via Lifehack by Cody Wheeler
I have a confession to make.
95% of the time I’m on it. I’m either writing, connecting, researching, learning, or doing something to better myself and my life. But, there are some days when I don’t get a whole lot done.
I’m not necessarily a “Type A” naturally driven and productive person. I’ve just become that way over time. Sometimes that old me that wants to lay around and do nothing comes out and shows its ugly face, and it rains all over my otherwise flowing exuberant productivity parade.
Don’t feel bad if that’s you too from time-to-time. There are times when everyone has their off days, even me.
What’s important is that you don’t let it happen too often. Most of the time you’ll take a break from your fast-paced life, then get right back on your horse and go back to getting things done.
You can continue with Cody’s original post here but first, before you dismiss this as being entirely inappropriate to Elefriends, think about your journey towards better mental health as your task, what it is that you are trying to be productive about.
For example: The longer you don’t do something, the more likely you are not going to do it.
That’s not just about work life that is life life.
Is the mending pile impossible to see over?
Clean clothes strewn around waiting to be ironed? Things pulled out from the bottom and ironed as needed?
Did you promise to put up that shelf? How long ago was that?
What about painting the front door before it falls down?
Those are examples from my own life. You will, no doubt, have your own which may be nothing to do with physical things around you which are getting you down.
Give the 15-minutes at a time process a try.
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Insomnia: relax… and stop worrying about lack of sleep
via SocietyGuardian - news, comment and analysis on the public and voluntary sectors
What is the solution to the torture of insomnia?
Drugs?
Therapy?
Or are different sleep patterns natural?
A new book investigates.
You can read the full article here which is an edited extract from the book Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
Many of my Ele friends will be only too aware that a lack of sleep is not a problem that I associate with. I can sleep on a clothes-line at any time of day or night and whilst I can wake in the middle of the night worrying about something I very soon go back to sleep – there are times when short-term memory loss is a blessing!!
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What is the solution to the torture of insomnia?
Drugs?
Therapy?
Or are different sleep patterns natural?
A new book investigates.
You can read the full article here which is an edited extract from the book Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
Many of my Ele friends will be only too aware that a lack of sleep is not a problem that I associate with. I can sleep on a clothes-line at any time of day or night and whilst I can wake in the middle of the night worrying about something I very soon go back to sleep – there are times when short-term memory loss is a blessing!!
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Tuesday, 16 October 2012
How to Be Honest with Yourself and Get More Done
Finally, at long last, etc etc!!
I suspect that this blog will contain more than a few links to Lifehack but please note that the tips and advice provided are not designed necessarily for people with mental health problems. What I pick will, however, be those that I think some of my Elefriends will be able to use.
“You can dramatically change your life but only if you have the desire to change, the decision to take action, the discipline to practice the new behaviours you have chosen, and the determination to persist until you get the results you want.”
Brian Tracy
I wonder how many times I’ve said one or more of the above. And telling myself what I already know is a waste of time, energy and breath – it does not work!
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I suspect that this blog will contain more than a few links to Lifehack but please note that the tips and advice provided are not designed necessarily for people with mental health problems. What I pick will, however, be those that I think some of my Elefriends will be able to use.
“You can dramatically change your life but only if you have the desire to change, the decision to take action, the discipline to practice the new behaviours you have chosen, and the determination to persist until you get the results you want.”
Brian Tracy
- “I just need to focus.”
- “I just need to buckle down.”
- “I just need to have more willpower.”
- “I already know what to do, I just need to do it.”
I wonder how many times I’ve said one or more of the above. And telling myself what I already know is a waste of time, energy and breath – it does not work!
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Saturday, 29 September 2012
Pharmaceutical companies deliberately mislead doctors into prescribing useless and even harmful meds
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Writing in the Guardian, Ben Goldacre reveals the shocking truth about the drugs that doctors prescribe: thanks to aggressive manipulation from the pharmaceutical companies and passivity from regulators, doctors often don’t know that the drugs were ineffective (or harmful) in a majority of their clinical trials. That’s because pharma companies set up their trials so that they [have?] the right to terminate ones that look unpromising (or stop them early if they look promising and report on the result partway through as though it reflected the whole trial), and to simply suppress the results of negative trials.
As a result, doctors – even doctors who do their homework and pay close attention to the published trials, examining their methodology carefully – end up prescribing useless (or harmful) medicines. And according to Goldacre, this is true of all doctors in every country, because every country’s regulators allow pharmaceutical companies to cynically manipulate research outcomes to increase their profits.
There's more, lots more, in Cory’s original post – and Cory Doctorow is not the sort of person who uses the word “shocking” lightly. He is also well aware of the problems which might ensue if he has been writing untruths. I have seen nothing to indicate that this is happening!
Writing in the Guardian, Ben Goldacre reveals the shocking truth about the drugs that doctors prescribe: thanks to aggressive manipulation from the pharmaceutical companies and passivity from regulators, doctors often don’t know that the drugs were ineffective (or harmful) in a majority of their clinical trials. That’s because pharma companies set up their trials so that they [have?] the right to terminate ones that look unpromising (or stop them early if they look promising and report on the result partway through as though it reflected the whole trial), and to simply suppress the results of negative trials.
As a result, doctors – even doctors who do their homework and pay close attention to the published trials, examining their methodology carefully – end up prescribing useless (or harmful) medicines. And according to Goldacre, this is true of all doctors in every country, because every country’s regulators allow pharmaceutical companies to cynically manipulate research outcomes to increase their profits.
There's more, lots more, in Cory’s original post – and Cory Doctorow is not the sort of person who uses the word “shocking” lightly. He is also well aware of the problems which might ensue if he has been writing untruths. I have seen nothing to indicate that this is happening!
Just read it. There's so much more. Paroxetine, a drug that was known to be ineffective for treating children, which had a risk of suicide as a side-effect, widely prescribed to children, because GlaxoSmithKline declined to publish its research data after an internal memo stated "It would be commercially unacceptable to include a statement that efficacy had not been demonstrated, as this would undermine the profile of paroxetine."The drugs don't work: a modern medical scandal
You Can't Pay Me To Care
via Big Think by Orion Jones: article written by guest writer Kecia Lynn
A study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggests a connection between money and the ability of people to infer others’ emotions, and that connection isn’t what you might expect. In two separate experiments, groups of University of California-Santa Barbara students were instructed to watch videos of people discussing a recent experience, and then to guess at what the people were feeling. Those members who were offered a financial reward for guessing correctly actually were less accurate in their results than those who were offered another type of reward or no reward at all.
The findings imply that when money comes into the picture, people tend to focus on their own self-interest rather than that of others. Psychologists Christine Ma-Kellams and Jim Blascovich write: “These findings are particularly compelling given that, in both [experiments], it (literally) paid to be empathically accurate … Despite the fact that correctly inferring the emotional states of others would have resulted in financial gain, individuals who focused on the monetary payoff performed worse relative to those who did not.”
Read it at Pacific Standard (includes a link to The Beatles Money (that’s what I want).
A study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggests a connection between money and the ability of people to infer others’ emotions, and that connection isn’t what you might expect. In two separate experiments, groups of University of California-Santa Barbara students were instructed to watch videos of people discussing a recent experience, and then to guess at what the people were feeling. Those members who were offered a financial reward for guessing correctly actually were less accurate in their results than those who were offered another type of reward or no reward at all.
The findings imply that when money comes into the picture, people tend to focus on their own self-interest rather than that of others. Psychologists Christine Ma-Kellams and Jim Blascovich write: “These findings are particularly compelling given that, in both [experiments], it (literally) paid to be empathically accurate … Despite the fact that correctly inferring the emotional states of others would have resulted in financial gain, individuals who focused on the monetary payoff performed worse relative to those who did not.”
Read it at Pacific Standard (includes a link to The Beatles Money (that’s what I want).
Monday, 24 September 2012
Welcome
to what I hope will be a useful resource for friends of The Elephant in the Room.
Unlike the careers information blog that I manage there is no guarantee that any one day will have a specific number of posts – or even any at all.
If readers would send me, by commenting here or via Facebook messaging, links to useful information I would be grateful.
I will be providing a fairly random choice of things that I think useful as I come across them in my reading – news media, journal articles (normally only the abstract, occasionally the full article), other blogs (Community Care produces some interesting stuff), and personal development stuff that I’ve found useful over the last few years for myself (Lifehack is one my favourites – mainly to read, note and then ignore the excellent advice).
Unlike the careers information blog that I manage there is no guarantee that any one day will have a specific number of posts – or even any at all.
If readers would send me, by commenting here or via Facebook messaging, links to useful information I would be grateful.
I will be providing a fairly random choice of things that I think useful as I come across them in my reading – news media, journal articles (normally only the abstract, occasionally the full article), other blogs (Community Care produces some interesting stuff), and personal development stuff that I’ve found useful over the last few years for myself (Lifehack is one my favourites – mainly to read, note and then ignore the excellent advice).
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