Posted: 27 Apr 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Dear Kirsten,

I’m stuck. I’m so close to finishing something huge, yet the list of things that need to get done between now and my deadline is so large that I’m despairing of ever getting it done. I think about it, and it seems so crushing, all I want to do is go take a nap.

Help?

Overwhelm Doesn’t Begin to Describe It

Dear Overwhelm,

We all get into these spaces every so often. Even yours truly. Perhaps it’s uncouth to admit as the resident productivity expert, but I spent the last week of every semester in undergrad in exactly this place. Here’s what got me through:

1) Keep lists. I know that I talk about productivity relating to personality, and that some personality types abhor lists, but in this situation they’re required. (If you’re a non-list type, 95% of the work we do together will be to keep you out of this situation.) Write down everything that needs to be done, every last little piece, in as much detail as possible. Half of the despair in this situation comes from not having a clear picture of what’s facing you. Lists help clarify that picture.

2) Order your list by deadline. What needs to happen first? What can wait until later? Tackle what needs to go first. Don’t worry about the rest. Just start doing. If that means you’re creating the slides for an hour long presentation the night before, so be it. But you need that momentum.

3) Treat it like a hurdles race. Everything comes at you fast, and you’re going to have to jump without being fully prepared to do so. Accept that you’ll have to do this. Accept that you’ll land on the other side. It may not be a perfect landing, but it will be a hell of a lot better than if you’d curled up on the track to take a nap between jumps.

4) Keep jumping. Jump until there’s nothing else on the list.

5) Once the list is done, you have one more task. Figure out how you got into this situation. What factors led to you desperately running and jumping? Do you have control over any of those factors? Figure out what you can change to make sure you don’t have to go through this again. Because this sort of race isn’t sustainable. You can’t live your life perpetually looking a day in advance and jumping. Ideally, you never want to have to come to this place again.

Got a productivity question? E-mail Kirsten and get your answer!

The Balancing Act in Your Brain

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Your brain is a battlefield. Two warring forces wage a constant struggle for dominance.

Okay, they’re more like a couple teenagers fighting over who gets the window seat on a long drive. Chances are, you keep giving the same kid the window seat.

And putting the other kid in the trunk.

Be Reasonable; Make the Logical Choice

We’d all love to think that logic and reason are the foundation of our choices. Gotta keep those emotions in check when we’re making life’s big choices. After all, when we’re buying a house or car, choosing a life partner, or deciding what to eat or whether or not to have children, we want to make the best choice possible. We give logic the window seat, and put emotions in the trunk. Pure logic, we assume, leads to the best choices.

We’re wrong.

Pure logic is, in fact, incapable of decision. Incapable.

Research involving people with specific brain injuries which render them incapable of emotion has led scientist Antonio Dimasio to a surprising truth: without emotion, we cannot make decisions. These folks, instead of becoming Spock, the ultimate logic machine, always making the cleanest decision, become incapable of any decision at all.

Isn’t it nice that we have an old wives’ tale to rescue us?

Women’s Intuition

That’s what it used to be called back in the good old days of gender inequality. Men, obviously, used their brain to make smart decisions. Women, poor fragile things, just guessed at the answers to life, and when they got it right once in a while, they called it intuition.

Guys, we were such dolts.

We all have intuition. Research into how the brain works has revealed that our emotions, our intuition, our unconscious mind, are capable of miraculous feats when it comes to decision-making. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explains the science behind thin-slicing—the brain’s remarkable ability to piece together cogent conclusions based on nearly instant analysis of broad swaths of information.

With training your intuition, your gut, can take on some of the decision-making load. In order to help our logical brain benefit from intuition, some decisions are best made with less information.

Tell Me Less!

Science writer Jonah Lehrer describes the process of buying a car. Read his book How We Decide for all the groovy details. Here’s the short version:

Car buyers who tried to research all 23 million aspects of prospective purchases (I made that number up) ended up choosing cars which failed to meet the criteria they had originally set for their new car. Another group of buyers went through a very different (and far more successful) process.

First, they compared a very limited number of options. Next, they slept on it. Finally, they were shown photos of the cars they were considering and simply chose one without thinking about it.

And, on the whole, made the best choice considering their original criteria.

Feeding your unconscious just enough information to matter, then letting it chug along unhindered, leads to better choices than endless research and analysis.

Fair Doesn’t Mean Equal—With Kids Or Your Brain

Choosing the spread for your morning toast or which Nero Wolfe novel to read next doesn’t require algorithmic input from your neocortex. Choosing who to spend the rest of your life deserves more than the whim of your libido (or facsimile thereof.)

Most of life’s decisions fall between the extremes. During the past decade, research has shown that good decision-making is a balancing act in your brain.

To learn more about how it works read How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. You might also like Descartes’ Error by Antonio Dimasio, The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, and The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar.

Featured Photo Credit: Eric Feldman

One Red Paperclip

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 02:00 AM PDT

Book Recommendation: One Red Paperclip: Or How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply by Kyle MacDonald

Kyle MacDonald, an average guy in Canada, took one red paper clip that he found in his desk and turned it into a house. Wow. His journey from clip to house is an amazing story and as remarkable as it is it could have happened to anyone.

Perhaps you don't believe me (read the book and you will). Perhaps you are sitting there and thinking that amazing things only happen to other people. Nothing ever happens to you. Do you know why? Because you are sitting there. Before Kyle went on this amazing journey he had done lots of other crazy things that had not worked. At the beginning of the story he starts on the paper clip journey because he was avoiding getting a job. He had worked in the past and felt that he was meant to do something else.

Do you feel the same way? Are you employed (or unemployed) and feeling that you were meant to do something remarkable? Do you have no idea what that remarkable thing might be? I've been in your shoes and so has Kyle. Reading this book got me thinking about what unusual project I could do and how I could make it something remarkable. Because that is the point. The house was remarkable, but the paper clip was not. Or it wasn't by itself. Kyle had to do something to turn the paper clip into something amazing.

So right this moment stop reading this article. Wait, let me tell you what to do first. Stand up and open a drawer. Take out a random item. Sit back down and think of what you could do with the item in your hand. Then do it. That's what Kyle did. He didn't let doubt or other people's opinion stop him. He took something average and made it remarkable. I think that is what we all want to do. So read the book and start your own journey.

RssA1

vineri, 27 aprilie 2012

Up Market

Up Market

Be Reasonable; Make the Logical Choice

Women’s Intuition

Tell Me Less!

Fair Doesn’t Mean Equal—With Kids Or Your Brain

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