The Art of Improvement, Author at The Art of Improvement

How to Stop Losing Focus (The Dangers of Social Media)

Do you ever find yourself sitting down to work on a project for your job, study for an important test, or even just get a simple chore done, but find yourself almost immediately scrolling through social media for hours at a time?

While plenty of fun, social media can, unfortunately, keep us from being our most productive selves. Social apps are designed to keep users on them for as long as possible. There’s always a new, funny, or interesting thing to look at. We’re always getting new likes, comments, and notifications demanding our attention. Social media gives us a quick hit of dopamine every time we use it, which is why we keep coming back, and why it’s easy to quit working on a difficult task that may be causing us anxiety, and instead return to social media, which helps us not think about our responsibilities.

How to Stop Overthinking and Overcome Self-Doubt

Imagine for a moment that you are the Captain of a great sea voyaging vessel setting out on a journey to an island you’ve never been to before, but you know has many great riches. The weather is fair, your maps point a clear course, and everything is going in your favor.

However, as you set out on your journey, you discover that your crew members have started to grumble — it seems they have doubts as to whether the island exists, whether the ship can actually make the journey, and whether they really deserve the riches, should they find them. The crew decides to mutiny, turn the ship back around, and head for the port where they came from.

That seems a bit silly, doesn’t it? Not deserve the riches? Even though everything was going well, and you, the Captain, knew exactly where you were going and what you would find there, they still had doubt.

Unfortunately, we do this to ourselves all the time. We sabotage our own endeavors by overthinking the whole thing, casting doubt on ourselves, and reverting back to our old habits.

How to Stop Feeling Anxious About Starting Something New [Ultimate Guide]

Why do we feel anxiety about starting something new? Why do we hold ourselves back from beginning a new job, a new business, starting or ending a relationship, or even moving to a new city? How can we overcome that fear and move forward?

It’s a double edged sword: on the one hand, we have anxiety that the thing we’re jumping into won’t work out well, and on the other hand, we fear we might be giving up something that would have been smart to stick with. These two anxieties gang up on us and make it difficult to make a decision.

How to Learn Faster: The Feynman Technique

Have you ever sat down to take an exam thinking you’ve studied hard and put in the work but then, when you read the questions and start the test, you realise you didn’t know as much as you thought?

Maybe you’ve been to a job interview where you’ve prepared for the questions you might expect, but once the interview begins you find yourself unable to answer the interviewer’s questions properly?

Both of these scenarios have happened to me in the past but I can now avoid these situations occurring in the future with the help of the wisdom of physicist Richard Feynman.

How to Avoid Procrastination: A Complete Guide

As a child, I was terrified of horror movies – as many children are.

Whenever I watched one, I would bundle up in my blanket in fear, and then stay up all night vigilantly keeping an eye out for any monsters hiding in the closet or lurking outside the window.

But that all changed when I changed my approach to watching horror films. Instead of hiding from the screen, I started sitting forward. Instead of cowering, I would punch the air whenever I thought a monster was nearby. I would even yell out things like “Come and get me!” or “I could take you!” at the screen when I felt particularly frightened.