Eight methods to make conversations with acquaintances more interesting

December 3, 2022

If you're like me and really dislike small talk, you may find these ideas useful. (1) If you end up talking about their work, ask what they (i) most like about it and (ii) find most challenging about it. (2) If they end up asking about your work, try to explain what you do in a way you've never experimented with before. Example: if you're a programmer, maybe you'll say your job is to convert ambiguous human goals to instructions that are so precise a computer can follow them. ...

Tricks for Getting Started on a Project When You’re Stuck

April 19, 2021

If you ever have trouble starting on something that's important or find yourself procrastinating on a project, you may find it useful to notice what you feel at that moment and design your approach based on it. Here is a list of "feeling-based" strategies that may help you get started on what you have trouble getting yourself to do: If you are feeling: 1. unsure of where to start-> think of three really small, simple, actionable steps that would constitute a small amount of progress...

Cool Reboot for More Energy

November 5, 2017

Do you tend to feel tired or 'out of it' midday? Do you not want to waste the rest of the day feeling like garbage? Try a Cool Reboot! It layers together six different techniques for feeling awake and only takes 30 minutes. Ingredients (all optional, skip any that you can't do now or don't like): - a very caffeinated beverage - a timer with an alarm (e.g., on your phone or alarm clock) - earplugs and/or eye mask - a bed or couch - a bright source of light (e.g., a S.A.D....

The Problem with Pseudo Work

September 19, 2017

Pseudo work (PW) is a problem. Pseudo work consists of tasks that feel productive but neither contribute to your goals nor help anyone else to any meaningful degree. PW (pseudo work) is neither fun nor useful but, because it feels like work, we allow ourselves to do it and consider it work time. That means we may not even have it on our radar as something to get rid of (unlike pure procrastination time, which we know we want to reduce). Yet if we remove PW, we can free up time for either real w...