Evie Gold

There was the Zoom quiz, of course: a staple of the first lockdown during which many of us combined video-conferencing technology and general knowledge in order to stay both vaguely sane and in touch with our friends. But also, TV quiz shows seem to have colonised greater chunks of the schedules.

There is an obvious practical element to this: the quiz show is filmed in a controlled and contained environment and was, therefore, from a logistical point of view, easier to bring back under pandemic conditions than drama.

The Eastern philosophy, which includes Zen, teaches us about desiring nothing and being attached to nothing or no one.

Being unattached to our pleasures, family and the good things in life was easy thousands of years ago, when there were few material possessions for the average person.

The dilemma is that by being actively unattached to anything, the person is attached to the belief and desire for non-attachment.

The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.

Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop—cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward—that ultimately allows you to create automatic habits.

The 1973 "An American Family" was the first reality show aired on PBS. *It offered an intimate examination of a single family alongside a powerful critique of American society.

The show was aired from January to March, but it was too realistic for a TV audience accustomed to sitcom perfection.

We normally have a tense, fidgety attitude towards whatever we are doing. We grasp and lean towards our tasks and exert ourselves unnecessarily, and even things that shouldn’t give us undue stress, end up being stressful.

Bruce Lee, the legendary martial artist whose brief existence on planet earth spawned a cult following due to a hidden aspect of his personality: A Zen Master in disguise. His insights on the nature of life made him stand out as a unique philosopher and an integrated individual.
Bruce Lee’s private letters, notes, poems and essays provide an inside view of his mind, and are available in the book Bruce Lee: Artist For Life. He wrote about self-awareness, self-esteem, and provides original insights on the oft-heard term: Resilience.

Names are easier to remember than numbers and technical terms. It is easier for the media to report on, and for people to pay attention to, than if a hurricane was named, for example, Hurrican Two.

• The names come in alphabetical order from a set of six lists.
• The names used in 2020 (Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, etc.) will come around again in 2026.
• The letters beginning with Q, U, X, Y, Z are omitted.
• If forecasters run out of the alphabet, they turn to the Greek alphabet.
• If a storm was particularly devastating, then those names are retired, such as Hurrican Andrew, Hugo, and Katrina.

• 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the entry' robot' into the language.
• In 1920, Czech writer Karel Čapek wrote a play, R.U.R., or Rossum's Universal Robots. R.U.R. refers to the name of a company devoted to making artificial people where they do the work humans prefer not to do. "You will be free and supreme: you will have no other task, no other work, no other cares than to perfect your own being…"
• In the play, the utopia doesn't last. In R.U.R.'s wake, the robots revolt, turn on their masters and slaughter everyone on the planet.

While monotonous work like making a report is tolerable with your favorite music playing in the background, any kind of creative work can be significantly impaired if it is accompanied by music.

Studies show that certain kinds of music may be ‘paired’ with your kind of work, like classical music which are stimulating and ‘positive’ or ‘happy’ can help us perform certain tasks which require ‘divergent’ or out-of-the-box thinking.

Identify The Problems and address them like a game

Designing the Basic Framework

1. Challenges - problems and challenges you face and habits you want to build.
2. Activities - tasks you need to perform to overcome your challenges and build new habits.
3. Rewards - points that will help you accomplish milestones and redeem rewards.
4. Variable Rewards - it is okay to just receive smaller rewards every once in a while.

Assign points every time you accomplish a goal.

Maintain a progress system to help you see your progress to reaching your goals and unlocking rewards.