Happy Thursday! Thursday Schmursday!🙃🫠🤣 A shorter post this time, and perhaps a bit of a funny one. I’ve been thinking about this recently, and it is something I have done before, but perhaps not enough… Do you ever stop, look in the mirror, and give yourself a ‘pep talk’? Perhaps this is a bit related to priming (see my earlier post on that), and I can recall looking in the mirror and saying, perhaps audibly, “Come on man! You can do better!!” Or something along those lines (though I cannot quite remember what situation it was for). I think this can be helpful if done in a nice way (no negative self-talk or beating yourselves up verbally). I need to do it far more often to really know if it’s helpful though! I’ll try to remember to test it out during bathroom breaks at the next chess tournament if I am struggling. Anyways, let me know your thoughts! Have you tried this tactic before? Was it helpful? Cheers!😁

Hey Skoolers! Here’s another one for our toolkit. Let’s keep building it!🧰💪 Recently, I have been reading a bit about ‘mental priming.’ Here’s a relevant article that I think you’ll find insightful: The Role of Mental "Priming" in Enhancing Productivity - Very Big Brain According to the article, mental priming prepares “the mind for productivity by setting it up for success. Priming taps into our subconscious, influencing our mindset, motivation, and even energy levels without us noticing.” You can read more about it and how it works in the article linked above. Even if you’re not a psychology / neuroscience fan, I am sure you will get value from it! A simple mantra that one can repeat several times aloud, throughout the day, but especially when waking up, goes as follows: “My mind is sharp. My focus is unwavering. I make clear decisions.” That’s it! Three short and simple sentences that, when repeated morning after morning, day after day, could potentially have a positive effect on just about everything! I must admit that, despite knowing a bit about this for a while, I have never really put it into practice. I am going to try to repeat the above mantra at least three times every morning, and see how it helps me with my focus and productivity. @Bruno Militz I know you like quotes a lot (as do I), and sometimes print them out to put on your walls, etc. Would you consider that a form of ‘priming’? The article suggests that it is! I hope you guys found this useful. I think it is something many have heard or read about, yet forget to implement in their daily lives. Let’s make use of this simple, yet powerful, tool! To finish, here is one quote I especially like from the article linked above: “Priming isn’t a one-time trick; it works best when it becomes a regular habit. The more often you prime your mind for productivity, the stronger the effects will be. Consistency builds familiarity, allowing the brain to automatically respond to cues without needing conscious effort. Over time, these repeated priming actions form a productive mindset that becomes second nature.”

Hey Everyone, Sunday funday is over, and for many of us, that means we are back at work! So here is a tactic I’ve used to deal with stress, both at work and elsewhere. I hope it’s useful. During the academic years of 2023 and 2024, I was teaching at a university here in Japan. As first-year English is mandatory, there are plenty of students who are really not interested in it, and are just there because they need to be. That, coupled with them being fresh out of high school, leads to behavioural issues that frustrated my colleagues at the time, such as students texting in class, showing up late, not making an effort at all, etc. When asked by a colleague how I didn’t let it bother me at all, my usual answer was that ‘I just don’t worry about what I cannot control’ (arguably the main tenet of Stoicism) and that ‘I am not emotionally attached to / invested in my work.’ I simply did my best to get the lessons ready and teach them, and did not attempt to control or force the students to enjoy them. “One can bring a horse to water, but cannot force him to drink,” as someone wise once said. Well, that wasn’t so easy for some colleagues, so I came up with a method and shared it with one of them. I am not sure what to call it, but the basic idea is that, in a given day, you’re only allowed to give a set number of ‘damns’ (replace with a more vulgar word if you like, haha) about something. If you give more than the number of ‘damns’ you pre-set, you’ve lost! Think of it like having lives in a video game. You give more than five damns? GAME OVER! Thus, if you only have three or five damns to give in a certain day, you have to think carefully before giving one. I think this tactic can help us by making us stop to think ‘is this really worth giving a damn about?’ before getting stressed and/or upset about something. What’s your take on this? Have you used a similar tactic before? What other stress managing tactics have you used? Happy Monday!!

Hey everyone, I hope you had a great start into your weekend! 😊 As Bruno mentioned in the latest call, I just started to make music with AI. A lot of fun! And the kids enjoy it as well. So every time we drive somewhere, it's music time (we almost never listened to music before). Today, I created some songs with our daughter, who came up with her own lyrics. This might seem either super fancy or very natural to you - I honestly don't know. Why not find out, how everyone is using AI - or not using it 😊

Just checking to see if anyone's watched multiple courses yet? I got a ton of value from time mastery! But haven't been able to dig into any others yet. Which is your favorite course in this classroom? Or which is the one you're most excited about?