Engineer2Entrepreneur

MIT explains why bad habits are hard to break | CNET News.com

Link: MIT explains why bad habits are hard to break | CNET News.com.

Habitual activity--smoking, eating fatty foods, gambling--changes neural activity patterns in a specific region of the brain when habits are formed. These neural patterns created by habit can be changed or altered. But when a stimulus from the old days returns, the dormant pattern can reassert itself, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, putting an individual in a neural state akin to being on autopilot.

I think this is what Aristotle was talking about, "The unexamined life is not worth living." It is far to easy to fall into a pattern of habits and not do anything that is needful.

It takes work to move out of our comfort zone, and it is mainly by rewiring our brain.

The hardest thing to break a habit is to stay away from the old triggers that start our habit response.

[print version] Driven to distraction by technology | CNET News.com

Link: [print version] Driven to distraction by technology | CNET News.com.

"Technology has kind of turned the tables on us," Honore said. "We move to its speed and its rhythm."

And in addition to sapping our creativity, some studies suggest that we may not even be getting anywhere by trying to send an e-mail, talk to a co-worker and send instant messages to our boss at the same time. Russell says humans just aren't that good at doing many things at once.

The problem, Russell said, is that there are only certain types of tasks that humans are good at doing simultaneously. Cooking and talking on the phone go together fine, as does walking and chewing gum (for most people). But try and do three math problems at once, and you are sure to have a problem.

"The paradox of modern life is that multitasking is, in most cases, counterproductive," Russell said.

Sadly this is not new. This was pointed out in PeopleWare and Mythical Man-month 20 years ago. 3 minute interruptions are a bit faster then back then but it is still the same problem. More interrupts then thinking time.

While he says 8 minutes i the time to get into creative state, that is pretty close to the Flow measurement of 15 minutes so that is close enough and that is how long it takes just to get started thinking. So a 5 second question you can look up will lose 8+ minutes of someone else's productivity.

People who don't study history are doomed to repeat it.

Specializing your LIfe Away

Link: Gautam Ghosh on Management: The scourge of specialization? is commenting on Dave Pollard's post on 12 ways to think differently.

We live in an age of specialization, where we are encouraged to narrow our interests and our activities, to focus and limit ourselves to doing things at which we are very competent.

And that reminded me of this great quote:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Robert Heinlein

Specialization at work is a good thing, we are living in a world that was created by the division of labor. People specialize doing what they do best, so others can specialize at what they do best and we trade currency to make it all come together and generally we are happy.

I once knew a guy who had done very well for himself, he had specialized in nuts and bolts, he had memorized the specifications for thousands of nuts and bolts, people would call him to find out what they needed for their particular application and he charged quite a bit to give out that information but still less then doing all the comparisons themselves. it was a good thing he retired before the Web, because not anyone can do the same thing from home in less then an hour via the Internet.

But change is ongoing. Like buggy whip manufacturers at the beginning of the Automobile Age, sure the business was going to last a few years but before too long it was gone.

Not all that long ago you could expect to work for one company all your life, now having 2-3 separate careers is not unusual.

Outsourcing is another big pressure on workers today. Mobile work, or work that can be done anywhere, is going to places with the least cost of overhead. It is also forcing many people to become Free Agents.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a move out of the comfort zone, and new skills will have to be learned.

But The most important thing to realize is to specialize in work is not to specialize in life. You need to mingle with other ideas and people. New ideas don't come into an industry from inside the industry but from outside it. Other industries face similar problems and find solutions, apply them to your own.

Change or Die

Link: Change or Die.

Reframing alone isn't enough, of course. That's where Dr. Ornish's other astonishing insight comes in. Paradoxically, he found that radical, sweeping, comprehensive changes are often easier for people than small, incremental on

This is really great data. I have noticed this too. It is easier to make a radical change then an incremental change.

We tend to eat worse in the winter then in the summer, mainly because we have to eat a lot of stuff from the local supermarket. But in the summer things are totally different, we eat from the garden and the local Farmer's Markets.

Eating better food makes a bigger difference for us then eating less.

I have many other examples but not enough time. Go read the article.

FRANK'S COMPULSIVE GUIDE TO POSTAL ADDRESSES

Link: FRANK'S COMPULSIVE GUIDE TO POSTAL ADDRESSES.

This is a cool site.

Rantzilla: Multi-tasking and Distractions

Link: Rantzilla: Multi-tasking and Distractions.

That is a very hard exercise. Is it proof, maybe not, but I have already noticed that doing one thing at a time is better.

The Time is never right, do it now anyway.

Link: Seth's Blog: Don't Shave That Yak!.

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." -George S. Patton

There is no such things as the perfect time to do something. There is always something more that needs to be perfected and if not perfected then some outside condition is not quite right.

Do it now, with what you got. Things will happen that change everything as others react to your action and you react to theirs. The ripples of your actions affect everything around you.

Better then stay quiet.

Train like you fight, Fight like you train

Link: Salesprocessdiva: Six Myths About Peak Performers.

It is what you spend your time on that determines your level of performance, not your tools.

There is an old military saying: Train like you fight and fight like your train.

most people don't spend any time of their personal productivity and so they are not very productive. No surprise there.

It's like the skinny guy you see jogging everyday, you think, "He's in great shape, he doesn't need to jog everyday." He doesn't need to jog everyday but if he doesn't he loses a lot of that edge and soon looks just like you and me.

You can't be in top form in all areas of your life all at the same time right at first.

How to find the important things to focus your energies on.

Make a list of all the things you do in the day and week.
Pick the top 3-4 most important things you do that if you did all day and got really good at would make the biggest difference.
Talk to your boss about focusing on those things.
Then Stay Focused.

PowerPoint Bullets are Bad

Link: beyond bullets: Why Board Members Should Ban Bullets.

Adding text to a screen in a multimedia presentation that is identical to the narration harms the ability of the audience to understand the information. Removing the text increases retention, or the ability to remember the information, by 28%. Even more significantly, removing the text increases transfer, or the ability to apply the information, by 79%.

Powerpoint is not evil, it is only a tool and it has been abused.

It comes down to this. You are the presentation not Powerpoint. Powerpoint, like any other piece of technology, is a good slave but a lousy master.
You're in charge let Powerpoint support what YOU have to say, don't think it will help you if you don't have anything to say it just make it worse.

Pay Attention To What You're Doing.

Link: Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching: Get into a new habit: Working wide awake..

Be aware of what you are doing and it is easy to change yourself.

Being on autopilot, phoning it in, and the rest is just about you relying on old habits to get you through the day.

Things are changing too fast to rest on your laurels. Old habits may die hard but they need to be killed off.

I have a daughter that is growing up way too fast I always need to be aware so I can respond to her in a positive way.

New technology helps sometimes too. Switching to RSS makes surfing go a lot faster as it is limiting but faster.

Pay attention to what you just did and most likely you will find a better way of doing a lot faster, easier and cheaper.

One of the worst habits in big corporations is that people latch on to the first thing they did that was successful and stick with it. It is understandable to do that, the rat who gets food from pressing the lever is going to keep pressing the lever. But if there is more then one lever and another lever will give him more/better food he will never get to it because to change is too chancy. and may get him punished if he presses the wrong lever.