Marty Nemko's Blog, page 169

Acting on Impulse

How impulsive are you? Questions, plus tips for becoming more impulsive or more restrained. That's my Psychology Today article today:

Motivation: What Works in the Real World

The book Atomic Habits, a #1 New York Times bestseller, has sold more than five million copies and been translated into 50 languages.

The author, James Clear, summarizes the book's advice on motivation in an article: The Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated.   For the article's key points, I offer amplification or dissent.

5 Inhibitors of Critical Thinking

One's feeling is increasingly perceived as a competitor to critical thinking. We’re venerating “lived experience,” “feeling offended,” and succumbing to feeling-heavy/rationality-light bumper sticker rhetoric, whether it's from the Right—for example, calling liberals “libtards”—or on the left—“Mass Decarceration Now!”

You can be a better thinker and, in turn, a better doer if you’re aware of five inhibitors of critical thinking. I describe them in my Psychology Today article today.

5 Keys to Becoming More Conscientious

A large-scale synthesis of studies on conscientiousness, covering more than 100 years of research, merged the findings of 92 separate meta-evaluations covering 2,500 studies, with a combined n of 1.1 million. It identified ten ways that conscientiousness manifests.

To make it easier to implement its findings, my Psychology Today article today merged the ten manifestations into five. For each, I offer a suggestion for how you might make it part of your life.

Not Getting Enough Sleep? 16 questions that can help

Getting good sleep is prerequisite to accomplishment, to good relationships, and to a pleasurable life. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your answers to the questions I raise in my Psychology Today article today may yield useful things to try.

4 Causes of Poor Time Management and Suggestions for Improvement

A Harvard Business Review summary of the literature on time management described three components of the good time manager: And among my clients: I’ve seen a fourth

My Psychology Today article today describes the four and offers suggestions for improvement.

Should You Pack Up and Move?

When you’re unhappy, it’s tempting to move to a different locale. You might want to move for a purely practical reason, for example, because you got a job offer you couldn’t refuse. But one's psychology could also be at play.

My Psychology Today article today offers composite stories drawn from my clients in which a person contemplated moving for a psychological reason: sadness, fear, or anger. 

Perhaps one or more of those stories and the questions I raise in response might give you some clarity as to whether you should move.

Should You PAck Up and Move?

When you’re unhappy, it’s tempting to move to a different locale. You might want to move for a purely practical reason, for example, because you got a job offer you couldn’t refuse. But one's psychology could also be at play.

My Psychology Today article today offers composite stories drawn from my clients in which a person contemplated moving for a psychological reason: sadness, fear, or anger. 

Perhaps one or more of those stories and the questions I raise in response might give you some clarity as to whether you should move.

Santa Debates Scrooge: How much and how do you want to spend at the holidays?

Many people are of mixed minds about how and how much to spend at the holidays. Perhaps the debate between Santa and Scrooge that's my Medium article today will help you clarify.

"I Need a Miracle!" The case for supporting believers

It's easy to dismiss people who believe in miracles, but my Psychology Today article today makes the case for supporting such people even if you scoff at "miracles."