Metaphors Gone Wild: Attics and Brain Boosts

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle consider the brain as an "empty attic." He recognized the need to stock it with metaphoric furniture, the choices of which are left up to each individual. Two important cognitive functions occurring up in that attic of yours are listening and being creative. Here are tips for polishing both these metaphoric pieces of furniture.

LISTENING

"The essence of genius," according to William James, "is to know what to overlook." And, author Mitchell Posner urges us to be "ecologists" as far as information is concerned. Here are exercises to help you be " as far as listening is concerned, to help you avoid verbal pollution.

In the center of a clean sheet of paper, draw a circle. Ask a friend to find a dense paragraph from an article. (Or, to simply go on and on about some topic for a few minutes.) Then extract three key words from the verbally- inflated paragraph that he or she spoke aloud. Write those words in the circle. Now that you have the essence of what you heard, use the three words to prompt your memory about the most important things you heard. Check with your friend to see if you have captured the main points.

This exercises not only sharpens your listening skills, but your verbal fluidity skills as well. Ask a friend to talk about an enjoyable experience and to stop unexpectedly after a few minutes. You are to take one word from the last sentence uttered and use it to begin speaking about something you enjoy doing. Stop unexpectedly and have the other person continue the conversation using one word from the last sentence you spoke.

Next, give some thought to barriers that can impede the listening process. Can you list 20 of them? Then consider which of these you can control. Finally, engage in a dialog that refutes Dr. Leo Buscagli, who said, "Most conversations are just alternating monologues-the question is, is there any real listening going on?"

CREATIVITY

Creativity is the result, in very large measure, of the belief that we are creative. To develop your creativity muscles, periodically ask yourself: "What if... ?" and "What could this be used for?" questions.

Convergent responses are typical, expected, logical. For example, asked how one gets to Heaven, you'd probably say something like "Follow the Golden Rule." Ask this question of a divergently-oriented child, though, and you might hear, "Go to Hell and take a left!" Or, "You need the God elevator." Or, "You need to buy a really big trampoline."

Think divergently about these questions:

What number does not belong with the others?

3810 6024 4816 1452

What letter belongs in the blank? FMAMJJASO ____

What letter belongs in the blank? OTTFFSSE ____

What national holiday do these letters represent?

ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

Think of the symbolism associated with causes and colors. For example, we tied yellow ribbons on trees to show support for hostages in Iran. If the head of your organization asked you to create a new ribbon design, what would it look like? What message would it express? What initials would be meaningful? What color?

One of the best ways to engender creative possibilities is to put things together that normally are not aligned. (Anne Geddes did this with babies and vegetables.) List ten disparate items: "peacock" and "eraser," for example. Then search among those items for a solution to a workplace problem or for an improvement to an existing situation.

Remember that Einstein regarded imagination as more important than knowledge. Try creating some unique metaphors to describe your workplace or your neighborhood or your life.

A PLACE FOR NONSENSE

Building those brain cells can be hard work. To offset the ardors of cognitive development, it's okay to indulge in mental "junk food" occasionally. Be heartened by Dr. Seuss, who admitting to this indulgence. "I like nonsense," he admitted. "It wakes up the brain cells."

Answer: 1-,4816, (If you add the digits in the other three numbers, they add up to 12. 4816 adds up to 19.) 2-N. (The other letters are the first letters in the twelve months of the year.), 3-N, again. (The other letters represent the first letters in a counting sequence from One to Eight.), 4- Christmas, because there is no "L" in the list.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Metaphors-Gone-Wild:-Attics-and-Brain-Boosts&id=9876565

How to Stop Multitasking and Start Speed Dating Your Tasks Instead

Speed dating for productivity uses the brain’s ability to focus on one thing at a time—in rapid succession.

We all have a dozen things that need to get done at once, so we multitask. But research is pretty much unanimous: Multitasking is less productive than single-tasking, and it actually degrades your cognitive functions across the board. The first thing to go? Your ability to assess whether or not you’re actually being productive.

But when we have a lot of tasks that we want to work on at once, our brains freak out. We think we can’t spend an entire hour focused on a marketing report, or our client calls will fall behind. In the end, we flail, we procrastinate or we search the web for cat pictures. And let’s face it: There are a lot of cat pictures just waiting to be found.

If you want singletasking quality, while still making progress on several fronts in the same work session, there is a way to do it: Speed date your tasks.

Speed Dating Your Tasks: The Technique

Speed dating your tasks is easy:

1. Grab a blank piece of paper.
2. On the paper, list the activities you’re going to do.
3. Grab a stopwatch and set it for 10 minutes.
4. Work on your first task for 10 minutes.
5. The instant the buzzer goes off, put a checkmark by the task you just worked on, and switch to the next task.
6. After one pass through all your tasks, take a five-minute break and do it again.

You can use a smartphone or paper to list your tasks. I prefer paper because checking off a task at the end of an interval is much easier than manipulating a computer interface.

If you use a pocket notebook and pencil, speed dating for productivity is easy and portable! And since it’s portable, you’ll discover you can use it in a number of surprising ways.

How to Speed Date Your Tasks at Work

Work is where speed dating shines. You have a full to-do list: write a travel expense report, prepare a presentation, scan a bunch of documents, and prepare the department’s weekly numbers, too. Use speed dating to get everything done: Spend 10 minutes writing out your expense report, then when your stopwatch says time’s up, move on to the presentation, the scanning, the numbers. Then take a five-minute break and begin again.

When you have several important projects to do at once, your brain wants to think about all of them at once (thus the attractiveness of multitasking). When you’re writing your expense reports, you’re thinking, But I have a presentation I’m ignoring! And when working on your presentation, you’re thinking about the expense reports that aren’t done yet. With speed dating, you have a list and you have time limits. While you’re working on your expense report, your brain knows that in a mere 10 minutes, you’ll be working on your presentation. Secure in that knowledge, it lets go of the nagging and you’ll find yourself able to hyper-focus on the expense reports until your interval is done.

How to Speed Date Exercise at the Gym

I hate exercise, so I speed date the gym. My trainer Steve insists I bench press three sets of 15 reps. That’s 45 reps, plus rest periods—that’s going to take forever! Wouldn’t it be much, much easier to skip the bench press and instead just stand around listening to music on my iPod, thinking really hard about doing the bench press? (Steve says no, but if I turn the volume up really loud, I can pretend I didn’t hear him.)

Your brain resists large tasks, but if it thinks a task will be quick and easy, it’s willing to jump right in. So use speed dating. Grab a trainer at the gym and ask them to design a circuit for you. A circuit is a series of exercises that work complementary muscles. You do them in rapid succession, with little or no pause in between. While you’re working the muscles from the second exercise, the muscles from the first exercise are taking their recovery time.

A circuit makes each exercise seem smaller, and easier to start. You’re just concentrating on the current set of the current exercise, rather than the entire block of sets you have planned for this workout.

How to Speed Date Your Tasks at Home

Because we’re so busy being productive at work, stuff at home can sometimes build up. There’s laundry to fold, ceiling molding to install and an ever-growing stack of books to read “someday.” Set your timer, grab your clothes and start folding.

When the timer goes off, stop immediately. If you’re halfway through folding a pair of underwear, leave it sprawled ungracefully on your folding table. Move on to the ceiling moldings, pronto.

Speed dating keeps you engaged, which is why you want to stop in the middle of a task. Stopping mid-task feels incomplete. Your brain wants completion, and the sense of incompletion will draw you right back into the task on the next go-around. You’ll be able to pick up right where you left off. Next time around, the instant you finish an interval with your underpants half-folded, that piece of molding hanging by only two nails will call you right back into hanging molding.

Singletasking and Speed Dating Wins the Race

Multitasking fails because it splits your attention among several things at once, often including interruptions. Speed dating does the opposite. It uses the brain’s ability to focus on one thing at a time—it just does so in rapid succession. Choosing a small set of tasks to switch between means you always know what’s coming up, and it’s easy to switch back into a task that you stopped partway through.

http://www.success.com/article/how-to-stop-multitasking-and-start-speed-dating-your-tasks-instead

6 Ways to Improve Your Focus

Having the inability to focus can be very damaging to your career and personal life, regardless of whether you’re easily destructible on a daily basis or simply have too much on your plate right now to be able to concentrate on an important project. The good news is that you do not need to allow a lack of focus to derail your next important discussion or presentation. Instead, there are numerous steps that you can take to help you concentrate on the task at hand.

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6 Ways to Improve Your Focus

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1. Take Nootropics 

If you stay abreast of current news and events, you have most likely heard of nootropics. These supplements are also commonly referred to as smart drugs, and they contain properties that are frequently found to provide a boost for a variety of cognitive functions. Although each nootropic may be beneficial, the supplements that are typically associated with offering a focus boost include Alpha GPC, L-Theanine, and Oxiracetam. As an added bonus, each of these nootropics has the potential to provide additional benefits as well. For example, one study indicated that Oxiracetam usage may lead to memory and learning improvements.

2. Get Enough Sleep

Some people look at sleep as a waste of time, but this could not possibly be further from the truth. In fact, if you do not regularly get the minimum recommended amount of sleep every night, you will end up developing concentration issues. To make matters even worse, a lack of sleep can eventually lead to serious medical problems. Adults who fail to get seven to nine hours of sleep will have a more difficult time learning tasks and retaining new information than those who do get seven to nine hours of sleep. 

3. Embrace your computer free time

Most of our lives revolve around computers and smartphones, which means: you need to take intentional breaks on a daily basis. A study conducted in 2012 found that avoiding computers for one hour at the start and end of the day can make it easier to focus throughout the rest of your waking hours. If possible, reserve that last hour for unwinding so that it will be easier for you to fall asleep. 

4. Prioritize every task

It is easier to tackle big tasks earlier in the day, so consider prioritizing your day accordingly. If you have one large project, and two smaller ones that you need to work on tomorrow, work on the the large project first and save the other two projects for the second half of the day. This will not only increase your ability to focus on each task, but it will also make the end of your day less stressful.

5. Exercise frequently

Working out at least three times per week will make you physically healthier, and it has also been shown to give you a cognitive boost. The reality is that stress is one of the main factors that makes it difficult to concentrate, but something as simple as walking for 20 minutes will reduce the amount of stress hormones that are in your body. As an added bonus, exercising can help you regulate your sleep cycles.

6. Utilize the Pomodoro Technique

Do you find your mind wandering frequently while you are trying to finish an important task? If so, you may be able to use the Pomodoro Technique to train your brain to stay on task. In a nutshell, this technique involves working for 25 minutes and then rewarding yourself with a five minute break. If you were to do this throughout an eight hour workday, you would end up actively working for six hours and 40 minutes. This might seem like a reduction in time, but odds are you aren't currently focusing intently on anything work related for that long of a time period on a daily basis anyway. Even if you currently stay at your desk for eight hours straight, the Pomodoro Technique should enable you to produce higher quality work while honoring your need for short mental breaks.

Ultimately, the best way to improve your focus is to recognize what your weaknesses are and provide yourself with the necessary tools to reach your goals. Getting enough sleep, steering clear of computers for two hours per day, taking nootropic supplements, exercising, prioritizing tasks and harnessing the productive power of the Pomodoro Technique are all proven ways for people to enhance their ability to concentrate. Therefore, combining two or more of these options together is a recipe for success.   

http://yoganonymous.com/6-ways-to-improve-your-focus