Is there an upside to attention deficit disorder?
makes you more creative. Via Imagine: How Creativity Works: Surprisingly, those students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) got significantly higher scores. White then measured levels of creative achievement in the real world, asking the students if they’d ever won prizes at juried art shows or been honored at science fairs. In every single domain, from drama to engineering, the students with ADHD had achieved more. Their attention deficit turned out to be a creative blessing. Join over…
1 min read
Will watching Shrek turn your kid into a creative genius?
ay, it won't turn your kid into Picasso but recent research says it has two things going for it. Green stimulates creativity: According to newly published research, innovative thinking seems to be stimulated by the color green. A research team led by University of Munich psychologist Stephanie Lichtenfeld reports the color of limes and leaves “has implications beyond aesthetics.” Specifically, a glimpse of green appears to activate “the type of pure, open (mental) processing required to do well on creativity…
2 minutes
5 Things You Need To Know Before Changing Jobs
insights with links to the research backing them up: You're not alone. Right now most people are unhappy with their jobs. A boring job can give you a heart attack. And people with no job are happier than people with a lousy one. If you're afraid of losing your job, you probably should be. Job insecurity can kill you. And you want to find a new job before you lose the one you have. When you start looking it…
1 min read
How can you quickly and easily make someone act more kind?
mic their behavior. I've posted a number of times before on the power of mimicry to influence others (here, here, here.) This study is interesting because it demonstrates that mimicry doesn't work by only building a bond between the two involved, it makes the person who is mimicked feel better and act nicer to everyone. Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in…
1 min read
Why do we daydream? Is it good for us?
u spend up to 8 minutes of every hour daydreaming. Your mind will probably wander for 13% of the time it takes you to read this post. Some of us spend 30-40% of our time daydreaming. Via The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You): Do you remember what the previous paragraph was about? It’s OK, I’m not offended. Chances are that your mind will wander for up to eight…
3 minutes
How To Increase Willpower: 10 Secrets From Research
me insights about willpower from research, with links to the studies: Practicing a little willpower every day increases self-control over time. For immediate results: tighten your muscles, sit up straight or cross your arms. Or just think about money. Get enough sleep and don't miss meals. More shut-eye will stop you from wasting time on the internet. Skipping breakfast can lead to murder. Context is key. Those around you exert more influence on your behavior than you think. Don't get cocky. Thinking…
1 min read
This Quality Determines Success Better Than IQ Does
lf-discipline. From Charles Duhigg's excellent book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business: At the core of that education is an intense focus on an all-important habit: willpower. Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success. In a 2005 study, for instance, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 164 eighth-grade students, measuring their IQs and other factors, including how much willpower the students demonstrated,…
1 min read
What can you learn about learning from Harvard med students?
acing out learning over time leads to drastically improved retention. Via Annie Murphy Paul at Time: In more than two dozen studies published over the past five years, he has demonstrated that spaced repetition works, increasing knowledge retention by up to 50 percent. And Kerfoot’s method is easily adapted by anyone who needs to learn and remember, not just those pursuing MDs. And there's an easy way to implement this technique: How can you learn like one of Kerfoot’s Harvard…
1 min read
