Many of us have accumulated <a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/why-you-should-stop-feeling-bad-about-all-those-books-you-buy-dont-read.html">so many books</a> and articles and podcasts we want to consume that it is impossible to get through them all.A never-ending to read list is stressful. It also tends to lead to a lot of guilt-filled flailing between options."You can't keep up. There is no way. And trying to keep up will probably just make you dumber," cautions educator and author Kathy Sierra.

We Feel Overwhelmed

Some say we need to find better ways of mining the nuggets of gold from the internet's infinite pile of possibilities.Others disagree: "It isn't filter failure. It's filter success. In a world of infinite information, the better you get at sifting the wheat from the chaff, the more you end up crushed beneath an avalanche of wheat".As media critic Nicholas Carr has put it, you're not struggling to find a needle in a haystack. You're staring at a haystack's worth of needles.

Too Many Needles

This isn't just true of content. It's also true of things to learn, professional opportunities to pursue, people to meet, etc.Thanks in part to technology, we're now deluged by endless possibilities for how to spend our time, but this problem predates the internet.Feeling like there are more things you want to do than you have time for is an eternal human problem.Our lives are fundamentally time constrained. And no filter or trick is going to save you.

Memento Mori

The only way to deal with a too-many-needles problem is to confront the fact that it's insoluble - that you definitely won't be fitting everything in.You have to take a stab at deciding what matters most, among your various creative passions/life goals/responsibilities.And then do that, while acknowledging that you'll inevitably be neglecting many other things that matter too.

Acceptance is the Solution

Giving up on getting it all done is liberating."There's no point beating yourself up for failing to clear a backlog (of unread books, undone tasks, unrealized dreams) that it was always inherently unfeasible to clear in the first place," notes Burkeman.Face this difficult truth, however, and you'll both free yourself from the franticness and guilt of not getting everything done.

Liberation

No calendar hack or productivity app will help you if you don't accept this hard truth first. 

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

The Brutal Truth You Need to Accept If You Want to Stop Feeling Constantly Overwhelmed

Nobody edits us in our daily business conversations. It behooves us to have a keenly developed sense of how to clearly articulate our thoughts, craft a succinct message, and most importantly, craft it in a way that lands with impact.<ul><li>Some people are easy to follow, some harder.</li><li>Some deliver crisp messages. Some meander.</li><li>Some think succinctly. Some do not.</li></ul>It all depends on the circumstances, you may say. Yes, and yet there are some basic principles that will help us be more succinct.

We Make It Differently

Avoid multiple endings when you speak. Avoid the temptation to throw more than one message into a response. Your message is always more powerful when the listener knows that you’re done. Because you stopped.

When someone asks us a question, we feel an instant pressure to answer quickly.<ul><li>Because we “should” be able to answer the question.</li><li>Because we don’t wish the silence before the answer to be misunderstood.</li></ul>So we launch into an answer and make it up as we go along. Chance are, succinctness flies out the window.Pro Tip: Take a second or two before you speak to collect your thoughts and settle on a message. Period.

Think, then speak

When you start and keep talking trying to figure out what your message is, you are making me figure out what your message is alongside you.If we get lucky, you get clear quickly. If not, I get lost in the fog with you. You will exhaust me.Pro Tip: Start with clearly stating your message or point-of-view, then elaborate. It will help you to stay on point and me to "get" your point.

Don’t make me work hard

We want to offer more context. We want to dive into complexity and nuance. Resist.Make your point or answer the question simply, and if the other person longs for more information, s/he will jump in with a follow-up question based on the answer you provided.Pro Tip: 90% of all questions are easily answered with no more than 4-6 sentences.

Don’t tell everything you know

Develop a clear sense of when you’re done. Know when you have delivered a message and STOP.Keep it simple by reminding yourself to deliver one main message at a time when you speak, not multiple messages or mixed messages.Pro Tip: Avoid multiple endings when you speak. Avoid the temptation to throw more than one message into a response. Your message is always more powerful when the listener knows that you’re done. Because you stopped.

Please, stop

Here’s where the beauty of storytelling comes in. When it comes to storytelling, you get to be un-succinct.Know why you are telling the story, and then revel in some of the details of the story. Help us see, feel, sense and smell the place where your story takes place.Take your time. Transport us into the experience of being in the story with you. The sensual details will do the transporting. Your succinctness will not.

Don’t Wish to be Succinct? 

One thing about hosting a Podcast (I just launched one): I get to ask a lot of questions. And I listen to a lot of answers. Some guests are easy to

career

Career

writing

Reading & Writing

communication

Communication

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

The Gifts of Succinctness

Our brains are far from perfectly functioning recorders of our life events.Researchers have demonstrated just how easy it is to trick the mind into remembering something that didn’t happen.They also used two very simple techniques to reverse those false memories.

Memory is NOT a Recorder

The human memory system is fallible and malleable, so much so that it is possible—and even quite common—for people to possess false memories.Memory glitches can lead to all sorts of social implications, especially in the legal and forensic field.But now, for the first time ever, scientists have evidence showing they can reverse false memories!

Memory is Not Reliable

"When people describe a memory, they will say that they are ‘absolutely certain’ of it. But this certainty can be an illusion. We suffer from the illusion of believing that our memories are accurate and pure"

<ul><li>Short-term memory allows us to be present in the moment.</li><li>Long-term memory helps piece together our identity through the recollection of our past experiences, among other things.</li><li>The farther back we go, the more our recollection gets murky.</li><li>When you think back to your childhood, you are reconstructing your past while also being affected by who is asking, why, and how.</li></ul>

Short vs Long Term Memory

"As the field of memory research has developed, it’s become very clear that our memories are not ‘recordings’ of the past that can be played back but rather are reconstructions, closer to imaginings informed by seeds of true experiences"

"The same way that you can suggest false memories, you can reverse them by giving people a different framing"

Oeberst’s study is innovative in suggesting that it’s equally as easy to reverse false memories.Knowing the base truth isn’t even necessary to revert the fake recollections.Use these two techniques:<ol><li>Recall the exact source of the memory - what is leading you to remember this; what specific recollection do you, yourself, have?</li><li>False memory sensitization - tell yourself that being pressured to recall something can elicit false memories.</li></ol>

Study Proves Reversal is Easy

Takeaway is that every memory is a meta-memory, or an interpretation of a past time, one that can be impurified or purified by suggestions from the social environment. Simple awareness of this fact is crucial.

One Thing to Remember

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Scientists Implant and Then Reverse False Memories in People

The psychology testing website was dedicated to combing through data on its 150 million users to figure out what motivates people to share things.Here are 8 motivations that trigger sharing:<ol><li>Status</li><li>Identity</li><li>Being helpful</li><li>Safety</li><li>Order</li><li>Novelty</li><li>Validation</li><li>Voyeurism</li></ol>

8 Reasons Things Go Viral

Also known as belonging, prestige, respect, scarcity...People show it by associating themselves with other high-status people or by joining products that are exclusive.Access to something scarce motivates people to share because they can get high status from the people they share it with and it makes them look cool by association.Scarcity typically works more easily for things like discounts or tickets that are limited in number or time.

1. Status

This motivation is especially visible on social media, when sharing an outraged review or Facebook post helps them define what they stand against, and by implication what they stand for.People want to be part of the pack, and when they share, it is sometimes to either signal that they belong or help them find their tribe.Many products can <a href="https://www.nfx.com/post/15th-network-effect-tribal/">build tribal network effects</a>. Sharing about these products helps to recruit, signal membership, or to defend their tribe - and thus themselves - from others.

2. Identity

People are compelled to share things that they find useful because they want to be perceived as helpful and nurturing to their tribes.Whether that be a new product that improves lives by producing a lot of value or something that produces that value at a lower price.Language is important here. Make it easy to express the utility of your product in a clear, pithy, and compelling way.It’s the difference between saying "Access an online rideshare marketplace" and "Get a ride in 3 minutes."

3. Being Helpful

Any perceived threat to safety - physical, financial, or emotion - can be a powerful reason why people share.News media know this well: "If it bleeds, it leads."Products that offer safety or security are shared because of the same emotions. Users share with their friends and family to help protect them from dangers.Related to safety is compliance — people are highly motivated to prevent harm and maintain stability.

4. Safety

Some people just cannot abide chaos and will share anything that promises to make the world a bit more <a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/3-ways-marie-kondo-can-help-you-get-more-done-at-work.html">neat and tidy</a>.People share them not only because it makes others perceive them as more organized and efficient, but also because it helps them bring other people into the same protocol of organization - whether it be co-workers or friends and acquaintances.Tools like Notion and Asana have benefited from a need to evangelize orderliness and drive mess from the world.

5. Order

The attraction of novelty was identified early on by Wilhelm Wundt who came up with the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dictionary.apa.org/wundt-curve&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1612561753655000&usg=AOvVaw0W0aCEXU15Ljx6vJD6vlgN">Wundt curve</a>.The sweet spot is in the middle - we're attracted by things that are new enough to not be stale, but not too new to be strange.Thus, people are motivated to share new products and new information because it makes them look like they’re ahead of the (Wundt) curve.Competition makes entertainment virality difficult to catch. It’s very hit or miss and then fleeting even when you do hit.

6. Novelty

People share because they want to get a boost, believe they are good, believe they’re smart, or believe they’re worthy. They want to feel positive about themselves and their place in the world.If you can reassure them of this and offer a way to project their essentially goodness to the world without seeming like annoying braggarts, you will do quite well.

7. Validation

There are two related motivations that cause people to share out of voyeurism.Vicarious enjoyment. People share things that allow others to live through them - instagramming food and vacations or sharing a product unboxing on YouTube.Schadenfreude. People are highly motivated to share things like celebrity scandals, gossip about high-profile people or people they don’t like.It’s two sides of the same coin. Voyeurism is a powerful motivation in why people share.

8. Voyeurism

James Currier is making public the "8 Motivation Clusters" that cause people to share—to help Founders engineer virality into their products.

Why People Share: The Psychology Behind "Going Viral"

1. Doers cultivate their curiosity<a href="http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_curious_people_have_better_relationships?utm_source=Greater+Good+Science+Center&utm_campaign=694ab4495d-GG_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5ae73e326e-694ab4495d-50942075" target="_self">C</a>urious people have better relationships, connect better, and enjoy socializing more. In fact, other people are more easily attracted and feel socially closer to individuals that display curiosity.2. Doers empower those they leadGood leaders set themselves apart by responding daily to the challenges facing their people and doing whatever it takes to protect employees or the business.3. Doers delegate their weaknessesType of mindset required to build your own success is: Learn to delegate better. If your responsibilities have outgrown your capacity to handle them, delegate. Good if you have team around.4. Doers focus on the things that matter the mostFocusing on what is essential for you and block out distracting ideas, information, and opinions. The question to always ask is: "Is this important right now?"

4 Choices in Life that Separate Doers from Dreamers

Practice the simple habits that have helped Gates become the world's fourth-richest person.

Bill Gates: 4 Choices in Life Separate the Doers From the Dreamers

Education often isn’t so much about learning useful job skills, but about people showing off, or “signaling.”Employees often signal through continuous professional education (CPE) credits so that they can make a case for a promotion.

Learning for the Wrong Reasons

People learn best when they have to learn. Applying what’s learned to real-world situations strengthens one’s focus and determination to learn.Today’s employees often learn uniform topics, on schedule, and at a time when it bears little immediate relevance to their role — thus learning suffers as a result.

Learning at the wrong time

Want to see eyes glaze over quicker than you can finish this sentence? Mandate that busy employees attend a training session on “business writing skills”, or “conflict resolution”, or some other such course with little alignment to their needs.

Learning the wrong things

Like first year college students who forget 60% of what they learn in high school, studying merely to get the CPE credit suggests that employees, too, will quickly forget what they learn.German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus pioneered experimental studies of memory in the late 19th Century, culminating with his discovery of "The Forgetting Curve."He found that if new information isn’t applied, we’ll forget about 75% of it after just six days.

We quickly forget what we’ve learned

Our brains quickly forget what we don’t use. Incorporating new learning into your work is one way to retain knowledge.Another is spaced repetition. It refers to spreading learning out over time - material should be reviewed in gradually increasing intervals of roughly one day, two days, four days, eight days, and so on.Studies show that by using spaced repetition, we can remember about 80%of what we learn after 60 days — a significant improvement.

The Brutal Truth You Need to Accept If You Want to Stop Feeling Constantly Overwhelmed

The Gifts of Succinctness

Scientists Implant and Then Reverse False Memories in People

Why People Share: The Psychology Behind "Going Viral"

Bill Gates: 4 Choices in Life Separate the Doers From the Dreamers

Denis Rasulev