5 useful discoveries about personal effectiveness

In our exciting and eventful time psychologists always have something to think about and work on. Each year are born new discoveries, which mainly relate to the GTD, getting rid of stress, and creativity. Last year was no exception, and I suggest you 5 interesting facts about personal performance, that we may have lost sight of in 2012.

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1. You know yourself is not as good as you think

We used to think that no one knows us so well, as we have ourselves. But the farther, the more there is evidence of a completely opposite. And then there is an interesting problem for employers, who in employment have come to rely on questionnaires, which are filled by candidates. Psychologist Timothy Wilson suggests that in order to really get to know yourself, you need to ask other people to give you a response. Sometimes, the person you see every day in the mirror, is very different from the man whom you see in the surrounding. Although these two personalities and relate to each other very peculiar way.

In his book «Strangers to Ourselves» Wilson says a lot about the adaptive unconscious. That is, people a lot of things done in my life unconsciously and therefore can not find it myself, without help. Of course, we can begin to practice mindfulness, try to notice all the little things for themselves and continue to dig into. Sometimes we find there are surprises, and they are not always pleasant. We can learn a lot of new, but most will remain unnoticed.

And that is why it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly what is going wrong, even though we had planned everything so wonderful. Given that we are not able to control all their actions, we tend to blame others for their mistakes. For a better understanding of ourselves, we must ask for help from others. It turns out that your personality score others predict events better than the one that you give to yourself. So if you just can not understand why you can not get what you want done, ask your colleagues, friends or family (or better yet all together) to characterize your actions.

By the way, recently a friend of mine asked me one small favor - she sent me an email with a link to the application form, questionnaire, in which I had to evaluate it in several ways. So I think soon it will not be so rare.

2. Stuck in solving the problem? Take a break!

This is what we have already mentioned more than once. So I will be brief - a large number of studies have proved that if you get stuck on a solution problem, you need to distract yourself and switch to something entirely different, and stop thinking about the problem.

During one of these experiments, people were divided into three groups and asked them to solve the problem of choosing a car. The first group had to make a decision immediately and their choice was not the best. The second group was given a little more time to think, but their choice was not much better selection of the first group. And finally, the third group have set the task, given some time to think, and then was given another distracting task, which was absolutely not connected with the decision of the first problem. And then they went back to the car of choice and asked to finish the job. The latter group coped with the job best.

3. We become more creative when thinking of someone else

Recently, creativity is increasingly removed not the last role in almost any job. Therefore, you will be helpful to know that according to a recent study it was found that people better solves the problem and to find creative solutions when helping someone else, not currently.
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Evan Polman and Emich Kyle had an interesting experience with 137 students. They told him an interesting puzzle - a prisoner in a cell rope was two times shorter than the distance to the ground. As a result, the prisoner divided it into two parts, then tied and fled. Question - how did he do it?

Students were divided into two groups. One group was asked to present himself as a prisoner, and the second group was to help the prisoner to find a way out of this difficult situation. As a result, in the second group coped with the problem better than the first (48% - in the first and 66% - second). In the second experiment, the same professor asked the students to draw an alien, which could be used by someone else in their history. In a third experiment, participants were asked to come up with a gift for yourself, for a close friend and someone whom they barely knew. According to the results of all three experiments, it was found that participants better cope with the task, not when it came to them personally, but someone else.

If you are stuck in a solution and does not occur to any worthwhile ideas - try to imagine that you are doing this not for themselves.

4. I do not sleep, and constructively rest!

Regular breaks from mental tasks help us not to go crazy, increase productivity and creativity. In a world where even on vacation we always keep our finger on the pulse and not for a moment give up their phones, we need a break. This does not mean that we suggest you lay down to sleep at lunchtime a couple of hours. Daytime drowsiness can last 15-20 minutes and still bring as much benefit as and restful sleep.

Our brain needs periods of rest as well as our muscles. If you train without rest, you could bring your body to exhaustion. The same applies to our brains.

Experiments on daytime sleep, conducted with the students showed that they are better able to absorb information when resting. Sleep immediately after receiving new information is more beneficial for memory than the constant lack of sleep and korpenie at work or on textbooks. And if earlier we thought that in order to allow more time to need more work, maybe it's time to reconsider those principles?

5. Use the most of your peak time

The human body works according to natural circadian rhythms and for every action there is a certain optimum time - for sleep, food and, of course, for the job. And the violation of these rhythms can have very unpleasant consequences for health. Steve Kaye, professor of molecular and computational biology at the University of Southern California, said that violation of circadian rhythms can lead to problems such as depression, diabetes, dementia and obesity.

If you pay for critical thinking, then try to solve the problem in the late morning. If you need to stay focused, it is better to do all the hard work up to 12 hours of the day. In the afternoon, the concentration weakens and dissipates attention.

If your work is connected with the creative process, then your golden time - it's lunch. According to research by the peak dining sleepiness accounts for 2 pm. This time is the most appropriate for your right brain as left at this time, just relaxed and lose control, thereby letting the will of the subconscious.