How To Sharpen Your Focus
Recently I have been having some issues with having consistent focus and just generally being able to focus for longer periods of time without becoming distracted. I am pretty positive that this is something that many other people are struggling with, which is why I thought it could be useful to write about it and look into areas such as why a lack of focus is becoming a big issue and additionally why you could benefit from working on your focus abilities. We will also take a look into what takes away from our focus and fore-mostly what are some practical ways in which we can improve this life long skill.
I hope you enjoy and find this useful for improving your own focus abilities and getting some real focused work done.
WHY IS LACK OF FOCUS BECOMING A BIG ISSUE?
The ability to concentrate is defined as “A control of attention. It is the ability to focus the mind on one subject, object, or thought, and at the same time exclude from the mind every other unrelated thoughts, ideas, feelings, and sensations.”
I believe that in todays world it is easier than ever to become distracted, feel dis-engaged and just feel like your mental attention is being pulled in every possible direction. One of the core reasons is that we live in a very fast paced world where we live quite demanding lives, which is largely due to the integration of technology into our everyday lives.
Technology such as buzzing from our phones and constant notifications from social media keep us glued to our screens while sacrificing our attention and focus abilities and preventing us from getting much solid work done. I have written about how social media impacts our well being before and how we can have a healthier relationship with it, so if you are interested you can read more about it here
This is a big issue and one that is often pushed to the side and just accepted as a given nowadays. Technology is likely not going away any time soon, so I really want to emphasize that the digital environment which you create around yourself is up to you and up to you to control and regulate. This is one of the prime ways to calm down your mind while simultaneously improving your focus and attention abilities.
WHY IS IT WORTH TO IMPROVE YOUR FOCUS?
The list of reasons why you can benefit from improving your focus is extensive, but if you really think about it, having the ability to focus for long periods of time nowadays, is almost considered to be a superpower. It is a incredible advantage for any endeavor you set out to do, wether it be work related or a personal goal.
Improved focus can benefit you in the following ways:
Finding more motivation in work and your personal life
Making better and faster decisions
Preventing small mistakes from happening that slow down progress
Preventing memory loss and general forgetfulness
Feeling like you are cohesively working towards a goal instead of feeling like your mental energy is divided into a 100 tiny directions
Producing higher quality work and improvement in performance at work
Improving your ability to learn and absorb new information (books, workshops, lectures, meetings, presentations etc.)
Experiencing less lethargy and mental tiredness
Improving your abilities to collaborate and work with others
Improving your listening abilities
WHAT NEGATIVELY IMPACTS YOUR FOUCS?
There are a lot of activities and factors which can take away from our ability to focus well. Some of these are genuine medical conditions which impair our concentration efforts while others are lifestyle factors - most of which we have control over and can influence.
Some medical conditions which make it harder to focus are:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Dementia
Depression and anxiety
Having experienced a concussion
Cushings syndrome
Epilepsy
Chronic insomnia
Schizophrenia
Bipolar disorder
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Other lifestyle reasons for diminishing focus are:
Experiencing lack of sleep and general fatigue
Improper nutrition and being hungry
Lack of exercise and being still for too long
Excessive stress
TIPS FOR ENHANCING FOCUS
Managing your technological environment
Turn down notifications and distractions from your phone or computer
Use focus time apps
Try out website blockers
Make other people aware when you are and are not available for talking
Manage your social media intake
Lifestyle based tricks
Aim to get high quality sleep each night
Getting in regular exercise
Spending time in nature and on fresh air
Being mindful about your caffeine consumption
Try our mindfulness exercises and meditation
Fueling your body well with the right food (Avoiding highly processed and sugary meals)
Try challenging your brain with concentration games such as puzzles, memory games, sudokus, reading and mental maths
Really try to not go onto your phone and social media first thing in the morning
Work related tips
Setting a timer for when you work (30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour)
Setting yourself a reward for when you finish a set time for working
Avoiding multitasking and intentionally choose to focus on one thing
Setting 3 daily priorities each day which you will get done
Sometimes it helps to switch to doing another task to build up momentum and motivation to do something else
Have a dedicated distraction free space for working
Listening to the right music
I sincerely hope that you were able to take some valuable learning lessons from todays blog post because I truly believe that being able to focus well is a genuine super power in todays world and it is up to you to to take care of it.
Thank you so much for reading this weeks post and I hope to catch you in the next one.
Books I Will Be Reading In 2023
In the last post we have discussed all of the best books I have read in the year 2022, so I wanted to dedicate this post to all of the books which I am planning on reading for this year, for which I have in mind 15 so far.
As always, I would love to hear your own book recommendations and to hear on what you are aiming on reading for this year.
I hope you enjoy 😊 📚
BENEFITS OF READING MORE
Although I have talked about the benefits of a consistent reading routine before in this blog post, here are the main ones which I wanted to highlight for you to know about:
Reading Prevents Neurodegenerative Diseases: These conditions include dementia such as Alzheimers where reading readily stimulates our brains activity and enhances its synaptic connectivity, helping to keep our brains active and young while preventing cognitive decline. As well as keeping your brain healthy, reading also aids in better memory retention and brain functioning, which also helps slow down the development of dementia by keeping your brains clear of beta amyloid plaques which over time build up an cause memory decay in Alzheimers.
Improves Your Vocabulary and General Knowledge: Reading has for a long time now been shown to steadily improve vocabulary, spelling as well as greatly enhance the general knowledge and understanding of the world around you. This is also why reading is so encouraged, so that you get to learn about the events happening around you, have a deeper understanding of why certain things occur and with that formulate you own well thought out opinions and perspectives. Reading makes you educated and well informed.
Reduces Stress: Have you ever read for a little bit before going to bed and noticed that you suddenly become very tired and calm? Chances are you have. This is because when we read, we are very focused on the words in front of us which allows us to feel calm helping our body to naturally start releasing melatonin which initiates our body for sleep. This happens especially quickly when we are in a quiet environment with dim warm lighting.
Helps With Calmer Sleep: Because reading can be such a relaxing activity, it is also great for making it easier to fall asleep and generally ensuring a calmer night of sleep. It may also be more beneficial to read on a physical paper back book in the evenings instead of electronic readers as bright lights can disrupt our natural sleep cycles.
Heightens Your Empathy Skills: When we read books, especially those which have a story plot line and different characters, we allow ourselves to become immersed in the story and connect with the different characters. In this way we develop emotions and opinions about certain people in the story which in reality allows us to become more empathetical towards others in our everyday.
Lowers Blood Pressure and Heart Rate: Regular reading has been shown to lower blood pressure and resting heart rate almost as effectively as yoga, which can help with longevity (living longer) as well as keeping your cardiovascular system healthy.
Improved Focus and Concentration: Because reading and following a story requires quite a bit of concentration, reading can be a great activity to help improve how long you can focus for, especially in todays time when we are highly distracted by notifications and live by instant gratification. Reading is a great way to calm ourselves and work on our focus abilities which will help us with our personal, school or work lives.
2023 READING LIST
Bellow you can find all of the books which I am to read for this year, some of which are non fiction and some are fiction.
Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life (Roxie Nafousi)
You Are A Badass At Making Money (Jen Sincero)
The Only Study Guide You Will Ever Need (Unjaded Jade)
Four Hour Work Week (Tim Ferriss)
Best Self: Be You, Only Better (Mike Bayer)
The Buddha and The Badass (Vishen Lakhiani)
Smarter Living (Karen Barrow, Karron Skog, and Tim Herrera)
The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win (Jeff Haden)
Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
Food for life: The New Science of Eating Well (Spector)
Your Body In Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health (Neal Barnard)
Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Martin Lindstrom)
8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go (Jay Shetty)
Normal people: A Novel (Sally Rooney)
The Mostly True Story Of Tanner & Louise (Colleen Oakley)
I hope that you were able to find some intereting new information on why it is good for us to read regularly and also that I was able to give you some ideas for books which you could read for yourself in 2023.
Wishing you happy reading :)
Best Books of 2022 That I Have Read
The year 2022 was very productive year for reading for me, because I managed to read 19 complete books in a span of 12 months, which is definitely a personal record for me. For this reason, I wanted to focus this blog post on those books which personally stood out to me and left a big difference after I have read them. I also wanted to share some of my own advice on how to be able to read more, even when we live busy and time-demanding lives.
Here I hope to share with you some books which you too can find transformative, enjoyable and relaxing, which you can of course implement into your own 2023 reading lists. 😄
I would love to find out what books you read in the past year and which ones were your favorites. Share with me and let me know. I have talked on this platform about reading before and how it is beneficial for our brains, so if you are interested in that, feel free to read more about it here
Wishing you happy reading ahead! 📖
HOW TO READ MORE
I often get asked how I am able to read so many books or how do I fit in the time for reading when there is already so many things to do in a day. My simple answer to that is that the key is really to focus on doing a little bit of reading each day and then sticking to that habit constantly.
Below I have included my main pieces of advice if you want to take up reading more seriously in 2023:
Read 10-15 minutes each day consistently
Pick a time of day for when you will do this (For me it was every day during breakfast)
Make a list of books ahead of time which you want to be reading that year or month, so that it keeps you excited and eager to read on
Make sure to pick books which sound genuinely interesting or useful to you and write down this list in a visually visible place so that you don't forget about it (I used digital sticky notes on my computer)
If reading intimidates you, start reading thinner and less intense books and gradually build your way up
If you start reading a book which you do not seem to enjoy and feel like it is not worth your time, simply stop reading it and move on to something else. There is no need to feel guilty about not fully finishing a book. In fact if you decide to move on to something which will be a better use of your time, you are creating a benefit for yourself. No shame here.
Consider wether you prefer to read paper back books or you prefer a digital format such as a e-reader, which is what I prefer. Either option works here, just choose based on what works best for you.
Find small times in your day when you can fit in some reading, such as during your commute to school or work (if using public transport) or instead of mindlessly scrolling on social media, try reading for 10 minutes.
Consider which daily activities which are not beneficial for you, you could replace with a little bit of reading
Try reading before bed for a little, as it can make it easier for you to fall asleep
Try listening to audiobooks if you feel like your days are seriously busy. This can be a great thing to include during your commutes if you drive or during times you spend cleaning
Join a book club (online or in person) where you can discuss the books you have read or want to read with other fellow avid readers - This can be great if you want more accountability to keep your reading more consistent
When on holiday or vacation, focus on reading during your free time spent lounging around
If you want more motivation for keeping up your reading, make note of all the books you have read within a year, which allows you to keep a record of your reading progress
MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022
Ikigai (Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia)
This was the first book that I had read in 2022 and although its style was simply written and short, it was actually a useful book. The book discusses a Japanese concept termed “Ikigai” which refers to our reason for being or the reason of why we wake up in the morning. Ikigai is compromised of 4 different core questions which together help us find our core purpose and meaning in life, essentially finding out which path is best for us. Our meaning in life is made up of these 4 questions which are 1) What you love doing, 2) What the world needs, 3) What you are good at doing and lastly 4) What you can be paid for doing.
I would recommend this book for anyone who is struggling to find what they want to do in the life, or for anyone who is lacking direction or clarity about their purpose.
Untamed (Glennon Doyle)
This was one of the best books I had read during my summer vacation this year. The book was almost written in the style of a poem yet its writing was very enjoyable, easy to read and fore-mostly had a lasting impact on me.
This book is written as a memoir of the authors life, which revolves around the notion that the author will not be a mother who slowly dies for her children, but will be a mother who shows her children how to truly live authentically. The book discusses notions such as divorce, becoming part of a new family and about how the wholeness of a family depends on each of its members to fully be themselves and live as their true self. The book aims to inspire the reader to become strong individuals who know and respect their boundaries, make peace with our bodies, acknowledge our pains and heartaches and live as the person we really are meant to be.
The subtle art of not giving a fuck (Mark Manson)
I started reading this book because of the huge amount of positive reviews and recognition it had achieved. Mark Manson had taken a rather comedic approach in this book to explain that we should find meaning in our everyday lives by focusing on what is really important and engaging in values which we can control. The book promotes the view that the point to a meaningful life is not to care about a huge amount of things, but instead to concentrate our efforts and energy to the things which truly matter to us.
The unfair advantage (Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba)
Although this book was very business dominated, I still found it to be greatly enlightening and enjoyable to read, simply because it demonstrates a widely applicable concept through a variety of real life business ventures. The book aims to capture the idea of “unfair advantages” which in a business sense is a leverage or simply and advantage which you have compared to other competitors or individuals. Unfair advantages can come in the form of having relevant insider information, personal authority, a net of existing customers or simply aspects such as where you were born and your level of education/ work experience.
The book explains that each of us is born and given a different set of unfair advantages and that it is our role to recognize them and make use of them in the best way possible, in order to succeed - Essentially reinforcing the view that we already have what it takes to succeed in side of us, we just have to play it to our advantage.
Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)
I found this book extremely clear in its message and ultimately very useful. The books is based on the premise of essentialism which it reinforces as a lifestyle and way of approaching our work. Essentialism is about choosing to do and focus on the things which are most important to us at a given time so that we can make our highest contribution towards the things which truly matter to us. It is based on eliminating distractions and methods of procrastination which ultimately get us no where and lead us to being stretched too thin with work that is non essential.
Essentialism as a lifestyle, is about consciously choosing to make the most productive and effective contribution towards what really matters to us.
Lessons in chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
This fictional story was very pleasant and worthwhile to read because the author has an excellent reading style while managing to write a very captivating story line. The story line is based in the 1950’s where Elizabeth, a female chemist who works at a research institute, struggles to be acknowledged for her research work since women's scientific achievements at the time were largely ignored and unappreciated. Throughout the story she falls in love with a fellow researcher who happens to also be very famous and they develop into a stable and loving relationship. The story is grounded in feminism while being coupled with humor and brilliant plot twists along the way.
The island of missing trees (Elif Shafak)
This book blew me away because it was one of the most memorable fiction books that I read in 2022. This story is set in 1974 on the island of Cyprus where two teenagers from opposite sides of the then divided land meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The teenagers who live in Cyprus are Defne who is Turkish and Kostas who is Greek. The two are in love yet they have to meet in secret as a war was breaking out on the island causing it to be split into two parts (This actually happened). At the core of the story is a fig tree which grows in the middle of the tavern, where this tree witnesses all the conflicts, moments of love and when the capital of Cyrpus (Nicosia) is reduced to rubble.
Decades later the two have a child, Ada, where she lives with her dad in London, England, as sadly her mother had passed away in between. Ada is struggling to understand her families past and history, but the only connection she does have to the island of Cyprus is a fig tree which her father brought from Cyrus and now grows in her back yard.
The story switches between three perspectives: Ada’s perspective who is trying to understand her parents history, the time on the island which Defne and Kostas shared as well as the viewpoint of the fig tree who talks and ponders to itself.
Imperfect: The gifts of imperfection (Brené Brown)
I initially started reading this book because I was struggling with my own perfectionistic tendencies, where the book in a light hearted way really solidified the idea that we are perfect the way we are and that we should genuinely embrace all of our “imperfections” whichever we may have. What is imperfect or perfect is all subjective and depends across individuals, which is why we should starter living for ourselves on our own terms, instead of constantly moulding ourselves to the expectations of others and feeling like we are not enough.
I hope that with this blog post I gave you some more ideas and inspiration about the books which you could potentially read in 2023 and the books which I feel that most people could gain something useful from.
Within the next post, I will be sharing with you the list of books which I will aim to be reading in 2023, so stay tuned for that if that sounds interesting to you.
If you have wanted to make reading a more consistent habit for yourself, I hope that the advice above will be useful for you in helping to establish reading as an enjoyable part of your life. Reading should not be seen as a chose or something that takes time and energy away from us, look into the books which interest you and focus on starting with those.
Thank you again for reading this today 😄
New Year 2023 - Making It Your Best Year
A new year is here and with that many new opportunities, experiences and memories to be made. In order to make the best use of this year, it is crucial to take some time to plan it out, consider our wishes and wants and take the opportunity to make it a year based on our design.
Each year, made up of months and weeks represents an opportunity for growth and change, to step into the shoes of who we want to become - To start living in a direction that feels more aligned with our true selves.
I hope you are excited for this year as much as I am where prosperity, progress and good health will be abundant for all. If you are interested in your own development, join me on this journey of growth to set foot into the new year with good energy and intention.
Wishing you a Happy New Year and that you keep finding my posts useful and interesting to read.
ADVICE ON GOAL SETTING
At the start of the year is when most people set their annual goals or at least in some form make a plan for the upcoming year. Regarding this goal setting, I wanted to provide you with some general goal setting advice which you can use for mapping out and following through on your own goals which you set yourself for 2023. I hope you find them useful 😊
Focus on achieving one goal at a time, instead of juggling 10 different ones
Be realistic with the goals you set yourself in terms of the time frame you expect to achieve them in
Additionally its beneficial if your are passionate and invested in the goals you set yourself, as you will be much happier and motivated during the execution process, ultimately helping you follow through until the end
Consider how will you measure the progress you make towards your goal (This will be different depending on the type of goal you have)
Split the goals you set based on different categories to make it a more balanced approach (Examples: Health, Career, Personal, School, Relationships etc.)
Avoid setting too many goals per category per year as that may make it seem over whelming to follow through and keep track of everything
When starting out with your goal, always keep in mind why you wanted to reach this goal in the first place
In order to visualize your goals more, its might be helpful to construct a physical mood/ picture board which visually represents the goals you want to reach and can also be displayed in your room for your own reference
Consider how you will keep yourself accountable for reaching your goals (Examples: Tracking your progress on a physical tracker, partnering up with a friend, using an app etc.)
It is also really important to be specific with the type of goal you want to reach so that you exactly know at what point you have reached your goal
Set a time frame in which you want to reach your goal
If you are planning on working through a larger more difficult goal, break it down into smaller sub goals which are more manageable
To keep yourself additionally motivated, consider setting yourself a reward for reaching a goal of yours
In order to keep track of your goals, it also helps to write them down somewhere, either on a piece of paper which is then displayed or on your phone - Somewhere where you can clearly see them
23 QUESTIONS TO PLAN YOUR 2023
Which 3-5 new habits do you want to establish this year and how will you implement them into your lifestyle?
Which habits and routines will you carry through into 2023 from 2022?
Which habits do you want to quit in the new year?
Which 5 main goals do you want to set for your professional/ work life?
Which 5 main goals do you want to set for your personal life?
How will you keep motivated and accountable for seeing your goals through until the end?
How will you manage and deal with potential setbacks throughout the upcoming year?
Which relationships do you want to strengthen this year and which ones do you want to cut off?
How can you implement more of the activities which energize you and less of the ones which drain you of energy?
Which new skills or knowledge do you want to acquire?
Which books do you want to read?
Which places do you want to visit or travel to?
How will you take care of yourself in the following year?
How will you minimize your main time wasters?
How will you optimize your work and make your use of time more efficient and effective?
How will you make sure to have fun throughout the year?
Which mindsets do you want to adopt for 2023 and which ones do you want to leave behind?
In what ways do you wish to grow as an individual, in terms of what do you want to improve about your current self?
Where do you see yourself at the end of the year (What are you doing, what have you achieved, which people are a part of your life?, where are you on your personal journey, what struggles have your overcome)
How do you want to feel by the end of 2023?
What are you looking forward to or excited about in 2023?
If you had to describe your ideal 2023 in 3 words, what would they be?
What do I want to remember the year 2023 for?
CONCLUDING WORDS
This blog post represents the first post of 2023, where we discussed all things regarding making 2023 your best year yet and how to effectively plan it as well as set goals. I hope that you have found this topic valuable and interesting, because I certainly did find it useful and will be using these questions for myself. If you have not yet made a review of 2022, here you can learn about how to do just that.
In this new year, I wish you all so much success, prosperity, good health and so much laughter and new memories to be shared.
As always, thank you so much for reading and stay curious!
Reflecting On The Year 2022
The eventful year of 2022 is starting to come to an end and with that it is good to take time to pause and retrospect back on what has happened and how we have grown as individuals. So much can happen within a year so it is important to acknowledge the improvements, achievements, changes and progress we have made in our lives.
I encourage you to take the time to reflect, it does not have to be a long and complex process, but ultimately one that can benefit you in the long run.
Hope you enjoy the read and happy holidays to all of you 💛
WHY ITS IMPORTANT TO TAKE TIME TO REFLECT
The reason why why should bother to reflect on the past year are many, but I think fore mostly, reflecting gives us a time to slow down and really think through our thoughts and ultimately decide wether we are moving our life in the direction we want to be going in. It allows us to simultaneously asses what are the aspects we are doing well on and also plan for the future year in terms of considered what we would still like to improve on and where our future goals life
Reflecting is a useful use of your time because it allows you to asses the core reason for why you do the things you do and also considering wether there is a smarter and more efficient way of doing things.
Additionally retrospecting on the past allows us to see how we have progressed and grown as individuals, which can for many be quite motivating for pursuing future interests
22 QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON 2022
Below I have made a list of some useful questions which you can use for your personal yearly reflection. Feel free to add your own and adjust it to your needs.
What were the highlights of the year for you?
What are you proud of yourself for?
What was your biggest most memorable accomplishment this year?
Who is the person that you could not have gotten through this year without?
Which activities energized you and which ones drained you of energy?
Which habits helped you and which ones held you back?
What challenges did you overcome?
How do you want to optimize/ improve about some of the activities/ hobbies which you did through the year?
What skills do you learn or improve on?
What is your favorite memory from 2022?
What were the biggest time wasters for you in 2022?
What were the most fun memories of 2022?
What were the best uses of my time this year?
What is something you can do today which you could not have done a year ago?
Which mindsets do you want to let go of for the new year?
What got in the way of your success or achieving all of your set goals?
Who are the best people you met throughout the year and why?
If you had to describe the year 2022 in 3 words, what would they be?
Which one of your personal qualities turned out to be most useful this year?
What are the most important learning lessons you have learned?
Was there something you did for the first time in your life this year?
Which worries of yours turned out to be completely unnecessary in the end?
What are you grateful for in the year 2022?
I hope that the year 2022 brought you many beautiful memories and valuable experiences and that todays post helped you acknowledge and write them down. Take some time for yourself towards the end of each year and you will start to see how it can help you achieve a greater sense of calm and satisfaction for the year which has passed while allowing you to plan and visualize the year ahead that will be ripe with opportunities.
Within the next post I will be talking about planning and setting the foundations of your 2023 goals, so stay in tune for that.
Thank you so much for reading.
Creating Work-Life Balance
You have probably heard of the term “work-life balance” at least once in your life and that is because it is both a hot and important topic currently, especially with the rise in technology in our days which makes it easier to blur the line between our personal/family and work related activities.
If we can manage to establish a work life balance which works for our lifestyle, there are many benefits associated with that, which is why I was inspired to write this post today.
I hope you get something valuable out of this one :)
WHAT IS WORK-LIFE BALANCE?
When talking about work life balance, we are talking about the level of prioritization between professional (work, school) and personal activities in our life. Everyones work life balance is different because we have different preferences and priorities in terms of how we like to spend our time.
I would also like to clarify that work life balance is not always “balanced” in the sense that we spend our time equally among a variety of activities. There are times in our life where we are busier with work or school related work, and other times where we have more leisure and family time.
The idea with work life balance is not to create a “perfect” balance of how we live our life, because perfection does not exist and our work life balance in this sense has to be adaptive and able to shift according to our time priorities in a certain phase of our life.
The point is to create a work life balance - a distribution between personal and work related activities - which feels right to you and fore mostly works for you and makes you feel fulfilled and balanced in some way.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
What do the benefits of having a functional work life-balance look like?
Increased productivity and motivation to work
Decreased illness and absenteeism
Increased physical health
Improved personal relationships
Lowered levels of stress
Improved sleep and less insomnia difficulties
Improved mental health (lower incidence of depression and anxiety)
Greater reduction in chance of encountering burnout while working
Greater clarity of mind and focus (Being able to unplug from work)
Re-establishing a sense of what matters to you and creating personal priorities
Not feeling guilty for taking time off or time for yourself when you need it
15 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR OWN WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Come to terms with the fact that everyones work life balance looks different and there is no perfect formula
Take time to pause and rethink your current routines, priorities and values: How do they match with how you ideally want to be spending your time?
Make health and family time one of your priorities and balance all other work around that
Reduce unnecessary tasks which do not add any meaning to your daily life. Try to delegate tasks which are taking up too much of your time or energy
Pay attention to which activities drain you of energy and which ones energize you
Pay more attention to your body and emotional wellbeing (one of the first signs of a unhealthy work life balance is feeling over stretched and unsatisfied)
Try to negotiate changes to your schedule or work at your work place
Set time boundaries at home and decide on a time each day at which you stop working
Plan ahead and schedule in important activities into your calendar
Set times to digitally unplug and switch off from “work mode”
Take a break or vacation if you really need it
Make use of weekends and days off
Consider wether you enjoy what you do as an occupation
Make your working more efficient by blocking off time in your calendar for certain tasks and setting a time limit on the tasks you do
Be motivated to implement changes in your daily routine: Identify what makes you motivated to work more effectively as in that way you can finish your work faster and have more time left over for other personal activities
CONCLUDING WORDS
Within todays post, I wanted to focus on the idea of work-life balance and what it represents as well as what are some practical ways in which you can currently improve your own. Remember, there is no “perfect” balance at any point in time, our priorities and what we value shifts through time so accordingly we have to be flexible with our schedule and lifestyle.
I hope you were able to learn something new or useful from this and that you make it part of your weekly practice to try and realign your current actions with your true priorities.
Thanks for reading.
The 5 Pillars Of Health
As I have been learning more about how different things impact our health and what things benefits or harms us, I have started to develop a sense of some repeating notions and ideas which have time and time again shown to positively impact our health. I have called these the “5 pillars of health”, because they act as foundational pillars which impact our wellbeing.
With this post, I hope to offer a summative overview to these 5 aspects which our health depends on, in order to create clarity and simplicity.
I hope you enjoy this one :)
THE 5 PILLARS OF HEALTH
😴 Deep Sleep
The reasons as to why sleep is so crucial for our wellbeing are many, where there are three main factors when it comes to sleeping well: How long we sleep for, the quality of our sleep, and the consistency of our sleeping schedule.
Overall, scientists are uncovering more and more functions which sleep does for our body, which explains why it is so crucial in the first place.
Here is a list of some of the most common functions which sleep has:
Energy conservation: We have all felt tired at some points after not having sleep well. This is because sleep is essential for reenergizing us, by producing enough ATP (energy) molecules as well as slowing down our metabolism in order to fully recharge for the next day.
Cleaning of waste: It appears that our brain naturally has a cleaning system integrated within it, with which it flushes out toxic waste that has accumulated during the day. It is proposed that the cerebrospinal fluid found within our brains is responsible for this flushing of waste.
Repair of our body: During sleep, our brain can attend to areas of our body which are in pain or need to heal, which it does so by sending the appropriate hormones and chemicals which speed up healing processes. Furthermore, sleep is also needed for the proper repair of tissues and blood vessels which we rely on every day. Lastly if you are someone who is frequently active, sleep actually also helps with muscle recovery and decreasing muscle soreness, which helps to strengthen our muscles.
Memory consolidation: If you were ever experiencing issues with something and someone has told you to simply “sleep on the problem”, that person does actually have reasoning behind saying that. Science is showing that during good quality sleep, our brain is actually active in a variety of different ways, during which time, our brains analyze all of the new information we have taken in during the day. Through this method, it strengthens new memories we have formed by storing them into our long term memory and also links different pieces of information together, helping us to get a new perspective or idea about something.
Regulating immune responses: You might have noticed that you were more likely to catch a cold during periods of poor sleep, which has been proven to be due to your body producing lower levels of beneficial cytokines and antibodies because of sleeping less. With sleep, our adaptive immunity is strengthened and our reactions to vaccines are also less severe.
Growth and general development: This is especially important for young children and teens whose bodies and brains are still growing and developing rapidly. Sleep is crucial not only for physical growth of our body or different body organs, but also for the general development of our cognitions, emotions and regulation of our energy levels.
Additionally, several studies have shown that consistently getting less than 8 hours of sleep per night, greatly increases your risk for the following medical conditions:
Obesity
Diabetes
Cardiovascular disease
Immune infections and colds
🥦 Balanced Nutrition
The reasons for including nutrition in this list are plenty, where food is the core fuel with which we supply our body for its proper and optimal functioning.
Here is a list of all of the aspects that nutrition is essential for:
Weight management: By making the appropriate food choices, we can prevent ourselves from gaining unnecessary weight.
Immune system: Eating adequate levels of micro nutrients such as vitamins and minerals is crucial for supporting our immune system and generating enough antibodies to fight off infections.
Protecting against chronic conditions: Scientists are recognizing more and more beneficial ways for how nutrition can help managing and decreasing levels of serious chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or hypertension.
Mental wellbeing: There are certain foods which are recognized as being especially brain beneficial and even have neuro-protective properties. Some of these foods are high omega 3 fish such as salmon, blue/ purple colored fruits like blueberries and dark leafy greens such as spinach.
General growth: For children and young adults who are still growing, nutrition and adequate calories are instrumental in making them grow tall and develop properly.
Having good energy levels: Of course it is also crucial to mention that food provides us not only with nutrients, but also with calories which gives us energy to continue living, functioning and developing as human beings.
Below is a condensed list of general ****guidelines for good nutrition:
Include a variety of high fibre whole foods (fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds etc.)
Eat high quality protein sources like meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy foods and also add in plant based sources of protein. Avoid eating very fatty meats frequently**.**
Reduce intake of saturated and especially trans fats and include more healthy fats and oils
Drink lots of water
Don't over do it with salt
Avoid excessive alcohol consumption
Limit intake of processed sugars and fizzy drinks
💪🏼 Regular Movement
At at least some point in our lives, we have all heard that regular exercise is beneficial for us and that we should strive to be more active individuals. Science has found many proven health benefits experienced by those who make physical activity a core component of their life.
Cognitive benefits:
Improved thinking abilities and memory retention
Increased mental agility and sharpness as you age
Boosts your mood and energy levels, helping to improve your mental wellbeing
Helping with stress management and anxiety relief
Physical benefits:
Directly improving weight loss or weight management
Decreasing your chances of developing heart disease and type II diabetes
Protecting against a variety of common cancers such as bladder, breast, colon, and kidney
Exercise especially weight training is known for increasing muscle mass but also for improving bone density, which for older people is helpful for preventing osteoporosis and bone injuries
Boosting your skin health, due to alleviating stress levels which could otherwise cause breakouts
Helping to deepen and improve your sleep at night, by making your more tired by nightfall from having expended energy
Increasing our longevity and lifespan, while also improving the quality of our life, by keeping our health in check
In the case that you want to start a new exercise routine or have trouble keeping up with your current one, here are some tips to help you out:
Choose to do an activity which you enjoy (This will help keep you consistent)
Start small and build up
Set up environmental cues and reminders (This will make it a effortless part of your routine)
Join exercise challenges or find a exercise buddy for keeping yourself accountable
Track your progress and results (This will provide motivation in times of need)
😌 Effective Stress Management
Stress is a normal a part of life and everyone experiences it in some respect. The issue with stress is once it becomes chronic and we find that we can not mentally “switch off”, which causes a variety of health issues for us, both mental and physical.
Below are some physical and mental health issues associated with chronic stress:
Physical:
Weight gain
Problems sleeping and general insomnia
Digestive issues
Muscle tension and pain
Increased incidence of chronic diseases (heart conditions, high blood, pressure, stroke, type II diabetes)
Poor immune system defense
Loss in libido
Mental health
Depression
Headaches and migraines
Anxiety and constant worrying
Forgetfulness and disorganization
Lack of focus and concentration
Being more prone to viewing things pessimistically
Low energy levels
However, the good thing is that you have the option to lower and regulate your stress levels and having the option to choose how you will respond to a stressful event. If you are struggling with how to calm yourself down, below are some ideas for how you can alleviate some stress:
Physical activity (genuinely helps)
Meditation
Listening to your favorite music
Journaling and writing down your worries (Allows you to put it in perspective)
Taking a bath or shower
Reading a book you like
Doing a hobby you enjoy
Spend time with people or family members which elevates your mood
Spend time in nature
Focus on your breathing
Taking a nap if that is what you need
👭 Supportive Social Life
Although a rather underestimated aspect of health science, having a good and sportive social life, which includes our friends, family, colleagues and romantic partners is crucial to our wellbeing and feelings of general life satisfaction.
Having a good social life helps with the following aspects:
Improved mental health by making you feel happier
Increase levels of self esteem which can further increase your social connections and opportunities
Promotes a sense of safety and belonging, which can ease anxiety
People give a sense of meaning and purpose to the work you do, helping to keep you motivated
People who have more vibrant social lives score lower in likeliness to develop dementia
Lowering our stress levels by having a good laugh with others
Others around you can help to encourage you to change or avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits such as a poor diet or drinking too much
People can also help us with coping and dealing with past traumas and difficult situations
If you are someone who wants to increase their social circle of friends, try out some of the following ideas for how you can attract more fun social opportunities into your life:
Asking a friend to meet up for coffee or a meal
Hosting a small lunch or dinner for people
Joining an activity club with people who have common interests
Joining a class/ course/ workshop
Doing volunteering work
Going to parties and nightlife
Focus on the quality of your relations instead of having hundreds of friends, most of which don't know you very well
Turning off your computer and saying yes to more social opportunities
Being the one who reaches out to others (don't wait and expect others to always contact you)
Set respectful boundaries in relationships
Be honest and supportive of to others, as people will reciprocate that behavior back to you
I hope that you enjoyed this post and that I was able to offer a simplified view of how to best take care of your health.
Thank you so much for reading.
The Power Of Self Reflecting
I am noticing more and more the importance of taking time to reflect on the activities which we do, why we do them and to check in with ourselves in terms of how we feel. Self reflections can especially be ignored and underused when we are in particularly busy periods of our life, where we do the majority of things on “autopilot” mode instead of taking some more time to think more deeply about how we spend pour time.
Wether you are currently in a busy period of your life or one that is filled with more time and calmness, I think that reflecting is a very good tool to use, especially if you feel unsure wether you think you are making the right choices and generally moving in the right direction.
I hope you enjoy this one 💭
BENEFITS OF REFLECTING
More Self Awareness
When we self reflect, we center in on ourselves in the current moment which produces a state of calmness. With this opportunity to reflect, we become more aware of how we feel, what we want and who do we want to be/ what we want to be striving for.
We are able to notice our core values which should ideally guide our intentions and decision making, as well as separate our emotions from our thoughts, allowing us to look at various situations and experiences more objectively and rationally.
Better Decision Making
With more awareness of our values and having a better idea of what we want more or less of in our life, we are able to make better longterm decisions which will both benefit us and others, while also not instilling a sense of regret in us by having make a rushed and regretful decision.
Furthermore, we also become more aware of the decision making process itself instead of only focusing on the final decision - the outcome. In this way, we are able to stop ourselves before we make a rash choice while also being open minded and honest about how we feel about the process which will help bring more objectivity.
Align Your Actions With Your Intentions
Once we start making better decisions for ourselves, we are on the way of living more true to ourselves and who we are. Our actions start feeling more aligned with the true version of ourselves which is an empowering feeling as we are no longer compromising our self or living based on how others want us to be.
Improved Critical Thinking
When we take the time to reflect, we are able to give more space and time to our thoughts and feelings which allows us to look at a situation without objectively without being influenced by excessive emotions. During this stage, we are able to analyze and learn from our behavior, noticing what we did right and what is something we should work on for the future.
It allows us to be aware and mindful of ourselves, our behavior and the things we say, as often times these actions impact the relationships we hold with others and ourselves in ways we may not even be aware of.
Furthermore, as we have more time to think through our actions and thoughts, we are more likely to recognize the root issue of a problem much faster and be able to implement suitable changes more effectively.
Increased Personal Growth
Through personal reflection we are consistently learning about ourselves and adjusting our life according to what we learn about ourselves. By becoming more educated about your own thoughts, needs, wants and feelings, you are able to speed up your personal growth journey through the discussed decision making benefits and appropriate critical thinking skills.
You are able to make a better and longer lasting contribution to yourself and in turn also others, by being more mindful of what activities you need to do more or less of in order to become that better version of yourself which you are striving for. You increase your chances of learning from your past mistakes and being more open minded to new perspectives of looking at topics.
25 REFLECTION QUESTIONS & PROMPTS
Below I have included some questions you can use for doing your personal reflection just to make the process a bit more easier.
What are you currently feeling?
Where in your body do you feel these emotions?
Why do you think you feel this way?
Are you happy feeling these feelings or do you want to change them?
Which thoughts do you keep thinking of?
Why do you keep thinking of them?
What are some opportunities for growth and learning you currently have?
What is currently challenging to you?
What do you keep holding on to which you should let go of?
What are some things that you are currently doing and not doing, which you would regret in the future if you did or didn't continue doing?
What are some of your top priorities right now?
What is something in your work and personal life that you are currently doing and is working well?
What are the biggest obstacles you are facing right now?
What is the best way of how to overcome those obstacles?
What is your ideal self like?
What are things which you are striving for?
How can you treatment yourself and others better?
How can you improve your relationship with others?
Identify the most common activities you do in a day and identify why you do them
What is one skill that would help you out a lot right now if you learned it?
What am I proud of myself for?
What is something you did or handled well in the past week/ month?
What can you learn from your past mistakes or negative experiences?
When ever you are faced with making a difficult decision, ask yourself what are the pros and cons of it and the potential opportunities or fallbacks which may get overlooked
If you continue down the path you are currently headed doing what you do, where do you see yourself in 1, 5 and 10 years time?
5 STEPS TO MAKING SELF REFLECTION A HABIT
Determine the following points first before starting:
Time of the day/ week/ month you will do your personal reflection (morning, evening?)
For how long you will do it for when you do it (10 minutes, 30 minutes?)
Format of reflection (digital or paper?)
Wether you will journal based on free flowing questions that come to mind or use a list of journaling prompts to help you out
Put your journal or device in a convenient place where it is easy for you to start reflecting
Try sticking to the habit for a week and see wether you like it and what would you change about this routine to make it more suitable to you (adapt it)
Track your habit progress and consistency for keeping yourself motivated
Reward yourself every so often for sticking to a habit which is beneficial to you
I hope that you found this article interesting and also useful for when you do your own personal reflection. I urge you to not underestimate the importance of self reflecting and see for yourself how it can improve your life and clarity behind your thoughts, feelings and actions.
Thanks for reading 💛
Listening To Your Intuition
Recently the topic of intuition grabbed my attention, as I feel it can be a very useful subject, however it is not talked about nearly enough as it should be.
Most of us are vaguely aware of our intuition and what it is, but often times we just disregard it, ignore it and say that is is better to always listen to our heads than our hearts. But is that right?
This is what we will be exploring in todays post, as well as how to become more aware of your intuition so that you can make the best use of it.
Enjoy the read <3
WHAT IS INTUITION?
Have you ever had a moment where you felt like something wasn't quite right, but you couldn't explain why or how? This is our intuition at play, a hidden force or instinct that guides us through life.
Intuition can be defined as our innate inclination for a particular behavior. It is often referred to as a “gut feeling” because often we can feel the innate sensation in our gut region.
In other words, intuition is a natural tool that allows us to know something without prior analytical reasoning. It is based on past experiences that allow us to form an conscious (although sometimes not noticed) reaction or decision, such as what we feel like having for lunch today.
There is often a battle of rational thinking and intuitive thinking, but if we can use both of them to the best of our ability, it can greatly benefit our decision making abilities and our levels of happiness in life.
WHY IS YOUR INTUITION USEFUL?
Now we understand that each of us have intuition, where some of us are better are listening to it than others, but in any case it can be a very useful tool because our intuition is unique to each of us.
Intuition is grounded in the present moment, meaning that it directs us towards what feels right to us in the current moment.
This allows us to make decisions that are likely to feel more in line with our true values and intentions. Of course when it comes to decision making, there has to be a certain level of thought or rationality put behind them, but listening to our intuition is also a must.
With better decision making, we are able to feel a greater level of happiness because we are making the right decision for us that feel right to us.
TUNING IN TO YOUR INTUITION
Listen To Yourself
Occasionally spend some time in silence to listen to yourself. Listen to both your body and mind, how do they feel? What are they trying to tell you? What do you want? What do you actually need?
These are all important questions to ask yourself. The answers are important because they are unique to you. If no answers come immediately, that is totally normal, keep pondering those questions over time and answers will emerge in some form or another.
Raise Awareness
Once you have taken some time to listen to your thoughts and emotions, become increasingly aware of them. Notice how they feel, how you fee about your own thoughts, think about why you react the way you do. Question everything you do and try to understand why.
Meditation is a great way to gradually become more aware of yourself as you are focused on yourself here and now in the present.
Additionally journaling and various visualization exercises are also useful in raising your intuition as they give you time to realize your wants and needs, who you are and identify your core values in life which lead you.
Experiment More
Next, take time during your everyday or during weekends to escape your usual routine. Try something new that you have been wanting to try for a while now. Perhaps a long lost hobby, a forgotten interest or a newly discovered passion. Notice how you feel about doing these things. Do you enjoy it? If not, why?
Take this time to also lean into any neglected interests you may have, that may not have been expressed before. This refresh might just be what you need to re-ignite your intuition.
Find something that you enjoy and something that feels right to you. Notice how you feel. What does your intuition say?
Find Inspiration
Surround yourself with inspiring media, people, works of art, music, podcasts, books and information. Learn new things and try out something that grabs your attention.
By finding something that inspires you, you not only raise your level of creativity, but it also excites you and urges you to keep experimenting, learning and following your heart with what guides your interest- Your intuition.
I hope you found this article on your intuition both interesting and useful, as I am trying to deliver this information to you in the most compact yet interesting and useful way.
If you have any specific ideas for that you would want me to write about, let me know on my Instagram (thriving_taya)
Thanks again for reading :)
Finding Your Ikigai
A while back, I had read the book called “ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life”, written by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia, which inspired me to write a couple of words on the topic of the so called “ikigai”, in terms of what it is and how it can help us improve and reshape our lives.
I enjoyed the book due to its simplistic style of writing and it was also a short yet impactful read so I would suggest it to plenty of other people for them to give it a go.
The main idea behind the book and the concept of ikigai is about helping you find your true purpose in life, a purpose that feels aligned with your interests and how those can help the world around you.
So if that sounds like something you would like to learn more about - which is something that I think anyone could benefit from - then you have come to the right place.
WHAT IS AN IKIGAI?
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means your ‘reason for being.’ ‘Iki’ in Japanese means ‘life,’ and ‘gai’ describes value or worth. Your ikigai is your life purpose or what truly lights you up on the inside. It’s essentially what brings you joy and inspires you to get out of bed every day.
It’s also important to highlight that the traditional Japanese philosophy focuses on finding your purpose in life while the adapted westernized version of the ikigai has made it a method of finding your dream career.
Japanese psychologist Michiko Kumano (2017) has said that ikigai is a state of wellbeing that arises from devotion to activities one enjoys, which also brings a sense of fulfillment.
The Westernized version of ikigai says that your dream career has to include the following aspects:
What you love
What you’re good at
What you can be paid for
What the world needs
A visual representation of what makes up your ikigai
WHY BOTHER DISCOVERING YOUR IKIGAI
Gives you a greater sense of what you want in life
Better decision making (More time and money saved)
Makes it easier to say no to things and to say yes to the right opportunities
Better use of your time if you roughly know what you are after
Finding the best balance between doing what you love, what is useful to the world and what you are also good at
Can make meaningful contributions to the world sooner
Can increase your expertise and understanding in a field by focusing more on it
Being able to plan ahead for potential future struggles and issues that may arise in your field
HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR IKIGAI?
STEP 1: Answer the 4 fundamental questions
What you love:
What are your interests and passions (broad and niche)?
What are your favorite past time activities/ hobbies?
What do you enjoy/ not enjoy about your work and hobbies?
Do you feel a sense of being absorbed/ flow state during your work and hobbies?
Do you feel excited about your work and hobbies?
What you’re good at:
What are your top personal strengths and skills?
Do people ever come to you for advice with what you do?
Do you ever receive compliments for your work?
Do you find that that you excel at what you do?
Are your hobbies and profession intuitive to you or does it take more time to learn?
What you can be paid for:
Are other people making a career/ getting paid for the same work and hobbies you do?
Do you currently make a good living/Will you eventually make a good living from the work you do?
Have you noticed people wanting to buy what you do or make?
Is there a healthy level of competition regarding your work and hobbies?
What the world needs
Would you say your work and hobbies are in a high demand currently? What about the future?
Picture the next year, 10 years, and 100 years — will your work still be valuable?
Are you solving either a social, economic, or environmental problem?
STEP 2: Narrow it down
Based on your answers, write down a list of career opportunities that sound exciting and interesting to you and write down how your ideal day would look like (What you would be doing)
STEP 3: Learn about it
Learn about those career paths either through reading more about that specific career, educating yourself through online platforms or by asking someone who has the job you want to do, how their day looks like and what kind of benefits and struggles they face.
STEP 4: Try it out
After learning, put your ideal career/ ideal day into practice. Try it out and see wether that is actually something that you enjoy doing? Would you do it everyday? Would it be too intense or would you get bored?
Ask yourself what did you enjoy about it? What was less enjoyable and why?
Also consider how could you tweak your ideal day/ career to make it even more enjoyable to you?
Building Confidence And Self Belief
Many of us would like to feel a bit more confident and have a healthier levels of self esteem, wether that means having a greater trust in our capabilities or simply just feeling confident and secure in our own skin.
What ever the reason, real confidence can make anyone shine from the inside out and show your real beauty and nature to the outside world.
So how exactly do we start building more confidence and why do we sometimes loose confidence in the first place.
Lest take a look at those questions.
Happy reading to you :)
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CONFIDENCE?
Based on Psychology today, they have defined confidence as “a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life's challenges and to succeed—and the willingness to act accordingly”.
Many of us would like to be more confident in our everyday lives, and find more trust in our own capabilities and knowledge about a given situation.
Being confident has many benefits to it, additionally to being seen as an attractive trait, as it allows other people to be more at ease if we are the more confident one there.
Additionally, confidence is crucial in the first impression that we form in others while dictating our ability to deal with pressure and various challenges in our life.
The point is not to be over confident in our selves, as that can leave the impression on people that we are too self centered and portray ourselves as being the perfect individual. On the contrary, we should strive to be confident and have a good level of self esteem, just enough so that we feel in control fo what we are doing and in that way make more progress in both our personal and professional lives.
WHAT CAUSES LOW LEVELS OF CONFIDENCE?
We were raised by people who were often too overly critical or reprimanding on us
Our caregivers limited our expression and exploration as a child
Feeling rejected by our peers or friends
Having difficulties transitioning into the societies constructed idea of "adulthood"
Representation of the “ideal standard” in modern media (For example, our appearance)
10 STEPS TO BUILDING CONFIDENCE
Figure out the origin: Where does your lack of confidence come from? Why is is there? When did you first start feeling unconfident?
Start with getting (small) things done: Making progress allows you to see that you are capable doing whatever you set your mind to. These tasks do not have to be large or highly demanding, start small and build your way up. You are more capable than you think.
Track your progress: This will allows you to both measure your success and also feel a greater sense of proudness for how far you have come.
Write down a list of your past achievements: This can be a fun way to look back and be proud of how much you have improved and grown as an individual.
Write down your personal strengths: Analyzing your strengths is in general a great thing to do and identify in yourself, but doing this will allows you to see all the ways in which you are unique and all of the beautiful contributions you can make to the world with your abilities.
Do what you promise yourself to do: Don't let yourself down. Consistency is key to anything, especially when it comes to building your confidence.
Surround yourself with positivity: This can come in the form of people or media, but either way it is useful to do this, as it keeps you motivated, uplifted and makes you feel good about yourself.
Don't compare yourself to others: This is something we all do at some points, but it is important to only compare ourselves to past self, as comparing ourselves to others makes no sense if each of us is unique, has had a different way of growing up and has different personalities and talents. We are all unique, so focusing on ourselves will really let that shine through.
Embrace your true self: Embrace your hobbies, interest passions and what makes you, you. Take advantage that you are unique and don't be shy to express your true self. Learn as much as you can about yourself and the world around you and use it to better the world.
Reward yourself: In order to keep the process of building confidence sustainable, make sure to reward yourself every so often with something you appreciate, as all of your efforts will surely pay off in the end.
How To: Revising For Final Exams
Exam season is right before the corner for most of us students, if we are not already fully in it, which is why for this month I wanted to focus on the topic of studying and what are the best ways of making revision material and remembering information.
This can be applicable to all of us, no matter wether we are still in school ourselves, as we learn new things all the time throughout our life, so being efficient at out learning is a skill that all of us can benefit from.
I have split this post into first listing some general advice about how to study - Methods and skills that aways stick - and then towards the end I touch upon the different types of revision methods there are and which ones are most effective in order to maximize your learning.
Wishing you happy reading ahead.
GENERAL ADVICE
1. Making a plan
Starting early: Cramming for your exams only really works for your short term memory, but learning should be something you do for your long term memory and retention.
Prioritization: Learn to prioritize which exams are coming up first (most important to revise for) and what topics would be best to revise for in that exam.
Why bother to make a plan: Planning allows you to space out your revision across several different days/weeks so that you do not feel overwhelmed and you are making sure that your brain does not forget the information by recalling it across different time periods.
Learning based on the syllabus: It is important to know what topics will be assessed on the exam and what kind of questions you can expect to find. The syllabus will help you identify these things, to make your revision most effective.
Making a revision time table: This is optional but quite a popular option, as having a timetable can keep you on track and keep you accountable, but may be hard to follow through for some.
2. Revision tips
Doing past examination papers: This is quite an obvious one, but by doing them, timing yourself and then correcting them you get a sense of what areas you still need to work on and where your strengths lie.
Identify specific areas of weakness: This should be done for each subject and preferably also for each chapter/ topic, so that we can really pin point what we need to work on .
Practice with specific topic questions: Challenge yourself with the topics that you struggle with. Try to identify what is challenging about it for you and how you can explain something in a more simple way.
Attend review sessions: This a great opportunity to ask some final questions or resolve some confusions before the exams, as well as get in additional practice in.
Staying focused: Everyone has a way by which they stay focused best. If you need help identifying some other methods of how to stay focused, I have written a previous post on the topic here.
3. Staying motivated
Identify things you are looking forward to: This is something that I personally do all the time, as it makes me have something to be excited about in the near future that keeps me pushing and most importantly keeps me motivated. I suggest making a list of those things and then keeping them in a visible place like on a sticky note on your computer, desk or wall or even having a digital note on your desktop.
Revision accountability partner: You might want to do this with another friend or classmate revising for their exams, as this way you both remind and keep each other motivated to stay on track with your revision.
Surround yourself with positivity: Positivity can come in the form of viewing positive media like inspiring posts, videos or even keeping up to date with people who inspire you. This again can help you get through dark times of stress, by allowing some positive light into your life.
Shifting your perspective about learning: Whenever you are learning something new or revision something you have already seen, I want you to shift your attention from memorizing information to actually understandingit. Understanding information means you can retain in for the long term and actually make use of that information, which makes studying that much more worth it.
Making studying as fun as possible for yourself: Some people would disagree about putting the words “studying” and “fun” in the same sentence, but as studying will likely require a large chunk of your time and energy, why not try to make the best of it and try to make it fun for yourself? When you are faced with something you do not like to revise for, ask yourself why is that and how can you change your approach to make it more fun. This small shift in perspective can be a compete game changer to your studies and life long learning.
Examples of how you can make it more fun: Using more diagrams or colors in your notes, alternating between handwritten and typed notes, using a presentation format that involved teaching, listening to appropriate music, studying in a different location or with a group of friends.
4. Taking care of yourself
Good sleep: Good sleep should in my opinion be first priority as sleep is greatly associated with having good energy levels during the day as well as increasing our memory retention of whatever we were learning. You can read more about the benefits of sleep here, as well as how to have better sleep yourself.
Taking breaks: Often underestimated, but just like everyone else, your body too needs breaks and rest from working, so if you feel yourself loosing concentration or becoming tired, take a break for some time. Get in some movement or perhaps even take a nap if you feel like you need some additional rest.
Go for some fresh air: Take some time, preferably every day to go outside a little bit and wake up your body with some fresh air as this will reenergize you and give some time for your brain to unplug itself temporarily.
Eating well: Do not underestimate the importance of eating well for your revision, which first means eating enough for your needs and secondly eating right (try avoiding too many junk foods and highly sugary foods). Try incorporating foods that will give you more long lasting energy such as whole-grains and fruit that contain more fibre and other essential nutrients.
When do you revise best?: Another underestimated aspect is finding out what time of the day you actually find you have the best focus and when is studying most effective for you? Is it in the morning, midday, some time in the afternoon or late into the evenings. Design your studying around these prime times, just make sure to get enough sleep :)
5. Other advice
Revising with other people: This may or may not work for you, but sometimes revising with other people around can make studying more fun and effective for you, as you can ask each other questions or collaborate on design some study resources.
Identifying a specific study spot: This spot can be at home, in school or even elsewhere, just the point is that you want your brain to start associating at specific spot with work and revising, so that it becomes easier for you to get into the zone of being focused.
Consider listening to music/ other sounds: Some people prefer to work in complete silence others may prefer all different type of music and some may like to listen to some nature based sounds. Find what works for you, and see if if listening to music gives you an extra boost with studying.
Staying organized: I believe that it is very useful to stay organized with various things such as files, handouts, and past papers, as staying organized with your things means that it becomes much more easier for you to access and find any things you may need, later on.
EFFECTIVE REVISION METHODS
You might have heard people say that Active recall is the most effective way to revise, so what is it actually all about?
What is it: Active recall is a method of recalling information in which you actively use your memory to remember a piece of information.
By recalling a piece of information, you strengthen that neural link in your brain that connects and stores the information, which makes it easier to remember and later access that information again.
While active recall may take more effort than just rereading your notes for example, it is most effective for your long term memory.
Examples of active recall for exam revision:
Doing past papers without having the mark scheme near
Testing your knowledge with flashcards
Explaining/ teaching a topic to someone else
Writing the topic down based on your memory (Can be on paper, a whiteboard or even electronic)
Summarizing a topic on a page or two from memory
INEFFECTIVE REVISION METHODS
I also wanted to include some revision methods that while being commonly used, are actually not that effective in consolidating knowledge based on memory studies. These types of methods usually only work for our short term memory, which makes them popular cramming methods.
But like I mentioned earlier, if we switch our perspective on learning from memorizing to understanding, we get to keep that knowledge forever, which means that it makes more sense for us to use active recall so that we can continue renewing that knowledge.
Examples of ineffective study methods:
Rereading notes
Highlighting too much
Cramming too much information at once (being overwhelmed)
FINAL WORDS
With this condensed guide I wanted to offer you the best advice and most effective methods when it comes to revising and learning information, so that you don't waste your time doing things that at the end of the day, don't really make anything worthwhile stick.
I hope that some of the things I have mentioned and talked about can help ease your feeling for any upcoming exams or challenges and that they fore mostly make you feel well prepared and confident, and help to incorporate the habit of learning as a life long activity.
Getting Back On Track
Sometime it happens that we fall behind on things and we get off track with habits, rituals or other things that we previously did consistently.
It is normal to occasionally break this pattern of consistency, and to be honest, the idea of keeping a perfect balance at all times, is flaunted at best, because there will always be unplanned things that come for us and change our environment. Wether that be a increasing workload, feeling unwell for a period of time, not adapting well to the changes the pandemic brought about or not getting the result you were hoping for, we can not account for everything.
All of these occurrences are unpredictable and often also out of our control, which as a result can result in us falling out of our previous practices due to getting discouraged or loosing motivation to try again.
Because this is such a common topic where all of us experience set back and failures at some point, I wanted to write this post in the hopes of reframing the idea of having a perfect balance of everything and give you some practical advice on how you can get back on track with what truly matters to you.
Happy reading <3
THINGS TO NOTE
Everyone experiences set backs, failures and makes mistakes at some point. It is normal.
Be kind to yourself after you experience a set back, accept it and don't be angry or harsh on yourself. instead look at it critically and see why it happened the way it did and wether you could do something to prevent it happening in the future.
It is more important how you get back up after a set back and how quickly, instead of wether you always win at everything at first go. Learning to get back up after you get broken down shows you are able to learn from your mistakes better and that you are more persistent as a person.
Turn to gratitude: Look at your failure from a positive perspective, in terms of everything you have learnt from this experience and how it has shaped you into the person you currently are
Focus on things that are within your control, instead of feeling down about things that were out of your control in the first place. Put things into the correct perspective and only then, you can judge them.
10 WAYS OF GETTING BACK ON TRACK
Determine what you are currently falling back on
This may be certain habits or routines you were previously consistent with but not currently.
The reason why it is important to first start with asking what is that we are then able to see wether the things we have been trying to keep consistent with are actually worth it and are the things we actually care about keeping consistent.
Ask yourself what is preventing you from doing those things?
There may be many reasons here, likely some of these reasons will be from your environment (out of your control), while some reasons for hindering your progress may actually be your own cause (in your control)
Here are some examples which you may recognize:
External: Lack of time, lack of a accountability partner, too large of a work load from your school/ work place, tight deadlines
Internal: Lack of interest, poor scheduling, poor time management, lack of focus
What things do you actually want to get back on track with?
In the first part we discussed about writing down the things you are current falling behind on, while here it is time to figure out wether all of those things were beneficial for you to upkeep in the first place or wether you even cared about those habits. There is no point in doing something just because someone tells you to do it without having any internal and intrinsic reason for wanting to do it.
Do things for yourself with your own purpose and intention. If something is no longer relevant or benefiting you, change it up or replace it with something more useful.
Determine how much time you want to spend on those things
This will depend on your own enjoyment of the activity and also how much time you have available in your week or month, so schedule this accordingly.
Perhaps if it has been a while since you did the activity and a longer amount fo time has passed in between, start with baby steps and do the activity for a shorter amount of time in the beginning and then gradually increase that time spent when you build up more a consistent routine.
Determine how often you want to do those things
This can be as little as once a month or as frequent as every day, but this is absolutely necessary to establish before starting since this is the whole concept of routine; to do things regularly and consistently.
Don't force yourself to do too much than you think you can manage right now, but once again build up your frequency with smaller increments to make it a more sustainable process for yourself.
Input your activity into a calendar schedule
You could do this on paper, by printing out or drawing a monthly/ weekly calendar view, or you can use a digital alternative, which to me is more convenient and saves more time in the long run.
By which ever way you choose to do it, this will not only enable you to have a much better grasp of how much time you actually have available but it also simultaneously makes it easier for you to keep consistent at whatever you are doing, since by seeing it visually placed in your calendar it makes it more likely for you to stick to it and not forget about it.
Set up your environment accordingly
Your environment is what you surround yourself, what you see and what kind of energy a place carries, wether that be chaotic, disorganized and without intention, to being a clear and distraction free environment where you can focus when you need to.
I am not telling you to completely clear up your desk or have a complete room makeover if you work well in a more clutter filled environment, I just want to emphasize that it has to be an environment where you can actually work and be motivated to work without getting distracted every five minutes.
Design your environment, your room, your desk or the room where you plan on doing this habit or routine, in a way where you can really use that space for what it is meant to be used for. This can help you to start associating a certain space with a certain type of energy or activity, helping you get into the right head space much faster.
Have accountability:
Set a reminder on your device or have a accountability partner who can either remind you of doing that task at a certain time and sustaining your motivation for doing it, in times where you need a push to keep going.
For example if you want to get back into the habit of exercising, perhaps starting out with a friend or partner who already regularly exercises is a good alternative, as they will likely keep you accountable and also motivated to keep going, and the best part is that you can do the activity together, so its more fun and makes it much more likely for you to stick to the activity in the end.
Stick to your schedule for a month and see what happens
Now that you are at the stage where you figured out what habits and routines you want to reestablish, when you want to do them and figured out how you will keep yourself consistent, its time to put the activity to the test.
This means that you can try the activity (routine, habit etc.) for a week or even better, a couple of weeks, for you to see any faults in your plan or find ways in which to improve it so that it will work even better for you.
Perhaps you were too ambitious with how often you want it to do it per week or maybe you underestimated how much you actually enjoy the activity so you want to increase your time spent on it. All of this is fine and is very useful information to yourself. Use this information and integrate it into your plan so that you adapt your plan to your needs and preferences because after all, you are doing this for yourself, so if it doesn't work for you then whats the point?
Reflect on your progress and adjust
After trial and error and readjusting your plan structure, take some time at the end of this period to sit down and think about your little experiment and reflect on it by answering some of the following questions:
What did I learn about myself in this time?
What could I do differently next time?
Was my initial approach correct? If not, in what ways could I change it?
In what ways did I overestimate/ underestimate my own current capabilities and time constraints?
What was something I enjoyed in my experiment and what was something I didn't find so enjoyable?
With this information I want to conclude this mini guide on how to get out of a rut and start rebuilding your routines and establishing constant habits once again, to get yourself back onto the right track.
I hope that you found some of this information useful and I had a fun time writing and putting down my thoughts on this topic
Feeling Tired? Here's How To Naturally Boost your Energy Levels
Perhaps if you are reading this you may find yourself wanting to have more energy during the day, or more specifically, to have more stable energy levels throughout the day.
It is normal to have dips and rises in our energy during a course of a day, however, there are many things that are within our control and are actually taking away more energy from us, than what is normal.
I discuss these energy-draining factors below and also offer a simplified and practical view on how to boost your energy through natural and accessible methods - Because I think that everyone can benefit from having more disposable energy during the day.
Happy reading.
FACTORS AFFECTING OUR ENERGY LEVELS
There are a couple of main factors for which we can be sure that they affect our energy levels. These factors are written below and are further expanded on in the next section.
If we can begin to control these factors, we are much more likely to end up with stable and consistent energy throughout the day.
Sleep: Both length and quality
Diet: What you eat, how much of something you eat, and when you eat
Stress management
Physical activity and movement
Illness or feeling unwell
Drinking enough water
Consumption of caffeine
Smoking and alcohol
Our posture
Depth and rate of our breathing
LACK OF ENERGY: CAUSES & REMEDIES
1. SLEEP
Sleep is something that we often underestimate the importance of, but after a night of just a couple of hours of sleep with an early wake up the next morning, we feel groggy and underslept, and only then do we wish we went to bed earlier and spent more time sleeping.
The amount of sleep that you need will mainly vary based on your age, your health status, and your physical activity levels.
On average, here is the amount of time you should spend sleeping per night:
6-13 years olds: 9-11 hours
14-17 years olds: 8-10 hours
18-25 years olds: 7-9 hours
26-64 years olds: 7-9 hours
With sleep both the quality and quantity of our sleep matters as the quantity ensures that we go through all the stages of sleep in a given night and the quality is responsible for sleeping deeply enough.
But as it turns out the wide majority of the global population is underslept and frequently experiences poor sleep. For example, across the world, about 37% of adults ages 20-39 report short sleep duration, and roughly 35% of adults in the US, say that they sleep for less than 7 hours per night. Furthermore, another pressing issue is insomnia, where now across the world, between 10 and 30% of adults frequently struggle with chronic insomnia.
Overall, sleep affects many more things than just our energy levels where it is also heavily linked with negative changes in our emotions, mood, cardiovascular health, memory, and our immune system.
If you are interested to find out more about sleep and how to sleep better, check out this post here
IMPLEMENTATION STRATGEIS:
Before going to bed, try having a set nighttime routine to cue your brain into going to sleep
Relax and calm yourself before sleep
Optimize your bedroom environment: Dim and warm the lights, cool the room temperature, and limit loud sound
Have a consistent sleep and wake up schedule
Include physical activity during your day
Limit caffeine consumption in the afternoon
Reduce exposure to blue light in the evening and increase exposure to natural light during the day
2. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Even just from an evolutionary point of view, humans are not designed to sit for several hours in one sitting, we are made to move. It is crucially important to fit in movement during our day every day, as sitting down for extended periods of time without standing up in between, has been correlated with poorer cardiovascular health, back pain, type 2 diabetes, and potentially also various forms of cancer.
The point here is that you do not need to do extended periods of vigorous exercise to feel any of the benefits, as even just a 30-minute walk can completely change around your mood and energy levels. It is even better if each day you manage to go out to get some fresh air and expose your skin to some sunshine for a bit.
In terms of why exercise can improve our energy levels, it is that doing more physical activity has been shown to increase the number of mitochondria in certain cells, which means that we are able to have a greater respiration rate and thus produce more energy. Additionally, during exercise, our body naturally releases hormones of happiness, also known as endorphins, which work to raise our mood and in turn also our energy throughout the day.
Perhaps a less commonly mentioned aspect, but people who do regular exercise, have also been shown to have better posture, which can otherwise lead to issues such as back or neck pain, as well as disrupted digestion.
IMPLEMENTTION STRATGIES:
Aim to do at least 30 minutes a day of some form of physical activity per day
Once you have been sitting down for long periods of time, aim to stand up or readjust your posture. Perhaps if you have the time and space, try doing some stretches or going for a short walk, which should help with adjusting your posture
Try different forms of movement and stick to what you like: Walking, cycling, running, dancing, yoga, weight training, hiking, swimming, tennis, basketball, etc.
When working sitting down, try and stand up every 20minutes or so and get some movement
Set daily movement goals (Eg: The number of steps or distance you want to walk)
3. FOOD AND DRINKS
I’m pretty sure that most of us by now know just how important food is and how it can drastically impact just about every aspect of our health and wellbeing - Including our energy levels.
You can imagine food as a simple fuel source for your body, whereby if you fuel your body with the food it’s designed to eat, your body will reward you with better and more stable energy levels. Eat real food, limit processed “food” and keep things in moderation, and very likely your energy will show an increase.
While this idea of healthy eating may sound simple in theory, when it comes to real-life it can often be more complex, because nowadays there is more processed food available than ever before, making junk “food” more convenient, affordable, and accessible wherever we go. Because of this, it is that much more important we take care of what we eat and be mindful of what we are fueling our bodies with.
Excessive consumption of highly processed food such as regularly consuming fast food, sugary sodas, and desserts, and snacks with lots of added sugar has been increasingly linked with poorer cardiovascular health, which puts you more in danger later on of developing type II diabetes and obesity. Furthermore, these medical conditions can lead to other unwanted health issues such as poorer oral health, more inflammation in your body, and a greater risk for the development of various types of cancers.
As a general recommendation, limit your intake of highly processed food that is full of chemicals and artificial additives that in the long term, don’t bring many benefits to your body at all - apart from your taste buds. Try incorporating more foods in their whole food form, and try making more meals at home by yourself, since that way you not only save yourself money from takeouts but also learn to budget your groceries better and have more control in terms of what you put in your food.
IMPLEMENTAITON STRATEGIES
Focus on eating natural and whole grains and limit processed food
Avoid excessive added sugar consumption
Eating enough calories for your needs
Drink more water during the day, especially if you are more physically active
Aim to eat at regular intervals
Aim to space out your meals into smaller portions throughout the day
Eating larger meals can often lead to feeling heavy after eating
Try to not eat too late at night as that can interfere with your sleep
Incorporate more fruits and vegetable into your diet with a higher water content
Limit alcohol consumption
Alcohol is a sedative, which slows down and relaxes our body, by slowing down our brain functioning
4. STRESS MANAGEMENT
You might not be aware of this, but stress and anxiety are very energy-intensive states for our body to maintain, due to having a more rapid heartbeat as a result of the hormone cortisol. From an evolutionary point of view, stress was useful and told our body to respond quickly in times of danger so that we were able to survive.
However modern-day causes of stress are much different than what they used to be because we no longer have to run away from lions and worry about making it through the night. Nowadays, stress arises not from physiological factors, but from psychological factors that are a result of our environment - which is becoming ever more busy and demanding to upkeep.
Stress in the right amounts is actually believe it or not, beneficial to us, however, it is crucial that we maintain stress at healthy levels as otherwise many other aspects of our health can suffer as a result. I have talked more about the dangers of chronic stress in this article here
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
Try different things to calm yourself down: Meditation, exercise, journaling, reading, taking a bath, seeing or talking to a friend (Doing something you love)
Try breathing techniques
Become better at managing your time
Become better at prioritizing your work
Self-reflect: Why am I stressed? Is this in my control? Is this an appropriate reaction?
5. LIFESTYLE CHOICES
In terms of lifestyle choices, I am referring to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, both of which strongly influence our energy levels throughout the day.
Smoking has been around for a long time and even though we are now more aware of the danger of smoking than ever before, people still persist to smoke nonetheless.
Several clinical studies have shown that smoking several cigarettes per day has been associated with the development of various types of cancers, heart disease, a greater risk for stroke, a weaker immune system, type II diabetes, and serious respiratory conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
There are now plenty of available methods such as various cigarette replacements, with which you can try and reduce your smoking.
In terms of alcohol, moderate consumption shows less serious health effects, however excessive drinking of highly alcoholic beverages has been associated with increased levels of inflammation, a rise in blood sugar, and causing a slower response rate.
Alcohol is classed as a sedative drug, which works by slowing down the electrical impulses carried by never cells across our nervous system, which results in a slower reaction time and responsivity.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES:
AIm to reduce your smoking, or even better if you quit completely
Drink alcohol in moderation. If drinking is not your thing, simply don’t feel pressured to do it
How To Make The Best Of 2021
With 2020 now behind us, it is time to start looking ahead into the new year, 2021. In order to make the best of the year ahead, we have to make sure to set our goals, our intentions, and establish a vision in terms of what we want to achieve for this year.
Creating the "best year of our life" is not something we are just given, so we have to input effort and work into making it the "best" we can.
With this blog post, I hope to share some advice on how to make this year great and full of amazing opportunities, how to set goals for the new year, and how to get what we want from this year.
If you want to join me in the journey of making 2021 an amazing year, I encourage you to read on and I hope to fill you with inspiration, motivation, and ideas to power you up for the upcoming year.
You got this :)
SETTING GOALS - THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFOREHAND
Consider the 5 W's:
What resources will I need to achieve my goal?
How long will I need to get to my goal?
Why do I want to achieve this?
How will I achieve this?
When will I make time to work towards my goal?
Have a source of feedback throughout the process of getting to your goal
Identify some potential problems, setbacks, and distractions before starting
Breakdown long complex goals into simpler and shorter ones
Frame the goal as a learning task and not just a performance task
In order to make sure that you get to the end, consider potential outcomes and rewards you will give yourself to motivate your progress further
THE PROCESS OF SETTING GOALS
START WITH SOMETHING GENERAL
I am pretty sure that the majority of you who will be reading this will have already been familiar with the SMART format of setting goals, where the S stands for Specific and requires us to set a goal that is primarily specific and requires us to know exactly what we want to achieve.
However, whenever I try to use this template, I find that trying to be too specific in the beginning is not the right approach because a) I’m either not sure how specific to get about a goal and b) because it actually hinders my process of getting to the goal because it encourages the mentality of having to have everything figured out before you can start moving towards your goal. I am not however saying that this is a problem for everyone, however, if you do find this issue familiar, then I suggest first set a general direction in which you want to go.
For example in the case that you want to be more of a physically active person, say that you want to start running more. This is your general direction. If you instead straightway force yourself to be super specific about what you want to achieve, you are more likely to get stuck before you even start.
GET SPECIFIC
Once you have a general goal in mind, start thinking about the specific of it and begin to narrow down what exactly in that field you want to achieve. This stage is also where you implement all the other aspects of the SMART goal format which are also essential to consider when setting goals.
Other areas to consider:
Measurable: How can I measure my goal? When will I have known that I have achieved my goal?
Attainable: Is this goal realistic with my current circumstances and will I be able to properly manage my time and energy to achieve it?
Relevant: Is the goal that I am heading towards relevant to me and meaningful enough for me? If it is not relevant enough to your personal interests, you are likely to lose motivation in the initial stages
Time-bound: In what time period do I want to achieve my goal? How frequently will I be working towards achieving my goal? On a daily, weekly, monthly basis?
IMPLEMENT
Now that you have made your goal much more specific and you are much more precise in terms of what you want to achieve, start to implement the necessary actions that will take you towards your goal.
Put aside one week to test out and see how you do with sticking with your goal and how realistic it is for you. This is the time where you are able to see all of the faults in your goal and all the other things you did not take into account during your goal-setting process.
For example, if your goal was to read 50 pages of a book each day for 7 days a week, and you found out that realistically you were only able to read that 4 days in a week, then that is a sign that you need to adjust your goal.
The point of this step is not to make you guilty that your goal was set inadequately, but instead to allow you to see the ways in which you have to alter your goal in order to actually achieve it. The theory is often very different than when we practically apply something in our life.
ADJUST AND IMPLEMENT AGAIN
After you have tried to implement the necessary actives on a daily basis you would have likely noticed that more adjustments have to be made to your goal. Maybe you were expecting too much from yourself, maybe too little. Perhaps you did not have enough disposable time in your day, or you simply did not find the goal enough interesting or meaningful by the end of the week.
This is all okay and all should be treated as valuable feedback towards creating more realistic and relevant goals.
Now take these adjustments and changes and input them into your initial goal. Change things around based on your previous experiences, and give things another shot. Set aside once again another couple of days of experimenting and see whether this time you do better with sticking to the goal.
If you find yourself still slipping back and not sticking to what you set out to do, look towards making changes once again or perhaps considering other areas that may be preventing progress, such as maybe not having enough personal discipline to stick with it. This simply means that you have to improve on some other areas before starting out on achieving your goal since you will need some other skills r knowledge in order to get to the finish line.
For example, if your goal is to make 3 drawings per week in order to make you fit for an art competition and you are a beginner at drawing, maybe the issue is not that you don’t have enough time or motivation, but perhaps you would need a little more work on your art technique in order to enhance your drawing ability. This will later then greatly help you out with coming closer to your goal.
GO AND ACHIEVE IT
Once you have made your goal specific, have tried it out in practice, and had made sure to make any necessary alterations to it, now is the time to go out, commit to your goal, and also achieve it.
You will with no doubt encounter setbacks and delays in between the progress, but just keep pushing, adapting, and pursuing your goal. Let your goal be flexible because life around us is constantly changing so make sure to take that into account when moving towards the finish line.
I recommend that you do this exercise with a maximum of 3-5 goals per time because otherwise it just becomes too much to handle and think about, especially if we have already got plenty of other work on our back.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON
What are my top 5 intentions for this year?
What am I going to continue doing?
What do I want to change completely?
What will I do to step out of my comfort zone?
How will I make sure to learn from my future mistakes?
What are the top 3 things I want to accomplish this year in my academic life/ career?
What are the top 3 things I want to accomplish this year for my health and personal wellbeing?
What are the top 3 things I want to accomplish this year in terms of my health and personal interests?
What will be my purpose this year?
Which existing relationships do I want to focus on and strengthen?
What kind of new people do I want to attract into my life?
In what ways will make this year matter to me when I look back?
How will I help and provide value to others?
What personal qualities do I want to strengthen?
What skills do I want to learn?
How will I take care of myself?
What places do I want to visit?
What occasions and opportunities will I say “no” to?
Who will I ask for help and support from?
What kind of person do I want to become next year?
Reflecting On The Year 2020
Although many of us would agree that 2020 certainly was a weird and unpredictable year, full of different setbacks and unimaginable experiences, what f instead of dreading 2020, e decided to look back on the year of 2020 and see all the ways in which we have grown and everything we have achieved for ourselves and for others.
Reflection in this way can be such a powerful tool and habit, as you will see below. I encourage that you take time to reflect on yourself and your own life at least once a year, however, if you are able to do it on a monthly or weekly basis as you see fit, then that can be even more effective if done with the right reason.
Do not underestimate the power that a simple quiet time spent reflecting can hold; it can literally be life-changing in the long run.
WHY SHOULD WE TAKE TIME TO REFLECT?
Remembering the most memorable and important events that happened
Often so much happens to us in a single year, that without taking time to reflect on it, we are likely to miss on everything that happened and in the end just forget about it all. With reflection, you can strengthen your memory as well as be so much more grateful, for realizing all of the beautiful things that happened to you and shaped you into who you are today
Very useful for setting future goals
Through reflection, we are able to see all that we have achieved in the past year and also all things that we perhaps did not achieve yet with which we are immediately able to see all of the things and areas which we have to work on for the next year. Furthermore, you are able to look back on the mistakes you have made and the wrong decisions you took, from which you can learn and not repeated them again in the future.
Being able to see progress and improvements
One great aspect of reflection is that you are able to step back in time temporarily and acknowledge all the areas in your life for which you have improved at, learned something new, or got to experience a novel sensation. As was discussed in my previous post on motivation (Losing Motivation? Here Is How To Get Back On Track), we are also much more likely to be motivated if we see progress in the things we do, and reflection turns out to be great for that.
Temporarily slows the passing of time
When we are busy with our occupations, we seem to just lose track of time, and days weeks and months seem to just pass by in one collective blur, but through reflection you take your time to pick apart separate events that occurred in different times of the year, allowing you to stop the rush of time, even if just for a little while
Seeing if you are actually headed in the direction you want to go in
So often we continuously do things either out of habit or routine even though they are either not beneficial to us or no longer meaningful to us. When we take time to reflect on what we spend our time doing in the previous year, we are able to decide whether we are spending our time well, and foremostly intentionally - in other words, if we are headed towards the goals which we set ourselves.
20 QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON 2020
Here are a couple of questions that you could use as a guideline in order to reflect on the past year. Feel free to answer as many of them as you need and also use some of your own.
If you make good use of this exercise, it can yield you a lot of positive changes and life lessons.
What are some of the best lessons you learned during last year?
What are some of your most memorable moments that happened?
What difficulties and challenges were you able to overcome?
What did you do for your personal growth?
What did you do for your academic/ career growth?
What new positive habits did you start?
What were your biggest achievements and accomplishments?
What were you able to learn about yourself?
What were some of the best decisions you took?
What were some times you made mistakes and failed?
How did you react when you made the mistake or experienced failure?
What was something that got in the way of your success last year?
In what ways are you a different person compared to the previous year?
How did you take care of my physical and mental health?
What were some of the most valuable resources you had?
Who were the people last year, who made the biggest impact on you?
What beliefs, mindset or attitudes did you let go of from last year?
What are 5 things that you are grateful for from last year?
What projects, promises or work did you leave unfinished last year?
What advice would you give yourself one year ago?
Working From Home - A Practical Guide
During this time, many of us will find ourselves working from home, whether we go to school or work a job, it has become one thing that unites us all. Because of this transition to more home-based working, I am sure that a lot of us have gained more time in our schedule and probably increased our hours spent sleeping, both of which are good things, however, I am also sure we have encountered many downsides during this quarantine, specifically in terms of our productivity and perhaps our health status.
Since the quarantine seems to be staying with us for a while, how can we best make use of our time during it and turn it into actual productive output? While you can view this quarantine as a disaster and blame it for all of your problems, you can also shift your focus and start viewing this quarantine - this valuable piece of time - as a chance for you to grow and improve as a person. It is up to you as to which road you take.
10 TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE WORKING FROM HOME
SEPARATE WORK AND LEISURE TIME
Now that most of us are working from home, it is very easy for us to spent the whole day doing work-related things, without leaving any time for our hobbies, leisure time and time spent socializing. Without physical shifts in locations and strict schedules, our work and personal lives blur and blend together into one, whereas as a result, we can easily fall out of balance with our work.
To fix this issue, there are a couple of solutions you could implement
First, try following your previous work/ school schedule at home, which will create a clear and defined time boundary between the time where you focus on work-related things and personal time. If for example, your usual workday previously finished at 3 pm, you can do the same thing at home where you will aim at finishing all of your work-related tasks by 3 pm, leaving the rest of the day to do as you wish.
Secondly, try structuring and splitting your time in a way that will work best for you, allowing you to make time for both your work and personal life. If you have the chance and would rather spend some extra time in the morning in bed getting sufficient sleep, then accommodate that into your routine. If you need additional breaks from work in between or like to spend time outside, then make that a priority and build your schedule around that.
Now that you are at home, you have much more freedom in terms of your schedule and when you want to do things. Use this opportunity to your advantage, to try and find the best balance between your work matters and personal endeavors.
HAVING YOUR OWN PRODUCTIVE WORKSPACE
In the case that we used to commute to school/ work to a different location, we were used to having a space and a desk for where we performed our work. It is best to also implement this practice in your own home, where you should dedicate a space or a tabletop for where you will do the majority of your sitting down work.
Having a separate space for working is crucial because upon entering that space it creates an immedite shift in your mindset, allowing you to get into a "work zone" much faster than without having a designated space for working.
On this topic, we also have to make sure that our working space is optimized for productivity, where we want to try and reduce distractions as much as possible, so that we can complete our work not only faster but which much fewer interruptions in the process. You can read more about dealing with distractions and how to create a clean working environment in this post: Avoiding Distractions Like A Boss.
CREATE ROUTINES THAT WORK FOR YOU
Transitioning to a home-based working style can lead to a loss of your previous routines, as you begin to lose the previously mentioned divide between work and personal time.
With more control over our schedule and how we choose to spend our time, we can design our time in a way that will work best for us. This is done by installing simple yet effective daily routines for us to follow, which simplifies our life and makes sure we are still finding balance in our everyday.
I suggest integrating a simple morning and evening routine, that is up to you to design and fill up with activities that you feel will do you best at that moment.
A lot of people like to have their mornings be "their" time for doing personal projects and self-care, while other people prefer to get straight to work upon getting up.
If your focus levels are better in the afternoon or evening, then use that to your advantage and structure your routine so that you do some of your work during that time.
If you like to do some sort of movement in the morning, then that’s great, design your time so that you can fit in an exercise routine that energies you and keeps your fitness levels up
Everyone here will have a different routine since we all live different lives with different obligations, but the key here is that routines allow us to make the best use of our time by considering both our internal and external state, which ultimately allows us to reach a greater balance with the work we perfrom.
Routines are not meant to restrict you or limit your potential. Keep them flexible and simple, but also realize that not everything will always go accordingly to plan, so be prepared to adapt.
Design your time in a way that will allow you to get the most out of your time.
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PUT NEW EXTRA TIME TO GOOD USE
Since starting to work from home, you have probably noticed that you have much more time available on your hands, which is likely due to having no commuting time or unnecessary breaks that were too long and were not a good use of your time.
So now comes the question: What will you do with all this extra time? how will you use it?
Perhaps you already know and are already doing things to fill it up, but for a second reconsider the question and really think about what you would like to use that time for. While it is easy to use up that additional time doing unnecessary work and simply procrastinating, that is not the point here.
Below is a list of ideas of how you can spend this additional time:
Improve or learn a new skill
Start a new passion project
Implement a new habit
Join an online community is something that you are interested in
Set new goals for yourself and achieve them
Treat working from home as a rare opportunity to spend your time doing things that will give your life more purpose and more intentionality. The opportunity of quarantine is something that happens at most once in a lifetime, so do not take this extra time for granted; use it well because if you do, amazing things await for you.
PLAN OUT YOUR DAY IN ADVANCE
Planning your day in advance is a great way to use some of your extra time you may have in the mornings or evenings, as this will allow you to be even more intentional with how you spend your time and also allow you to spend less time procrastinating.
An additional benefit is that you are regualrly reviewing what needs to still be done in the upcoming days, making your up to date with your work and as a result, even more in control of your schedule.
When planning out your day, you want to keep in mind to not plan it out too much and make it a schedule that is too restrictive for your own good. Also make sure to be realistic in how much work you set yourself and the time limits, as otherwise, it can lead to more work being postponed than getting done.
Here are some ideas for how you can plan out your day. Write down:
What you want to accomplish that day (Work and personal tasks)
Roughly how long you will spend on each task/ activity
A couple of ways how you will keep focused and away from distractions
In what ways will you include time for self-care
BE MINDFUL OF THE CONTENT YOU CONSUME
This is a crucial point that is not only applicable in these times of quarantine but in general all aspects of your life. Each day, whether you realize it or not, you are exposed to information incoming from different sources (TV, radio, social media, news, magazines, etc.), which you end up consuming as content. This content can be positive in nature or like most of the time it can also be negative, full of dissatisfaction, and complaining. When we choose to consume content that carries with it negative energy, we also end up reflecting that negative energy out to the world.
The key takeaway here is to keep in mind the kinds of media and content you are viewing and consuming because all of us consume content in some ways. Curate your content feed so that you limit negative energy and instead fill it with content that inspires you and fills you with positivity. This is especially linked with social media, where you have a certain degree of control in terms of what gets recommend on your feed pages, so designing that space for positive thoughts, leaving no room for unnecessary negativity.
The media that we view has a greater impact on our mental health than we might initially think, but it is true that what every information you absorb, you also start believing in and reflecting that energy to the world around you.
DO NOT NEGLECT SELF CARE
Self-care is something that must definitely not be neglected in your life because if it is, it leads to a decline in both your mental and physical well being. Try fitting at least some self-care time each day, or if that is hard to fit into your schedule, try and dedicate a self-care day such as Saturday or Sunday.
The point of self-care time is time that is spent doing things you like and preferably things that relax you and take care of your health.
Some examples may be:
Taking extra time to sleep or to take a nap
Relaxing with a shower or bath
Listening to music you enjoy
Unwinding with a favorite activity such as reading, watching a movie, or playing some video games
Cooking or baking something for yourself or others
Taking time to go out on fresh air
Getting in exercise or time for stretching
Putting more care into your skin, hair, nails, or any other external feature
EXERCISING
During a time of quarantine and working from home, it is very easy for us to completely neglect our exercise routine and habits, especially since any nearby sport/ fitness centers and parks are closed down now. However, this is not an excuse for you to completely abandon your exercise routine, because once again now that we work from home, we have more time to spare, which should theoretically make it more likely for us to include some movement in our everyday.
We all have different ways that we enjoy moving in, some of us prefer high-intensity team sports while others prefer more calmer and lower impact exercises that are more individually orientated. Both are fine, it just depends on which is your style.
Being physically active brings so many benefits to us, making it one of the sigle best uses of your time, which is exactly why I am such a big advocate for fitting at least 30 minutes of movement into your day. If you are able to perfrom exercises out on fresh air of good quality then that is even better, as good quality fresh air beats indoor air in all aspects.
If you are unsure of how to implement exercise into your routine, give the following ideas a go:
Speed walking or walking uphill in your local area
Light running, jogging or high intensity running
Using online workout videos for working out inside the house
Performing stretching exercises inside or outside
Making use of public parks, gardens, forests, running tracks, stairs or any other feature that may challenge you physically
Try out online yoga guided exercise tutorials
Get a skipping rope and challenge yourself with difficult jumps
Spend a day out hiking or walking longer trails in nature (You can also bring a bike here if that’s an option for you)
TAKING BREAKS
On the other hand of the spectrum, if we spend our whole days just working, we can also end up burning out or just exhausting ourselves which is obviously not something we should be striving for.
One of the best ways that you can prevent this is by taking regular breaks in your work, which creates a clear division between "work" time and "leisure" time. You can easily do this by setting a timer during which time you will work and a timer for taking a short break.
Stepping back from your work doesn’t only prevent you from overworking yourself, but it also gives you a more objective overview of your work, allowing you to spot any mistakes and notice ways in which you can improve your work. In this way, it also encourages you to think of new ideas, making it in the long term an even more worthwhile process.
KEEPING SOCIALLY CONNECTED
Although during quarantine social distancing is advised, it should not mean that our social life completely disappears as nowadays more than ever we have access to a whole spectrum of online social platforms, each of which servers their own function. Some specialize in texting ad messaging, while others are more focused on video calls or group talks.
Humans are by nature social animals, so use the socializing software you have on hand to stay connected and in touch with people, both your friends and important people from your school or workplace.
This is also a great way to still be able to obtain feedback for your work, which is vital for making sure you are headed in the right direction and for identifying areas for improvement.
PROCRASTINATION: Why We Do It & How To Stop It
WHAT IS PROCRASTINATION?
I am sure that if you are reading this right now, you are familiar with procrastination and might be finding that it is creeping into your life a little too often than you would like. Don’t worry, we have all been there, including me. Procrastination is becoming more and more of a common waste of our time, alongside the rising levels of distractions that are found within our environment and our own minds. I am convinced that most of us would like to be procrastinating less - since procrastination leads to basically no productive output- so how can we take control of our procrastination and not let it control our lives instead?
Before we start out, lets just briefly go through what procrastination is actually formally defined as being.
Here is the definition for it:
⇒ Procrastination is the deliberate practice of postponing events, tasks, and activities for some later time, while occupation our present time with unnecessary work that keeps us busy.
Therefore we can see that procrastination by nature does nothing good for us, so why do so many people struggle with it today and how do we fix that?
WHY WE PROCRASTINATE?
The reasons why we procrastinate can firstly be explained from a biological/ psychological perspective, where we can see that procrastination is an issue that arises from incorrectly regulating our emotions, instead of it being the commonly though problem of time management. Secondly, we can try and explain procrastination through a more in-depth perspective, that deals with linking our emotions to our actions.
BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS:
Our brains are wired for short term gratification
This means that biologically we are more likely to make a decision that will bring an immediate positive reward to us, instead of working on something more long term for a great reward down the line. Short term gratification means that we want results and rewards immediately after an action, but that is often not the case with doing any type of work.
Work usually follows the pattern of starting the work, completing it, and only after some time, seeing results that are due to our input of effort. Because of this delay in reward and results, it makes starting work that much harder.
Easy work → Shorter completion time: Reward is smaller but immediate
Hard work → Longer completion time: Reward is greater, but not immediate
You would naturally prefer to scroll through social media to get immediate hits of dopamine, instead of starting a difficult piece of work and getting the same hit of dopamine much later.
Short term gratification is not only one of the main reason to blame for procrastination, but it also negatively impacts our decision-making abilities in all other aspects of life, where we risk losing much more valuable opportunities and larger rewards in the future, for doing easier works that immediately satisfies us.
Our brains like to save energy whenever possible
It is also a fact that even though our brains are of not great size, they can take up to 20% of our daily energy expenditure, which is exactly why they want to be the most energy-efficient they can. Because they need a lot of energy to be powered, they want to make sure that energy is used the best it can be, so that the least amount is wasted. In other words, they are wired for efficiency.
This exactly explains why it is much more daunting and harder for us to get started on a task that requires more energy, focus, and though; because it requires more energy from our brain.
The trick as to how to combat this issue has to do with how to trick our brain into not being afraid or daunted by initiating hard work but instead wiring it to start liking to perform difficult tasks.
Our own personal qualities and external factors
Whether we procrastinate is also linked to our own personal qualities and in what amounts we have them, as well as external factors in our environment that will cause or influence those qualities.
Some of these qualities and external factors include:
Our self-control
Our motivation
Demotivating and hindering factors
Examples: Rewards being far way int he future, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, perfectionism, fear of failure, perceived lack of control, depression, lethargy
With these three factors, we can sum up procrastination in the following equation:
If Demotivating + Hindering factors > Self control + Motivation ⇒ Procrastination will result
REASONS FOR RESISTANCE
Other than biological reasons we can also try and explain procrastination from the perspective of resistance, where anytime that we try and start or complete an extensive and difficult task, we have four main sources of resistance that determine how likely we are to procrastinate on something:
Difficulty: Task is too hard OR too easy
Interest: Task is very interesting OR boring
Ambiguity: Task is specific and clear OR undefined and ambiguous
Motivation: Task is meaningful (motivating) OR un-motivating
If we can correctly manage these four levels that determine the likeliness of us procrastinating, it will be much easier for us to get started on the task and as a result, get it done. However, if we do not manage these factors, we will be much more prone to succumbing to procrastination and falling into the trap hole of it that may of us find too familiar.
QUITTING PROCRASTINATION
PRACTICAL STEPS:
Become aware of when you are procrastinating
Identify why you procrastinate (Rationalization of actions)
Identify your sources of procrastination
Implement anti-procrastination strategies (Mentioned below)
ANTI PROCRASTINAITON STRATEGIES:
Get into a flow state:
As I mentioned before, flow is a state that is the optimal balance between a task not being too boring and not being too difficult, allowing us to function at peak performance. We can ease ourselves into a flow state by adopting the two-minute rule that says that if a task will take us less than two minutes to complete we should do it right away and get it off our minds. The second way we can enter flow is by splitting up larger tasks into smaller time chunks such as 5 or 15 minutes, which will make the overall task seem less daunting and will encourage us to keep doing the task even after the time mark we set for ourselves.
Task management
Specifying a task and splitting it into smaller manageable subtasks: This creates less resistance towards starting the task and makes us more likely to fully finish the task because we know exactly what has to be done.
Determining "next steps": Get into the habit of immediately after completing a task, to determine "next steps" or follow up tasks that are not necessarily supposed to be done immediately, but prevent us from procrastinating in the future whenever we are working on the same task.
Categorizing your tasks: This allows you to micromanage your tasks by grouping them into 3-5 generalized categories, such as "work", "school", "leisure" etc, which allows you to have a more simplified overview of your work and what categories take up the majority of your time.
Task Prioritization:
Urgency/ importance
Difficulty
Our focus/ energy levels
Our current situation (Resources and people on hand)
Environment design
Your environment plays a large role in terms of your work habits and works ethic, which is why it is really important to keep your environment clean and free from any unwanted distractions such as technology, irrelevant work, or loud notifications. By keeping our environment as much distraction-free as we can, we will be less tempted to procrastinate and it will tell our brains that this specific space is associated with work and not with scrolling on your phone, allowing you to get a task done sooner.
Energy management
You want to first ensure that you are recharging your energy levels well and frequently by getting adequate sleep every night, eating energizing foods, and staying active to keep your brain alert. Whenever you feel a burst of energy/ inspiration/ motivation to work, use it on your most difficult and time-consuming tasks as those require most mental/ physical energy, allowing you to finish that task with optimal performance and obtain great results from it.
Setting deadlines
Setting time limits for our projects and tasks is crucial because it creates a sense of urgency for the task to be done, which makes it more likely for us to put our mental capacity to use at that time and get the work done. This idea is based on "Parkinson’s law", which states that work fills the time allocated to it. This means that if you set aside one hour to do a certain piece of work, psychologically you are going to try your best to complete the task in the given time frame, while if you were to only say "I want to complete this task sometime today", it means you could spend an unnecessary amount of time on a single piece of work, leaving your schedule even busier and less time for leisure and relaxation.
Setting end rewards
Not only does setting rewards for completing work stimulate the development of a habit loop, as it rewards to encourage our brain to repeat an action, but it also gives us something to loop word to and as a result work faster, with more motivation and more efficiency - all ultimately allowing us to avoid procrastination in the future.
CONCLUSIVE ADVICE
While procrastination is a common practice today, due to both biological/ physiological factors as well as external factors in our environment, it is crucial that we take procrastination under our control and replace it with higher quality tasks that fill our life with meaning.
While at the moment, doing nothing and just mindlessly scrolling through never-ending content sources may be amusing, in the long terms it is getting us nowhere and is likely also negatively impacting both our mental and physical health as well. All in all, procrastination is never a long term solution, since with it we only miss valuable opportunities and unique life lessons that we would learn along with them.
I hope that with the above tips and advice on how to reduce/ stop your procrastination, you are able to find more balance between your work and your personal endeavors while maintaining a clear and focused state of mind.
Never Stop Reading: Here's Why
You have very likely heard that reading is good for you and that you should do it more often, but why exactly is it "good" for us, and what is it about reading that still makes it a valuable skill in our society?
Whether reading paper-based literature or digital, both can have impactful and long-lasting positive impacts on our life. If we start young and build a steady reading habit of reading at least a couple of average length books per year, then that just means we will reap even more benefits as the years go on.
Reading is an action so simple and "basic" that it is often neglected, but scientific research is, again and again, proving just how much of a positive effect it has on our life and overall well being.
So if you are interested as to why it is worth to put aside some time each day to read, keep on reading. A long term habit of reading can be one of the best things you can do for your mental, physical, emotional and social health.
LITERATURE FACTS AND STATISTICS
To start off, I want to first bring out a couple of statistics on reading that show how reading has progressed in our society throughout history, how big the global literature industry is and how many of us actually read on a regular basis.
In the year 1820, only about 12% of the world above the age of 15 was literate, meaning that they knew how to read and write, but in 2016, that figure dramatically increased to 86%.
Since the year 2017, more than 1 million books have been self-published in both paper and digital format.
Between the years of 2017 and 21018, the sales of audiobooks in the world increased by almost 25%.
In 2018, 44,500 audiobooks were produced which is 5% more than in 2017.
An American study has shown that "Over 80% of people who read books have at least some college education, if not a degree".
Based on a study done in early 2019 by Pew Research Center, they found that 27% of adults did not read a single book in the previous year, 2018.
It is estimated that there are more than 90 million e-reading devices in the United States
BENEFITS OF READING
DECLINE OF MENTAL CONDITIONS
Mental stimulation, in various forms, has been shown to have a beneficial effect on our brain health and cognition, wherein elderly people it has reduced rates of cognitive decline; ultimately slowing an ageing brain. Mental stimulation can come in many forms, one of them being reading, but generally, it is any time that we use our brain muscle and keep it active. Its either use it or lose it.
In relation to this, it has been scientifically shown that those who regularly read have lower rates of mental conditions such as dementia and Alzheimers that appear in the later years of life.
ENHANCED MEMORY
Memory is something that we often begin loosing with age, but that can be slowed down if we keep our brains mentally active and fit.
In order to understand what you are reading, your brain has to interpret that information and visually represent it. All of these different levels of information processing mean more work for your brain and more time going through that information - both of which make the information more memorable and likely to stick.
MAKES YOU SMARTER
Many times it has been proven that those who read, generally have high er IQ scores and a greater depth of knowledge in various fields. it is not to say that in order to read you have to be nerdy, but it’s actually the opposite; the more you read the smarter you get.
It does not matter what you read on, whether it is fiction, autobiographies, historical accounts, self-help books or travel guides, whatever it is, you will learn from it and your brain will become enriched with new knowledge.
This becomes useful, especially when we read a wide variety of books, ranging both from fiction to non-fiction, which not only raises the quality of our knowledge but also the quanitity.
ENHANCED PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITIES
Reading allows us to gain new knowledge and more penalty, new ideas about how to tackle and view problems. It enables you to become more open-minded and welcome to new solutions - a skill that is always looked for.
IMPROVED IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY
With reading, we also develop a more vivid and adventurous imagination, especially if we commonly read fantastical fiction, which is often written ina creative fashion with high levels of description, which makes us immersed in the story and lose track of time.
Being imaginative and creative are again appearing as really valuable skills, where they are useful for the previously mentioned problem solving and any creative work such as writing, painting, playing or writing music etc.
IMPROVES OUR FOCUS AND DISCIPLINE
Reading is an activity that requires consistency as if we want to finish a book from start to end we have to regularly set aside time to read it, which is why a long term reading habit can also help develop discipline and a greater ability to focus - two crucial life skills that are useful to anyone
RAISES YOUR SELF ESTEEM
As we previously said, reading makes you smarter and raises your intelligence since you generally learn more just from the literature that you are reading. And the more knowledge we are able to acquire both about our world and about us, the more self-aware we become, which in turn raises our self-esteem and confidence levels.
BECOME MORE EMPATHETICAL
Seeing a story from the perspective of someone else
Development of feelings and emotions
Empathy: the ability to understand and relate to someone’s feelings is a very important quality and skill, that allows you to make more meaningful social connections and just generally makes you a more compassionate and approachable person.
Through reading, we can develop empathy by reading a narrative through someone else perspective and trying to imagine the story from their shoes, which allows us to develop emotions and feelings towards the storyline and characters in it.
BECOME A BETTER COMMUNICATOR
Better speaker and writer
More knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, intonation and sentence structure
The more we read, the better we become at communicating, both through speaking and though writing.
The reason for that is because when we read, our brain is exposed to new vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar and intonation, all of which your brain is able to remember and use in your writing or speaking. Therefore the more you read, the more you remember and the more efficient you can become at communicating
REDUCED STRESS
You have probably experienced that reading before bed makes you drowsy and your eyelids heavy, that makes it easier for you to drift off to sleep.
The reason why we become sleepy is that usually when we read we are sitting or laying down in a comfortable position and the actual act of reading is a demanding activity for our brain; Having to move our eyes to follow the lines, having to interpret the words, making sense of the paragraph etc. This makes it a perfect combination to fall asleep, especially if we read in the evening when we are at our most tired from the day behind us.
Apart from that, reading also makes us calmer, since we have to focus on what we are reading, which is why it makes us more clear-minded and potentially even rational.
HOW TO READ MORE
Make it part of your morning or evening routine and decide for how long you will read, what you will read and where.
State why you want to start reading
Read about what interests you; Don't force yourself to read something you don't want to read. Reading should not be a chore but an enjoyment
Set realistic reading goals
Listen to audiobooks on your commute to work or school, such as Amazon Audible
Keep a book or e-reader with you in a bag, so you can read it when you have some spare time
Share what you read with others online or in real life
Studies have shown that people who have an e-reader tend to read on average more books
Stock up in an inventory of books you want to read
Make a reading list of books you want to still read and books you have read
Find a place with minimal distractions and a quiet environment
Enrol in a reading challenge or book club
Don't feel forced to finish a book if you don't enjoy it
CONCLUSION
Reading is such a simple exercise that can be done by anyone who can read, but it offers an incredible amount of benefits for various aspects of our health.
Done underestimate the power of reading because a little can go along way. Even just having a habit of 10 minutes of reading per day can stack up to a lot in the long run; A little is always better than nothing, especially since many of us do not necessarily have a couple of spare hours each day to read. Set a target for 10 or 20 minutes each day and that is already a fantastic start.
The sooner you start the better and the more time you have to learn more. Pick up a book you are interested in or start listening to an audiobook on your way to school or work.
Happy reading :)
Avoid Distractions Like A Boss
DISTRACTION REALITY
In the last 100 years, the average pace of living has increased substantially. Everything now is happening much faster and is speeding up even as we speak. Each year the world is becoming more connected, easing the distribution of information, money, jobs, products and resources. Not only that, but we are now also well part of the digital age, where the things mentioned above are promoted and encouraged even more, purely because technology makes life easier and more convenient for everyone who has it.
However, with this interconnectedness and an increase in the activity of our surroundings, we are exposed to more and more distractions each day. The frequency and amount of these distracts will continue growing, which is why one of the most treasured skills nowadays is the ability to stay focused on a task for a set period of time.
BENEFITS OF STAYING FOCUSED
BETTER WORK OUTPUT
The primary benefit of being able to avoid distractions is the ability to have a greater work output, where we are able to get more done in a shorter amount of time. Not only that, but the work which we do produce will end up being of higher quality, as we have poured in more concentrated work that has fewer errors and mistakes in it. Another benefit is that if we are in a focused state then other people who are around us will notice that and will be more inclined to stay focused as well. This is because our environment plays such as a key role in our work, influencing everything from our productivity, focus and our thinking. In order to see and make a change around you, you have to first adopt that change in yourself, since the external world is a reflection of your internal state.
IMPROVES US AS A PERSON
Apart from improving the work we produce, the ability to stay focused also benefits us as a person, improving our personal qualities. Fore mostly, it gives you more mental clarity in the moment as we are more likely to enter a flow state with our work, in which we have enhanced creativity and problem-solving skills.
In order to achieve a state of focus, we have to first make a couple of decisions which allows us to reach this state of focus. Due to this decision making, process, we are able to improve our decision-making skills, as we learn to make the right decisions based on the moment, and we strengthen our will power muscle as we are able to resist the tempting distractions of the outside world, to choose to instead focus on doing something valuable.
Not only that, but when we are fully concentrated on something, we direct our full attention to it, meaning that we are more present in the moment with it, and as a result remember more useful things connected with what we are doing, which overall helps improve our memory recall of an event or task.
Lastly, due to the fact that when we are in a flow state, we experience higher levels of happiness, since we are living and working in the present moment and not focusing on ten things at once, which really only diverts our focus.
COMMON DISTRACTIONS
ELECTRONICS
In terms of electronics, we mostly get distracted by notification rings, whether that is from our phone, computers, tablets or pretty much any other device that notifies us about something. By hearing a sound or a ring, we are tempted to see what it is, which diverts our attention and focus away from the task at hand.
When talking about notifications, it is integral to mention the process of instant gratification, which works on the bass of our brain releasing the pleasure chemical dopamine every-time is anticipates success. This anticipation of "success" can come in the form of a notification or simply viewing photos or videos, like those found on many social media networks. When our brain does come across this content that we associate with "success", we get a short term hit of dopamine, which further enforces our brain to continue scrolling through our Instagram or any other social media feed, even though a fair chunk of time has already gone by. What initially only starts out as "Just 5 minutes of scrolling" can easily end up being half-hour or even more. This is one major "pulling in" factor of social media and the reason why it has so many consistent users.
This year alone, in 2020, there is an estimated number of 3.6 billion social media users globally, where that number is only expected to rise even higher in the future. In terms of how much time we spend on average per day scrolling through our curated feeds, heavily depends on the country, with the average in the US being around one whole hour.
Apart from notifications and the alluring magic of social media, we also have to consider the popularity of email checking and just how much of a distraction this can be. Although email can be useful and is certainly a major communication force today, it can also quickly turn out to be a very big waste of your time, simply because of how its built and the sheer amount of information that is sent to our inbox on a daily basis.
Many studies continue to prove that the average person during a workday can spend up to several hours on email, where they check it several times per hour and most of the time keep the email tab open in the background, further acting as a distraction.
BACKGROUND NOISE
Being surrounded by a noisy and distracting environment, whether in a school, work or home environment can be detrimental to getting anything done.
Disturbing noises can include anything from people around you that are loud talkers or laugh and argue frequently. Furthermore, noises of traffic, people passing by, catchy music or other sounds that are in your environment such as construction work or someone cleaning, can also directly distract you.
It is crucial to try and minimize these noises, as if they are constantly persistent in the background, they can disrupt us and make us lose our focus and attention.
MESSY ENVIRONMENT
Often when having cleaned our room or workspace, we often immediately feel more organized, clear-minded and easier to focus on whatever we are doing in that space. That is simply because the space we are in is less crowded and cluttered with objects and materials that simply cloud and distract our mind whenever we lay our eyes on them.
The reason a messy environment distracts our attention is because whenever we see something in a space, we acknowledge it which makes us think about the object, thus making us lose focus on what we were originally working on.
I always recommend that you try and keep your living and working space cleaned as it really does heavily impact your mindset and mood throughout the whole day.
NOT TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF
While staying focused during your work is heavily dependent on external factors such as your environment, we often also like to neglect that is it heavily determined by our internal environment, in terms of how we are taking care of ourselves and our health.
A lack of sleep, for example, has been shown to seriously impact our thinking abilities and creativity the following day while eating a diet high in processed foods has been shown to make us more tired and experience more blood sugar spikes that makes-our levels of concentration waver throughout the day.
Taking care of your health involves:
Sleeping enough each night
Drinking enough water
Eating a balanced and varied diet that suffices your daily needs
Including exercise and movement in your day
Taking regular/ scheduled breaks from work
Managing your stress and taking time to relax
Having a social circle in which you feel welcome and happy
MULTI-TASKING
While at first glance, getting more things done at once by multitasking may seem to be the way to go, research from the last decade is emerging saying that multitasking has serious long term drawbacks on our work output and focus abilities.
Our brain finds it hard to focus fully on two or more things at once, as our attention is constantly located form one thing to the next, never really giving us time to get int he zone and enter a fully focused state.
Multitasking has been shown to
Result in more mistakes because we are less focused
Produce lower quality work
Hinder our memory of the task at hand
Inhibit creativity while we work
Waste our time in the long run
Make us not live in the present moment, as our attention is constantly on other things
HOW TO GET INTO A FOCUSED STATE
Make one space only serve one function
Try to keep a clean environment around you
Before starting a task, determine what is the purpose of doing it and what do you want to get out by achieving it
Write out a to-do list, instead of keeping everything in your head. Your brain is meant for thinking not storing
Prioritize your work
Split large tasks into smaller more manageable chunks
To get more mental clarity, try out meditation; Even just five minutes could get you into a different headspace
HOW TO SAY FOCUSED
Mute electronic distractions
Try playing calming background music while you work
Keep caffeine during the day moderate
Avoid the distraction of a noisy environment by closing your doors (if possible), relocating to a different work environment or buying a pair of noise-cancelling headphones
Take care of your wellbeing and health in terms of your sleep, diet, social well being, drinking enough water, exercise and taking breaks
Avoid multitasking
Take regular breaks from working
Time yourself while you work, to know when to stop and take a break
Install special apps or internet blockers on your devices that temporarily make sites or apps unavailable (Such as social media)
Schedule time only for checking emails (If you have a lot of them)