If you have something complex to say, you should always take the space to say it. But when your writing becomes unnecessary wordy and repetitive, your audience must figure out what you're saying instead of thinking about what you're saying. Writing something long is much easier and quicker than writing something shorter. Some strategies can help you write more effectively.

Extra words add up

Many workplace documents contain words that weigh it down, such as generally, basically, actually, kind of, really, virtually, totally, essentially, completely, practically, literally, and just. We may be so used to these words that it may sound odd without them. Consider if these words are essential to the meaning of your sentence. If not, cut them out.

Delete words that don’t add anything to your sentence

While we're figuring out what we think, we tend to say the same thing again in early drafts. To find overlapping sentences in your documents, try highlighting repetition as you edit.

Cut the overlap

When we draft a document, we're thinking about what we're doing, so we tell our readers what we're doing. However, your readers don't need to follow the journey. They need to know where you end up. Consider this sentence: "I will now offer you three steps we should take to improve our onboarding process". A better sentence is, "We should take three steps to improve our onboarding process."

Instead of telling us what you’re going to do in a sentence, just do it

It’s not the end of the world if you use an unnecessary word now and then, write the occasional overlapping sentence, or tell us what you’re doing in a sentence before you do it. But the extra words add up. In this article, the author offers advice for how to make your writing shorter and sharper.

Stashed ideas

How to Write Concisely

Humans have a deep-seated need for love and nurturance from their parents or other carers, and if this care is absent or unreliable, it can lead to long-term problems.Ultimately, your attachment style shapes how much you trust others, whether you fear abandonment, and whether you keep your distance from others - or push them away - to avoid intimacy.

Relationship Security: The Facts

Early life experiences with our key caregivers <a href="https://innovation.umn.edu/parent-child/">shape</a> our expectations – consciously and unconsciously – of what to expect from relationships throughout our lives. Unless you understand and seek to change your attachment style, you will likely continue to manage your current relationships based on the habits you learned in childhood from your earliest caregivers.Fortunately, by trying out new behaviours in relationships, and finding new coping behaviours when you’re feeling anxious or stressed, you can change your attachment style, enjoy better relationships, and lead a more fulfilling life.

Your Attachment Style Has Its Roots in Your Childhood

The first step in understanding why you behave the way you do in relationships is to identify your current attachment style. Select which of these four statements you feel best describes you:a) It is easy for me to become emotionally close to others.b) I want to be completely emotionally intimate with others, but I often find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like.c) I am comfortable without close emotional relationships. d) I am deeply uncomfortable getting close to others. I want emotionally close relationships, but I find it terrifying and chaotic to trust others.

Identify Your Current Attachment Style: Four Statements

Each of the four statements(In the previous stash) corresponds to one of the four main attachment styles recognised by psychologists. If you chose:(a) this suggests you have a secure style; (b) an anxious style; (c) an avoidant style;(d) a disorganised style. There is a secure attachment style, and there are three insecure styles: anxious, avoidant and disorganised. Key to them all is that you often expect to get treated based on how you got treated.

The Attachment Style Results

If you’re fortunate enough to have a secure attachment style, your primary caregivers were probably ‘good enough’  and you are well placed to enjoy healthy relationships in life.

The Secure Attachment Style

An anxious attachment style (sometimes called ‘preoccupied’ or ‘ambivalent’) is often due to inconsistent or intrusive parenting, or a <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-can-adults-undo-the-harm-of-being-parentified-as-children">blurring</a> of the boundaries between parent/caregiver and child, for example by exposing the child to inappropriately adult emotions and situations too early in life. If this is your attachment style, then as an adult you probably value closeness and connection but find yourself worrying about upsetting others or being rejected, and you might tend to assume the worst is happening in a relationship.

The Anxious Attachment Style

An avoidant attachment style (sometimes called ‘dismissive-avoidant’ or ‘fearful-avoidant’ depending on the accompanying behaviours) is linked to a caregiver’s consistent and repetitive rejection of the child’s emotional needs. If this was your experience, then as an adult you might find you always try to cope on your own. You probably reject the need for relationships or, if you are in them, you may find it difficult to become emotionally close, or place a lot of value on your partner’s looks.

The Avoidant Attachment Style

The disorganised style (sometimes called ‘disoriented’) – is best thought of as being trapped in, and responding to, a terrifying and incredibly confusing stay/go paradox, where the caregiver (and future potential friends or partners) are both the source of occasional comfort but, more often, the source of threat. This style is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02650533.2011.598228">linked</a> to serious abuse and neglect in childhood. If this was something you experienced, you might struggle with self-esteem and have perhaps found your subsequent relationships incredibly difficult because of the intense emotions you experience.

The Disorganized Attachment Style

Attachment is fundamentally a science of relationships. Yes, we want to know more about ourselves, but we also want to influence those we care about to feel emotionally safe in their relationship with us. So, once you feel like you understand your own attachment behaviours, start looking to those around you to more fully understand why they behave the way they do in their close relationships.

Examine The Attachment Style Of Others

Partners with a disorganised attachment style lack a coherent approach toward relationships. On the one hand, they want to love and be loved. But they are afraid to get close to anyone because they have a strong fear based on experience – that those closest to them are the most dangerous and will hurt them. Knowing that these partners want relationships, but fear them, can help you tolerate their lack of consistency and behaviours that, on the surface, look like they’re pushing you away.

Empathy For The Disorganized Partner

If you’re struggling to make the changes you want to make in your relationships and you keep making the same mistakes, take a beat and bring yourself back to this key point: you can learn to handle emotions differently; you can change your attachment style; and you can change your expectations about relationships. Attachment style is not destiny – it can change, and you can <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/per.2226?campaign=wolearlyview">choose</a> to change it.

Work Towards Changing Your Attachment Style

You might not need a lot of reassurance in a relationship – perhaps because you currently have a more avoidant style. You know your partner loves you, and they should know you love them, so why keep saying it? But perhaps they do need a bit more reassurance than you, and you’ve seen how this mismatch creates friction. So, rather than dismissing them as needy, have a think about why – from an attachment perspective – they might need a little more from you, and adjust your behaviour accordingly.

Practise Spotting Your Patterns of Behaviour in Relationships – and Their Consequences

If you’re anxious, ask for patience and tolerance from your partner, while at the same time committing to acting less from that anxious place. If your partner understands that you’re anxious, it might help them to know that it won’t help you to constantly reassure you that they love you; on the contrary, the route to attachment security is trust built over time.

Collaborate with Your Partner to Change Your Attachment Style

If you have an anxious attachment style, practise being direct and authentic with others, even though it feels hard. If you struggle to calm yourself without another person to help, there are many <a href="https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-find-the-mindfulness-practice-that-works-for-you">techniques</a> you can use that will help you to <a href="https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-calm-your-emotions-with-dialectical-behaviour-therapy">manage</a> any intense emotions that arise. If you’re more avoidant and struggle to connect with others, challenge yourself to stay present in disagreements and seek to understand the person opposite, rather than running away.

Keep Practising New Ways of Engaging with Others

It goes something like this: (a) notice when you’re on autopilot – for instance, lapsing into needy or avoidant behaviours; (b) pause to reflect; (c) do something different; (d) notice the results; and, if they were positive, (e) apply what you’ve learned in future situations.You can also apply these principles for changing your attachment style beyond romantic relationships: to friendships, family relationships and work relationships.

Create a Virtuous Circle (ideally in Collaboration with Your Partner/friends)

Too clingy – or too scared to commit? Your attachment style is rooted in your childhood, but you can change it

How to be more secure in your relationships | Psyche Guides

There really isn't one definition of what it means to be a curator, and it's even more undefined in the NFT space.However, curators must possess a few core attributes that are Important in developing great art and having a wider audience appreciate that great art.

The Role of Curation and Art NFTs

<ul><li>Curators identify new talent and work with that talent to foster creativity and develop career objectives</li><li>Provide portfolio reviews, advocate for artists' work, and lend needed support throughout the artistic journey</li><li>In the context of crypto art, curators can usher artists into the space by helping them to understand how they can maximize their creativity</li></ul>

A Curator Works with Artists

<ul><li>Curators also curate art by thoughtfully organizing and arranging works and collections in a way that tells a story</li><li>This can include not only organizing exhibitions and shows but writing about artists, trends, and movements</li><li>They teach a broader audience how to appreciate art and help them understand why that art is important</li></ul>

Curators Curate

<ul><li>Meet the collector, and seek to understand their goals</li><li>Keep up on artists and art movements so they can better inform buyers</li><li>Educate them on the technology of the space, helping them to properly set up asset storage</li></ul>

Curators are Advisors to Collectors

<ul><li>Curators will know every inch of this new landscape, and be able to lead both artists and collectors through this relatively unknown world, providing education and direction along the way.</li><li>They help make art accessible, both to collectors through education and contextualization and to artists by breaking down the barriers to creation.</li></ul>

Curators are Guides in the NFT World

In a New York Times article dissecting the overuse of the term "curator," critic and historian Hans-Ulrich Obrist defines the role as "a catalyst, generator and motivator - a sparring partner, accompanying the artist while they build a show, and a bridge builder, creating a bridge to the public."

Catalysts of New Art Approaches

A curator can also help society better understand what art NFTs are, and provide insight into an individual work's value and meaning within the context of this historic art movement. Here are a few ways they will play a role in shaping the shaping of the crypto art scene.

Why Curators will have a role to play in fostering art NFTs just as they do in the real-world's art galleries and art industry by helping both collectors.

Curators Will Play a Major Role in Fostering Art NFTs — Here’s Why

There is a growing concern that the vast amount of information generated on the web cause overwhelm, much like drinking from a fire hose. The information is rushing past us in such volume that we struggle to engage with it. In his book "Here comes everybody", Clay Shirky wrote that the problem is not information overload but filter failure.

Information overload

Since the start of human information recording, we've been shifting, selecting, organising and presenting information to give it meaning and clarity. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, said the principal functions of the internet should<ul><li>allow anyone to access any type of document,</li><li>enable everyone to disseminate their documents and</li><li>allow everyone to organise the entire collection of documents.</li></ul> However, it is not easy to organise web-based digital content or combine it with the vast amount of available information.

Digital curation: organising content into meaningful collections

Many people use tagging and RSS feed to identify content related to a topic to make internet content easier to find. But Shirky's research found that this type of tagging worsens the situation, as so much relevant information was identified that individuals could not pay attention to it all.

Tagging to help with curation

Situational overload: This is analogous to the needle in a haystack problem. You need a specific piece of information, but it is buried in a mass of other information. Online search engines and other filtering tools like email and Twitter can help most of the time, but only if individuals know how to use search and filter tools effectively.Ambient overload: Instead of a needle in a haystack problem, you have an overload of only important and interesting information. The problem is exacerbated when you try to keep up with it, make sense of it and use it all.

Two types of information overload

The biggest problem with information overload is that information doesn't arrive at regular times, it just comes all the time. If you don't pay attention to it, you run the risk of missing critical or relevant information. Social media has made people feel they must take notice of everything. The pressure to engage with all of it cause an increased sense of overload, stress and addiction to web-connected devices.

The biggest problem with information overload

Robin Good, who initially harnessed the idea of curation for social digital media marketing purposes, describes information delivered by search engines as "fast food". It is useful if you are not concerned with quality, but if you desire quality, you need a curation site or service that offers the quality you want and is specific to your needs.

The intelligent curation filter

3 things to understand about curation in learning - Part 1 Julie Wedgwood, our Head of Learning Strategy looks at the history of digital curation and its role…

3 things to understand about curation in learning

We live in the age of information, meaning that our ability to succeed are increasingly connected to our ability to manage and efficiently leverage information. Stephanie Hatch Leishman, a former MIT social media strategist, states that “curation is using your expertise in a field to gather great content around a specific theme and present that content in a way that will educate others.”

Curation is a vital skill

An information resource has value only when someone verifies, organises and curates it. Without context, it is disconnected from other relevant resources. It's like having an ingredient without a recipe. Curation gives context to any information item to look at and appreciate. When the information resource is curated and contextualised, it gains value and usefulness.

Information lacks context

Content curation is a natural solution to resource abundance.
Some people voluntarily curate content for the direct purpose of producing better and more satisfying results, saving time, appearing more authoritative or gaining more customers.
Information curators are personally interested in what they do, and curating is a reliable way to learn about their resources, uncover true gems, and organise them in a meaningful way.

Curation natural drivers

Curation requires vetting, verification, resource-finding, providing a viewpoint and an ability to re-organise what is of value. <ul><li>Curation takes more time and effort than writing.</li><li>It takes more competence, experience and skill than writing.</li><li>You need to be a subject matter expert.</li><li>You need to immerse yourself completely into a subject.</li><li>To curate effectively, you must be driven by more than compensation.</li></ul>

Curation is more challenging than writing

<ul><li>Curators desire to organise an information space and make it easy for others to extract immediate value.</li><li>The desire to share, inform, educate, and entertain a community of people interested in the same topic.</li><li>The need to make sense of a subject by exploring, collecting, and combining relevant information.</li><li>The need to quickly find specific information.</li><li>The need to archive and preserve valuable information resources.</li><li>The will to create something of lasting value.</li><li>The desire to help others discover what is not apparent.</li></ul>

Motivation to curate information spaces

Curation helps people understand and learn better.Curation guides people to discove and learn about a subject in greater depth.Curation saves people time by bringing the right information into focus.Curation facilitates discovery of new or rare or unknown valuable resources.Curation helps to uncover and identify patterns and relationships between information resources. Curation promotoes a critical thinking attitudeCuration invites questioning, participation, contribution, and improvements.

Curation benefits

<ul><li>Curation helps people understand and learn better.</li><li>Curation guides people to discover and learn about a subject in greater depth.</li><li>Curation saves people time by bringing the right information into focus.</li><li>Curation facilitates the discovery of new or rare, or unknown valuable resources.</li><li>Curation helps to uncover and identify patterns and relationships between information resources.</li><li>Curation promotes a critical thinking attitude</li><li>Curation invites questioning, participation, contribution, and improvements.</li></ul>

The true purpose, motivation and rewards behind searching, collecting, adding value and sharing great collections of information.

The true purpose, motivation and rewards behind searching, collecting, adding value and sharing great collections of information. Whether you realize it or not, the fact that we are living in the age…

Why To Curate Information

When many of us start writing, we hide our personality. As a result, our writing becomes weak. Here’s why:<ul><li>We care too much about what other people might think. We’re trying to impress. Especially when we’re writing for specific readers, like potential employers or publishers.</li><li>We compare ourselves with writers we admire. We try to emulate others too much.</li><li>We lack confidence in our writing. So we try to hide behind fancy words and jargon.</li><li>We’re used to writing under industry formats, like academic or legal writing, that after some time we forget our personal voice.</li></ul>

Hiding your personality

Don’t just read it in your mind. Actually speak the words. Does it sound like you? If it doesn’t, you probably will stumble when you’re trying to read it out loud.When we truly listen to what we’ve written, we detect what’s wrong or weak with our writing. We can point out which words, sentences, and statements sound unnatural or forced or pretentious.Because that’s what unique writing is all about: Writing that sounds like you.

Read your writing out loud

It’s easy to get tunnel vision and miss the bigger picture. We tend to use words we think people want to see. Or try to sound smarter and more impressive.This happens when we’re afraid that people won’t understand or appreciate what we’re saying. But over-explaining rarely works. And in the long run, that’s unsustainable because it makes you despise writing.

Don’t try too hard

A writing style is unique because of the writer’s personality. I think we all know that intuitively. But when we write, we forget that.

Do This to Discover Your Unique Writing Style - Darius Foroux

Desks, closets, kitchen cupboards. They all seem to fill up naturally with stuff we sort off want, but also don't want to get rid of. In an attempt to declutter tidy a space, Marie Kondo asks this question: Does it spark joy? If not, she advises getting rid of it.
But while Kondo gives good advice, we should go further. Past the tidying awaits another process: curating.

Curating after tidying

Curate means 'to care for'. In a museum curatorial process, a collection is always built in light of a stated mission. Factors one consider:<ul><li>Instead of just asking if this item is great, curators ask if it is great for my institution and department?</li><li>Is the prospective object redundant with other objects, or does it fill a notable hole in the collection?</li><li>What is the full story of the object?</li><li>Is it what it claims to be and in good condition?</li></ul>

Curating - ask the right questions

Curatorial habits of mind can prevent impulse-buying. But even if consistently applied, one will still have items stored in closets.  A museum seldom have more than 10 per cent of its holdings on view. Curators work with registrars to ensure that collections remain active through gallery rotations and touring exhibitions. Storage does not have to mean dead space but can be seen as a dynamic part of life where items are stored in such a way that they are always present in your mind.

Storage and rotation

A museum is only of value if there are exhibitions. Therefore, making exhibitions is a big part of the job. Good curating involves communicating unique thoughts with maximum effectiveness.<ul><li>Juxtaposing two or more perfectly chosen pieces create a broader understanding.</li><li>Another crucial element is negative space. Sometimes a sculpture looks best by itself in the middle of a room. Other times, it will do better in the corner.</li></ul> This technique can also be used in other areas of communication such as writing and email, or telling a story.

Show, don't tell

Sure, tidying up is a start. But it won’t get you to the kind of lived-in, personalised space that defines an ideal of home

How to curate (just about) anything | Psyche Guides

Notetaking is the process where we identify the critical information, interpret said information in order to increase memory and practice critical thinking.
A note-taking workflow is where you can seamlessly turn raw ideas from different source and platforms into well-crafted text documents without having to recall everything from the cited sources.
People's note-taking workflow may vary.

Note-Taking Workflow

It is important to have content that's engaging to yourself because you'll be able to easily recall the information. 
Information can come from many different sources from audiobooks to podcasts and even conversations with friends. 
There are two tools you can use to capture content, personally I use Kindle and Instapaper, but you can always look for a read-it-later app that fits you best.

Capturing Engaging Content

After capturing the ideas you've taken from your sources, the next step is to compile the ideas taken into one place to mix and remix the important ideas.
Apps like Readwise and Roam Research are reliable. How it works is that the highlighted content is automatically imported into Readwise and then exported to Roam Research where the captured knowledge intermingles.

Connecting Tools

One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it or explain it to someone else, or maybe even to yourself. 
You can publish what you've learned online as well, like with the platform Ghost -- it's a blogging-first publishing platform where you can share the ideas you've developed with everyone else.

Creation Tools

There are many different apps that are available to us at our disposal and there is always a couple that will work best for you based on your lifestyle and how you choose to handle note-taking.
Check out tools that specialize in capturing, connecting, or creating -- or maybe even a combination of the three. It's best to build a good note-taking system that you can stick with so that you'll be able to learn and create content for a long time.

Making Your Own Note-Taking System

How to create a meaningful note-taking system

<ul><li>Starting a conversation with someone whom we don’t know can be intimidating. </li><li>Small talk can establish a common bond between two strangers and is the first step to build a meaningful, lasting connection with the other person.</li><li>Feeling confident around people helps in starting conversations, and confidence is an ever-present mindset. </li></ul>Affirmations can help us build that mindset.

Talking To Strangers

We can try asking ourselves what we are good at, and what we would like to be better at. We can list the challenges that we have overcome and feel proud about it, increasing our self-confidence.Once we build our self-confidence and are ready to talk to strangers, there are certain guidelines we need to follow, in order to ease the process.

Self-Confidence: Ask Yourself What You Are

Starting a conversation is easy if we do it in the realm of our surroundings. When we are in the supermarket, we can initiate a conversation by asking for a suggestion to pick a perfect apple, but cannot discuss a movie, as that would be out of context.Even if it sounds clichéd, we can practice striking a conversation in the visible context(like the weather) with strangers, as it is likely we would never see that person again anyway!

The Obvious Context

If we feel shy, nervous or overwhelmed while talking to a stranger, you can be frank and tell that person. The other person is a mystery waiting to be discovered, but most of us are happy scrolling through our phones as it feels easier and safer.By acknowledging your shyness or how awkward you feel, you are putting the other person at ease, who may be feeling the same way.

Being Transparent About How You Feel

<ul><li>A simple way to kickstart a conversation is to look for commonalities that you may have with the other person, like where they are heading, what they are reading, where they live.</li><li>Asking where they are from, or if they have done the particular activity before can spark a conversation and can go a long way.</li><li>Even if there is nothing in common, one can embrace the ‘newness’ and learn from the other person, keeping an open, explorative mind.</li><li>With practice, one can initiate and end conversations with confidence.</li></ul>

Look For What Is Common And What Isn’t

Communication

5 Ways to Start Conversations with Confidence

Sci-fi is a genre of fiction literature that is based on scientific facts, theories, and principles. While the storylines and some parts are imaginary, they are plausible according to science.
Science fiction became popular for both writers and audiences with technological developments over the past 150 years, such as electricity, space exploration, medical advances, etc.

Science fiction (sci-fi)

Science fiction is a mixture of hard and soft science fiction.
<ul>
<li>Hard science fiction strictly follows natural scientific facts and principles like physics, astronomy, chemistry, etc. For example, Gravity, the story of an astronaut whose spacecraft is damaged while she repairs a satellite, was known for its scientific accuracy.</li>
<li>Soft science fiction is focused on social sciences, like anthropology, sociology, psychology, etc. For example, the film Wall-E is science fiction about the end of life on Earth due to man's disregard for nature.</li>
</ul>

Types of science fiction

Science fiction tends to turn real scientific theories into stories about what is possible.
<ul>
<li>The stories use facts of sciences to suggest a real possible future.</li>
<li>It explores what could happen if specific events came to pass.</li>
<li>It suggests possible consequences of scientific advancements.</li>
</ul>

The importance of science fiction

H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds tells the story of an alien invasion in the United Kingdom that threatens the existence of mankind. The novel started with, "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own."
George Orwell's 1984 shows the future of mankind in a dystopian state. It shows society under a tyrannical government, where "Big Brother" is watching your every move.

Science fiction in literature

The Star Wars films are probably the most well-known example of science fiction in popular culture.
The Matrix is another sci-fi film that tells the story of a world where humans are completely controlled, and life on Earth is a simulation occurring in the mind. Neo, the protagonist, is shown that his life is an illusion and he is tasked with saving humanity.

Science fiction in pop culture

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that focuses on imaginary elements such as superheroes, alternate worlds, aliens, etc. Science fiction may include elements of fantasy but always have a basis in science, whereas fantasy is only imaginative.
Space opera is a form of science fiction where the story takes place in outer space. Space operas are action or adventure-themed and include space travel, interstellar wars or heroes trying to save the world.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Valentina D.
@valentinawdd

How to Write Concisely

How to be more secure in your relationships | Psyche Guides

Curators Will Play a Major Role in Fostering Art NFTs — Here’s Why

3 things to understand about curation in learning

Why To Curate Information

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Valentina D.@valentinawdd

How to Write Concisely

How to be more secure in your relationships | Psyche Guides

Curators Will Play a Major Role in Fostering Art NFTs — Here’s Why

3 things to understand about curation in learning

Why To Curate Information

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Valentina D.
@valentinawdd