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Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)

bbc.com

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Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)

#61

Post by rimliu »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #44
anonytrary wrote: post #16

Silicon Valley is backwards in this regard. There's this mentality of always being busy; I can't help but feel it is a ruse for extroverts to flash their social proof at each other. In Silicon Valley, people always want to seem busier than they actually are, and people who are not busy are seen as inferior. The next time someone asks if you're working on a side project, say "no". Carefully notice how their interest q…

It isn't specific to Silicon Valley, people are like it round the world.

But mostly in places that try hard to imitate SV.

Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)

#62

Post by nswest23 »

_hao wrote: post #52

I recently started reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and this is one of the points highlighted in the book. I'd recommend it (even though I haven't finished it yet). I'm trying to be mindful during my day and I walk to and from work every day which is around 9km total. The beneficial effects (on attention, memory etc.) are twofold. In the morning it wakes me up and by the time I'm in the office I'm ready to dive int…

I started that book but never finished it. I got about half way thru and quit b/c I never found anything that revolutionary. A lot of it seemed to be rehashing studies that other people did.

The gist of it seemed to be: if you need to do work that is mentally challenging, block off large chunks of time to do that work b/c interruptions are more disruptive that you think they are.

It would make a good blog post and I'm sure there are hundreds of them on the topic but I don't get why it needs to be a book other than he convinced someone to publish it for him.

Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)

#63

Post by zitterbewegung »

pbourke wrote: post #35
zitterbewegung wrote: post #5

After some long nights either performing work tasks or going to local meetups I try to take a nap on the train when I commute back to work. Sometimes during my breaks I do some breathing exercises using my Apple Watch. But, now that I am using meal replacements the actual time that I take to eat lunch and or breakfast goes from 15 minutes to nearly 1-5 minutes which I spend preparing the meal replacement and ingestin…

I honestly can’t tell whether this is satire.

This isn't satire... :(

Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)

#65

Post by _hao »

nswest23 wrote: post #62
_hao wrote: post #52

I recently started reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and this is one of the points highlighted in the book. I'd recommend it (even though I haven't finished it yet). I'm trying to be mindful during my day and I walk to and from work every day which is around 9km total. The beneficial effects (on attention, memory etc.) are twofold. In the morning it wakes me up and by the time I'm in the office I'm ready to dive int…

I started that book but never finished it. I got about half way thru and quit b/c I never found anything that revolutionary. A lot of it seemed to be rehashing studies that other people did. The gist of it seemed to be: if you need to do work that is mentally challenging, block off large chunks of time to do that work b/c interruptions are more disruptive that you think they are. It would make a good blog post and I'…

I see your point and I agree - the book is not groundbreaking or revolutionary. Me walking to work is something I've done for a couple of years and not an idea I discovered because of the book.

With that said I think it's a well written and researched piece. I'll finish it because even though I'm already using some of the techniques provided inside, it's good to reinforce the things you know but it's also good to see things from another perspective. Like for example I've never really given thought to the monastic or bi-modal style of deep work although they are reality for a lot of people. Small things like that are valuable (at least to me).

Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)

#66

Post by pete762 »

fyfy18 wrote: post #24
jklinger410 wrote: post #18

Using this to excuse my 6+ hour Cities Skylines binge on a Sunday.

Have there been any studies on the effects of stress by playing computer games? Maybe it's the type of games I play, but I often find I feel more stressed after playing computer games.

Yes, it's basically congruent with what the BBC article mentions. Being immersed into a video game leads to less memory formation of what happened beforehand. This can be used in trauma prevention etc.: https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201723
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