Category: Cognative Errors

Creation vs Consumption

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There is a duality to our existence, the ignoring of which can lead to imbalance. Let me explain.

Humans, no matter the age, love to create. Whether it is a crafting a work of art, making a tasty meal, or planning a party for friends, the action of creation is exhilarating.

At the same time, we love to consume. Whether it is watching a movie, eating a delicious meal at a restaurant, or attending a high energy celebration, the action of consuming is satisfying.

What happens when that balance falls apart?

That is the question explored by the Minimalists. In a short reflection on their website, they identify what they believe is a fundamental problem in our modern world. Right now, we are consuming far more than we are personally creating.

Marketers do a great job convincing us we need more: they establish a void so we will try to fill it. This is no secret; in fact, we take it for granted now: amongst the bombardment, we realize what advertisers are doing, yet we still give them carte blanche with our attention—we let them into our homes, onto our screens, and into our personal lives via Facebook and other outlets—and when we do, the void grows deeper.

The Minimalists

What is the solution to this growing problem? According to the Minimalists, we must deliberatly practice the act of creation.

We must realize the real void is on the other side of the equation: the void most of us feel is a creative void—we’re so caught up in our consumeristic mindset we forget our inherent need to create. The solution, then, is to create more and consume less—if we spend more time creating, we will spend less time consuming: This is how we move the needle of contentment back to the positive. This is how we resolve our individual issues regarding compulsory consumption and mindless self-indulgence.

To learn more about this delicate balance and to hear their call to action, please read the rest of their reflection.

Balancing Quiet Time Versus Go Time

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It seems like our world is perpetually urging us to go faster and faster. The pressure to accomplish more today than the day before can be intoxicating. However, is it sustainable?

Recently on his website, Darius Foroux explored this problem. In a post called Balancing Quiet Focus Time with Go Time, he explores the delicate balance between speeding ahead to our objectives versus slowing down to take a breath. He starts by exploring the fallacy of being constantly in motion.

Most ambitious people have this false belief that they should always be in go time.

They want to be fit, social, have a good romantic relationship, spend time on their hobbies, see their friends, learn new skills, travel, and do well at work.

When I list all of this, it sounds ridiculous. How can one person push hard in every area of life, every single day?

You can’t.

Foroux goes on to define the two modes of time and how they interact. This is important to understand how to balance them out.

Go time is when you push. You execute ideas, meet people, travel, train hard, learn new skills, take on projects, and move things forward. Your energy goes outward.

Quiet focus time is when you slow down and narrow your attention. You read, think, write, plan, recover, or work on one important thing without trying to do ten other things at the same time.

You need both modes. And the balance between them keeps changing.

The trap that Foroux calls out is the misunderstanding that our energy levels can be kept in a constant high state. The truth is that they change all the time. Pretending otherwise can lead to long term problems.

I understand the urge. If you can force yourself to feel energetic, you can keep doing everything on your list.

But I don’t think that’s a good long-term strategy. You can override tiredness for a while, but eventually you pay for it. I don’t want to use up my body just so I can feel productive every day.

To learn more about how Foroux recommends balancing between quiet time and go time, I invite you to read the rest of his post.

Speeding Up by Slowing Down

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Are all productivity techniques designed to speed up your daily work?

Most people who engage with approaches like Getting Things Done want to complete more items in less time. Whether it is whipping through emails, checking off to-do lists, or flying through meetings, the desire work at a rapid pace is enticing. However, is moving faster actually the path to long term success?

GTD creator David Allen mused on the subject in a recent post on the Getting Things Done website. He opens with this statement:

I want to talk about one of the more mysterious best practices in the GTD® methodology: the art of speeding up by slowing down.

I am making the assumption that all of you reading this are on some track of improvement and growth to begin with. I mean, why speed up, instead of slow down, as an end-result?

As Allen unpacks his argument, he shows that the idea of speed as the path to productivity ultimately proves self-defeating. The problem he sees is repeatedly doing many things of little value jeopardizes long term success.

One of the subtlest ways that positive energy retreats from us is in our busy-ness. Losing perspective in trying to control everything, finish it all, fix it all—all at once. It shows up in ways like practicing Getting Things Done® out of frustration instead of inspiration, or helping yourself and others out of compulsion, not compassion.

For those who have not practiced GTD, Allen’s counter-intuitive conclusion may seem confusing. Yet, when considered more fully, the practice is not about getting everything done. Instead, it is knowing what is truly valuable and giving that priority. This approached alleviates the stress of busy-ness and induces a state of calmness. Allen states:

As a matter of fact, your ability to do nothing—to be idle, to daydream, to nap peacefully, to give yourself permission for 100% zoning out—is a hallmark of GTD maturity. And if you don’t believe me, just read the plethora of new data from the cognitive scientists about the need for the brain to rest—daily. That’s a bit tough to do, though, unless you’re REALLY onto the GTD game.

To understand better how slowing down will help you get important things done, feel free to read the full blog post on the Getting Things Done website.

Rest – A Radical Act

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When was the last time your just laid back and rested? Not sat on the coach phone scrolling or binge watching a tv show. When was the last time you simply rested?

For most of us, that hasn’t happened recently. According to professional speaker and author Shola Richards, that is a big problem.

In a recent article on his Substack called, The Radical Act of Rest, he outlines why deliberate rest is fundamental to our well-being. He starts by disputing the idea that rest must be earned only after all other chores and tasks are accomplished.

“I mean, you don’t earn the right to drink water, do you? You don’t earn the right to use the restroom either. Rest is literally in the same category. We need to stop thinking of rest as reward for being productive. More accurately, rest is a fundamental biological need that makes productivity possible.“

Shola Richards

After shattering the earned rest myth, Shola goes on to define the different types of rest that we need.

  1. Physical rest: This is the most obvious one (night time sleep, power naps, and allowing your body to take a break).
  2. Mental rest: Time where your brain is not solving problems, processing information, consuming content, or generating output.
  3. Emotional rest: Time away from managing anyone’s feelings, problems or drama (and yes, this one is especially tough for parents of young kids).

In order to put this idea into practice, Shola outlines ways to bring more rest into your life. Even as he does so, he still acknowledges that we are fighting old ways of thought by doing so.

Choosing to intentionally rest can be really hard (at least, it was initially for me), because it requires us to override years of programming that taught us that our worth is conditional on our productivity.

To learn more about the benefits of rest and how to incorporate them into your daily routine, please read the rest of his article.

Now if you’ll forgive me, I’ll be taking a nap.

Busyness Isn’t A Badge Of Honor

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Are you busy? I mean, really busy? So busy you barely have time to read this post?

It is easy to fill our days with endless tasks, whether they are assigned to us by others or self-chosen. It is in the nature of knowledge work that there is always something more that can be done or a project that can be constantly refined. However, does that approach to work, the attempt to do as much as possible, effectively work?

In a recent post on the Choice360 website called Busyness Isn’t A Badge of Honor, blogger Alejandro Marquez argued that falling into the busy trap is not a worthy goal. Coming at the problem from the perspective of librarianship, he shares the following insight.

Within the library profession, this susceptibility to busyness is arguably even more pronounced. Library work is often demanding and time-sensitive, requiring constant engagement. Workers are expected to be a resource, a guide, a confidante, and a problem-solver. The pressure to be available, responsive, and supportive can feel immense, particularly when students themselves are struggling with similar pressures.

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Added on to this problem, is the burden of “Compassion Fatigue.” Marquez identifies this mindset in the following way:

Compassion fatigue is the emotional and physical exhaustion experienced by those constantly providing care and support. It’s the cumulative toll of advocacy work, direct student support, and the relentless urgency that permeates our daily routines. Workers are constantly asked to be empathetic, understanding, and proactive, often without adequate support or recognition. This labor of constant care, coupled with the pressure to be “always on,” can lead to a profound sense of depletion, leaving professionals feeling drained, overwhelmed, and disconnected.

How can librarians, or any profession for that matter, overcome the busy trap? The first step is about reclaiming boundaries.

This is crucial. Establish clear boundaries around work hours, communication channels, and availability. Learn to say “no” without feeling guilty.

Additionally, workers should prioritize self-care outside of work.

Workers can engage in activities that replenish energy and support well-being through exercise, mindfulness, hobbies, and spending time with loved ones.

Read the rest of the article to learn more idea to reclaim a sense of self-worth and avoid the busy trap. Go ahead, make the time for it. The lessons will be worthwhile.

Have You Done a Time Audit?

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Where did the time go?

Do you regularly feel like the day got away from you. That long to do list has very little marked off. Even more importantly, have you felt that all your time was spent on unimportant items, leaving the task you truly cared about undone? Perhaps there just isn’t enough time in the day to get things done. Or is there?

In a recent NPR article, psychotherapist Niro Feliciano revealed that people are largely unaware of how they spend their days. We blindly do things of low value while neglecting the more important items. It began for her with a personal epiphany about her own choices. As the article writers share:

“I remember sitting in my office. I had done eight sessions, several with adolescents. And I said, ‘When was the last time I spent 45 minutes listening to one of my kids?'” she says.

She realized that how she wanted to spend her time and how she was really spending it “were very much misaligned,” she says. “I did not see enough of a reflection of things that brought me joy and contentment.”

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To help herself and her clients make better choices, Feliciano encourages conducting a time audit. The process is simple, but it requires attention to details.

Make a list of the people and the activities that are the most important to you. It might be loved ones like your partner, your kids or your bestie, and hobbies like reading, working out or video-chatting with your long-distance friends. 

Then do a time inventory. Where is your time really going each day? Are the lists matching up? You might find that a lot of your day is spent on obligations, chores and time-sucking activities.

Then look for ways to make your lists reflect each other. Where can you carve out more space for your family? Or set aside a moment for reading?

Once this is done, the next task is to find ways to add in the high value items to your day. Feliciano took her own advice, as she shared with the writers.

To make more time, you’ll need to set some boundaries, Feliciano says. “What are you doing that makes you feel resentful, depleted, exhausted?” And what can you do to limit yourself from those activities?

Feliciano found that she was spending a lot of unnecessary time scrolling on social media — but that wasn’t on her list of priorities, so she cut back.

To learn more about time audits and how to use them to get more value out of your day, please read the rest of the NPR article.

Reframing: A Solution to Most Problems?

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Do you know someone who is always in crisis?

Many people live their lives worrying about the load of problems that besiege them. They bemoan their fate and wonder why fate dealt them so many difficulties. Even the most optimistic people can fall victim to this mode of thinking. If you enter this trap is there a way out?

According to Darius Foroux, there is a simple, yet powerful way to escape pessimistic thinking. In an article on his website titled The Reframing Theory: The Solution to 95% of Your Problems, Foroux shares how changing the appearance of perceived problems in your mind can lead to better outcomes. This steams from an understanding of how labels are applied.

You have a label for everything in your life.

  • You are disciplined or undisciplined.
  • Successful or unsuccessful.
  • Healthy or unhealthy.
  • Happy or not.

These are the mental labels we use in our minds. They sound like facts, but they’re not.

They’re interpretations. And interpretations can be changed.

Darius Foroux

So how can interpretations be changed? The answer is to reframe the issue. Instead of accepting the first impression of a situation, see if it can be viewed from a different perspective. Foroux suggests the following exercise:

Positive thinking asks you to pretend bad things are good.

Reframing asks something different. It asks you to find the most accurate and useful interpretation of a situation.

Not the most flattering one. The most functional one.

There’s a difference between lying to yourself and choosing a better lens.

As an example, Foroux envisions someone who feels undisciplined and is beating themselves up over it.

Old frame: I lack willpower. Something is wrong with me.

New frame: My goals aren’t aligned with who I actually am, what I actually want, or what my life actually allows right now.

The old frame offers no solutions other than to try harder.

The new frame provides a way to analysis one’s actions and recommit to the goals set. It might even show that the reason no action has been taken is that the goals have no value. Therefore, resetting the goals with ones that inspire and excite the mind will lead to effortless action.

To learn more about how to apply reframing to your life, please read the rest of the article.

Doing More & Avoiding Burnout

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Have you ever heard a manager say that we need to do more with less?

Many workplaces lack the luxury of abundant staff and large budgets. These are work environments where everyone pitches in on multiple fronts. Often this means people work longer hours, sacrificing evenings and weekends away from their families to get the work done. While this might be needed for significant deadlines, that level of pace is unsustainable. It quickly leads to burnout. Therefore, is there a way to avoid the overwork trap and still reach the organization’s goals?

Recently, consultant Irina Bilenko shared her thoughts on LinkedIn in an article titled, Doing More With Less Without Burning Out Your Team. She regularly talks with nonprofits struggling to get things done and at the risk of wearing themselves out. Her initial observation on the problem is a simple one.

The phrase “do more with less” is often repeated in the nonprofit sector. But I think it’s misleading. If people are already working at full capacity, asking them to simply do more isn’t a sustainable answer.

The answer is not working harder. The answer is making it easier to focus on what matters most.

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Ramming through with grit and putting in extra hours is actually highly inefficient and wasteful. Instead, Irina believes that stepping back to examine the organization’s workflow leads to better productivity in the long run.

What I discovered was that the problem wasn’t effort. The problem was the system.

Work was held up by unnecessary approvals. Decisions took too long. Information wasn’t available when people needed it. Teams were solving the same problems over and over. Meetings filled calendars without producing decisions.

When those barriers were removed, something interesting happened.

People didn’t need to work harder. They suddenly had more capacity.

Irina found that improving the system starts with removing unnecessary items. Eliminating low value tasks and pointless meetings relieved tension and led to more success on the individual and organizational levels. For example, getting rid of producing pointless reports and streamlining levels of approval saved hours of time. This in turn allowed employees to enjoy their evenings and weekends, confident in the knowledge that they were accomplishing their goals.

To learn more from Irina on how improving systems can generate better results, I invite you to read the rest of her article.

Have You Rediscovered Reading?

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Summertime is the best time to return to the simple joy of reading.

This year the Palm Beach County Library System has launched the Rediscover Reading campaign. No matter where you live, we are encouraging everyone to pick up a book and tap into the many benefits of reading for pleasure. If you have never stopped reading, we invite you to expand your horizons and tap into new authors and genres. With so many choices, there is definitely a novel novel awaiting you!

It might seem counter-intuitive, but sitting in your quiet reading chair actually benefits your neighbors and friends. As our society wrestles with loneliness and separation, pleasure reading offers an affordable, evidence-based path for a better life. In fact, a growing body of research finds that reading leads to reduced stress, better sleep, enhanced empathy and improved well-being. Simultaneously, shared reading like book clubs and read-aloud sessions activate brain regions tied to social cognition and emotional connection. This counters feelings of isolation and distrust.

It’s simple. Reading for pleasure combines the private delight of enjoying a novel with the social lift from shared reflection.

Therefore, I challenge you to spend 15 minutes a day reading for pleasure. Then, once a week share your reading suggestions with others, whether a work, around the dinner table, or in your favorite online space. The more we talk and think about the books, the more engaged our minds become with the material and with others.

If you are not sure where to get your next book, remember that public libraries are ready and waiting to serve you. Not only do we offer traditional print books, but most libraries have a growing collection of eBooks. All of them are available through your library card. Don’t have one? No worries. Plan a trip to your local branch this week to get a card!

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Finally, I must put a debate to rest. Yes! Audiobooks count as reading. The act of listening to a book forces our minds to imagine scenes and view the world through the eyes of the characters. This is different from watching a movie or TV show where actors and camera angles guide your interpretation. Any type of read-aloud allows the listener to create the scenes in their mind, deepening the connection to the story.

The challenge is issued. This summer, put down your smartphone, turn off the TV, and step away from your computer. Instead dive into a good book. The benefits are worth it!