The Science of Productivity. “It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” ~ Henry David Thoreau Busy is already a given in our twenty-first century stampede. Busyness has multiplied by all kinds of parallel realities. Meet Lady Productivity, our century’s muse. How do you assess your productivity? Contrary to what we tend to believe and try, productivity can’t be increased only by willpower, ability, or the amount of time we spend on a project. Optimal productivity boils down to a healthy balance between work and play, activity and rest. The brilliant creators at AsapSCIENCE, try to decode productivity in this animated science bite: Created by AsapSCIENCE in collaboration with Sparring Mind. Review, Rewind, Remember… Tips to boost your productivity: 1. What works for you? What doesn’t? What could? What’s the first step? Take it now? More creative, compact curiosity by AsapSCIENCE: >> Could Zombies Exist? >> The Scientific Power of Naps. >> What’s behind an orgasm. >> Amazing facts to blow your mind.
Life is routine and routine is resistance to wonder. If you’ve followed my writing or heard me speak you may have heard me quote Philosopher and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel saying, “Life is routine and routine is resistance to wonder.” Our brains are wired toward routine and we absolutely lose our sense of wonder in every day life. Yet wonder is a natural anti-depressant. When we pause, have a moment of mindfulness and open our senses, the sights, smells, tastes, sounds and feeling of things comes alive. There are so many wonders all around us that can bring alive the magic of the world. Take 3 minutes and treat this as a mindful experiment. Carry this wonder with you for the rest of the day (or press play again :). Please share you thoughts, stories and questions below.
Design researchers must think fast and slow Generally, we think of research as the focused, systematic collection of data, over time, in keeping with a given framework or theory. In this view, research is intended to confirm or deny given hypotheses, and incrementally improve our knowledge about a given topic. We know from the book Thinking Fast and Slow, however, that this research approach only serves one type of thinking. Thinking Fast and Slow author Daniel Kahneman tells us that “Type 2” or “slow thinking” is a disciplined, focused, kind of thought that roughly matches the deductive reasoning of the scientific method and other traditional forms of research. But Type 1 or “fast thinking” is less structured, more instinctual, and involves the more reptilian parts of the brain. Design research is both thinking fast, and thinking slow. Gifted researchers engage in both thinking fast, and thinking slow. C. “…You will notice that no one project ever dominates [the files], or sets the master categories in which it is arranged.
How Keeping Things Simple Makes You A Productive Entrepreneur Running your own business is a complicated affair; making it successful can be even more complicated. If you don’t have a plan to be productive and keep focused, the details that you are responsible for can quickly overwhelm you. In fact, one of the biggest failings of new entrepreneurs is to get so caught up in an avalanche of unimportant details that more important priorities get left unattended on the table. What can you do to be a productive entrepreneur, focused on what really matters? Start by making your life itself simpler – become a minimalist. Get up early, so that you don’t lose those most productive early hours. Start your day with a bang. here is some great advice from some highly productive people: Work fast – don’t waste time with the many distractions waiting to tempt you. Think faster, too. Original source – Funders and Founders
The Difference Between Routine and Ritual: How to Master the Balancing Act of Controlling Chaos and Finding Magic in the Mundane by Maria Popova “The wonder of life is often most easily recognizable through habits and routines.” William James, at the dawn of modern psychology, argued that our habits anchor us to ourselves. As someone equally fascinated by the daily routines of artists and with their curious creative rituals, and as a practitioner of both in my own life, I frequently contemplate the difference between the routine and ritual, these two supreme deities of habit. They seem to be different sides of the same coin — while routine aims to make the chaos of everyday life more containable and controllable, ritual aims to imbue the mundane with an element of the magical. The structure of routine comforts us, and the specialness of ritual vitalizes us. This equipoise of routine and ritual is, to me, one of the essential balancing acts of life — not unlike that of critical thinking and hope, or form and freedom. Here’s the true secret of life: We mostly do everything over and over. Donating = Loving
Strict Mode Starting with ECMAScript 5, developers are able to place their code into a more constrained form of execution known as strict mode. Strict mode improves JavaScript code by enforcing better programming practices and eliminating some of the language’s insecure and ill-advised features. Strict mode is enabled by adding the following directive to your code: "use strict"; The “use strict”; directive can be used in two ways. The second way to enable strict mode is at the function level. function foo() { "use strict"; // this function is executed in strict mode } function bar() { // this function is executed in non-strict mode } One of the nice things about strict mode is its backward compatibility. JavaScript has an interesting way of handling variable declarations. function foo() { var x; var z; x = 1; y = 2; z = x + y; } Notice that only the variables ‘x’ and ‘z’ are declared using the var keyword. window.y = 2; ReferenceError: y is not defined function foo() { "use strict"; return this; }
Benefits of Simplicity to Productivity Simplicity is often perceived as boring, unattractive and unremarkable. Majority of people want something striking and complicated. But as Leonardo da Vinci has said, Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Different to the common belief, simplicity is not boring, unattractive or unremarkable. In fact, simplicity represents elegance and complexity. The Misconception of Being Productive The common error of people who aim to succeed at something is the tendency to make the process complicated, such as over analysis and accepting responsibility beyond one’s capacity. Take for an instance when an individual or company spends too much time planning and perfecting a product. However, being productive neither needs too much analysis nor working long hours. The Benefits Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! If you want to be more productive with minimal effort and stress, learn how to simplify and stay focus. 1. Simplicity aids clarity; the directness of expression and purpose. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
The 7 Step Evening Ritual That Will Make You Happy Everybody talks about morning rituals to get the day started right. (Even I have.) But ending the day right can be even more important. Why? Because your mind ain’t perfect when it comes to happiness. It cheats. Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, has shown that your brain really remembers only two things about an event: The emotional peakThe end Via The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less: Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues have shown that what we remember about the pleasurable quality of our past experiences is almost entirely determined by two things: how the experiences felt when they were at their peak (best or worst), and how they felt when they ended. If your brain is gonna cheat, you should cheat back. How? 1) Have a “Shutdown Ritual” Workday is over. A simple ritual can help. From Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World: Bestselling author Dan Pink gives similar advice: Wrong, dear reader… Sum Up
How the Brain Learns—A Super Simple Explanation for eLearning Professionals How the Brain Learns—A Super Simple Explanation for eLearning Professionals In his book, The Art of Changing the Brain, Dr. James Zull , notably suggested how David Kolb's famous four-phase model of the learning cycle can be mapped into four major brain processes. To grasp Zull's suggestion, you have to know first the four stages of Kolb's learning cycle. Concrete Experience: This is when learners encounter a new learning experience Reflective Observation: Learners reflect on the experience Abstract Conceptualization: Think/Study (learn from the experience)Active Experimentation: Applying and trying out what was learned Note that this is a recurrent four-stage process which, according to Dr. Process One: Get Information The information-gathering part of the cycle engages the sensory cortices--the outer layer of our cerebral cortex that gets input from the outside of world of experience. Process Two: Make Meaning First off, reflection needs time and space to happen. References:
The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity What’s the best way to start your day so that you really get things done? Laura Vanderkam studied the schedules of high-achievers. What did she find? Almost all have a morning routine. I’ve interviewed a ton of top experts about their productivity secrets: Tim Ferriss, Cal Newport, Dan Ariely, Charles Duhigg, and others. But you’re busy. So many readers have written to me saying what my friend Jason always does: “I don’t have time. Okay, time to round up what the experts have said and build a roadmap. 1) Stop Reacting Get up before the insanity starts. When I spoke to productivity guru Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, what did he say? Here’s Tim: I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. Most of us get up and it seems like things are already in motion. So of course you aren’t achieving your goals. You need to wake up before the insanity starts. (For more from Tim Ferriss on what the most productive people do every day, click here.)
12 Proven Productivity Hacks to Help You Win Every Day Tell me you’ve had this experience: You start out with the best of intentions. Today is the day you’re going to slay your to-do list and bring home a major win. But… Life happens. But what if you could stay ahead of the storm? Some of these are face-palm obvious. My specialized training course and community, Platform University, is designed to help you take your message to the next level. Start the Night Before The best time to get a jump on the day is the night before. List three wins. Maximize Your Morning The morning hours are some of the most important of the entire day if you want to perform at your peak. Feed your heart and mind. Focus All Day After maximizing the morning, it’s time to seize the day. Get clear on your goals. Are these hacks foolproof? But when we’re operating at our peak, surprises might set us back; they usually don’t derail us. or upgrade to a self-hosted WordPress blog?
The Science of Memory (and 4 Uncommon Ways to Enhance It) I have a pretty bad memory, it seems. I know people say that all the time, but here’s why I think it actually applies to me: In pretty much all of my childhood memories, I’m around 10 years old, as if nothing ever happened before that.My poor co-founder, Josh, has to replay almost entire conversations before I recall having had them. It’s a bit of a struggle having a bad memory. Since I’ve been reading and writing more about the brain, memory is one area that’s really fascinated me, because I’d like to improve mine. How memory works Creating memories, like learning new things, is all about creating and strengthening connections between the neurons in our brains (called synapses): When we create a new memory, a pattern of brain activity occurs, and we store what’s called a memory trace. Obviously the last step, and the one we’re probably most familiar with, is recalling those memories. The different types of memory Working memory is kind of like the brain’s notepad. Unstable memories
5 Unusual Ways to Start Working Smarter, Not Harder, Backed by Science One of the things I love about the culture at Buffer is the emphasis on working smarter, not harder. Our team is all about getting plenty of sleep, exercise and recreation time so that our time spent working is as productive as it can be. Working harder can be an easy habit to slip into, though. Sometimes it’s hard to switch off at the end of the day, or to take time out on the weekend and stop thinking about work. If this happens to you, too, here are five methods to try that’ll help get you working smarter, not harder. 1. In one of my favorite books, Stephen Covey tells a story about a woodcutter whose saw gets more blunt as time passes and he continues cutting down trees. The analogy is an easy one to remember, but harder to put into practice. Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you. On average, our brains are only able to focus for 90 minutes and need at least 20 minutes rest thereafter, if we consider our natural ultradian rhythms: 2. 3. 4. 5.
You’re Not Being Lazy—Routines and Breaks are Good For You Maximizing your productivity is not about working as hard as you can for as long as you can. Balancing both your dedication to work routine and your ability to take breaks are crucial for quality results, thoughtful breakthroughs, and maintaining mental well-being. Incorporating routine into your workday—think of it as a way of automating your approach to your efforts, to minimize effort—can pay big dividends. Conversely, knowing when to step out of the flow to regroup and recharge can also give a big bump to your effectiveness. Read on for some tips and tricks on how routines and breaks can boost your productivity. It has been shown that adopting routines can make you more productive. Routine can also help harness your creativity. Make Routines Work for You While you can certainly change your outfit as often as you like, a more considered approach to becoming routine-oriented can help you to be more productive. Mix Things UpYour focus is fine, but you’re feeling a little isolated?