James Clear is an author and productivity expert who uses behavioral science to help nearly half a million newsletter subscribers optimize their habits. Nir Eyal is a tech entrepreneur, Stanford University educator and the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. The two recently sat down to discuss how to put technology in its place, build a better work culture and supercharge your daily productivity. Source Nir: You’ve done a lot of work on how to change behaviors within a workplace environment. How do we prioritize properly, and how do you change productivity by developing good habits? James: So there’s a story. It’s 1918 or so, and the CEO of Bethlehem Steel, one of […]
If there’s one wellness trend that stands out from the last couple of years, it’s mindfulness. Not only is it wildly popular, with a legion of dedicated fans across the globe, but it has also become a billion-pound business. Source: Independent So can taking time out of your day to concentrate on yourself really help to increase your health and happiness? The NHS says yes. According to its website: “Paying more attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you – can not only help improve mental wellbeing … but can help help you enjoy life and understand yourself better.” Thanks to the boom, there […]
Meditation is a form of mental exercise that has become a popular US health practice. Regular practice of meditation is reported to produce changes in mental state and resting electroencephalogram patterns that persist beyond the time-period of active practice. Source: Business Insider Neuroscientist Sara Lazar found that people who practiced meditation had more gray matter in the part of the brain linked to decision-making and working memory: the frontal cortex. While most people see their cortexes shrink as they age, 50-year-old meditators in the study had the same amount of gray matter as those half their age. Participants in the study averaged about 27 minutes of the habit a […]
It’s normal to feel stressed at work from time to time. But for some people, the stress becomes all-consuming, leading to exhaustion, cynicism and hatred towards your job. This is known as burnout. Burnout used to be classified as a problem related to life management, but last week the World Health Organisation re-labelled the syndrome as an “occupational phenomenon” to better reflect that burnout is a work-based syndrome caused by chronic stress. Source: World Economic Forum The newly listed dimensions of burnout are: Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job Reduced professional efficacy (work performance). In the era […]
What if there was a way you could easily expand your mind and see greater possibilities in life? What if you could develop better skills naturally? When people think of having a positive attitude, they probably think it’s little more than plastering a smile on their face and trying to think happy thoughts. But it’s more than that. Source A positive attitude is something that goes deeper and has an effect beyond surface cheer. Negative attitudes promote fear, and a narrowing of focus and the mind, while positive attitudes do the opposite. No one should live in a constant state of “fight or flight”, but negative attitudes create exactly that […]
Improve your focus, productivity, and health with this simple office fix Source: Inc Ever feel completely drained after a flight, long car ride, or just a day of sitting at a desk? Even though you were just sitting for a long time, you felt exhausted. There are so many negative side effects to simply sitting for extended periods of time. Yet, Americans sit for on average 8 hours a day, with most of these hours being at work. Sitting for such a long time can negatively affect your health, side effects include: Weight gain Poor blood circulation Heart disease Weakened muscles Diabetes Posture problems Chronic Back and neck pain Anxiety and Depression Sitting for […]
Do you spend much time sitting in front of a computer, on a plane, in a car? If so your hips may be locked up which effects your ability to dance, but worse than that it may be causing you undue stress and fear. Source Taking Time to Unlock the ‘Muscle of the Soul’ The Psoas Muscle, is a long muscle located on the side of the lumbar region of the vertebral column and brim of the pelvis, that is also known as the “muscle of the soul”. It is one of the largest muscles in the body and it is a place where we often store stress or trauma that can literally influence our […]
If you’re no stranger to natural living, you’ve probably already read a recommendation or two about using essential oil diffusers to improve your health, increase your energy, or to help you sleep better. The fact is, these handy little devices are great for all of those things and more. Source 1. Relaxation and Sleep One of the best and most well-known uses for essential oils is their ability to help you unwind at the end of a hard day. While there are several other methods for getting your soothing oils from the bottle into your blood stream where they start to work their magic, the diffuser is by far the easiest and […]
A third of the brain’s volume is comprised of blood vessels. Maintaining a healthy blood flow to those blood vessels is critical to keep the brain young. Here are three ways you can keep your mind sharp: Source: CNN Exercise Research has shown exercise improves brain health, and it’s never too early or too late to begin. Even moderate exercise has been shown to increase memory, mental processing speed and the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for forming new memories, even in previously sedentary adults. Simply walking three times a week has been shown to produce significant gains in memory and mental processing speed. Feel […]
Do you tend to forget things when you’re stressed? Like when you’re late for a meeting and can’t remember where you left your car keys? Or when you have to give a big presentation and suddenly forget all your talking points seconds before you start? Source: CNN There’s nothing like stress to make your memory go a little spotty. A 2010 study found that chronic stress reduces spatial memory: the memory that helps you recall locations and relate objects. Hence, your missing car keys. University of Iowa researchers recently found a connection between the stress hormone cortisol and short-term memory loss in older rats. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience this […]