Patrik Edblad's Blog, page 3

Focused Communication

In a fascinating study, researcher Shalini Misra and her colleagues brought people into a lab and split them into two groups:

The participants in the first group got to sit and talk to a stranger while a smartphone was visible on the table next to them.The participants in the second group got the same assignment but with a notebook visible instead of a smartphone.

When the researchers interviewed the participants afterward, the group with the smartphone out reported a significantly lower quality of interaction than the other group.

Interestingly, the phone had laid still, silent, and dark throughout the meeting.

Still, its mere presence was enough to diminish the quality of the interactions.

So, whenever you want to have a meaningful exchange with someone, put your phone out of sight.

Ideally, you’ll also want to have it in airplane mode.

Because the fewer distractions you’ll have, the better your interaction will be.

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Deep Work

Cal Newport is a computer science professor and the author of several books.

He’s famous for his remarkable productivity, both as a researcher and writer.

According to Newport, there are two types of work you can do:

Shallow work is non-demanding work that you typically do while distracted.Deep work is challenging work that you do in a state of distraction-free focus.

These days, most people fill their days with shallow work while very few do deep work.

As a result, people who cultivate the ability to go deep will thrive in the modern economy.

Deep work allows you to get into the flow state, produce meaningful results fast, and experience the sense of fulfillment only true craftsmanship brings.

So, schedule recurring time blocks where you remove all distractions.

Put your phone away, close your email inbox, and shut the door.

When you consistently focus intensely on tasks that matter, you’ll be amazed by how much you’ll accomplish  —  and how satisfying you’ll find the process.

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Presence

In a clever study, psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert investigated how mind wandering affects people.

They developed an iPhone app that contacted people at random times to ask them what they were going, thinking, and feeling.

And when they analyzed the responses from over 5,000 people worldwide, they found something interesting.

No matter what the participants had been doing — whether it was having sex or doing the dishes — they were happier if they were entirely focused on the activity.

What they were doing was way less important than how present they were while doing it.

So, if you want to make your mind happy:

Train your focus — Practices like mindfulness meditation can be very useful for this.Remove your distractions — A quick like turning off your phone notifications can make a huge difference.

Help your mind to be here and now.

Because the less it wanders, the happier it will be.

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The Cornerstones

We all have many areas of our lives that we want to improve.

In fact, there are so many of them that it can get overwhelming.

If you’ve ever tried setting goals for every major category, like your career, finances, health, family, education, personal growth, and so on, you probably know what I mean.

It’s easy to spread yourself too thin and make very little progress in all of them.

And that’s why I find this little piece of wisdom from Sigmund Freud so helpful:

Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.

These two areas are really all you need to master.

Because if you create deep relationships and find a meaningful job, everything else will tend to take care of itself.

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The Three Levels of Movement

In her book Move Your DNA, biomechanist Katy Bowman explains that we can be both active and sedentary.

You can show up dutifully at the gym and spend the rest of your days sitting.

And while the exercise is great, all of that sitting is still detrimental to your health.

So, to move sufficiently throughout each day, it’s helpful to think in terms of micro-, mini-, and macro-movements.

Here are some habit algorithm examples you can use as inspiration:

Micro-movement: After I open my email, I will stretch my back.Mini-movement: After I get out of bed in the morning, I will do five minutes of yoga.Macro-movement: After I leave the office on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I will go running.

By filling your days with small and big movements, you’ll help your body get the activity it needs to stay strong and healthy.

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Food Rules

“What kind of food should I eat?”

Nutrition expert Michael Pollan provides a simple answer to that question that is worth memorizing:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Let’s unpack each part of this advice:

Eat food — Be a nutrition hunter: Look for real food and avoid processed stuff.Not too much — Stop eating when you’re about 80 percent full, and you’ll avoid over-eating.Mostly plants — Eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you’ll help your body stay energized, strong, and healthy.

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Sleep Hygiene

Over 17,000 scientific reports show that healthy sleep:

Improves your memory and creativity.Lowers your sugar cravings and keeps you slim.Protects you from colds, the flu, diabetes, dementia, and cancer.Decreases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.Makes you feel happier and helps you live longer.

Considering all these benefits, healthy sleep might very well be the most fundamental habit for a good life.

So, always make sure to take care of your sleep hygiene:

Optimize your bedroom — Make your sleep environment dark, cool, quiet, and relaxing.Employ sleep curfews — Avoid caffeine, alcohol, large meals, screens, and intense exercise before bedtime.Be consistent — Go to sleep and wake up at the same time each morning, ideally including weekends.

You’ll know you’re getting sufficient sleep when you feel energetic, wide awake, and alert throughout the day.

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The Fundamentals

If you want to feel great and perform at your best, there are three fundamental areas you have to master:

SleepNutritionMovement

If you take care of these areas, you’ll approach each day being calm, focused, and energized.

But if you neglect them, you’ll constantly struggle with stress, brain fog, and fatigue.

Sleep, nutrition, and movement are basic, simple, and mundane areas of life.

But they’re still incredibly important — precisely because they’re so fundamental.

So, from now on, make sure you give these fundamentals the proper care and attention.

That will make you much more effective in everything else that you do.

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The Commitment Contract

A commitment contract is a binding agreement between your present self and future self.

The contract should include three parts:

Your goal — The change you commit to making by when.Something at stake — Like your hard-earned money.A referee — Someone who will hold you accountable.

You can make a physical contract of your own or use an online service to create a digital one.

Just make sure that your goal is clearly defined, that losing what you put at stake would sting, and that your referee is strict but fair.

The more thoughtful you are with the details, the more likely you’ll be to honor the agreement.

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Replacement Habits

It’s much easier to replace a bad habit than it is to break it.

Imagine, for instance, that you want to stop using your phone in bed.

Your current habit loop might look like this:

Cue: Get into bed → Routine: Use your phone → Reward: A sense of calm

If you stop using your phone, you won’t get a sense of calm either.

And that makes it very hard to stay away from your phone each night.

So, you might instead want to try a slightly modified habit loop:

Cue: Get into bed → Routine: Read a book → Reward: A sense of calm

If you can find a new routine that provides the same reward as the old one, it can stick surprisingly fast.

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