<ul><li>The optimal arrival time accounts for several different, sometimes competing considerations.</li><li>If you arrive at the stated start time, chances are that you will be the first one there.</li><li>You want to arrive just as the party’s gaining real momentum.</li><li>When we go to a party, we all run our own little calculations to try to identify this golden moment.</li></ul>

When to Arrive at A Party

The optimal arrival time accounts for several different, sometimes competing considerations: If you’re the first one there, it can be a little awkward.If you show up long after everyone else, you might miss the best parts or risk rudeness. <ul><li>Most likely, you want to arrive just as the party’s gaining real momentum, a Goldilocks window of time that’s neither early nor late.</li><li>For low-key parties with friends and food, the ideal time to show up can be 38 minutes after the start time.</li><li>30 minutes would be too early, and 45 minutes too late!</li></ul>

The 38 Minute Rule

Part of it has to do with a fundamental tension between what's called "clock time" and "event time"<ul><li>Clock Time: The specific time on the watch.</li><li>Event time: a more fluid framework that follows our social rhythms</li></ul>

Clock Time Vs Event Time

<ul><li>Parties are supposed to be conceptual and experiential opposites to business meetings or classes.</li><li>Unlike many other events, parties don't feel like they start at a single, clearly delineated moment-there's no starting gun or curtain-raising.</li><li>The real party doesn't begin until the number of guests crosses a certain threshold- this is subjective, hard to define and sometimes difficult to identify.</li></ul>

A Fluid Start

We made an interactive calculator—with help from a mathematician—that bypasses the confusion about what “fashionably late” means and tells you definitively when to arrive.

Stashed ideas

A Mathematical Formula for the Right Time to Show Up at a Party

Agile ways of working originated in IT, proving their worth in technology and software companies. In the past decade, agile practices have spread to other sectors, resulting in enterprise-wide agility in banking, retail, healthcare, and insurance (see sidebar, “Organizations are on the move”). Here, we look at heavy industries: oil, gas, mining, chemicals, and utilities. Agile working can make these <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-impact-of-agility-how-to-shape-your-organization-to-compete">organizations faster, more efficient, and more resilient</a>.

The Agile Model Of Working

Agile approaches have long been shown to work well when the product or process weighs little or nothing, such as in banking, technology, and insurance. Agile thinking is being adopted by different players in energy and heavy industries, evidenced by advanced-analytics cases and the experience (and working practices) of frontline workers. But still, to date, while aware of the benefits of agility, traditionally heavy-industry organizations have been slower to adopt agile ways of working across their entire organization.

Agile Working For Other Sectors

Enterprise agility cuts across the organization, digital and nondigital. We see impactful examples of agility in, for instance, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/digging-deep-for-organizational-innovation">procurement</a> or continuous improvement, or analytics. Agile practices give autonomy to cross-functional teams (outside any digital initiatives) in any part of the organization; it can accelerate improvement programs of any sort that create business value. Heavy industries are highly technical, so they benefit even more from a model that focuses on effective cross-discipline working and bringing in a minimum-viable product (MVP) mindset.

Myth 1: The Value of Agile Working is limited to IT/Tech, Software, and Digital Products

Agile ways of working and thinking can apply not only to changes in equipment design but also to measurement and analytics. In a collaborative effort involving people inside and outside the organization, virtual “go and sees” were conducted with leading global mining companies and agile squads were institutionalized to drive change management. Advanced analytics were then used to deploy ten predictive models and two linear optimization models in an agile manner to achieve cost savings of approximately $3.5 million.

Seeing Is Believing

Any process run by people can be improved upon and can benefit from an agile approach of fast learning and high levels of ownership and accountability in teams. This applies across core run activities, such as production delivery or maintenance planning and execution. Introducing and maintaining agile working is worth not only the initial push but also the longer-term effort. At first, the language of agile can indeed be a block, but each organization already has its own terms of art (one might say jargon), and the language of agile working can match those terms.

Myth 2: Agile Working is Unsuitable for Regular Activities And Difficult to Introduce

Lean and agile ways of working complement each other, and the magic is in the combined recipe from both. In reality, both systems have been successful across a range of environments, and both share a similar set of foundational objectives: <ul><li>Transparently connect strategy and goals to give teams meaningful purpose; </li><li>Discover better ways of working to continually learn and improve; </li><li>Deliver value efficiently for a customer; </li><li>Enable people to contribute and lead to their fullest potential.</li></ul>

Myth 3: Agile and Lean are Different or Exactly the Same. Can they work together?

Lean organizations identify and eliminate activity that is not valued by the customer or end user. This systematic analysis of processes and value streams can reduce waste, variability, and inflexibility; it boosts performance in cost control, product quality, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement—often simultaneously. Lean thinking represents a mindset of continuous improvement and flexible working in which all employees contribute new ideas; the organization becomes better over time. Freed from non-value-generating tasks, people can focus more on what matters to customers.

What Lean Organizations Do

When run together, lean processes bring the holistic view and basic principles, while agile processes bring the ﬂexibility of short-cycle implementations (sprints) for continuous improvement. The lean approach tends to be more applicable to continuous improvements, providing directions or outside-in solutions to the value stream as part of the daily operational routine. The agile approach can bring the alignment and transparency of objectives to combine the expertise from the shop ﬂoor with short-cycle improvements.

Lean Plus Agile

Heavy industries have to manage multiple time horizons; that is, everything from problems solved over decades to problems solved in minutes. So while they have long capital planning, building, and maintenance cycles, they also have imminent demands. As agility combines dynamism with stability, a backbone of the right processes in governance, coordination, and transparency can exist alongside agile practices in planning, executing, and interacting with customers and suppliers.

Myth 4: Agile Working is Too Short Term to Add Value to Operations

Within each stage gate, agile thinking can accelerate and clarify a process; so within a design or planning cycle, an agile approach can shorten decision times and—by being inherently flexible—address and overcome delays.

Agile Works In Multiple Time Horizons

Safety is critical. Agile’s emphasis on transparency, ownership and reduced handovers is especially important and relevant. Successful efforts here engage employees and build a strong safety culture, which has always been—and should continue to be—at the heart of asset-heavy companies. Combined with greater empowerment, that culture could forge real safety ownership in the front line, led by strong role modelling from top management down.

Myth 5: Safety-Oriented Cultures Cannot ‘Test and Learn’

At the team level, where safety practice and culture is played out, an agile mindset means a continuous cycle of team learning and adaptation (learn fast) while managing risks effectively.   Any set of decisions can be made more transparent and more linear by an agile approach: decisions can be attached to a given point in time so that a series of small decisions becomes clear; these can be implemented in short learning cycles, reducing risks, correcting mistakes, and increasing the chance of success.

Working With Agility And Safety

Five agility myths in energy and heavy industries

In a time not so long ago or far away, eating family dinner, connecting with your spouse after tucking the children into bed or talking with your children in the in-between times like the ride to school was just routine.
But times have changed. Our growing cultural mindset is that we’re too busy to connect with those closest to us, even though we collectively want to. Parents and children alike increasingly invest their downtime in phones and on social media and there’s a general sense that there’s always more. More to read, more to reply to and more to see.

Family Time

Because of this pressure to always consume more, it can feel wasteful to slow down to appreciate the people in front of us, for fear of missing out on life happening elsewhere.
Although it’s true that we can always consume more information, it’s not true that slowing down and taking time to connect — particularly face-to-face — is a waste of time.

Appreciating Those We Are With

Making time for social connections can reduce the chances of depression and anxiety caused by loneliness. And those connections can have broader benefits as well.here are a few simple ways to integrate face-to-face interaction into your family’s lifestyle.

Face To Face Interaction

Eating together as a family requires intentional effort, but most families can manage it at least a few times through the week. The intention, however, starts at the top.
You may want to reassess the timing of extracurricular activities to see if you can align your schedules to allow everyone to have a seat at the table.

Eating Together

To get the full benefit of those meals, keep away the phones and turn off the TV. You may want to have a basket for everyone to put their phones in, on silent, before the meal starts. 
The goal is to not just eat but to get a sense of what’s going on in everyone’s lives, and to get the gist of their emotional state.

No Phones Policy

Another important opportunity to reconnect with each other is winding down together before bed. You probably know that using electronic devices in the hour before bed makes it harder to fall and stay asleep. So you can improve your physical health and the health of your relationships by using that time to connect with your spouse instead.
It’s a good idea to set your phone to “do not disturb” mode so you rest peacefully. This tech-free before sleep ritual gives you the opportunity to pay attention to your spouse and to stay emotionally attuned to how he or she is feeling.

Wind down together

The best opportunity for face-to-face, meaningful connection is to invite your family members into whatever you’re already doing. 
Ask your kids to help you cook. Invite your spouse to walk the dog with you, and turn it into an evening ritual. Or suggest they join you on that evening errand to the Supermarket. Connection develops and strengthens in the little day-to-day moments.

Live life together

We get it, we’re all busy. But real, meaningful relationships thrive when they’re face-to-face. Here’s how to make time for them.

How to Make Time With Family and Loved Ones Count

A full charge of the battery does not mean it does not have any more battery cells that can be charged. 
The Lithium ions inside the lithium cobalt oxide layer are designed by manufacturers so that only half of it is used, to ensure repeat charging and discharging for maximum cycles

Battery Myths Busted: Full Charging

Charging the phone while it is in aeroplane mode is indeed slightly faster, as all battery-hogging services like Bluetooth, cellular data, phone signal and Wi-Fi are off. The difference is minuscule, though.

Battery Myths Busted: Airplane Mode Charging

The phone wastes a lot of battery power trying to find Wi-Fi services and connect with them when Wi-Fi is kept on in the background. It is a good idea to keep them off if possible and also reduce the screen brightness while you are at it.

Battery Myths Busted: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth On

An unofficial charger can be a bad choice for your premium phone as off-brand chargers may not meet the safety standards and could damage the battery.The charger that came with the phone is your best bet.

Battery Myths Busted: Unofficial Chargers

Charging from the laptop is convenient and while the charging is slow, it is actually good for battery life as It puts less strain on the lithium ions. Fast chargers save some time but may not be great for the phone battery.

Battery Myths Busted: Charging Through Your Laptop

There is no need to switch off the device to save the battery.Modern batteries are designed to read their own level of charge at any time, accurately. If the device isn’t being used, the battery strain is minimal.

Battery Myths Busted: Switching Device Off To Save Battery

Cold weather does not adversely affect the battery, and actually makes it perform well. Exposure to hot weather for prolonged periods is what reduces battery life.The phone may feel slightly slower in cold weather, and it is nothing to worry about. Just keep in mind that batteries hate the heat!

Battery Myths Busted: Cold And Hot Weather

Often the device charger is plugged in and kept on without any device. It is thought to waste energy, but the reality is that any modern charger with a brick attached to it has power-saving measures that keep the wire in standby mode, drawing very little energy. Even while in use, today’s chargers are optimized to use minimum energy.

Battery Myths Busted: Charger Plugged In With No Device

We often think a complete discharge followed by a complete charge would be good for the battery. The truth is that charging when the battery level is at 50 percent will provide the least amount of strain to the battery.Keeping the battery charge between 20 to 80 percent is the best way to keep your battery working for as long as possible.

Battery Myths Busted: Discharging To Zero

Placing the phone on an overnight charge is generally safe in modern devices, but it is not good news for your battery as it is at maximum strain when at 0 and 100 percent.The battery limits set by the manufacturer will keep it on standby mode at 100 percent with the power being cut off, only to be refilled when it goes slightly down.

Battery Myths Busted: Charging To 100 Percent

A new battery can give your old phone a few more years of life, and most phone batteries can be replaced at home. Phone makers don’t want you to know this and prefer you keep buying newer devices from them every one or two years.

Battery Myths Busted: A New Battery

Yes, keeping your phone on charge overnight is bad news for its battery. And no, you don’t need to turn off your device to give the battery a break. Here’s why

Here’s the truth behind the biggest battery myths

We all know someone who just can't be on time. They had to finish one more email or got stuck on a call with a friend, or completely lost track of time.
There are several potential contributing factors to tardiness.

Always late

<ul><li>Some people think that the less conscientious tend to run late, but research doesn't back that up.</li><li>Some think optimistic people might not consider potential delays. Again, little research to confirm this.</li><li>Being time urgent is a characteristic of people with type A personalities, meaning they have a constant desire to fit more into less time. But research suggests they may be more on time.</li></ul> Studies show that those who check the clock more often tend to be on time.

It's not a personality thing

The problem could be poor time management skills. They're not good at estimating how long tasks will take or may get caught up in the moment. If you are always late by the same amount of time, you likely have some fear of downtime. As a result, you may feel like you have to fill every minute with something useful so that you won't sit around waiting.

Poor management skills

Some people have an underlying feeling that their time is more important than everyone else's. Politicians or businesspeople may exert their authority by keeping others waiting. However, most people don't realise that their delay has this effect on others. They think the struggle to be on time is common. Still, lateness can come off as inconsiderate.

Keeping others waiting

When you're late, you're rushing, your brain is multitasking, trying to pick between what you have time for and what you must do faster. <ul><li>Your body might go into a fight-or-flight mode, releasing the stress hormone cortisol. If you do that to yourself repeatedly, it may create a lot of wear and tear on your body.</li><li>When you're late, you're apologising and feel like you have to make up for it. It can affect your self-confidence.</li><li>The guilt and negative feelings can prevent you from enjoying yourself, and you may feel out of sync with everyone else.</li></ul>

Being late repeatedly can be stressful

<ul><li>Aim to get to places 10 to 15 minutes early, rather than on time. Plan to do something concrete while you are waiting, such as deleting junk emails or reading a book.</li><li>Plan and practice exist strategies from conversations or last-minute tasks.</li><li>Use your cell phone alarm to remind you when to leave the house, or when to get up from the desk to be on time for a meeting.</li><li>Time yourself to see how long you really take to get ready.</li><li>Multi-task less.</li><li>Check the clock regularly - it is your friend.</li></ul>

How to be on time

Figure out what’s at the heart of your tardiness, and use one of these strategies to work on it.

Why you’re always running late — and how not to be

<ul>
<li>The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved in forming, organizing, and storing memories. It is a limbic system structure that is particularly important in forming new memories and connecting emotions and senses, such as smell and sound, to memories. </li>
<li>The hippocampus is a horseshoe shaped structure, with an arching band of nerve fibers (fornix) connecting the hippocampal structures in the left and right brain hemispheres. </li>
<li>The hippocampus is found in the brain's temporal lobes and acts as a memory indexer by sending memories out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere for long-term storage and retrieving them when necessary.</li>
</ul>

The hippocampus: an overview

The hippocampus is the main structure of the hippocampal formation, which is composed of two gyri (brain folds) and the subiculum. The two gyri, the dentate gyrus and Ammon's horn (cornu ammonis), form interlocking connections with one another. The dentate gyrus is folded and nestled within the hippocampal sulcus (brain indentation). 
Neurogenesis (new neuron formation) in the adult brain occurs in the dentate gyrus, which receives input from other brain areas and aids in new memory formation, learning, and spacial memory.

Anatomy of the hippocampus

The hippocampus is involved in several functions of the body including:
<ul>
<li>Consolidation of New Memories</li>
<li>Emotional Responses</li>
<li>Navigation</li>
<li>Spatial Orientation.</li>
</ul>

Functions of the hippocampus

<ul>
<li>Forebrain - encompasses the cerebral cortex and brain lobes.</li>
<li>Midbrain - connects the forebrain to the hindbrain.</li>
<li>Hindbrain - regulates autonomic functions and coordinates movement.</li>
</ul>

Divisions of the brain

The hippocampus, a limbic system structure, is the part of the brain that is involved in memory formation, memory organization, and memory storing.

Health

Do You Have Stellar Memory? It May Be Your Hippocampus

A particular neuronal circuit between the two regions of the brain: the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, is found to be responsible for alerting us when a particular threat has been eliminated.
The many neurological circuits between these two areas of the brain are the reason we experience and are able to regulate our fear response.

How Our Brain Purges Bad Memories

<ul>
<li>We all have a fear memory, where we feel scared of remembering a tragic event from the past.</li>
<li>The brain has the ability to make new neuronal connections and remove older ones.</li>
<li>The new findings on how the brain eliminates bad memories open up opportunities to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) and other anxiety-related issues.</li>
</ul>

Our Fear Memory

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

How the Brain Purges Bad Memories

Snacks keep us over till the next meal. Balanced snacks and meals at consistent times during the day keep your blood sugar stable and keep you from overeating.
Healthy snacking include protein, fibre, and other nutrients that will keep your blood sugar in an optimal range. In contrast, low blood sugar causes exhaustion and makes you crave sugary or fatty foods.

Snacks are part of a healthy diet

Establish a regular eating schedule and stay with it. For example, breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at noon, a snack around 3 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m.
The biggest health benefit to eating at regular times is appetite regulation. Your body will adjust to the pattern within a week and you will become hungry at expected times. It will help you to recognise when you are really hungry or just desire to eat because of boredom or stress.

Eat meals and snacks at regular times

Eating three meals doesn't work for everyone. Some people like to graze. They may crunch on veggies and dip, potato chips, cheese with cracker, chips and salsa, or rice crackers and hummus.
A snack should match your nutritional need. Higher-calorie snacks give energy, while lower-calorie choices with more fibre and protein help to feel full and satisfied.

How nutritionists snack

Snacks can be seen as fuel that helps to keep your energy up until mealtime.
<ul>
<li>Before a workout, nutritionists eat things like peanut butter and jelly toast, a banana and peanut butter, yoghurt, frozen berries and flax seeds or cereal.</li>
<li>During long exercising sessions, nutritionists eat bars that include protein, carbohydrates and sugar, or bananas.</li>
</ul>

How nutritionists fit snacks into their workouts

Parents can provide six meal opportunities: three meals, with two to three snacks.
Kids that graze all day may not learn to listen to their hunger and fullness signals. However, with designated snack time, kids are often more willing to eat what they need or stick with healthier options.

Snacking for kids

If you want to eat some snacks right now, consider if you're just thirsty. It is not uncommon to confuse hunger with thirst.
Reach for a glass of water or a can of seltzer before grabbing a snack. You may discover that you were not really hungry.

You might just be thirsty

Nutrition experts share what they eat, how often and when for optimal health.

What's Better: 3 Square Meals Or Snacking Throughout The Day?

<ul>
<li>We can improve every aspect of our lives by keeping our most vital organ, our brain, healthy.</li>
<li>Exercise is not only good for your body but helps your brain by enhancing many brain structures and functions like the emotion regulating amygdala, and also the prefrontal cortex.</li>
</ul>

Keeping Your Brain Healthy

Drinking tea is good for the brain, helping regulate the age-related decline. It also strengthens the brain connections, the neural network inside the brain, making information processing more efficient.
Even coffee is said to be good to ward off the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Tea and Brain Health

Anything that is bad for the heart is bad for the brain, including smoking cigarettes, or having a sedentary lifestyle, or having diabetes.
Your blood sugar, body mass index, diet and blood pressure all contribute to the health of your heart, and your brain.

Better Heart = Better Brain

We consume a lot of disposable information every day. Reading the news, or social media, makes our brains overloaded with irrelevant stuff we don’t need.
This also includes past memories that are no longer serving us. Too much information clouds your judgement and decision making.

Forget Useless Information

Consuming low levels of alcohol is associated with a lesser risk of dementia. The key is ‘low dose’. Heavy drinking leads to cognitive decline.
If your alcohol intake is well within limits and occasional, it will improve overall brain health.

Drinking A Bit

Running, jogging and aerobic exercises also help the brain. If you can’t take out time to exercise, a simple walk will do.
Exercise is far better for the brain than sitting and solving brain games, which, according to new research, doesn’t help as much as previously thought.

Walk For Your Brain Health

Keeping your brain healthy will improve every aspect of your life. Thankfully, there are things you can do on a daily basis that are good for your brain.

Scientists reveal 5 daily activities to boost brain health

<ol><li>Commit to the long-term process.</li><li>Don't treat exercise as something to do when it's convenient. </li><li>Great results come from great focus, not a great variety.</li><li>Start light and train for volume before intensity.</li><li> Make SLOW progress each week.</li><li>Record your workouts. What gets measured, gets managed.</li></ol>

The basics to succeed in the gym:

<ul><li>The goal is not to lose 40 pounds in the next 12 weeks, but to regain your health for the rest of your life.</li><li>The goal is not to bench press 300 pounds, but to be the guy who never misses a workout.</li><li>The goal is not to sacrifice everything to get your fastest time in next month's race, but to be faster next year than you are today.</li></ul>

Don't focus on the short-term results

People often waste time in the gym bouncing around without any real goal, doing a little bit of this machine and a little bit of that machine. The simple rule that will always guide you toward the best exercises: the more an exercise makes you move, the bigger the benefits it will deliver.

Focus on the best exercises

The biggest mistake that most people make is not building a foundation of strength. Build the capacity to do the work before you start testing your limits. Volume doesn't have to mean “do sets of 20 reps". You can think of volume over a period of weeks and months.

Workouts should be easy in the beginning

Success in the gym, as with most things in life, comes down to mastering the basics. With that in mind, here are 6 exercise tips, weightlifting basics, the best exercises to start with, and training essentials that nobody wants to believe, but everyone should follow. Take these ideas to heart and you'll reap major benefits.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Alexandra
@alexandrak

A Mathematical Formula for the Right Time to Show Up at a Party

Five agility myths in energy and heavy industries

How to Make Time With Family and Loved Ones Count

Here’s the truth behind the biggest battery myths

Why you’re always running late — and how not to be

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Alexandra @alexandrak

A Mathematical Formula for the Right Time to Show Up at a Party

Five agility myths in energy and heavy industries

How to Make Time With Family and Loved Ones Count

Here’s the truth behind the biggest battery myths

Why you’re always running late — and how not to be

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Alexandra
@alexandrak