7 ways to get rid of all the excess and get more pleasure from life (part 2)

In the first part of the article, we talked about the first three ways to make life easier and more fruitful. In the promised continuation - four more useful tips that can be useful to many.

4. Get rid of unnecessary things.

Tear off briefly from reading to go to the garage or storeroom. Review the things there. When was the last time you used them?
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Everyone is prone to fear of loss. This term is used by behavioral economists and psychologists. Fear of loss means that it’s better for people to avoid losses than to make a profit. Many studies confirm that the psychological impact of a loss is two times more powerful than success.

Consider a simple example. On New Year's Eve, you give yourself a present — buy an expensive trainer to practice on it three times a week. A year has passed. You are going to move to a new apartment and pack your things. Should I take a simulator, which was little used and most of the time collecting dust in the basement?

Research results show that, most likely, you will take the simulator with you, because you do not want to come to terms with the thought of wasting the money spent on its purchase.

Wouldn't it be better to give it to someone?

5. Reduce your plans for the day.

Making crazed daily plans for doing urgent things is a hallmark of the modern lifestyle. We often repeat: "I am too busy." And each time, uttering this phrase, we experience some kind of unhealthy effect of serotonin - "the hormone of good mood." Because of our employment, we often refuse to help people in need, or from something we really want to do. It's so easy to say or think: "I do not have time for this."

Pay more attention to the productivity of work, rather than their number.

- Timothy Ferriss

Below are a few tips to help unload your busy schedule.

• Reduce your work day.
• Work at home when there is such an opportunity.
• Do not look too often email and media (and never do this in the morning!).
• Focus on the most important things.
• Use outsourcing (hiring an independent executor) whenever possible.
• Sometimes learn to say no.
• Turn off your computer and phone from time to time.
• Change the job.

Instead of bothering about the work that you hate, do your best work.

6. Shorten your list of goals

Many of you probably at the beginning of each year make up a long list of intended goals. However, by February the majority is already forgetting or postponing 90% of what is planned to be done .

Instead of thinking about making a plan for the year, think better of yourself - your self-improvement.

For example, “by the end of the year I will be able to learn how to play the guitar coolly”. Imagine this picture, you are distracted from the compilation of the list, and it will significantly decrease.

Of course, it is useful to make a list of the most important goals for the near future, but it should not be more than two or three points.

Take a fresh look at planning your life.

7. Try to perform fewer tasks at the same time

The idea of ​​multitasking is rather a myth. Recent studies in the field of neuroscience prove that the brain is not capable of solving several tasks at the same time, as previously thought. In fact, he can simply quickly switch from one task to another.

Here are some important points from the publication of the journal Psychology Today .

• It takes less time to complete tasks if you do them one by one. When performing multiple tasks at the same time spent more.
• When you solve only one problem, you make fewer mistakes than when switching from one task to another.
• If simultaneously performed tasks are quite complex, the number of errors and time spent on their decision increases.
• It takes an average of 1/10 of a second to switch from one task to another, but if during the day you make many such switchings, the productivity of work can be reduced by 40%.
• When switching tasks involved several areas of the brain. By scanning it was found that when operating in a multi-valued mode, activity is observed in four zones of the brain.
• The prefrontal cortex is involved in the switching and concentration of attention, determining what tasks to do and when. The posterior parietal lobe controls each task. Anterior cingulate tracks errors. Premotor cortex provides preparation for switching.

Multitasking will not be able to increase the productivity of your work for too long. Therefore, focus better on one, the most important task.

Do not try to do everything at once.

Conclusion

Nowadays, many people believe that the more everything, the better. In fact, the real wealth lies in the small. If everyone lived according to the principle “the more the better”, Gandhi and Mother Teresa would never have become symbols of the wisdom of our age. And if this principle is correct, why then many wealthy celebrities often fall into deep depression and even commit suicide?

If you want to achieve a lot and work productively, change your view on life values, because they are much easier than you think.

If you have read this article to the end, it means that the issues raised in it turned out to be important for you.

PS We recommend another useful article on the subject of work on yourself - Improving memory for learning English: 11 useful tips .

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.