As awful as the COVID lockdowns were, they provided “ideal” conditions for profound boredom, the authors said, which ultimately pushed many to discover new passions.
The much discussed Great Resignation, in which employees are now leaving their unsatisfying jobs in far greater proportions than has been seen over the past two decades, could very well have been galvanized by profound boredom during the pandemic.
Source: https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/social-media-profound-boredom/
we can all develop our willpower and self-control by focusing on 3 steps.
1. Find your standards. Your standards are the reference points you’ll use to determine whether any action you’re going to take is desireable towards getting into a state of flow—so, whether you’re going to check your email (again) or hit your 1000 word count for the day.
2. Set up means for monitoring. Flow depends on immediate feedback and so does self control. Whatever your task, find ways to constantly monitor your performance and adjust as you continue.
3. Be wary of your energy. Our mental strength waxes and wanes throughout the day (which is why it’s so important to define your own work schedule around your energy). Understanding when you have more energy will help you stay in control and give you a better chance of entering a state of flow.
“The average business person spends less than 5% of their day in flow. If you could increase that to 15%, overall workplace productivity would double,”
“The brain can’t tell the difference between physical consequences and emotional risk,” says Kotler. “Taking social risks is the same as physical risks.”
“In Silicon Valley, the idea is to fail fast or fail forward,” he says. “If you’re not giving employees space to fail, you’re not giving them space to risk. Move fast and break things. Engage in rapid experimentation. High consequences will drive flow and you get further faster.”
From https://www.fastcompany.com/3031052/how-to-hack-into-your-flow-state-and-quintuple-your-productivity
I decided to share a step from my morning ritual. Maybe someone gets inspired 🙂
The step is “opening all bookmarks from daily folder”
When I get tired or annoyed by something a just remove it or I wanna learn about something new I just add it to the channels to occupy my mind with stuff that I care about, want to learn more about.
For example the Free learning site will not be long in the list.
Nothing drags down writing more than spreading good ideas over too many words.
Write to express, not to impress
Since expressing ideas helps to form them, you’ll find sitting down to write creates perspectives you never saw coming.
Buffet usually writes with one of his sisters in mind, noting that while highly intelligent, she has little experience with investing. If he sees a passage that will confuse her, he knows he hasn’t written it properly.
The best starting point for understanding Boyd’s views on creativity and innovation is an essay called “Destruction and Creation.” It’s considered his most successful intellectual achievement and lays out a framework for how a smaller entity, be it guerilla fighters or a startup, can outcompete a vastly larger opponent.
At just seven pages, the writing has the density of plutonium.
Boyd spent four years working and refining the paper.
As people see more ads, the click through rate goes down faster. The very first ad you saw on the internet was cool and interesting. The 100,000th ad you saw was annoying and made you install ad blocking software.
In order to maintain a high capacity for independent action, you have to constantly destroy your existing conceptual system and resynthesize from the constituent parts.
We need to improve our ability to change our minds based on a changing reality.
from https://medium.com/the-mission/the-truth-about-how-creativity-really-works-46623efb6775
With so much of our time being spent at work, and so much of our work being done at computers, music has become inseparable from our day-to-day tasks—a way to “optimize the boring” while looking at screens.
Music makes repetitive tasks more enjoyable
For low-immersion or physical tasks, music with lyrics can offer huge benefits. But for intensive work, lyrics are especially destructive for focus.
Humans have a deep desire to create and to build.
We rose to the top of the food chain because of our ability to create.
… things have been carefully engineered to get you addicted, like a drug.
We stop thinking for ourselves.
Our brains are being hijacked and rewired.
Science shows that the process of creating is better for us than the actual “creation.”
The act of creating anything forces you to focus, learn, develop a work ethic, and build character.
In addition, you gain skills, experience, meaning, purpose, identity, growth, fulfillment, and self-esteem.
I challenge you, for one week, to severely restrict your information input.
This means:
No books…
No blogs…
No news…
No social media…
No TV or Movies…
from https://www.neilstrauss.com/advice/create/
During reading the article I unpinned my two permanent Chrome tabs. One was Google Calendar because my smartphone already does notifications and the second was Facebook messenger. Both tabs can I reopen whenever I knowingly want, so no need to be distracted from them.
I was checking my favorites on Twitter and found this amazing true story video 🙂
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