Tag: Psychology

Habits, Happiness

It seems unfair that your habit doesn’t deliver the results expected? Don’t worry, it’s just because your brain is lagging

Chris Labs

You see, most animals live in an immediate-return environment. As an animal, most of your decisions have an immediate impact. You are always thinking about what to eat or where to sleep or how to avoid a predator. You are constantly focused on the present or very near future. Now switch back to your human self. In modern society, many of the choices you make today will not benefit you immediately. If you do a good job at work, you’ll get a paycheck in a few weeks. You live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you can work … Continue reading It seems unfair that your habit doesn’t deliver the results expected? Don’t worry, it’s just because your brain is lagging

Habits

It’s all in the mind…

Chris Labs

Start reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habit seem more attrative. Saving money is often associated with sacrifice. However you can associate it with freedom rather than limitation if you realize one simple truth: living below your current means increases your future means. -Atomic Habits, p.131 Continue reading It’s all in the mind…

Habits

How to make your habits more attractive?

Chris Labs

Temptation bundling The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an axction you need to do. Based on Premack’s Principle, it states that “more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors”. You can even pair it with habit stacking: After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT]. Ex: After I get back from my lunch break, I will call three potential clients (need). After I call three potential clients, I will check ESPN (want). -Atomic Habits, p.111 Continue reading How to make your habits more attractive?

Habits

The breakdown of a habit: Cue, Craving, Response, Reward

Chris Labs

Cue The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. It is a bit of information that predicts a reward. Our prehistoric ancestors were paying attention to cues that signaled the location of primary rewards like food, water, and sex. Today, we spend most of our time learning cues that predict secondary rewards like money and fame, power and status, praise and approval, love and friendship, or a sense of personal satisfaction. Craving They are the motivational force behind every habit/ What you crave is not the habit itself but the change in state it delivers. Ex: You are not … Continue reading The breakdown of a habit: Cue, Craving, Response, Reward

Learnings

Parkinson’s Law: Time Management

Chris Labs

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If something must be done in a year, it’ll be done in a year. If something must be done next week, it’ll be done next week. If something must be done tomorrow, it’ll be done tomorrow. **Parkinson’s Law should not be considered carte blanche to set unreasonable deadlines. All projects take time-you certainly can’t build a skyscraper in a day, or a factory in a week. -The Personal MBA, here Continue reading Parkinson’s Law: Time Management

Negotation Mastery

Your counterpart is acting not rationally (to you)?

Chris Labs

They probably have hidden interests. Your counterpart will often reject offers for reasons that have nothing to do with their merits. Ex: A client may put off buying your product so that their calendar year closes before the invoice hits, increasing his chance for a promotion. Or an employee might quit in the middle of a career-making project, just before bonus season, because he or she has learned that colleagues are making more money. For that employee, fairness is as much an interest as money. Whatever the specifics, these people are not acting irrationally. They are simply complying with needs … Continue reading Your counterpart is acting not rationally (to you)?

Negotation Mastery

It often doesn’t matter what leverage actually exists against you; what really matters is the leverage they think you have on them.

Chris Labs

That’s why I say there’s always leverage: as an essentially emotional concept, it can be manufactured whether it exists or not. If they’re talking to you, you have leverage. Who has leverage in a kidnapping? The kidnapper or the victim’s family? Most people think the kidnapper has all the leverage.. But how many buyers do the kidnappers have for the commodity they are trying to sell? –Never split the difference, p.221 Continue reading It often doesn’t matter what leverage actually exists against you; what really matters is the leverage they think you have on them.