8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating
“Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Phase 2: Find and Execute The alert carries an electrical charge that’s composed of two parts: first, a search query (which is needed to find the correct neurons for executing the task of writing), and second, a command (which tells the appropriate neuron what to do). Phase 3: Disengagement 1. 2. 3. 4.
10 Golden Lessons from Albert Einstein
Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving - Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was an amazing physicist. He figured out so many universal principles and equations that he was way ahead of his fellow scientists at any point of time. 1. Most people don’t try new things because of their fear of failure. 2. 30 years from now, you won’t possibly remember what chapters you had in your science book; you’d only remember what you learn on your way. 3. When you reflect on how far we humans have come from the prehistoric caves to mind-blowing technological advancements, you would feel the power of imagination. 4. Creativity and uniqueness often depends on how well you hide your sources. 5. If you think of all the top people in the world, they would have added something of value to the world. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Nikola Tesla's Best Productivity Tricks
17 Small Productivity Habits
The Mini-Habit The idea behind mini habits is that you can get to a larger habit if you start small, create simple goals, and aim for consistency. In his book Mini Habits: Small Habits, Bigger Results, Stephen Guise gives the example of “The One Pushup Challenge.” He was doing what a lot of us do. Feeling guilty about not working out, he tried to fit years worth of exercise into the first workout which created an all or nothing attitude (not to mention a focus on goals and not process.) Well, one day he decided to do the opposite. In Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less, author S. The core idea behind the mini-habits concept is that you can build a major habit by thinking small enough to get started. Habit-Stacking The purpose of habit-stacking is to create simple and repeatable routines (managed by a checklist). According to Scott there are 8 Elements of a habit-stacking routine. 17 Small Productivity Habits #1 Drink a Large Glass of Water #2. #3. #4. #5.
25 Killer Websites that Make You Cleverer
It’s easy to forget that we have access to a virtually limitless resource of information, i.e. the Internet. For a lot of us, this is even true at our fingertips, thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and an ever-increasing push for online greatness by tech engineers all over the world. As a result, there are countless websites out there that are geared to make you smarter and more brilliant for either a low or no cost. Here are just 25 killer websites that may just make you more clever than ever before. 1. This isn’t the first time I’ve recommended this language-teaching website (and app), and it certainly won’t be the last. 2. Have you ever wanted to pick up a subject you’re not well-versed in, but you didn’t have the money to invest in a college course? 3. Guitar is one of the few instruments out there that’s actually pretty easy to learn if you’re a little older, making it one of the most accessible instruments. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.
Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives
“If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve,” Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: “Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…” Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) — an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality.
To scan or not to scan, that is the question…
Starting on the road to a paperless lifestyle can be a little overwhelming. Of course, there are some tools that can help to make it easier. There are things you can do to better organize your digital documents. Once your documents are been scanned in, there are ways of securing and protecting your documents. And having a simple process for going paperless can be a big help. But suppose you have all of these things. Do I scan this or not? I tend to think in frameworks (an occupational hazard, I’m afraid) and when I got started going paperless and knew I was going to have to pick and choose the documents to be scanned, I tried to think about what documents were worth scanning and what documents were not. 1. Imagine a spectrum that runs the gamut of frequency of use for any given document. When you are considering scanning a document, consider how frequently you’ll actually use it in electronic format. I say rough guide because there are always exceptions. 2. Deciding what to scan
How To Waste Time Properly - Issue 7: Waste
Ever since Frederick Winslow Taylor timed the exact number of seconds that Bethlehem Steel workers took to push shovels into a load of iron ore and then draw them out, maximizing time efficiency has been a holy grail of the American workplace. But psychologists and neuroscientists are showing us the limits of this attitude: Wasting time, they say, can make you more creative. Even seemingly meaningless activities such as watching cat videos on YouTube may help you solve math problems. Brent Coker, who studies online behavior at the University of Melbourne in Australia, found that people who engage in “workplace Internet leisure browsing” are about 9 percent more productive than those who don’t. Schooler gave participants a series of “unusual uses tasks” (UUTs), which asked them to invent as many different uses as they could for a mundane object. People who engage in “workplace Internet leisure browsing” are about 9 percent more productive than those who don’t.
