5 Mind Hacks Silicon Valley Founders Use to Stay Focused. Focus is the name of the game when it comes to getting ahead and staying ahead in Silicon Valley today.
Competition, constant pressure and a commitment to being the best all push Silicon Valley founders to find new ways to focus. Entrepreneurs, inventors, techies and dreamers experiment with everything -- from fasting to “smart drugs” to physical exercises to cognitive challenges -- in order to increase their concentration and daily output. Related: This Founder Has a 5-Minute Secret Weapon That Helps Her Focus Every Day If you want to be more innovative, mindful and efficient, consider the following five mind hacks favored by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. 1.
Dedicated to helping practitioners “become strong, happy and healthy,” this mind hack rests on three pillars -- cold therapy, deep breathing and commitment. It all starts with breathing -- a lot of breathing. What happens next? 2. Related: 4 Ways to Focus Fiercely and Stress Less 3. 4. Can a supplement make you smarter? 5. Wrapping up. “Personal kanban”: a time-management system that explodes the myth of multitasking — Quartz.
Multitasking is probably the single most overrated skill in modern life.
It drains your brain of oxygenated glucose that could be put toward paying more focused attention, makes it difficult for a person to switch between tasks, and is generally an illusion anyway. Only 3% of the population are “supertaskers,” according to a study from Ohio University. The rest of us just pretend to be. A number of systems have been developed to save us from our endless to-do lists, which can turn any job into a soulless assembly line of chores.
One such system is “Personal Kanban,” which was named for the Japanese concept that inspired it, a just-in-time manufacturing process developed at Toyota in the late 1940s. In an industrial setting, Kanban (which means “signboard” or “billboard” in Japanese, as a recent Medium post explains) relies on tickets that move with each product through a plant. How Do We Improve Our Working Memory? Our working memory refers to the ability to recall as well as process information, and is a type of memory that plays an important role throughout the course of our life.
As such, it is evident that boosting working memory would improve various aspects of our lives, running the spectrum from our days in school to work life and even stretching to our post-retirement years. By today’s standards, there is unfortunately no clear “best” way to improve our working memory. There is a silver lining though – a few methods have actually shown potentially promising results in enhancing our cognitive performance in this aspect. How to Make Good Decisions: 4 Secrets Backed by Research. Life would be a lot easier if we just knew how to make good decisions.
Research shows we all make a lot of bad ones. With careers: More than half of teachers quit their jobs within four years. In fact, one study in Philadelphia schools found that a teacher was almost two times more likely to drop out than a student. In our jobs: A study showed that when doctors reckoned themselves “completely certain” about a diagnosis, they were wrong 40% of the time. Want to Be Happier? Science Says Do These 11 Things Every Single Day. Valentines Day 2016: Can You Really Die From a Broken Heart?
Here's How Meditation Reduces Inflammation And Prevents Disease. How to improve your memory with science. Vasily Fedosenko/REUTERS Brain-boosting activities don't have to feel like homework.
Science increasingly shows they can be fun little hobbies you add to your daily routine. As we get older, we all want to make sure our brains stay sharp — especially since doing so can help prevent memory loss and ward off diseases like Alzheimer's. Scientists have tested whether different activities can improve brain power, and they have some good news: Certain things really can help boost our mental abilities. It's important to note that this research is usually based on specific patient populations for limited amounts of time. How To Easily Rewire Your Brain For Success With One Simple Action. How To Easily Rewire Your Brain For Success With One Simple Action You know how it goes…you intend to take an action to create an end result that you know would benefit you personally or in business, but you didn’t follow through.
Wouldn’t it be advantageous to go back and change this? You can. It is not only the taking action that is critical, but the emotion behind the action that is key to success. Most of the actions we take are typically based on our past experiences and how we subjectively labeled the experiences. Why Single-Tasking Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage (Plus 19 Ways To Actually Do It)
The science is in and the results are undeniably bleak: Multi-tasking is to your work what smoking is to your health.
Trying to do more than one thing at the same time is killing your productivity. Here are just a few of the unsettling statistics: Trying to focus on more than one thing at a time reduces your productivity by as much as 40%. That’s the cognitive equivalent of pulling an all-nighter. Luckily, it’s not all bad news. 44% of those work distractions are self-inflicted and another 23% come from emails.
How Writing Things Down Can Change Your Life. What do you write down?
For most of us, writing consists of emails, task lists, and perhaps the odd work project. However, making time to write down certain things, such as our daily experiences, our goals, and our mental clutter can change the way we live our lives. One Secret to More Creative Thinking? The Effect of Walking - Alpha ArchitectAlpha Architect. Researchers at Stanford recently conducted a study that found that the physical act of walking improved creative thinking in subjects.
We believe creative thinking is an important aspect of investing, so we would encourage anyone faced with important investment decisions to go for a walk. Daniel Kahneman, in “Thinking Fast and Slow,” described two types of thinking: System 1, which is gut-level, fast-acting, and instinctual, and System 2, which is slow and analytical. We know that in investing, we want to avoid using our System 1 processes. Yet when people consider System 2, they usually call to mind focused, critical or convergent thinking. This type of thinking usually involves reasoning along a logical chain to synthesize information and make reasoned judgments. Another approach involves creative, or divergent thinking, which is more spontaneous. For example, Einstein was riding in a street car one day when he happened to pass by a clock tower. Ten Powerful Psychology Tools to Calm Your Anxious Mind. Anxious thoughts can overwhelm you and make it even more difficult to make decisions and take action to deal with whatever problem is bothering you.
Anxiety can lead to overthinking everything, which makes you more anxious, which leads to more overthinking….and so on. How can you get out of this vicious cycle? Just shoving the thoughts down doesn’t work, as they will pop up again, sometimes with more intensity. But there are more effective techniques that you can borrow from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Cognitive-Behavioral therapies. Below are 10 strategies that can help you get unstuck and move forward. 1. 11-ways-stay-productive-when-you-dont-get-enough-sleep. New parents, creative insomniacs, night owls with early bird schedules – we all suffer from a similar problem. We need more sleep, but we also need to be productive. As one who regularly drank 6-10 cups of coffee a day throughout his early twenties, I understand your pain. You don’t get enough sleep, but your desire for productivity is likely the main reason why you don’t get enough sleep.
What a miserable paradox! Wives, Obey Your Husbands. 55 0 4Google +1Delicious0 by Christopher Rengers Description: Fr. Rengers, O.F.M.Cap. presents the case from both reason and revelation why the man or husband should be the head of the family and why, in the words of St. Paul wives should be submissive to their husbands. Singletasking: 7 Ways to Increase Your Productivity - Promising Practices - Management.
In our culture of multitaskers, we attempt to accomplish more by doing several things at once. But here’s the rub: Multitasking fails us. Why? Because it doesn’t work. In reality, multitasking decreases our productivity. Dance addiction? Study finds excessive dancing can be a problematic coping mechanism. Dancing has been shown to benefit our physical and mental health, but not much is known about how excessive dancing can harm an individual. Although a great deal of research has focused on exercise addiction, few researchers have explored dance addiction specifically.
In fact, very little is known about dance addiction, what predisposes individuals to becoming addicted to excessive dance, and whether dance addiction is linked to other disorders. An article published this May in PLoS One explored the signs of dance addiction. Nearly 450 salsa and ballroom dancers who danced at least once a week participated in the study. “The purpose of the present study was to explore the effect of dance addiction on mental health and wellbeing.
Four Tricks to Help You Make Any Difficult Decision. 6 Ways to Improve Decision Making. By: Chris Tell at: It was one of my first private equity deals ever. I was introduced to a group of guys, all sporting adequate qualifications, a good story (BTW, almost everyone has a good story if only in their own minds) and they were already backed by a well-known Angel. The market opportunity looked good, the team looked good, and some pretty smart guys where getting involved. I had been introduced by a good friend, a guy I considered to be very honest. Turns out he was being taken for a ride. My decision making was based on the information I'd been provided, as I was not particularly familiar with the industry. Contrary to the opportunity my friend was pitching me, this last-minute entrant was well within my skill-set, and I immediately felt more comfortable with it as a result. Looking back on it now, I was super lucky. I've since met many people like this particular founder.
You Can Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential. 33 1Share Synopsis. Why Your Financial Goal Should Be to Stop Trading Time for Money. The Zen of Waking Up Early: 10 Ways to Solidify a Morning Wakeup Ritual and Boosts Your Productivity. Why do we sleep? - BBC News. Sleep is a normal, indeed essential part of our lives.
Chemical signals in the brain help guide risky decisions. A gambler’s decision to stay or fold in a game of cards could be influenced by a chemical in the brain, suggests new research from the University of British Columbia. 19 Best Productivity Resources To Get Things Done. These days, there’s no shortage of web resources to choose from. And although options are wonderful, they can also be the bane of our existence. 10 Action Steps To Help Restore Your Energy. How many times have we kicked ourselves after making a decision that drained our energy? These include overeating, skipping the gym, watching too much late-night TV, and too many negative thoughts (just to name a few). The secret to fighting digital distractions may be all about commitments, not willpower.
In this photo illustration, the social networking site Facebook is reflected in the eye of a man on March 25, 2009, in London. Channeling Neuroscience & Movement: 3 ways to Access your Intuition. Via Jiro Tayloron May 3, 2015. 40 Quotes that Will Quiet Your Mind. Post written by: Angel Chernoff. 5 Ways to Boost Mindfulness Even on Busy Days. In our over-stimulated, technology-driven, instant-gratification filled lives, the age-old practice of mindfulness is more crucial than ever. The American Mindfulness Research Association defines mindfulness as the “state, process and practice of remembering to observe moment-to-moment experience with openness and without automatic patterns of previously conditioned thoughts, emotions or behaviors.”
The practice, which often involves meditation, has been shown to have a range of health benefits from improved sleep to decreased anxiety in multiple studies. Twitter has a huge problem — and it’s all in your head. Writers: How to Use Twitter to Build Your Brand for Your Book, Blog or Business Heads of business need neuroscience.
Google Now for Android gets support for 70 more apps. Mindfulness: The Power of Thinking About Your Thinking. The Long Marriage of Mindfulness and Money. How gaming can improve our cognitive abilities. Stop Taking Life Seriously. The Art of Staying Focused in a Distracting World - James Fallows. 10 Reasons Why People Who Like Drawing Are More Likely To Be Successful. Mindfulness: The Power of “Thinking About Your Thinking” The Top 4 Reasons Relationships Fail. Creativity Challenged? Add a Right-Brain Warm Up To Your Daily To-Do List. Why Saying This Four-Letter Word Can Transform Your Productivity. Using Evernote for Academic Work.
Give Your Work A Productivity Boost With Swipes. » Daily Sex For Mind, Body And Soul. Science Says These Two Techniques Will Keep You Cool Under Pressure. Why Experts Are The Last People You Want To Include In Creative Brainstorming. Narrow Your Focus, And Maximize Your Potential. How to become more mindful, with a beginner’s guide to meditation. 15 Ways To Increase Our Willpower. Want to be More Productive at Work? Treat your Job like a Game. 10 Toxic Behaviors that Kill Your Confidence. Warm Up Your Brain Before Work and Other Time Savers. Inside the psychology of productivity. Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals. Addium Increase Brain Power. The secret to insane productivity? Will power. Minimize Mental Drag to Help You Do Your Best Work. How To Stay Motivated All Day, Every Day! Top 10 Ways To Trick Your Brain Into Doing What You Want. The Power of the Daily Review. The secret to insane productivity? Will power.
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10 Ways To Make Evernote Rock Harder. 11 Ways to Make Your Mind Calm and Peaceful. Using Evernote for Idea Capture and Productive Scrapbooking - Simple Scrapper. 3 Ways to Keep Your Creative Juices Flowing When You're Always Busy. #068: Sleep and Your Productivity. 'Reboot' Your Brain and Refresh Your Focus in 15 Minutes or Less. 25 Productive Things You Can Do While Watching TV. 4 Ways To Track Your Progress Toward Your Goals.