Archive for January, 2015
Creative Work, Stress, and Being “Ready to Run” (Sunday Reads #5)
Welcome to Sunday Reads on Refocuser, a collection of weekly links from around the web to help you do incredible things. These links span topics like creativity, performance, focus, exercise, nutrition, and positivity. I’m posting this on Saturday this time to make sure email subscribers get this on Sunday.
Join thousands of other readers by subscribing to this blog and email newsletter or by following @Refocuser on Twitter. If you’re receiving this in your email inbox, spread the love and forward it to a friend.
On Creative Work
How many times have you found yourself thinking “that really didn’t need to take an hour”? Brad Feld has some experience with that.
“People sitting at messy desks are less efficient, less persistent, and more frustrated and weary than those at neat desks.” I find it easier to keep my desk clean than to actually clean it, so at the end of every day I take 20 seconds to reset it before I leave the office.
18 Habits of Highly Creative People pulls together some great recommendations for how to do incredible things.
Sleep Research, Workaholism, and Self-Regulation (Sunday Reads #4)
Welcome to Sunday Reads on Refocuser, a collection of weekly links from around the web to help you do incredible things. These links span topics like creativity, performance, focus, exercise, nutrition, and positivity. I’m posting this on Saturday this time to make sure email subscribers get this on Sunday.
Join thousands of other readers by subscribing to this blog and email newsletter or by following @Refocuser on Twitter. If you’re receiving this in your email inbox, spread the love and forward it to a friend.
High-Performance Work and Life
Research shows that workaholism is related to many negative outcomes including burnout, job stress, work–life conflict, and decreased physical and mental health.
Checking your email too often is stressful. There can be a significant reduction in stress when people check email less frequently.
Better posture equals less stress. A recent study “found people who sat upright with straight shoulders coped better emotionally with a stressful task than people who were hunched over.”
Researchers compared 10 psychological strengths on their ability to predict goal attainment and the greatest changes in overall well-being using a sample of 755 people. Which strengths won? Curiosity and grit.
Boosting Memory, Perils of Diet Soda, and Getting Unstuck (Sunday Reads #3)
Welcome to Sunday Reads on Refocuser, a collection of weekly links from around the web to help you do incredible things. These links span topics like creativity, performance, focus, exercise, nutrition, and positivity. I’m posting this on Saturday this time to make sure email subscribers get this on Sunday.
Join thousands of other readers by subscribing to this blog and email newsletter or by following @Refocuser on Twitter.
High-Performance Work and Life
Fantastic post on the differences between a high-performer and a workaholic. In my experience as someone who could maybe appear to be a workaholic from the outside, the conclusion rings true: “The big difference isn’t how many hours are logged, but how the individual feels on the inside about who they are in relationship to their work.”
When it comes to creativity, the “myth of epiphany” is commonplace.
An amazing episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast with Pavel Tsatsouline on the Science of Strength and the Art of Physical Performance.
Your Microbiome, Bone Broth, and Fancy New Fitness Gadgets (Sunday Reads #2)
Welcome to Sunday Reads #2 on Refocuser, a collection of my favorite weekly links from around the web spanning topics like creativity, performance, focus, exercise, and positivity. I’m posting this on Saturday this time to make sure email subscribers get this on Sunday.
Speaking of which, join thousands of other readers by subscribing to this blog and email newsletter or by following @Refocuser on Twitter.
On Moving, Eating, and Sleeping
The healthy human microbiome is the new frontier. All the more reason why I’m surprised I didn’t know about uBiome (10% off with that link!) – it’s similar in spirit to WellnessFX and 23andMe. They send you a sample kit for only $89 (!) so you can learn more about your body’s own bacteria in an effort to improve your overall health. Don’t need to twist my arm to do this – I’m in! We’re super early in this citizen science movement but I love it. You can also learn more on Fast Company.
Mark Sisson challenges some of our common misconceptions when it comes to calories (part 1, part 2).
How does exercise really affect our brains and how does it really make us happier? Fast Company set out to understand the science. Turns out addiction to exercise isn’t a crazy concept since BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor) and those ever-popular endorphins have the same characteristics as nicotine, heroin, or morphine. Big takeaway: Daily exercise of just 20 minutes is all it takes.
Finding An Answer: Dogma, Frameworks, and Changing Your Mind
Have you ever found yourself believing something “just because”? Just because your family does, your friends do, or the “facts” as you know them just seem intuitively correct? Maybe this belief has been there your entire life, and is cemented deeply in your psyche as “the truth” regardless of whether or not the facts support it. Or maybe you believe something, but have no clear idea where the belief started or why you believe it at all. My guess is that you, like me, believe a lot of things that have no basis in objective reality – but you have never stopped to question many of those beliefs.
It’s human nature to like things to be simple. We don’t like to muster up our cognitive reserves to dig into the rationale, the logic, the reasoning, or the “why” something is the way it is. It’s usually easier to simply believe the so-called experts and focus our energy elsewhere. Quite often this is the right tradeoff to make, in fact. You don’t have to research cyanide to know that you shouldn’t put it in your mouth – it doesn’t rank high enough on the “investment relative to importance” scale to question whether or not it will harm you. Similarly, there’s no reason (for most people at least) to personally test the safety features of their car. You can take it on faith and a small bit of research that the claims made by your car company are valid without putting them to the ultimate test. But there are other things that really DO matter – or at least SHOULD. Things that could make a BIG difference in your life if you spent the time digging into them to understand them just a little bit more… and didn’t assume the answer was correct “just because”.
The definition of dogma: a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true; prescribed doctrine proclaimed as unquestionably true by a particular group.
Books, Kettlebell Swings, and the Goal-Gradient Effect (Sunday Reads #1)
Welcome to the first edition of Sunday Reads on Refocuser. In an effort to both engage with my readers and have a complete archive of awesome stuff I’ve been reading, I’m going to start filtering the web for things that are most applicable to Refocuser subscribers. This way you get the most out of subscribing to this blog and email newsletter.
These updates will consist mostly of links to other sites with minimal commentary, and will vary in length and depth. They should be easily consumable… and should be fun. Here we go.
Reading is Fundamental
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook, believes in the power of reading books. He says, “I’ve found reading books very intellectually fulfilling. Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I’m looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books.” I agree 100% and have joined his book club to follow along.
More on reading books: Reading in the Age of Amazon is a great profile of the people I work with every single day at Amazon and our mission to empower the world to read more every day. In short, reading is good for you and, of course, Kindle is the best way to do it.
On Fitness, Nutrition, and Sleep
“Optimized meat products higher in omega-3″ reduce body fat more than “optimized” products lower in overall fat. This implies that if we’re going to be eating meat, we should seek out the grass-fed variety. (via Mark Sisson)
