There’s a lot of advice out there for the lazy and unmotivated: Take baby steps! Set a timer! Enlist an accountability partner! But what if the best way to tackle lack of motivation isn’t to give any sort of advice at all, but to ask for it instead?
That’s the intriguing conclusion of a new article by a pair of psychologists from Wharton and the University of Chicago highlighted recently by Quartz’s Leak Fessler
I am a strong, strong believer that the good life involves having some time that you’ve set aside for leisure activities that you do solely for personal enjoyment and personal enrichment. I block off significant portions of time in my daily and weekly schedule for hobbies, and although I do sometimes jettison those blocks of time, it’s become readily apparent to me over the years that having such free time is incredibly valuable for my level of happiness and my mental well being.
In the past, I’ve written about my 11 frugal hobbies, as well as 40 free (or very low cost) activities I enjoy doing in my spare time.
While all of these things are fine hobbies, there are quite a few things I enjoy doing in my spare time that I mentally catalogue as “frugality” or “household tasks” rather than hobbies.
If you’re a freelancer, you don’t get days off when you’re sick. While you may be able to save up a rainy day fund for the occasional flu, if anything ever happened to you that put you out of commission for weeks at a time, chances are you’d be screwed.
For freelancers who have experienced this misfortune firsthand — or who live their lives trying not to think about the possibility — a new kind of insurance will soon become available. A company called Trupo, formed out of the Freelancers Union by the organization’s founder, Sara Horowitz, will begin selling short-term disability insurance to a waiting list of more than 200 Georgia residents later this month, with a broader launch and additional markets to follow.
I woke up at 4.30am with my heart pounding, completely disoriented and with no idea why I felt such panic.
Then I remembered, it was the big day. The day I had been planning for for over 9 months, it was the big event.
I tried to fall back asleep but realized it was useless. I started visualizing my day and felt the pain in my stomach intensify.
It was excruciating. I was sick with fear. And yet excited and happy and ready to take to the stage.
Let’s face it: We live in a pretty jaded society. In such a “been there, seen that” environment, the promise of a regular ole’ waterpark wouldn’t be enough to prompt even an eye-roll emoji in response from many people. Thank goodness, then, for an amusement park in Germany whose new, world-first waterslide adds in a dose of scintillating virtual reality in an effort to make us feel something again.
“Ballast originally started by making an experimental headset that can be used underwater,” Stephen Greenwood, the CEO of Ballast VR, the company behind VRSlide, told Digital Trends. “Last summer, we were approached by German waterslide manufacturer Wiegand-Maelzer to see if we could build a system that worked on waterslides.
Many of us eat meat, dairy, and eggs on a regular basis. Unfortunately, these dietary choices are not without harm to the environment. Luckily, you don’t need to cut burgers and eggs from your diet entirely. Even just reducing the amount you eat makes a big difference when it comes to the planet’s health. For example, a survey conducted by Impossible Foods recently found that if Americans swapped 50 percent of the beef they ate with vegan proteins, it would save about 72,000 square miles of land.
In their 2018 sustainability report, titled “Mission: Earth,” the vegan brand suggests that using vegan proteins would have a seriously positive impact on the environment. For example, they suggest that the beef swap would reduce our carbon footprint by up to 45 million metric tons. What does that look like? It’s roughly the same as removing emissions from 11 million U.S. drivers in one year.
The term “ghosting” doesn’t just apply to the dating world. If you’ve ever been “stood up” by an employee who stopped coming into work as if they vanished into thin air, you’re not alone. Employers everywhere have experienced both potential and current employees suddenly cut off communication for a variety of reasons.
This phenomenon happens in all industries for any number of positions. A promising candidate for your vacant position aced their interview, and they seemed genuinely excited to get started, but come their start date, they’re nowhere to be found. You call, email and leave multiple messages, but they all go unreturned. This is especially frustrating if this is after you closed the job listing, forcing you start the hiring process all over again.
A young girl in the United Kingdom reportedly got an infection and developed sepsis — a potentially life-threatening condition — after going into a store and trying on shoes without wearing socks, according to news reports.
The 4-year-old girl, Sienna Rasul from South Wales, became very ill the day after trying on shoes in bare feet, according to The Sun. She was diagnosed with sepsis — an overwhelming immune response triggered by a bacterial infection — and spent five days in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics.
Forgot a name? Misplaced your keys? Taking longer to find the right words? Don’t panic. There’s plenty you can do to improve your memory. You’re probably expecting us to reveal 7 little known and newly discovered herbs from the forests of the Amazon, the peaks of the Himalayas and the Arctic tundra. No such luck. Despite Americans spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on Ginkgo Biloba, Ashwagandha, Periwinkle, Bacopa, Vitamin B’s, Omega 3’s and memory boosting supplement cocktails, there is very little scientific evidence they actually work.
Whether it’s for operating costs, expansion or to pay off debt, being able to access additional capital when it’s needed most can be critical to the survival of your business.
A study from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin; the University of California, Los Angeles; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the Universidad de Piura discovered that a loan of just $11,000 can increase a business’s three-to-five year survival rate by more than 50 percent.
Dispatches From The Front 