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Encourage your fast-talking conversation partner to keep talking using non-verbal cues, without increasing your own speaking pace

In communication, it’s important to adapt your style to that of your conversation partner. This can be challenging if your partner speaks quickly and you struggle to keep up. Instead of speeding up your own speech, which can lead to stumbling over words and confusion, it’s better to use non-verbal cues. Hand gestures and head movements are super helpful in this regard. By subtly moving your hand or nodding, you can encourage your partner to continue talking without having to speak faster yourself.

Non-verbal communication is a powerful tool in conversations. With hand gestures, you can hold your partner’s attention and encourage them to speak faster. By nodding your head, you show that you understand and that they can continue. These tricks ensure that your partner feels understood and can tell their story at their own pace, while you can think and respond calmly.

By smartly using non-verbal signals, you can communicate better without having to speak faster yourself. This is especially useful in work situations where it’s important that you both understand each other well. If you adjust your non-verbal communication to your partner’s pace, your conversations become more effective, and you both feel better understood.

Hiding your phone doesn't help you concentrate better

The idea that you can concentrate better by hiding your phone sounds logical, but research shows that this is not always effective. Although people indeed reach for their phones less often when they are further away, they often replace this time by sitting at their computer, keeping the total screen time roughly the same.

In the study, participants had to work for 5 hours, of which an average of 3.5 hours was spent productively, regardless of whether their phone was within reach or not.

Notable findings:

  • With your phone within reach, you spend almost twice as long on it, an average of 14 minutes more per session
  • The duration per use remains the same, but you pick up your phone more frequently when it’s nearby
  • When the smartphone was not accessible, participants spent more time on their computer, but the number of activities on the computer remained unchanged

This suggests that the problem is not the devices themselves, but rather your habits and time management. Concentration issues seem to be more related to your environment and activities than to the technology itself.

The research emphasizes that it is more important to adjust your habits around technology use than to focus on the devices. Hiding your phone is therefore not necessarily the solution; a more conscious and controlled approach to technology can be more effective in reducing distraction and stress.

The client being coached already has the answer within themselves

People can often solve their own problems. They sometimes just need a little help to find the right solution. A coach therefore does not provide ready-made answers but helps people find answers themselves. This is like peeling an onion: layer by layer, you get closer to the core of the problem.

A coach asks questions, listens carefully, and helps people think about what they are saying. This makes someone feel safe to think about what they want to achieve and the problems they encounter. By discussing this together, someone gets to know themselves better. This gives more confidence to make decisions on their own. The coach only helps - the person themselves knows best what is good for them.

It is important that the coach believes that someone can find answers themselves. When people realize they can come up with solutions on their own, they feel stronger. They then take more responsibility for their own growth. Because they have found the solution themselves, it suits them well. As a result, the changes they make are often lasting and they feel good about them.

Although time pressure makes us work faster, it does not automatically mean we work better

Under pressure, we can indeed accomplish more work in less time, but this often comes at the expense of accuracy and depth. Researchers like Don Moore and Elizabeth Tenney have shown that while deadlines can help us complete tasks that might otherwise be left unfinished, the quality of the work often suffers due to the rush. This is because, under pressure, we tend to make quicker decisions and spend less time checking our work, increasing the likelihood of errors.

Additionally, the heightened state of alertness we experience under time pressure, caused by substances like dopamine and adrenaline, can give us the feeling that we are performing better. However, this state of readiness can also be achieved in other ways, without the drawbacks of hasty work. For example, some people use physical activities like trampoline jumping to get into an energetic and focused state. This can help to be productive without the risks associated with working under time pressure, such as overlooking details or making unnecessary mistakes.

Finally, it is important to recognize that while time pressure can help us work faster, it is not always the best way to ensure quality. It is essential to find a balance between speed and accuracy and to understand when it makes sense to use time pressure as a tool to increase productivity. By being mindful of deadlines and how we allocate our time, we can work both efficiently and effectively.

Trust in yourself, the process, and the client

Trust is the foundation of coaching and personal growth.

It starts with self-confidence, which is very important for any coach or professional. When you believe in yourself and your knowledge, you can better help and support others. This self-confidence helps you remain calm and assured, even when things get tough. Remember, as a coach, you don’t need to have all the answers; your task is to help the client find their own answers.

The process, such as the GROW model (Goals, Reality, Options, Will), offers a structured approach that helps streamline conversations and provide direction. By following the process, coaches can work step by step towards the client’s goals. Trusting this process means believing that the client, by taking the right steps, will come to important insights. The model helps both the coach and the client stay focused and goal-oriented.

Finally, trust in the client is essential. Every client already has the answers within them, and the coach helps them find these answers. This means believing that the client can grow and change. By being genuinely interested in the client and their story, you naturally ask the right questions that help them move forward. This mix of self-confidence, trust in the process, and trust in the client ensures successful coaching and personal growth.

Hide files or folders on MacOS using `chflags hidden <file path>` from the command line

On MacOS, you can easily hide files or folders by using the command line. This can be useful if you want to keep certain files out of sight without deleting them.

To do this, first open a terminal window. You can do this by pressing Command+Space, typing “Terminal,” and pressing Enter. In the terminal window that appears, use the command chflags hidden <file path>, replacing <file path> with the path to the file or folder you want to hide. This command marks the file or folder as hidden, making it no longer visible in Finder.

If you later decide that you want to make the file or folder visible again, you can use the same command with nohidden instead of hidden. This will make the file or folder visible again in Finder.

Blue light from screens has little effect on how quickly you fall asleep

There has been much discussion about how blue light from screens affects our sleep, but new research shows that the impact may be smaller than we thought. Sleep experts have found that blue light causes you to fall asleep on average less than three minutes later. This means that the idea that blue light significantly disrupts your sleep is largely incorrect. Although using technology just before bedtime is sometimes linked to poorer sleep, there are other factors that have more influence, such as what you watch and notifications that can wake you up.

People often use technology to keep themselves occupied or to feel better, which can also affect their sleep habits. It is important to know that it is not so much the blue light that affects your sleep, but more how and why you use technology. Through self-control and help from others, you can use technology wisely before bedtime so that it does not negatively affect your sleep.

Modern work is unconfined work

In the past, work was often simple and predictable. There were fixed processes and predictable outcomes, as Armand Hatchuel describes. This made it easy to measure and manage performance. If there were problems, such as a broken machine or a sick employee, managers could quickly intervene to achieve the same results.

Today, work is different. Hatchuel calls this “unconfined” work. It involves jobs like knowledge work, care work, and creative work, where you don’t know in advance what the outcome will be. Innovation and surprising outcomes are often the goal. This means you only know what the result is once it’s finished. There is a lot of uncertainty about how much effort it takes to achieve these unpredictable results. For example, a home care worker doesn’t know what they will encounter with a client, a designer doesn’t know how a client will react to an idea, and a software developer can’t always predict what problems will arise with the code.

Modern work is thus unconfined because it is not tied to fixed rules or predictable results. It requires a lot of flexibility and adaptability from workers, whether the work is physical or mental. The real challenge is dealing with the absence of boundaries and navigating the uncertainties and complexities that come with this type of work.

Doing nothing is more fun than we think

Research shows that people often underestimate how much they enjoy just sitting and thinking. In a series of experiments with students, participants thought they would be bored if they had to wait in a quiet room. But in reality, they found it much more enjoyable than they expected. This shows that we often do not appreciate how important it is to take a moment to pause and reflect.

The idea of “niksen,” a Dutch word that means consciously doing nothing, fits well with these findings. Doing nothing can be seen as a way to give our minds a break, so we can relax and let our thoughts wander without distractions from the outside world. This is different from the modern habit of always being busy and seeking distractions, such as constantly checking internet news. By doing nothing, we can improve our mental health, as it gives us the opportunity to organize our thoughts and become more creative.

We often underestimate how valuable doing nothing can be, because we do not realize how interesting and enjoyable our own thoughts can be. People usually choose activities to keep busy, often because they are afraid of getting bored. But doing nothing can be surprisingly enriching, as shown by the positive responses of people in studies. If we learn to appreciate moments of rest more, we can learn to enjoy simply thinking and reflecting. This can ultimately contribute to a more balanced and satisfying life.

Speeding up informative videos does not affect material comprehension

Playing videos faster can be useful to save time. Research shows that you can watch videos at 1.5x or even 2x the normal speed without understanding less. This way, you can go through the videos faster and use the extra time to study more or watch the videos again. But be careful: if you go faster than 2x, you may not understand what is being said as well.

It is important to know that these results can vary. This depends on how difficult the videos are, how fast the speech is, and how much visual and audio content there is simultaneously. Often, comprehension issues arise from a lack of background information. Therefore, it is wise to first watch videos at a faster speed and then spend extra time on the difficult parts or review them, especially right before a test.