This Common Activity Is Reducing Your IQ, According To Research
ssing an hour of sleep turns a sixth grader's brain into that of a fourth grader. Via NurtureShock: The performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the gap between a normal fourth-grader and a normal sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly-sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. “A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development,” Sadeh…
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4 Scientific Steps To Facing Your Fears
his book The Courage Quotient: How Science Can Make You Braver, Robert Biswas-Diener shows how we can use science and research to be more brave. He explains that there are two factors to courage: Fear Willingness to act They can both go up or down. Courage = "Willingness to act" divided by "Fear." To increase bravery you must either: Reduce fear. Boost willingness to act. Do both of the above. What steps can we take in the moment to…
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Here’s The Best Time To Do Anything:
a Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon: A Guide to the Best Time to Buy This, Do That and Go There": Best time to have surgery: Morning (4x less likely to have complications in the morning than between 3-4PM) Best time to get a human being on the phone when calling a company's customer service line: As early as possible (lowest call volume) Best day of the week to eat dinner out: Tuesday (freshest food, no crowds) Best…
1 min read
What seven factors make companies more productive and employees happier?
a The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work: Our analyses of the 12,000 “event of the day” narratives we received, along with participants’ self-rated inner work lives on those days, revealed seven major catalysts that galvanize work on projects and inner work life... 1) Setting clear goals. People have better inner work lives when they know where their work is heading and why it matters... 2) Allowing autonomy. Setting clear goals can backfire…
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Yes, science shows creative people are more likely to be crazy
ction writers are 10 times more likely to be bipolar. In poets it's 40 times more likely. Via The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human: In studies of deceased writers— based on their letters, medical records, and published biographies— and in studies of talented living writers, mental illness is prevalent. For example, fiction writers are fully ten times more likely to be bipolar than the general population, and poets are an amazing forty times more likely to struggle with…
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Here’s Why Stupid People Don’t Realize They’re Stupid
know how skilled you are at something, you need to watch yourself, watch others and compare. If you don't have the experience (or the mental firepower) to do this effectively, your judgements won't be accurate. To oversimplify it a tad -- stupid people may be too stupid to realize they're stupid: Successful negotiation of everyday life would seem to require people to possess insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills. However, people tend to be blissfully unaware of their…
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Here’s How Persuasive You Are When You Swear
ry: This experiment examined the effects of judicious swearing on persuasion in a pro-attitudinal speech. Participants listened to one of three versions of a speech about lowering tuition that manipulated where the word “damn” appeared (beginning, end, or nowhere). The results showed that obscenity at the beginning or end of the speech significantly increased the persuasiveness of the speech and the perceived intensity of the speaker. Obscenity had no effect on speaker credibility. Source: "Indecent influence: The positive effects of…
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How do most people spend their time?
re here via the always interesting Derek Thompson. Join over 135,000 readers and get my free weekly email update here. Related posts: What 10 things should you do every day to improve your life? How To Make Your Life Better By Sending Five Simple Emails 4 Lifehacks From Ancient Philosophers That Will Make You Happier
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