There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.

<ul>
<li>Vertical thinking is the traditional type of thinking where one moves forward by sequential steps and where each step must be justified.</li>
<li>Lateral thinking is the process of generating new ideas. It teaches you how to look at a problem from a different angle and challenge your thinking patterns to produce better ways of solving a problem.</li>
<li>Vertical thinking is very useful for analysing facts, numbers and data. Lateral thinking is useful to solve unique problems that require innovative thinking.</li>
</ul>

Vertical thinking vs lateral thinking

In the past, there was an exclusive emphasis on vertical thinking (logic or mathematics). Vertical thinking is linear, logical and produce the final solution from a series of accurate statements.  Vertical thinking is useful, but sometimes we need to think outside the box. When vertical thinking is not getting you anywhere, you should switch to lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is important when constructing strategies or challenging old ways of dealing with a problem.

The need for lateral thinking

<ul>
<li>Create alternatives: More choices create better solutions.</li>
<li>Question your assumptions.</li>
<li>Quotas: Generate ten ideas a day. The more you do this, the better you will become at it.</li>
<li>Analogies: Make connections between the current situation and a similar situation.</li>
<li>Fractionation: Break something down into its components, then rebuild it.</li>
<li>Random stimulation: Put yourself into new environments outside your comfort zone, such as a conversation with someone with different views or going to unfamiliar locations.</li>
<li>Identify the main point of a book, conversation, video.</li>
<li>Brainstorm.</li>
<li>Entertain unattractive ideas.</li>
</ul>

Train your lateral thinking

Brainstorming is very effective to solve a problem creatively. Sharing ideas in a constructive environment will likely lead to an innovative solution. <ul><li>Share ideas in a non-judgmental manner.</li><li>Highlight the dominating ideas and explore them further.</li></ul> Another method is the reversal technique. It's based on the idea that you can change your perspective when you change the order of the words or the question. For example, "the parents are educating their kids' or "the kids need to be educated by their parents".

Brainstorming and the reversal method

These hacks help you face a situation that “everybody knows” how to solve

books

Books

problemsolving

Problem Solving

teamwork

Teamwork

communication

Communication

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Think Outside The Box

Using lateral thinking for solving problems creatively

The first practical explanation of how creativity works, this results-oriented bestseller trains listeners to move beyond a "vertical" mode of thought to tap the potential of lateral thinking.

productivity

Productivity

philosophy

Philosophy

“This could be a very useful book for teachers and non-teachers alike. Dr. DeBono does not claim to be able to turn us all into Miltons, Davincis, and Einsteins…but his techniques provide an alternative to just sitting around waiting for the Muse to appear. The Muse never appears to most of us—hence the value of this book.”— David Cohen, Times Educational SupplementThe first practical explanation of how creativity works, this results-oriented bestseller trains listeners to move beyond a “vertical” mode of thought to tap the potential of lateral thinking“The underlying argument of the book is that there are two kinds of thinking—vertical and lateral. Most of us are educated to think vertically, to go from one logical step to the next, moving all the time towards the one correct solution of our problem. We are not usually educated to be creative, to generate idea after idea….“Dr. DeBono argues that the function of vertical, logical thinking is to argue what is wrong. It is a very useful way of thinking, but it is not the only useful way. To claim it is, is the sort of intellectual arrogance that makes creative thinking unlikely….

Edward De Bono is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Edward De Bono has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Edward De Bono's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Edward De Bono

Lateral Thinking

<ol><li>Focus on one realistic goal at a time</li><li>If you miss out on a day, get back on track as soon as possible</li><li>Keep going and Never Give Up, even if you don't feel like</li><li>Don't self-doubt until you achieve your goal</li><li>Track your improvements</li></ol>Consistency beats Hard work beats Talent

How to be Consistent

Water is a lot weaker than stone, but consistently flowing over, it can cut the stone. This is the power of consistency. These tips will help you become consistent in whatever you and improve.

My friend laughs at me whenever we walk into a restaurant because the waiter will walk over, smile, and ask, “Same same?” My productivity is predicated on consistency. If I break out of my routine…

habits

Habits

timemanagement

Time Management

How to Be Outrageously Consistent | 7 Tips to Be Consistently Consistent

The tasks you tackle at the very end of the day may play an outsize role in helping you unplug.Psychologically detaching from work is one of the best ways to reduce after-hours stress and all its harms, including burnout. This means not only refraining from performing job-related tasks, but also mentally disconnecting from the job during non-work time.

The importance of how you end your day

Your brain struggles to let go of unfinished business. Incomplete tasks have a unique ability to continue capturing attention.This is usually useful but can be problematic in the context of work-related stress and burnout. Many of our jobs force us to juggle a variety of tasks that take days, weeks, or months to complete.And all of these loose ends have the potential to distract us during leisure time.

The problem with unfinished tasks

Taking a few minutes at the very end of the day to map out how you’ll tackle any ongoing tasks or commitments is a great way to facilitate detachment.
Making a plan for where, when, and how the task will be completed seems to reduce the urgency in our brains that naturally presses for completing goals. In this case, a plan is a reasonable substitute for actually completing the goal.

Thinking about ongoing tasks

Knocking out simple, completable tasks at the end of the workday — and avoiding complicated ones — is another good way to psychologically disconnect.If you finish the day by tackling something complex and unfinishable, this creates “oose ends that have the potential to continue distracting us during leisure time. You’re better off working on these earlier in the day, and reserving the easy stuff for your final hour or two of work.

Finish the small tasks

Don’t make checking your inbox the last thing you do each day.
This is the opposite of detachment. If there is nothing to attend to in your inbox, checking email is a small waste of time. If there is something urgent, a new task has now been activated in your mind, which will press for completion.

Don't check your email

Betty White, who died New Year’s Eve at the age of 99, liked to drink a vodka on the rocks every night before dinner. According to the Financial Times, White often credited both her longevity and her…

career

Career

The Best Way to End Your Workday

<ol><li>Set an overall goal, and as many subgoals as are realistically feasible.</li><li>To find ways of measuring progress in terms of the goals choosen.</li><li>To keep concentrating on what one is doing and to keep making finer and finer distinctions in the challenges involved in the activity.</li><li>To develop the skills necessary to interact with the opportunities available.</li><li>To keep raising the stakes if the activity becomes boring.</li></ol>

Essential Steps To Experience Flow

These questions were answered with the Experience Sampling Method (ESM)<ul><li>When people are pursuing leisure activities that were expensive such as power boating, driving or watching television - they are significantly less happy.</li><li>People are happiest when they are talking to one another, when they gardened, knitted or are involved in a hobby.</li></ul>

Happiness Index: Material Resources Vs Investment In Oneself?

<ol><li>Yama: one must achieve restraint from acts and thoughts that might harm others.</li><li>Niyama: obedience, follow routines in cleanliness, study and obedience to God. Help channel attention into predictable patterns and hence make attention easier to control.</li><li>Asana: ways of sitting and holding postures for long periods without succumbing to strain or fatigue.</li><li>Pranayama: breath control, aims to relax the body and stabilizes the rhythm of breathing.</li><li>Pratyahara: Withdrawal, learning to withdraw attention from outward objects by directing the input of the senses.</li></ol>

Achieving Flow: 8 Different Stages Of Yoga

6. Dharana : holding on, is the ability to concentrate for long periods on a single stimulus and thus is the mirror image of the earlier stage of pratyahara.7. Dhyana: one learns to forget the self in uninterrupted concentration that no longer needs the external stimuli of the preceding phase.8. Samadhi : self collectedness, when the meditator and the object of meditation become as one.

<ul><li>Keeping order in mind from within is very difficult. </li><li>Person needs external goals, stimulation, feedback to keep attention directed. </li><li>When external input is lacking, attention begins to wander and thoughts become chaotic.</li></ul>

Why Is Loneliness A Negative Experience?

1. Unselfconscious self assurance: the recognition that one's goals may have to be subordinated to a greater entity.2. Focusing attention on the world: Concentrate on the internal disorder: but by paying attention to what is happening around oneself instead, the destructive effects of stress are lessened.3. Discovery of new solutions:a. Focus attention on the obstacles to achieving one's goals and then move them out of the way, thereby restoring harmony in consciousness.b. To discover whether alternative goals may not be more appropriate and thus find different solutions possible.

Why Some People Gain Strength From Stress?

THE BESTSELLING CLASSIC ON 'FLOW' – THE KEY TO UNLOCKING MEANING, CREATIVITY, PEAK PERFORMANCE, AND TRUE HAPPINESS Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives. "Explores a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity." —Time

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Science & Nature

“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . The manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.” —Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe bestselling classic that holds the key to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance, and true happiness. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow

While I spend a decent amount of time trying to memorize various things <a href="https://www.mickmel.com/some-tweaks-to-my-daily-learning/">using tools like Anki</a>, for the most part rote memorization is unnecessary. Learning systems and frameworks for understanding are vitally important, but for most everything else you can just look it up when you need it.

It’s an open book test

Similar to the “you won’t be carrying around a calculator in your pocket when you’re an adult” that many of us heard in school 20 years ago, they could have also said “you won’t be carrying around the entirely of the world’s knowledge in your pocket” and they’d have been wrong about that too.Of course, finding that knowledge can be tough as times, as the ability to use tools like Google is a skill. It’s a skill we can all learn, but it’s a skill nonetheless.

In your pocket

“In the real world, the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market.”

Learn to search efficiently, learn the frameworks that dominate your industry, then learn lessons along the way and you’ll find yourself doing very well.

While I spend a decent amount of time trying to memorize various things using tools like Anki, for the most part rote memorization is unnecessary. Learning systems and frameworks for understanding are vitally important, but for most everything else you can just look it up when you need it. Similar…

education

Learning & Education

It's an open book test

Scattered Focus is when you are trying to switch between tasks at a time, trying to multitask. Directed Focus means focusing on just one thing at a time.How to Avoid Scattered Focus?<ol><li>Remove all distractions</li><li>Use the Pomodoro technique and Take frequent breaks</li><li>Get proper sleep, Stay hydrated, and exercise</li><li>Start improving concentration even for as less as 5 minutes a day</li><li>Make a daily routine </li></ol>Our brain is extremely bad at switching between tasks. Concentration is like a muscle, the more you train it, the more it improves.

Why you can't Focus - And How to Fix that

You have a limited stock of energy, utilize it the right way and see the benefits. Focus on one thing and be the best at it, rather than focusing on a lot of things and never really achieving them.

The ability to focus is almost like a superpower, and the individuals who can focus get so much more done. There are many areas where you can benefit from better concentration, for example, school…

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Health

How to Fix Your Focus

Creating a plan for your morning the night before will help you actually follow through the next day and is one of the most important ways to make your mornings more productive. You can keep this note in your head, or jot it down on your phone, planner or even just a piece of paper before laying down for the night. Try incorporating something you enjoy into your morning plan. Perhaps that is treating yourself to your favorite new coffee blend, food (my favorite right now is overnight oats with protein powder) or time for a morning meditation.

1. A plan

The best way to activate your body’s natural alarm clock is to incorporate natural light into your morning routine. Sunlight activates your body’s circadian rhythm and tells your system it’s time to wake up. Once you set this biological process in motion it can be hard to roll it back, making it more likely you’ll actually get out of bed and get your morning started.You can leave a window open to allow natural light to stream into your room as the sun rises. Or, you can make an effort to venture outside to soak up some rays before starting with any difficult tasks.

2. Natural light

Over 40% of adults in the U.S. are vitamin D deficient. Natural sunlight is the best way to curb deficiencies, but a vitamin D supplement is also a good way to improve vitamin D levels, especially during the winter months or when you spend most of your day cooped up in an office.Vitamin D deficiency leads to fatigue, among a host of other side effects, which can negatively affect your productivity in the morning and the rest of the day. Taking Vitamin D, along with a daily dose of sunlight, is one way to help combat fatigue and become the best version of yourself in the morning

3. Vitamin D

Getting your blood flowing early in the morning is another way to physically tell your body it is time to wake up. Incorporating physical activity into your morning routine will help you feel alert more quickly. For some, a morning commute will do the trick. Try biking to work, or take the stairs instead of the elevator. These simple changes will get your day started and give you an early morning boost of energy.

4. A morning walk 

Consistency is the key to success. It’s especially true with your morning routine. Wake up at around the same time each day to condition your body to naturally wake up at that time. This can make waking up early less painful the longer you keep up the habit. Our circadian rhythm thrives off of consistency, so try to stay on track with your sleep schedule even on the weekends.

5. Consistency

Blue light is not good for your sleep cycle. Social media is usually not good for your productivity. Set your phone aside at least an hour before closing your eyes for bed. Instead, try reading a book, stretching or listening to a podcast. It also might be worth investing in some blue light glasses to help mitigate the harmful effects of the light from our devices. In the morning, try to resist the urge to instantly grab your phone and check your email. Give yourself space to ease your way into the day and ditch your phone for the first precious few moments.

6. Time to unplug

A good bedtime ritual is just as important as a morning routine and should go hand in hand with your resolution to have more productive mornings. I've met entrepreneurs who write down what they are grateful for in a journal just before bed. They claim this leads them think about those same things they're thankful for first thing in the morning when they wake. If that's not a welcome addition to a morning routine, then nothing is.

7. Sleep

If productivity is what you're after, then a little self-care will be the biggest step you can take to get more done and feel great while doing it.

7 Things to Add to Make Your Morning Routine More Productive in 2022

Working Backwards is a narration of the processes and work culture followed in Amazon. The authors strongly believe that the success of Amazon can be attributed to its work culture. If you get past the praises for Jeff Bezos, there are a few thought-provoking high-acheivers' processes in the book. For some, it might look like a handbook for running a factory of new ideas. Amazon has simply tried many ideas. Few of them are successful and that's good enough.

Introduction

Powerpoints convey too little information. The outcome of a presentation using Powerpoint depends completely on the skills of the presenter. Instead, write 6-page description of the idea being presented. The first few minutes of the meeting is devoted to reading the 6-pager. The idea needs to speak for itself rather than the presenter.

Ban PowerPoint

Do not try to control the output metrics. They are hard to control. Instead, work on the input metrics. The output metrics will reflect your work.

Focus On Input Metrics

Articulating a company's motto or core elements will tell its employees and stake holders what is important for the company. An employee working at any level in the company will be able to take decision autonomously if they know what the values are.

Articulate The Core Elements Of Company's Culture

Everyone is a leader in their own right. Everyone is making autonomous decisions everyday. Leadership principles ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction as a company.

Define A Set Of Leadership Principles

Working backwards is a good read. Talks in depth about the processes that make Amazon successful.

Working Backwards is a narration of the processes and work culture followed in Amazon. The authors strongly believe that the success of Amazon can be attributed…

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Working Backwards

Your attention determines:<ul><li>what you perceive, learn, and remember;</li><li>how steady or how reactive you feel;</li><li>which decisions you make and actions you take;</li><li>how you interact with others</li><li>your sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. </li></ul>No matter how much I tell you about how attention works and why, and no matter how motivated you are, the way your brain pays attention cannot be fundamentally altered by sheer force of will

<ul><li>Attention simultaneously highlights what’s important and dims distractions so we can think deeply, problem-solve, plan, prioritize, and innovate</li><li>It threads together the moment-by-moment colors, flavors, textures, insights, memories, emotions, decisions, and actions that create the fabric of our lives</li><li>What you pay attention to is your life</li></ul>

Attention Is Your Superpower

<ul><li>attention biases brain activity. It gives a competitive advantage to the information it selects. Whatever it is you pay attention to will have more neural activity associated with it. Your attention, quite literally, alters the functioning of your brain at the cellular level. It truly is a superpower.</li></ul>

(continue)

The Flashlight<ul><li>Where you focus to, that point become clearer. Other than that point, become suppressed. Like a flashlight</li><li>Called orienting system</li></ul>The Floodlight<ul><li>Opposite of flashlight, this subsystem is broad and open. Your attention is ready for any input within your vision</li><li>Called alerting system</li></ul>The Juggler <ul><li>To direct, oversee, and manage what we’re doing, moment to moment, as well as ensure that our actions are aligned with what we’re aiming to do </li><li>This is the overseer that makes sure we stay on track</li><li>Called central executive</li></ul>

3 Brain Subsystems 

<ul><li>Attention never vanishes, even though it might feel as if it does when you’re struggling to focus and simply can’t</li><li>The amount of attention you have remains constant. It just gets used differently, and maybe not how you want it to be used</li><li>You always use 100 percent of your attention. Attention always goes somewhere. So the question becomes: Where?</li></ul>

Load Theory: Attention Is Not A Gas Tank

Any tasks you do over a period of time:<ul><li>Performance declines</li><li>Errors goes up</li><li>Response becomes slower and more variable</li></ul>

The Vigilance Decrement

<ol><li>Get ready, sit in an upright alerted posture, shoulder back chest open and be comfortable.</li><li>Tune in to the breath related sensation, imagine the air entering your lung as you breathe in slowly, and exit your lung as you breathe out</li><li>Notice when your mind wander and focus back to the breathing exercises. It's normal to wander and always use constructive words when trying to refocus</li></ol>

Core Practice: Find Your Focus

<ul><li>When we try to do two things at once that both require our attention, it’s really hard to do either of them well</li><li>Think of it this way: You only have one flashlight. Not two. Not three. And your one flashlight can only ever be shining at one thing at a time</li><li>When you’re trying to accomplish multiple tasks at once that require your focused attention, what you’re actually doing is moving your flashlight from one thing, then to the next, then back to the first</li></ul>

Don't Multitask

To get a sense of what this means for your cognition, imagine a studio apartment. There is only one room. Every time you want to use the room, you have to completely change out the furniture. Want to sleep? Set up a bed and nightstand. Want to host a party? Take down the bedroom and set up couches and coffee tables. Need to cook? Drag that all away and set up a stove, counter, and cooking supplies. Sound exhausting? It is! And it’s the same for your cognition, when you switch from task to task.

Multitasking Metaphor

<ul><li>Working memory is where you hold the micro-intentions and deliberate aim of having a desired outcome for each and every task you engage in</li><li>All the decisions, planning, thinking, actions, and behaviors you do over the course of a day: anything you set out to do</li><li>You lean on your working memory to maintain your goals and subgoals, update them, and scrap them for a different goal, on a continuous, moment-by-moment, task-by-task basis.</li><li>Hold a goal in mind, and then take action based on that goal. That’s how working memory works, and also why it impacts you so profoundly</li></ul>

Working Memory

Working memory is the essential partner to attention: it’s what allows you to actually do something with the information your flashlight focuses on. But if attention keeps piping in salient and distracting content, that will become a big problem for goal maintenance, let alone goal accomplishment. Why? Because you only have so much space to work with. Just like a real-life whiteboard, your working memory has limits

Continue

The flashlight encodes information and maintains it in working memory, “retracing” it on the whiteboard to keep it there for longer. — Key vulnerability: Bait and SwitchWhen your attention is automatically “captured” or yanked by something salient, this more exciting (to your attention) content overwrites what was being maintained. Voluntary attention then starts retracing this new content. The prior information is lost forever, gone without a trace.

The Flashlight

The floodlight gains access to the whiteboard to accomplish an urgent goal. Under acute threat or stress, your alerting system temporarily blocks access to working memory to ensure that your brain’s action systems prioritize basic survival behaviors (fight, flight, freeze) over any other goals or plans. — Key vulnerability: Road BlockThe alerting system can be set off by feelings of threat, even when there is no real danger. This temporarily cuts off access to working memory and impairs any functions that rely on it (like long-term memory, social connection, and emotion regulation).

The Floodlight

The juggler keeps your current goals active on the whiteboard, and updates these goals as circumstances change. — Key vulnerability: Ball DropOverload, blanking, and distraction in working memory all derail the central executive’s juggler, leading to lost goals and misguided behaviors. The juggler drops the ball.

The Juggler

1. Repeat the previous steps. We begin the same way we did with the basic Find Your Flashlight (find where your thoughts focus on), by sitting in a chair, comfortable but upright, resting your hands in your lap, and closing or lowering your eyes (to limit visual distraction). Again, select prominent breath-related sensations. Remember the metaphor of your attention as a flashlight, the beam pointing toward your selected breath-related body sensation. When your flashlight drifts to something else . . .

CORE PRACTICE BOOSTER: WATCH YOUR WHITEBOARD

2. Notice where it goes. This is a new step! In the first exercise, I asked you to notice if attention wandered away, and if so to immediately move your flashlight back to your breath. This time, I want you to pause for a moment and observe where the flashlight is now directed.

3. Give it a label. Identify what type of distraction has appeared on your whiteboard. Is it a thought, an emotion, or a sensation? A thought could be a worry, a reminder, a memory, an idea, an item on your to-do list. An emotion could be a feeling of frustration, an urge to stop doing the practice and do something else, a twinge of happiness, a swell of stress. A sensation is something in your physical body: An itch. A sore muscle. Noticing that your back hurts from sitting there, or noticing something you heard, smelled, touched, or saw (such as a door slamming, food cooking, cat jumping).

4. Make this a quick process. Notice if you begin going down a rabbit hole of elaborating on the distraction, or asking why you are thinking about this particular topic, or defaulting to unsupportive habits like chastising yourself for getting distracted in the first place. It is not your job right now to answer these questions or reprimand yourself. Now is actually the time to notice what is on your whiteboard but not to engage with it. Just label the contents as best you can from these three categories: thought, emotion, sensation. And then . . .

5. Move on. Come back to the present moment, back to your breath, after every instance of labeling. If it’s a strong experience, it might pop up repeatedly—then just label it again.

6. Repeat. Each time you notice yourself mind-wandering, tag the content of your mind-wandering (as thought, emotion, or sensation) and then come back to your breath.

your memory for experiences, involves selective encoding of only those aspects of experience that were most attended to and held in working memory. Translation: you’ll only remember what you focused on and “wrote” on your whiteboard—not everything that occurred. And further, your episodic memory doesn’t merely involve the external aspects of events (who, what, where, and so forth) but is deeply wrapped up in your autobiographical take on what you experienced. So—was the experience happy? Sad? Interesting? Tense? Your emotional experience will influence what you focus on.

Episodic Memory

your general world knowledge, for facts, ideas, concepts—is similarly selective. What you remember is based on what else you’ve previously learned.

Semantic Memory

Do these three critical things:1. Rehearsalwhen you studied with flashcards, that was rehearsal2. Elaborationrelating new experiences or facts to knowledge or memories you already have3. ConsolidationThis is what happens as you’re performing the above two functions, and it ultimately leads to the memory being stored. As the brain replays information, it’s laying down new neural pathways and then going over them, strengthening those new connections

How To Make Memory

Certain things may become “sticky” on our whiteboards because of generalization. We can make generalizations about the behavior and intentions of others (“She never supports me”) or regarding ourselves (“I will never amount to anything”). An incident where you made a mistake becomes “I always get this stuff wrong—I’m such an idiot!” It’s not the incident itself that takes center stage on your whiteboard: it’s the generalization you derived from it. The oversimplified packaging allows it to remain in working memory with minimal effort: it’s short, it’s clear, and it probably isn’t accurate.

Get ready . . . This time, stand up! You can always sit if you prefer, in the same way as with the previous practices. But I usually recommend doing this practice in what is commonly known as Mountain Pose. Stand comfortably, your feet shoulder-distance apart. Let your arms relax at your sides, palms out. Close your eyes or lower your gaze.

CORE PRACTICE: RIVER OF THOUGHT (1)

Get set . . . Find your flashlight and direct it toward prominent breath-related sensations for several breaths. This is always where we’ll start with any practice. And at any point in this exercise if you feel yourself getting drawn away (for example, getting caught in a ruminative loop), you can always anchor back on the breath. Flashlight on the breath is your home base—return to it whenever necessary, and reset.

CORE PRACTICE: RIVER OF THOUGHT (2)

Go! Now broaden your awareness so that you are not selecting any target object. Instead, use the metaphor of your mind being like a river. You’re standing on the riverbank, watching the water flow by. Imagine your thoughts, memories, sensations, emotions—whatever arises—as if they are flowing past you. Notice what appears there, but don’t engage with it. Don’t fish it up, chase it, or elaborate on it. Just let it flow by.

CORE PRACTICE: RIVER OF THOUGHT (3)

Keep going. You’re not going to be actively “labeling” the stuff that you notice on your whiteboard, nor returning to your breath once you do. Your job right now is not to be making distinctions between which content is useful or relevant, and what’s mind wandering. You’re not even going to try to stop your mind from wandering. The river will keep flowing—there isn’t anything you can or need to do about that. This is the key to open monitoring: you allow your mind to do what it will do. Your job is simply to observe that flow, at a distance, without engagement or participation.

CORE PRACTICE: RIVER OF THOUGHT (4)

Troubleshooting. If you have difficulty letting things pass you by, come back to your breath. Imagine your breath sensations as a boulder in the middle of all that flowing water. Rest your attention on that stable, steady object; when you feel ready, broaden your attention again and go back to monitoring.

CORE PRACTICE: RIVER OF THOUGHT (5)

(1) Stop the inner war against the actual circumstances—just accept them. It is what it is. Let me be clear: this does not mean that you are “all good” with the situation. It has nothing to do with your judgement about the actual event. It just means that you are accepting the actuality of what has occurred.

Decenter - Skills To Control Your Emotions

(2) Drop the story—your assessment of this situation is merely one story. Not the only one.

(3) Roll with it—keep going, keep moving, get curious about what the next moment will bring.

Decenter - Skills To Control Your Emotion

During a difficult interaction, take a moment to pause. It can be the length of one breath. Or, before a difficult interaction, take a moment and picture this person. Then, remind yourself: “This person has experienced pain, just like me. This person has experienced loss, just like me. Joy, just like me. Was born from a mother, just like me; will die someday, just like me.” If these phrases don’t resonate with you, feel free to substitute with other phrases that emphasize the common humanity we share with others.

On-Demand Practice: “Just Like Me”

<ol><li>Begin this practice as you have the others, sitting comfortably yet alert. Anchor on your breath and focus on breath-related sensations.</li><li>Now shift to bringing a sense of yourself into your mind, at this very moment in your life.</li></ol>

CORE PRACTICE: CONNECTION PRACTICE

3. Silently repeat the following phrases to offer yourself well-wishes (three min). Remember: the point is to offer yourself well-wishes, not make requests or demands for them. Saying these phrases supports that: May I be happyMay I be healthyMay I be safeMay I live with easeThe phrases and their order are not important. Some people may say, May I be free from suffering instead of May I be safe. Others may wish to say, May I find peace instead of May I live with ease. The important thing is that you choose phrases that resonate with you and that convey a feeling of goodwill to the recipient.

4. Next, while allowing this sense of yourself to recede from your focus, call to mind someone who has been very good to you in this life, very kind and supportive, someone you might describe as a benefactor. Silently repeat the phrases below, offering them to this person: May you be happyMay you be healthyMay you be safeMay you live with ease

5. Now, letting your sense of this person recede, bring to mind the image of someone with whom you have no real connection and for whom your feelings are neutral. It could be someone you see now and again but don’t have strong feelings for, one way or another. Perhaps it’s a neighbor you pass while walking your dog, a parking lot attendant you see daily, or a grocery store clerk. Mentally offer them the phrases.

6. As a sense of this person recedes from your focus, next bring to mind an image of someone with whom things are challenging at this time in your life. This is often called a “difficult person” . Remember, you are not endorsing their view and are not necessarily even forgiving their actions in the past. You are simply offering kindness to them as a practice aimed at strengthening your ability to take another’s perspective, realizing that—like you—they too wish for happiness, health, safety, and ease. With this in mind, mentally offer them the phrases.

7. Now move on to everyone in your home, community, state or province, and country, and continue to expand outward until you include all beings everywhere. Spend a few moments visualizing each place (your home, your community), and then offer the phrases to everyone there.

8. Throughout this practice, notice when your mind wanders away from the chosen focus, and gently guide your attention back.

9. When you’re ready, spend a few moments anchoring on your breath to end the practice.

How to train your attention and be more productive

STOP FOR A MOMENT. Are you here right now? Is your focus on this page? Or is it roaming elsewhere, to the past or future, to a worry, to your to-do list, or to your phone? Whether you’re simply browsing, talking to friends, or trying to stay focused in an important meeting, you can’t seem to manage to hang on to your attention. No matter how hard you try, you’re somewhere else. The consequence is that you miss out on 50 percent of your life—including the most important moments. The good news: There’s nothing wrong with you—your brain isn’t broken. The human brain was built to be distractible. The even better news: You can train your brain to pay attention more effectively. Stay with me a little longer and soon you will be able to: Focus without all the struggle. Take back your attention from the pull of distraction. And function at your peak, for all that truly matters in your life.

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

***NATIONAL BESTSELLER***STOP FOR A MOMENT. Are you here right now? Is your focus on this page? Or is it roaming elsewhere, to the past or future, to a worry, to your to-do list, or to your phone?Whether you’re simply browsing, talking to friends, or trying to stay focused in an important meeting, you can’t seem to manage to hang on to your attention. No matter how hard you try, you’re somewhere else. The consequence is that you miss out on 50 percent of your life—including the most important moments.The good news: There’s nothing wrong with you—your brain isn’t broken. The human brain was built to be distractible.The even better news: You can train your brain to pay attention more effectively.Stay with me a little longer and soon you will be able to: <ul><li>Focus without all the struggle.</li><li>Take back your attention from the pull of distraction.</li><li>And function at your peak, for all that truly matters in your life.</li></ul>

Amishi P. Jha

Peak Mind

-Delete time consuming apps.-Set a timer for the other apps.-Switch off WiFi and data/set your phone on airplane mode/extra battery saver mode.-When you feel the urge to open a fun app wait 10 seconds instead and think about the actual utility of it. Is it really going to make me feel better? Or is it going to distract me from my goal?-Keep your phone in a different room as you.- Now Focus

Reduce Phone Usage

Get up, do some stretching, walk, go out on the balcony for 1 minute, wash your face, remind yourself why it's important to keep working, drink some water and Baaack to work again.You got this!

What To Do When You Get Tired

The clock is ticking and deadlines are getting closer. Why risking to mess things up? The earlier you finish the happier you'll be. Think about how amazing it'll feel to achieve your goals. Push yourself. See it as a mental workout.

Keep Your Goals In Mind

These ideas are the result of a midnight stream of consciousness induced by a strong will to finally shift direction in my life and to fight exam stress. We got this!

How to be more productive for exams

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