These 7 Simple Stress Busters Will Lower Your Cholesterol And Reduce The Risk Of Heart Disease

Do you check food labels before you buy or eat something? Are you concerned about your cholesterol, the amount of sodium you eat, the fat content of your favourite food and snacks? 

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, heart specialists are claiming that stress plays more of a factor in raising cholesterol levels than many people would think. 

Do you not find that to be a sick irony? That our world is moving more rapidly, bosses are demanding results faster and cheaper, media is pushing out more information than we can keep up with, robots are poised to take our jobs--and yet we're learning more about the impact of stress on our bodies? What are we supposed to do when our world is pushing us faster and harder than any generation that has ever existed? What are we to do? 

It's a very difficult thing to consider, for we are rewarded for moving fast, multi-tasking, taking on more projects, launching yet another enterprise, pushing our workers harder, demanding results, outsourcing everything including our meals, rushing here and there... We rush, push, demand, and reap the rewards--or do we? And what really is a reward? Is not health greater than money? Some might say, perhaps, that without money one can't enjoy one's health as much--a load of bunk, if you ask me.

So let's look at some simple tips for reducing stress in your life and thus reaping the health benefits of lower cholesterol, among other things:

1. Slow down: No, really. It's important. You've just got to try to do it. Do you really need to rush everywhere you go? Do you really need to get your heart rate up just to leave the house for the store? Do you really need to cram a million things into your day? No--probably not. Slowing down is critical for releasing stress.

2. Be present: Live in the moment, not in the next deadline, task, or project. If you find your mind and body racing, it's good to stop, breathe, and look around you. Look at how you're feeling. Is your heart racing? Is your head pounding? Are you living in the future or in the now? 

3. Pause: Take a time-out and sit down without any distractions. Find a place outside to sit down, whether a park bench or otherwise. Breathe. Feel the air. Look around you. Let your mind rest. 

4. Avoid distractions: Our mobile devices have the illusion of immediacy, especially when they're blinging away with every notification imaginable. Is it really important? Must you really respond to every email, every text, every FB message within seconds of getting it? Put the phone away, put it on airplane mode, leave it at home--yes, leave it at home--and rid yourself of it for a while. 

5. Walk: You don't need to hit the YMCA 4 times a week to stay healthy--a simple daily walk will do. Walking is amazing for increasing your heart rate, getting oxygen up into your brain, and putting your brain on hold. Many thinkers, as I've written before, swear by their walks for their ability to release the mind from a difficult task allowing breakthrough ideas to come. Try one. 

6. Be grateful: Approaching life with thanksgiving is very important. How many times do we feel we somehow deserve more than we have? How many times do we let our children pass us, or food cross our lips, or the warm house door open without even realizing how fortunate you are? Being grateful, having a heart of thanksgiving, is vital for reducing stress. Try it. When you curse your job, stop and think what it would be like if you were suddenly fired. When your house seems too small, think about how it would feel to have nowhere to live. When your children are driving you crazy, think about how you would feel if anything happened to them. When you fail at a task or don't get what you want or get passed up on that promotion, think about what you would do if you were given only 48 hours to live.

7. Forgive: This is a big one, though some might think it's all too subtle. When someone does you wrong, your stress levels surge--unless you are able to forgive. There are so many health ramifications that arise from a lack of forgiveness. When people hurt us, when we feel wronged, anger and bitterness can fester like an open wound; and that wound can lie open for years and spread through our bodies and minds and hearts in debilitating ways. Have you ever met someone who can't forgive? Have you ever met someone who learned about the power of forgiveness and whose health improved? I have--and it's wonderful. 

The world surges, and our stress surges with it. But the story doesn't have to end there; we can do something about it. The simple tips above will help you today begin the process of reducing your stress, thus lowering your cholesterol, and, consequently, improving the health of your heart. Sounds good, doesn't it. 

Looking For A Cure For Death? Cryonics Could Be Your Solution--But Do You Really Want Your Brain In A Vat?

If you were about to die, and were given the option of freezing yourself to be resuscitated at an unknown future time, would you do it? 

Cryonics: (from Greek κρύος 'kryos-' meaning 'cold') is the low-temperature preservation of animals and humans who cannot be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future.  According to Wikipedia, this process has been around since the 1950s, and involves freezing the body, typically with liquid nitrogen, in the confidence that technology will reach a point at which the body can be resuscitated and the life extended indefinitely. 

Isn't this what Han Solo underwent in the Empire Strikes Back? Isn't this the stuff of Star Wars fantasies? 

Well...

One of the themes of this blog is emergent technology, whether bio or nano or info or genetic. And a sub theme is that modern science and technology are moving closer to making what was once considered mere science fiction a reality. In fact, there are some scientists who claim that science, when at its best, is tantamount to magic. 

Think this is merely the stuff of science fiction? Get this report from the BBC: in October 2015, a two-year old Tai girl became the youngest human to be cryogenically frozen. The procedure was completed just moments after her death in an effort to preserve her brain as much as possible in hopes that one day in the future she'll be brought to life. 

Immortality Quest is a competition that brings the worlds top scientists together to vie for a $100,000 prize. The challenge? Here it is, according to Discovery News:

[Starting with an effective animal model] rigorously demonstrate a surgical technique that can completely — and inexpensively — preserve a whole human brain for more than 100 years in a way that keeps neuronal processes and synaptic connections intact. Plus, you must use current electron microscopic imaging techniques.

Sounds like a piece of cake, right? 

According to the article, two groups have submitted their solutions, one of which--a company out of California called 21st Century Medicine--involves cryogenically preserving the brain through a fixative agent and soaking it in a chemical solution that prevents ice formation. They claim to have succeeded at such a procedure with mice. 

Another solution is a more infotech approach: uploading the human brain to a server and preserving one's memories that way. Some claim that such technology is at least a century away; however, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil unflaggingly holds that such technology will emerge over the next 10 years. 

What are the ramifications of such a procedure? Would you enter a cryogenic process in the hopes of one day being resuscitated? The question always is, what would you be resuscitated to: like Rip Van Winkle, you'd be waking up to a world you'd barely recognize. Ray Kurzweil in fact shares this concern--at least in a 2002 interview with Wired Magazine:

It is a scary prospect. My biggest concern is the loss of control — the possibility that the reanimation would be done prematurely. So you'd wake up but you'd really be in an impaired state, like locked-in syndrome. There's a profound loss of control. I mean I have enough trouble looking after my interests when I'm alive and kicking. To look after your interests when you're not only frozen in a vat of liquid nitrogen, but don't even have legal status as a person….

That's a big concern: being resuscitated too early, and being stuck in some limbo state or, worse yet, dead. 

Can technology pull such resuscitations off? There's a part of me that believes it can; a part of me that believes science, when taken to its highest state of art, can mimic magic--whether it's wise or beneficial is a different conversation.

So, are you ready to have your brain stored in a vat of liquid nitrogen?

Travelling And Worried About The Zika Virus? These Tips Will Keep You Covered

The Zika virus is becoming an emergent global issue. How it is contracted is becoming more of a concern as health officials are stumbling to get their heads around a virus that threatens to spread to every country on the planet. 

One recent report from the CBC claims that the carrier mosquitos of the virus cannot exist in the cold Canadian climate; nevertheless, officials have put in effect a 21-day donation ban on travellers from infected countries. And a BBC News report claims that a US infection was transferred through sex, not a mosquito: the person infected had not been to an infected country, but his partner had returned from Venezuela. The big issue with Zika of course is it has been linked to thousands of babies born with shrunken brains. The US is currently bracing itself for what the World Health Organization has called a "pandemic in process," as the virus has spread, thus far, to 20 countries.

So let's say you've got a business trip coming up, or a vacation planned to one of the countries that you just can't back out of? Here are some tips:

1. Check the Pan American Health Organization: If you're unclear about whether your destination is infected, check out the PAHO website for ongoing updates. 

2. If you're pregnant, travel is not recommended: Given that the virus is impacts babies in utero, pregnant women are advised to reconsider their plans. In fact, thus far only pregnant women have been advised to reconsider travel plans. If you are pregnant and choose to travel, it will be important to avoid being bitten by mosquitos at all cost. 

3. Avoid being bitten: There are some simple ways to accomplish this: 

• Cover up with long sleeves and pants
• Use insect repellents, particularly those with DEET or picaridin
• Apply sunscreen before applying insect repellent
• Keep doors and windows closed, and use the air conditioning

4. For men: We don't know yet the extent to which the virus is spread through intercourse, but it is advised that men returning from such countries use condoms if your spouse or partner is pregnant or might become pregnant. This should be done for 28 days after returning home if you are not infected and 6 months if you notice symptoms.

5. Take certain remedies, avoid others: If you are infected, there are various remedies safe to take:

• Acetaminophen or paracetamol, to relieve fever and pain
• Do NOT take aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen
• Rest and plenty of liquids
• Avoid further mosquito bites through repellent, etc.

These 10 Reasons For Avoiding The TV Will Change Your Life

I've written a bit over the past week on productivity, personal success, becoming a life long learner, and even about using art and design practices. 

This is a topic whose subject is a tension for me--it's something I'm both drawn to and repelled by, and it is so pervasive that to attempt to remove it from one's life is like going without food or shopping: that subject is TV. It's in almost every home, it's on almost ever hour, and it consumes almost everyone's attention. 

And this is precisely the reason why it should be, at least for a time, removed from your life.

Now I know this is highly contentious and may even sound sanctimonious, but if you want to live a life of productivity and ideas and learning and art and creativity, then you should read on. 

Here are a few reasons why you should seek to watch less and less TV:

1. Wastes time: TV is like 21st Century opium. Indeed Marx famously claimed that religion is the opium of the people, but that was before TV. How much time can you spend just sitting there watching show after show drift by for hours and days on end. It's so relaxing in your comfy pants and couch, slucking your favourite bevy and munching on every kind of carbohydrate imaginable... So many things you could be doing--if you could just turn it off. Not so easy.

2. Shuts down conversation: I like to think I can watch TV and have conversation at the same time, but it's hard to truly listen to someone when my eyes are drawn to all those vibrant megapixels and silky voices. Even when the actors or anchors are saying nothing at all, it's for some reason more captivating than the person next to me... 

3. No voice: When you watch TV, you have no voice, for even when you're watching something funny, it laughs for you. You are unnecessary. When you watch an event take place across the world--all 24 hours of footage--you can't do anything about it. When you watch commenters give a point of view contrary to yours, you cannot address them, except at the screen. 

4. Bio-scrambling: There's more data coming out showing the disastrous effects of TV on children's brains particularly. There was a network in Japan that ran a show whose scenes shifted every 1.5 seconds. When it realized the viewer ratings correlated to the speed of scene-changes, they shifted it to every second--reports came in of children going in literal seizures. Their brains are so malleable; the neural pathways are just forming, and TV can scramble them up. Best to keep them away from the screen and have them play.

5. Those who are on TV don't have them: There are countless actors and producers and entrepreneurs who may be on the TV screen but don't own one. How does this make sense? Wouldn't they be the first to sing their praises? Nope. It's probably because while you're sitting there watching them, they're out getting more work or auditioning for another part, or researching another role. What about the internet or computers or iPads and iPhones? Well, George Lucas claims he has been hiding from the internet since 2000, and Steve Jobs wouldn't let his kids use iPads. Makes you kinda think, doesn't it? 

6. So many better things to do: Think of all the amazing books sitting around your house you haven't read, or those glutting the shelves of your public library. Think of your family with whom you can hang out or go on an outing or read to, draw with, talk to. 

7. Stress: How much good is on TV? Conflict sells. So much of what is being broadcasted on TV is conflict-ridden; it shows more bad news than good; it reveals the worst of human beings rather than their best; it pits people against each other; it raises the hairs on backs with doomsday predictions; it shows suffering and exploitation and oppression and hatred. What does that do to your mind? How does that bring peace and joy to your life? I'm not saying there's nothing good on TV--no. What I'm saying is the majority of it is conflictive in nature primarily because it's interesting and thus keeps people's attention. 

8. Malleability: Humans are highly suggestive. It's probably in our genetic make-up to learn from others and adapt to behaviour that will get us farther ahead in life--but there's an underbelly to that: we can model even those behaviours we find, under normal circumstances, deplorable. There was a study I read once that showed people talking and acting like their favourite Friends characters up to several hours after watching an episode. How much of your thinking is manufactured in such a way? How much of your opinions are shaped by what you are watching? How much of what comes from your mouth is a repeat of cliches and slangs and faulty logic you've watched on television? Think about it. 

9. Change your habits: When you're watching TV you're zoned out; you're often so drawn into the show that you're hardly thinking. One of the great scholars in the field of creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, claims that you're using the same level of creativity while watching TV as you would while using the bathroom--no joke! Instead of watching TV, begin changing your habits: incorporate a book per week and learn the art of reading; spend more quality time with your family; begin to incorporate the habits of successful people and the ways to think like a designer; make goals lists and try to accomplish all of them. You'll be a different person when you turn off, and tune in, and return to, life. 

10. TVs are getting 'smarter': TVs are becoming smart TVs, which means they are equipped with surveillance technology that records what you watch and even video records you while you're watching it. And where does that data go? The manufacturer. And what does the manufacturer do with that data? Whatever makes it more money. With smart TVs, there is no such thing as privacy. 

10 Simple Tips For An Efficient Week-End Get-Away

Taking a week-end get-away? Here are the simplest tips to prepare for it.

1. Pack lightly: You don't have to pack your entire wardrobe or library of books or large computer screen--just the bare minimum. Take a single pair of jeans you can wear all week-end. A couple of shirts, maybe a sweater, a change of undergarments per day. Some toiletries. Voila--vacation time!

2. Eat before you leave: Nothing worse than getting on the road and the kids are hungry. Eat before you leave, and take a few snacks in the car with you to munch on. 

3. The logic of #2 applies to...well...#2: Use the bathroom before you leave. If you have kids, make sure they've all gone too--especially the little ones who can slip through legs and make it out to the car or van before anyone else. 

4. No stopping: Whoever said It's all about the journey is lying. You want to get to your destination in as little as time as possible--maybe even break your previous record. So with full bellies and empty bladders, simply state to your occupants your main objective and punctuate it with this fundamental rule: No stopping until we get there.

5. Drive safely: You may not like speed limits but you've got your contingency "No stopping" rule. It's important to drive as if you have all the time in the world: you'll get to your destination safer and less bedraggled than you would swerving in and out of cars like a maniac. 

6. If you have to stop, stop once: So there are always exceptions to a rule, and a kid screaming in the back that he has to go pee means abandoning rule #4 and stopping somewhere. The best place to pull over is a) the closest one, and b) the place where you can take car of the most needs at once: you or your partner need a coffee? The kids need another snack? You need some napkins to wipe up spills in the back? A place like Tim Hortons will meet those needs and more.

7. Don't stop at the first gas pump you see: It's a habit: get gas in town. But how many times are you driving down a two-lane highway off the 401 and see gas 5 to 10 cents cheaper? If you don't really need gas before you leave, best to wait until you get a little farther out and take advantage of the gas saving.

8. Pack warm stuff: Even if you plan to stay at a hotel resort for the weekend, it's always good to pack your big boots and gloves and hat during the winter months, in the event you have to pull over on the side of the road, or need a boost. 

9. Pack your survival kit: Make sure you've got jumper cables, extra windshield wiper fluid, and a multi-tool--for starters. You can have more gear on-hand, but those are the basics.

10. Audiobooks: Whether you have children or you're traveling with your partner, audiobooks are a great way to pass the time and learn something as well. It's easy to put the in-car TV on, but audiobooks for your kids are a much better way to stimulate the brain. 

Need A Big Idea Or Solution? 8 Ways To Think Like An Artist, Innovator, Or Designer

You've got a deadline--you're blocked. Nothing. 

What do you do? How do you get the new insight or idea you need to get the results demanded by your manager or boss? 

Getting past blocks is one of the most difficult things you can do. Often we are slaves to our own thinking. There's a fancy term for this: habituation. I call it autopilot. It's the state you're in when you operate from the same assumptions, ways of seeing, and beliefs you've always operated from. And it's those times when an answer or something crazy-new is right under your nose, but you can't see it. It's not unlike the famous violinist who draws thousands of fans for his concerts, but when he busked at a New York City subway station, no one even noticed him. 

Famous violinist Joshua Bell ignored by thousands

Artists and inventors and innovators of various sorts are able to deal with blocks better than most people. Is it because they're smarter, or 'more creative'? No. It's that the nature of their work demands they work through blocks all the time, from which they've developed their own habituation, only it's habituation toward the right solution. Here are some tips:

1. Come up with 5 new ideas daily: An adoring fan once approached the famous author Ernest Hemingway, and asked him how he wrote such amazing books. "Easy," he replied. "Easy?" queried the fan. "Yes, easy," continued Hemingway, "I get up in the morning and I write and write and write. The next day I get up in the morning, and I write and write... See--easy." When you push yourself to come up with new ideas daily, you learn by doing. When the time comes for that deadline, you can either come up with a new idea, or take one you've already created, dust it off, give it a paint-job, and voila! 

2. Read books--not just a book: Reading has taken a bad rap from generations of grizzly teachers who have taught reading in only one style: one book at a time. That method is simply one among several. Another method is reading multiple books at a time, and allowing for the ideas to push and pull on themselves. If you want to come up with new ideas, you've got to read a lot--simply put. Start with the NY Times best-seller list and go from there. Look up book lists on the internet and copy them down. 

3. Keep a notebook: You've got to keep generating new ideas, and you won't be able to if you don't have a place to write them down. Also, your ideas form a repository or bank that you can withdraw from when necessary. 

4. Synectics: An intimidating term, but it's basically making the familiar strange and the strange familiar. If you need to create some kind of business solution, go study icebergs--or hamburgers--and project what you've learned onto your problem: "How is what I'm creating like an iceberg?" or vice versa. The key here is stimulating your brain to think outside its routines. If you want real success in this, get a bunch of people together, and have them each research something random that can be applied to what you're trying to create. Ask the question, How is what we're designing like the Amazon rainforest? 

5. Make your problem your solution: If you're stuck on a problem, maybe your stuck-ness is your solution in disguise. For instance, this blog post was written because I couldn't think about what to write. So I asked myself how I can generate new ideas, and voila! Your problem, phrased in a different question, may be the very thing you need to create. 

6. Free up headspace: Go for a walk; put on headphones and Bach fugues; go wandering around bookshops and street front stores--anything to get out of your problem and free up headspace. Bring your notebook and get ready to write down your ideas. They will come at the most inopportune times. Indeed, ideas tend to come when we've stepped away from our problem. Artists, inventors, scientists, and innovators really get this, which is why they may maintain strange near-bohemian schedules. 

7. Go to bed early or stay up late: If you're in a major funk and are a morning person, stay up really late over a few days; or, if you're a night person, get up really early. In both cases, you'll want to use that extra time for jotting down ideas and working on your problem. The shift in sleep pattern will pull you into a new way of thinking. And the next day, when you're wandering around work in near zombie state, you'll be in a perfect frame of mind for thinking outside of conventions and getting the ideas you need. 

8. Do something childish: Julia Cameron, famous for her book on creativity, talks about taking yourself on dates--that's right, dates. What do you do on those dates? Fun stuff that will spur new ideas: digging through a record store, wandering through an old bookstore, eating at your favourite restaurant or trying a new one; going to an art store and buying paints and brushes when you have no idea how to paint--that sort of thing. It's appealing to the child within. 

There are myriad ways to gain new ideas. The key is to a) work at generating them all the time, and b) break out of your old ways of doing things. One suggestion I read once was eating your egg differently several mornings in a row--just to break you out of your habituation. Who knows, it just might get you cracking...

7 Simple Tips For Being a Lifelong Learner In The 21st Century

We are living in an information age. Some maintain that information is doubling every 18 months, others every 12 months. In a previous post, we looked at the importance of enhancing skills and even gaining new knowledge under the brooding reality of robots taking 5 million jobs over the next 4 years. 

How do you educate yourself? How do you enhance your skills and, minimally, stay on top of the surge of information? 

Here are a few tips:

1. Attitude: Educating yourself is an attitude, a desire, a way of being. Its important to stay curious; to want to learn. As Socrates said, "A wise man admits he knows nothing."

2. Read: Are you a reader? If not, you will need to be. Reading enhances your brain activity in a much different way than watching televisual imagery--even audiobooks are better for the brain than movies. Reading will challenge your ideas and way of seeing the world. One book that is a must is "How to Read a Book," by Mortimer Adler and Charles VanDoren: it starts with the basics of reading and takes you through skill after skill until you are at the level of academic reading.

3. Good books: Now that you are reading, you need to figure out what to read. Classical educators will urge you to read the classics, books like Homer's Odyssey and Dante's Divine Comedy as a beginning. "How to Read a Book" will give you a list of the Western Canon: those books considered necessary reading for a solid education in western culture. But there are other lists too that take a simple Google search: "Best books on business," "Best books on design," "Best books on economics," "Best technology books in 2015"--get the picture? Once you have those lists, start to build your library. Do you like ebooks--check out a resource like Open Culture for hundreds of free e- and audiobooks.

4. Online Courses: There is a lot of information on hacking your education, from websites to courses, to websites like LifeHacker. An amazing resource is iTunes University from which you can take all kinds of university courses from top schools like Yale, Harvard, and Stanford. Download them to your mobile device, plug in your earbuds, and you can be learning 24/7. 

5. Notebook: This is a real art, and yet it's simple: buy a notebook, carry it around with you and jot down thoughts, quotes from books, notes from online courses, and overall observations. This is one of the most basic and powerful things you can do to educate yourself. There are people, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Buckminster Fuller, who were made famous simply for their notebook accumulated over decades. In fact, if you observe the practices of many famous people throughout history, they have carried and worked in notebooks. Now some might claim that putting your notes on your mobile phone is good enough--I disagree. Working in pen and pencil and paper is a kinesthetic  practice whose results in thinking and learning are different and arguably outweigh those of simply tapping your phone screen.

6. Dialogue: We learn when we are unhoused, when we're challenged by others' opinions. Joining a reading group, or starting one yourself, is a great way to enter into conversation with others. And when you have a conversation around a good book, or set of books, there's a richness to the conversation that enhances learning. You'll notice as well that good companies study good books among their employees and leadership.

7. You're never too old: Learning is something we're always doing, and always have been doing since we first entered the world as babies. You're never too old to pick up reading books you studied decades ago in college. You're never too old to pick up a new skill. You're never too old to buy a sketchbook and start drawing out and documenting your daily experiences. You're never too old to join a book club or study group or lecture series at your local university. One of my mentors at Stanford was highly acclaimed as a translator in Greek, and yet, even as a senior professor, was taking intro-level Greek to keep his basic skills polished.

According to Stephen Hawking And The World Economic Forum, Science And Technology Could Destroy Us

Science and technology are hot topics in the news lately: we have the leaders at Davos holding sessions on strategies to mitigate the risk of killer robots; and a hop, skip, and jump away from Switzerland, at the BBC Reith Lecture, we have Stephen Hawking claiming that, "The human race faces one its most dangerous centuries yet as progress in science and technology becomes an ever greater threat to our existence," as reported in the Guardian. For Hawking, we will not be able to colonize Mars for the next 100 years--presumably the amount of time it will take for the technology to catch up to human need--and hence we must be very careful during this time. 

But what does careful mean? And what about the robots? Will killer robots preempt the technological leap necessary to occupy Mars? According to the World Economic Forum, such robots are coming--soon. According to Stewart Russell, a computer science professor from Berkeley, technology from drones and self-driving cars could make killer robots a reality within the next several years. 

If that's the case, and we won't be able to leave planet earth for another century, where does that leave us? 

For many of us, conceptualizing such a robot is difficult, given the memes we were raised on in movies and t.v.--the endearing R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars, just two examples. But killer robots are something completely other--think about a weapon with the power and devastation of a nuclear missile. And many countries, in the name of national defense, are manufacturing them, according to CNN Money. 

The only hope thus far, getting back to Hawking's characteristic dystopian vision for humanity's reliance on science and technology, is for world leaders to hash out some kind of international agreement that would highly restrict their manufacturing and use--but that seems to be like shaking up a bee hive and waiting to see what happens next.

Need Help In The Productivity Dept? These 9 Tips Will Boost Your Results

Whether preparing a white paper, crunching numbers, or doing your taxes, productivity is a necessity. And now with robots poised to steal millions of jobs over the next four years, it's important that you continue to amp up your productivity skills. Here are a few tips to brush up your productivity:

1. Delegate tasks: With the surge of technology, we humans are driven to do more with less: less time, less resources, less mental bandwidth. You can't do everything yourself. Being able to delegate tasks to others around you, or pull together collaborative teams, is critical to staying productive.

2. Opt out of meetings: How many times have you sat in a meeting that chews up 3 hours of your day and yet pertains very little to your role or the projects you have on your plate? Employers are just as interested in your productivity as you are. If there's an opportunity to opt out of a meeting, take it.

3. Avoid impromptu meetings: Every office has those people who like to carouse around and stop by cubicles and offices for a chat; and before you know it, you're down a rabbit hole of detail about your the finger sandwiches served at your colleague's rotary club gathering. Here's a tip I learned from the book The 4-Hour Work Week: headphones. Put your headphones in your ear, and attach them to your phone. When Mr. Meet n' Greet comes by, motion to your ears and gesture that you're on a call. Problem solved.

4. Schedule email check: This is another tip from the 4-Hour Work Week: check your email at certain times of day, not ad hoc--unless of course you're expecting something urgent. Our phones give us the illusion of urgency with their flashing screens and jarring ring tones--but how much of your texts and emails are actually urgent? 10%? By scheduling email checks, you can focus on getting things done, while remaining confident that you won't miss anything. A way to set it up is have an automatic reply stating you're working toward a deadline and will be checking your email at 1pm that afternoon, at which point you'll get back to the individual. Sounds crazy? Might be the right reason to try it out.

5. Find a happy place: If you have mobility and able to work at a cafe or library, it's good to get out of the office when needing to focus on a project or deadline. Often offices can be full of distractions and obligatory meetings and chats. Getting out to a cafe or library can give you a sense of freedom and escape--just enough to focus your energy. If you are working on something that requires a difficult solution, it's good to get out somewhere outside convention. I knew one guy who created solutions while wandering the aisles of Walmart. 

6. Get offline--if you can: Social media is a huge time-waster. It's that little escape you are compelled to take just a few minutes for, then easily find yourself burning an hour scrolling through last week's posts. If you don't need to work online, don't--you'll be less distracted by incoming emails and social media notifications, and thus less tempted to free surf.

7. Make lists: This is a good way to keep projects top of mind. Some people like to use Google Task that syncs up with other apps, while others prefer simple pen and notebook. If you have larger tasks, break them up into sub-tasks--and bang off the smaller ones before you do the larger ones. 

8. Keep a notebook: This relates to #6. Keeping a notebook is important for jotting down new ideas, reminders, to-do lists, etc. I know many believe technology has rendered such things obsolete, but how many times have you lost notes from your phone or accidentally deleted them? 

9. Reward yourself: This is an important thing to do for boosting your confidence and sense of accomplishment. If you've pushed yourself hard to get a project completed, or you've had a number of things to bang off in a short period of time, give yourself a reward: could be a latte at your favourite cafe, or taking yourself out for lunch. Whatever it is, rewards are a good thing.

Rise of Robots To Eliminate 5 Million Jobs By Only 2020--Are You Prepared?

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland is a who's who of world political leaders, Fortune 500 CEOs, media, academics, and even rock and movie stars. As such, it is one of the most important events of the year in which the future of our world is literally designed, and during which a general consensus of global strategies are determined that are then moved through other high-level meetings and think tanks over the rest of the year. 

One of the issues on the table for this year's Annual Meeting is the future of work--jobs particularly. According to a recent article in Bloomberg, by the year 2020, robots will eliminate 5 million jobs--that's 5 million jobs! This means we will continue to see rampant disruption across sectors and industries in the near future. 

How do you prepare for such a thing? That's the issue at hand--preparation. 

In an article, entitled The Future of Jobs, top executives of the World Economic Forum claim that we are approaching a "Fourth Industrial Revolution," as a result of the rise of genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, and biotechnology that will create vast disruptions across sectors and industries; a revolution "more comprehensive and all encompassing than anything we have ever seen," according to the document. These changes, if left unchecked, could result in mass unemployment, talent shortages, and growing inequality. 

Here are a few ways you can prepare yourself for this coming 4th Industrial Revolution:

1. Get educated: The world is changing rapidly. The days of having one job for 30+ is over. You are going to have to educate yourself broadly about the social, economic, and technological trends impacting our world; and then you will have to try to get a picture of the future and how those trends will change your job or render it obsolete. If you are a business owner, you are under even greater pressure to do so: you could be working on a 5-year plan now that could crater in six months.

2. Up-skill: If you begin to see your job growing in redundancy, it's time to think about switching careers, and getting another degree or certificate. University may be a place to go, but a good college offering practical degrees in technology or engineering may be best. It all depends on your interests and how they translate into the work world. If you're seeing the writing on the wall and thinking of starting a business, refer back to #1--it may be a good time to strike out on your own.

3. Stay nimble: This may sound ambiguous, but you've got to be quick on your feet and able to meet growing needs as they arise. One day you could be installing technology systems, the next you're designing and selling your own. You have to be able to switch directions and try out new things when you see the end of the line.

4. Collaborate: This is one area that remains important through all this change and complexity. If you have a skill, think about how it can be applied across sectors for better solutions. If you're a business owner, think about how these changes in technology open the door for collaboration in ways you never would have thought. You can't go it alone anymore--the world is too complex. Finding partners in areas you never would have looked before can lead to much-needed opportunity.

5. Think next-gen: If you have children, you have to realize that what they are learning today will be obsolete by the time they graduate from high school. Indeed, they are being educated for jobs that do not exist today. Think about where and how your child is being educated. What they'll need is an education that teaches them how to think, pursue wisdom, and know themselves, rather than focusing on a particular job when they graduate.