Jeroen Sangers

Be aware of scatter in your life.

Scatter is multiple monitors.

Scatter is being busy without making progress.

Research shows that mindfulness meditation, even in short sessions, helps you distribute your attention better. This means that your brain handles the attention needed for difficult tasks more efficiently. In a study, people who meditated briefly performed better on attention tests, such as the Flanker Task and the Attention Network Test, without their reaction time worsening. This shows that meditation helps you concentrate better, even if you don’t have much experience with it yet. Although we don’t know exactly how long this improved concentration lasts, the results suggest that even a short meditation can enhance your concentration ability.

Related:

• Mindfulness meditation reduces the size of your amygdala, making you less prone to distractions and procrastination
• Give your mind time to wander

📸 Chia growing on my Tevaplanter

After five days, the chia buds are clearly visible and the roots start to grab hold of the Tevaplanter vessel’s surface

📸 Tevaplanter loaded with chia seeds

Two and half years after ordering, my Tevaplanter finally arrived. Yesterday I filled the cells with chia seeds for my first experiment to learn how to use it.

I will keep you posted on further progress.

Noise-cancelling headphones are often seen as the solution to distractions in open offices. They are designed to muffle ambient noise so you can concentrate better. But you know what’s funny? Research shows that even though you think your concentration improves with such headphones, there is actually no real difference in how well you can focus. You might feel calmer, but you’re not really more productive or focused.

In open offices, where it’s often very noisy, noise-cancelling headphones serve another purpose. They are actually a kind of “do not disturb” sign for your colleagues. If you’re wearing such headphones, your colleagues are less likely to approach you for a chat. That helps a bit against distractions. But the real problem of all the noise around you remains. And because your concentration doesn’t really improve, it remains difficult to work well in such an environment.

Related:

• An increase of 10 dB noise in the workplace reduces productivity by 5%
• An open office is a cheap short-term solution with high intangible costs in the long term

Un acto de generosidad.
Así es como describiría la recomendación del chef Xanty Elías.

De todo corazón y en nombre de todo el equipo de KENSO: ¡Gracias Xanty! 🤗😍

Tana is by far the app that gives me the most pleasure to use. So powerful, so many possibilities …

Research shows that there is a correlation between income and happiness, but this relationship is complex and not straightforward. According to a study by Kahneman and Deaton (2010), happiness increases with income up to a certain point, after which the effect diminishes. This means that there is a threshold above which additional income does not significantly contribute to more happiness. On the other hand, research by Killingsworth (2021) indicates that happiness continues to increase with income, even at higher income levels. However, this effect is stronger among people who are already happier.

A joint reanalysis of these studies showed that the level of happiness mainly stabilizes among the least happy 20% of people. For the rest of the population, happiness continues to increase with higher income, and among the happiest people, this effect even accelerates. This means that the relationship between income and happiness is not the same for everyone and depends on how happy someone already is. The misinterpretation of earlier studies may partly be due to limitations in research methods and the way happiness was measured.

Money is not the only factor that contributes to happiness, but a higher income can help. It provides financial security, better healthcare, and more opportunities for relaxation and personal growth. However, the pursuit of more money can also lead to constant comparison with wealthier people, which can make you unhappy. Therefore, it is important to find a balance between financial goals and other sources of happiness, such as friendships and personal fulfillment.

Related:

• Take the time to think about, dream of, and look forward to future activities
• Do things that makes you happy everyday, since happy workers are 12% more productive

I rely on Kill the newsletter! to manage all my newsletter subscriptions, as I prefer reading them in my feed reader rather than my email app.

However, I’ve encountered an issue recently with Substack. They are not allowing me to subscribe using a kill-the-newsletter.com email address, stating that they cannot validate the email domain. This is quite disappointing. ☹️

I attempted to find information on how to validate an email domain on their support site, but there is no relevant information available. Even if there were, it wouldn’t make a difference since it’s not my domain.

Nevertheless, I still do not want those newsletters cluttering my email inbox, so I have decided not to subscribe for now…

Walk into working Monday with a plan.

(Best created Friday mid-PM)

Until a few weeks ago I always created my week plan on Monday morning and now I usually do it on Sundays to start the week with impulse. Of course, Nicholas is right: Friday afternoon is the best moment to plan the week ahead.