habits
Fix
Crush Virtual Cigarettes To Increase Chances Of Quitting
2:30AM Sarah Rae Trover | When it comes to quitting addictions, it’s not only a physical battle, but a mental one as well. Researchers are trying to help smokers who want to kick the habit, and they’ve turned to virtual cigarette crushing to do it—and apparently it’s helping a lot. More »
Work
Morning Types Crash Faster Than Night Owls, Study Says
8:30AM Azadeh Ensha | The early bird may get the worm, but there’s something to be said about burning the midnight oil. In fact, according to a new study, staying up later and longer may increase alertness and productivity more than being an early riser. More »
Work
Peak Performance Times For Morning People And Night Owls
3:30AM Azadeh Ensha | If asked, odds are most of you already identify as either a morning person or night owl. A new study says these classifications can be used to help determine optimal times when each group should perform their day-to-day activities. More »
Organise
Track Your Morning Rituals To Streamline Your Routine
3:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | If your mornings seems to get away from you, it’s time to take stock in where the time is going and make sure the routine you have is a realistic one. Photo by wanfauzan. More »
Organise
Use The Day Grid Balancer To Recalibrate Your Work-Life Balance
11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Balancing work, family life, personal time and more can be quite a tricky task compared to simply managing your time and tasks in the workplace. Use this handy worksheet to work on your life balance. More »
Organise
How To Maintain Less-than-Daily Habits
9:00AM Adam Pash | Incorporating a new habit into your routine can be difficult, especially if it’s not an everyday activity, so personal development blogger Steve Pavlina offers several tips for maintaining that new habit. For example: Suppose you want to exercise 5 days a week, and you really want to keep those off days. Instead of doing your regular exercise, you could schedule an an alternative activity for the same time. Instead of doing your usual workout, you could use your off days to go for a walk, read, meditate, write in your journal, etc. Pavlina also suggests making appointments out of your habits to ensure that it’s got a serious placeholder in your daily schedule. Got your own method of making a new habit work? Let’s hear it in the comments. How to Maintain Not-Quite-Daily Habits [Steve Pavlina] More »
New Habits Expand Our Minds—Literally
8:00AM Adam Pash | Developing new habits can jumpstart our creativity and even help us grow new brain cells, reports the New York Times. Research by authors Dawna Markova and M. J. Ryan suggests that stretching—but not stressing—yourself can develop your mind and creative skills. “Getting into the stretch zone is good for you,” Ms. Ryan says [...] “It helps keep your brain healthy. It turns out that unless we continue to learn new things, which challenges our brains to create new pathways, they literally begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. Continuously stretching ourselves will even help us lose weight, according to one study. Researchers who asked folks to do something different every day—listen to a new radio station, for instance—found that they lost and kept off weight. No one is sure why, but scientists speculate that getting out of routines makes us more aware in general.” More »Master Any Field with Deliberate Practice
1:30AM Gina Trapani | Marketing VP Steve Rubel says that daily practice and research in any field over the span of several years can turn anyone into an expert, as long as you put in the effort. Anyone with just even a little bit of natural talent in a given domain can master it in about 10 years by methodically practicing the essence of their craft two hours daily (including weekends) and measuring their progress from one day to the next. This seems like an obvious piece of advice, but it’s not what anyone wants to hear when they ask “how can I get where you are?” There’s no magic potion—it’s just learning over time, consistently. Become an Expert with the Power of Deliberate Practice [Micro Persuasion] More »
Apply the 80/20 Rule to Your Diet
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | The 80/20 rule of economics can be applied to a lot of life’s dilemmas, but blogger Jodie Clements used the rule as one of her “10 Commandments” to help her drop 10 pounds and feel better overall. The 20 percent, in her case, applied to eating the foods she really wanted to enjoy: Eat healthy 80 percent of the time – the other 20 percent – eat whatever the hell you like (but not after 9pm). The whole point of eating well for the long term (your whole life) is knowing that you can also have whatever you want sometimes and that yes, a little bit of what you fancy really does do you good. So – how about eating healthy Monday to Friday and saving the fun for the weekend? Works for me. More »
