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Psyching yourself out
Merlin Mann | Jun 17 2005
Open Loops: Your Central Nervous System: Your Biological Key to Productivity Interesting article on ways to jumpstart your brain into action by changing something physical.
This doesn’t surprise me a bit, and if it’s all true, it might confirm my hunch that sitting still and staring at a screen all day is a recipe for lethargy, lame thinking, and productivity inertia. One trick that works for me is to unhook the sitting/desk/computer triad as a necessary combination for accomplishing what I need to do. On unproductive days, I try to shake myself away from even one piece of that combination: walk around, take the laptop to a coffee shop or—best of all—pretend that my time at the computer is very precious (instead of theoretically unlimited as it often is). Maybe play a mental game where I pretend I’m getting on a plane in 30 minutes, or some equivalent. For some reason, changing just one or two factors about my approach, my setup, my assumptions, or my schedule—even if I know it’s just a self-imposed psych-out—can be just the jolt I need to get things happening. Got a psych-out trick—physical or otherwise—that helps you get out of a productivity slump? [Link: Lifehacker] 25 Comments
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About MerlinBio Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who created the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today, Back to Work, and Kung Fu Grippe. Also? He’s writing this book, he lives with this face, he suffers from this hair, he answers these questions, and he’s had this life. So far. Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written in the past few years is an essay entitled, “Cranking.” |
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