Focus Less on Work to Improve Everything – Even Your Job

Stressed about not getting enough done at work? Don’t be. It turns out that you can improve how much you get things done at the office by not thinking about it. Turn your attention elsewhere and focus on things that do matter instead.

But, how can performance at work improve with less attention paid to it? There are several reasons:

  • Clearer focus on results that really matter to the people around you.
  • Less wasted effort on activities that aren’t that important.
  • Reduced psychological interference across domains as a result of being less distracted, because you’re taking care of critical needs in those other parts.
  • A virtuous cycle of benefits from one part of your life spilling over to other parts; for example, greater confidence, less crankiness, and a stronger sense of control.

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Can Help Patients Cope with Schizophrenia

Cognitive behavioural therapy can be used by people dealing with schizophrenia to improve their lives. Just six sessions of the therapy can help people deal with worry which can lead to schizophrenic episodes or even be used to help people who are at risk of developing schizophrenia.

Six sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) focused upon reducing worry reduced the severity of persecutory delusions, the researchers found.

The patients were much happier and less fearful of other people after therapy. These effects lasted at least six months.

A study participant commented, ‘The breakthrough was that I was able to, with the help of my psychologist, come up with a strategy – that is, when worry is gripping me I would say ‘Excuse me worry, I need to interrupt you because…’. I sometime worry about people trying to harm me but now I can interrupt my worry and do something else’.

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Greenlid: An Easy Solution for Your Green Bin

The “dragons” on CBC’s show Dragons’ Den the investors funded a new product called Greenlid. Greenlid is a contraption that makes it easier to deal with household composting and waste diversion projects. In parts of Canada it is known as a “green bin” program.

With most waste diversion programs it’s hard to get 100% success so hopefully the Greenlid will make it easier for people to be a part of the earth-saving green bin programs (or similar )

Constructed from end-of-life recycled cardboard and newsprint, The Greenlid is scientifically designed to make composting easier and cleaner by using a proprietary leak resistant formula that mimics natural water-repelling structures found in nature. As a result, The Greenlid can hold four litres of the wettest organics and remain leak resistant for up to 10 days while remaining an attractive addition to your kitchen. A re-useable, dishwasher safe lids keeps smells locked away while The Greenlid is in use. When placed in municipal compost facilities or home compost, The Greenlid quickly breaks down, adding to the overall eco-friendly nature of the product and quality of the compost, which eventually becomes useable soil.

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@the_greenlid

Under the Dome: A Documentary on China’s Pollution

The Chinese documentary Under the Dome (I can’t find english subtitles, sorry) has taken China by storm. The documentary was released on last week and is already changing the conversation about pollution in the country. This could mark a massive change in how China enforces their pollution laws and improves how they treat nature.

Chai Jing’s documentary was released on 28 February, less than a week before China’s annual parliamentary session begins. China’s central government is expected to pass an ambitious new law that hopes to impose tough new regulations on China’s coal-burning polluters.
But in China, passing a law is one thing. Enforcing it is another.
Beijing could certainly use public pressure in its bid to carry out the new rules. Laws from the central government are commonly ignored by lower level officials, particularly when they might affect economic growth.
China named its new Environment Minister, Chen Jining, one day before the documentary was released. In his first press conference the day after his appointment, he noted he had already watched the documentary and had phoned Chai Jing to thank her for contribution.

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Investing in Mental Health is Good for Everyone

Mental health is important for everybody and painting it can be challenging for many people. As with most preventive practises it’s wise to invest in it. The benefits of keeping society in good mental health is a benefit for everybody.

Where relevant statistics have been available, a huge trove of data has been collected over the past 15 years on how these mental health issues translate into healthcare costs and disability claims expenses. While nations that don’t really recognize or provide for mental health issues don’t have to deal with the aforementioned costs, the data also consistently shows that mental health problems result in quantifiable losses in productivity and profitability due to days skipped, employee turnover, and even just zoning out or slowing down while at work. Estimates from the early 2000s claim an office could lose up to six days of labor per month to absenteeism, and 31 days per month due to presenteeism (being there but working at a low speed), problems up to three times more likely to occur in mentally unhealthy workers than in other groups. In the U.S., mental health disorders contribute to job loss or the inability to find a job for over three million workers per year, and chronic unemployment seems even more common the more severe one’s mental health issues become.

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