Why do you read 1000 things about change and never change?
owing isn't doing. I post a lot of stuff about getting better at things. A common response to my posts is "I know that." Knowing is great for watching Jeopardy. It's not nearly as good for life. So why is learning about improvement so easy and actually improving so damn hard? Most any change that requires a lot of consistent mental effort is going to fail because you spend most of the day on autopilot. Via Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The…
5 minutes
10 Videos Guaranteed To Inspire You
bsp; 1) How to be happier Harvard professor Shawn Achor is the author of the wonderful book The Happiness Advantage. 2) Is it better to come in first... or third? Malcolm Gladwell is the author of the bestsellers Blink, Outliers and The Tipping Point. 3) Why do we lie? And why do we lie to ourselves? Great interview with Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves. 4) What’s it take to free…
2 minutes
Here’s The Secret To Efficient, Fast Teamwork
might be to forget about trying to be fast at all and to just focus on being smooth. A Formula One pit crew -- a group that depends on efficient, fast teamwork -- found that they weren't at top speed when they concentrated on speed. It was when they emphasized functioning smoothly as a group that they made their best times. Via Oliver Burkeman's wonderful The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking: Bosses are more frequently persuaded,…
1 min read
Why do life-threatening situations make some people more calm?
e heart rates of the best bomb disposal experts actually drop when they're in the danger zone. Why? Confidence. Via The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success: Back in the 1980s, Harvard researcher Stanley Rachman found something similar with bomb-disposal operatives. What, Rachman wanted to know, separated the men from the boys in this high-risk, high-wire profession? All bomb-disposal operatives are good. Otherwise they’d be dead. But what did the stars have that the…
2 minutes
Are puppies the secret to productivity?
iewing cute images improved performance on tasks that required carefulness," researchers concluded. Via Bodyodd: "Viewing cute images improved performance on tasks that required carefulness," researchers concluded. Earlier experiments found that people did a better job playing the game Operation after viewing photos of puppies and kittens. Researchers speculated that the cute images made subjects more attuned to being careful because baby animals suggest vulnerability... This means anyone who has to do work that requires careful attention, such as copyediting or accounting, could benefit. And: So go…
1 min read
6 things that will make you more productive:
u're only productive at work three days out of the week: 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). So how can you improve that? Make It Automatic The secret to getting more done is to make things automatic. Decisons exhaust you: The counterintuitive secret to getting things done is to make them more automatic, so they require…
5 minutes
How To Change Bad Habits Into Good Habits: 5 Steps From Research
onically, studies show saying "I'll never do that again" makes you even more likely to do that again. About 40% of the actions we perform in a day are habits. So we're on autopilot almost half the time. Let's round up the research on bad habits and good habits and learn the best way to turn one into the other. Awareness The first step is awareness. That cigarette doesn't magically appear in your mouth. Noticing yourself acting habitually is…
2 minutes
How To Optimize Your Daily Schedule
know how most people spend their time. What can research tell us about the best way to spend our time? Maybe you're a night owl. You don't want to get out of bed. There's a way to get out of that habit. And it's important because your mood in the morning affects your entire day. Is it Monday? Don't worry, it won't be as bad as you think. (On the other hand, Fridays aren't that great, either.) There are…
3 minutes
