Posts Tagged ‘brain’

Sync Your Brain And Your System Using a Mind Dump

One of the keys to any productivity system is to actually put things into the system. Who knew?Obvious though it may seem, many of us have trouble taking the time to enter our thoughts into our task-manager, to-do list, or organizational system.This can happen for any number of reasons - no paper nearby, no easy way to record your ideas - but our productivity can be hurt by not inputting… Continue reading

February 24 2009 | By David | Tagged: brain, capture, creativity, idea, mind-dump, trigger, weekly review | 12 comments»

How to Cultivate an “Insight Outlook”

One powerful way to live a more creative life is to cultivate an "insight outlook" -- the art of looking more deeply at everything we experience with an open, inquisitive spirit. Creative people are intensely observant, paying careful attention to everything they think and hear. They realize that their environments – the people they talk to, the places they go, the things they read or hear on the radio or… Continue reading

February 18 2009 | By Chuck | Tagged: association, brain, creativity, ideas, problem-solving, thinking | 6 comments»

Why “Just Do It” Just Doesn’t Do It for You

“Just do it!”“Do Something!”“Act now!”“Ready, Fire, Aim!”We are surrounded, on a day-to-day basis, by the exhortation to act. Hustle, hustle, hustle, get a move on, get going. Whether its a friend giving us advice or a multi-million dollar ad campaign, everyone seems to be telling us – in the vaguest way possible – to get off our butts and go do something. Any-thing.New research out of the University of

September 15 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: action, brain, doing, mental, motivation, priming, todo-list | 15 comments»

How to Make the Right Choice

Which job should you take? What car should you buy? Should you ask him to marry you? Are you ready for another baby? Is this house right for you, or should you keep looking before you make an offer?Life is full of hard choices, and the bigger they are and the more options we have, the harder they get.As it happens, our brains are fairly binary. They can react very… Continue reading

July 9 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, choice, decision, decision-making, mind, strategy | 15 comments»

The Science of Setting Goals

What happens in our heads when we set goals?Apparently a lot more than you’d think. Goal setting isn’t quite so simple as deciding on the things you’d like to accomplish and working towards them.According to the research of psychologists, neurologists, and other scientists, setting a goal invests ourselves into the target as if we’d already accomplished it. That is, by setting something as a goal, however small or large, however… Continue reading

July 7 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: achievement, brain, goal, motivation, neurology | 20 comments»

What Storytellers Can Teach You About How to Learn Faster

Storytelling is a demanding craft. Not only do you have to be able to write or perform the story accurately, you need to create vivid descriptions. Boring, complex or difficult to understand metaphors can turn an imaginative journey into a lifeless plot.You may not think of it deliberately, but learning is very similar to storytelling. You need to give yourself vivid, memorable and emotionally descriptions… Continue reading

January 3 2008 | By Scott H | Tagged: brain, grades, holistic, improvement, learning, mental, metaphor, Productivity, study, thinking | 25 comments»

4 Reasons Why Curiosity is Important and How to Develop It

The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein

Curiosity is an important trait of a genius. I don't think you can find an intellectual giant who is not a curious person. Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, they are all curious characters. Richard Feynman was especially known for his adventures which came from his curiosity.

But why is curiosity so important?… Continue reading

November 14 2007 | By Donald | Tagged: brain, creativity, learning, mind, thinking | 43 comments»

Rico Clusters: An Alternative to Mind Mapping

I'm not a big fan of mind mapping, though I concede that it does have its uses. Recently, I learned of a different approach to brainstorming that seems both more practical and better grounded in the way the mind works than traditional, Buzan-style mind mapping. This approach, called the Rico Cluster after its developer, Dr. Gabrielle Rico, focuses on the creation of a "web" of related and… Continue reading

October 24 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, brainstorming, creativity, mindmap, outlining, rico_cluster, teaching, thought, writing | 36 comments»

Three More Reasons Why Your Brain is Not Your Friend

Last week, I explained some of the ways that our brain tricks us. There's more ways than just the three I listed that the brain works in odd and mysterious ways, causing us no end of mischief. Here's three more:I am not a racist!In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was beaten and killed in an attack witnessed by dozens of people, none of whom… Continue reading

October 19 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, perception, psychology, racism, thought | 23 comments»

Your Brain is Not Your Friend

A mind is a terrible thing. Whether because of the brain's internal structure or the way social and cultural pressures cause our minds to develop and function, in the end the result is the same: minds that are not only easily deceived and frequently deceptive in their own right, but when caught out, refuse to accept and address their errors. If you have a mind -- or… Continue reading

October 12 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, psychology, thought | 41 comments»

Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on note-taking skills. One common experience many people have, and that several people mentioned in response to that post, is that when they take good notes they remember things well enough that they rarely end up having to look at their notes again.In fact, it seems that writing anything down makes us remember it better. On the other… Continue reading

September 28 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, memory, notetaking, studying, thought | 31 comments»

7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

The brain isn’t a flawless piece of machinery. Although it is powerful and comes in an easy to carry container, it has it’s weaknesses. A field in psychology which studies these errors, known as biases. Although you can’t upgrade your mental hardware, noticing these biases can clue you into possible mistakes.How Bias Hurts YouIf you were in a canoe, you’d probably want to know about any… Continue reading

September 11 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: bias, brain, decide, heuristic, learn, Lifehack, logic, mental, study, think, thinking | 97 comments»

10 Habits Of Effective Brains

Feed the brain, know what makes it work better. These are simple enough to start now - if you haven't already.Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. "Use It… Continue reading

August 24 2007 | By Craig | Tagged: brain | 1 comment»

How To Automatically Read A Book Per Week Without Taking Any Additional Time Out Of Your Day

If you're anything like me, you probably have a whole stack of books sitting around that you're really going to read some day. Yeah right!Sure, it would be nice to get some more reading done, but let's face it: there is usually something more urgent that needs to get done. And when you have to do all the urgent things, there isn't much time left over for… Continue reading

July 19 2007 | By Brian | Tagged: audio, book, brain, education, learn, leverage, listen, reading | 29 comments»

Nine Brain Quirks You Didn’t Realize You Had

I think the brain is most interesting when it doesn’t work the way you expect it should. Psychology often confirms our intuitions about how our minds work, but it offers quite a few surprises as well. Although some psychology buff’s will have heard a few of these before, here’s a list of quirks in your brain you probably didn’t realize you had:1) Your short-term memory… Continue reading

July 11 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: brain, feature, mind | 105 comments»

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