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How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
What does a good day look like for you? What about a bad one? What would it take to have more good days?
SO WHAT IS A GOOD DAY?
feeling productive, and from knowing that their efforts counted toward something worthwhile.
feeling confident that they were doing a fine job, and that they had the support they needed
feeling more e...
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For years it was thought we could hold about seven pieces of information in our minds at once, but more recent research suggests it’s three or four at most.
the startling truth is that we don’t experience the world as it is; we’re always experiencing an edited, simplified version.
Things to keep in mind about the two-speed brain: Your deliberate system is responsible for sophisticated functions such as reasoning, self-control, and forward thinking. It excels in handling anything unfamiliar, complex, or abstract. But it has limited capacity and gets tired quickly. When it’s overused, overloaded, or distracted, it’s harder for you to be wise, balanced, or reliable.
Your automatic system lightens the load on your deliberate system by automating most of what you do and taking fast shortcuts that filter out “irrelevant” information and options. That’s mostly helpful. But it inevitably leaves you with blind spots. And the fact that nobody ever experiences an entirely objective version of reality can lead to crossed wires and poor choices in the workplace.
we’re far more likely to have a good day if we manage to spend as little time as possible in defensive mode.
research suggests that the neurological effects of financial gains are short-lived.
One reason that shared humor is powerful is that it tends to make us feel more connected to other people.
the way we treat our body has a huge effect on the way our brain performs,
we can reap immediate intellectual and emotional dividends from investing in exercise and sleep, or even from taking a moment to breathe deeply, smile broadly, and stand a little taller.
a single session of aerobic exercise immediately improves our intellectual performance, giving us faster information processing and reaction time, more effective planning, better short-term memory performance, and more self-control.
on days that people exercised before work or did something active during their lunch break, they were far better able to concentrate and handle their workload.
Exercise also boosted people’s mood and motivation (by 41 percent) and their ability to deal with stress (by 27 percent).
it increases blood flow to...
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stimulates the release of the neurotransmitters dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin, which serve to boost our in...
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majority of those cognitive and emotional benefits accrue after as little as twenty minutes of moderate daily activity.
even a fast walk at lunchtime can make a real difference to your mojo.
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
our priorities and assumptions determine our perceptions to a surprising extent.
setting the right kind of goals not only reliably lifts our performance but also makes us feel good.
what we imagine in our mind’s eye can shape our real...
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Our automatic system will generally prioritize information that resonates with anything that’s top of mind for us.
our attitude can play a part in setting the perceptual filters we apply to the day.
We’re each living through our own private reality, a reality shaped by our hardworking automatic system’s attempts to allocate our attention to the right things.
If your primary concern is to get your point across, you’ll probably find yourself noticing every instance of being interrupted, and every moment of airtime that others take up. You’ll probably lose some of the thread of the conversation, without realizing it, because you’ll be focused on your desire to tell people what you want them to hear.
your automatic system is just efficiently prioritizing information that relates to your state of mind.
we miss a big opportunity if we simply let the day happen to us.
Aim: Think about each of the most important of today’s activities—the people you’ll meet, the work you’ll do. What really matters most in making them a success?
Attitude: As you think about the upcoming workday, take a moment to notice and acknowledge the concerns that are dominating your thoughts or your mood. Do these concerns help you achieve your real aim—and if not, can you set them aside for now?
Attention: Given your real priorities, where do you want to focus your attention? Figure out what you want to see more of, and then make sure you look out for it.
our assumptions are another selective attention filter that our automatic brain uses to simplify our experience of the world.
If we encounter some information or behavior that matches what we’re expecting, our automatic system will probably make sure we’re aware of it.
very little in life is truly completely good or bad.
the use of absolute language is a flashing neon sign that you’re probably seeing only part of the picture.
Your assumptions really color what you see and how you react.”
