Distractions are the nemesis of focus, and focus is what we need to consistently and effectively complete tasks and projects so that we can achieve our goals.
To make creativity work for you it's important to nurture your creativity, learn how to discern great ideas from ephemeral ones, consciously create a container for your thoughts, keep focused until you see the idea through and take responsibility and value your ideas.
Part of the reason multitasking may lead to poorer cognitive performance is that stress can quickly get to a point where we experience diminishing returns.
Setting goals puts you in the driver's seat, giving you the power to transform your life or take a company into the future. As enticing as that sounds, it is more common than not those goals are abandoned.
In his wildly popular 2006 TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson defined creativity as "the process of having original ideas that have value." Aside from being wonderfully succinct, this definition implies that any creative enterprise requires two key phases.
Are you feeling content and grateful, but wish there was more going on in your life? Are you feeling fulfilled? Is there a stirring inside you to get excited about something, but you just can't put your finger on what would scratch that itch?
When an organization (or an individual) makes a big, expensive and embarrassing mistake, it attracts loads of attention. But do you know what almost never attracts the attention it deserves? When things go the way they are supposed to.
Anyone can learn how to focus -- but only if we decide what is important to us and what we want to commit to accomplishing. The only wrong choice is no choice.
The cast of "Focus" doesn't have one thing: focus. Written and directed by "Crazy Stupid Love" duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, "Focus" focuses (l...
Choosing a career path (or changing one) is, for most of us, a confusing and anxiety-riddled experience. Many will tell you to "follow your passion" or "do what you love," but like Cal Newport argues in So Good They Can't Ignore You, this is not very useful advice.
How can you learn to embrace risk for the sake of your future happiness, particularly when risk taking doesn't come to you naturally? When you think about making a change, focus only on what you have to gain, and banish all thoughts of what you might lose.
Along with March Madness comes betting, dreaming up the perfect bracket, and ignoring productivity. For employers, March is likely to make them mad over how much money they're losing thanks to worker distraction.
Film: The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) Cast includes: Ryan Gosling (The Ides of March), Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Eva Mendes (Hitch),...
Frame a situation around a much-cherished goal and you are more likely to stick to that goal and/or sway others to seek it too. That's one of many stories with lessons for sticking to a plan that psychologist and Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino offers in her new book Sidetracked.
Pick a "project" -- a room, a closet, your wardrobe, your food habits -- and give it some serious focus. What can you do to bring change into your life?
Our ability to focus on different things is one of the strengths of our truly incredible brains. It's a skill we would definitely not want to lose. However, psychologists and neurobiologists have both shown that we pay a price when we multitask.
How can you make the most of the mood and creativity boost often known as "spring fever" without experiencing a plummet in your ability to get things done? Here are three practical strategies.
Menopause feels like someone slipped me a Wonder Woman pill.
If I find myself unable to move from the enormity of the forest, it's time to focus on just one tree. If that one tree seems like too much, it's time to focus on one branch or one leaf of that one tree. Narrowing the focus to the minutiae of the situation can make the forest seem more manageable.
It may seem obvious but saying that it is important to pay attention and actually paying attention are two very different things. We need everyone, including our leaders, to stop the autopilot mode and to begin to train the mind's capabilities to pay attention.
By Jeff Haden, visit Inc. When you meet someone, after, "What do you do?" you're out of things to say. You suck at small talk, and those first ...
When was the last time you gathered a group of your various close friends together? Just stopped the madness and everyday stuff and took a step back to enjoy the people in your life that you forget to make time for so you can rekindle that spark, a conversation, the interest and the escape.
The one thing you have as a small business that large companies don't have is freedom and more agility. And that needs to be our competitive advantage more than ever before.
Ever wonder why it's easy to call forth self-discipline one moment, but difficult in another? Several years ago, researcher Dr. Roy Baumeister, a professor of psychology at the University of Florida, pondered the same question.
It is important for us to realize what too much multitasking can do to our brains. Some interesting brain research from Your Brain at Work by David Rock tells us that to focus more effectively, we must retrain our mind for uninterrupted concentration.
