5 Brain Hacks That Give You Mind-Blowing Powers #2. Control Anger by Using Your Less-Dominant Hand Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com Everyone knows at least one guy who hulks out over the stupidest things -- a messed up coffee order, a red light, global warming. Of course, there are all these tricks that your mom taught you that are supposed to calm you down ("Stop and count to 10!") Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com"Somebody stop me before I rob a sperm bank and make this town disgusting." The Hack: This one comes from the University of New South Wales, who found the perfect anger-management trick, and it wasn't cool jazz music or playful kittens wearing sunglasses. Why would this possibly work? Digital Vision/Digital Vision/Getty Images"Fudge you, mother lover!" Now, you'd assume that the only way to do that would be some kind of meditation or long classes in anger management. So, when things got ugly, suddenly they found that the walls around their internal anger demon were stronger. #1. Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
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. 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 Something that you are thinking or worrying about too much Something that you are dreaming about Something that you feel is affecting your life in an unhealthy way Something that you have been avoiding for days, weeks, or years What to do with your Writing Samples
Useful Websites Here is a list of websites we have featured in the past that might come in handy. Remember to set FuckingHomepage.com as your start page if you haven’t already. Educational/Learning favoriteandforget.com – Useful and educational links updated daily. Set it as your homepage and forget about it.khanacademy.org - video lectures on just about any subjectted.com - lectures by smart peopleinternetisuseful.com - for every educational website or useful web app out thereacademicearth.org - classroom lecturesfreerice.com - expand your vocabulary while feeding the hungrylizardpoint.com - a collection of geography quizzesmathrun.net - timed math quizzesclassicshorts.com - the best short storieserowid.org - learn about drugsqwikia.com - turn a Wikipedia article into a videounplugthetv.com - a collection of intellectually stimulating videosfactsie.com - a place to learn amazing and unusual historical and scientific facts Learn Skills Useful Web Apps Entertainment - Music, Movies, Sports, Books
Why We Have Our Best Ideas in the Shower: The Science of Creativity - - The Buffer Blog “I’m not really a creative person”, always struck me as an odd sentence. Could it really be that some of us are born to be more creatively gifted than others? If so, I thought at first, that’s definitely a downer. In school, what was considered “being creative”, like writing or drawing nice pictures was never my strength. It bugged me for a while I have to say. For today, I finally decided to research and read up on the latest studies of creativity and the science behind it. And the following science will hopefully prove it, in case you ever had any doubts about your own creativity. “A creative idea will be defined simply as one that is both novel and useful (or influential) in a particular social setting.” – Alice Flaherty This applies to every field Flaherty explains, including programming, business, mathematics together with the more traditional “creative” fields, such as music or drawing. Our brain on creativity: The example of free-style rap To make it a bit more understandable:
21 Brilliant Productivity Tools Every College Student Must Use If you ask a college student about productivity, he won't have much to say. And you really can't blame him. He leads a dynamic life where academics and fun go hand in hand, with the latter becoming a more important activity most of the times. However, with the advent of internet and web 2.0, a college student now has access to so many amazing tools that he could finish up his work as well as enjoy life to the fullest without the guilt. Research and Taking Notes 1.Questia Questia is an excellent online research tool which features a huge web based library of magazines, books, journals, papers, articles and much more. Although you need to pay about $19.95 per month for its membership, you could save on books and magazines you buy if you subscribe to it. 2.Free Book Notes Free Book Notes, as the name suggests is a collection of free book notes, summaries, study guides and similar material aggregated from the internet. 3.Wikipedia 4.Notely 5.Evernote 6.Google Docs 7. 8.Noodletools Communication
Incremental reading Introduction Traditional linear reading is highly inefficient. This comes from the fact that various pieces of the text are of various importance. Some should be skipped. Others should be read in the first order of priority. Old-fashioned books are quickly being replaced with hypertext. What is incremental reading? Incremental reading is a learning technique that makes it possible to read thousands of articles at the same time without getting lost. Incremental reading converts electronic articles into durable knowledge in your memory. Input: electronic articles (e.g. collected from the net) Output: well-remembered knowledge (quizzed regularly in the form of questions and answers) In incremental reading, you read articles in small portions. Warning! Five basic skills of incremental reading Incremental reading requires skills that you will perfect only over months and years of use. Skill 1: Importing articles Five article import methods Here are the 5 main article import methods in SuperMemo:
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. 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. Boredom is partly due to insufficient stimulation and that problem is largely resolved by focusing on tasks rather than time. · Always show up on time.
Student Persistence in Online Courses: Understanding the Key Factors March 27, 2013 By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog Who should be taking online courses? Are online courses equally appropriate for all students? Can any content be taught in an online format or do some kinds of material lend themselves to mastery in an electronic environment? Who should be teaching these courses? Most of these questions are being answered in stages by research inquiries that address smaller issues related to these larger questions. Her review is based on 20 studies published since 1999. Satisfaction with online learning – Not surprising, students who are satisfied with online courses and programs persist. A sense of belonging to a learning community – Students who are comfortable establishing relationships in an online environment tend to persist at higher rates. Peer and family support – Those learning in online environments more often successfully complete courses if they have peer and family support. Reference: Hart, C. (2012). Recent Trackbacks
The lesson you never got taught in school: How to learn! | Neurobonkers A paper published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest evaluated ten techniques for improving learning, ranging from mnemonics to highlighting and came to some surprising conclusions. The report is quite a heavy document so I’ve summarised the techniques below based on the conclusions of the report regarding effectiveness of each technique. Be aware that everyone thinks they have their own style of learning (they don't, according to the latest research), and the evidence suggests that just because a technique works or does not work for other people does not necessarily mean it will or won’t work well for you. If you want to know how to revise or learn most effectively you will still want to experiment on yourself a little with each technique before writing any of them off. Elaborative Interrogation (Rating = moderate) A method involving creating explanations for why stated facts are true. An example of elaborative interrogation for the above paragraph could be: Reference:
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!