Meticulous attention

• The Mind is not an enemy, which needs to be killed, but something to befriend.
• Creating a calm space inside us can help calm the monkey down. Like a toddler throwing tantrums, you need to calm down the surroundings and minimize activity to keep the noise down.
• Reducing distractions can help calm our Mind. We normally have a thousand things to check or look after throughout the day, be it email, notifications, etc. all of which keep the Monkey Mind jumping.
• We are rushing too fast, most of the day. We need to slow down, pause and get quieter in between our never-ending daily routine.

1. Meditate in the morning, starting with just 2 minutes.
2. Provide yourself intentional space for your focused activities, blocking the time slots.
3. Turn off as many distractions from your entire day, while turning on your awareness towards them.
4. Do not judge or condemn your mind, and keep witnessing what it is doing.
5. Slow down, relax your muscles, and take some deep breaths to calm yourself.
6. Take frequent short breaks, putting space between two activities.

... is how the brain changes (for better or worse) in response to repeated experience: the things we do often we become stronger at, and what we don't use fades away.

• Accept that you are going to procrastinate sometimes
• Disconnect from your smartphone. Otherwise, it will demand your attention subconsciously 
• Be mindful with your emotions when you catch yourself procrastinating
• Focus on one thing at a time, to avoid feeling overwhelmed
• Take breaks
• Celebrate your accomplishments.

A study conducted by the University of Copenhagen found that many people suffer from “Facebook envy”, with those who abstained from using the popular site reporting that they felt more satisfied with their lives. 

Becoming more conscious of the amount of time you spend scrolling through other people’s online profiles could help you focus more on yourself and boost your self-confidence.

It’s so important for us to be able to communicate and forge personal connections with one another. However, it can be hard to do so when we’re glued to rectangular screens, becoming more acquainted with our friends’ digital facades than their real-life personas.

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology that assessed 5,208 subjects found that overall, regular use of Facebook had a negative impact on an individual’s wellbeing. 

This behavior keeps you from dedicating your time to meaningful work. Replying to email may feel productive, but the truth is emails are rarely the most important thing on your to-do list.

So instead of keeping your inbox open all day, change your default behavior to working on emails in batches.

Real-time communication sets the expectation that you’re always available. And for many of us, our default behaviors support just that.

In order to change this behavior, you need to set expectations on response time. Mute specific channels, get rid of pop-ups, turn off mobile notifications, etc.

Means to focus on a few key words and ignore the rest of someone's communication. 

It often manifests as one gets distracted by external stimuli like random sounds or movements, and internal stimuli such as one's own thoughts and feelings.

Means to fully concentrate on what is being said rather than passively absorbing it. 

It's not just remembering the content of what was said, but using empathy and seeking to understand the complete message, including the emotional tones conveyed. It builds rapport, understanding and trust.

GYLIO is a way for students to approach their problems with juggling so many opportunities colleges offer, from sport and culture to volunteering and leadership.
A week to 'take a breath' and get things done is essential. The list will look different for everyone. When parts of your life that you are usually on top of begin to fall apart, it is time to take a day or week out and attend to the little things.

Having multiple tasks on your mind splits your attention and that can reduce overall performance. This is known as "attention residue."
While we can't eliminate distractions from our lives, we can create a "ready to resume list" and plan a return to the task.

It’s about paying attention to the present moment with awareness and without emotional reactivity.

It can be broken down into two major categories:

• Focused attention exercises cultivate your brain’s ability to focus on one single object, like one’s breath or walking.
• Open monitoring helps you learn to pay attention to what’s happening around you without becoming attached to it.  

• Make sure that you speak up when you have something important to say. 
• Take advantage of your ability to observe other people, the environment you’re in and the energy flow in the room.
• People will pay more attention to what you say when you do speak up.
• You probably have the ability to study things better and faster, so when you do say something make sure that it’s an eye-opener.
• People will trust you more and thus you’ll have access to more privileged information.

Most people keep planning, visualizing and imagining their future life as if they are watching some other person live it. That person is you. If you intentionally live each day, perfecting and maximising your vision of the future, instead of killing time or just living a bread and butter, day-to-day existence, you steer your life towards the direction you want.

We need to act like the person we wish to become, as we are what we do all day.

• Nutrition: We are what we eat, and having a good nutritious diet, full of green vegetables, nuts and seeds goes a long way. Avoid processed foods at any cost.
• Oxygen: or fresh air is a primary need of the brain. Any daily exercise routine is best for brain health.
• Information: The brain needs information to process, preferably high quality and diverse. Active learning, along with continuous mental challenges that get the cylinders firing is the way to nourish the brain and form connections. True learning reframes our entire mental model and helps the brain evolve.
• Love: What keeps us happy and healthy is good, loving relationships, and the care and touch of loved ones.

We spend all day staring at screens, read books on Kindles or iPads, and come home to relax by watching a movie or TV.

Digital technologies lump together the good with the bad.

As Cal Newport defines it, Digital minimalism is:

“A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”