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The Science of Productivity

The Science of Productivity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfjvYzr-3g

The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Business It was 1955 and Disneyland had just opened in Anaheim, California when a ten-year-old boy walked in and asked for a job. Labor laws were loose back then and the boy managed to land a position selling guidebooks to visitors for $0.50 a piece. Within a year, he had transitioned to Disney’s magic shop where he learned tricks from the older employees. He experimented with jokes and tried out simple magic routines on the visitors. Soon, he discovered that what he loved was not performing magic, but performing in general. The young boy set his sights on becoming a comedian.

How to Train Your Brain to Stay Focused As an entrepreneur, you have a lot on your plate. Staying focused can be tough with a constant stream of employees, clients, emails, and phone calls demanding your attention. Amid the noise, understanding your brain’s limitations and working around them can improve your focus and increase your productivity. Our brains are finely attuned to distraction, so today's digital environment makes it especially hard to focus. "Distractions signal that something has changed," says David Rock, co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute and author of Your Brain at Work (HarperCollins, 2009). "A distraction is an alert says, 'Orient your attention here now; this could be dangerous.'"

How to Get Motivated When You’re Not In The Mood Source: PicJumbo We all know that in order to develop good habits, we need motivation to start. This is why, in the beginning, we “chunk” habits down so they’re super simple to do (think Mini Habits). Can You Have More Willpower? Do you wish you had more self-control? We all have moments when our willpower seems to fail us and bad choices ensue. Despite our best intentions we lose our patience, snap at others, buy things we’ll never use and struggle to prioritize our wellbeing. But can you really improve your willpower? “When it comes to willpower, most people think they’d be better off if they had more,” explained Professor Roy Baumeister, one of the world’s leading researchers on willpower and self-control, when I interviewed him recently. “After all, willpower gives you the power to regulate and bring out the best in yourself.”

5 Ways To Innovate By Cross-Pollinating Ideas Editors’ note: The following is an adapted excerpt of InGenius (Harper One) by Tina Seelig. What happens when you cross a checkerboard with a midnight snack? You get edible checkers, sold with the motto "beat ’em and eat ’em." What if you cross high-heeled shoes with a tricycle? How To Be Motivated: 4 New Insights From Research Sometimes there is not enough coffee in universe to get you going. How to be motivated is something we all struggle with at some time or another. Or, um, daily. The Psychology of Willpower: Training the Brain for Better Decisions “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi In 2011, 27% of the respondents of the Stress in America survey reported lack of willpower as the greatest obstacle to change. We rely on willpower to exercise, diet, save money, quit smoking or drinking, overcome procrastination and ultimately accomplish our goals. It impacts every area of our lives. Most people have an intuitive sense of what it is, but many lack the scientific knowledge that can help understand what undermines it and how we can work with instead of against it.

How To Stay Productive After Work I've had to come to terms with this. I have ideas for things that would be cool, but I'm usually too tired in the evening. After getting everyone fed, I just want to sit on the couch and watch YouTube. My husband has been great, nudging me towards not beating myself up over needing to relax. How To Motivate Yourself: 3 Steps Backed By Science You make goals… but then you procrastinate. You write a to-do list… but then you don’t follow through. And this happens again and again and again. Seriously, what’s the problem? Why are we so good at thinking of what to do but so terrible at actually doing those things?

21 Chrome Web apps for serious work The Chrome browser is rapidly gaining fans and developers are responding by creating apps that will help keep you productive in Google's browser. Add these 21 apps to a Chromebook, and you'll have great tools for working anywhere. Some of these apps, like Citrix Receiver, will run only on a Chromebook. How To Motivate People - 4 Steps Backed By Science Employees, spouses, kids — what does it take to get people motivated so you don’t have to nag them? Motivation is powerful. It predicts success better than intelligence, ability, or salary. Via The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: When tested in national surveys against such seemingly crucial factors as intelligence, ability, and salary, level of motivation proves to be a more significant component in predicting career success. While level of motivation is highly correlated with success, importantly, the source of motivation varies greatly among individuals and is unrelated to success. – Bashaw and Grant 1994

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