Archive for the ‘Sleep’ tag
That Post-Vacation Feeling, GMOs, and Ronda Rousey (Sunday Reads #17)
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.
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Could our gut microbiome be affecting our mood? Making us happier? Possibly. And there may even be an evolutionary reason for it: “happy people tend to be more social. And the more social we are, the more chances the microbes have to exchange and spread.”
How do you hang onto that post-vacation feeling as long as possible? Plan, Reminisce, and Retreat according to an interesting New York Times Travel article.
I love this stretch. In less than five minutes, hit the hip flexor, shoulder, and back.
Top 6 Kettlebell Exercises for Building Mass. While I’m not as into “building mass” as I was in my 20s, I know these double kettlebell exercises will pack on muscle like no other.
How the “war against GMO” is mislead and full of lies. Warning: this is an epically long article.
I love what Juliet and Kelly Starrett are doing to bring standing desks into the classroom. I’m anxious for my kids’ school to take this approach as well to increase overall fitness and attention in the classroom.
States of Mind, Resiliency, and Cognitive Performance (Sunday Reads #16)
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. As it’s been several weeks since I’ve posted, some of these links may be a few weeks “old” – but given that we’re looking at mostly timeless information, that shouldn’t matter much.
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On High Performance Work
How much does your state of mind matter during the work day? Quite a bit. 94% of leaders reported that Calm, Happy and Energized (CHE) are the states of mind that drive the greatest levels of effectiveness and performance.
Humans are meant to move a lot during the day, and most office workers are unlikely to do so. WellnessFX has 5 mobility hacks to improve your morning routine. Get moving.
A positive mood allows your brain to think more creatively.
Being happy at work matters. People want a meaningful vision of the future, a sense of purpose, and great relationships.
Cheat Meals, Bacteria, and Prioritizing Experiences Over Things (Sunday Reads #13)
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.
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Sorry for the lack of posts over the last two weeks; my family and I were traveling (without opening a laptop!) Next week there won’t be a Sunday Reads either as I will be participating in the StrongFirst Instructor Certification for three full days (Fri, Sat, Sun) – wish me luck! Sunday Reads will be back the following week (May 3rd).
On Fitness, Nutrition, and Sleep
Greatist asks if cheat meals are hurting your health – or at a minimum being positioned incorrectly as something that is ‘bad for you’, resulting in guilt. My personal experience is that cheat meals are a gateway drug that eventually opens the door to cheating more often – so I very rarely allow myself to have a complete cheat meal or a cheat day any longer (I’ve had two “cheat” meals since September).
Metabolic slowdown effects are seen when sleep is reduced by only a few hours. In other words, you don’t need to miss an entire night’s sleep for your metabolism to be affected, all it takes is a few hours missed.
An apple a day doesn’t keep the doctor away based on a new research study. But I will keep eating one because they’re tasty.
Dan John tackles what it takes to get stronger. For those who don’t know of Dan, he’s one of the best strength coaches in the industry. I listen to what Dan has to say. I love this quote from Brett Jones in the article: “Absolute strength is the glass. Everything else is the liquid inside the glass. The bigger the glass, the more of everything else you can do.”
Flexible Work, Boredom, and Protein Powder Drama (Sunday Reads #12)
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.
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Work-Life Balance, Boredom, & Creativity
In Work-Life Balance Is Dead, author Ron Friedman says that “providing employees with more control over their schedule—to the extent that flexibility is possible—motivates them to work harder, produce higher-quality work, and develop greater loyalty for their company.” Anecdotally, this feels right to me.
Finding ways to cope with boredom may help make you more creative according to a recent study. In this study, participants who had been asked to complete a boring writing task were more creative afterwards than a control group who had done more interesting work. In other words, being bored may prime your brain for creative work.
Embrace Grit, Enjoy the Journey, and Always Be Reading (Sunday Reads #11)
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.
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Getting Creative Work Done
If you struggle to declutter your magazine pile, a technique called ABR – Always Be Reading may be for you. As someone who spends many hours a week focused on helping people read more (with a Kindle preferably) this approach sounds interesting, and is actually pretty aligned with what I personally do.
Are you a manager? Your late-night or very early-morning emails may be hurting your team. Being always-on hurts team results in a big way. I’ve been in the habit for years of delay-sending the email I write after 6:30pm on Friday or over the weekend until late Monday morning.
If you’d like to form successful habits, you need to know what motivates you.
A recent study showed that heavy cellphone users report higher anxiety levels and dissatisfaction with life than their peers who use their phones less often – and another showed a correlation between stress levels and the barrage of alerts and notifications. This app automatically tracks how much you use your iPhone or iPad each day and helps you set limits.
Creativity Myths, Decision Fatigue, and Gluten-Free Fanatics (Sunday Reads #10)
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.
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On Creative Work
If you still think you couldn’t possibly be creative, the 5 Creativity Myths You Need to Stop Believing should help.
One of the most important thing you can do for lifelong learning & creativity is to read a lot. According to Warren Buffett, knowledge builds up like compound interest and reading is the mechanism to enable it. This article introduces the 10% Rule; a new system for reading more books on Amazon’s Kindle.
Omar Shahine tells us how to hit Inbox Zero every time you check your email. I bounce at zero daily most days, but I haven’t tried this approach yet.
Children are natural born mindfulness practitioners. So perhaps you could learn mindfulness by watching a child.
Great write-up on Farnham Street on Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset research. If you’re a parent, you need to read this. Everybody else should as well 😉
A short analysis of INTJ, a specific Myers-Briggs Type Indicator that I just happen to be. “They tend to be both methodical and perfectionistic, and they have the drive to put their ideas into action and the persistence to realize their dreams.” I’ll take that. There are articles on other personality type indicators linked from that article as well.
Could your company have 9-5 hours, a full hour for lunch every day, 5-7 weeks of annual vacation, and zero email on nights and weekends… and still thrive? Tony Schwartz believes so.
Eating Organic, Deadlifting, and Smiling (Sunday Reads #8)
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.
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On Fitness, Food, Sleep, and Smiling
Are organic fruits and vegetables actually healthier and more nutritious? The British Journal of Nutrition crunched data from 343 studies and found that organic fruits and vegetables deliver between 20-40% higher antioxidant activity and “lower cadmium concentrations and lower incidence of pesticide residues”.
“Researchers have found that a compound produced by the body when dieting or fasting can block a part of the immune system involved in several inflammatory disorders such as type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.”
Instead of a structured program focused on changing poor sleep habits and a nighttime routine, older adults improved sleep quality through mindfulness meditation.
Low-Fat Diets, Morning Routines, and Procrastination (Sunday Reads #7)
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.
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On Food as Fuel and Athleticism
Not that this is a surprise to most of you, but the science behind low-fat diet advice was undercooked. “An international team of health scientists has completed a systematic study of the evidence available back in the 1970s and ’80s and concluded that a relationship of causation between fat consumption and coronary heart disease was never established.”
The U.S. is also dropping it’s crusade against cholesterol. Another example of how misled we’ve all been for so long.
The flavonoids in dark chocolate have anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and anti-diarrheal properties. My favorite dark chocolate is Green & Blacks and I eat a cube or two every evening.
Is there a better way to become the ultimate athlete than the randomness of Crossfit? Max Shank puts forth a dedicated system with programming to be as strong as a gymnast, as fast as a sprinter, and as flexible as a martial artist.
The Incredible Power of Sleep
If you want to reduce body-fat levels, insulin resistance, and systemic inflammation, you should sleep in a dark room and avoid blue light before you sleep.
This one is weird, but night owls tend to be more exploitive and entitled than early risers.
Decision Making, Red Meat, and Immunity (Sunday Reads #6)
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.
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On Brain Stuff and Careers
The kind of instinctive decision-making advocated in best-selling popular psychology books like ‘Nudge’, ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ and ‘Blink’ is not backed up by reliable evidence, a study concludes. My view is that inaction is almost always worse than wrong action.
What is the #1 predictor of career success? Having an open network vs. a closed network. In a closed network you’re surrounded by people with the same ideas and beliefs as yours, while in an open network you’re challenging one another. So surround yourself with people who don’t think like you do.
A study on musical training “adds to mounting evidence that musical training not only gives young developing brains a cognitive boost, but those neural enhancements extend across the lifespan into old age when the brain needs it most to counteract cognitive decline.”
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.
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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.
