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. On his desk next to his computer sat crunched Red Bulls, empty Gatorade bottles, some extra pocket change and scattered pieces of paper. 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 Phase 3: Disengagement While in this state, Mike then hears an email notification. The process repeats itself sequentially. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
30-Second Productivity Strategies Half a minute is all it takes to make each day more productive. 1. Take 30 seconds to set the stage for awesome success. Here's how: Before you start doing something, answer the question, "What can I do to make this awesome?" That's basically what Mike Williams of the David Allen Company (the Getting Things Done folks) asked me. When I started to interview him, he stopped me and said, "What would make this call wildly successful for you?" At first, it sounded cheesy. Keep in mind this applies just as much to your personal life, too. Don't just move blindly on to the next task. Answer that question, and whatever you do, you will do a lot better. 2. Unfortunately, all too often you forget what happened. Don't. Then you will remember what's important--and be able to act on what's important. 3. That's a shame, because meetings involve people--and that means there's a lot to think about ahead of time. Terrible meetings are all talk and no action. 4. Feeling stressed? 5. 6. 7.
5 More Unexpected Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder I wrote a post recently about ways that you can work smarter, not harder. As I worked through the list of techniques I’d collected, the post became so long that I had to split it in half. Here are even more suggestions to help you make your day more productive without putting in extra hours. 1. Limit your to-do list I’ve written about the history of the to-do list before, and how to write a great one. One way to do this is by choosing 1–3 Most Important Tasks (MITs). “Do your MITs first thing in the morning, either at home or when you first get to work. The rest of your to-do list can be filled up with minor tasks that you’d like to do, so long as you’ve prioritized 1–3 MITs. Plan the night before Another to-do list tip that can reduce work anxiety is to write out your to-do list the night before. Focus just on the present day My most recent and favorite change to my to-do list has been separating my “today” list from a master list of everything I need to get done. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Time Management Tips: How to Find the Right Mindset to Succeed With Time Management | The Best Time Management Tips For the past several years I have worked with time management techniques such as lists, prioritization, planning and so on. But it wasn’t until I adopted a Quadrant 2 mindset that I really started seeing results. The phrase “Quadrant 2” comes from Stephen Coveys book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People . 1. How to tackle the different tasks Each task needs to be tackled in a specific way, at a specific time and handled right. them the repercussions could be bad. tasks as you do when working in Quadrant 1 but without all the stress and pressure of the first quadrant. working on time management I want you to remember this mindset, use all the exercises we discuss to further increase the time you spend in Quadrant 2 and decrease the time you spend in the other Quadrants. on how to become efficient you should join The Time Management Expert Course. system that can save you over 2000 hours/year, time that can be put to better things, like living life! Need More Time In Your Life? Comments
Six Lazy Ways to Trick Your Brain Into Being Productive The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time - Tony Schwartz by Tony Schwartz | 8:53 AM March 14, 2012 Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work? It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time. What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour. I know this from my own experience. If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting: 1. 2. 3. It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. 1. 2. 3.
Stanford Literature Review What is it? A critical literature review is one of the most important activities in the process of research and is usually included as part of the introduction to a research report or thesis. The aim of a literature review is to show that the writer insightfully evaluated the existing published literature on a particular topic. A good literature review should do the following: Define the scope of the problem Place the current study in a historical perspective Show the relationship between previous research and the current research thesis Avoid unnecessary duplication Evaluate different research methodologies and emphasize key studies Compare and contrast different research findings on a topic while grouping together authors with similar conclusions and noting areas in which authors are in disagreement Report gaps in the previous research and how the current study can add to the literature in general Conclude by summarizing what the literature says How does one begin? C.
10 Laws of Productivity You might think that creatives as diverse as Internet entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, industrial design firm Studio 7.5, and bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami would have little in common. In fact, the tenets that guide how they – and exceptionally productive creatives across the board – make ideas happen are incredibly similar. Here are 10 laws of productivity we’ve consistently observed among serial idea executors: 1. A bias toward action is the most common trait we’ve found across the hundreds of creative professionals and entrepreneurs we’ve interviewed. 2. When our ideas are still in our head, we tend to think big, blue sky concepts. 3. Trial and error is an essential part of any creative’s life. To avoid ‘blue sky paralysis,’ pare your idea down to a small, immediately executable concept. 4. When working on in-depth projects, we generate lots of new ideas along the way. 5. 6. Part of being able to work on your project a little bit each day is carving out the time to do so. 7.
List of academic databases and search engines From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article contains a representative list of notable databases and search engines useful in an academic setting for finding and accessing articles in academic journals, institutional repositories, archives, or other collections of scientific and other articles. Databases and search engines differ substantially in terms of coverage and retrieval qualities.[1] Users need to account for qualities and limitations of databases and search engines, especially those searching systematically for records such as in systematic reviews or meta-analyses.[2] As the distinction between a database and a search engine is unclear for these complex document retrieval systems, see: the general list of search engines for all-purpose search engines that can be used for academic purposesthe article about bibliographic databases for information about databases giving bibliographic information about finding books and journal articles. Operating services[edit] [edit] [edit]
6 Things The Most Productive People Do Every Day Ever feel like you’re just not getting enough done? Know how many days per week you’re actually productive? About 3: People work an average of 45 hours a week; they consider about 17 of those hours to be unproductive (U.S.: 45 hours a week; 16 hours are considered unproductive). We could all be accomplishing a lot more — but then again, none of us wants to be a workaholic either. It’d be great to get tons done and have work/life balance. And who better to ask than Tim Ferriss, author of the international bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek? (Tim’s blog is here and his podcast is here.) Below are six tips Tim offered, the science behind why they work, and insight from the most productive people around. 1) Manage Your Mood Most productivity systems act like we’re robots — they forget the enormous power of feelings. If you start the day calm it’s easy to get the right things done and focus. Here’s Tim: I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. Research shows email:
Blended Learning Toolkit | The Four Elements of Physical Energy and How To Master Them I have a FitBit (glorified pedometer if I ever saw one), and since getting it, my exercise goal each day is to hit 5,000 steps. On work days, I generally hit 2,000-3,000 each day consistently, meaning I only need to take a walk around the block twice when I get home to meet my goal. Recently, due to winter, I mostly was just pacing back and forth in my apartment while watching Netflix. A process that could take me up to two hours to get those extra 5,000 steps in (it's a small apartment). I find that having a goal for step count rather than exercise is easier, because some days I just don't *feel* like exercising (like Saturdays, when I am running around doing errands), and typically on those days, I get a bunch of steps in anyways. I combine this method with Jerry Scienfeld's method of "Don't Break the Chain," which REALLY helps come Sunday when I'm not doing anything or going anywhere, and therefore really do need to concentrate to get my 5k steps in.
Understanding by Design Overview Understanding by Design, an excellent book by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, offers a powerful framework for designing courses through what they call “Backward Design.” It seems “backward” in that it starts from the opposite end of the planning process we typically go through to design courses—we usually start by thinking about how to teach our content. Backward Design, in contrast, leaves teaching activities until the end and starts with the desired results of that teaching. “Teaching is a means to an end. The Backward Design process proceeds in three phases, as follows: I. First, you establish your learning goals for the course. What should participants hear, read, view, explore or otherwise encounter? Answering each of these questions will help you determine the best content for your course,and create concrete, specific learning goals for your students. II. III. Resources Understanding by Design is available online and in the CFT library.
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