How to Reclaim Your Attention

Zen Habits

Thursday, 11 March 2010 08:16

  1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can't be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless.
  2. Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on.
  3. Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out.
  4. Give up on news. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.
  5. Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto.
  6. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you?
  7. Become conscious of your distractions. Once you've decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up.
  8. Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.
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Framing Changes Everything

Lite Mind

Thursday, 11 March 2010 08:11

If framing has such an impact in how we decide and solve problems, what is the "correct way" of framing a problem? How can we protect ourselves from our biases? Here are four ideas.

  1. Try multiple different perspectives. Never accept the initial framing without at least some thought — whether it was formulated by you or by someone else. Try different perspectives and look for distortions in thinking. 
  2. Make all-encompassing and neutral statements. To avoid the biases of posing your problem as losses or gains, state the problem in a neutral way — one that combines both positive and negative perspectives. 
  3. Invert the situation. Take your problem, invert it and see how you feel about it.
  4. Detach yourself from it. Acknowledge and express your emotions but don't let them cloud your vision.
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6 Ways To Keep The Fire In You Burning

Pick The Brain

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 08:15

  1. Assess Your Life. The first step that you need to do is to take a look at your life. More often than not, people who are bored and unhappy do not really know the things that are beautiful and precious in their lives.
  2. Set Goals. Set goals so that you have something to look forward to in the future.
  3. Be More Positive. One sure way that can bring your motivation down is by thinking negatively. Positivity moves you forward.
  4. Count Your Blessings. Envy is something that can really put anyone down.
  5. Find a Hobby. Doing the same things over and over again can really make people bored.
  6. Don't Be Afraid to Change. Lastly, do not be afraid to change. Simply trying a new route to the office or eating at a new restaurant can help perk up your otherwise boring life. 
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7 Killer Learning Hacks to Ace Your Next Exam

Life Optimizer

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 08:03

  1. Analogies and Metaphors. Whenever you learn a fact, ask yourself what the idea is similar to. You can learn abstract processes by creating metaphors for more common events.
  2. Mental Pictures. Have you ever tried to visualize a mathematical formula? Instead of just memorizing rules, I created a mental picture of my hands scooping through the diagonals, adding and removing the numbers etc
  3. Dig a Foundation. Do you ever get surprised how easy early subjects appear, once you advance in them. Advance above your level.
  4. Become the Teacher. Try switching roles: how would you explain what you're learning to someone else?
  5. Stop Taking Rigid Notes. Write down ideas in branches and connections. Add your own thoughts, diagrams and arrows linking ideas so you have a web of information.
  6. Diagram. Remember when your teacher told you to stop doodling in class? Well recent research suggests that drawing can actually increase your concentration.
  7. Pegging. Mental magicians actually use this tactic to memorize any number. The tactic is a bit complicated for a brief article, but the basic idea is to attach each digit to a specific consonant. So 1 = s, 2 = k and 6 = r. The next step is to put these consonants together. So 16578 becomes s, r, d, l, p etc learn here.
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5 Ways To Travel More With Less

Zen Habits

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 07:58

  1. Start Local. First try changing your mindset. The purpose of travel is to see new things and experience new cultures. Many people think that in order to see things they've never seen before they need to travel far afield but that's not true. 
  2. Accommodation. Think outside the box. Cheap sleeps include camping and house swapping.
  3. Food. Who needs fancy restaurants? Take a couple of plastic plates, bowls and beakers with you and buy a picnic knife. Get food locally.
  4. Sight-Seeing. Some of the best things have no entry charge and there are plenty of lesser known attractions which may be free or low cost etc
  5. Relax. This is my top tip. Too often a vacation or travel becomes a check list of things to do. Promise yourself that you'll stop trying to tick things off just for the sake of it.
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