality's, culture, philosophies, and environments that alter our most basic human general instincts. In this current cultural times we live in, for the most part we have a great majority of humans going thru an "Entitlement Attitude" of which affects our lives greatly, and most of all affects our capacity to understand and learn when we make a mistake.
Of course we have so many other defects that affect our judgement when it comes to addressing our understanding of ones own mistakes, but suffice it to say that one very important and "Rare" trait that is needed in minimizing human mistakes is "Self-Awareness"!!! Debunking_Handbook.pdf. Chewing Gum Can Boost Mental Performance. Diffuse Awkwardness with a Compliment When You've Forgotten Someone's Name.
Depending on the situation (eg - entering a number in your phone) and your level of adventure, I find "How do you spell your name? " works pretty well. Even if the name should be obvious to spell ("uh...B - i - l - l...'Bill'") you can fake it and "ask" if they prefer that or an alternate version ("do you prefer Bill or William or Will" etc.). If it becomes obvious at that point that it was a ploy, I just admit it, apologize for my memory, and if you're not socially inept, you can usually play it off well. I find most people don't really care. If you're desperate you can corral a situation into this ploy by asking for their contact info (again, depending on the social context), whipping out the cell phone, and asking for spelling.
How to Send and Receive Mail Using the US Post Office Without Pain and Suffering. Amp Up Your Brain. From Wired How-To Wiki Ancient Greek bards recited 10,000-line poems by heart. Their secret? The Method of Loci. Here’s how it works: To remember, say, a shopping list, imagine walking to the store. Use items on your list to construct incongruous visual images along the way – a carton of milk perched atop a mailbox, bananas growing on a rosebush, and so on. Then, when you arrive at the store, mentally retrace your imagined steps to retrieve all the items on your list. Read better, faster Speed-reading courses preach a form of skimming that doesn’t help comprehension or retention. Think out loud Ever notice how kids narrate what they're doing? Brain age! Drop $150 on a Nintendo DS and the Brain Age gamepak.
Sleep well 7 hours a day. Eat well Balanced meals, veggies and protein and carbs, minimize the alcohol and sugar and artificial additives. Exercise That word sounds like "hit the gym" to me, which I'm not into, so you can also think of it as "physical activity. " Downtime Socialization. Social psych blog.
Few people can boast achievements equal to what Benjamin Franklin (Jan 1706-Apr 1790) accomplished in his lifetime. Coming from simple, working class roots, he made his wealth with his printing business then went on to invent many useful things; the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, the Glass Armonica, bifocals, and Daylight Savings Time. Not just an inventor, he discovered the gulf stream and whirlwinds. Discontent with all of that, he is also a founding father of the U.S.A. – often hailed as “The First American” for his campaigns towards colonial unity. He served as the governor of Pennsylvania and the U.S.
Ambassador to France. A pretty full life don’t you say? On top of it all, Franklin was well-liked for his wit, charming to men and women, high in his diplomatic ability, and constantly working on a kind personality. So what can we learn from Benjamin Franklin about making friends? Rational Home Buying. My parents are considering moving house. I've had a front-seat window to their decision process as they compare alternatives, and sometimes it isn't pretty. A new house is one of the most important purchases most people will make. Because of the sums involved, the usual pitfalls of decision-making gain new importance, and it becomes especially important to make sure you're thinking rationally. Research in a couple of fields, most importantly positive psychology, offers some potentially helpful tips.
People so consistently under-count the pain of commuting when making choices that the problem has its own name: Commuter's Paradox. Psychologists aren't entirely sure why people so consistently under-count the pain of commuting. One of Kahneman and Tversky's famous bias experiments went like this: imagine you're buying a new shirt.
Now imagine you're buying a new TV which costs $2020 at a nearby store, and $2000 at a store that's fifteen minutes away.