Financial Success

Darius Foroux provides tips on mental strength and financial success .

-DD

Writing at a Time of Plague

Brigid Delaney shares writer's tips about working from home . These include:

• Do hard things first.
• Have a routine and stick to it.
• Exercise daily.
• Remember, the internet is your enemy.

On a side note, Jenny Farrell observes in her "Writing at a Time of Plague" how the Italian plagues spurred the Renaissance and the use of the vernacular. -DD

Smartphones and Mental Focus

Mike Elgan reports that smartphones disrupt mental focus, resulting in a 10%-25% decline in attentiveness at work. A study commissioned by Kaspersky Labs indicates that employees who do not bring their smartphones to work are 26 percent more productive. Just having a powered-up phone is distracting -- Jill Elish reports on a Florida State University study showing that cell phone notifications approach the distraction factor of reading a text message.

For more information on this issues, Elgan recommends Sherry Turkle's book, Reclaiming the Conversation, and mentions additional books on the topic will be published later this year. Elgan interviewed Turkle in 2015.

Elgan also highlights two firms, Siempo and Light Phone which are preparing to distribute limited-feature phones for corporate use.

-DD

Gaining Student's Focus

James Lang offers tips for gaining the attention of an audience, of keeping their focus at the start of instruction.

-DD

Mental Workouts

Jennifer Miller imparts five exercises to make a person smarter .

-DD

Productivity Killers

Peter Wayner lists fifteen productivity killers for programmers. The same deterrents to achieving mental focus afflict other knowledge workers (students, writers, etc.).

-DD