The more books I read (Brain Rules, Predictably Irrational and Freakonomics to name a few recent ones) and the more I write on this blog, the more I come across ideas and concepts that go against the conventional advice dished out by businesses, schools and the media in general. This is in some ways alarming. Millions of people are born, grow up and lives their lives based on traditional ideas that are sometimes outdated, occasionally misleading and often contradictory to scientific research and logic. Is it any wonder that we are generally less happy, less well off and often in careers we hate nowadays? Below I’ve detailed four concepts where, when it comes to being productive organized and just generally living stress-free, the world has got it badly wrong. Can you think of any others?

Our brains can cope
We don’t know very much about the brain at all. Just ask any neuroscientist. We know it’s powerful – more so than any other species on the planet – but as a result it’s easy to take for granted just how much it can cope with, how much information it can take in and how much stress it can handle. Wondering why you have an headache? Trying to do your homework while listening to music, checking your Facebook page and texting your friends may have something to do with it. The brain does have limits so be aware of the stresses you’re putting it under.

Everything is balanced
It’s easy, perhaps comforting, to assume that everything in the world is harmoniously split down the middle and that everything is black and white. On the one hand you can assume that all customers are equally valuable and that every task serves a purpose. On the other hand you can assume that the number of great, good and bad films are all equally split or that the difference between the number of highly successful staff and average staff is roughly balanced. The world always finds it equilibrium.

But a little analysis goes a long way and as the 80/20 rule demonstrates, the world is anything but balanced, in fact it’s often predictably unbalanced to rather extreme lengths. A very small percentage of your customers bring in the majority of profits, a number of staff make the most sales, most of the value in your life comes from a just a few activities, etc. Instead of inefficiently spreading our time, energy and attention over a wide area should we not be focusing it on the stuff that really makes a difference?

There’s never enough time
Time management. It seems everybody is at it nowadays trying to squeeze more out of their time and constantly looking for ways to add a few extra minutes into their day. We want more time to do stuff, more time to be able to get things done, more time to be able to do a good job, be with our family, enjoy ourselves and indulge in hobbies and interests. But every time we make more time we always seem to fill it with the same old stuff. It’s like trying to dig a hole in the sand when the tide is coming in (read my post on time wasting for a better understanding).

According to Parkinson’s law we’re coming at it the wrong way. Work expands to fill the time available to it. When time is tight or you have a short deadline, you’re focused to focus on the essentials. When you’ve given a week to do a job that should take a day, it suddenly becomes a BIG DEAL!!! We can’t make more time for ourselves – there will always be only 24 hours in the day. However we can do our work in much less time than we often think.

We can multitask
It’s a fact that humans cannot multitask. When it comes to attention rich activity like reading a book with the TV on in the background, or talking on the phone while driving, you’re brain is constantly having to flick attention back and forth. Imagine that there are two rooms next to each other, each containing an activity that both need doing at the same time. You have to keep dashing between the two rooms closing and opening the doors as you go. This is essentially how multitasking works in the brain. With all the door closing and rushing between rooms, that’s a lot of wasted energy. Why then, are businesses so obsessed with it?!

Today is the third annual Blog Action Day, a great event where thousands of bloggers (just under 7000 at the time of typing this) all write about one particular topic of concern. This year it’s about climate change, a particularly apt subject given how world leaders will gather in two months time to hopefully finalize a global deal on the issue. I like to get involved in this event  and have done so for the previous two years (be sure to read my posts for 2008 and 2007). This year is no exception. However this time it took me a while to figure out what exactly to write about. After all, climate change is a huge, complicated topic. Now that the politicians, companies and the media have jumped all over it, there is so much information, facts, tips and advice out there that it’s hard to know where to start. But starting is what we all have to do, and that’s what this post is about.

So where do you begin exactly? People tell you to ditch your cars and get a bike, grow your own vegetables, recycle your waste, etc. but that’s easier said than done. The fact of the matter is driving to work, buying veggies from the supermarket and just chunking stuff in the bin is vastly more convenient and it’s led to a populace with an environmentally unfriendly lifestyle.

What’s more, being told that you need to sell your car, stop traveling by plane and purchase a bunch of eco friendly appliances only discourages people further and is often too expensive for the average person to do. You’re not going to change the world overnight by asking millions of people to make radical changes to the way they all function and live their lives.

The urgency of the situation often makes us think we need to take big action NOW! But that can cloud us from taking a more well thought out, long-term strategy. Big actions, though well intentioned, often fall at the first hurdle. That’s why we as individuals need to start small. Turning the lights off when you leave the room is a simple, minor gesture and it certainly won’t change the planet. But it’s all about the cumulative effect. One person does it and the only difference will be to their electricity bill (which in itself is a positive thing). But what about a thousand people? A million? What about if all those businesses turned off the lights when they closed at night? What about if the entire population of your country got involved? Now turning your lights off becomes a big deal.

And then you start throwing in other little gestures like taking your bottles to the recycle bin once a week when you go to the supermarket (most supermarkets have recycling areas nowadays), wearing an extra jumper instead of turning the heat up or only boiling enough water in the kettle for your needs. Suddenly that all important carbon footprint of yours starts to drop from all these little efforts combined. Now times that by the millions of people doing likewise…

Doing something drastic like swapping your car for a bike is well intentioned but most people don’t or can’t do it because it’s like jumping in at the deep end. While there is a need for change, when you’re used to living in a particular way trying to change those habits of a lifetime is no easy feat (try asking a smoker who tries to quit by going cold turkey). Rather like how we have to create energy sources that are sustainable, we also have to create habits that are sustainable too. That’s why taking small steps regularly over a prolonged period of time is the key to developing an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Junk food is bad for us, that much is certainly obvious. As obesity rates continue to rise it’s becoming more of an issue. But the real problem comes from regular consumption of junk food at the expense of healthier options. Having takeaway pizzas several times a week is naturally going to mess you up over time, and it’s not just because of all the fat and junk in that sort of food. If you’re not eating healthy then you can only be eating crap. In effect we put our bodies through a grueling diet without giving anything back.

But let’s be realistic. Junk food can be really nice, otherwise we wouldn’t salivate over the sight of a big, greasy burger or get hunger pangs when we smell fish and chips (if you live on the coast like me you’ll no doubt appreciate that one). It would be silly to try and completely cut it them from our diet – you’re only feel extra bad when after several weeks of eating good you finally cave and order a kebab.

The trick is to find a good balance between the two. Eating healthy options most of the time will compensate for the occasional treat to McDonalds, for instance. And that’s all junk food should be if it’s to remain a harmless indulgence. The problem comes when junk food stops being a treat and takes over from healthy eating.

But why does it take over so easily? Junk food has several qualities that make it ideal for the modern lifestyle – it’s quick, it’s easy and it’s cheap. When you’ve spent all your day rushing around putting out a bunch of fires at work, all you’re going to want to do is throw a ready meal in the microwave and relax in front of the TV. This makes achieving that healthy habit – getting the right balance – a particularly difficult challenge.

This is why you need to tread lightly and take small steps in adjusting your eating habits. Trying to alter your main meals, like dinner or even lunch, is going to take a lot of willpower and planning for obvious reasons. But adjusting your breakfast (typically the simplest meal of the day)  and snacks especially, is far easier.

Try gradually replacing that chocolate bar with a banana or apple, that can of coke with a bottle of water, those Coco Pops with Fruit ‘n Fibre. Making these sort of changes over time is easy becuause they’re not such a big shift from what you eat that you’ll have difficult adjusting, but they will have a big cumulative effect on your diet and you’ll have created a strong foundation for future adjustments.

• Try sleeping when you’re actually tired
  This one isn’t as obvious as you might think. I’ve known many people go to bed when they actually aren’t tired. There are numerous reasons for this – they’re worried about getting enough sleep, they think they should be in bed at a particular time… but a pre-requisite for sleep is actually feeling sleepy in the first place. And if you’re not tired? Your mind will wonder, you’ll get restless and you’ll end up even more alert than you were before.
• Tiredness? It’s no big deal
  Yes, a good night’s sleep is very important, we all know that. It helps to keep you happy, balanced and healthy. However, we’ve become so focused on making sure we get our regular eight hours sleep every night that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that having a few hours less every so often won’t actually hurt you. You might have to occasionally struggle through a work or school day keeping your eyes open during meetings and lessons, but so what? Next time you stagger home at 2AM and stress out because you’ve got to be up in five hours time, remind yourself that you can and will cope.
• Are you a night owl or early bird?
  Do you feel better after going to bed early and rising early? Or do you feel better sleeping later? It does make a difference. Today’s business world discriminates against the night owl (though that is slowly changing) but where possible tailor your lifestyle to suit your sleeping patterns.
• Have a (rough) sleeping routine
  I’m not talking about strictly going to bed and waking up at particular times, that was already dismissed in the first tip. However, some routine is very useful. If you regularly sleep and wake up at a particular time (give or take an hour) your body is going to get used to it and will be more receptive to some shut eye when your head finally hits the pillow. But of course if you’re up early for work during the week and then stay up late during the weekends that’s going to throw your whole routine out of whack, making it harder to sleep come Monday.

A lot of research out there suggests that the degrees of happiness to be gained from the amount of money you have drops dramatically once you have enough to cover your basic needs. In other words, if I’m making enough money to live on and if all other factors are balanced, I’ll be a lot happier than the person in crippling debt but not much less happier than the person who is making twice as much as me.

There are few more stressful worries than whether or not you can pay the bills at the end of the month, where the money for your next meal is going to come from or how you’re going to keep a roof over your head. But once you’ve got those bases covered what’s next? The number of worries that can be fixed through financial means (certainly for the comparatively small amount basic needs can be met) drops off significantly.

And this is where things turn upside down – more money can actually bring a different set of worries. If you can afford to buy a house, that brings the additional strain of having to pay a mortgage. Similarly, if you have enough money to put your children into a good school, that’s another large expense you could be lumbered with for over a decade.

Of course, this is not to say that you should just stay in a low-end job to cover your basic needs, forget the dreams of having your own home or drop the desire to give your kids a good education. But it does demonstrate that associating money with fixing all the worries and problems in your life isn’t necessarily the right thing to do – as much as the marketing industry would like you to think otherwise. We all hate it when rich celebratories, musicians and actors moan about their lives but if we put aside the money-envy for a moment, it does show that an healthy bank balance brings it’s own share of worries and problems.

I’ve only read a couple of chapters so far but already something struck me that I could relate to, and it inspired me to write this post. As the book notes, the latest research on consumerism, materialism and the search for ever greater wealth has proved that it does not automatically translate into greater happiness and wellbeing (in other words, money doesn’t buy you happiness). Yet, this is what huge swathes of Western society in particular have based their entire life ethos on.

Research has also further shown that once you’re making enough money to cover your basic needs, the happiness gains from increasing amounts of cash drop off significantly. In other words, once you’ve made enough money to pay the bills each month, have a roof over your head and buy the groceries each week, to feel further significant contentment in your life from consumerism, you need to work much harder, put in more hours and expose yourself to further stress and responsibilities.

And that’s where things fall apart. Working your ass off for longer hours isn’t really my idea of fun, regardless of how much extra it puts in the bank account. Sure I can buy a new car, a bigger TV or another game for my Xbox but the problem with consuming for happiness is that the novelty wears off. It”s called lifestyle inflation. I might enjoy the buzz of speeding around in my new sports car now, but I will get used to it, it will become as normal as driving an Honda or Ford was back when I was a student, and then what? An even more expensive car? It’s not quite drug addiction but the symptoms are similar.

Consistent levels of happiness have been shown to come from such things as relationships, health, meaningful work and indulging in hobbies and interests. But if you’re working all the time in the pursuit of a big payday you’re going to have neither the time or the motivation to pursue any of that. It’s very much a case of putting your energies into the wrong things.

I think the reason this whole idea really struck with me is that I myself don’t work full time hours. One of the benefits of that is I’m rarely worn out or stressed out when I get home everyday, but I do have the time and energy to indulge in this blog and my writing… and I can genuingly enjoy those interests day in and day out. As the book states, when you’re not spending your wages on the latest gadget or tangible product, you’re reducing your dependence on those wages, which in turn means you don’t need to work as hard or as often. And when you stop working and stop spending you can start living.

One of my favorite shows ever has to be House. Such is my love for the man that is Gregory House M.D. that when the fifth series finally started here in the UK last week, I went all fanboy-ish. Last year I wrote four life lesson you could learn from him. Unlike certain new shows that shall remain nameless, he doesn’t come across as (almost) flawless. On top of liking his painkillers, being anti-social and arrogant, he also gets it wrong more often than not. It’s easy to forget this fact, but in the process of curing his patients every week, he probably mis-diagnoses a good 90% of the time. But he’s not afraid to do it.

In contrast to this, House is surrounded by collegues who will often hold back on their diagnosis because they are unwilling to take any risks, or they want to wait for some magical fact to appear that validates them. Essentially they don’t want to make a mistake, but by taking that approach they rule nothing out and they learn nothing new. In essense, they don’t move forward.

On Monday I gave my guide to productively dealing with mistakes. Let’s not forget that mistakes are normal and many famous people throughout the years have stated that they learn the most from their mistakes (“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”). Yet, all too often we try and avoid them. Businesses nowadays are so scared of their employees making mistakes that if you make one, a quick trip to the office complete with warnings and threat will quickly follow. And then what are the consequences for a company’s mindset? House may be fictional but there is a good lesson to be learned here.

House is all about getting the information, getting the facts, proving stuff and ruling things out. He questions everything, systematically and logically. Why is a patient lying about having an affair? How would a tumor explain these symptoms? Try applying that to your own life and, most importantly, how you view the world. Be confident to state your ideas, voice your opinions and try new ideas. You won’t always get it right, but what you do learn will be invaluable.

• Identify your position
  Ok, you’ve made a mistake but how serious is it? How much of it are you responsible for? This is not an excuse to shift blame or deny everything (though I’m not here to start preaching morals at you), but it is important that you gain a clear perspective on your mistakes. Most mishaps are rarely as bad as you imagine them to be.
• Take a positive attitude (if needed)
  Screwing up can be embarrassing, painful and really hurt your confidence. A bit of self-pity isn’t necessarily a bad thing from time to time, but if it starts to affect how you function, it’s a big problem. Remind yourself that we all make mistakes and if you need to, following my three steps for controlling negative self-talk.
• Plan how to resolve it
  Ok, you’ve made a mistake, you’ve accepted it and you’re not going to let it upset you. Now, how are you going to resolve it and move on? What steps do you need to take? Where appropriate, who do you need to apologize to and if necessary, whose ass do you have to kiss?
• Learn from it
  Whether it be in work or in your personal life, making the same mistake over and over is a big no-no. Of course in the former case, you’ll likely get shouted at by your boss (or worse). In your personal life, the consequences aren’t often so clear. Whether you’ve got into debt on your credit cards again or yet another relationship has ended badly, learn the lessons so you don’t make the same mistakes again.
• Don’t dwell on it
  Don’t turn mistakes into more of a negative experience than they need to be. Resolve it, learn from it and move on. It’s that simple. There is absolutely no justification for wasting more energy on something than you need to (and this goes for partners and bosses who keep reminding you of your mistakes weeks or months after the fact too).

There’s no getting away from it. More and more people are getting into social media, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter or Digg (after much reluctance some years ago even I finally got into it). However, people spend so much time on these sites that it can be a massive time vacuum. There are so many distractions and addictions on a site like Facebook nowadays that it’s easy to lose control of how you use it. Considering I’m kinda into the productivity thing, I just couldn’t allow myself to fall into that trap and I took measures to make sure I was the one in control and those are covered below. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

• Have a clear purpose
  Identify what you want to achieve from your social media experience. You might want to keep in contact with your friends, promote your blog or create work contacts. I see many people spend hours idling on Facebook, browsing through profiles, reading all those status updates, joining groups and adding apps. It’s not because it serves a purpose, it’s merely to pass the time. Don’t allow your social media experience to be a time vacuum. Identify what you really want to get out of it and act accordingly.
• Identify where the value is…
  I used to be on nearly ten different social media sites. Digg, Mixx, Stumbleupon, Friendfeed… turns out I was wasting my time with most of them. Digging a bunch of articles is all well and good but for what gain? Now, I pretty much focus just on Twitter. There are lots of people to engage with and I get to promote my blog at the same time.
• And provide value yourself
  The bulk of social media usage is a waste of time. There, I’ve said it. Putting up every photo from your phone is wasted time. Tweeting every little thought you have is pointless. And don’t get me started on Facebook status updates. Cut out the irrelevance and do only those activities that have meaning, value and worth and you will save a huge amount of time. Share interesting links, tweet thought provoking ideas, etc.
• Make a date
  Currently, I only focus on social media once a week. I put aside an hour or so and do what I need to do (you may set different limits). Catch up on replies, submit interesting posts, leave a few comments. During the rest of the week, rather than tweeting randomly as an idea comes to me, I write it down and save it for my social media day. This means I can focus on what I’m doing and get it off my radar, rather than dipping in and out everyday.

• Financial situation
  If you don’t have lots of money or you are burdened by debts, trying to increase your earnings is naturally going to be a high priority. In fact if you want to achieve any higher level of living, creating the income to achieve it is going to be of importance. Though of course, when cash is pouring in and you can afford to go on regular holidays and buy a Ferrari, worries about how you’re going to pay your credit card bill or where the next meal is coming from rapidly disappear.
• Family/relationships
  If you’re a single person with no family or partner to consider you’re naturally going to have different priorities to a mother who puts her husband and children first above anything else. If you don’t prioritize them first, you can expect a broken marriage and unhappy children. Of course, a person looking for a relationship is going to want different things than somebody in the tenth year of their marriage.
• Age
  I’m not keen on pigeonholing people into different age brackets, but it’s very apparent that as we get older our priorities shift. An eighteen year old, with the whole of his life ahead of him, is more likely to think short-term and enjoy himself with parties and socializing. However a sixty year old is likely to be thinking about retirement, his health and how he can secure a future for his grandchildren.
• Work and career
  More and more people nowadays are motivated by their career but are you one of them? A part-time job in retail packing shelves may not pay well but if it gives you enough money to enjoy yourself at the weekend then that’s all you need. But if you are in a  high pressure job where you manage entire departments, you’ve going to have entire different motivations. Business success, creating an effective team and developing your selling skills may all be deemed important.
• Health
  Health and fitness is becoming such a big issue now as we become more aware of how our lifestyles affect us and what diseases we can be inflicted by if we choose not to exercise and eat well. Somebody who smokes and drinks everyday is likely to have an whole different perspective on his health than somebody who goes to the gym three times a week and enjoys an healthy salad for lunch.
• Happiness
  Do we sacrifice our own happiness to keep somebody else happy, or do we put our enjoyment before anything else, ignoring others concerns and feelings? A seventy year old grandmother is more likely to consider the happiness of her children and grandchilden by providing financial aid, than keeping it to herself for a rainy day. We all want to be happy but what would you have to do to achieve it?