Einstein's life lessons

Most people know Albert Einstein as the face of genius, but there was much more to this famous figure than his groundbreaking work in physics. The German-born, Nobel Prize-winning scientist was curious, compassionate, and principled, and he thought deeply about what it means to live a purposeful, ethical life. These weren’t just abstract ideas — they were guiding principles that informed much of what he did and spoke about. Here, distilled from the many nuggets of wisdom Einstein shared over his 76 years, are five life lessons we can all take to heart.

Imagination Is the Key

When asked about the process behind his scientific discoveries in a 1929 interview, Einstein credited a perhaps surprising trait: imagination. “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” he told The Saturday Evening Post. “For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the entire world.”

Stay Curious

For Einstein, curiosity wasn’t just about asking questions (although he did plenty of that), but also about remaining open to change and new perspectives throughout life. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious,” he famously said. That openness helped him question long-held assumptions about the universe, and in turn he upended ideas of absolute space and time with his theory of relativity; reimagined gravity; and engaged critically with emerging quantum theory, investigating its limits while refining his own views when needed.

Strive To Be More Valuable Than Successful

In a 1955 interview, Einstein cautioned against measuring life by status or titles. “Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value,” he said to Life magazine. “He is considered successful in our day who gets more out of life than he puts in. But a man of value will give more than he receives.” Einstein lived this principle by using his influence to advance causes beyond physics, such as speaking out against racism in the United States, advocating for peace, and guiding generations of younger scientists through his teaching. Even his scientific contributions followed this ethic: He was driven less by personal acclaim than by a desire to expand humanity’s understanding of the universe.

Follow Your Intuition

Einstein often trusted his instincts even before he had the research to back them up. “I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am,” he told The Saturday Evening Post. Those leaps of faith, tested rigorously later, were what prompted his most famous ideas, such as the theory of relativity.

Have the Courage To Question Authority

Einstein’s most radical discoveries began with doubts, a hallmark of his rebellious streak. Why should time be fixed? Why must space be absolute? Even at a young age, his independent mind clashed with the rigid expectations of school. Later, his refusal to accept conventional wisdom drove breakthroughs that overturned physics as we knew it. “Blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth,” he famously said.

3 ways to tackle a clutter-filled space

Circular

Start from one side of the room and work your way around, organizing one space before moving on to the next.  Lorie and Linda took passes at her kitchen: first using labels to decide what would go where, then moving the contents cabinet by cabinet.

Outside-In

Step one: Clear up your surfaces (counters, tables, dresser tops) to get the most satisfaction for the least effort.  Next, tidy the floors (now you can move around!).  Finally, hit your "insides" (such as drawers) -- an easier chore if there's space to spread out.

Centralized

Best for collectors like Pam, this method has you take everything out of the storage spot (cupboards, closets) and get it into one place, like the middle of the floor, an adjacent room or the top of a bed, so you're forced to think hard about each item before it goes back in.

Women's Day, June 2013 [posted 5/21/22]

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4/14/23 - Ten Genius Organizing Tips

2/12/24 - closet organizing tips (actually not just for closets)

4/3/24 - The Core 4 method

4/28/24 - Marie Kondo quotes

6/13/24 - Swedish Death Cleaning

1/4/25 - The Magic Basket method

3/8/26 - The One Minute Rule

tennis tips

6/29/25 - make your serve feel effortless

6/15/25 - 4 tips to improve your serve

quotes

7/13/24 - positive thinking

7/13/24 - Eastern proverbs

7/9/24 - advice from centenarians

7/9/24 - Einstein's rules of life

6/26/24 - forgiveness

learn anything faster

Science proves there are six ways you can learn and retain something faster.

1. TEACH SOMEONE ELSE (OR JUST PRETEND TO)

If you imagine that you’ll need to teach someone else the material or task you are trying to grasp, you can speed up your learning and remember more, according to a study done at Washington University in St. Louis. The expectation changes your mind-set so that you engage in more effective approaches to learning than those who simply learn to pass a test, according to John Nestojko, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology and coauthor of the study.

“When teachers prepare to teach, they tend to seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure,” Nestojko writes. “Our results suggest that students also turn to these types of effective learning strategies when they expect to teach.”

2. LEARN IN SHORT BURSTS OF TIME

Experts at the Louisiana State University’s Center for Academic Success suggest dedicating 30-50 minutes to learning new material. “Anything less than 30 is just not enough, but anything more than 50 is too much information for your brain to take in at one time,” writes learning strategies graduate assistant Ellen Dunn. Once you’re done, take a five to 10 minute break before you start another session.

Brief, frequent learning sessions are much better than longer, infrequent ones, agrees Neil Starr, a course mentor at Western Governors University, an online nonprofit university where the average student earns a bachelor’s degree in two and a half years.

He recommends preparing for micro learning sessions. “Make note cards by hand for the more difficult concepts you are trying to master,” he says. “You never know when you’ll have some in-between time to take advantage of.”

3. TAKE NOTES BY HAND

While it’s faster to take notes on a laptop, using a pen and paper will help you learn and comprehend better. Researchers at Princeton University and UCLA found that when students took notes by hand, they listened more actively and were able to identify important concepts. Taking notes on a laptop, however, leads to mindless transcription, as well as an opportunity for distraction, such as email.

“In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand,” writes coauthor and Princeton University psychology professor Pam Mueller. “We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.”

4. USE THE POWER OF MENTAL SPACING

While it sounds counterintuitive, you can learn faster when you practice distributed learning, or “spacing.” In an interview with The New York Times, Benedict Carey, author of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, says learning is like watering a lawn. “You can water a lawn once a week for 90 minutes or three times a week for 30 minutes,” he said. “Spacing out the watering during the week will keep the lawn greener over time.”

To retain material, Carey said it’s best to review the information one to two days after first studying it. “One theory is that the brain actually pays less attention during short learning intervals,” he said in the interview. “So repeating the information over a longer interval–say a few days or a week later, rather than in rapid succession–sends a stronger signal to the brain that it needs to retain the information.”

5. TAKE A STUDY NAP

Downtime is important when it comes to retaining what you learn, and getting sleep in between study sessions can boost your recall up to six months later, according to new research published in Psychological Science.

In an experiment held in France, participants were taught the Swahili translation for 16 French words in two sessions. Participants in the “wake” group completed the first learning session in the morning and the second session in the evening of the same day, while participants in the “sleep” group completed the first session in the evening, slept, and then completed the second session the following morning. Participants who had slept between sessions recalled about 10 of the 16 words, on average, while those who hadn’t slept recalled only about 7.5 words.

“Our results suggest that interweaving sleep between practice sessions leads to a twofold advantage, reducing the time spent relearning and ensuring a much better long-term retention than practice alone,” writes psychological scientist Stephanie Mazza of the University of Lyon. “Previous research suggested that sleeping after learning is definitely a good strategy, but now we show that sleeping between two learning sessions greatly improves such a strategy.”

6. CHANGE IT UP

When learning a new motor skill, changing the way you practice it can help you master it faster, according to a new study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In an experiment, participants were asked to learn a computer-based task. Those who used a modified learning technique during their second session performed better than those who repeated the same method.

The findings suggest that reconsolidation–a process in which existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledge–plays a key role in strengthening motor skills, writes Pablo A. Celnik, senior study author and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

“What we found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master,” he writes, “you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row.”

-- from the Feeding Curiosity newsletter, 5/19/24

spiritual wisdom

In 1445, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, individual letters that could be moved around a printing press to change what words were transferred to the blank page. Empowered by this revolutionary technology, he printed the very first book ever published: the Bible. Before the printing press, monks painstakingly hand-copied every edition of the Bible, often taking three years or more to complete the task. Gutenberg could produce 180 copies of the book in the same amount of time.

After Arabic movable type was produced, the first printed edition of the Quran rolled off the presses in Venice, Italy, and was exported to the Ottoman Empire in 1538. By the early 1800s, Hindu scripts were likewise being mass-produced. As religions the world over embraced Gutenberg’s invention, sacred books became more available, and less expensive, than ever before.

For centuries, religious texts were often the only books in a household. Children learned to read by tracing their fingers down the pages, and in the evenings families would convene to hear stories of faith, love, and devotion. Collected here from a variety of religious texts are words of deep wisdom from cultures around the world, made ubiquitously available online through technology that Gutenberg never could have dreamed possible.

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When there is harmony between the mind, heart, and resolution, then nothing is impossible.

~ Rig Veda

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

~ The Bible, James 3:13

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

~ Tao Te Ching

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.

~ Tao Te Ching

I'll be happy when...

Ask yourself when was the last time you uttered the phrase: "I'll be happy when I..." Probably recently, right?

Whether the end of that statement includes getting "a better car," or "a bigger house," or finding "true love" or "the dream job," we're all guilty of delaying our joy and gratification based on a future outcome. Many of us believe a certain relationship status or a higher salary is the singular key to being fulfilled.

Turns out, this way of thinking has a name: It's called the "I'll be happy when" syndrome, a condition that's prevalent today in our working society.

ABC News reported that happiness (or unhappiness) is broken down into the following percentages: About 50 percent is based on genetic makeup, 40 percent is within your control determined by your thoughts and actions, and the remaining 10 percent is related to other circumstances like income, where you live, marital status, and your appearance.

Despite the "I'll be happy when" thought pattern being a universally shared behavior, clinical psychologist and business consultant Dr. Natalia Peart argues that the way we feel right now shouldn't be a result of what we believe is coming down the pipeline. In fact, Dr. Peart, who graduated from Georgetown University, Harvard Medical School, and Brown University, suggests that happiness isn’t the direct effect—it’s actually the cause.

Fortunately, even if you do suffer from "I'll be happy when" syndrome, Dr. Peart asserts in her book, FutureProofed: How To Navigate Disruptive Change, Find Calm in Chaos, and Succeed in Work & Life that there are plenty of ways to treat it.

"To cure 'I'll be happy when' syndrome, we must start seeing success as a lifestyle, not a destination, so that you can finally be happy now—wherever you are in life," she explains in the book.

Here, Dr. Peart discusses the most common symptoms to look out for, why you should rip up your to-do list, and how best to maneuver through change and disruption in the dizzying world of technology and social media. She also shares expert advice on finding happiness right where you are.

Now that we finally know this condition has a name, can you explain what, exactly, "I’ll be happy when" syndrome is?

"For decades, we've always thought that once we achieve success in our careers, then we're supposed to get happy. And that once we get happy, we're going be fulfilled. That was the old path. So we'd ignore signs of burnout or the fact that our lives were so narrow, because the assumption was that there would still be a reward of happiness. But that reward was always in the future. Happiness is now and being able to live in this moment, even in the harried, busy life that we live. You want to get up everyday and know that there’s some level of meaning in the now—not two months or two years from now."

What are the symptoms people should look out for?

"Well, the first sign is determining whether you're living a checklist-based life. If you think back to when you were a teenager, yes, you went to school. But you also did other activities and had fun. It seems the older we get, the more we seem to push the fun things out to crowd our lives with what's on our to-do lists."

You should think of your life as a calendar, not necessarily a to-do list.

Can you elaborate more on this checklist lifestyle? Do you have any suggestions for managing your day-to-day responsibilities while still having fun?

"A checklist includes all the things you must do. But you should really think of your life as a calendar, not necessarily a to-do list. A calendar makes room for all those tasks, but it also allows space and time for restorative activities. The problem with a list is that it involves someone else’s deadline, and any subsequent consequences to not meeting those expectations. By thinking of your life as a calendar, you can prioritize things as you go along. That’s why I’m not a fan of the term 'work-life balance,' because you're made to feel like you're doing something wrong if you don’t divvy things up correctly."

Is there any danger in being routine-driven?

"By only looking at what you have to do today or this week, you're not thinking about your long-term vision. When you have your head down doing the next thing, you can’t see yourself moving towards the bigger picture and what matters most to you. That results in burnout and stress. If it feels stressful, or you find yourself constantly monitoring the time instead of being fully engaged and in the flow of things, that's when you know you're off track. As adults, we’ve lost that sense of connecting to who and what we are—especially women. Women, in a way, are encouraged to feel guilty. It’s like a badge of honor if we show up for everyone else except ourselves."

You have to be able to walk in uncertainty.

So how does one begin to alter their way of thinking or adopting this calendar approach?

"First, you need to have an agile mindset. It’s about developing the inner confidence that says, 'I’m going to look at a situation and think about what can I do to move towards the next step.' The old mentality of lining up our ducks in a row before we took action, or waiting until everything is perfect doesn't work because we're in a different time now. You cannot wait until everything looks right and is set in place. You have to be able to walk in uncertainty and separate yourself from the outcome, even if you don't have all the pieces together yet."

Related Stories

Happiness Quotes from 52 Inspiring People

21 Books That Will Put You in a Better Mood

16 Ways to Be Happier Right Now

But what happens if the "when" never comes? How does one manage their expectations for failure or letdowns?

"The first thing to know is that this disappointment of never getting to happy, even when you're checking things off the list, is very common. One big reason this happens is that we base our life goals and the expectation for happiness on the decisions we made when we were teenagers, like our college major and our first job. If you're in this situation, step back and ask yourself bigger questions. For example: What do you care about, or what inspires you? This way, you can better orient yourself toward what is meaningful to you, and not just toward the "when" you've built up over the years. Lastly, you should build daily habits that reflect the things that are a priority for you right now."

Why is living in the moment so important? And for those who need help focusing on their "right-now" goals, what's your advice?

"When you talk about right now, it’s about focusing on whether the things you’re doing are adding energy to your present goals or draining you of your energy to accomplish them. Don’t major in the minors, wasting time on things that aren’t of significance. Get a visual snapshot in your head of where you are and where you want to go in your career or with your fitness goals and finances. If you’re not happy, then you need to create and prioritize new habits around one or two restorative things. Turn to supportive people to hold you accountable who will cheer you on from the frontlines. You also have to make choices about what you’re willing to let go of, and adjust your expectations. But when you get to this step, you can’t give in to fear or fatigue—or quit when you hit roadblocks."

With technology and social media...you end up curating your life, not living it.

What role do you see technology and social media playing in this disconnection from our true selves?

"What happens with technology and social media is that you end up curating your life, not living it. There’s something about the social comparisons that are making things worse, particularly with the 'I'll be happy when' syndrome. Decades ago, when we didn’t have social media, we’d only be concerned about who got married or had a baby first. Those were the success markers. Today, however, we’re comparing our lives to what someone else is posting, which is contributing to our high-stress culture. At the end of the day, it’s a glossy version of a highlight reel you’re supposed to measure up to. But there’s no way you’ll ever live up to it because it’s not real."

Why the title, Future Proofed, for your book?

"We are living in times of constant and rapid change. It’s about understanding what to do today, with an eye towards anticipating tomorrow. The concept of future proofing your life is about having a peace of mind and sense of control, so that no matter what’s coming around the corner you understand how to maintain a sense of calm."

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8 Quotes to Motivate You at Work

In the book you talk about the "freelance economy." What is that, and how does it impact the everyday working woman?

"The way we think about our careers has changed. It’s no longer about having one career for the rest of your life. When women took off to have kids, they were particularly disadvantaged when trying to get back on track. I encourage people to strategize and think of a playbook. Instead of focusing on a job title, think about the value, skills, and talents you offer. In this freelance economy, it means keeping the bigger picture in mind, while also being flexible for twists and turns on the way to achieving your greater vision."

What empowers and energizes you at the present moment?

"I’m deeply mission-driven. I believe that each of us should have the chance or the opportunity to fulfill our potential in life. In my book, I write this quote: 'Someone else paid the cost.' Even though my burden is heavy with responsibility, I gladly accept it, because someone else did the same for me and all of us. And now it's our turn, especially in these times of great change."

Island Organizers

Your house is a mess. Full of so much stuff that you can’t find anything you need when you need it.

You need help organizing things and turning your home into a place where you can do your work neatly and live your life with joy, especially now since so many of us are working from home.

That’s where Karen Simon, Shinobu Kuroyanagi and Paige Altonn can help. They are local members of the National Association of Productivity and Organization, which offers courses in organizing and operates as a registry for people who are trained in the art of bringing “order and efficiency to people’s lives.” These organizers have developed reliable techniques and principles for organizing one’s home or office.

Simon is a co-founder of Island Organizers, a consulting firm that advises businesses and individuals on organizing their offices, whether at home or in a separate building, as well as tips on technology tools. With her business partner, the late Donna McMillan, she co-wrote a book, “Solving the Organizing Puzzle,” which offers practical fundamentals on organizing, based on their own experiences. The book is mostly focused on business, but there’s plenty in it that applies to home organizing as well. It was ­released during the pandemic, but Simon is planning to have public ­promotions soon.

Simon said people often confuse what being organized really is.

“People have this misconception that being organized only means decluttering and having stuff look nice,” she said. “But it’s not just about having things in their places, it’s about how you operate in the rest of your life. Are you on time? Do you plan? Do you look ahead for what’s going to happen tomorrow? There’s so many things you need to plan for.”

The book is based on four concepts, the most basic being the idea of seeing a space — it can be a physical space like a kitchen or bedroom, a space on your computer, or even a period of time — as “Million Dollar Real Estate.”

“Precious space is worth millions,” Simon said, and so it should be organized according to whatever activity takes place there. “If this is where you read, then you need to have a space there for your bookshelves, and a place to sit comfortably.”

The second concept, which is applied to a million-dollar real estate, is that “Clutter confuses. Uniformity creates calm.” Simon said a disorganized bookcase, where some books are on their sides while others are standing up, can be distracting, whereas one where books of similar sizes are lined up edge to edge “creates a calming effect, because it’s not all busy and different colors.” With the mind calm, the activity at hand should be easier, she said.

A third principle is the idea that “Everything Deserves a Home.” Part of that concept is the importance of having a “dumping zone” near the entry of a home, Simon said, a place to unload items from your day at work, as well as things like groceries that you might have picked up on the way home. The problem, she said, is that the items often stay there because you haven’t decided where they should really go. According to Simon, “Making Decisions” is principle No. 4, the most difficult concept of all because it can be so personal.

“People put things in those spaces where they do not belong, and that is how stuff gets classified as ‘clutter,’” she said.

-- Star Advertiser, May 22, 2022

why we clutter and what to do about it

All that “stuff” in our drawers, closets and corners is a hazard, but there are ways to keep it at bay.

By Jane E. Brody

Published Dec. 20, 2021

Updated Dec. 21, 2021, 11:15 a.m. ET

Many of us took advantage of the long, lonely hours of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns to cleanse our closets, drawers and cabinets of clothing from a bygone era, packaged foods long past their expiration dates and files no longer relevant. At first, I was among them and enthusiastically tackled the low-hanging fruit: ill-fitting dresses and suits, shoes I could no longer walk in, hundreds of empty plastic and glass containers.

It felt good initially, but I soon lost interest in decluttering and lacked the mental and physical energy to tackle what remained.

And, I assure you, after living in the same house for 55 years, there was a lot more to get rid of. Empty spaces have a way of filling up. I actually envy friends and neighbors who downsized and had to dispose of dumpsters full of items no longer used or useful.

But when a leaking pipe recently saturated the carpet in my finished basement, where for decades I’ve stored everything I didn’t know what to do with but couldn’t bring myself to throw out, I was thrown back into action. There’s nothing like a crisis, minor or major, to force one to come to terms with an unmanageable accumulation of stuff.

Clutter is a hazard

People like me, who fill storage areas as long as the living spaces remain orderly, do not rise to the seriousness of being a hoarder, which is considered its own psychiatric diagnosis. But clutter has its own risks. Among them are the chronic and repeated stresses that can arise, for example while searching frantically through stacks of miscellany for an important paper or racing to clear piles of junk before visitors arrive.

Not to mention risking a fall over objects left where they don’t belong. When my friend of 61 years, who can’t seem to dispose of anything, had complications from a head injury that kept him in the hospital for many weeks, his wife felt compelled to clear their apartment of untold objects lying about before his return home.

In addition, clutter is distracting, stealing attention from worthy thoughts and tasks. It saps time and energy and diminishes productivity. And, a 2015 study at St. Lawrence University found that a cluttered bedroom goes hand in hand with a poor night’s sleep.

The burden of clutter doesn’t even end when we die. When my friend Michael and his brothers cleaned out their 92-year-old mother’s house in Florida after she died, among the many multiples they found were eight identical jars of mustard, five dozen cans of pineapple chunks, 72 rolls of paper towels, 11 walkers and four wheelchairs. Costly truckloads of clutter had to be carted away. I’d like my family to have better things to fret or chuckle over when I die.

Reasons we clutter

You may wonder why people like me and my friend’s mother collect so many things we likely will never need. Fear of running out is one reason I often buy in bulk, especially when desired products are on sale. A similar fear undoubtedly resulted in the frenetic run on toilet paper, pasta and canned beans at the onset of the pandemic. I never forgot what a neighbor said when, in the midst of a block party, she was asked where she kept her extra paper towels. “In the store,” she replied.

When feeling low, I’m not above indulging in retail therapy, often buying yet another bathing suit or cozy fleece to add to my extensive collection. Scott Bea, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic, has noted that our consumer society drives many people to collect stuff they don’t need.

Some also feel compelled to hold on to the past, like a friend who keeps the programs of every event he’s attended over the last six decades. Out of guilt or sentiment, some find it hard to part with useless gifts from people they love or admire. “What if they come over one day and discover it’s gone?” is a common rationale.

I have many reasons for not parting with a long-unused item. If it’s something I long treasured, like the silverware and china my husband and I bought with our wedding gifts 46 years ago, I want to give them to someone I know will appreciate and use them. And I have a quasi-irrational fear that as soon as I dispose of something, I will find I need it.

Still, I routinely bite the bullet and donate to charities that collect clothing and household items in my neighborhood. I also live on a block with lots of pedestrian traffic and if I put giveaways — from shampoos and shoes to pots and picture frames — in front of the house, they tend to disappear within hours.

When I realized it was time to part with decades-old professional files, I enlisted the aid of a helper, instructing them not to let me see anything that was being discarded from my drawers. Now to do the same with the hundreds of work-related books I’ll never open again!

Tips to tackle decluttering

Establish a plan. You may want to go room by room or focus on a category like coats or shoes, but avoid changing course midstream before you’ve finished the task you started.

Set reasonable goals based on your available time and stamina. If a whole closet is too intimidating, even as small a task as clearing items from a single drawer or shelf can get you started in the right direction.

If a more gradual approach is more manageable, consider my friend Gina’s suggestion: keeping a container in each room to house giveaways. When she tries something on that no longer fits or looks good, it goes directly into the donation bag, not back in the closet.

If needed, get help from a friend, family member or paid consultant who won’t have the same attachment to your possessions.

Create three piles — keep, donate and discard. Don’t second-guess your initial assessment; immediately trash the discard pile and schedule a pickup for the donations or take them to a worthy destination.

If your clutter includes items you’re storing for other people, consider giving them a deadline to pick them up, or suggest they rent a storage locker.

Finally, avoid backsliding. Resist refilling the spaces you clear with more stuff.

Jane Brody is the Personal Health columnist, a position she has held since 1976. She has written more than a dozen books including the best sellers “Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book” and “Jane Brody’s Good Food Book.”

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 21, 2021, Section D, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Why We Clutter, and What to Do About It.

10 Habits

To recap, here are 10 Simple Habits That Will Change Your Life

1. Keep Things Tidy

2. Mindfully Manage Your Money

3. Choose Gratitude

4. Stay Hydrated

5. Plan Your Days

6. Put Your Family First

7. Get Up Early

8. Prepare for Success the Night Before

9. Get Moving

10. Rest 

The 27 Best Decluttering Tips of All Time

Decluttering is just editing your home. And since your home story is always being written, decluttering is a never-ending task.

The reward—and the reason that keeps me going when decluttering seems like an overwhelming task—is that at the end, your home will contain only the things that serve you. You’ll be surrounded by things that make you happy. Because just like editing, once the extra, unnecessary stuff is deleted, only the best is left.

“Keep what you need and what makes you happy” is enough of a north star for some people. But many of us need a little extra guidance to help decide what’s worth keeping. These 27 time-tested decluttering tips can help.

1. Don’t treat your home like a storage unit.

Keeping something because you might need it someday is like paying mortgage to a storage company—and it comes at the expense of living in an empty, breathable space. So think twice about hanging on to the curtain rods or the six old cell phones. 

2. Realize that what you keep costs you a lot.

Many times, you’re tempted to hang on to things because you feel like it’s a waste of money if you should ever have to buy them again. But there’s a cost to keeping something. You need to think about where to store it, give up the actual storage space, or take up precious empty space. Then you’ll need to spend time organizing it and then remembering where you put if and when you need it, and then putting it away, organizing it again when it gets messy, and well…. you get the picture. Is that item really worth the time and effort it’s going to take to keep it?

3. Give yourself permission to buy again.

Since the thought of having to part with money down the road is painful, you may choose to keep many things that you may not otherwise. But the simple but powerful conscious act of giving yourself permission to buy again down the road (with the knowledge that you’re gaining so much now by letting go) will help you get so many more things out of your home. 

4. Touch it once.

So much clutter comes from holding on to things that need action. Keeping the “touch it once” principle at the forefront of your mind will help you build smart practices. For example, standing by the recycling bin with your handful of mail as you sort it and signing those permission slips as soon as they come. This cuts down drastically on paper clutter, take-it-upstairs clutter, and more. 

5. Ask yourself if it’s “the best, the favorite, or necessary.”

This decluttering mantra coined by Emily Ley helps you narrow down your possessions to the cream of the crop. If you’re looking at an overly large collection of mixing bowls, for instance, narrow it down to the best ones. A kitchen towel collection can similarly be whittled down by choosing to keep only the favorites.

6. Ask yourself if it’s useful or beautiful.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Adhering to this famous saying attributed to William Morris is a good way to avoid accumulating excess.

7. Ask yourself if it sparks joy.

Marie Kondo has become a cultural standard-bearer of a movement to declutter and minimize. Her famous shtick is having people ask themselves if each and every single belonging in their possession sparks joy. It works for some (including me), and if it works for you, it’s a galvanizing way to let go of so many things.

8. Recognize that the important part of a gift is the act of giving and receiving.

It’s so hard to get rid of gifts. You appreciate the thoughtfulness shown in getting and giving you something and you wouldn’t want to dishonor that in any way. But if the gift itself is something you don’t need or enjoy, it’s okay to let it go, guilt-free. The transaction of love and care—what makes the gift meaningful—has been taken to heart.

9. Keep a box in your closet.

This super simple trick is disproportionately powerful. The idea is that every time you put something on and don’t feel good in it, you toss it in the box. It’s an in-the-moment, painless way to declutter your wardrobe.

10. Practice one-in-one-out.

Promise yourself that with each new thing that comes into your house to stay, you’ll get rid of one other thing. It helps keeps your storage-math straight: You shouldn’t accumulate one single “extra” thing if you truly stick to this rule. Having a designated “outbox” for the items you’ll donate or give away (as opposed to just toss), helps you keep the habit.

11. Use the 90/90 rule.

The Minimalists’ 90/90 rule has you ask yourself if you’ve used the item in the last 90 days and if you will use it in the 90 days to come. If the answer is to both is no, out it goes. The actual time of 90 days is flexible, and you can adjust it to whatever suits your lifestyle, but the framework helps you decide whether an item is as necessary as you might think.

12. Use washi tape to declutter your kitchen.

To decide what’s worth keeping in the kitchen, set a designated length of time, such as six months or a year, to give you a chance to see what tools you actually use. You’ll know which items pass the test by sticking a piece of washi tape or masking tape to each thing at the start of your experiment. When you use the tool, peel the tape off. At the end of the time, get rid of any unused thing that still has tape on it.

13. Declutter by area.

Looking at one freshly cleaned-out space might inspire you to declutter the rest of your home, too. So keep the momentum going by decluttering deeply in small areas, instead of decluttering a little at a time all across your home—because at the end of the latter, you have a full bag of donations, but no specific peacefully-decluttered space to point to. For instance, you could decide to declutter—all the way—the junk drawer or a particular cabinet in the kitchen.

14. Go on a decluttering binge.

On the other hand, an empty garbage bag or donation box might be just the thing to spring you into action. If the idea of filling it with things you no longer need inspires you, get to work. Don’t forget to put it in your car to get it completely out of your house.

15. Employ the “Ex Test.”

This mind trick helps you evaluate how important something really is to you and it goes like this: Would you contact a detested ex (romantic or otherwise) to get the item back? If not, then it can’t be that important. Say goodbye.

16. Ask yourself if you’d buy it now.

Asking yourself, “If I were shopping now, would I buy this?” is so useful. It will help you cull your collection of things down to only what’s serving you in your present life. The question will help you shed clothing that’s no longer “you,” no longer fits you, “useful” items that are not part of your current life, and broken things that—be honest—you are never going to fix.

17. Try the hanger trick.

This decluttering hack is similar to the washi tape one, only this time you’re turning hangers around in your closet. Commit to a specific period of time, say three months, and get rid of anything you haven’t reached for and worn within that time span. You won’t have to think and remember, because you have the hanger trick: If all your hangers hook over the bar right now, flip the hanger so it hooks from behind when you hang every worn-it-already garment back up. At the end of your time period, donate what hasn’t been turned around.

18. Shop for others.

Rather than approaching decluttering with the mindset of finding things to get rid of, consider instead what you could part with—books, clothes, craft supplies—so that others can have it. This takes the sting out of parting with items and the fresh tactic could renew your efforts to lighten your own load.

19. Pretend you’re moving.

This one’s a mental exercise: Pretend you’re moving from one apartment to another, and you need to pack everything up, pay to have it moved, and then unpack it. Use this mental framework to scan your closets and storage spaces—if you see an item that you wouldn’t go to all that effort to keep, get rid of it right now.

20. Paper stacks begone with a three-pronged approach.

To work through paper clutter, create three options for each paper you handle: shred, file, recycle. By confining your options, you force yourself to actually deal with the paper piles you’ve been avoiding. “File” includes storing digitally.

21. Try the 10 percent method.

The 10 percent method works especially well for those who have a hard time letting go of what they own. The key to the method is being able to see everything that belongs to a certain group of items. For instance, your shoes. Pull them all out and into one space and then make it a goal to reduce the total number by 10 percent.

22. Do a little bit at a time.

“Little bit” can vary, but the idea is that you put a parameter on your time and energy. You can do this by designating a certain area you’ll work through start-to-finish (as long as it’s not a huge one) or by pre-determining a set amount of time. This way you won’t sabotage your big-picture decluttering efforts by burning yourself out before you really even get going.

23. Remember what you gain by letting go.

Decluttering opens the door for some pretty great things. You gain space, time, and energy, among other things. Keep your eye on the prize and use the motivation to redouble your decluttering verve.

24. Limit yourself.

One way to decide how much to keep and how much to set free is by setting a limit on how much space you’ll take up with that one category of items. For instance, if your collection of t-shirts is spilling out of the two drawer dividers you designated for them, pare down.

25. Don’t buy containers or organizers until you purge.

Buying baskets and bins and dividers is my favorite part, too, but if you have these around before you declutter, you risk organizing stuff you don’t need and that’s risky. Purge before you splurge and then get exactly and only what you need to organize what’s left.

26. You won’t start liking something you never liked.

You might have perfectly useful hand-me-down lamps stuffed in your closet because it feels wasteful to get rid of them, but you don’t really want to use them in your own home. The solution is simple: Out they go. You aren’t going to suddenly start liking them. But someone somewhere out there will.

27. These two common pitfalls aren’t reasons to keep things.

Having something for a long time or something being valuable does not mean that you have to keep it. The same criteria (useful, beautiful, joy, etc.) apply just as much to these types of items as to anything else.

Shifrah Combiths has been writing professionally for twenty years. She loves lifestyle photography, memory keeping, gardening, reading, and going to the beach with her husband and children.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy and was published June 14, 2020.

waste time

The Biggest Wastes Of Time We Regret When We Get Older

There are things we all do, or don't do, that lead us to waste far more time than we realize in the moment.

Lifehacker | Kristin Wong

We spend a lot of energy looking for shortcuts to save time, and sure, those shortcuts add up. But when I look back, my biggest time regrets aren't spending too much time on Twitter or mismanaging my daily tasks. Those are bad habits, but there are bigger, more systematic time wasters that have really gotten in the way. Fixing these will free up a massive amount of time and energy.

Not Asking for Help

My first week on my first job out of university, my boss handed me a huge spreadsheet. He told me to organise it in a way that made zero sense to me. Being a quiet, timid person, I simply nodded, walked back to my desk and stared at that spreadsheet for like an hour, hoping to make some sense of it (yep, just like George Costanza and the Penske file).

Finally, my coworker came in, and I confessed I had no idea what to do. He broke it down for me, then dropped some advice that's stuck with me ever since: "You might feel dumb asking questions, but you look dumber when you don't get it because you failed to ask."

It was harsh, but true. And not only did I look like an arse, I could've also saved a fair amount of time that day by simply asking my boss what he meant. It made me wonder how much time I'd wasted by not asking for help over the years. As dumb as you might feel asking questions, it's the fastest way to get an answer.

Similarly, asking for help is a great way to, well, get help. This is why networking and finding a mentor are hugely valuable. If you feel stuck in your career or need to learn new skills and have no idea how to get started, talking to other people in your field will go a long way. Even if it's just shooting someone a short email, asking for help is like a shortcut for your career. Try Leo Widrich's formula for asking for help via email:

2-3 sentences of honest appreciation. There is a reason you are asking someone for help. They have a lot of experience in that field, worked on a startup/idea related to what you are working on or else. If you do this, it shows them you have thought about why picking them out to ask for help.

1 sentence that states a single, focused question people can give you an answer to. Here is one that worked very well when I asked Noah:

"What was the single, most valuable user acquisition strategy for Mint after you hit 100K users?"

Here's another way to look at it: if you're not asking for help, you're probably not challenging yourself enough. If you have all the answers, you're not learning new skills, trying new things or moving forward and out of your comfort zone. There are a handful of reasons we don't ask for help, but it's usually because we're too proud or scared, and that's a huge waste of time, because it keeps you from moving forward.

Trying to Make Bad Relationships Work

Relationships require maintenance, but there's a difference between maintaining a good relationship and trying to force a bad one that doesn't make much sense to begin with.

There's a lot of emotion in romance and friendships, so sometimes it's hard to tell when you should keep trying or you should just call it quits. Like a lot of people, I made some common bad decisions that wasted both my time and the time of the person I was with. For example:

There are good reasons for wanting to make a relationship work, but those aren't good ones. They cloud your judgment, prolong your unhappiness and distract you from things that matter to you most. At the same time, it's hard to say all bad relationships are a total waste of time, because you learn a lot about yourself from them. That's a valid silver lining, but still, the sooner you learn those lessons, the better.

Similarly, not dealing with the emotional impact of a breakup is also a big waste of time. When a relationship ends, we usually go through the typical stages of grief associated with loss. It's easy to get comfortable with denial and convince ourselves we don't really care and we're fine. In reality, ignoring the pain only prolongs it. Our work suffers; the rest of our relationships suffer.

Dwelling on Your Mistakes and Shortcomings

Learning from your mistakes is one thing. Dwelling on them wastes your time, diminishes your confidence, and keeps you from getting on with your life.

Dwelling also makes you more apt to repeat your mistakes. In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, researchers asked subjects to spend money during an imaginary trip to the mall. Before "shopping", some subjects were asked to recall a past financial mistake. They found those subjects were more likely to incur debt. A press release for the study concluded:

Perhaps the most surprising, Haws said, is that searching through the past can negatively affect behaviour, depending on the ease of recall, even when past examples are positive...Instead of dwelling on the past, Haws said, her research into behaviour suggests that setting goals for the future can positively change present behaviour...In short, if we want to have better self-control, "Look forward," Haws says. "Don't look back."

When you think about your own experiences, it probably makes sense. Dwelling makes you feel like a failure. When I feel like a failure, it's easy to tell myself there's no point in trying, because I already suck. (Hence, getting further into debt when you already feel like an overspender.)

Of course, you don't want to skip over your mistakes and ignore them either. The goal is to glean something from them, then release the failure. I like Emilie Wapnick's process for doing this:

In order to let the past go, you must forgive yourself officially.

Feel the embarrassment or shame one final time. Really feel it throughout your body. Next, tell yourself that everyone makes mistakes and you know you that that outcome was not your intention. It was an accident. Finally, make the decision to forgive yourself and do it. It helps to even say it out loud.

From now on, it's OK. You are forgiven.

Every time the thought comes back, simply remind yourself that you have already been forgiven, so there's no reason to feel bad anymore. Then push the thought away.

One of my other big time regrets is not allowing myself to fail out of fear of my own shortcomings.

For years, I stayed in a comfortable place and didn't try to do things I wanted to do. I wanted to travel after high school, but I went to university close to home instead, because I was too shy to meet new people, and I was afraid I couldn't make it in another city. After university, I wanted to be a freelance writer, but I decided to find a more stable, accessible job instead, because that was easier. There's nothing wrong with wanting to live a stable, comfortable life, but I was doing it for the wrong reasons: because I was afraid to fail.

Eventually, I got tired of this. I decided to find work I actually enjoyed, travel more and live somewhere else. I made a ton of mistakes along the way, and even when I did succeed, I felt like an imposter. Still, I think the bigger mistake was not trying sooner. Even if I failed, I would have learned from my mistakes much sooner.

Worrying Too Much About Other People

It's easy to waste time worrying about other people, too. Don't get me wrong — your friends and loved ones mean a lot to you, and you want to spend time nurturing them. But we also spend a lot of time fretting over problems that don't matter in the long run.

For example, I spent years getting annoyed with people who undermine me. I complained about them, tried to understand them, wondered what was wrong with me that I inspired that kind of behaviour. Those habits always lead to a dead end, because they didn't involve action. The older I got, the less tolerant I became of this behaviour, and I learned to nip it in the bud.

I also indulged another time wasting emotion: jealousy. I compared myself to everyone, wanted what they had, and felt inadequate. Like most negative, destructive feelings, the first (and biggest) step to overcoming it is understanding it.

I paid attention to my jealousy and what triggered it, then learned that it was less about the other person and more about my own feelings of inadequacy. In short, I embraced that jealousy. Envy is a bit different, but it often comes from the same place, and here's what writer Trent Hamm suggests in dealing with your envy:

The question is, why do you want it in your life? I like to use the "five whys" when handling a question like this. Whenever I'm trying to answer a "why" question, I repeat it five times, asking it of the answer I come up with for each question. When you identify a particular strong desire that you have, step back for a moment and break it down into small pieces. Then, see if there isn't a way for you to address those smaller pieces in your own life. Again, let's take that international trip. What elements am I desiring when it comes to that trip? I want to expose my children to different cultures…. The thing is, when I start breaking that trip down into small pieces, I start seeing pieces that I can easily incorporate into my own life.

Once you understand why you feel jealous or envious, you can take action to take care of the problem, whether that means processing the emotions or coming up with goals for yourself. Either way, that's a lot more productive.

Most of us are probably guilty of all of these at some point, and really, they're human nature. Regret is another big waste of time, so there's no point in beating yourself up over these. The sooner you learn from them, though, the sooner you can free up your time and energy to live the life you want.

--- This post originally appeared on Lifehacker and was published May 29, 2018. This article is republished here with permission.

hard habit to break?

The Behavioral Economics Diet: The Science of Killing a Bad Habit

What really motivates you more, the promise of a reward if you succeed or a debt if you don’t?

Nir Eyal

Diets don’t work. Studies show that temporary fixes to old habits actually make people gain weight. Essentially, the dieter’s brain is trained to gorge when off the diet and inevitably the weight returns.

In my previous essay, I shared the story of my father's struggle with bad eating habits. He had put on weight over the last few decades and despite several attempts, he had trouble taking it off. In his late 60s he faces pre-diabetes and a daily ritual of taking a handful of pills.

But over the last five months, something has changed. He’s found a new way to resist the temptation of the food he’s been trying to stop eating for years.

We Took a Bet

My father and I shook on a $25,000 wager that binds him to never eat refined carbohydrates again — no processed sugars, no processed grains. Many people are shocked by the dollar amount of the bet but that’s missing the point. My objective is to never win the money. The bet just has to create a moment of consequence to disrupt the current habit with an amount large enough to be meaningful.

So far it’s working. My father has lost about 2 pounds per week and his improved blood work convinced his doctor to take him off some of the meds.

Why It Works

Admittedly, my father is just one person.  His story provides little more than anecdotal evidence. However, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine provides some supporting evidence that putting some skin in the game makes people more likely to accomplish their goal of stopping a bad habit.

The study followed three groups of people trying to quit smoking. The control group was offered information and traditional methods for smoking cessation like free nicotine patches. After 6 months, 6% of the people in this group stopped smoking. The next group, called the “reward” group, was offered $800 if they were smoke-free at 6 months. Of those, 17% quit. From just these two groups, we see paying people does indeed provide an incentive to stop a bad habit, at least short term.

However, the third group provided the most interesting results. In this group, called the “deposit” group, participants were asked to put down $150 of their own money, which they would receive back if they successfully quit in 6 months. In addition, they were given a $650 bonus prize from their employer if they quit. Of those who accepted the deposit challenge 52% succeeded.

On the surface, this makes no sense. Why would winning $800 be less effective than winning only $650 plus $150 of your own money back?

Perhaps people in the deposit group were more motivated to quit smoking in the first place? The researchers admitted that over 85% of people who were offered the deposit deal refused to take it. However, the study authors took efforts to scrub the effect of extra motivation by only using data from smokers willing to be in either group.

Loss Aversion, Commitment, and a Social Out

So what else might explain the results? For one, the study authors write, “people are typically more motivated to avoid losses than to seek gains.” This irrational tendency, known as “loss aversion,” is a cornerstone of behavioral economics. As Nudge author Cass Sunstein, wrote, “a 5-cent tax on the use of a grocery bag is likely to have a much greater effect than a 5-cent bonus for bringing one’s own bag.”

There are other factors at work as well. Commitment contracts — like putting money down or taking a bet — have proven to be effective at changing behavior because they make us accountable to our future selves. People are notoriously bad at predicting their behavior due to a phenomenon called “time inconsistency.” Essentially, we punt difficult to do behaviors saying, we’ll “eat better tomorrow” or we’ll “clean the garage” next weekend.

Tim Urban, author of the Wait But Why blog, explains his struggle with procrastination writing, “I banked on Future Tim’s real-world existence for my most important plans, but every time I’d finally arrive at a time when I thought I would find Future Tim, he was nowhere to be found — the only person there would be stupid Present Tim. That’s the thing that really sucks about Future You — whenever time finally gets to him, he’s not Future You anymore, he’s Present You, and Present You can’t do the tasks you assigned to Future You … So you do what you always do — you re-delegate them to Future You, hoping that next time time catches up with Future You, he actually exists.”

By creating a binding commitment — like the $25,000 bet my father took with me — we make sure our future selves behave in line with our present goals. A website called stickK.com uses commitment contracts to help its’ users accomplish their goals. People sign legally binding agreements where they have to pay a third party if they don’t meet their obligations to stop smoking, exercise, or finish their novel, for example. The site, founded by two Yale professors, has proven effective for those brave enough to take the bet.

There’s one more important and often overlooked reason these types of commitments work — they change the language we use. When I asked my father how he manages the temptation to not cheat with just a bite of cake now and then, he told me, “I just don’t. It’s actually not a big deal any more.” Frankly, I was surprised he is having such an easy time with it. Here’s a man who has struggled with his weight for over 30 years but who suddenly finds giving up some of his favorite foods to be, well, a piece of cake. What gives?

It turns out that the way we describe our behaviors can have a dramatic impact on what we will and won’t do. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people who were prompted to use the words “I don’t” versus “I can’t” were nearly twice as likely to resist the temptation of choosing unhealthy foods. The researchers believe using “I don’t” rather than “I can’t” gave people greater “psychological empowerment” by removing the need to make a decision. “I don’t” is outside our control while “I can’t” is self-imposed.

Now when my father goes out to lunch with his friends and dessert is brought to the table, he has a story to tell. “When they offer me a bite, I let them know it would be a very expensive mouthful,” he said. “I explain I just don’t eat that stuff anymore because the bet I made is for life.” He explains, “When I tried to lose weight before, I had to explain to people that I was on a diet. Eventually, I would get tired of saying ‘I can’t’ and I’d cave-in and tell myself, ‘just this once.’ But now with this bet,” my father joked, “I can just blame you!”

Here’s the Gist:

- Creating a commitment to stop a bad habit can increase the odds of quitting certain behaviors.

- Though not appropriate for all behaviors (I discuss the limitations in my next essay), the technique works because it uses loss aversion, a commitment contract, and provides a social out for not doing the behavior by changing the language we use to describe our actions.

This post originally appeared on Nir Eyal and was published May 26, 2015. This article is republished here with permission.

Dalai Lama to release album

NEW YORK  — Stressed out while working at a bank in New Zealand, Junelle Kunin began searching for music paired with teachings from the Dalai Lama to calm herself down and allow herself to focus.

But she couldn’t find it online.

That’s when the musician and practicing Buddhist proposed an idea to The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Let’s make an album fusing music with mantras and chants from the Tibetan spiritual leader.

She was politely turned down.

But on a trip to India — where Kunin says she typically gets a chance to meet the Dalai Lama — she asked again, this time writing a letter and handing it to one of his assistants.

Five years later, “Inner World” is born. The album featuring teachings and mantras by the Dalai Lama set to music will be released on July 6, his 85th birthday.

the Two Minute Rule

I just watched this video on YouTube about the Two Minute Rule

Apparently the idea came from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.  Here's an excerpt:

The Two-Minute Rule states “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”

You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version:

• “Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
• “Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
• “Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”
• “Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”
• “Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can meditate for one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away. And, as we have just discussed, this is a powerful strategy because once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it. A new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. What you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.

***

Not to be confused with this Two Minute Rule, which actually sounds more like Gretchen Rubin's One Minute Rule.

The 1% Rule

Habits don't change in a day. But 1% a day makes every habit work. Every.

The reason is: they work if you do a little each day. If you relax and give yourself permission to only improve a little each day, then a good habit works.

Improve a little each day. It compounds. When 1% compounds every day, it doubles every 72 days, not every 100 days. Compounding tiny excellence is what creates big excellence.

You can't be a master in one day. You have to improve a little every day.

Picasso created two works of art a day. That's 50,000 in a lifetime. It adds up.

"But it's too late for me!"

No, it's not. Compounding creates fast results.

If I read five pages a day from non-fiction books, then in a year I will have read 1,830 pages of knowledge. And each page I read will build upon the pages I've read before.

And it's 1,830 pages 99% of people won't read. Most people don't pick up a book after age 20.

If I write 1,000 words a day, then in one day that's nothing. In one year, that's the equivalent of 6–8 novels.

It doesn't happen in one day. There are no goals. There's only practice. Practice never makes perfect. Practice makes happy. Practice makes habits.

I started writing 23 years ago. Every day I read a little. Every day I wrote. I wanted to get better.

I was very bad at the beginning.

I just looked at some fiction I wrote 23 years ago. WOW! Very bad.

Every day I wake up and think, how can I be a little better? Just a tiny bit. Because I know it will make me feel good today to practice. And I know it will add up.

-- James Altucher

Alice Inoue

Noticed that Alice Inoue (of Go Ask Alice fame) is still writing.  I notice today that her columns have been appearing in the Live Well section of the Star Advertiser.

Here's some of them:

6/11/19 - Humility will help you go far
6/04/19 - Stop 'shoulding' over yourself
5/28/19 - Mindfully move through the day
5/21/19 - Don't stop becoming a better you
5/14/19 - Embrace your form of spirituality
5/07/19 - Enjoy the moment and create positive memories

How We Learn

Book Review: 'How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens' by Benedict Carey

Carey’s book has four sections. It begins with an introduction of the biological function of the brain and the cognitive science of learning, which are the theoretical foundation of later sections. The second part of the book deals with retention tools and the third part deals with comprehension techniques. The last part of the book explores how we can improve learning subconsciously, or “learning without thinking,” as Carey describes it.

To me, the most useful information of the book is about the common learnings strategies that are now proven less effective.

For instance, it’s widely accepted that it’s better to find a quiet place to study and we should go to this place all the time – making it a routine. Well, according to Carey,

“scientists have found that we work more effectively when we continually alter our study routines and abandon any ‘dedicated space’ in favor of varied locations. Sticking to one learning ritual slows us down."

Take another widely-accepted practice - devoting a dedicated black of time to repetitively practicing a skill (such as long division) is the best way to master a particular skill. Carey points out that this is also wrong as

“studies find that the brain picks up patterns more efficiently when presented with a mixed bag of related tasks than when it’s forced-fed just one, no matter the age of the student or the subject matter area."

Another example comes from digital distraction such as Facebook Twitter and WeChat, which is blamed by many as the biggest hurdle to focus (including myself). While these distractions do harm our ability to focus, they may help (only a brief distraction) “when we’re stuck on a math problem or tied up in a creative knot and need to shake free.

Carey also offers a very interesting theory – the Forget to Learn theory. This theory suggests that “forgetting is the best friend of learning, rather than its rival.” First of all, forgetting acts as a “spam filter.” By filtering out information that we might need, forgetting allows the brain to focus. Another benefit of forgetting is that normal forgetting is helpful for subsequent learning. Carey uses the muscle-building metaphor to illustrate this point – some breakdown must occur for us to gain muscle. Similarly, some breakdown must occur for us to strengthen learning.

It’s good to know that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to forget.

Retention and comprehension tools:

The first principle theory of memory is an enormously important theory, which is “shepherded” by UCLA’s Robert Bjork and his wife Elizabeth Ligon Bjork. The theory says that

“any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength. Storage strength is a measure of how well learned something is. It builds up steadily with studying and more sharply with use. Storage strength can increases but it never decreases. Retrieval strength is a measure of how easily a nugget of information comes to mind. It,too, increases with studying, and with use. Without reinforcement, however, retrieval strength drops off quickly, and its capacity is relatively small. At any time, we can pull up only a limited number of items in connection with any given cue or reminder. Compared to storage, retrieval strength is fickle. It can build quickly but also weaken quickly.”

An-equally important principle is called the principle of desirable difficulty. The principle states that “the harder we have to work to retrieve a memory, the greater the subsequent spike in retrieval and storage strength (learning).”

Fortunately, Carey has offered us some great retention techniques that can help us learn better.

First of all, “having something going on in the study environment, like music, is better than nothing.” Because the experience of studying has more dimensions than we notice, some of which can have an impact on retention. Subconscious contextual cues such as music, light, and background color are valuable when it comes to retention. It we can multiple the number of perceptions connected to a given memory, we’ll do better. And it’s not that hard. We can switch places – just go to another Starbucks. We can listen to classical music today and jazz tomorrow.

The second technique Carey shares is the distributed learning, or the spacing effect. The spacing effect basically says we learn just as much but retain it much longer when we space our study time than when we concentrate our study time. Studying a new concept right after you learn it doesn’t’ deepen the memory much but studying it an hour later or a day later, does. Scientists have helped established both “minimum intervals” and “maximum intervals” required to keep newly learned facts accessible.

Carey sheds some light on the spacing effect with his own experiences. He used to study difficult materials for an hour and return the next day practically remembering nothing. But now he utilizes the spacing technique – he would treat the first encounter as a casual walk through for about twenty minutes. Then he’ll go through round two and round three with the same material later, each twenty minutes. He hasn’t used more time but he remembers more.

I’ll pause here and share the rest of my notes in the upcoming articles.

Top Ten TED Talks

Garrio Harrison, Digital Strategist
Updated Sep 23, 2012

These are the 10 TED talks I revisit often. I can say without exaggeration each of these positively impacted my outlook both on life and on business.

two things to do everyday

What can I do for 10 minutes every day that will change my life?

Dushka Zapata, Avid learner.
Updated Feb 10, 2016

I love this question and the collection of answers. I will apply many of them to my days ahead. Thank you!

I have two tips I didn't see in a very quick scan of the answers you already have:

Resolve to stop complaining, so that the churning, pointless energy you waste on that is put towards something useful.

Make a daily list of things you are grateful for. Gratitude is powerful. It changes your perspective.