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Is sleeping on the job the route to increased productivity?
Well, maybe so.
Professor Ron Grunstein of the Woolcock Institute in Sydney suggests that a thirty minute nap can refresh alertness considerably.
As according to think tank Demos we are sleeping up to ninety minutes less than what we were a century, some thinkers are recommending powernaps as the way forward in the workplace.
Relaxation/ Meditation rooms, games areas and now beds will adorn the workplace of the future?
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:03 AM
"When one door of happiness closes,another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
Helen Keller
"The optimist sees the doughnut: the pessimist, the hole."
McLandburgh Wilson
"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards."
Voltaire
"A person without a sense of humour is like a wagon without springs - jolted by every pebble in the road."
Henry Ward Beecher
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:30 AM
Recent research conducted by Oxford’s Social Issues Research Centre may indicate that males are finally allowing themselves the luxury of expressing their emotions, through the medium of tears.
Real men do cry is the new mantra.
The research which reviewed the behavior of over 2000 people over 18 found that over 33 percent admitted sobbing at least once a month. One quarter of the sample admitted to completely letting themselves go and bawling in the last month.
The most common causes for the tearful outburst include:
Death of someone else – 74%
Sad moment in a film, tv programme or book - 44%
Break up of a romance or a relationship - 39%
When someone close to you is hurt - 25%
A row with a loved one - 24%
When one considers the well documented damage that repressing your emotions can cause, this “new behavior” is a very positive development.
Not so positive as documented by the researchers that a person gets more emotional about a movie than they do about breaking up or rowing with your partner.
Hollywood wins again!
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
Sun Tzu
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)
Research studies are now confirming the therapeutic effects of exercise.
In a study conducted by Duke University psychologist, James Blumenthal; sixty percent of depressed patients who were placed on an exercise programme got better within four months—the same proportion that recovered on antidepressants.
Even more interesting was the fact that though thirty percent of the medicated patients became depressed again within ten months, only nine percent of the exercisers relapsed.
It is time to get off the couch.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:31 AM
He who loses money, loses much.
He who loses a friend, loses more.
He who loses belief, loses all.
Belief is the most powerful drug and your most powerful ally in this world.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:00 AM
1. Use it more - whenever you feel an urge to pursue a certain route in life, but it doesnt make sense- pursue it anyway. Intuition is like a muscle , the more you use it, the more stronger and effective it becomes. And dont worry if the journey doesn't take you where you expected -on using your intuition, you will end up in a place you will acknowledge as better than your starting point.
2. Immerse yourself in the smart man's bubble bath (Joel Stein's description) - relax/ meditate/ indulge in focusing exercises. Very simply you need to slow/ quieten that incessant traffic in your mind, indeed to move below thoughts - this is the key to unlocking your intuitive ability.
Choose intuition today.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:12 AM
"Detention!"
One of the cures to poor student discipline in the western world.
"Keep them back after school - that will teach them to change their ill advised ways in the future!"
Well, not everywhere in the world.
As you aware, our dream is to build a secondary school in the slums in Nairobi.
In the primary school, detention was tried out on a temporary basis to no avail. Students were delighted at the possibility of staying in the school after hours!
While visiting in the summer, I worked with the teachers over a period of twelve hours broke down into four half days. 960 students worked away peacefully without supervision!
So the message is clear there is no such thing as reality, only our interpretation of it. Awareness of this fact will geometrically improve your rapport skills.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:51 AM
Are you working to live?
Are you living to work?
These are the two life choices available to us that are most cited by journalists - what about another choice
Are you doing what you love and never working a day in your life?
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:45 AM
Based on "unscientific research" but overwhelming anecdotal evidence, customer service levels in the retail and tourism industries are on the decline, particularly in the Emerald Isle.
Our current levels are way behind those achieved in the early nineties. Have no doubt that the company's bottom line suffers as a result, so the message is clear - we need to go back to basics and start managing our moments of truth ie each interaction the company has with the client.
For customer service personnel, it is critical that you record all of these interactions to paper - yes all. From how long it takes staff to answer the phone to how specifically they hand money back to the customer.
The next step is the most innovative but probably the most powerful - decide with your staff what are the acceptable levels for each of these moments.
When staff have an input, they feel more ownership of the new regime. In essense it is their strategy.
As the standards improve, why not consider guaranteeing your service - creating a customer service charter. This will leave customers in no doubt that they are dealing with a company focused on customer service excellence.
Every day I am faced with unacceptable customer service standards - I choose in the majority of cases not to deal with these organisations in the future.
Lets turn the clock back and up our standards.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:37 AM
Due to the ever increasing number of spam comments posted on my log, I have decided to discontinue the comments segment.
If you would like to comment on any of the entries in the future, email me at your leisure.
Keep on reading, enjoying and hopefully integrating.
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 02:50 PM
The poll on the public's attitudes about work found that most workers in the United States were at least fairly satisfied with their jobs. A sizable number say they were unhappy with the stress level, health care and retirement benefits of their jobs.(34 percent said they were dissatisfied with the amount of stress.)
"The level of the public's satisfaction with work is high and has been quite stable for the last 30 years," said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago.
On stimulation levels: The poll found that 42 percent said their jobs were interesting nearly all of the time. One-half of those surveyed said their job is interesting most of the time, but has dull stretches.
36 percent of those surveyed strongly agreed that their job allows them to reach their full potential. Based on anecdotal evidence drawn from my experiences around the world, I am more than surprised that this potential is so high.
Women were more likely than men to say their jobs were interesting nearly all the time.
On Pay: Seven in 10 surveyed said they are paid fairly. Men were more likely than women to feel this way.
Adults age 18 to 29 were most likely to say their job was something they mainly do to earn money.
On Balance: Some 61 percent felt strongly that they do a good job balancing work and family. About the same number of men and women made this claim, although those who work more than 40 hours a week were less certain they have struck the balance.
The AP-Ipsos poll of 589 workers was taken Aug. 16-18
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
"Hurricane specials €49 a night" - read the motel sign in hurricane swept Florida.
With thousands and thousands of people displaced from their homes as a result of this "natural disaster" you would expect the focus would be on helping your fellow man, not on how best to accumulate the sacred dollar.
"My eyes do not see, nor do my eyes hear." Anonymous.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
I always pondered on the merits of filling your wallet with pictures of your nearest and dearest. Well it seems there could be a scientific explanation, according to a new study by British researchers.
They analysed the psycho-physical reactions of stressed and ‘lonely’ sheep when they are shown photographs of familiar faces from their flock.
Faces are highly emotive stimuli and we find smiling or familiar ones both attractive and comforting, especially in times of stress. It has already been proven that facial recognition, such as this, starts at a very young age in human babies.
But British scientists now believe that sheep, too, use faces to recognise each other. Perhaps more surprising is, like us, they also find friendly faces comforting in times of stress.
Findings from the face picture study, carried out by Dr Keith Kendrick and colleagues at the Babraham Institute’s Laboratory of Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience, in Cambridge (UK), are due to be published in the Royal Society’s Proceedings B journal. Their basic premise is that sheep, when exposed to short-term psychological stress from social isolation, found relief in the sight of familiar pictures of sheep faces.
Anxious and lonely sheep that were shown pictures of their flock recorded lower stress levels, which the researchers measured by examining behavioural, autonomic (heart rate) and hormonal (cortisol and adrenaline) indicators.
So fill up those wallets - thats the message.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
Researchers recently told the British Psychological Society conference that writing about tormenting experiences helps the immune system work better.
During the research, which involved 36 people, half were asked to write in detail about the most troubling experience in their lives and how they felt about it.
The others wrote about things like how they spent their free time. Both groups spent 20 minutes a day for three days writing.
After the writing programme, researchers created a small skin puncture on the upper arms of the participants.
The wounds were examined two weeks later.
It was found that the wounds of those who had written about their emotional experiences healed faster.
Also, people with higher levels of stress and psychological distress were found to be healing more slowly.
Interesting - many people also advocate getting up in the morning and emptying your thoughts onto a peice of paper - "Morning Pages." This helps to clear out the system in addition to giving you insights about your current internal landscape.
Another interesting aspect feature of writing is that it helps to impring information on the persons short term memory. When you write you record three inputs into your short term memory- visual, auditory and kinesthethic.
Keep writing!
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)