13 Strategies To Jumpstart Your Productivity Looking to increase your productivity? You’ve come to the right article. I don’t claim to be a productivity master (I always think there’s room for improvement), but I am very passionate about increasing productivity. I’m always looking for different ways to be more productive – stealing pockets of time where I can, deprioritizing the unimportant, getting system overhauls, etc. And I love it when I see my efforts pay off in the form of increased outputs at the end of the day. In this article, I have selected 13 of my best productivity strategies – tried, tested and validated. Here they are :D 1. Probably half of the self-help articles out there keeps telling us to set goals and set targets. I do regular goal setting to maximize my output. Be clear on what exactly you want to achieve. Further reading: 2. Does your work environment encourage you to work? Those of you who are employed can’t exactly choose the environment to work in. Further Reading 3. Further Reading: 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Take A Nap In The Afternoon This tip may not work for all - some people just can't fall asleep quickly enough at day time. Give it a try and watch your body reaction. Studies show that 20 minutes of afternoon nap gives more rest to the body than 20 minutes of sleep in the morning. Use this powerful refreshing tool to get energized till the end of the day. It's recommended that you sleep for no more than 30 minutes, or you will feel drowsy after waking up. Once you get accustomed to sleep at day time, you will fell that you need less time for the night sleep, and getting up early will become much easier! Here is couple of links to articles discovering the power of taking a nap (btw, sometimes it called "power nap" :) - At last, an excuse for the afternoon nap Power Napping for Increased Productivity, Stress Relief & Health
How to Commit to a Goal Psychological experiments demonstrate the power of a simple technique for committing to goals. Here’s a brief story about why we all sometimes get distracted from the most important goals in our lives. Perhaps you recognise it? You are thinking about changing your job because your boss is a pain and you’re stagnating. Work is busy at the moment, the money is OK and your home-life is also packed. Apart from anything else you’ve been thinking about learning a musical instrument. A few months pass. Unfortunately everyday life intervenes again and you do little more than search online for the price of electric pianos. After six months you come back full circle to changing your job, still without having made a real start towards any of these goals. Written like this, with six months compressed into a few paragraphs, it’s obvious the problem is a lack of goal commitment; although in reality, with everyday life to cope with, the pattern can be more difficult to spot. Reality check Hearts and minds
List of Values The following list of values will help you develop a clearer sense of what's most important to you in life, as explained in the article Living Your Values. Simply print out this page, mark the values which most resonate with you, and then sort your list in order of priority. As you scan the values list below, you may find that while most values have little or no significance to you (and some may even seem negative to you), there are those values that just jump out and call to you, and you feel, "Yes, this value is part of me." Steve RecommendsHere are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results. Site Build It! 63 Ways to Build Self-Confidence Confidence is a tool you can use in your everyday life to do all kinds of cool stuff, not least to stop second-guessing yourself, manage your fears and become able to do more of the things that really matter to you. But not many people realise that their self-confidence works just like a muscle – it grows in response to the level of performance required of it. Either you use it or you lose it. That’s why I’ve given you 63 ways to grow your confidence so that you can become a giant. Learning is a Good Thing, so sign up for that evening class and enjoy it.Get out of your own head by asking your partner or best friend what you can do for them today.Hit the gym. The physiological effects will leave you feeling great.Go to a networking event and focus on how you can be helpful to other people rather than being nervous about your own stuff.Get crystal clear on the things that truly matter to you. Read full content
Build Self Confidence Self confidence is the difference between feeling unstoppable and feeling scared out of your wits. Your perception of yourself has an enormous impact on how others perceive you. Perception is reality — the more self confidence you have, the more likely it is you’ll succeed. Although many of the factors affecting self confidence are beyond your control, there are a number of things you can consciously do to build self confidence. By using these 10 strategies you can get the mental edge you need to reach your potential. 1. Although clothes don’t make the man, they certainly affect the way he feels about himself. This doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot on clothes. 2. One of the easiest ways to tell how a person feels about herself is to examine her walk. 3. Similarly, the way a person carries herself tells a story. 4. One of the best ways to build confidence is listening to a motivational speech. 5. When you focus too much on what you want, the mind creates reasons why you can’t have it.
The Top 10 Psychology Studies of 2010 The end of 2010 fast approaches, and I'm thrilled to have been asked by the editors of Psychology Today to write about the Top 10 psychology studies of the year. I've focused on studies that I personally feel stand out, not only as examples of great science, but even more importantly, as examples of how the science of psychology can improve our lives. Each study has a clear "take home" message, offering the reader an insight or a simple strategy they can use to reach their goals , strengthen their relationships, make better decisions, or become happier. If you extract the wisdom from these ten studies and apply them in your own life, 2011 just might be a very good year. 1) How to Break Bad Habits If you are trying to stop smoking , swearing, or chewing your nails, you have probably tried the strategy of distracting yourself - taking your mind off whatever it is you are trying not to do - to break the habit. J. 2) How to Make Everything Seem Easier J. 3) How To Manage Your Time Better M. J.
Learned Helplessness The Misconception: If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can do to escape it. The Truth: If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in. In 1965, a scientist named Martin Seligman started shocking dogs. He was trying to expand on the research of Pavlov – the guy who could make dogs salivate when they heard a bell ring. After they were conditioned, he put these dogs in a big box with a little fence dividing it into two halves. You are just like these dogs. If, over the course of your life, you have experienced crushing defeat or pummeling abuse or loss of control, you learn over time there is no escape, and if escape is offered, you will not act – you become a nihilist who trusts futility above optimism. Studies of the clinically depressed show that when they fail they often just give in to defeat and stop trying. Do you vote? You are not so smart, but you are smarter than dogs and rats. Links:
The Double Life of Women Step into any bar or party and it won't take you long to spot her. She's the woman with the ringing laugh, the daring clothes, the magnetic appeal that has drawn a circle of admirers around her. If the room were a solar system, she would be the sun—and at the outer reaches, you notice, are several other women seated quietly in her shadow. Why does this woman command all the attention? Psychologists, image experts, and dating advisers propose a host of explanations: It's her extraverted personality, her come-hither look, her approachable persona. Not long ago, such an explanation would have been intellectual heresy. Over the past decade, evolutionary biologists and psychologists have uncovered abundant evidence that women do, in fact, provide clues to the timing of ovulation, the moment when an egg is released and ready to be fertilized. Take, for example, women's preferences in male partners.