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Problem solving techniques

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Some problems are small and can be resolved quickly. Other problems are large and may require significant time and effort to solve. These larger problems are often tackled by turning them into formal projects.

"A project is a problem scheduled for solution."
- Joseph M. Juran

Whether the problem you are focusing on is small or large, using a systematic approach for solving it will help you be a more effective project manager.

This approach defines five problem solving steps you can use for most problems...

Define the Problem

Determine the Causes

Generate Ideas

Select the Best Solution

Take Action

Define the Problem

The most important of the problem solving steps is to define the problem correctly. The way you define the problem will determine how you attempt to solve it.

For example, if you receive a complaint about one of your project team members from a client, the solutions you come up with will be different based on the way you define the problem.

If you define the problem as poor performance by the team member you will develop different solutions than if you define the problem as poor expectation setting with the client.

Determine the Causes

Once you have defined the problem, you are ready to dig deeper and start to determine what is causing it.

If you consider the problem as a gap between where you are now and where you want to be, the causes of the problem are the obstacles that are preventing you from closing that gap immediately.

This level of analysis is important to make sure your solutions address the actual causes of the problem instead of the symptoms of the problem. If your solution fixes a symptom instead of an actual cause, the problem is likely to reoccur since it was never truly solved.

Generate Ideas

Once the hard work of defining the problem and determining its causes has been completed, it's time to get creative and develop possible solutions to the problem.

Two great problem solving methods you can use for coming up with solutions are brainstorming and mind mapping.

Select the Best Solution

After you come up with several ideas that can solve the problem, one problem solving technique you can use to decide which one is the best solution to your problem is a simple trade-off analysis.

To perform the trade-off analysis, define the critical criteria for the problem that you can use to evaluate how each solution compares to each other. The evaluation can be done using a simple matrix. The highest ranking solution will be your best solution for this problem.

Take Action

Once you've determined which solution you will implement, it's time to take action. If the solution involves several actions or requires action from others, it is a good idea to create an action plan and treat it as a mini-project.

Using this simple five-step approach can increase the effectiveness of your problem solving skills.

For more problem solving strategies and techniques, check out the articles listed below.

Related Articles About
Problem Solving Techniques & Strategies

A fishbone diagram can help you perform a cause and effect analysis for a problem. Step-by-step instructions on how to create this type of diagram. Also known as Ishikara or Cause and Effect diagrams.

Download a free fishbone diagram template. Also called an Ishikawa diagram, this fully formatted chart can be filled in using Excel and printed out on a single sheet. Super Easy!
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Problem Solving Techniques & Strategies: Skills & Methods for Project Managers

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Some problems are small and can be resolved quickly. Other problems are large and may require significant time and effort to solve. These larger problems are often tackled by turning them into formal projects. "A project is a problem scheduled for solution." - Joseph M.

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TED talk on problem solving

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Navi Radjou: Creative problem-solving in the face of extreme limits

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Navi Radjou has spent years studying "jugaad," also known as frugal innovation. Pioneered by entrepreneurs in emerging markets who figured out how to get spectacular value from limited resources, the practice has now caught on globally. Peppering his talk with a wealth of examples of human ingenuity at work, Radjou also shares three principles for how we can all do more with less.

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I came across this website that can be a good resource to prevent memory loss and to keep track of your overall memory health.

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The Imprint Memory Assessment can help you detect early changes and potential abnormalities in your memory function. Our partnering physicians use Imprint results to help their patients understand and manage their memory health. Sharing your results with your doctor could provide information that can help with your overall preventative health care program.

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What might be called the "make love, not war" branch of behavioral neuroscience began to take shape in (where else?) California several years ago, when researchers in David J. Anderson's laboratory at Caltech decided to tackle the biology of aggression. They initiated the line of research by orchestrating the murine version of Fight Night: they goaded male mice into tangling with rival males and then, with painstaking molecular detective work, zeroed in on a smattering of cells in the hypothalamus that became active when the mice started to fight.

The hypothalamus is a small structure deep in the brain that, among other functions, coördinates sensory inputs-the appearance of a rival, for example-with instinctual behavioral responses. Back in the 1920s, Walter Hess of the University of Zurich (who would win a Nobel in 1949) had shown that if you stuck an electrode into the brain of a cat and electrically stimulated certain regions of the hypothalamus, you could turn a purring feline into a furry blur of aggression. Several interesting hypotheses tried to explain how and why that happened, but there was no way to test them. Like a lot of fundamental questions in brain science, the mystery of aggression didn't go away over the past century-it just hit the usual empirical roadblocks. We had good questions but no technology to get at the answers.

By 2010, Anderson's Caltech lab had begun to tease apart the underlying mechanisms and neural circuitry of aggression in their pugnacious mice. Armed with a series of new technologies that allowed them to focus on individual clumps of cells within brain regions, they stumbled onto a surprising anatomical discovery: the tiny part of the hypothalamus that seemed correlated with aggressive behavior was intertwined with the part associated with the impulse to mate. That small duchy of cells-the technical name is the ventromedial hypothalamus-turned out to be an assembly of roughly 5,000 neurons, all marbled together, some of them seemingly connected to copulating and others to fighting.

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"There's no such thing as a generic neuron," says Anderson, who estimates that there may be up to 10,000 distinct classes of neurons in the brain. Even tiny regions of the brain contain a mixture, he says, and these neurons "often influence behavior in different, opposing directions." In the case of the hypothalamus, some of the neurons seemed to become active during aggressive behavior, some of them during mating behavior, and a small subset-about 20 percent-during both fighting and mating.

That was a provocative discovery, but it was also a relic of old-style neuroscience. Being active was not the same as causing the behavior; it was just a correlation. How did the scientists know for sure what was triggering the behavior? Could they provoke a mouse to pick a fight simply by tickling a few cells in the hypothalamus?

A decade ago, that would have been technologically impossible. But in the last 10 years, neuroscience has been transformed by a remarkable new technology called optogenetics, invented by scientists at Stanford University and first described in 2005. The Caltech researchers were able to insert a genetically modified light-sensitive gene into specific cells at particular locations in the brain of a living, breathing, feisty, and occasionally canoodling male mouse. Using a hair-thin fiber-optic thread inserted into that living brain, they could then turn the neurons in the hypothalamus on and off with a burst of light.

Optogenetics: Light Switches for Neurons

Anderson and his colleagues used optogenetics to produce a video dramatizing the love-hate tensions deep within rodents. It shows a male mouse doing what comes naturally, mating with a female, until the Caltech researchers switch on the light, at which instant the murine lothario flies into a rage. When the light is on, even a mild-mannered male mouse can be induced to attack whatever target happens to be nearby-his reproductive partner, another male mouse, a castrated male (normally not perceived as a threat), or, most improbably, a rubber glove dropped into the cage.

"Activating these neurons with optogenetic techniques is sufficient to activate aggressive behavior not only toward appropriate targets like another male mouse but also toward inappropriate targets, like females and even inanimate objects," Anderson says. Conversely, researchers can inhibit these neurons in the middle of a fight by turning the light off, he says: "You can stop the fight dead in its tracks."

Moreover, the research suggests that lovemaking overrides war-making in the calculus of behavior: the closer a mouse was to consummation of the reproductive act, the more resistant (or oblivious) he became to the light pulses that normally triggered aggression. In a paper published in Biological Psychiatry, titled "Optogenetics, Sex, and Violence in the Brain: Implications for Psychiatry," Anderson noted, "Perhaps the imperative to 'make love, not war' is hard-wired into our nervous system, to a greater extent than we have realized." We may be both lovers and fighters, with the slimmest of neurological distances separating the two impulses.

Optogenetics and other new techniques mean scientists can begin to pinpoint the function of the thousands of different types of neurons among the roughly 86 billion in the human brain.

No one is suggesting that we're on the verge of deploying neural circuit breakers to curb aggressive behavior. But, as Anderson points out, the research highlights a larger point about how a new technology can reinvent the way brain science is done. "The ability of optogenetics to turn a largely correlational field of science into one that tests causation has been transformative," he says.

What's radical about the technique is that it allows scientists to perturb a cell or a network of cells with exquisite precision, the key to sketching out the circuitry that affects various types of behavior. Whereas older technologies like imaging allowed researchers to watch the brain in action, optogenetics enables them to influence that action, tinkering with specific parts of the brain at specific times to see what happens.

And optogenetics is just one of a suite of revolutionary new tools that are likely to play leading roles in what looks like a heyday for neuroscience. Major initiatives in both the United States and Europe aspire to understand how the human brain-that tangled three-pound curd of neurons, connective tissue, and circuits-gives rise to everything from abstract thought to basic sensory processing to emotions like aggression. Consciousness, free will, memory, learning-they are all on the table now, as researchers use these tools to investigate how the brain achieves its seemingly mysterious effects (see " Searching for the "Free Will" Neuron ").
Connections
More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates noted that if you want to understand the mind, you must begin by studying the brain. Nothing has happened in the last two millennia to change that imperative-except the tools that neuroscience is bringing to the task.

The history of neuroscience, like the history of science itself, is often a story of new devices and new technologies. Luigi Galvani's first accidental electrode, which provoked the twitch of a frog's muscle, has inspired every subsequent electrical probe, from Walter Hess's cat prod to the current therapeutic use of deep brain stimulation to treat Parkinson's disease (approximately 30,000 people worldwide now have electrodes implanted in their brains to treat this condition). The patch clamp allowed neuroanatomists to see the ebb and flow of ions in a neuron as it prepares to fire. And little did Paul Lauterbur realize, when he focused a strong magnetic field on a single hapless clam in his lab at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in the early 1970s, that he and his colleagues were laying the groundwork for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines that have helped reveal the internal landscape and activity of a living brain.

Growing Neurons: Studying What Goes Wrong

But it is the advances in genetics and genomic tools during the last few years that have truly revolutionized neuroscience. Those advances made the genetic manipulations at the heart of optogenetics possible. Even more recent genome-editing methods can be used to precisely alter the genetics of living cells in the lab. Along with optogenetics, these tools mean scientists can begin to pinpoint the function of the thousands of different types of nerve cells among the roughly 86 billion in the human brain.

Nothing testifies to the value of a new technology more than the number of scientists who rapidly adopt it and use it to claim new scientific territories. As Edward Boyden, a scientist at MIT who helped develop optogenetics, puts it, "Often when a new technology comes out, there's a bit of a land grab."

And even as researchers grab those opportunities in genomics and optogenetics, still other advances are coming on the scene. A new chemical treatment is making it possible to directly see nerve fibers in mammalian brains; robotic microelectrodes can eavesdrop on (and perturb) single cells in living animals; and more sophisticated imaging techniques let researchers match up nerve cells and fibers in brain slices to create a three-dimensional map of the connections. Using these tools together to build up an understanding of the brain's activity, scientists hope to capture the biggest of cognitive game: memory, decision-making, consciousness, psychiatric illnesses like anxiety and depression, and, yes, sex and violence.

Scientists speculated that if you could smuggle the gene for a light-sensitive protein into a neuron and then pulse the cell with light, you might trigger it to fire. You could turn specific neurons on and off.

In January 2013, the European Commission invested a billion euros in the launch of its Human Brain Project, a 10-year initiative to map out all the connections in the brain. Several months later, in April 2013, the Obama administration announced an initiative called Brain Research through Advanced Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN), which is expected to pour as much as $1 billion into the field, with much of the early funding earmarked for technology development. Then there is the Human Connectome Project, which aims to use electron microscope images of sequential slices of brain tissue to map nerve cells and their connections in three dimensions. Complementary connectome and mapping initiatives are getting under way at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia and the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. They are all part of a large global effort, both publicly and privately funded, to build a comprehensive picture of the human brain, from the level of genes and cells to that of connections and circuits.

Last December, as an initial step in the BRAIN Initiative, the National Institutes of Health solicited proposals for $40 million worth of projects on technology development in the neurosciences. "Why is the BRAIN Initiative putting such a heavy emphasis on technology?" says Cornelia Bargmann, the Rockefeller University neuroscientist who co-directs the planning process for the project. "The real goal is to understand how the brain works, at many levels, in space and time, in many different neurons, all at once. And what's prevented us from understanding that is limitations in technology."
Eavesdropping
Optogenetics had its origins in 2000, in late-night chitchat at Stanford University. There, neuroscientists Karl Deisseroth and Edward Boyden began to bounce ideas back and forth about ways to identify, and ultimately manipulate, the activity of specific brain circuits. Deisseroth, who had a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford, longed to understand (and someday treat) the mental afflictions that have vexed humankind since the era of Hippocrates, notably anxiety and depression (see " Shining Light on Madness "). Boyden, who was pursuing graduate work in brain function, had an omnivorous curiosity about neurotechnology. At first they dreamed about deploying tiny magnetic beads as a way to manipulate brain function in intact, living animals. But at some point during the next five years, a different kind of light bulb went off.

Since the 1970s, microbiologists had been studying a class of light-sensitive molecules known as rhodopsins, which had been identified in simple organisms like bacteria, fungi, and algae. These proteins act like gatekeepers along the cell wall; when they detect a particular wavelength of light, they either let ions into a cell or, conversely, let ions out of it. This ebb and flow of ions mirrors the process by which a neuron fires: the electrical charge within the nerve cell builds up until the cell unleashes a spike of electrical activity flowing along the length of its fiber (or axon) to the synapses, where the message is passed on to the next cell in the pathway. Scientists speculated that if you could smuggle the gene for one of these light-sensitive proteins into a neuron and then pulse the cell with light, you might trigger it to fire. Simply put, you could turn specific neurons in a conscious animal on-or off-with a burst of light.

In 2004, Deisseroth successfully inserted the gene for a light-sensitive molecule from algae into mammalian neurons in a dish. Deisseroth and Boyden went on to show that blue light could induce the neurons to fire. At about the same time, a graduate student named Feng Zhang joined Deisseroth's lab. Zhang, who had acquired a precocious expertise in the techniques of both molecular biology and gene therapy as a high school student in Des Moines, Iowa, showed that the gene for the desired protein could be introduced into neurons by means of genetically engineered viruses. Again using pulses of blue light, the Stanford team then demonstrated that it could turn electrical pulses on and off in the virus-modified mammalian nerve cells. In a landmark paper that appeared in Nature Neuroscience in 2005 (after, Boyden says, it was rejected by Science), Deisseroth, Zhang, and Boyden described the technique. (No one would call it "optogenetics" for another year.)

Neuroscientists immediately seized on the power of the technique by inserting light-sensitive genes into living animals. Researchers in Deisseroth's own lab used it to identify new pathways that control anxiety in mice, and both Deisseroth's team and his collaborators at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York used it to turn depression on and off in rats and mice. And Susumu Tonegawa's lab at MIT recently used optogenetics to create false memories in laboratory animals.

When I visited Boyden's office at MIT's Media Lab last December, the scientist called up his favorite recent papers involving optogenetics. In a rush of words as rapid as his keystrokes, Boyden described second-generation technologies already being developed. One involves eavesdropping on single nerve cells in anesthetized and conscious animals in order to see "the things roiling underneath the sea of activity" within a neuron when the animal is unconscious. Boyden said, "It literally sheds light on what it means to have thoughts and awareness and feelings."

Scientists often employ words like "surprising" and "unexpected" to characterize recent results, reflecting the impact optogenetics has had on the understanding of psychiatric illnesses.

Boyden's group had also just sent off a paper reporting a new twist on optogenetics: separate, independent neural pathways can be perturbed simultaneously with red and blue wavelengths of light. The technique has the potential to show how different circuits interact with and influence each other. His group is also working on "insanely dense" recording probes and microscopes that aspire to capture whole-brain activity. The ambitions are not modest. "Can you record all the cells in the brain," he says, "so that you can watch thoughts or decisions or other complex phenomena emerge as you go from sensation to emotion to decision to action site?"

Brain Mapping: Charting the Information Superhighways

A few blocks away, Feng Zhang, who is now an assistant professor at MIT and a faculty member at the Broad Institute, listed age-old neuroscience questions that might now be attacked with the new technologies. "Can you do a memory upgrade and increase the capacity?" he asked. "How are neural circuits genetically encoded? How can you reprogram the genetic instructions? How do you fix the genetic mutations that cause miswiring or other malfunctions of the neural system? How do you make the old brain younger?"

In addition to helping to invent optogenetics, Zhang played a central role in developing a gene-editing technique called CRISPR (see " 10 Breakthrough Technologies: Genome Editing," May/June). The technology allows scientists to target a gene-in neurons, for example-and either delete or modify it. If it's modified to include a mutation known or suspected to cause brain disorders, scientists can study the progression of those disorders in lab animals. Alternatively, researchers can use CRISPR in the lab to alter stem cells that can then be grown into neurons to see the effects.
Transparency
Back at Stanford, when he's not seeing patients with autism spectrum disorders or depression in the clinic, Deisseroth continues to invent tools that he and others can use to study these conditions. Last summer, his lab reported a new way for scientists to visualize the cables of nerve fibers, known as "white matter," that connect distant precincts of the brain. The technique, called Clarity, first immobilizes biomolecules such as protein and DNA in a plastic-like mesh that retains the physical integrity of a postmortem brain. Then researchers flush a kind of detergent through the mesh to dissolve all the fats in brain tissue that normally block light. The brain is rendered transparent, suddenly exposing the entire three-dimensional wiring pattern to view.

Together, the new tools are transforming many conventional views in neuroscience. For example, as Deisseroth noted in a review article published earlier this year in Nature, optogenetics has challenged some of the ideas underlying deep brain stimulation, which has been widely used to treat everything from tremors and epilepsy to anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. No one knows just why it works, but the operating assumption has been that its therapeutic effects derive from electrical stimulation of very specific brain regions; neurosurgeons exert extraordinary effort to place electrodes with the utmost precision.

In 2009, however, Deisseroth and colleagues showed that specifically stimulating the white matter, the neural cables that happen to lie near the electrodes, produced the most robust clinical improvement in symptoms of Parkinson's disease. In other words, it wasn't the neighborhood of the brain that mattered so much as which neural highways happened to pass nearby. Scientists often employ words like "surprising" and "unexpected" to characterize such recent results, reflecting the impact that optogenetics has had on the understanding of psychiatric illness.

In the same vein, Caltech's Anderson points out that the public and scientific infatuation with functional MRI studies over the last two decades has created the impression that certain regions of the brain act as "centers" of neural activity-that the amygdala is the "center" of fear, for example, or the hypothalamus is the "center" of aggression. But he likens fMRI to looking down on a nighttime landscape from an airplane at 30,000 feet and "trying to figure out what is going on in a single town." Optogenetics, by contrast, has provided a much more detailed view of that tiny subdivision of cells in the hypothalamus, and thus a much more complex and nuanced picture of aggression. Activating specific neurons in that little town can tip an organism to make war, but activating the neurons next door can nudge it to make love.

The new techniques will give scientists the first glimpses of human cognition in action-a look at how thoughts, feelings, forebodings, and dysfunctional mental activity arise from the neural circuitry and from the activity of particular types of cells. Researchers are just beginning to gain these insights, but given the recent pace of technology development, the picture might emerge sooner than anyone dreamed possible when the light of optogenetics first flickered on a few years ago.

Stephen S. Hall is a science writer and author in New York City. His last feature for MIT Technology Review was "Repairing Bad Memories."

Credit

Brain sculpture by Joshua Harker, photograph by Bruce Peterson, graphics by John MacNeill, other images courtesy of the Deisseroth Lab (Clarity), Allen Institute for Brain Science (Brainspan), Human Connectome Project

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What might be called the "make love, not war" branch of behavioral neuroscience began to take shape in (where else?) California several years ago, when researchers in David J. Anderson's laboratory at Caltech decided to tackle the biology of aggression.

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Ted Talk on Memory

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There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique -- called the memory palace -- and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him.

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different strategies for improve brain health and fitness

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Declutter your brain with Mind Mapping

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When I first learned more about my personality type (INFP) and how my brain receives and processes information, my mind was officially blown.
Seeing the big picture has always been one of my biggest strengths, so mind mapping is something that I've been doing for years without realizing that it had a name.
I doodled out mind maps in old diaries and notebooks, and eventually even used it for planning a college essay or two. I've always mind mapped on paper but have recently been experimenting with some free online mind mapping tools as well, and while I enjoy both methods, paper wins out for me.

What is Mind Mapping?

I define it as a tool for decluttering your brain. Some people would describe its function as more of a brainstorming or organizing tool. Really though, it's both. It's a highly effective method for getting thoughts onto paper in a way that makes sense for you.

Because the fine details of your mind mapping process and results are always unique, it's pretty much universally helpful, whatever your personality type.

The amazing thing about mind mapping is that it uses both the creative and the logical sides of your brain, and brings them into harmony!

When my brain starts to feel frenetic and I'm feeling overloaded with bits and pieces of information, I mind map so that I don't forget things.

When the copious conglomerate of things in my head feels like a dish of marbles that is overflowing and spilling everywhere, I mind map to organize my thoughts.

When I feel that indicative tug of discontent in a particular area of my life (like parenting, wellness, or my writing), I mind map to make a plan.

(Note: I later re-wrote this mind map to have "wellness" as the center topic. This is an example of how I saw connections after the fact, like I mention below, and then scratched out the title at the top.)

How do you mind map?

Let's assume we're starting on paper. I think it's best to start there to get a feel for the flow of mind mapping without having to mess around with (or get distracted by!) technology.

Start in the middle of your paper and write your topic, and circle it.

Then, without thinking too hard or deeply - start branching out.

Add categories and sub-categories as you go, mapping everything out.

Use the page freely - it doesn't have to be perfectly neat and tidy!

Don't worry too much about putting things in the exact correct position - as you go on, patterns will begin to emerge and sequential thoughts will become apparent.

You can erase and adjust lines and bubbles as you go. (I recommend using pencil, or just being okay with scribble marks.)

I will sometimes even do a mind map as a rough draft, then re-draw it when I have my thoughts collected. These are the ones that I keep referring back to for months as I work on certain things. (Like my "wellness" mind map.)

Here's a close-up of one of the branches in the wellness map that I made months ago in my bullet journal, and keep referring back to. (I highlight what I'm currently working on, then check it off when it's done. You can see which item I've left until very last, ha!)

The most important thing is that if you have a thought in your mind related to your topic, be sure to write it down somewhere in the map so that it's not crowding your mind anymore.

Every mind map is unique, but each one starts in the center, and radiates out like the branches of a tree. If you feel like you have more than one central topic on your mind, feel free to do more than one map!

Oftentimes, though, I find that when I get everything down on paper, I see things connecting that I hadn't realized before.

For example: I mind mapped on the topic of "diet" and then I mind mapped on the topic of "home organization + routine".

I subsequently realized that both of those topics, for me, fall under the umbrella of "overall wellness" because they contribute to a calm/peaceful mind, and a strong body - both of which are major components of my overall sense of wellness. And, there are other topics that I'd place under "wellness" too, so a new mind map with "wellness" at the centre was super helpful to me.

What Happens in Your Brain When You Do Mind Mapping?

As you create your mind map, the left and the right hemispheres of your brain are working in tandem. A 20th century scientific researcher named Roger Sperry (who later won a nobel prize for his neuroscience work) became famous for his research on the "left brain" and "right brain" concept.

Mind mapping uses a wide spectrum of brain functions, from both the left and right sides, including emotion management, imagination, lines and color, logic, memory, listing and numbers, words/expression, big picture thinking, and future planning.
Because of this, mind mapping is excellent exercise for the brain - a great bonus to an already helpful activity.
To amp up the effectiveness of your mind map, you can add illustrations. You don't have to be an artist - any rudimentary sketch will do to assist your brain in mapping and in re-reading, later.

A coffee cup next to your "quit caffeine" bubble, or a stick figure next to the "yoga" bubble? Maybe a TV next to the "limit television" bubble. No need to go crazy with these if it ends up being more of a distraction than a help.

Whatever your style, getting your thoughts out onto paper in a non-linear free-style fashion will help declutter your brain so you can think more clearly.
This is the power of mind mapping: plotting out a framework on which to hang your thoughts. Just like the power of tidying and decluttering your house, mind mapping feels incredibly satisfying and freeing.
Have you ever tried mind mapping?

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How I Use Mind Mapping to Help Declutter My Brain - Red and Honey

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When I first learned more about my personality type (INFP) and how my brain receives and processes information, my mind was officially blown. Seeing the big picture has always been one of my biggest strengths, so mind mapping is something that I've been doing for years without realizing that it had a name.

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A new perspective on your mornings. A resource to practice mindfulness.

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Ugh, morning. So many of us hate getting up in the morning. It's so easy to end up in a really cranky mood!

For a long time, I was one of the haters. I set my alarm for the latest possible time, and then I hit snooze about a billion times before I finally dragged my annoyed (and probably late) self to the shower.

After years of dreading the sunrise, I decided to make some big changes in my morning routine, although it didn't happen immediately. I knew I needed to make changes in my mornings, but I held on tightly to the idea that I needed those extra 20 minutes of sleep! Of course, this came at the expense of rushing around to get out the door and stressing myself out in the process!

Until this year, I had to leave the house by 7am, and I was determined to get up at 5:45. Now I realize that some of you are thinking, "An hour and 15 minutes? That's plenty of time! What's the big deal?" Well, for me, it's a big deal. I'm not a get-up-and-go kind of girl!

Now I have to leave by 7:15am, and I've decided to get up at 5:15. That's a whopping 2 hours to get myself ready for the day, and missing out on that extra 30 minutes of sleep is completely worth it.

Of course, this means I have to be more mindful of my bedtime, or I won't be able to function during the day.

According to WebMD, the average adult needs 7.5-8 hours of sleep each night. Some people can get by on less, and some will need more, but this is a good average.

In order to have a productive and fulfilling morning, you'll need to make sure you get enough sleep. I know it's hard to go to bed earlier than you want to, but honestly, just do it. You'll feel so much better if you actually wake up rested!

You know that cliche about waking up on the wrong side of the bed? Well, there is some actual truth to that often-used accusation for the grumpy girl. If your morning starts out wrong, you'll have a harder time redeeming your day.

The first 10 minutes after you wake up are the most influential time, so it's important to have a mindful routine and ritual in place to make sure your mind and body are happy from the start.

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine." -John C. Maxwell

Don't hit snooze.

Just don't do it. Choose a time to get up, and tell yourself that the snooze button isn't even an option. Hitting snooze and going back to sleep makes your brain start its sleep cycle all over again, and when your alarm goes off again, you'll be in a deeper sleep than you should be; this will actually make you feel much worse.

Stretch first thing.

Stretching first thing in the morning has several health benefits, including muscle and joint flexibility, stress relief, and improved circulation. So take some deep breaths and stretch for a minute or two before you get out of bed.

Drink water before your feet hit the floor.

About 60% of your body is made of water, and after sleeping for 7-8 hours without water, your parched body is practically begging to be replenished. Appease it!

Eat a healthy breakfast.

I used to think I couldn't eat a hot breakfast during the week, but now I do it every day. What's the secret to having time for a healthy, hot breakfast when you don't have a lot of time? Meal prep. You can easily make a week's worth of sweet potato hash or sauteed apples over the weekend. Add some fresh fruit or a couple of fried eggs, and you can have a great breakfast without being late to work!

Play music while you're getting ready.

Music changes moods. You might want to start your morning with upbeat music, or you might prefer something calming and relaxing; whatever you choose, be sure it makes you feel good and charges your morning!

Turn off your phone notifications.

This one has really surprised me. On mornings I leave my notifications on, and I reply to text messages, I am always late to work. I never realized just how much a minute here and a minute there adds up! Before you know it, you're fifteen minutes behind! If you're worried about emergencies, just flip your phone over to its "do not disturb" mode; the people who need you will be able to reach you.

Read something positive.

Whether you choose to read your Bible or some kind of positive, encouraging book, this practice is something that makes a big difference. Turn off the music and the phone, and take a few minutes to soak your mind in words. (I do this while I eat my breakfast.)

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." -Marcus Aurelius

You should get to know yourself and your needs so that you can create a morning routine that works for you, but here is a glimpse into mine:

5:15- Alarm goes off and I stretch/drink water

5:20- Shower/Get Ready + Drink more water and listen to music (Phone is on silent)

6:30- Make breakfast + update food/body journal

6:45- Eat breakfast/read a chapter in a book/write in gratitude journal

7:00- Last-minute preparation for the day

7:15- Leave the house CALM AND COLLECTED

This has become such a perfect routine for me that it's actually timed within 5 or so minutes every day. When you do the same thing every day, it all becomes habit and you don't have to think about it. I don't even have to check the time anymore!

Keep your routine on the weekends! Yes, I am telling you that I get up before 6am every weekend. Do I have to? No, but my body is on a schedule and I just feel better when I don't sleep in.

This stuff takes commitment at first. You'll need to train your mind and body to make these changes, but habits form with consistency, so it's very doable. And I promise it's worth it. You won't regret giving up that extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning. Trust me.

-

What are some things you do to make your mornings run smoothly?

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7 Morning Habits That Will Change Your Life | This Kathryn Girl

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Ugh, morning. So many of us hate getting up in the morning. It's so easy to end up in a really cranky mood! For a long time, I was one of the haters. I set my alarm for the latest possible time, and then I hit snooze about a billion times before I finally dragged my annoyed (and probably late) self to the shower.

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A great TED talk about childhood trauma and how it impacts the brain

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How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

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Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

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Foods that you should consume in order to increase overall brain health

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19 Best Brain Superfoods | LIVESTRONG.COM

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Did you know that your brain is the most expensive real estate in your body? It uses up to 20 to 30 percent of the calories you consume. And, just like your body doesn't benefit from junk food, neither does your brain. One lesser-known fact about obesity is that it negatively impacts cognitive function.

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7 suggestions to improve your overall memory

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7 suggestions to improve your overall memory

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Fun Ways To Improve Your Memory Infographic

Fun Ways To Improve Your Memory Infographic

Having a good memory is more than just remembering where we left our keys and when is our best friend's birthday, it is also about disciplining your mind and being more self-aware. Having that in mind, Memory Improvement created a simple infographic with seven fun ways to improve your memory.

You don't have to do much to boost your memory - just some doodling (and who doesn't like to doodle while learning or talking on the phone?) or playing brain games on your mobile phone (at least you will use it for something important). Our memory is left a bit unused, and your mind becomes too lazy to try to remember things - sometimes even important ones. We can at least try to keep it fit with these seven fun ways.

View also:

Via: www.thememoryimprovement.com

Embed This Education Infographic on your Site or Blog! Copy and Paste the following code!

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Fun Ways To Improve Your Memory Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

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Having a good memory is more than just remembering where we left our keys and when is our best friend's birthday, it is also about disciplining your mind and being more self-aware. Having that in mind, Memory Improvement created a simple infographic with seven fun ways to improve your memory.

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Books that can be used to motivate children to learn

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Top 85 Growth Mindset Books For Children And Adults

THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES A FREE PRINTABLE

One easy way to help children develop a growth mindset is to introduce them to books which promote persistence, love of learning, learning from mistakes and other key growth mindset ideas. Here's a list of our favorite and most popular books for you and your kids!

Before you move on, be sure to sign up for our FREE weekly printables carefully crafted to teach your kids growth mindset, resilience, and much more. Sign up below to make sure you're on the list!

Once signed up, you will immediately receive our popular Parent's Guide to a Growth Mindset.

Ages 1 - 4

Be sure to check out the Growth Mindset Printables Kit which has the printable book list and a fun book review activity for your children.

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd

Right before her mother died, Emma promised that she'd do whatever it took to fulfill her destiny. But when Emma's dream finally arrives, it points her toward an impossible task--finding a legendary treasure hidden in her town's cemetery. This book is about determination and following your dreams.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

Perfect for fans of Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee, this classic series is all about learning and problem-solving. Young readers will love this book.

Strong is the New Pretty by K. Parker

Girls being fearless. Girls being silly. Girls being wild, stubborn, and proud. Girls whose faces are smeared with dirt and lit up with joy. So simple and yet so powerful, Strong Is the New Pretty celebrates, through more than 175 memorable photographs, the strength and spirit of girls being 100% themselves.

A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

This book features unfortunate events, but it also teaches some valuable lessons. Despite numerous misfortunes children do not give up, stay positive and come up with constructive ways of dealing with their losses.

The Wizard of Oz by Beth Bracken

Dorothy never stopped trying to get home even when the Wicked Witch of the West sent flying monkeys after her. The book teaches that when the going gets tough, stick to your yellow brick road and you'll overcome your obstacles too.

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner

Based on a Rocky Mountain legend, Stone Fox tells the story of Little Willy, who lives with his grandfather in Wyoming. When Grandfather falls ill, he is no longer able to work the farm, which is in danger of foreclosure.

Growth Mindset Books for Adults

Recommended Parenting Books

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Top 85 Growth Mindset Books For Children And Adults

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One easy way to help children develop a growth mindset is to introduce them to books which promote persistence, love of learning, learning from mistakes and other key growth mindset ideas. Here's a list of our favorite and most popular books which do just that.