The teacher life: a whirlwind of lesson plans, enthusiastic (or sometimes not-so-enthusiastic) students, and the never-ending quest to find that missing math textbook. It's no secret that educators wear many hats, and by the end of the day, the line between school and home can feel as blurry as a marker-stained whiteboard. But fear not, fellow pedagogues! Here are some battle-tested tips to help you achieve work-life harmony and rediscover the joy of teaching.

Tame the Time Monster: We all have 24 hours, so how do some educators seem to get it all done? The answer lies in prioritization. Start your day by listing tasks in order of importance, not just urgency. Utilize a planner or app to schedule dedicated times for lesson planning, grading, and (most importantly) personal time. Remember, a well-rested teacher is a more effective teacher.

Delegate Like a Boss: You don't have to be a superhero! Can that photocopying be delegated to a helpful student assistant? Is there a colleague you can swap grading duties with? Sharing the workload not only lightens your load but also fosters collaboration.

Technology: Your New BFF: Embrace the power of technology! Explore online grading platforms, utilize communication apps for seamless parent contact, and leverage educational websites to enhance your lessons. Every saved minute adds up!

Boundaries are Beautiful: Saying "no" is an educator's superpower. Set clear boundaries between work and personal life. Resist the urge to check emails after dinner or spend your weekend crafting the perfect art project (unless that's your idea of fun!). A dedicated "unplug" time allows you to recharge and return to the classroom feeling refreshed.

Self-Care is Not Selfish: You can't pour from an empty cup. Prioritize activities that nourish your soul. Whether it's a brisk walk in nature, a relaxing yoga session, or simply curling up with a good book, schedule time for activities that promote well-being. A happy you equals a happy classroom.

Remember Why You Started:
Teaching is a noble profession, one that shapes young minds and fosters a love of learning. When the daily grind gets you down, take a moment to reconnect with your passion. Reflect on the "aha!" moments you witness in your students, the spark of curiosity you ignite.

The Final Bell:
Finding work-life balance is a journey, not a destination. There will be days that feel like a never-ending school play, but by implementing these tips and holding onto your passion, you can transform your days from chaotic to calm, from stressful to fulfilling. Remember, a happy educator makes all the difference in the world, and a world of difference starts with you.

What are your best work-life balance hacks?

Don't forget to share them in the comments!

Social and emotional learning programs are most effective when students are given plenty of opportunities to practice those skills

Even as more schools adopt curriculum programs related to social and emotional learning (SEL), we don’t always see corresponding improvement in youth mental health and achievement. That’s because SEL skills are learned most deeply when activated by adults in the learning environment. Let’s look at activating strategies that anyone can use—teachers, mental-health professionals, parents, or youth workers—to exercise students’ SEL muscles, regardless of whether they are being exposed to systematic SEL instruction.

Each strategy is followed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) 5 skill to which it is most aligned.

7 SEL-Activating Strategies

1. Open-ended questions (social awareness). This strategy involves giving students multiple choices (“Do you think it might be a or b or c? Why?”) or asking an open-ended question, starting with “How/Where/When might others see the situation differently?” This helps to foster consideration of other perspectives. One especially useful question is “What is positive/helpful/new in the comment your classmate just made?”

2. Flexible thinking (ethical decision-making). We want students to think outside of the box and not be satisfied that the first idea that comes to them is the best one. Key words to use are else and other and their variants, as in “What else can you think of?” or “How many other/different ways might that happen?”

Quick brainstorming is also useful (“Think of at least two other ideas after the first one you have”), as is alternative problem-solving, where you ask students to imagine various ways that other people might see/feel about a situation, in literature, history, current events, athletics, etc.

3. Self-calming and focusing (self-management). Two key elements help activate students’ self-calming strategies. First, remind or prompt them to use previously learned procedures (such as a breathing technique or visualizing a safe, calming place) in upcoming situations. It’s also helpful to have students engage in mindfulness activities at key points during the day.

Second, ask students as needed, “What should you be focusing on right now?” and “What exactly are your classmates/group/team members saying and expressing now?” Repeated prompting in this way fosters students’ asking themselves these questions and improving their own focus on themselves and those around them.

4. Goal setting (self-management). With all the distractions our students face, we need to activate their goal-setting skills. The best way to do that is through asking questions that help them articulate key outcomes (not unrelated to focusing). For example, prompts such as these all help with goal setting:

• “What do you/what do they/what did they want to have happen?”

• “What was/is the problem you are trying to solve?”

• “How would you like things to wind up at the end?”

It’s also valuable to periodically ask students to set personal and school-related goals (e.g., one or two areas in which they want to make themselves a better person, areas of character or academics they might want to improve, and/or ways they can make their class/group/team better.

5. Constructive feedback (relationship skills). Given how much work is now being done in teams and groups, constructive feedback prompts activate necessary relationship skills such as consideration for others and perspective taking.

Approaches like the “compliment sandwich” (one thing done well, one thing to improve, one thing done well) and helping students structure feedback in terms of “You said/did…; I think/feel these aspects were good/on target” and “I have some questions about… Do you think… could use some reconsideration?” tend to enable others to hear one’s feedback.

To help students pay attention to the impact of their comments and activate their improvement skills in this area, ask, “How will/did he/she take what you are saying?; What can you say to him/her that would be helpful/make his/her work better?”

6. Reflection (self-awareness). Reflection is the capacity to review one’s own actions and feedback from others, determine strengths and areas in need of improvement, and incorporate that information in a constructive spirit. It involves one’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, goals, and purpose.

We reflect on what was learned (What is one takeaway from that experience?), what feelings arose (How are you feeling at this moment? How do you think X might be feeling at this moment/after Y or Z happened?), or how one’s ideas might have been changed (What questions have been raised for you? What new goals might you set?/How might your plans be adjusted?). Many students benefit from keeping a paper or electronic reflection journal.

7. Preparation for presentations (all skills). Presentation is the process of taking the results of one’s work and organizing it and communicating it for particular audiences. Students are “presenting” all the time, including deciding what and how to respond to a teacher’s question or classmate’s comment, how to craft an essay in response to an assignment, even how to read aloud. Help students make these presentation situations explicit by problem-solving the perspective of their audience and planning how to communicate information in ways that consider audiences’ emotions, motivations, or interests and specific requirements of the presentation context (e.g., length of time available, nature of the venue).

By using activating strategies consistently, we help students exercise their SEL muscles across varied school circumstances. This will improve their social and emotional competencies and character as well as their academic achievement and their contributions to school, classes, teams, clubs, and other relevant group contexts.

Share your thoughts here. Happy Reading!

    QAG Team

• 4 ounces whole-wheat baguette, sliced on an angle into 12 (1/4-inch-thick) slices

• 3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped mixed fresh tender herbs (such as mint and/or basil), plus more for garnish

• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 teaspoon hot honey

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1 small peach, chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)

• 1 tablespoon balsamic glaze

Substitute:

Balsamic Glaze : Lemon Juice

Ricotta Cheese : Cottage Cheese or Tofu

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Arrange baguette slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake until lightly toasted, about 8 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, whisk ricotta, herbs, oil, hot honey and salt together until light and creamy. Spread about 2 teaspoons ricotta mixture onto each toasted baguette slice. Top with peaches.

3. Transfer the bruschetta slices to a platter; drizzle with balsamic glaze. Garnish with more herbs, if desired.

   
   Nutrition Information

   Serving Size: 3 slices

   Calories 233, Fat g, Saturated Fat 4 g, Cholesterol 24 mg, Carbohydrates 31 g, Total Sugars 8 g, Added Sugars 3 g, Protein 9 g, Fibre 2 g, Sodium 329 mg, Potassium 143 mg

A renowned neuroscientist, Jaak Panksepp, PhD, created the 9-Minute Theory for parents and caregivers showing how emotional connection during specific times of the day can help to shape young lives with predictability; relational contagion, or mimicking one another’s emotions; and the opportunity to strengthen connections with one another and the environment. This occurs every day through three segments of three minutes each. This theory has significant application in our schools.

The first segment begins our days at school and sets up the nervous system for steadiness and learning. The midday few minutes address transitions through intentional breaks, resetting the nervous systems. How we intentionally exit or end the day with the last three-minute segment of connection helps us and our students to feel or experience a sense of closure and calm.

The 9-Minute Theory addresses rituals such as personalised greetings, morning meetings, and community circles that many classrooms already have in place. But it’s more than the traditional bell work. It’s the felt environment that we experience throughout the day that creates a sense of relational wealth.

Our students often bring nervous system dis regulation into school. It’s next to impossible to focus and problem-solve when we feel anxious or any emotional discomfort. Stress behaviours interfere with deep learning. As educators, we have all felt the residual impact this generation of children and youth encountered from the unprecedented societal layers of trauma and adversity that the pandemic added to the existing mental and emotional health crises.

We are experiencing these stress- or pain-based behaviour through an increase of physical and verbal aggression. Our nervous systems prioritise attachment. The physiology of the brain is impacted by trauma, but the physiology of connection can mitigate our brokenness and our disconnect from adversarial and traumatic experiences. Schools are where our children and youth spend much of their time in their developing years. Inside our schools, classrooms, hallways, and transportation systems are where the adults have an opportunity to help students during these short segments to access the prefrontal cortex, where safety and connection reside.

These nine minutes each day can be thought of as warm-ups before learning begins, while resetting our nervous systems at midday and winding down with closure as we exit the school day.

Below are quick practices that we can integrate in the school day with intention as we prepare for learning, testing, and the skills needed to strengthen working memory, emotional regulation, and problem-solving skills that are a part of our executive functions.

INITIAL 3 MINUTES: CONNECTION STRETCHING

1. Paper tearing. Each student is greeted at the door with a blank piece of paper. They are instructed to take the paper to their seats and wait until everyone is ready. The teacher and students then begin tearing the paper into as many small pieces as they can for two minutes. When the time is up, students can partner with each other, or work alone, beginning to create shapes, designs, or anything they begin to see in the torn pieces. After a few minutes, students can share their designs with one another.

2. Let’s toast. In this practice, we’ve given our students coffee mugs that they can keep at school. A few mornings each week, as we sit in our circles, we begin to toast each other, noting strengths, kindness, and attributes. We fill our mugs with water most days, but on rare occasions we have juice or hot cocoa.

3. Imagination starters. These are fun questions to share with each other as we warm up our brains for learning.

• If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?

• What would you like to be remembered or known for?

• What sport would you like to compete in if you were in the Olympics?

• What magical power would you like to have for one week?

MIDDAY: 3-MINUTE STATION BREAKS

Transition segments. This is the time of day when we and our students need a few minutes to reset and begin again. Playing music, hydrating, journaling, drawing, moving around, and having a snack are helpful as we invite students to take this transition time for a few minutes. Some effective activities during this time include the following:

1. My Favourite Vacation Spot. In this activity, students can draw or write about an imaginary place they would love to travel, sharing the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. They can add to this image or story all week long.

2. Collaboration stories. In small groups of four to six students, we ask each person to draw a shape, line, or design of any kind on a blank sticky note. As a group, we decide who goes first. The first person holds up their note and begins to tell a story about their drawing. The next person holds up their note and continues the story with their own work. We move through the group, each person contributing to a fun story. Another challenge is seeing who can recall the entire group.

THE FINAL 3 MINUTES: EXITING THE DAY

In this segment, we can focus on effort and touch points that went well. How we exit with our students helps us all to begin a fresh day or class period tomorrow.

1. Effort moments. Draw or write down something you put effort into today. This is not about a good day or bad day, but a moment when you felt motivated or tried to work out a solution or helped a classmate when he or she was struggling.

2. Video clip endings. Students begin by watching the first half of these clips. They then write or draw their own endings, using their imagination and personal connections to the content, or they guess the endings. They wrap up by finishing the clips, comparing their guesses with the actual endings.

This is a great podcast episode you might be interested in called "An Invitation for Innovation: Why Creativity Is Found, Not Forced" [Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast]. It's from the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast and features Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School who focuses on leadership and innovation.

The episode dives into how leaders can create environments that encourage innovation. Here are some of the key takeaways you can expect:

• Collaboration is key: Innovation isn't about a single person's idea, but rather the result of folks with different backgrounds and perspectives working together.

• Embrace the unknown: Great breakthroughs often come from venturing outside your comfort zone and exploring new territory.

• Communication is king: Leaders need to foster open communication and storytelling to get everyone on board and keep ideas flowing.

• Culture matters: Organizations that value innovation create a safe space for experimentation and learning from mistakes.

This episode is a great resource for anyone who wants to understand how to cultivate a culture of innovation in their team or organization.

The past two years I’ve worked with educators across the country to help them harness the power of AI as an instructional planning tool and assistant. Vocabulary instruction is just one area where AI tools can help teachers save time by creating supplemental resources that address the varied needs of their students. 

You can use a chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT to gather a list of ideas for an upcoming lesson, but let’s take a look at how you can use generative AI tools to create images that help bring vocabulary to life. It’s a topic I’ve covered on my blog and podcast, and I recently had the chance to work with elementary educators in New York to put these ideas into action in their classrooms.

Setting a purpose 

If you’ve ever spent time searching for the “perfect” image to support a lesson, you know a Google Search can only get you so far. You can use an AI tool to create an image to share with your students to explain a concept or illustrate a vocabulary word.

Where should you start? Identify the vocabulary words you anticipate students having difficulty with or that are crucial for an upcoming lesson. When trying this strategy with a group of elementary teachers this spring, I simply asked them to start off by jotting down a list of words related to an upcoming reading lesson. 

For example, you could list words that are important for reading comprehension related to a short passage you’ll read aloud to your class. Alternatively, you might make a list of words related to an upcoming lesson in a social studies class where students are learning about communities. 

Choosing an AI tool

This year my go-to tool for creating images with generative AI has been Adobe Firefly. I’ve done some work with the Adobe Education team and am super-impressed with the quality of Adobe Firefly. It might be my favorite, but it’s not the only option. Ideogram and Microsoft Copilot Designer are just two more examples that essentially perform the same function. These tools do not do substantially different things, at least not in the use cases featured in this blog post. However, there are a few things to consider when deciding on which tool to use.

I would suggest you choose a tool:

• That you already use, with these AI features (like how Adobe Express includes Adobe Firefly technology)

• That makes it easy for you to log in (such as using Google’s single sign-on)

• That has free options for getting started (you can always upgrade later)

Crafting a prompt

If you have explored chatbots this school year, you may already have experience with prompt engineering. When writing a prompt in any generative AI tool, you want to be clear and specific. Imagine you want to introduce the vocabulary word lighthouse to students. You can create an engaging scene for students that includes your vocabulary word.

Similar to a task or set of instructions you might give a chatbot, where you want a text-based response (like a list or lesson plan), in a tool used to create an image you’ll want to choose your words carefully. For example, you might combine a subject with an action item and add a description of the setting, such as something like the following: 

AI-generated image created with Adobe Firefly

A puppy in a raincoat dancing in front of a lighthouse on a rainy day.

Some tools have filters or other formatting options to choose from, such as the color palette or positioning of the subject. You can also add more text to your prompt, like this:

A cartoon puppy in a neon raincoat dancing in front of a lighthouse set far away in the background on a rainy, gloomy day.

AI-generated image created with Adobe Firefly

You can continue to tweak your prompt until it gets closer to the desired image. It may take a few tries to get something that is close to your own vision. The output might not be perfect, but I’ve found much more success using these types of tools than in searching for a just-right picture in a Google Image search.

More prompt examples

Imagine you are introducing landforms to students and want a visual that illustrates the word. Although you might have a particular place in mind and opt to share a photograph of that place, you can also create an image that places more emphasis on one aspect to help spark a conversation using a new vocabulary word, such as this:

An isthmus shown from above surrounded by bright blue water.

You could also choose to add an additional instruction to your prompt that will influence the output, like this:

 An isthmus shown from above surrounded by bright blue water; photorealistic

Or

A cartoon isthmus shown from above surrounded by bright blue water

Although you might find that it is easiest to create images that feature a noun (e.g., a lighthouse or isthmus), you can also create images that depict the setting of a book or a subject taking an action. These can reference a set of vocabulary words or spark a conversation where you want students to use a particular vocabulary word in context. 

For example, you might try this prompt if talking about a book like Charlotte’s Web:

The kitchen of a small farmhouse with breakfast on the stove and fresh coffee being brewed.

AI-generated image created with Adobe Firefly

Or you might try this prompt to introduce the word underneath or beneath to students:

 A table with a laundry basket, pair of shoes, and purse on the floor underneath it.

Sharing with students

One question I often get when talking about AI-generated images with teachers is how to give credit and acknowledge an AI tool’s role as a cocreator of content. When sharing images you’ve created, you have the perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of AI. Here are some things you might focus your conversation on:

• Giving credit to your AI collaborator by adding a citation

•  How to spot AI-generated content such as a deep fake image

The logistics of sharing your images with students may vary. For example, you might add your image to a slide deck and display it on the board for students. Or you might create a game for students to introduce or review the vocabulary word. When working with the group of teachers I mentioned earlier, I used images I created with the AI tool Adobe Firefly to create a matching game in Nearpod.

Do let us know about your experiences about usage of any AI tool in your classroom.

Feeling overwhelmed? Try these simple techniques to unwind at work:

• Breathe Deep: Take short breaks to focus on deep, slow breaths. This can quickly calm your nervous system.

• Mini-Meditate: Even a few minutes of mindfulness can help. Close your eyes, focus on your breath, and let go of worries.

• Stretch It Out: Gentle stretches can relieve physical tension and mental stress. Try neck rolls, shoulder shrugs, or arm circles.

• Power Pose: Stand tall with your shoulders back. This simple posture can boost confidence and reduce stress.

• Hydrate: Dehydration can increase stress. Keep a water bottle handy and sip regularly.

• Nature Break: If possible, step outside for a quick nature fix. Even a few minutes can be refreshing.

• Listen to Music: Uplifting tunes can improve mood and reduce stress. Create a calming playlist.

Remember, small steps can make a big difference. Incorporate these quick hacks into your workday for a calmer and more focused you.

As a result, students feel safe, valued, and that they belong, and they are available for learning. As Patricia Jennings writes in Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom, “Positive emotions enhance cognitive abilities and promote strong and enduring social relationships, good health, longevity, resistance to illness, agency, and efficacy.”

Below are some ideas for building self-regulation that I have found beneficial for myself and for students.

Teacher Practices

While these strategies are designed for the teacher, they are also helpful for any adult or student. I’m framing these as “teacher practices,” however, because for the student strategies in the next section to work, the teacher needs to be in a self-regulated state.

Beginnings and endings matter. I begin my morning by checking in with myself, often with meditation. I also try to set a daily intention to be fully present for my students and colleagues and to nurture a classroom climate of acceptance and community.

My emotional state in the classroom impacts students. If I’m having a difficult time, I try to share this with students and colleagues so they’re aware. I keep this brief—we all face challenging times—and then return to the learning focus. I use a simple phrase such as, “I have a lot on my mind and am setting an intention to be fully present. I just want you to know, as I may not be as focused as I am most days.”

Reflection is key to wrap up my day, and I try to journal to celebrate successes, get frustrations off my chest, jot down puzzles of practice I’m facing to generate ideas for addressing them, and signal closure to my day. This isn’t always possible or easy, yet when I do it, I can have a more enjoyable evening to rejuvenate for the next day.

I also journal throughout the day, even if it’s just writing a phrase or two in my notebook. If I don’t have time to journal, when my mind is swirling and I feel overwhelmed, I pause and envision one of the following thoughts, trying to focus on a few positives.

• I keep track of moments of gratitude and try to describe them or envision them with as much detail as possible. 

• I write down celebrations, small and large.

• I note the impact I’ve had on a student and include what I think made the difference.

• I  recall a favorite teacher, with a focus on a specific memory. 

Some people also review their journal entries to note patterns of thinking, which can be a powerful practice. 

Over the past year, I’ve tried to slow down and ask myself about the story I am telling myself about difficult situations. In Mindfulness for Teachers, Jennings writes about “scripts” or databases of stored emotional memories that influence how we feel, think, and act. Because there is so much information coming in at any moment, our brain will often make an appraisal based on past experiences and patterns.

When I’m stressed, I find my stories to be more negative. When this happens, I pause, breathe, and take a balcony view to give myself some space and gather objective observational data on a situation before responding. Jennings suggests that, if necessary, make a reappraisal—change the way you think about a situation to reduce the effect of an emotion. 

Student/Classroom Practices

We can promote student self-regulation and community in a number of ways. When teachers greet every student every day, they set a tone for the day. Students notice everything teachers do, so it’s important to reflect and model throughout the day, on tone of voice, facial expression, and body language.

When students feel seen and engage in meaningful instruction based on their interests, they will be more likely to remain in a learning flow. Teachers can listen to understand, make eye contact, and bend down to be at their level. 

Routines support self-regulation. A morning meeting builds community and is an excellent way to check in with the emotional states of students and provide resources and support throughout the day based on this information. Use a chime during transitions. Jennings suggests asking students to listen carefully to the chime, then calling on each of them by name to acknowledge them and invite them to make the transition.

Teachers can interview a focal student about their experiences inside and outside of school and ask them for feedback or suggestions on the classroom experience. A focal student is a student I want to know more about in order to improve my practices to better meet their needs.

Assigning jobs helps students feel needed, present, and valued. I also highly recommend closing the day or an activity by asking students to reflect on and/or share moments, activities, or people that bring them joy or pride; this can be celebratory and also calls attention to positive events.

Celebrations of learning can center students: Invite another class in to hear your class’s latest writing project, have a dance party, go outside for an extra 10 minutes to acknowledge a day of quick transitions or meeting a learning goal—the options are endless.

The only thing I can truly control is myself. By growing my skills of self-regulation, I can be more in control of my emotions and therefore the climate of my classroom. It all comes down to relationships, between me and students and between students as a community.

When I am regulated, I can access all my emotional and cognitive resources in order to develop strong positive relationships with students and help them develop relationships with each other. As a result, students experience success in the moment and in the future, as they develop social, emotional, and academic gains. Quoting again from Patricia Jennings’s book, “Every single day we can and do make incredibly valuable contributions to the lives of individual students and to society as a whole.”

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

Based on my own teaching of college students as well as the responses of 1,461 virtual learning academy participants—pre-K to 12 teachers and administrators—to survey questions on impactful tools that I conducted from May to December 2020, and over 70 webinars and virtual learning sessions I’ve conducted in that time, these are the top teacher-tested tech tools I have identified. My learning has happened with my own students and through my own mistakes, and I received great ideas from educators across the U.S. and around the world.

I will continue to use these tools and recommend their use regardless of student level or how we deliver education moving forward.

Top Tech Tools for Educators

10. Parlay: For those of us who like to discuss rich texts with students, Parlay lets us connect with students remotely, facilitate discussion, and track how the dialogue builds. As students respond, Parlay shows who is contributing and where the conversation is moving as the software visually tracks student responses in a discussion web. Teachers can use built-in tools to assess the frequency of students’ answers in real time even when students are not in the same room. Teachers can then spend their time on deeper level assessment of the depth of student responses, which can also be recorded.

9. Flip: One of the most popular tech tools in schools, Flip won praise from teachers across the country because of the flexibility it gives students to submit digital projects and how it effectively supports peer and teacher feedback.

8. Edpuzzle: I’ve used Edpuzzle for a while, but it became much more vital as more of my content shifted online. Teachers use Edpuzzle to make video clips interactive by requiring student responses, which are easy to collect and assess.

7. Pear Deck: Pear Deck does to Google Slides what Edpuzzle does to videos. Slides become interactive, and teachers are able to collect feedback immediately.

6. Prezi: I’ve used the virtual presentation software Prezi for years, and I appreciate a recent update that allows me to be on the same screen with the graphics, creating a more engaging presentation. Prezi offers teachers another tool to capture short lectures, explanations, or other content in a more visually appealing and personal way than as a disembodied voice or thumbnail in the bottom corner of a screen.

5. Screencastify: Every student can be Sal Khan working out problems with explanations. This tool was first recommended to me by a teacher in Kenya, who explained how Screencastify transformed her math assessments by allowing students to show what they’re thinking from wherever they happen to be working. Screencastify is also valuable for reducing cheating as teachers can observe students working and explaining problems instead of just recording answers.

4. Mural: This has been a lifesaver for virtual collaboration. Mural allows teachers, students, and other contributors to write on virtual sticky notes and then organize and reorganize them in real time. The best in-person meetings are always the ones where the collective expertise of the room can be captured visually, and if we can’t be in the same room with students—or colleagues—Mural is the next best thing. Even better, there’s no need to go back and summarize or clean up evidence from the meeting. The Mural is the artifact. Many teachers are now using Jamboard in a similar way.

3. Gimkit: Created by a high school student who thought he could improve upon Kahoot!, Gimkit allows teachers to create question sets that students can answer over and over again while competing against each other, which is great for surface learning and review. Because Gimkit allows for repetition of answers and has a variety of ways for students to earn points, students remain engaged as they work at their own pace.

2. Mentimeter and Slido: These are both excellent for collecting feedback from groups, so I’ve ranked them together. I use these almost weekly for professional learning and in my classes. Slido allows participants to ask questions and then upvote others. There are many similar tools, but Slido is easy and free. Mentimeter allows students and teachers to collect real-time data on questions they have, in the form of word clouds, rankings, and various scales. These are great discussion starters that allow everyone to contribute to the collective wisdom of the group.

1. Learning management system: A good LMS is key to reducing stress for teachers, students, and parents. A list like this one would be counterproductive if it left your educational delivery fragmented among disparate tools, and a good LMS helps you organize everything into a one-stop shop.

“How can you live like this?” I asked him during one visit. “Where’s all of your Stuff?”

He shrugged. “I don’t need a lot of Stuff, J.D. Stuff isn’t important. It gets in the way of the things I really want.”

I didn’t know what he meant. To me, life was all about the Stuff. I had hundreds of CDs and thousands of books. I had a TV, a stereo, a house, and a car. I wanted more. Paul didn’t have any of these, but he had things I didn’t have. He had happiness. He had freedom. He had money. He had goals.

A Man with a Plan

At the time, I earned at least twice Paul’s income, but he had money in the bank while I had none. I couldn’t see the connection between Paul’s choices and his financial success, and I couldn’t see the connection between my spending and my mounting debt. I was blind. One day, Paul and I went for a hike. As we walked, he told me what he’d been up to. He was living in a small town in northern Washington, working two full-time jobs and a part-time job. He got free rent in exchange for housesitting with an elderly homeowner. “I’ve only had five or six days off in the past eight months,” Paul told me.

“That’s insane!” I said. “Why would you do that to yourself?”

Paul smiled. “I have a plan,” he said. “I want see the world. I’m going to buy a one-way ticket to Thailand. I’m just going to go. I’ll travel for as long as my money holds out. The more I work, the longer I’ll be able to stay on the road.”

I heard what he was saying, but I didn’t really understand. “Do you want to come with me?” Paul asked. Of course I did, but I couldn’t. I was in debt. I had no savings. I couldn’t afford to leave work for a few days, let alone a few months. How would I pay for all of my Stuff?

Paul went on his trip. He backpacked across Europe and Asia, and he loved it. He sent me postcards from Thailand and India, from Nepal and Israel and Jordan. He was gone for five months. Then, because he’d built his life around this goal, he returned to a financial position similar to the one he’d left. Back in Oregon, Paul settled down to a more “normal” way of life. He got a real job. He even bought a house. Still he pinched his pockets, spending only on the things that mattered most to him. In time, I began to see the connection between his lifestyle and his quiet wealth. Here’s what Paul taught me: Have a plan so amazing, so glowing, that you’re willing to walk blurry-eyed to work every day to make the money necessary to achieve it. What’s Your Why?

What do you want out of life?

Too many people never take the time to answer this question. And of those who do answer it, a large number have only nebulous dreams and goals. I want you to do more. Today, I want you to create a personal mission statement.

To complete this exercise — which is based on the work of Alan Lakein — you’ll need about an hour of uninterrupted time. You’ll also need a pen, some paper, and some sort of stopwatch. When you’re ready, I want you to do the following.

1. At the top of a blank page, write this question: What are my lifetime goals? For five minutes, list whatever comes to mind. Imagine you don’t have to worry about money, now or in the future. What would you do with the rest of your life? Don’t filter yourself. Fill the entire page, if you can. When you’re finished, spend an additional five minutes reviewing these goals. Make any changes or additions you see fit. Before moving on, note the three goals that seem most important to you.

2. On a new piece of paper, write: How would I like to spend the next five years? Spend five minutes answering this question. Be honest. Don’t list what you will do or should do, but what you’d like to do. Suspend judgment. When your time is up, again spend five minutes reviewing and editing your answers. As before, highlight the three goals that most appeal to you.

3. On a new piece of paper, write: How would I like to spend the next five years? Spend five minutes answering this question. Be honest. Don’t list what you will do or should do, but what you’d like to do. Suspend judgment. When your time is up, again spend five minutes reviewing and editing your answers. As before, highlight the three goals that most appeal to you.

4. At the top of a fourth piece of paper, write: My Most Important Goals. Below that, copy over the goals you marked as most important from answering each of the three questions. (If any answers are similar, combine them into one. For instance, if “write a novel” was one of your top answers to the first question and “writing fiction” was a top answer to the second, you’d merge these into a single goal.)

5. The final step requires a bit of creativity. Label a fifth piece of paper My Mission. Look through your list of most important goals. Does one stand out from the others? Can you see a common thread that connects some (or all) of the goals? Using your list as a starting point, draft a Mission Statement. Your Mission Statement should be short — but not too short. It might be anywhere from a few words to a few sentences. Take as much time as you need to make this the best, most compelling paragraph you can write.

   When you’ve finished, I want you to set aside your Mission Statement and walk away. Go about the rest of your life for a few days. Don’t forget about your mission, but keep it in the back of your mind.

   Note: As your priorities and tastes change, and as new opportunities present themselves, your mission will adapt and grow.

A Young TED Talk Sensation

At a tender age, Molly delivered a captivating TED Talk titled "How Every Child Can Thrive by Five." What makes her achievement even more extraordinary is that she was one of the youngest individuals ever to grace the TED stage.

Key points from her talk:

• The critical importance of the first five years of life: Molly emphasizes how these formative years shape a child's brain development and future potential.

• The power of "serve and return": This concept highlights the significance of responsive interactions between caregivers and children, building strong bonds and cognitive development.

• The role of play: Molly underscores the vital role of play in fostering learning, problem-solving, and social skills.

• The impact of toxic stress: She sheds light on the negative effects of stressful environments on a child's development.

• The power of community: Molly emphasizes the importance of supportive communities in providing children with the necessary resources and opportunities to thrive.

A Global Impact

Molly's TED Talk has resonated with audiences worldwide, sparking conversations about early childhood education and inspiring parents, caregivers, and policymakers to prioritize the needs of young children. Her message has contributed to raising awareness about the long-term benefits of investing in early childhood development.

1. Scheduling unnecessary meetings.

2. Not planning your workday.

3. Taking criticism too personally.

4. Complaining a lot or being negative.

5. Checking social media during work hours.

6. Doing tasks that belong to others.

7. Drinking too much coffee.

8. Forgetting to respond to work emails.

9. Getting distracted by constant small talk. 10. Not asking for help when needed.

11. Doing other tasks during meetings.

12. Not setting deadlines for yourself and others.

13. Ignoring small mistakes.

14. Saying “yes” too often.

15. Working outside of work hours.

40% of our day consists of habitual actions. So be sure your habits build the life you want to live.

♻️ Steal this cheat sheet as a reminder to avoid habits that steal your productivity.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?”

“50 cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it.

“How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he inquired. Some people were now waiting for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient.

“35 cents,” she said brusquely.

The little boy again counted the coins. “I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and departed.

When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw.

There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were 15 cents – her tip.

We all have such a bank. Its name is Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever time you have failed to use wisely. It carries over no balance from day to day. It allows no overdraft so you can’t borrow against yourself or use more time than you have. Each day, the account starts fresh. Each night, it destroys an unused time. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, it’s your loss and you can’t appeal to get it back.

There is never any borrowing time. You can’t take a loan out on your time or against someone else’s. The time you have is the time you have and that is that. Time management is yours to decide how you spend the time, just as with money you decide how you spend the money. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do them and where they fall in our priorities.

But over my two decades as a teacher, I have learned to embrace the timer and use it in ways that feel humanistic rather than robotic. I’ve come to see it as one of the most important tools for any teacher, regardless of subject or grade level, and one critical to ensuring that diverse learners can thrive in our classrooms.

4 Reasons Why Every Teacher Needs a Timer

1. Timers help us better manage our time with students. The time we spend with students is our most precious resource. I have crunched my own numbers and realized that I only have 84 hours with my 10th-grade World History students per year. That’s about 21 hours per quarter, or 10 hours in the average month. This is teaching time that I can easily squander if I’m not careful, especially when I subtract other demands such as assessments and review lessons.

2. Timers improve our lesson planning. They give us a better sense of how long lesson components actually take—e.g., are my “mini-lectures” actually miniature in terms of the time they leave for student project time?

3. Timers allow us to make better, less anxious decisions in the moment. For example, do I actually have the time to address this fascinating but semi-tangential question from a favorite student?

4. Timers are ultimately about equity. They help us to better serve our most vulnerable students. When we fall behind in our lessons, we frequently end up rushing later on, which only widens the learning gaps between our strongest and weakest students. Often the most critical lesson components for supporting all students happen in the second half of the lesson—things like independent practice, checks for understanding, reteaching, and consolidation. Timers help us make sure we can get to these key moments in the lesson rather than falling behind during less important warm-up activities.

Using Timers—Without Turning Into a Drill Sergeant

Be transparent. Make sure students can see the timer. I typically insert a quick YouTube timer video in the corner of my daily projected Google Slide deck.

One of the author’s assignments, with a timer to help students stay on track

You can search for two-minute timers, 10-minute timers, etc., and then adjust the scroll bar in the video if you want something more specific, like 45 seconds for a partner turn-and-talk. (To insert the video, go to Insert menu→ then choose Video → then search YouTube.) Teachers who use a document camera can instead put a small kitchen timer or even a cell phone timer in the corner of the display area for all students to see.

Keeping the timer visible at all times allows students to look and see how much time they have left for an activity rather than relying on verbal time stamps from the teacher. And it builds a gentle culture of urgency. It sends students the message that our time together is important and finite.

Include student voice. Even though the timer is omnipresent in my class, I never want it to feel like some imposing clock tower. At times, I will ask students how many minutes they need to review homework or peer edit with a partner and then set the timer accordingly. Other times, during the last few minutes of a longer block of work time—for example, a 15-minute independent reading block—I will say, “Time check,” at which point students show me with their fingers how many more minutes they need.

My students know that the timer is not a straitjacket, that I will adjust as needed with their input in mind. And during those moments when I do extend the timer—by three minutes, for example—it helps me remember that I will have to make up for these three minutes later in the lesson.

Time teacher-centered as well as student-centered activities. The most obvious moments for timing are when students are taking the lead—e.g., turn-and-talks or group lab work. That said, it’s useful to time teacher-centered moments as well—e.g., five minutes for teacher-led homework review. That way, it’s easy to look at the timer and quickly decide whether you have time to examine that one extra practice problem together. It even can keep us in check as teachers if, like me, you sometimes get a bit carried away by impromptu teachable moments, current events connections, and Boston sports triumphs.

Although they are hardly the most dazzling piece of edtech, timers are an indispensable tool in the teacher tool kit, useful for both teachers and students. While they seem restrictive at first, when effectively used, timers ultimately liberate your teaching—unlocking higher levels of student growth and empowering you to make more confident teaching decisions every minute of the day.

A TikTok user, Jordan Bruss, recently revealed why people should not set several alarms. "If you're somebody who sets multiple alarms I have bad news. Don't come for me. Just trying to help," he said in the clip, which now has over 10 million views, as per the New York Post.

The health expert wrote in the caption, "Good sleep hygiene is a big part of my physical and mental health. I promise I would not be in the shape I am in without serious research in the deep sleep department. Don't cause yourself extra physical and mental stress."

The final and fourth stage of the sleep cycle, known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, is often entered and exited during the final hours of sleep. Notably, this phase is especially crucial for digesting memories and stimulating creativity. It could affect brain function if that stage of sleep is broken up.

"Waking to multiple alarms every morning really disrupts your rapid eye movement (REM) cycle frequently this actually causes sleep inertia, increased drowsiness, fatigue, mood swings and it also raises your cortisol levels," the nurse revealed in the video.

Every time the alarm goes off, she explains, the body goes into a "fight or flight response," which can be considered stressful. "Over time, a chronic morning 'fight or flight' adrenaline response can cause long-term stress, depression, and cardiovascular problems," the Joint Chiropractic site stated.

The tensions building in your body from a lack of consistent sleep can also contribute to weight gain. "Excess cortisol levels make you gain and hang on to weight. So when the alarm goes off, it's time, get up. You'll look and feel better!"

Ms Bruss suggested setting only one alarm. "Don't keep traumatizing yourself! When that alarm goes off in the morning, get up!" she remarked.

Dr Alicia Roth, a clinician at Cleveland Clinic's Sleep Disorders Center in Ohio, told CNN that if a person needs to wake up at 7 am and the alarms begin at 6 am, they are getting an hour of bad-quality sleep.

Although having only one alarm is ideal, she noted that it could be challenging to wake up to only one after utilising several as a safety precaution. She suggests experimenting with various alarm clocks, such as one that uses light or one that requires you to get out of bed to turn it off. According to Dr. Cathy Goldstein, a sleep medicine physician at the Michigan Medicine Sleep Disorders Centers, it's also critical to wake up and go to bed at roughly the same times every day.

She said that it will be hard "if you're somebody who sleeps really well from 3 am to noon, and that's how you sleep on the weekends, but on Monday morning, you have to wake up at 6 am to commute. That's earlier than your biology is prepared to wake up, and it's going to be very difficult to get up."

Post a comment Dr Goldstein suggests adjusting bedtime every few days by thirty minutes, or once a week by an hour for individuals who want to adjust their biological clocks. She also mentioned that avoiding bright lighting and restricting screen time to no more than four hours before bed can aid in enhancing the body's natural melatonin production

Vibha is a native of Bali Kandarsi village in the Pabo block of Pauri Garhwal. Vibha’s neighbourhood was home to a differently-able girl named Hema Rawat, whose family often made her sit in the courtyard all day. Sometimes she didn’t even wear full clothes. Vibha was also young at that time and Hema left a permanent impression on her mind. The experience helped her in laying the foundation for her social service, which has now become an integral part of her life. Apart from the regular school schedule, Vibha, an innovator by nature, said, “A gentle mind needs a stress-free, loving and affectionate environment. And with a view to imprinting life skills in students, a teacher should be given opportunities to experiment with innovative ideas.”

In order to inculcate the value of belongingness, Vibha decided to work on some innovative ideas like preparing eco-bricks from the single-use plastic in the school premises. Vibha said, “A group of students collects all the used plastics and make ecobricks daily in school. My plan is to develop eco-parks and develop a sense of environmental conservation among students,” Vibha said.

Working towards environmental protection, Vibha has been successful in motivating students who bring used plastic bottles from their homes and neighbourhoods to school and convert them into eco-bricks. “I have planned to create tree guards and a seating space with these ecobricks,” elaborated Vibha, whose future plans to set up a recycling unit are also gaining momentum now.

She is also working towards getting the unit to install hand-made paper using the paper used in the school. A fully-equipped recycling unit will be developed soon with the help of the school administration.
“Students will learn a lot of things in the field of environmental protection through these activities,” said Vibha.

Vibha is very creative and always comes up with innovative ideas. She believes that value education is the demand of the time. Teachers are the most important people who can change the world. With an experience-oriented approach, Vibha stressed, “The journey of life without quality education will remain a distant dream unless we infuse into our children the water of morality, that is, to the extent of learning and re-learning the art of being human.”

We can’t help but conclude that the miscreants and criminals who end up committing various types of crimes were once students. The question then becomes, “what went wrong with the process of raising them? Whether or not it was a lack of care and caution or circumspection? The reasons are myriad and so are the answers.”

Vibha married VK Naudiyal, a physics teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, in 2002 and sees her two daughters, Gargi and Gauri, as inspirations in her life.

Vibha is a native of Bali Kandarsi village in the Pabo block of Pauri Garhwal. Vibha’s neighbourhood was home to a differently-able girl named Hema Rawat, whose family often made her sit in the courtyard all day. Sometimes she didn’t even wear full clothes. Vibha was also young at that time and Hema left a permanent impression on her mind. The experience helped her in laying the foundation for her social service, which has now become an integral part of her life. Apart from the regular school schedule, Vibha, an innovator by nature, said, “A gentle mind needs a stress-free, loving and affectionate environment. And with a view to imprinting life skills in students, a teacher should be given opportunities to experiment with innovative ideas.”

In order to inculcate the value of belongingness, Vibha decided to work on some innovative ideas like preparing eco-bricks from the single-use plastic in the school premises. Vibha said, “A group of students collects all the used plastics and make ecobricks daily in school. My plan is to develop eco-parks and develop a sense of environmental conservation among students,” Vibha said.

Working towards environmental protection, Vibha has been successful in motivating students who bring used plastic bottles from their homes and neighbourhoods to school and convert them into eco-bricks. “I have planned to create tree guards and a seating space with these ecobricks,” elaborated Vibha, whose future plans to set up a recycling unit are also gaining momentum now.

She is also working towards getting the unit to install hand-made paper using the paper used in the school. A fully-equipped recycling unit will be developed soon with the help of the school administration.
“Students will learn a lot of things in the field of environmental protection through these activities,” said Vibha.

Vibha is very creative and always comes up with innovative ideas. She believes that value education is the demand of the time. Teachers are the most important people who can change the world. With an experience-oriented approach, Vibha stressed, “The journey of life without quality education will remain a distant dream unless we infuse into our children the water of morality, that is, to the extent of learning and re-learning the art of being human.”

We can’t help but conclude that the miscreants and criminals who end up committing various types of crimes were once students. The question then becomes, “what went wrong with the process of raising them? Whether or not it was a lack of care and caution or circumspection? The reasons are myriad and so are the answers.”

Vibha married VK Naudiyal, a physics teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, in 2002 and sees her two daughters, Gargi and Gauri, as inspirations in her life.

By Mike Delmont

Johner Images / Shutterstock

Something that has become abundantly clear to me as I’ve progressed in my career is that many skills that are essential to student success are never explicitly taught, such as note-taking and studying. In talking to the high school juniors, seniors, and college students I teach, a large number of them have said that they wished their prior schooling had taught them these two skills in particular. Given this, I believe it’s essential that we as educators make a more conscious effort to build such skills in our students.

When done well, notes should aid in both studying and the initial learning of material. The act of taking notes should result in students deepening their understanding of the material, but often students do not take notes in a manner that accomplishes this.

One problem is that a lot of students believe that note-taking means they should write down everything word for word. Some students are even explicitly taught that this is what they should do, and there’s a reason that it sounds like such good advice to students and teachers alike; this method would result in students having exactly what was taught whenever it comes time to review.

However, there are two main reasons why this is a problem. First, it is a very passive form of taking notes and uses System 1 thinking, which relies on long-term memory and tends to require less effort, meaning it’s easy to write all of the information down without initially remembering most of it. In addition, it’s very easy for students to write down things they don’t actually understand when using this technique. You could very easily copy verbatim a paragraph written in a language you don’t speak, but you would have no idea what it meant.

Effective Note-Taking

The best thing for students to do is summarize the material and write it in their own words. As students think about the information that was presented to them in order to summarize it, they mentally work with the content more and incorporate more of System 2 thinking, which improves recall rates as it requires working memory and generally takes more effort. This ensures that students properly understand the material as they are taking notes.

Will there be times where students don’t properly understand it or know what to write? Of course! For those situations, students need to be taught and encouraged to ask questions so that the teacher can explain it in a different way or with more details.

For teachers who like the use of guided notes, which I personally have used a lot in my high school classes, it’s important to design the notes in a way that encourages and allows for this method of note-taking. Filling in the blanks results in very shallow processing of the material, much like asking students to write everything word for word.

There will no doubt be some resistance from students at first, but teaching them and preparing them for this method of note-taking will only help them in the long run, particularly if students are encouraged to ask questions whenever needed.

2 Additional Strategies to Aid in Note-Taking

1. Shorthand. Sometimes, students worry about having too much to write and not being able to write everything they want to while also paying attention. Using abbreviations can help with this—for example, using an arrow instead of discussing that something activates or leads to something else. Compare the following two options for writing down the same concept—one is clearly a lot quicker to write than the other.

• ↑ cars= ↑ CO₂ = ↑ temp

• Greater numbers of cars will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions, which contributes to global warming.

By writing in this manner and saving time, students will be able to more actively listen to and pay attention to their teacher. A tip that could also be helpful for them is to write down a key for new abbreviations when they’re first used, to avoid problems such as forgetting that “MM” is referring to the mitochondrial matrix.

2. Annotation and summarization. After taking the initial notes, it also can be helpful to review them and develop one’s own entire summary of the topic. Annotating the notes with more details, writing in new examples, and emphasizing key points allow you to review the material, think about it in an active way, and improve your notes while also increasing your memory of the material.

These strategies are what common note-taking systems, such as Cornell and AVID notes, are developed around, as they increase System 2 thinking. I personally like to encourage my students to use a different color when they annotate, and I suggest that they draw attention to main ideas, draw connections between concepts, and include small notes or mnemonics (such as that exons are what is expressed) to help them remember when they later review their notes.

Finally, it’s very important that where possible, students write out their notes as opposed to typing them. A lot of research has been done on handwritten versus typed notes, and it’s shown that typing notes results in faster note-taking but worse retention and grades in the course. Not only is this because of increased distractions from typing notes, but handwriting results in deeper processing of material and greater recall of concepts.

It’s helpful to start class with some instruction on how notes should be taken; we tend to assume that students know how, but they rarely ever actually receive such instruction. It may take some time for students to get used to changing how they take notes, and many may be upset at first about “not knowing what to write,” but it can be remarkably helpful.

There was never a human race which did not have a religion and worship some sort of God or gods. Whether the God or gods existed or not is no question; but what is the analysis of this psychological phenomenon? Why is all the world trying to find, or seeking for, a God? Why? Because in spite of all this bondage, in spite of nature and this tremendous energy of law grinding us down, never allowing us to turn to any side — wherever we go, whatever we want to do, we are thwarted by this law, which is everywhere — in spite of all this, the human soul never forgets its freedom and is ever seeking it. The search for freedom is the search of all religions; whether they know it or not, whether they can formulate it well or ill, the idea is there. Even the lowest man, the most ignorant, seeks for something which has power over nature’s laws. He wants to see a demon, a ghost, a god — somebody who can subdue nature, for whom nature is not almighty, for whom there is no law. “Oh, for somebody who can break the law!” That is the cry coming from the human heart. We are always seeking for someone who breaks the law. The rushing engine speeds along the railway track; the little worm crawls out of its way. We at once say, “The engine is dead matter, a machine; and the worm is alive,” because the worm attempted to break the law. The engine, with all its power and might, can never break the law. It is made to go in any direction man wants, and it cannot do otherwise; but the worm, small and little though it was, attempted to break the law and avoid the danger. It tried to assert itself against law, assert its freedom; and there was the sign of the future God in it.

Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. In all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way, to fly from the other particles; but the others are holding it in check. Our earth is trying to fly away from the sun, and the moon from the earth. Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in the universe has for its basis this one struggle towards freedom; it is under the impulse of this tendency that the saint prays and the robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one, we call it evil; and when the manifestation of it is proper and high, we call it good. But the impulse is the same, the struggle towards freedom. The saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage, and he wants to get rid of it; so he worships God. The thief is oppressed with the idea that he does not possess certain things, and he tries to get rid of that want, to obtain freedom from it; so he steals. Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite, unspeakable bliss, while that on which the robber has set his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.

According to Swami Vivekananda, the ultimate aim of human life is becoming “free”. He told—^[Source]All things in nature work according to law. Nothing is excepted. The mind as well as everything in external nature is governed and controlled by law.
Internal and external nature, mind and matter, are in time and space, and are bound by the law of causation.
The freedom of the mind is a delusion. How can the mind be free when it is controlled and bound by law?
The law of Karma is the law of causation.
We must become free. We are free; the work is to know it. We must give up all slavery, all bondage of whatever kind. We must not only give up our bondage to earth and everything and everybody on earth, but also to all ideas of heaven and happiness.
We are bound to earth by desire and also to God, heaven, and the angels. A slave is a slave whether to man, to God, or to angels.
The idea of heaven must pass away. The idea of heaven after death where the good live a life of eternal happiness is a vain dream, without a particle of meaning or sense in it. Wherever there is happiness there must follow unhappiness sometime. Wherever there is pleasure there must be pain. This is absolutely certain, every action has its reaction somehow.
The idea of freedom is the only true idea of salvation—freedom from everything, the senses, whether of pleasure or pain, from good as well as evil.
More than this even, we must be free from death; and to be free from death, we must be free from life. Life is but a dream of death. Where there is life, there will be death; so get away from life if you would be rid of death.
We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.
Everything in time, space, and causation is bound. The soul is beyond all time, all space, all causation. That which is bound is nature, not the soul.
Therefore proclaim your freedom and be what you are—ever free, ever blessed.
Time, space, and causation we call Maya.

There was never a human race which did not have a religion and worship some sort of God or gods. Whether the God or gods existed or not is no question; but what is the analysis of this psychological phenomenon? Why is all the world trying to find, or seeking for, a God? Why? Because in spite of all this bondage, in spite of nature and this tremendous energy of law grinding us down, never allowing us to turn to any side — wherever we go, whatever we want to do, we are thwarted by this law, which is everywhere — in spite of all this, the human soul never forgets its freedom and is ever seeking it. The search for freedom is the search of all religions; whether they know it or not, whether they can formulate it well or ill, the idea is there. Even the lowest man, the most ignorant, seeks for something which has power over nature’s laws. He wants to see a demon, a ghost, a god — somebody who can subdue nature, for whom nature is not almighty, for whom there is no law. “Oh, for somebody who can break the law!” That is the cry coming from the human heart. We are always seeking for someone who breaks the law. The rushing engine speeds along the railway track; the little worm crawls out of its way. We at once say, “The engine is dead matter, a machine; and the worm is alive,” because the worm attempted to break the law. The engine, with all its power and might, can never break the law. It is made to go in any direction man wants, and it cannot do otherwise; but the worm, small and little though it was, attempted to break the law and avoid the danger. It tried to assert itself against law, assert its freedom; and there was the sign of the future God in it.

Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. In all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way, to fly from the other particles; but the others are holding it in check. Our earth is trying to fly away from the sun, and the moon from the earth. Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in the universe has for its basis this one struggle towards freedom; it is under the impulse of this tendency that the saint prays and the robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one, we call it evil; and when the manifestation of it is proper and high, we call it good. But the impulse is the same, the struggle towards freedom. The saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage, and he wants to get rid of it; so he worships God. The thief is oppressed with the idea that he does not possess certain things, and he tries to get rid of that want, to obtain freedom from it; so he steals. Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite, unspeakable bliss, while that on which the robber has set his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.

According to Swami Vivekananda, the ultimate aim of human life is becoming “free”. He told—^[Source]All things in nature work according to law. Nothing is excepted. The mind as well as everything in external nature is governed and controlled by law.
Internal and external nature, mind and matter, are in time and space, and are bound by the law of causation.
The freedom of the mind is a delusion. How can the mind be free when it is controlled and bound by law?
The law of Karma is the law of causation.
We must become free. We are free; the work is to know it. We must give up all slavery, all bondage of whatever kind. We must not only give up our bondage to earth and everything and everybody on earth, but also to all ideas of heaven and happiness.
We are bound to earth by desire and also to God, heaven, and the angels. A slave is a slave whether to man, to God, or to angels.
The idea of heaven must pass away. The idea of heaven after death where the good live a life of eternal happiness is a vain dream, without a particle of meaning or sense in it. Wherever there is happiness there must follow unhappiness sometime. Wherever there is pleasure there must be pain. This is absolutely certain, every action has its reaction somehow.
The idea of freedom is the only true idea of salvation—freedom from everything, the senses, whether of pleasure or pain, from good as well as evil.
More than this even, we must be free from death; and to be free from death, we must be free from life. Life is but a dream of death. Where there is life, there will be death; so get away from life if you would be rid of death.
We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.
Everything in time, space, and causation is bound. The soul is beyond all time, all space, all causation. That which is bound is nature, not the soul.
Therefore proclaim your freedom and be what you are—ever free, ever blessed.
Time, space, and causation we call Maya.

There was never a human race which did not have a religion and worship some sort of God or gods. Whether the God or gods existed or not is no question; but what is the analysis of this psychological phenomenon? Why is all the world trying to find, or seeking for, a God? Why? Because in spite of all this bondage, in spite of nature and this tremendous energy of law grinding us down, never allowing us to turn to any side — wherever we go, whatever we want to do, we are thwarted by this law, which is everywhere — in spite of all this, the human soul never forgets its freedom and is ever seeking it. The search for freedom is the search of all religions; whether they know it or not, whether they can formulate it well or ill, the idea is there. Even the lowest man, the most ignorant, seeks for something which has power over nature’s laws. He wants to see a demon, a ghost, a god — somebody who can subdue nature, for whom nature is not almighty, for whom there is no law. “Oh, for somebody who can break the law!” That is the cry coming from the human heart. We are always seeking for someone who breaks the law. The rushing engine speeds along the railway track; the little worm crawls out of its way. We at once say, “The engine is dead matter, a machine; and the worm is alive,” because the worm attempted to break the law. The engine, with all its power and might, can never break the law. It is made to go in any direction man wants, and it cannot do otherwise; but the worm, small and little though it was, attempted to break the law and avoid the danger. It tried to assert itself against law, assert its freedom; and there was the sign of the future God in it.

Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. In all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way, to fly from the other particles; but the others are holding it in check. Our earth is trying to fly away from the sun, and the moon from the earth. Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in the universe has for its basis this one struggle towards freedom; it is under the impulse of this tendency that the saint prays and the robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one, we call it evil; and when the manifestation of it is proper and high, we call it good. But the impulse is the same, the struggle towards freedom. The saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage, and he wants to get rid of it; so he worships God. The thief is oppressed with the idea that he does not possess certain things, and he tries to get rid of that want, to obtain freedom from it; so he steals. Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite, unspeakable bliss, while that on which the robber has set his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.

According to Swami Vivekananda, the ultimate aim of human life is becoming “free”. He told All things in nature work according to law. Nothing is excepted. The mind as well as everything in external nature is governed and controlled by law.
Internal and external nature, mind and matter, are in time and space, and are bound by the law of causation.
The freedom of the mind is a delusion. How can the mind be free when it is controlled and bound by law?
The law of Karma is the law of causation.
We must become free. We are free; the work is to know it. We must give up all slavery, all bondage of whatever kind. We must not only give up our bondage to earth and everything and everybody on earth, but also to all ideas of heaven and happiness.
We are bound to earth by desire and also to God, heaven, and the angels. A slave is a slave whether to man, to God, or to angels.
The idea of heaven must pass away. The idea of heaven after death where the good live a life of eternal happiness is a vain dream, without a particle of meaning or sense in it. Wherever there is happiness there must follow unhappiness sometime. Wherever there is pleasure there must be pain. This is absolutely certain, every action has its reaction somehow.
The idea of freedom is the only true idea of salvation—freedom from everything, the senses, whether of pleasure or pain, from good as well as evil.
More than this even, we must be free from death; and to be free from death, we must be free from life. Life is but a dream of death. Where there is life, there will be death; so get away from life if you would be rid of death.
We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.
Everything in time, space, and causation is bound. The soul is beyond all time, all space, all causation. That which is bound is nature, not the soul.
Therefore proclaim your freedom and be what you are—ever free, ever blessed.
Time, space, and causation we call Maya.

As we all know, our brain works like a computer. In fact, it’s the fastest computer. So, if you clutter your computer with useless programs and processes, it will become slow and would often end up crashing. The same goes with our Brain. If you fill your mind with useless thoughts, it will start ignoring the things that actually matter. You will start overthinking about every little and unimportant thing happening around you which could end up making you confused, anxious, and ultimately depressed.

Having a Thoughtless Mind has helped me in many critical situations. I won’t say I have completely achieved this state of mind, but it has still worked wonders for me. It has improved my observation and decision-making abilities and has helped me in countless ways.

So, I finally decided to create this blog where I can share my experiences and views about different things and how having a Thoughtless Mind has helped me. It will give me immense pleasure if reading my blog helped you change your habit of overthinking or at least made you think about not thinking. So, keep reading and do share your experiences and views about having a Thoughtless Mind because “A Thoughtless Mind is not an Empty Mind, but a Clear Mind”

Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which this revolutionary technology is already being used to change lives and improve patient outcomes for a variety of mental health conditions.

AI Therapists

Would you feel more comfortable talking to a robot than a human when it comes to unloading your deepest and most personal feelings?

Chatbots are increasingly being used to offer advice and a line of communication for mental health patients during their treatment. They can help with coping with symptoms, as well as look out for keywords that could trigger a referral and direct contact with a human mental healthcare professional.

One example of a therapeutic chatbot like this is Woebot, a chatbot that learns to adapt to its users' personalities and is capable of talking them through a number of therapies and talking exercises commonly used to help patients learn to cope with a variety of conditions.

Another chatbot, Tess, offers free 24/7 on-demand emotional support and can be used to help cope with anxiety and panic attacks whenever they occur.

Wearables

Rather than waiting for a user to interact with them via an app, some AI mental health solutions function as wearables that can interpret bodily signals using sensors and step in to offer help when it's needed.

Biobeat collects information on sleeping patterns, physical activity, and variations in heart rate and rhythm that are used to assess the user’s mood and cognitive state. This data is compared with aggregated and anonymized data from other users to provide predictive warnings when intervention may be necessary. Users can then make adjustments to their behavior or seek assistance from healthcare services when they feel it’s necessary.

Diagnosing and Predicting Patient Outcomes

AI can also be used to analyze patient medical data, behavioral data, voice recordings collected from telephone calls to intervention services, and numerous other data sources, using machine learning to flag warning signs of mental problems before they progress to an acute stage.

One aggregated review of studies where AI was used to parse various data sources, carried out by IBM and the University of California, found that machine learning could predict and classify mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts, depression, and schizophrenia, with "high accuracy." Data sources used in the 28 studies that were reviewed included electronic health records, brain imaging data, data taken from smartphone and video monitoring systems, and social media data.

Additionally, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center found that hospital admission data, demographic data, and clinical data could be parsed with machine learning to predict whether a person will take their own life with 80% accuracy.

Another project focused on using AI to predict mental health issues is underway at the Alan Turing Institute. Here, researchers are looking into ways of using large-scale datasets from individuals who have not shown symptoms of mental health issues to predict which of them are likely to develop symptoms during their lifetimes.

AI has also been used to predict cases where patients are more likely to respond to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and therefore be less likely to require medication. As antidepressant and antipsychotic medications can have side effects that are in themselves life-limiting, this has the potential to hugely improve patient outcomes for some patients. Research published in JAMA Psychology found that deep learning can be used to validate the effectiveness of CBT as a method of treatment, potentially reducing the need to prescribe medication to some patients.

Improving Patient Compliance

One of the biggest challenges of treating mental health conditions is making sure that patients comply with the treatments prescribed to them, including taking medication and attending therapy sessions.

AI can be used to predict when a patient is likely to slip into non-compliance and either issue reminders or alert their healthcare providers to enable manual interventions. This can be done via chatbots like those mentioned previously or via SMS, automated telephone calls, and emails. Algorithms can also identify patterns of behavior or occurrences in patients' lives that are likely to trigger non-compliance. This information can then be passed to healthcare workers who can work with the patient to develop methods of avoiding or countering these obstacles.

Personalized Treatments

One very exciting area of research involves leveraging AI to create personalized treatments for a number of mental health conditions. AI has been used to monitor symptoms and reactions to treatment to provide insights that can be used to adjust individual treatment plans. One research project carried out at the University of California, Davis, focused on creating personalized treatment plans for children suffering from schizophrenia based on computer vision analysis of brain images. An important element of the research is the focus on “explainable AI” – the algorithms need to be understandable by doctors who are not AI professionals.

Below, I offer some ideas regarding how teachers, especially new teachers, can use self-compassion to turn kindness inward, focusing less on perfectionism so that they feel more joy at school.

Turn a mirror on yourself

When you feel like you’re not doing enough, imagine how you'd respond to a good friend in the same situation. Give yourself the gentle, encouraging words that you would offer to that friend. 

When I’ve offered this advice to others, I’ve witnessed a shift in their ability to understand that none of us are perfect. By offering self-kindness, we work more effectively with the tools we have in our repertoire and better serve students. We develop more reasonable expectations for ourselves.

Applying this strategy may mean journaling, leaving encouraging notes to oneself, or identifying cues in the environment that spark a cognitive reframing—like shifting negative to supportive self-talk every time you check email or empty the recycling bin. I put a Post-it note on my door or computer that reminds me of my intention or a meaningful, positive quote. I also try to smile or give myself a high-five when looking in the mirror, just as I would when greeting a colleague or student. Building these strategies into your routine can help to solidify a self-supportive narrative.

Take care of your body in order to feel better emotionally

Step away from work for a few minutes to have lunch. Get some sunshine. Drink water. Get outside for a quick walk, or take the long route when traveling between classrooms. Take a breath.

It is amazing how these short acts of self-care help reset our energy and allow us to be more present with our students. 

Connect with others

Be vulnerable with a friend or a trusted colleague, and tell them how you are feeling.

Soak in their attention and love. Observe others, and notice that you are not alone in feeling like there is so much to do. Doing so can help us feel in community with others, identifying our common experiences. 

One of my continued goals is to be vulnerable while also being aware of when I vent. I strive to not fall into a cycle of negative talk that snowballs and is not productive, because when I do that, I may start telling myself a story based on my take rather than what is really happening. I am working to interrupt my venting to consider what action I can take or how I can examine a stressor as, instead, a “puzzle of practice” to get curious about. 

For example, when I felt tired going into a meeting during a particularly busy time, I talked with a trusted colleague who gave me space to express my wish to show up differently. I came to the conclusion that I would instead take the stance of “curious and compassionate,” meaning I would enter the meeting feeling curious about what I could learn from others and compassionate that we were all tired yet committed to our common goal.

Additionally, I recently taught a lesson that teachers were invited to observe. It wasn’t perfect, and instead of falling into self-doubt and criticism, I was vulnerable with my colleagues and told them how nervous I was. This admission allowed me to set aside my negative self-talk and focus on their feedback, which included many positives as well as many rich ideas for future practice. 

Again, showing up with vulnerability and curiosity helped me adopt a learner’s mindset.

Work Worry or Work-related Wonder (WW)

This year, I’ve developed a “WW” mantra. When I feel worried over the weekend, I say, “Work worry” or “Work-related wonder,” and then tuck the thought away (or jot it down to remember on Monday) and move on with my day. 

The reality is that worries are about the unknown, and though they are often valid, we cannot predict what will happen. Instead, I tell myself that I can take time during the work week to be planful and prepared. I can anticipate strategies, questions, and tools that might be useful in a lesson or conversation. I can pause before a lesson to set an intention to slow down, articulate my “why,” and be responsive to the participants’ experiences. I can write a reminder on my plans or my computer to take a breath if I feel stressed. I can tell myself, “This emotion (or conflict) will pass.”

Reflect and journal

Writing helps get to-do’s, worries, and self-criticism off your chest—and it can often help you set negative thoughts aside, at least momentarily. When we do so, we’re able to be more creative and open to new ideas and strategies. 

Reflection supports learning, especially when we consider and envision what we might do differently in the future. If I am being really hard on myself because of a lesson that wasn’t my best or because I forgot something during a professional learning workshop, I imagine how I would “redo” that moment—and then I act that redo out in my mind. 

This strategy helps me to rehearse any language reframes and to choreograph different teaching moves I can make next time. I brainstorm solutions from a positive place of creativity, which energizes my artistic side and provides me with a bank of ideas to draw from in the future.

Setting and Maintaining Reasonable Expectations

When we take time to nurture ourselves, we feel more self-kindness. This allows us to be more present for our students and colleagues, with reasonable expectations of ourselves. It also models for students how they can take care of themselves, which is part of being human and critical to their social and emotional growth.

While many of us are really hard on ourselves, we are also learning to be more vulnerable with each other as learners—which leads to deeper, more connected communities.

Originally used as an auxiliary power unit for a commercial airliner, it has been turned into a testbed for new fuels developed in a laboratory next door.

The arrangement is a centrepiece of Sheffield University’s Sustainable Fuels Innovation Centre (SAF-IC), a research facility set up to allow synthetic fuels to be prepared and evaluated on a small scale, before being put into large scale production.

On a bank of computer screens in a nearby control room, Ihab can monitor the engine as it starts with a burst of flame and powers up.

Sensors tell him what the engine is doing in real time – and allow the exhaust gases to be continually analysed.

Sustainable fuels are synthetic alternatives to fossil fuels, made from renewable sources.

These can include waste cooking oils, vegetable fats and agricultural waste, as well as captured carbon dioxide.

The advantage of burning fuels like these is that it does not add to the overall load of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The carbon emitted has only recently been removed, either by plants or by chemical processes. By contrast, burning fossil fuels releases carbon that has been stored in the earth for millions of years.

“From an environmental perspective, it’s day and night," Mr Ahmed explains.

“In principle, the CO2 should be a net zero, so there is no more carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere, but another benefit is the non-CO2 part of things.

“For example, it reduces the particulates or smoke that comes out of the engine, which can affect your lungs, as well as contributing to the creation of contrails."

For the aviation industry, this is potentially a game-changer.

According to forecasts from both Airbus and Boeing, the global airliner fleet is expected to more than double over the next two decades, as the middle classes in countries like India and China expand, and demand for air travel increases.

At the same time, members of the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, have committed to reaching net zero by 2050.

Some gains will be made by replacing older planes with new ones. The most modern aircraft are between 15 and 30% more fuel efficient than their predecessors. Yet if the industry is to continue expanding, much more will be needed.

In the longer term, new technologies such as hydrogen power and electrification are likely to play a role, at least on shorter routes. But there are steep challenges to overcome.

Hydrogen, for example, is bulky and difficult to store in large quantities. It either needs to be kept as a highly compressed gas or as a very cold liquid. To be sustainable, it has to be made in a "clean" way, from renewable sources – and supplies now are very limited.

“We believe we could bring a small hydrogen fuel cell aircraft to the market between 2035 and 2045, technically,” says Arjen Meijer, chief executive of the Brazilian jet maker Embraer.

“But the question that needs to be answered is: will there be sufficient hydrogen to feed those aircraft? These things need to come together. They can’t happen separately."

Batteries, meanwhile, are currently very heavy in relation to the energy they contain. This makes them unsuitable for powering large planes, or being used over long distances.

This means that hydrogen and hybrid, or fully electric, planes remain years away. Sustainable aviation fuels, by contrast, can be made in the lab to have the same characteristics as conventional ones derived from crude oil, so they can be used in today’s aircraft.

Floods are not uncommon in the country - or South Asia - at this time of the year, when the region receives most of its rainfall.

But climate change has made monsoon rains more erratic, with massive rainfall in a short span of time followed by prolonged periods of dryness.

Now scientists say that a type of storm, known as an atmospheric river, is making things worse with a significant increase in moisture because of global warming.

Also known as "flying rivers", these storms are huge, invisible ribbons of water vapour that are born in warm oceans as seawater evaporates.

The water vapour forms a band or a column in the lower part of the atmosphere which moves from the tropics to the cooler latitudes and comes down as rain or snow, devastating enough to cause floods or deadly avalanches.

These "rivers in the sky" carry some 90% of the total water vapour that moves across the Earth’s mid-latitudes and, on an average, have about twice the regular flow of the Amazon, the world's largest river by the discharge volume of water.

As the earth warms up faster, scientists say these atmospheric rivers have become longer, wider and more intense, putting hundreds of millions of people worldwide at risk from flooding.

In India, meteorologists say the warming of the Indian Ocean has created "flying rivers" that are influencing monsoon rains between June and September.

A study published in the scientific journal Nature in 2023 showed a total of 574 atmospheric rivers occurred in the monsoon season in India between 1951 and 2020, with the frequency of such extreme weather events increasing over time.

"In the last two decades, nearly 80% of the most severe atmospheric rivers caused floods in India," it said.

A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of California, who were involved in the study, also found that seven of India's 10 most severe floods in the monsoon seasons between 1985 and 2020 were associated with atmospheric rivers.

The study said evaporation from the Indian Ocean had significantly increased in recent decades and the frequency of atmospheric rivers and floods caused by them has increased recently as the climate has warmed.

"There is an increase in the variability [more fluctuations] in the moisture transported towards the Indian subcontinent during the monsoon season," Dr Roxy Matthew Koll, an atmospheric scientist with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, told the BBC.

"As a result, there are short spells when all that moisture from the warm seas is dumped by the atmospheric rivers in a few hours to a few days. This has led to increased landslides and flash floods across the country."

I am sure you have watched many superhero movies, so have I. My favorite forever is Spiderman. Such a simple and humble boy who has so many powers and lives by the motto ‘With great power comes great responsibility’.

It was long back when we all watched Spiderman 3, I am sure you remember when Peter Parker fights with Venom. The black Spiderman, who is more powerful and mean than our very own friendly neighbor Spidey. The scene when Harry sacrifices himself to save Peter. In that scene, Peter makes a sound cage, and holds Venom inside. My brain that day registered the fact that negative energies fear loud sounds.

And religion is what gives us hope to stay guarded against evil, Right?

India is a land of religion; we have given birth to many religions and nurtured many more. Religion shows a human being right way of living. As per Sociology, ‘Religion is the study of beliefs and practices’. Although why do we need religion, which religion is better than other, and which is the better way to worship is different. However, while worshiping God, every religion focuses on one or many sounds, so let’s explore 8 dominant sounds of religions.

It may be any religion, the unique sound(s) play a significant role. The sounds always guide us, ward evil and give peace to the mind and soul.

Please click on the below link for complete Blog.

https://mywordsmywisdom.com/8-sounds-of-religion-myfriendalexa/

The Essence of Celebrations of Festivals: Moments of Togetherness

Celebrations of festivals are those unique times of the year when people from all walks of life join together to commemorate significant occasions. These occasions might be profoundly significant in terms of culture, history, or religion. Reflect on how Thanksgiving in the United States, Diwali in India, and Christmas in Europe beckon individuals to gather in celebration. These moments extend beyond mere breaks from our daily routines; they offer opportunities to relish life’s simple pleasures.

Gratitude and Appreciation: The Foundation of Festive Spirit

To truly comprehend the essence of festivals, we must appreciate the pivotal roles of gratitude and appreciation. These two pillars underpin the festive spirit, transforming ordinary celebrations into profound and unforgettable experiences.

1. Fostering a Sense of Unity: Festivals present a rare opportunity for individuals to cast aside their differences and join hands to celebrate shared values and traditions. Gratitude plays a significant role in strengthening the bonds that connect us, melting away the walls that might otherwise divide us. It’s akin to gratitude acting as a bridge that unites individuals, laying the foundation for vibrant and cohesive communities.

2. Embracing Family and Friends: At their core, festivals are a time to express heartfelt gratitude for the presence of family and friends in our lives. These relationships are the bedrock of our emotional well-being, and celebrating with loved ones offers a poignant chance to convey our appreciation for their unwavering support and companionship.

3. Reflecting on Abundance: Often, festivals coincide with seasons of plenty, such as a bountiful harvest or a year generously sprinkled with blessings. Gratitude for the prosperity we enjoy serves as a reminder to share our good fortune with those less privileged. This act of giving not only strengthens the spirit of compassion but also binds communities closer together.

4. Finding Joy in Simplicity: Festivals remind us that joy can be derived from the simplest of pleasures. Gratitude for the little things – the laughter of children, the warmth of a cosy home, the beauty of nature – enhances our lives with a sense of serenity and contentment.

   The Power of Gratitude During Festivals: Illuminating the Celebrations

   Gratitude is no mere emotion; it is a potent force that shapes our perspectives, elevates our well-being, and breathes life into festivals. Let’s delve into the transformative power it exerts during these joyous times.

   1. Enhancing Positivity: Gratitude radiates positivity. When we focus on the things we’re thankful for during festivals, it illuminates our spirits and fills us with an infectious positivity. This radiant positivity infuses our celebrations of festivals, making them an even more joyous experience for everyone involved.

   2. Reducing Stress: Preparing for festivals can at times become overwhelming, with the array of tasks demanding our attention. Nevertheless, the practice of gratitude is a steady anchor, helping us stay poised and centred. As we acknowledge our blessings and express our gratitude, the burden of stress lightens, enabling us to fully savour the festivities without feeling weighed down.

   3. Strengthening Relationships: Gratitude serves as a powerful adhesive for relationships. During festive times, the act of expressing appreciation for the people in our lives solidifies our connections, creating deeper trust and intimacy. It’s equivalent to saying, “I’m grateful to have you in my life,” and it strengthens the ties we have.

   4. Inspiring Kindness: Gratitude often acts as an inspiration, inspiring kindness. We are more likely to assist others when we are thankful for what we have. Giving to a deserving cause or giving to those in need during the holidays are just a few instances of this kind of generosity in action.

   Also Read: Preparing Your Child To Go Back To School After Festivals

   Practical Ways to Embrace Gratitude During Festivals: Simple Practices with Profound Impact

   Now that we’ve recognised the importance of gratitude and the potent influence it exerts during festivals, let’s explore practical and meaningful ways to weave it into our celebrations.

   1. Gratitude Journals: Consider initiating a gratitude journal during the festive season. Each day, record a few things you’re thankful for. This simple practice serves as a daily reminder to maintain a positive outlook and to cherish life’s small, often-overlooked joys.

   2. Express Thankfulness: Don’t let the opportunity slip by to express gratitude to the people who matter most. A significant act of gratitude is expressing “thank you” to family, friends, and anybody else who helped make your festivities unique. It makes their day better and promotes closer, more meaningful relationships.

   3. Give Back: One of the most compelling ways to embrace gratitude is by giving back to your community. Acts of kindness, ignited by gratitude, magnify the sense of goodwill that permeates festivals.

   4. Practice Mindfulness: Amidst the excitement of festivals, make an effort to be mindful. Take moments to pause and fully appreciate the beauty of your surroundings, the laughter of children, and the warmth of family bonds. Mindfulness deepens your connection with the festivities, allowing you to savor each moment.

   5. Reflect on the Year: Many festivals mark the transition from one year to the next. Utilize this time to reflect on the past year, count your blessings and set your goals for the year ahead. Express gratitude for the experiences you’ve encountered and approach the future with hope and thankfulness, understanding that gratitude has been and will continue to be your guiding light.

      Celebrations of festivals are more than just moments of merriment and togetherness. They embody a profound sense of gratitude and appreciation that enriches and elevates the festive spirit. Gratitude fosters unity, adds a touch of positivity, and strengthens bonds. It serves as a beacon that guides us through the stress of preparations, inspiring acts of kindness along the way.

      So, as you light up your homes, exchange tokens of affection, and share meals with loved ones during this festive season, remember the transformative power of gratitude. The significance of gratitude in the celebration of festivals goes beyond the outward festivities; it is the essence that warms our hearts and binds us together. Gratitude is the thread that weaves the tapestry of celebrations into a masterpiece of love, joy, and togetherness, ensuring that these memories remain etched in our hearts for years to come.

      Festivals play a significant role in our cultural and academic calendar as well as being occasions for our community to join together to celebrate our differences and common ideals. At the core of these celebrations are feelings of gratitude and appreciation that help our children and their families feel more united, deepen their bonds, and be motivated to do kind things.

      
      

National Street Food Festival

The National Street Food Festival is a vibrant celebration of India's street food culture, where ordinary streets transform into bustling gastronomic paradises. Each stall is a portal to a different culinary world, offering a delightful range of flavors. The festival's ambience is as lively as the food it serves, with a lovely festive spirit that's contagious. Location: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi When: December-January.

The Grub Fest

The Grub Fest is a culinary carnival where gourmet cuisine takes centre stage. Renowned chefs and food enthusiasts come together to present their gastronomic masterpieces. Beyond the food, The Grub Fest offers a dynamic atmosphere with live music performances and interactive workshops. Location: New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai When: March.

Asian Hawkers Market

Step into the world of Asian flavours at the Asian Hawkers Market. This festival is a tribute to the diverse and enticing cuisines of Asia. From steaming bowls of ramen to aromatic Thai curries, each bite is a journey through the continent's culinary diversity. . As you explore the market, you'll be surrounded by the sounds of sizzling woks and the delightful aroma of spices and herbs. Location: Select Citywalk, Delhi

When: October.

Great Indian Food Festival

The Great Indian Food Festival is a grand celebration of India's culinary heritage. Whether you're savouring the fragrant biryanis of Hyderabad, the crispy dosas of Tamil Nadu, or the creamy butter chicken of Punjab, each dish is a culinary masterpiece. Where: Dilli Haat, Delhi

When: January.

Food Truck Festivals

Food Truck Festivals happen across India, where traditional street food offers a unique culinary experience on wheels. Whether you're craving juicy burgers, wood-fired pizzas, gourmet tacos, or succulent kebabs, you'll find it all. Food truck festivals have become a culinary trend in cities across India. They create a sense of excitement as you navigate the colourful trucks, savouring international and Indian flavours with a convenient and trendy flair.

Cyberbullying is a form of harassment or intimidation that takes place online. It can occur through text messages, social media, instant messaging apps, emails, or even online gaming platforms. This often involves spreading hurtful or false information, sharing embarrassing photos or videos, or sending threatening messages. It can lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, and even depression in young minds.

The Urgent Need for Action

The urgency of protecting your child from cyberbullying cannot be overstated. According to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2019, about 22 percent of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school during the school year, which was thankfully lower than the percentage reported in 2009 (28 percent). Unfortunately, also in 2019, about 16 percent of students in grades 9-12 reported being electronically bullied during the previous 12 months.

With the increased use of technology for remote learning and socializing, this number may have risen since this study. The emotional scars left by cyberbullying can have long-lasting consequences, affecting a child's overall wellbeing.

1. Open Communication is Key

One of the most critical steps in protecting your child from cyberbullying is fostering open and honest communication. Let your child know that they can talk to you about anything without fear of judgment. Regularly ask them about their online experiences and listen actively to their concerns.

2. Set Ground Rules

Establish clear rules and boundaries for your child's online activities. These rules should cover the amount and type of screen time allowed, what appropriate websites and apps they are allowed to interact with, and setting guidelines for what proper online conduct looks like. Ensure that your child understands the importance of treating others with respect and kindness. In turn, they will also understand when someone else is not treating them with that same respect. 

3. Teach Digital Literacy

Help your child to become digitally literate by explaining the dangers of oversharing personal information online and talking to strangers. Emphasize the significance of strong, unique passwords, and encourage them to recognize and report any suspicious or hurtful online behavior.

4. Monitor Their Online Activity to Protect Your Child from Cyberbullying

Too much screen time can be dangerous in more ways than we realize. To protect your child from cyberbullying, you need to know what they are doing online. Keep an eye on their online presence, but do so in a way that respects their privacy. You can use parental control software to help you with this task.

In the unfortunate event that your child experiences cyberbullying, encourage them to document the evidence, such as screenshots and saved messages. Report the issue to the platform or website involved and, if necessary, contact law enforcement.

5. Encourage Empathy

Teach your child about the importance of empathy and kindness in both their online and offline worlds. Help them to understand how their words and actions can affect others and the value of standing up against cyberbullying when they witness it happening to others.

6. Know the Warning Signs

Familiarize yourself with the warning signs of cyberbullying. These can include changes in your child's behavior, withdrawal from social activities, declining academic performance, and mood swings. If you notice any of these signs, take them seriously.

7. Seek Professional Help

If cyberbullying takes a severe toll on your child's mental health, don't hesitate to seek professional assistance. A therapist or counselor can provide the necessary support and guidance to help your child cope with the emotional impact of cyberbullying.

Some Extra Resources for Parents

There are numerous resources available to assist parents in their quest to protect their children from cyberbullying. Here are a few valuable ones:

• StopBullying.gov: This U.S. government website offers comprehensive information on how to prevent and respond to cyberbullying.

• Common Sense Media: This organization provides reviews and advice on age-appropriate online content for kids, helping parents make informed choices.

• Online Safety Organizations: Many nonprofit organizations, like the National Cyber Security Alliance and ConnectSafely, focus on educating parents and kids about online safety.

Protecting your child from cyberbullying is a responsibility that every parent should take seriously. By fostering open communication, setting digital boundaries, and staying informed, you can create a safer online environment for your child. Remember, it's not just about protecting your child from cyberbullying; it's about nurturing their self-esteem and emotional wellbeing in the digital world.

When it comes to talking to kids, the concept of "safety first" should be top of mind. After all, it is always better to be safe rather than sorry. A bit of caution and forethought can go a long way.

Here are some practical tips to engage young minds without scaring them:

Lead by Example

First and foremost, kids learn by watching us. For this reason, before even starting to talk about safety first, make sure you are leading by example. Children often learn best by observing the actions of trusted adults. Researchers often call this “observational learning.” The meaning is pretty straight-forward: monkey see, monkey do!

To start, demonstrate safe behaviors in your daily life. Try to eliminate unnecessary risk-taking and consistently practice what you preach. When children see you prioritize safety, they are more likely to adopt similar attitudes and behaviors. This means buckling your seatbelt, wearing a bike helmet, and following basic safety guidelines both at home and in public.

Talk, Don’t Lecture

Remember, safety first talks work best when kids feel comfortable. You want them to internalize the lessons you’re teaching. As parents, it can be very easy to accidentally nag instead of engage.

In between play sessions, encourage your kids to ask questions. Make sure it is a safe and calm environment when you sit down for this conversation. Find a way to make the conversation seem casual. The goal is to make them feel like they don’t need to worry about saying the “wrong thing.” Open communication is vital for these types of talks. Keep the tone as light as possible, while remaining firm on potential risks.

Playtime is a Perfect Time for Safety First Lessons

Another way children learn is through play. If it doesn’t seem like a lesson… maybe they’ll learn it by accident! Make safety first education enjoyable and engaging for your child. This means playing games and engaging in hands-on activities. Use these opportunities to point out potential hazards and how to avoid them.

All of this said, don’t forget to also encourage safe play. Teach your kids how to avoid common injuries, such as those that may occur while on the playground. Explain the importance of using equipment properly, taking turns, and being cautious of potential risks. Encourage your child to make safe choices while playing. In turn, this will help foster a sense of responsibility for their own wellbeing.

Repeat and Repeat

Regularly repeating your discussed safety guidelines helps to reinforce the message. Use simple and age-appropriate language to explain safety concepts to your child. By consistently discussing safety measures, and explaining why they are necessary, you can help your child to better understand the significance of following these rules. Repetition and consistency build a strong foundation for your child's safety knowledge and habits.

Topics to Consider Covering During Safety First Discussions:

Personal Safety at School

School is a place where children spend a significant amount of their time. Start by discussing the importance of following school rules and guidelines. Teach your children how to identify trusted adults, such as teachers or school staff. These should be people that they can turn to if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable. As always, encourage open communication and emphasize the significance of reporting any incidents of bullying, harassment, or suspicious behavior.

Staying Safe Outside

When children venture out into the streets, it's essential to teach them how to develop street smarts. Teach them to use crosswalks, follow traffic signals, and look both ways before crossing the street. Emphasize the importance of staying on the sidewalk and avoiding interactions with strangers.

Teach children to memorize their full name, address, and phone number in case of emergencies, and ensure that they know how to reach a trusted adult for help. Besides this, making sure they bring a backpack card is always a good idea.

Exploring the Outdoors

Playing outdoors offers children valuable opportunities for growth and exploration. However, it's crucial to educate children about how to recognize potential hazards in their surroundings, such as busy roads, deep water, or dangerous objects. Encourage them to play in designated areas and to be mindful of their surroundings. Teach children about playground safety, such as using equipment properly, taking turns, and avoiding rough play that could lead to injuries.

Navigating the Digital World

Finally, teaching kids about online safety is paramount. Again, open the lines of communication about technology and the Internet. Educate them about the potential dangers of sharing personal information online.

Maintaining privacy and steering clear of potentially harmful websites should be key. Set clear guidelines for the websites they can visit, social media platforms they can use, and the people they can interact with online. Encourage them to report any instances of cyberbullying or suspicious activities. Beyond that, make them understand why you’ve set screen time boundaries.

With these subjects and beyond, the key to safety first is open communication. Setting clear guidelines, and empowering children to trust their instincts are essential aspects of promoting personal safety. Together, let's create a safe environment in which our children can flourish and thrive.

How yoga helps productivity

Healthy, relaxed and focused employees are more productive. Even encouraging employees to take just 10 minutes during the workday to practice some simple yoga stretches — at their desks, in a conference room or outside — can help diminish stress and increase focus. Offering yoga classes at work or off-site is a low-cost, high-ROI benefit that employees will appreciate.

Consider these six ways yoga can boost your employees’ — and your own — productivity at work.

1. It increases energy and reduces fatigue.

Working nonstop can create stress. Even standing up, stretching or doing physical activity every 30 minutes greatly increases blood circulation. Incorporating simple yoga moves at these times is a great way to avoid fatigue.

2. It alleviates physical ailments.

If you’re suffering from aches, pains or even more severe physical problems, this will affect your productivity. No matter your job, if you are constantly thinking about and dealing with ailments, the last thing your mind will focus on is work.

Yoga can help relieve even the most severe pain and physical problems, such as those associated with traumatic brain injuries. If it can help in that context, imagine what it can do for regular headaches, carpal tunnel, neck strain, shoulder stiffness, arthritis, etc.

3. It relieves stress.

Aside from physical pain and illness, the other major factor affecting employee health and work productivity is mental and emotional stress. While stress itself doesn’t always cause people to seek help, it can cause and exacerbate physical ailments and conditions — including colds, allergies, headaches, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Stress accounts for billions of business dollars lost due to reduced productivity, absenteeism, employee turnover, accidents and medical fees. Avoiding such problems is paramount for both employees and businesses.

4. It improves concentration and focus.

Stressful deadlines, endless meetings and the general loud chaos of a workplace create mental clutter that prevents you from concentrating and making good decisions. Yoga’s meditation and breathing exercises help to silence the noise and clear the clutter; this lets you be more mindful, alert and focused.

5. It helps with creativity.

Yoga improves concentration and focus and opens the mind so creative juices and energy can flow. Your brain cannot think outside the box when it is confined within one.

If you feel well physically, mentally and emotionally, your morale will improve. If you are focused and energetic, your positivity will be strong. If your creativity is unleashed, your self-confidence will soar. And all of this will make you a better employee: in your job responsibilities, your dealings with clients and your interactions with fellow employees.

6. It boosts resilience.

When employees regularly pause to practice yoga, they can grow resilience. This improves an individual’s ability to deal with stress and make difficult decisions quickly.

Employees with a calm spirit are also more likely to focus on listening and building emotional intelligence.

How companies can bring yoga to in-person and virtual workforces

1. Start a ‘mindful movement’ daily routine.

Doing yoga daily at work, even in a virtual environment, offers benefits. Lindsey Hyland, founder of Urban Organic Yield, said one example of a mindful movement could be formal stretches performed at the beginning of the day; this will loosen tight muscles and increase blood flow.

Another time for a mindful moment is a few hours later. “This may reduce pain caused by hours of typing or other weight-bearing activities,” Hyland said. “It might also help to take five-minute midday breaks to stand up or walk around, followed by another stretch or 10 deep breaths.”

Yoga at work doesn’t have to be mandatory, but everyone should be encouraged to attend at least one class. The perk of a virtual team is that employees can do yoga virtually together or on their own.

2. Include yoga in an employee wellness program.

Employee wellness programs aim to benefit the employee, but they also help the employer and the company as a whole. Relaxed employees do their jobs better, often at a higher level.

“Conducting yoga classes once a week outside work hours will allow employees who cannot attend to practice mindfulness and stress relief,” Hyland said. “However, if you have a large enough staff, it may also be possible to have a dedicated yoga session during work hours. This will allow your employees to take advantage of yoga’s physical and mental benefits without taking time away from their jobs.”

Yoga classes can also now be taken virtually, which is helpful for a company with remote employees worldwide.

“With no office space required, employees can select a class to suit their new home-working timetable,” said Simon Nichols, chief supply officer at Evendo. “Companies are also not tied to local instructors. With virtual classes, you can discover great instructors from across the world.”

3. Create a relaxation room at the office.

Creating a relaxation or wellness room in the office is essential for high productivity and overall performance. Employees need a place to escape from business noise and office clutter.

The space should be inviting, comfortable and judgment-free, whether the room is used for meditation, yoga or power naps. Supporting your employees’ mental and physical health is vital for your business’s sustainability and top talent loyalty.

You don’t need to have a large budget to create a relaxation room, but following these guidelines can lead to maximum benefits:

• Natural lighting. Choose a room with many windows or use dimmable lamps instead of overhead lighting.

• Live plants. Adding plants can improve air quality and provide a tranquil environment when needed most.

• Calm color pallet. Use neutral tones or green and blues to create a zen ambiance.

• Soundproofing. A space free from the monotonous hum or chaos of the office can transport an employee to a completely different place. Quiet rooms can help employees de-stress and refocus.

• Relaxation aids. Yoga mats, comfortable seating, stress balls, essential oils and calming music can all help workers quickly re-center themselves.

• 4. Set an example from the top.

  Like most workplace initiatives, a yoga program needs to start with leadership. Including yoga as a daily part of a virtual workforce’s routine is a culture change.

  “There needs to be an expectation from leadership that employees take care of their minds and bodies — a culture shift that makes it OK to spend a half-hour a day on self-care or black out a block of time where everyone practices together,” said Ashley Cardini, certified yoga instructor and teacher of mindfulness in the workplace.

  If leadership practices and encourages these behaviors, employees are less likely to feel guilty about taking time out of their day for yoga or meditation.

How the five generations work

To eliminate the generation gap, you first need to know what makes each age group’s work habits differ in the first place. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Where do their perspectives come from?

After all, Baby Boomers don’t spend all their time calling out Millennials for their avocado consumption and Gen Zers aren’t just OK-Boomering their lives away. When you understand the motivations behind each generation’s actions, ideas and beliefs, you will have the background you need to build empathy and harmony in your team.

We’ll give you a rundown of how the five working age groups function with some tips on how you can best collaborate with them.

1. Traditionalists (1928-1945)

Traditionalists — also known as the Silent Generation — are largely retired, but those who are still in the workforce continue to make a big impact on their organizations.

Having grown up at the tail end of World War II — in the early stages of economic recovery and without today’s digital conveniences — this generation values and provides hard work, financial stability and commitment.

Traditionalists tend to stay longer in their roles, preferring to advance within their workplace. They appreciate pay that reflects their many years of experience. Give them C-level titles and more zeros on their check and you may get a decade of loyalty.

When working with others, Traditionalists value a system of seniority and prefer face-to-face communication over advanced technology. Remote work is rarely a good fit.

2. Baby Boomers (1946-1964)

Like Traditionalists, Baby Boomers are known for bringing great work ethic to their organizations — often to the point of being workaholics. However, they’re more strongly motivated by their team.

Their Vietnam Era and civil rights movement experiences have also instilled a desire to contribute. They love to pitch in ideas at meetings and seek opportunities to mentor. Want to keep them for many years? Give them a chance to lead!

Boomers enjoy communicating in-person, though they’re also accustomed to phone calls in the workplace.

Many Baby Boomers are working toward retirement — and 80% already have the security of house ownership — so they value health and retirement benefits over many other work perks.

3. Generation X (1965-1980)

Generation X began the shift toward more casual work environments. Did you know they’re the ones who introduced open floor designs like the ones you see at coworking spaces today?

This shift away from formality was influenced by this generation’s widespread individualism. Their independence means they’re motivated when they have greater sense of choice, perhaps over their schedules and what they wear.

Unlike their workaholic predecessors, they value greater work-life balance and friendships over work relationships. They’re big team players who put their faith in people first, not necessarily the company.

Members of Generation X are always willing to learn new skills. Many may still prefer emails and phone calls.

4. Millennials (1981-1996)

Millennials were the first generation to be fully immersed in the internet, which means they love to communicate via text, email and sometimes even social media. But beyond their tech use, what makes this generation stand out is the fact that they’re seeking fulfilling work.

A whopping 86% of Millennials (compared to less than 10% of Boomers) would take a pay cut for a company that holds the same values. Millennials also take Generation X’s focus on relationships to a whole other level, seeking to deeply enjoy their work and the people they work with. They want mutual respect and candor at work.

Millennials aren’t actually the serial job hoppers you might think they are. They will stay in a role as long as Gen X — if you create the right work environment, that is.

This doesn’t mean salaries don’t matter. To put it lightly, Millennials are drowning in debt and face big wage gap issues, so competitive pay can attract the most skilled workers.

5. Generation Z (1997-present)

Like Traditionalists, Gen Z currently makes up a small percentage of the workforce. However, their numbers are multiplying every year.

Generation Z is expected to bring a greater shift toward remote work, being the true digital natives. At the same time, they’re highly collaborative — 90% want their team interactions to feel human — so they thrive when they can personally connect with their coworkers.

This generation is also unique because it values creative, entrepreneurial mindsets. While this means they love to problem solve, it also means they may prefer to direct themselves before coming back to the team. They like to learn from managers, not necessarily get assignments from them, and develop their professional skills.

Gen Z is motivated by instant gratification. However, they seek workplaces that offer competitive salaries and help with tuition, due to the impact of the Great Recession (and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic).

Fighting age discrimination in the workplace

Now that you have the knowledge you need to fight your inner bias, you can start implementing inclusion-boosting strategies across your team. This is a key step in truly getting rid of the generation gap.

While you and your team members may personally believe that age doesn’t impact skill, a culture that doesn’t explicitly fight age discrimination can cause the team as a whole to act with implicit bias. It’s why Silicon Valley remains notoriously young, while younger workers often receive lower wage or salary offers.

Here are a few steps you can take to truly eliminate the generation gap in the workplace:

1. Provide diversity and inclusion training, with a unit on age discrimination.

2. Define age discrimination in your company policies.

3. Model age-inclusive language for your team by avoiding stereotypes.

4. Offer mentorship opportunities that fulfill each generation’s desire for leadership or professional development.

5. Create opportunities for collaboration or general interaction across age groups.

6. Offer employees some choice in their preferred work style (ex: remote vs. in-office, desktop vs. laptop).

Unite your team

As you get to know each member of your team, pay attention to how their generations do or do not influence them. Doing so will help you create the work processes and choose the communication styles that work for everyone.

Surreal landscapes, cool air, breathtaking backdrops, and the sound of gushing rivers are commonplace in Gurez Valley. The regular sight of shepherds and fields feels like a scene out of Bambi. Its strategic location right below the ‘Line of Control’ makes the valley one of the most protected lands in India. And yes, with continuous vigilance and constant patrolling, it is safe to go there.

May through September are the months when the weather and air are most pleasant and welcoming.

Attractions In Gurez Valley: Wular Lake, Razdan Pass, Peer Baba Shrine
Best Time To Visit: May To September

Phugtal Gompa, Jammu & Kashmir

Possibly the remotest monastery in Asia, Phugtal Gompa is a striking attraction set in the mountain cave in Zanskar. As you climb up the tall mountains, you see the spectacular views of the Tsarap River, making it one of the best unexplored places in North India. There is no road which leads to this house of peace. You need to trek for a day or two to reach this unseen place. This is indeed one of the best unique places to visit in India for couples.

Attractions In Phugtal Gompa: Drang Dung Glacier, Nun-Kun Kasif
Best Time To Visit: June To September

Chopta, Uttarakhand

Chopta is undoubtedly the prettiest spot of all the offbeat places in India. Enjoy the spell-binding beauty of the Himalayas, snow-capped mountains, and thick forest trails. The sleepy town will enchant you with its mystical meadows, towering trees, snowy backdrops and warm people.

Attractions In Chopta: Koteshwar Mahadev Temple, Kartik Swami Temple
Best Time To Visit: March To May

Kanatal, Uttarakhand

Just over 80 km away from Dehradun, Kanatal is a pretty little hamlet for the romantics. One of the the most unexplored places in India, the place is full of romance with stunning views, and warm, hospitable hotels. Also, Kanatal has special terrace stays, perfect for couples.

Attractions In Kanatal: Surkanda Devi Temple, Tehri Dam
Best Time To Visit: April To June

Damro, Arunachal Pradesh

Damro is the base to the longest hanging bridge (1,000 feet) in Arunachal Pradesh. Definitely a hidden route to heaven, Damro charms with thatched bamboo houses, swaying suspended bridges, and the laid-back lifestyle of the locals. Among the list of unexplored places in India, it is a rural sort of getaway for exhausted city dwellers. The sights of harvested crops, not-so-wild bison, vast expanse of meadows and grasslands are quite welcoming.

Attractions To Visit In Damro: Damro Labokellie Tea Garden
Best Time To Visit: October To April

Mawlynnong, Meghalaya

The village honoured as ‘The Cleanest Village in Asia’ by international bodies is quite unknown in the country. The picturesque village of Mawlynnong is the epitome of harmony and cleanliness, which makes it one of the worthy unexplored places in India. Well-maintained roads, polished streets, spotless houses, manicured front yards and cobbled sidewalks give an impression of high-end cities. Their organized pits for organic and inorganic wastes, maintained public utilities and scattered bamboo dustbins can put even the best of urban cities to shame.

Attractions To Visit In Mawlynnong: Living Root Bridge, Balancing Rock
Best Time To Visit: March To June

Sandakphu, Darjeeling

The term ‘Sandakphu’ means height of the poison plants. It is named so because of a specifically poisonous wolfsbane plant which grows naturally near the peak. Sandakphu, one of the most dangerous offbeat places in India, is the highest peak in Darjeeling with a staggering altitude of 3,336 meters.

Attractions To Visit In Sandakphu: Phalut, Tumling, Meghma
Best Time To Visit: April To May and October – December

Velas, Maharashtra

The people of this quaint village have taken up a cause – they aggressively protect and nurture the several, common and endangered, species of turtles. Here, you get to watch the unfurling of a life in front of your eyes, right from the moment these little friends hatch out of their shells.
PS: Don’t miss the annual turtle festival which is a one-of-its-kind mesmerizing event, of the festival. Check out their official website for more updates.

Attractions To Visit In Velas: Velas Beach, Bankot Fort, Hariheshwar Beach
Best Time To Visit: Mid-March To Mid-April

Traveling is more than just a quick getaway from our daily routine. It can have a positive impact on mental health. Research shows that venturing to new destinations, embracing diverse customs, and challenging ourselves to expand our horizons can lead to remarkable progress in our overall well-being.

5 Tips On Managing Travel Anxiety

Enhancing Creativity and Cognitive Flexibility

Traveling boosts our mental abilities, especially creativity and cognitive flexibility. By exposing ourselves to new cultures and experiences, our brains develop new neural connections, improving our creative thinking and adaptability capacity. Research by Professor Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School shows that engaging in multicultural experiences enhances problem-solving skills and creativity.

Building Resilience and Coping Skills

Exploring the world exposes us to unfamiliar situations and challenges that require us to adapt and overcome obstacles. When this happens, we develop better emotional resilience and coping skills to help us in other areas. 

Learning to navigate uncertainty, embrace change, and find creative solutions to problems will sharpen your senses and improve your overall mental health.

Boosting Self-confidence and Personal Growth

Getting out of your comfort zone is essential; traveling more often helps you do that. By forcing yourself to interact with new people, learn unfamiliar customs and explore new destinations, you develop confidence in yourself and your abilities. With each challenge overcome, you become stronger and more self-assured.

Fostering Social Connections

Frequent travels offer an opportunity to meet and form bonds with people from different backgrounds. These relationships can effectively reduce loneliness and augment empathy, instilling a sense of belonging in oneself. In addition, strong social connections lead to better mental health and increased happiness.

Practical Tips to Incorporate Travel into Your Routine

Incorporating travel into a busy lifestyle can be difficult, but it’s possible. Here are some practical tips to help you travel without spending too much or sacrificing your work-life balance.

Make Use of Long Weekends and Holidays

Image by Olga Lioncat at pexels.com

Incorporating travel into your routine doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Making the most of long weekends and public holidays can help you plan short trips without compromising your work life. Keep an eye out for these dates on the calendar and try to make it a practice to yourself extended breaks throughout the year to unwind.

Combine Work and Travel

If your job allows for remote work or business trips, extend your stay and explore the destination during your free time. This way, you can experience new places without using up your vacation days or spending too much on transportation costs.

Plan Budget-Friendly Trips

There are a lot of options when trying to plan a vacation that doesn’t break your budget. Most of the time, if you can book your travel far in advance, you’ll avoid supply and demand pricing spikes and get a great deal on flights, hotels, and rental cars. 

Another way to save money on your next trip is by opting for a road trip with a camping trailer or RV. Depending on how far you travel, fuel and groceries can still be significant savings rather than planning for airfare and hotel expenses.

Maintain a Secondary Residence for Snowbirds

For those with the luxury of owning a second home in a warmer climate, becoming a “snowbird” can be a great way to incorporate travel into your life. Spending the colder months in your secondary residence allows you to experience a different location. There are also ways to make snowbirding affordable, such as investing in an RV or a timeshare instead of a second home. This does wonders for your mental well-being during cold, depressing winters.

However, be sure to plan ahead and prepare your homes for the seasonal switch, such as winterizing your primary residence and ensuring your secondary home is ready for your arrival.

Embrace Weekend Getaways

You don’t always need a week-long vacation to experience the benefits of travel. Weekend getaways can be rewarding and provide a much-needed break from your daily routine. Look for destinations within driving distance and plan short, focused trips to maximize your limited time.

Understanding How a Healthy Lifestyle Influences Mental Health

Prioritize Travel for Your Mental Health

Traveling can be a great way to take some time off, explore new places and cultures, and find balance in life. With the proper planning and preparation, you can incorporate travel into your routine without sacrificing your work-life balance or going over budget while giving your mental health the care it needs.

Wild (2014)

Tracks (2013)

Into The Wild (2007)

Lion (2016)
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

HIKING TALES

Hunt for the Wilder people (2016)

The Way (2010)

ROAD TRIPS

On the Road (2012)

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

TRAIN TRIPS

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Black Mountain Poets (2015)

Meek’s Cutoff (2010)

The first rule for packing is to limit your items to only the essentials. Never cram all your stuff into the suitcases, only because you might need them. Bring only the things that aren't replaceable where you're headed, and skip all the items with local alternatives.

Learn To Pack Clothes Efficiently

our clothes and other accessories are much needed to show off your styles and capture amazing pics during the trips. But only take those that you'll most likely wear during the experience. And make sure to follow our guidelines to pack them like a pro:

• You should always try to roll your clothes to optimise the space inside your backpack.

• Remember to put heavy accessories and clothes at the bottom of your suitcase or bag to avoid any disturbances during transportation.

• It's highly recommended that you use packing cubes to help organise the items inside your suitcase. Thus, allowing you to make the most of the available spaces.

  A Daypack For Exploration

  You don't have to bring your entire luggage when exploring a new travel destination. Instead, learn to prepare a small quality daypack for better mobility and convenience. This will allow you to relieve a lot of weight on your backpack, especially if you're always on the move.

  Only take important items like your water bottle, sunscreen, snacks, charger, ID, and a little bit of cash. Depending on the day and your travel preferences, you can pack your stuff differently each day.

  Remember, you don’t need much to explore a new place, just be open-minded and embrace the complexity

• Research, Research, Research

  Before travelling to a new place, it’s important to do some research on how to travel. With travelling, knowing what to expect before you board that plane is certainly a must.

  Always Stay Flexible

  No matter how well you prepare for your trips, unexpected things can always happen at the last minute. So, as experienced travellers, we highly recommend you keep an open mind and stay flexible when dealing with anything. A change of plane doesn’t necessarily a bad thing.

• Eat And Drink Like A Local

  One of the best experiences that you can have when travelling is trying local cuisine. And the best places to get these indigenous dishes are the local markets and restaurants. Look for the most recommended places on the Internet and start exploring them whenever you can.

• Make New Friends

  Your trips are all about meeting new people, exposing yourself to new cultures, having new experiences, and making new friends. So don’t hesitate to start a conversation with the locals when you’re travelling.

• Explore And Embrace The Local Customs

  When travelling, it’s important to understand that different countries will have certain cultural differences. So, as travellers, you need to be open-minded and well-adapted to the local customs. By understanding the different practices, you can learn about certain people and their society.

A book that “speak[s] volumes about our need for connection—human, feline or otherwise” (The San Francisco Chronicle), The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a life-affirming anthem to kindness and self-sacrifice that shows how the smallest things can provide the greatest joy—the perfect gift for cat lovers and travellers!

We take journeys to explore exotic new places and to return to the comforts of home, to visit old acquaintances and to make new friends. But the most important journey is the one that shows us how to follow our hearts…

An instant international bestseller and indie bestseller, The Travelling Cat Chronicles has charmed readers around the world. With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru’s longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe… 

With his crooked tail—a sign of good fortune—and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray. And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude, of loyalty and love.

The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year

“A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits.”—The Washington Post

The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

Don’t miss Matt Haig’s latest instant New York Times besteller, The Life Impossible, available now

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

See Less

All the mentioned books are pure gems penned by great Indian authors. The collection has everything from all major genres and provides enough on the plate of any reader out there.

Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

Don’t focus on what others think. So much energy is expended by wondering and worrying about how others perceive us.

Recognize your uniqueness. There is only one you. No one else can do exactly what you can do. You have unique skills, experiences, thoughts, and ideas.

Have a reality check. Be bold. Be blunt. Find out how others perceive you. Remember the mantra that “feedback is love.” Don’t be hesitant to ask for honest, sometimes uncomfortable input.

Define success on your own terms. Far too often, we define success by measures that we get from other people.

Get out of your comfort zone. Volunteer for a project that will help you build new skills. Apply for a job that feels like a stretch but matches your interests.

Emulate others. Take note of what fellow self-confident employees do with regard to their daily work habits.

Identify strengths and weaknesses. Conduct a candid self-assessment. What are you good at? What areas do you need to improve?

Fake it till you make it/if you build it, they will come. Sometimes, the day you become an expert is when you decide you’re an expert.

Get testimonials. Having a third party attest to your competence is one of the most compelling ways to boost your internal brand.

Speak with confidence. Eliminate “uhm,” “ah,” “I think,” “I feel,” and “in my opinion” from your lexicon. Doing so will project confidence in the workplace.

Be decisive. Don’t waffle. Look at the data, review the options, and pull the trigger. Don’t make decisions by committee.

Be prepared. You’ve heard the saying that failing to plan is planning to fail. Always be prepared. Read the materials before you get to the meeting. Don’t set a meeting without an agenda. Have a backup plan in case of inevitable failure.

It is important to note that self-confidence is not the same thing as competence. There are many people who lack confidence in the workplace while being perfectly competent at their jobs. The problem is that when you are not confident in yourself, people begin to question your credibility and qualifications. Without confidence in the workplace, you cannot glean confidence from others.

2. Complete tasks in batches

3. Take breaks

4. Block your calendar

5. Start tracking your time

6. Schedule tasks based on your energy levels

7. Turn off notifications

8. Enjoy the outdoors

9. Adjust your attitude

10. Make a routine and stick to it

11. Enhance your communication skills

12. Keep your to-do list manageable

13. Do work that you enjoy

14. Learn how to say "no"

15. Ask questions early on

What does your ideal team look like? Do you like having regular post-work happy hours? Do you enjoy working together on tight deadlines? Maybe you want a more casual pace, with more time for conversation.

Or maybe your coworkers have certain skills that can help you. In return, consider what you can give back. This requires understanding your strengths and weaknesses. You should know what you bring to the table and where you need support from others. 

2. Practice active listening

Trust and great communication skills are the foundations of any healthy relationship. One of the best ways to achieve both of these is through active listening. Be receptive to people’s words, practice emotional intelligence, and use non-verbal communication to show you’re paying attention.

You might be wondering why effective communication is so important in building relationships. If you can’t tell someone how you feel, you can’t form a genuine connection. Listening to what your teammates are saying and responding appropriately creates a solid foundation.

From there, you can build the best work relationships possible. 

3. Make time for your coworkers

It’s easy to get stuck in the daily grind and neglect your relationships. To mitigate this, schedule time for a cup of coffee. And if you’re working from home, try a virtual coffee break. This will create the time you need for building good work relationships. 

4. Follow through on your commitments

Before you demand things from others, make sure you’re upholding your commitments. People need to trust that you can meet deadlines. Proving yourself as a reliable teammate will make building good work relationships easier.

5. Know when to ask for help

When it’s time, you need to know how to ask for help. Doing everything alone will only hurt your credibility as a team player. It can also produce poor results. Asking for help or delegating tasks will make sure you meet your obligations and open the door to working one-on-one with someone. That collaboration can help you build a stronger relationship.

You may find yourself in a situation where you feel uncomfortable asking a coworker for help. In such cases, turn to your human resources department for a friendly face. They can often recommend resources or facilitate productive conversations.

6. Set clear boundaries 

Healthy relationship boundaries are an important part of building work friendships. It’s important to strike a balance between “a healthy work relationship” and “too much socializing.” At the end of the day, you’re still at work. 

Communicate clearly when you need time to focus rather than socialize. You can also use a time-blocking strategy to prioritize your tasks throughout the day. 

7. Show gratitude

A little goes a long way in showing appreciation to your teammates. Compliment them on their work, bring snacks for the break room, or send them thank-you notes. This kind of praise won’t go unnoticed. 

You may have days where you don’t feel grateful. However, being resilient and keeping a positive outlook is a big part of building good work relationships. 

8. Skip the gossip

Gossip and office politics erode trust in the workplace. Avoid talking behind people’s backs. Confront them directly if you have a problem. This will keep an open line of communication and foster a better work environment.

9. Start small

Some of your coworkers are simply that — coworkers. They might prefer to come in, do their work, and go home at the end of the day. Don’t take it personally. But if you succeed in finding a peer, know that being friendly is the first step to being friends. 

Firstly, responding quickly to emails shows that you value the sender’s time and effort. Whether it’s a student, client, parent, work colleague, partner, or an authority, they are taking the time to contact your business, and a quick response acknowledges their effort. This helps build trust and credibility with the sender and can lead to stronger business relationships.

Secondly, prompt email responses are critical for maintaining good customer service. In today’s highly competitive world, stake holders, employers, expect the staff to be responsive to their inquiries and concerns. A slow or non-existent response can lead to frustration and negative feedback, which can damage an organization's reputation.

Thirdly, responding quickly to emails can help prevent potential problems. If a parent, student, admin staff member, or a higher authority has an issue that needs to be resolved, responding quickly can help prevent the problem from escalating. A prompt response shows that you take their concerns seriously and are willing to take the necessary steps to address their issue.

Fourthly, quick email responses can also help increase efficiency and productivity. By responding promptly, you can avoid having to spend additional time following up with the sender, which can be a time-consuming and distracting process. This can free up time for you to focus on other important tasks and priorities.

Finally, responding quickly to emails is simply good work etiquette. It shows that you are professional, courteous, and respectful of the sender’s time and effort. By demonstrating these qualities, you can build a positive reputation for your profession, which can lead to increased customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.

In conclusion, responding quickly to emails is essential for professionals in today’s fast-paced world. It shows that you value the sender’s time and effort, helps maintain good customer service, can prevent potential problems, increases efficiency and productivity, and is simply good business etiquette. By prioritizing quick email responses, you can build stronger relationships within the work environment which can lead to increased success and growth.

#1. Human Trained AI vs Deep Learning Models: 

Educators need to understand the difference between human trained AI and the deep learning models we are now dealing with. Programs like ChatGPT are based on a new model of artificial intelligence that mimics the human brain and can learn from itself, unlike our personal assistants and Netflix algorithms which are human trained AI.

Predictions suggest that by the time current kindergartners graduate from high school, AI will be a billion times smarter than human beings. This underscores the importance of integrating AI into education from an early age, to prepare students for a future where AI will play a significant role in all aspects of society.
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#2 The True Power in Student-AI Collaboration:

While some Educators might not be there yet, it is essential to understand that students working with AI to create projects, papers, do research and critically think about information will soon be the norm. Instead of trying to catch students who have used AI, we need to encourage them to work in symbiosis with AI to create and show learning.

Even prestigious institutions such as Vanderbilt and Cornell have recognized the importance of AI in the future of education, and are actively encouraging students to collaborate with AI, rather than viewing it as a tool to be avoided. They understand that embracing AI and learning to work alongside it is crucial for preparing students for a future where AI will be an integral part of many aspects of life.

#3 The Impact AI Can Have on Learning Differences

AI will have a huge impact on students with learning differences,  espeically for Dyslexic students and struggling learners. You can expect that within the next few years, AI tools will be written into every Individualized Education Program (IEP).

#4 The Role of Coded Bias 

AI is full of coded bias which is highly problematic. Recognizing and understanding this bias is important to understanding the responses it provides. Students need to understand the data AI is trained on and to critically evaluate the information they encounter while using any AI platform.

#5 The Job Market Impact

Educators should understand that within the next two years, the World Economic Forum predicts that 85 million jobs will be lost to AI, and in that same time period, 97 million new jobs will be created for those who know how to work with AI. Preparing students for this shift should be a priority for all educators.

 #6 The Importance of Improving Prompting Skills

The prompting process involves not just knowing how to prompt, but also how to revise and refine those prompts to elicit the most accurate and helpful responses from AI systems like ChatGPT. Workshops for educators should prioritize teaching educators the techniques of effective prompting and prompt revision with ChatGPT to optimize the quality of the responses generated. This way educators will know how to get better lesson ideas and better resources from ChatGPT.

 #7 How to Enhance Pedagogy with ChatGPT

Educators need to realize the numerous pedagogical strategies that can be significantly improved by initially utilizing ChatGPT themselves. For instance, it's well understood that students require some background information on a subject to fully engage with the material. Consider using ChatGPT to generate a list of the 10 most fascinating real-life applications of the quadratic equation. Doing this, before delving into the complexities of solving it - a concept often perceived as abstract by many students, can be incredibly beneficial for those questioning the relevance of their learning. This approach not only piques the students' interest but also provides a foundational understanding that can make the subsequent learning process more accessible and meaningful.

Realistically, could all of our teachers compile a list like this without the assistance of AI?

#8 AI is More Than a Worksheet or Presentation Generator

Educators should not view AI as just another tool for creating worksheets or generating more test questions - NO THIS IS NOT THE POWER OF THE TOOL. Instead, its true potential lies in its ability to enable students to ask better, more insightful questions, and to learn in ways that genuinely interest them. AI can be leveraged to create resources that empower teachers to shift the learning responsibility back to the students, fostering a more engaging and student-centered learning environment. This approach not only helps students take ownership of their learning journey but also encourages a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the subject matter.

#9 How to Use AI to Develop Critical Thinking in Students:

AI can help in developing critical thinking skills among students. Educators should use AI to create scenarios or problems that encourage students to think critically and solve problems creatively. This not only makes the learning process more engaging but also helps in developing skills that are essential for the 21st century.

#10  Soon, it will be a common assumption that all written pieces involved the use of AI

In the future, it will be a common assumption that all writing, from academic papers to creative pieces, has been created through a collaborative effort with AI. Educators must adapt to this new reality and teach students how to work effectively with AI writing tools to enhance their work rather than relying on them entirely. This includes understanding the capabilities and limitations of these tools, learning how to use them to improve one’s writing, and developing the critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate and revise the content generated by AI. It is essential to instill in students the understanding that while AI can be a valuable tool, it is not a replacement for human thought and creativity.

Thinking Routines are a set of structures (or routines) students use to think more critically about ideas. This facilitates learning as students unpack information and/or thoughtfully ask questions about topics, dig into content around what they are learning in ANY subject area. 

A Thinking Routine is a way of looking at text or information in a more thoughtful, deliberate fashion. As students master the routine, they also develop, what Project Zero calls, a ‘sensitivity’ to begin to use these routines in their everyday lives - outside of the classroom. If done correctly, the new thinking becomes habitual. The brain naturally develops an inclination toward this effective process when unpacking new content. Thus, learning is more intrinsic and intuitive rather than driven by teacher created questions.  Bottom line, these routines are meant to eventually help students learn to think on their own and understand how to learn, access, unpack and make meaning out of new information .

The Project Zero website outlines the Thinking Routines and  invites learners of any age to begin thinking by:

• asking deep questions

• making connections

• coming up with explanations

• challenging those explanations

• exploring alternative perspectives.

By using thinking routines, learners develop “thinking moves” that they can apply to all areas of schooling and life.  Learners build a repertoire of thinking moves that, if used enough, manifest in the development of an organized way of managing information and new content.  In other words, by using these routines in class students develop habits of observing, analyzing and questioning that help students make meaning of text, new concepts and complex information.

When learners make meaning in this way, they are more likely to make deeper connections to their learning.  For instance, a student who uncovers meaning via “thinking moves” accesses information in a more personal and an organized fashion that allows them to connect to content; a learner reading complex text may be better able to make a meaningful connection to self (experience, prior knowledge), another text, or the world at large (current events). 

On their own, these thinking routines are very powerful. However, as always,  technology can enhance this process! Integrated technology facilitates the opportunity for students to share their ideas and learn from one another - empowering this activity with a jolt of metacognition and social learning.

Example: Infusing Circle of Viewpoints Thinking Routine with Technology

Download Resources: Jamboard and Flipgrid Infused Thinking Routine

Infusing Circle of Viewpoints Thinking Routine with Technology

Download Resources HERE

Technology Infusions: Flipgrid and Jamboard

• First, have students use this Jam to unpack their thinking. 

• Next, have them go to Flipgrid and take on that viewpoint, recording and explaining it as if they were that person, character, idea or historical figure - from that unique perspective. 

• Have students watch at least 3-5 other student  responses and comment on those videos from the perspective of their character.

•  Finally, discuss how hearing these different viewpoints affected how students thought about the original idea or lesson.

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? 

This routine helps students see and explore multiple perspectives. It helps them understand that different people can have different kinds of connections to the same thing and that these different connections influence what people see and think. 

Thinking routines are one of the best ways to help students develop their own habits of mind and to better understand how to learn. But when we add technology we allow students to not only develop a repertoire of thinking moves, but also teach them how to share those moves with a wider audience.  

Flipgrid houses student responses, varied perspectives and outlooks in one place. The medium is easily accessible and allows students to use creativity in recording responses, listen to what they themselves had to say and compare their point of view to their peers. Thus, Flipgrid is not only a stellar vehicle for academic discourse, assessment and “thinking aloud”, it helps students develop the equally important attributes of empathy and confidence. 

Lets use AI to transform our classroom environment as well. The mentioned links will directly connect you to the Suraasa AI Tools:-

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/rubrics/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/lesson-plan/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/quiz/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/handout/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/narration/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/subjective-assessment/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/activity-planner/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/video-summary/

https://learn.suraasa.com/ai-tools/unit-planner/

Jasper is one of the best AI-writing tools that has the ability to generate templates, blog posts, make marketing copies, and draft emails. In just 2 years, it has become a powerhouse AI tool. Firstly, it is built on top of custom AI – language models and third-party models like OpenAI. It then combines all the data from these models, clubs it with your brand information and analyses recent search data, to produce the best outputs. 

You can select various templates like Facebook ads, Amazon product description, blogs, and so on. Type some information about your requirements and hit ‘Go’. You can also work on new documents, from scratch. Jasper has all types of AI features to facilitate your work. It has custom and dynamic templates, browser extensions, SEO mode, and AI – artwork generator, as well. You can also integrate it with Zapier, for content production workflows. It comes in versions such as Creator at $49/month, Teams at $125/ month, and the customizable Business model. 

Top Features:

• Integration

• Chat

• AIDA framework

• Conversational AI 

• Photo post captions 

• Content templates

• Customer Support 

Fireflies 

This is one of the new-age meeting assistants which can make the lives of admin professionals easy. It can record and transcribe meetings, various calls, and audio files, and help you to review meetings. This AI voice assistant integrates well with collaborative tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Webex, as well. You can also flag important instances on calls, for others to take note. The built-in conversation intelligence will help generate insights on trends, emotions, and more. 

It is the star behind virtual meetings in today’s fast-paced work arena. You can call it the best personal assistant. When it comes to pricing and the plans, there is a lot to be happy about. There is a free plan, of course with limitations. Additionally, there is a Pro plan for $18 per seat per month, a Business plan for $29 per seat per plan, and Enterprise plan that is available on an annual subscription basis. 

You can easily deploy it, as it is a cloud-based platform, which allows you to access it from any device, with just a strong internet connection. You will get access to functions such as playlist, meeting status, analytics, apps, notebooks, and more. Built on top security standards, you can also share sensitive information in its presence.

Top Features:

• User-friendly Interface

• 90% accuracy

• Auto-joining options for meetings

• Collaboration 

• AI Summaries

• Integrations

• Security 

Reply. io

This is a great AI tool for all those who work in sales or sales support. It is also a backend admin function. You will find this AI-powered engagement app to be empowering. You can set up appointments, draft various responses, and target new customers very easily, with Reply.io. It is also hailed as a comprehensive sales automation tool. You can easily engage with prospects through cold calls, emails, WhatsApp, and land appointments for meetings. 

Reply.io also helps in both inbound and outbound communication that includes all channels. It mainly eliminates the need for manual data entry through CRMs. You can also generate leads using this AI tool. It comes with different pricing plans, including one that is free. The free plan offers 200 data credits. Starter comes for $60 per user per month, Professional comes for $90 per user per month, while the Custom plan will be designed and priced, according to your needs.  

Top Features:

• Effective email outreach

• Prospect data sourcing

• Email and telephone validation

• Trigger-specific task automation

• Cloud calling facility

• Email tracking

• Multi-channel reach

• Personalization 

Clockwise 

Clockwise is amongst the best AI scheduling assistants available today. Its main goal is to create time for you for strategic tasks, by reducing conflicts while scheduling meetings. It is meant for individuals as well as teams. You can connect it with tools such as Slack, as well. There are several ways by which this AI-powered app can help you to work in a fast-paced environment. This scheduling and calendar automation tool enables the users to analyse the best timings for their meets, tasks, and other work. It also saves a lot of time in communicating, when each member would be available.

It can analyse the user’s most productive time and lets other members know about it. You can also share the calendar via links, which ultimately saves time and focus. The best thing about the app is that you can integrate it with collaborative tools such as Slack and Asana. Optimize your work day and create better work-life balance. You can get the free version, the Teams version for $ 6.75 per user per month, Business version for $ 11.50 per user per month, and a customized Enterprise version, whose cost depends on your needs. 

Top Features:

• AI Scheduling

• Focus Time

• Smart Integrations 

• Integration with QuickBooks 

• Seamless Integration

Cortana 

Cortana is another AI-powered virtual assistant tool, which is developed by Microsoft. You can operate it via text and verbal commands. The AI tool relies on search engine Bing, to accomplish various tasks. You can use it to send emails, manage calendars, set meetings and reminders, open apps, track the weather, and so on. Cortana also serves as a dictionary and encyclopaedia. If you want to save time on redundant tasks, this is the way to go. The tool keeps track of user traits, interaction patterns, analyses a broad set of data, and also comprehends emails, images, videos, and texts. 

It can carry out some of the simple manual tasks like currency conversions, and mathematical calculations, as well. You will be able to generate personalized responses on the tool, as well. You need to have a Microsoft account to use Cortana. Coming to the pricing, you will be happy to hear that it comes with Microsoft tools and is free. 

Top Features:

• Creates reminders

• Controls smart devices

• Searches words

• Gives weather and temperature forecasts

• Assists with directions

• Learns user preferences

Conclusion 

The rise of AI tools in business has given a new direction to mundane tasks. It enhances productivity, by streamlining tasks and saving time. From managing routine jobs to optimization of workflows, these AI tools can be customized to suit your business needs as well. Thanks to such tools, you can achieve work-life balance this year and in the coming times.

1. Automated scheduling

Take a few seconds to think about your current scheduling workflow. Does it involve several emails? Several apps (email, Zoom, and calendar app)? Do you often sacrifice your dedicated focus time for last-minute meetings? Thankfully, many AI tools exist to simplify the scheduling process, using algorithms to arrange the day for you.

2. Prioritization of tasks

Is your to-do list often overwhelming? Some productivity tools leverage the power of AI to analyze task lists in real-time, prioritizing items according to their due dates, statuses, and more. AI-powered prioritization helps you manage tasks and tackle work in the most effective way possible, so you can make the most of your time and energy.

3. Time tracking

You can’t get better at time management without understanding your current habits, which is precisely what time tracking apps help you accomplish. AI-powered time tracking tools help you gain insight into where your time is going — all without having to deal with a manual timer. Some apps (like Timely, which we discuss below) even generate timesheets using AI. Less busywork is always a win!

4. Personalized reminders

Like a great assistant, AI can offer personalized reminders that help you stay on track. You can tailor these notifications according to your preferences and get them delivered through various channels, like email or Slack.

5. Email management

For most, email takes a big bite out of the day. So it’s no surprise that time management and email management go hand-in-hand. Artificial intelligence can help you write, organize, and prioritize your emails automatically — so you can spend less time in your inbox.

Best AI time management tools

Nex up: our top five tools to help you manage your time more effectively, with the help of AI.

1. 1. Clockwise: best AI calendar and scheduling tool

2. 2. Motion: best for task management and automatic time-blocking

3. 3. Wrike: best for project management

4. 4. Timely: best for time tracking

5. 5. Superhuman: best for email management

   1. Clockwise: best AI calendar and scheduling tool 

   ‍

   Clockwise is a time orchestration platform. It uses artificial intelligence to learn how you and your team like to work — then uses that knowledge to design your ideal day, laid out in color-coded goodness. Use Clockwise to schedule and protect uninterrupted blocks of Focus Time. Use it to find the best time for you and other team members to meet. Use it to automate your entire scheduling workflow. Even better, meet the Clockwise AI Scheduler, which builds the chat-based capabilities of GPT right into Clockwise’s already-powerful platform for a scheduling experience unlike any scheduling tool you’ve ever tried.

   Highlights:

   • Syncs with your Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook account

   • Offers integrations with Asana and your Slack workspace

   • Allows you to schedule via chat using natural language processing

     2. Motion: best for task management and automatic time-blocking

     ‍

     Motion is an all-in-one calendar and project management app. It takes your meetings and to-do lists and creates a schedule for you, so you never have to spend time planning. It’s especially helpful for people who struggle with indecision and spend a lot of time wondering what to do next. 

     Highlights:

     • No more to-do lists in disorganized note-taking apps — Motion automatically schedules your tasks and activities using AI

     • Understands how to prioritize tasks

     • Built-in Meeting Scheduler, which simplifies the scheduling process between team members

       3. Wrike: best for project management

       If you’re looking for an AI-powered project management tool, Wrike is an excellent option. It offers all the core features teams need to plan projects, organize work, and track progress. But it also includes Wrike’s Work Intelligence feature set, which uses a powerful combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline team collaboration, workflows, and more.

       ‍Highlights:

       • Includes automatic task prioritization suggestions

       • Leverages machine learning to identify potential issues based on historical data

       • Offers voice command functionality via mobile app

       • Can extract text from a photo of a printed document, turning it into a digital file

       • Generates tasks automatically, based on your notes

         4. Timely: best for time tracking

         Say goodbye to manual timesheets. Timely doesn’t involve manual timers, either — which means no pressing start and stop. Timely even uses AI to draft your timesheets for you, making it the ultimate time tracking tool. How does it work? Timely works in the background of your computer to measure how much time you spend in your work apps — and (this is a big one) it does so in a way that maintains your privacy. No screenshots or other surveillance tactics that foster a mistrustful working environment.

         Highlights:

         • Automatically tracks time spent in work apps

         • Automatic time tracking gives you and your clients an accurate measure of billable hours

         • A top pick among solo freelancers and large organizations alike

           5. Superhuman: best for email management

           Arguably the most sophisticated email client that exists today, Superhuman is packed with features that streamline and enhance the email experience. It promises to help you save three hours every week. In Superhuman, you can use AI as a writing assistant, and you can also use it to automatically sort your emails.

           Highlights:

           • Automatic triage sorts emails into categories, so you can go through your inbox in an orderly way that minimizes context-switching 

           • Snippets feature lets you create customizable phrases and paragraphs (kind of like templates) to insert into emails and save time on typing

           • Works in tandem with Gmail or Outlook

           • Available on macOS and iOS apps, as well as Chrome browser extension (not currently available on Android devices)

1. Nature Corner

Imagine a cozy corner where children can explore plants and natural objects. This little slice of nature in the classroom encourages curiosity and a love for the outdoors. You must know how, in ancient times, education was given outside, in the lap of nature. Nature was the best teacher for students. This is your chance to bring a small part of nature into your classroom and help your students understand its importance. Bringing nature into the classroom can create a calming environment and provide endless learning opportunities. Kids will love discovering the different textures, shapes, and colors of natural items. Plus, assigning "little helpers" to take care of the plants teaches responsibility and care for the environment. It’s one of the best class decoration ideas for kindergarten that also promotes environmental awareness.

Animal Alphabet Wall: Transform your wall into a vibrant animal alphabet zoo. Each letter pairs with an animal, making learning feel like a safari. Your kids will go bananas over it! Imagine walking into a room and seeing A for Alligator, B for Bear, and C for Cat all in one place. It's a jungle of learning!

Combining animals with letters helps children associate sounds with visual images, reinforcing their learning. Plus, it makes the classroom look lively and engaging. Kids are more likely to remember the alphabet when they can associate it with their favorite animals. This setup is a staple in nursery class wall decoration ideas and is both educational and fun.

4. Reading Nook

Create a reading nook in your class with rainbow-colored cushions. This cozy corner will make story time magical. Who wouldn't want to dive into a book in a rainbow fort?  It's like a little piece of paradise right in your classroom. Imagine kids huddled up with their favorite books, surrounded by every color of the rainbow.

5. Growth Chart Tree

Paint/stick a tree/tree poster on the wall and watch your students grow! Mark their heights with leaves, and see them sprout like beans. It's a beautiful way to track their growth. Imagine each leaf representing a milestone in their life, showing how much they’ve grown over the school year.

7. Sensory Wall

Imagine a wall filled with different textures for kids to touch and explore, like furry fabrics, bumper sticker, shells, pom-poms, and clay. It’s like a mini adventure for their fingers! This wall is a great way to engage their senses and keep those little hands busy.
They also help children with sensory processing issues explore different textures in a safe environment. Such preschool handmade charts for classroom decoration ideas are perfect for creating a stimulating environment.

8. Number Caterpillar

Create a caterpillar that winds along the wall with numbered segments. It’s a playful way to introduce numbers, and it’ll have your students counting with joy. Imagine a colorful caterpillar inching along the wall, each segment teaching a new number.

9. Shape Garden Wall

Transform your wall into a garden of shapes! Each flower represents a different shape, making geometry feel like a walk in the park. Picture a colorful garden where triangles, circles, and squares bloom like flowers.

10. Art Display Wall

Dedicate a section of your classroom to displaying student artwork. It's like having a mini art gallery right in your classroom, showcasing all the little Picassos. Imagine how proud your students will be seeing their art framed and displayed.

11. Birthday Cupcake Board

Celebrate birthdays with a colorful cupcake board. Each child’s birthday is marked on a cupcake cutout, making them feel extra special on their big day. 
If your class has more than 25 students, create 12 cupcakes for each month and mention the children's birthdays inside the cupcakes month-wise. Picture a sweet display that makes every birthday a class event!

12. "Our Class" Photo Collage

Create a photo collage of your class in a fun shape. Imagine a giant heart or star made of smiling student photos!

13. Music Wall

Create a music wall with hanging kid-size instruments for impromptu music sessions. It’s a fun way to explore sounds and rhythms. Imagine the joy on kids’ faces as they make music together!

14. Pattern Path

Create a path on the floor made of different patterns for kids to follow. Think of it as a hopscotch game that winds around the room!

15. Classroom Jobs Board

Organize classroom responsibilities with a jobs board. Each child gets a task, promoting responsibility and teamwork. Imagine your classroom running smoothly with every student pitching in

Primary Class Decoration Ideas

Primary school is where students begin to deepen their understanding and develop a love for learning. 
Your classroom should reflect this exciting journey with decorations that inspire, engage, and educate. Let's transform your primary classroom with these fun and practical class decoration ideas!

1. World Map Wall

Imagine walking into a classroom where a giant world map dominates one of the walls. This world map wall will brighten up your classroom and also serve as a fantastic educational tool.
3. Inspirational Quote Wall

Fill a wall in your classroom with quotes from famous people, each one offering a nugget of wisdom or a spark of motivation. It’s like having a team of cheerleaders on the wall, rooting for your students every day.

4. Word Wall with Vocabulary Words

Imagine a wall that evolves every week with new vocabulary words. This word wall will become a growing, interactive dictionary for your students, making learning new words fun and visual.

5. Historical Timeline

Create a mini-museum in your classroom with a historical timeline stretching across one of the walls. 
‍6. Kindness Bucket Filling Station

Set up a kindness bucket filling station to encourage positive actions. Students can write about acts of kindness they performed or experienced on slips of paper and place them in the bucket. 
At the end of each semester, you can read the slips out loud to celebrate and reinforce the impact and value of kindness.

7. Star Student Wall

Dedicate a section of your wall to highlight a different student each week. This recognition will make each student feel special and valued, fostering a positive classroom environment.

8. Creative Writing Wall

Create a space for students to post their short stories and poems. This wall becomes a gallery of their creative minds, encouraging literary expression and pride in their work.
‍9. Class Constitution

Create a display of classroom rules and values crafted by the students themselves. This collaborative project makes the rules feel more personal and meaningful, fostering a sense of ownership and community.

10. Puzzle and Games Shelf

Assign a simple shelving unit into an educational powerhouse stocked with a carefully curated selection of puzzles and educational games. From spatial-awareness puzzles like jigsaws to strategic games like chess, this shelf should offer a plethora of options to challenge students.
They provide a break from traditional learning while still being educational, which can help keep students motivated and engaged.‍

11. 3D Solar System Model

Create a 3-D solar system model by hanging painted paper mache balls representing planets from the classroom ceiling. This is a mini solar system right in your classroom. Students will love looking up and seeing the planets they’ve learned about in science class.

A planetary system model makes learning about space interactive and visually appealing. It’s a fun way to teach astronomy and spark interest in science. 

12. Homework Station

Set up a designated area where students can pick up and drop off homework assignments. Assign a monitor in charge of the homework station each month. This person will update the labels regarding subjects, deadlines, etc. A homework station promotes organization and responsibility, making it easier for students to manage their assignments. It also reduces confusion and lost homework. It can streamline the process of handling assignments.

13. Student Supply Station

Create a central location for all classroom supplies like pencils, paper, and scissors and creative supplies like chart paper, stickers, and books. This station will ensure that students have easy access to the materials they need without disrupting class time.

14. Calm Down Corner

Set up a calm-down corner with soft seating, sensory toys, and calming activities. This space provides students with a place to relax and regroup when they are feeling overwhelmed.

15. STEM Activity Table

Designate a table for STEM projects and activities. This table will be a hub of creativity and innovation, where students can explore science, technology, engineering, and math concepts hands-on.

Primary Class Decoration Ideas

Primary school is where students begin to deepen their understanding and develop a love for learning. 
Your classroom should reflect this exciting journey with decorations that inspire, engage, and educate. Let's transform your primary classroom with these fun and practical class decoration ideas!

1. World Map Wall

Imagine walking into a classroom where a giant world map dominates one of the walls. This world map wall will brighten up your classroom and also serve as a fantastic educational tool.
3. Inspirational Quote Wall

Fill a wall in your classroom with quotes from famous people, each one offering a nugget of wisdom or a spark of motivation. It’s like having a team of cheerleaders on the wall, rooting for your students every day.

4. Word Wall with Vocabulary Words

Imagine a wall that evolves every week with new vocabulary words. This word wall will become a growing, interactive dictionary for your students, making learning new words fun and visual.

5. Historical Timeline

Create a mini-museum in your classroom with a historical timeline stretching across one of the walls. 
‍6. Kindness Bucket Filling Station

Set up a kindness bucket filling station to encourage positive actions. Students can write about acts of kindness they performed or experienced on slips of paper and place them in the bucket. 
At the end of each semester, you can read the slips out loud to celebrate and reinforce the impact and value of kindness.

7. Star Student Wall

Dedicate a section of your wall to highlight a different student each week. This recognition will make each student feel special and valued, fostering a positive classroom environment.

8. Creative Writing Wall

Create a space for students to post their short stories and poems. This wall becomes a gallery of their creative minds, encouraging literary expression and pride in their work.
‍9. Class Constitution

Create a display of classroom rules and values crafted by the students themselves. This collaborative project makes the rules feel more personal and meaningful, fostering a sense of ownership and community.

10. Puzzle and Games Shelf

Assign a simple shelving unit into an educational powerhouse stocked with a carefully curated selection of puzzles and educational games. From spatial-awareness puzzles like jigsaws to strategic games like chess, this shelf should offer a plethora of options to challenge students.
They provide a break from traditional learning while still being educational, which can help keep students motivated and engaged.‍

11. 3D Solar System Model

Create a 3-D solar system model by hanging painted paper mache balls representing planets from the classroom ceiling. This is a mini solar system right in your classroom. Students will love looking up and seeing the planets they’ve learned about in science class.

A planetary system model makes learning about space interactive and visually appealing. It’s a fun way to teach astronomy and spark interest in science. 

12. Homework Station

Set up a designated area where students can pick up and drop off homework assignments. Assign a monitor in charge of the homework station each month. This person will update the labels regarding subjects, deadlines, etc. A homework station promotes organization and responsibility, making it easier for students to manage their assignments. It also reduces confusion and lost homework. It can streamline the process of handling assignments.

13. Student Supply Station

Create a central location for all classroom supplies like pencils, paper, and scissors and creative supplies like chart paper, stickers, and books. This station will ensure that students have easy access to the materials they need without disrupting class time.

14. Calm Down Corner

Set up a calm-down corner with soft seating, sensory toys, and calming activities. This space provides students with a place to relax and regroup when they are feeling overwhelmed.

15. STEM Activity Table

Designate a table for STEM projects and activities. This table will be a hub of creativity and innovation, where students can explore science, technology, engineering, and math concepts hands-on.
For example, students can build simple circuits, create engineering models with building blocks, or conduct small science experiments like making volcanoes.

In this model, students rotate between different learning methods—like online learning, group work, or teacher-led instruction. 

Example:

Imagine your students starting the day with a quick teacher-led session to cover core concepts. After that, they rotate between different learning methods:

• Learning Method 1: Group activity where they solve math problems together.

• Learning Method 2: Online learning tools to reinforce skills.

• Learning Method 3: A reflection corner where students journal about what they learned.

The Rotation Model keeps the class dynamic and ensures every learner gets to learn in a way that suits them best.

2. Flipped Classroom Model

The flipped classroom turns the traditional model upside down! Students learn new content at home through videos or readings, and class time is spent on discussions, problem-solving, and hands-on activities.

Example:

Let’s say you’re teaching a science class about ecosystems. Your students watched an engaging YouTube video about food chains the night before. 

The next day, instead of a lecture, you assign them group projects where they create food chain diagrams and solve real-world problems, like what happens when one species goes extinct.

3. Flex Model

The Flex Model gives students more control over their learning pace. Online learning is the core of instruction, with in-class support available for those who need it. Students can move through the material faster and focus more on areas where they need help.

Example:

Picture a high school English class where each student works on different literature unit sections. Some watch video lectures about Shakespeare's themes, while others use interactive software to analyze poetry. 

4. Enriched Virtual Model

This model combines face-to-face sessions with online learning but shifts more towards the online side. Students do most of their learning remotely but occasionally come in for in-person sessions for support or assessments.

In winter, people often forget about the importance of hydration. The colder temperatures may reduce your sensation of thirst, but your body still needs adequate water intake to function properly. Staying hydrated is critical for digestion, joint health, and keeping your skin supple, which tends to dry out more in the winter.

Expert Tip: Warm water with lemon, herbal teas, or even soups can help keep your hydration levels up while providing some comfort in the cold. Always aim to drink around 6-8 glasses of water daily, even when it doesn’t feel like you’re losing fluids.

2. Boost Immunity Through Nutrition

A balanced, nutrient-dense diet is your first line of defense against seasonal illnesses. Eating the right foods can strengthen your immune system, helping to ward off colds, flu, and other wintertime ailments. Seasonal vegetables like carrots, spinach, and squash are rich in vitamins and antioxidants, while citrus fruits like oranges provide a powerful dose of vitamin C.

Expert Tip: Include garlic, ginger, and turmeric in your meals. These ingredients have natural anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties, which are excellent for fighting off infections during winter.

3. Stay Active Despite the Cold

Winter weather can discourage outdoor activities, but regular physical movement is crucial for maintaining both physical and mental health. Exercise improves circulation, keeps your muscles strong, and helps your body regulate its temperature more effectively. It’s also a fantastic way to boost your mood, as exercise releases endorphins that combat the “winter blues.”

Expert Tip: If outdoor activities aren’t appealing, try indoor exercises like yoga, bodyweight training, or even using a treadmill or stationary bike. Stretching, especially in the morning, can also reduce stiffness from the cold.

4. Get Enough Rest

Winter’s shorter days and longer nights can affect your sleep cycle. Proper rest is key to keeping your immune system strong and your energy levels high. The lack of natural sunlight can also impact your mood, making it important to stick to a regular sleep routine.

Expert Tip: Try to establish a consistent bedtime routine that allows for 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Limiting screen time before bed and keeping your room cool but cozy will help you sleep more soundly.

5. Layer Up for Warmth and Protection

When venturing outdoors, layering is the most effective way to stay warm. Start with moisture-wicking fabrics close to the skin to avoid becoming damp from sweat. Add insulating layers like wool or fleece, and finish with a waterproof outer layer to protect against snow, rain, and wind.

Expert Tip: Pay extra attention to your extremities, which lose heat quickly. Wear a hat, gloves, and warm socks to keep your head, hands, and feet cozy, as these areas are most susceptible to cold-related issues like frostbite.

6. Keep Your Skin Moisturized

Cold weather and indoor heating can wreak havoc on your skin, causing it to become dry, itchy, or even cracked. To prevent skin damage, it’s essential to apply a rich moisturizer daily, especially after bathing when your skin is still slightly damp.

Expert Tip: Use oil-based moisturizers, as they create a protective layer over the skin. Don’t forget to use lip balm and hand cream, as these areas tend to suffer the most in winter. Humidifiers can also help by adding moisture to dry indoor air.

7. Maintain Good Hygiene Practices

Winter tends to bring with it an uptick in colds, flu, and other viruses. To minimize your risk of falling ill, practice good hygiene by washing your hands regularly and avoiding close contact with individuals who are sick. Sanitizing high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs, keyboards, and phones can also reduce the spread of germs.

8. Supplement Wisely

In winter, reduced sunlight exposure can lead to vitamin D deficiency, which is essential for bone health and immune support. Consider taking a vitamin D supplement to maintain optimal levels, along with other immune-boosting nutrients like vitamin C and zinc.

9. Combat the Winter Blues

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression linked to reduced sunlight during winter months. It can lead to feelings of lethargy, low energy, and even sadness. To maintain your mental well-being, make a conscious effort to get outside during daylight hours, as exposure to natural light is critical for regulating your mood.

10. Be Mindful of Your Indoor Environment

While staying warm indoors is important, indoor heating systems can lower the humidity in your home, leading to dry skin, irritated eyes, and respiratory discomfort. Maintaining the right balance of warmth and humidity will enhance your comfort and health.

Think of Shimla, and you might picture snow-covered hills and colonial architecture. But here’s something you might not know – Shimla is home to one of the oldest ice skating rinks in Asia! As winter sets in, the open-air ice skating rink in Shimla comes alive. It’s a unique experience; you’re skating under the open sky, surrounded by the breathtaking views of Shimla. 

For beginners, it’s a fun way to try skating, and for pros, it’s a playground to show off their skills. The entire town gets into the spirit with ice skating festivals and carnivals. So, whether you’re skating for the first time or reliving childhood memories, ice skating in Shimla is a magical experience one  shouldn’t miss.

2. Snowboarding in Auli, Uttarakhand

When it comes to winter sports in India, Auli in Uttarakhand is a paradise for snowboarders. Nestled in the Himalayas, Auli offers some of the best snowboarding experiences with its perfect slopes and powdery snow. It’s a place where you can glide down the slopes with the majestic mountains in the backdrop – truly a sight to behold! 

The best part about snowboarding in Auli is that it caters to everyone. If you’re a beginner, there are instructors who can guide you through the basics. And if you’re an experienced snowboarder, the challenging slopes are a thrill to conquer. Besides snowboarding, Auli’s natural beauty is mesmerizing – it’s like being in a winter wonderland. So, if you’re looking for an adventurous and scenic winter sport, Auli should be on your list!

3. Skiing in Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir

When we talk about winter sports, skiing in Gulmarg is a must-mention. Imagine sliding down slopes covered in soft, powdery snow, with the mighty Himalayas around you. It’s not just about the thrill; it’s about experiencing nature in its most majestic form. And guess what? AdventuRush offers a Gulmarg skiing adventure starting from just 9999! 

We offer personalised lessons with experienced instructors dedicated to helping each individual. This approach is ideal for beginners learning the basics and for experts aiming to refine their skills. Our guides are experts in advanced skiing techniques and safety protocols, ensuring your ski experience is exciting and secure.

4. Sledging in Manali, Himachal Pradesh

Looking for winter sports in India that are fun for the whole family? Sledging in Manali is your answer. It’s a joyous experience for everyone, regardless of age. Imagine sitting on a sledge and zooming down gentle snowy slopes with the picturesque Manali as your backdrop. It’s not just an adventure; it’s a memory you’ll cherish forever.

Manali, with its beautiful snow-covered landscapes, is considered perfect for sledging. It’s a great way to enjoy the winter chill without needing any special skills. Just hop on a sledge, and off you go, sliding and laughing all the way down. It’s a simple yet delightful winter sport that everyone must try.

5. Ice Climbing in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh

Ice climbing is for those who love a bit of challenge and adventure. Ice climbing here is about testing your strength and endurance against the icy cliffs. With its rugged terrain and stunning natural beauty, Spiti Valley offers a perfect setting for this thrilling sport. 

As you embrace this adventure, it’s important to be cautious and always climb with professional guides who know the area well . The experience of ascending an ice wall, with the serene Spiti landscape around you, is exhilarating. It’s not just a sport; it’s an adventure that pushes your limits and rewards you with breathtaking views and a sense of accomplishment.

6. Snow Scooter Riding in Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh

Imagine zooming through snowy landscapes on a scooter. Sounds fun, right? That’s exactly what snow scooter riding in Rohtang Pass offers – a unique blend of thrill and scenic beauty. This is one of the winter sports in India  which is gaining popularity for its exhilarating experience. Just a few hours’ drive from Manali, Rohtang Pass transforms into a winter wonderland where snow scooters become the coolest ride. 

Embracing this exhilarating experience means not only enjoying the stunning scenery but also prioritizing your well-being. Safety is key, so gear up well and listen to the guides. Whether you’re riding solo or with a friend, snow scootering in Rohtang is an unforgettable adventure.

7. Heliskiing in Hanuman Tibba, Himachal Pradesh

For those who like their winter sports with an extra dose of adventure, heliskiing in Hanuman Tibba is a must-try. It’s not your average ski trip. You get to hop on a helicopter, fly to untouched snowy slopes, and then ski down. Hanuman Tibba, with its pristine snow and breathtaking views, offers one of the best heli skiing experiences in India. 

The thrill of skiing down untracked slopes, combined with the excitement of a helicopter ride, makes for an unmatched adventure. It’s essential to go with experienced guides and follow all safety measures. This sport is more suited for seasoned skiers, but if you’re up for the challenge, it’s an experience of a lifetime.

So, we’ve explored some incredible winter sports in India, each offering its own unique thrill. Whether you’re planning a solo adventure, a trip with friends, or a family vacation, these winter sports are sure to spice up your holiday. 

As you consider these exhilarating options for your next winter escapade, remember that the perfect adventure often combines great company, stunning destinations, and heart-pumping activities.

And if you’re looking for an all-in-one package, check out AdventuRush. We offer great deals for all these winter sports, taking care of all the nitty-gritty details so you can just focus on having fun. So, what are you waiting for? Grab your gear, choose your adventure, and dive into the exciting world of winter sports!

2. Amaranth: Grains such as amaranth and bajra are a good source of energy during the inactive and cold winter days. They are high in starch that takes longer to digest and therefore keeps you energetic throughout the day.

3. Desi Ghee: As per Ayurveda, desi ghee is one of the most easily digestible fats used in cooking as well as in curries to enhance its flavour. Ghee is also a natural way to cure the pitta(heat element) of your body.

It has numerous benefits such as it aids in digestion, prevents constipation and helps in the excretion of toxins. It keeps you warm and also increases your immunity. By eating onions fried in desi ghee can soothe and treat a sore throat.

4. Ginger: Ginger is known for its thermogenic and healing properties. It helps in boosting your metabolism and increase blood flow. You can consume raw ginger root in hot water. You can also put some ginger in your regular tea or Kada to obtain its benefits.

5. Shalgam (Turnip): Root vegetables such as turnip, radish, sweet potatoes are the delights of the winter season. These vegetables also provide the much-needed energy and also keep the body warmth intact.

As these vegetables take a longer time for digestion, they produce more heat. You can make a warm stew for dinner and garnish it with leafy greens.

6. Mustard: Mustard seeds (commonly known as Sarson) are known for their warming properties. Sarson ka tel or mustard oil is also beneficial for massaging the feet to keep your feet warm and cozy in severe winters.

7. Honey: Honey is used widely in combating cold, cough and flu. Honey is known to have many health benefits like it cures digestive issues, boosts immunity, good for skin, etc. Honey also keep you warm during the winters months and provide you with the much-required warmth also.

8. Dry fruits: Dry fruits are considered as one of the best foods to be consumed in winter months. Dry fruits such as apricots, dried figs, dates, almonds, cashews will give you warm and also enhance your immunity to fight against the diseases and warmth. They are naturally rich in nutrients, dietary fibre, vitamins, etc.

The all-time world record for the largest snowfall in a single day was set in the United States on December 4, 1913, when Georgetown, Colorado received a staggering 63 inches of snow - more than five feet.

The winters of 1779-1780

It was so cold that ice was piled 20 feet high along the Delmarva Coast and stayed there until spring. The upper portion of the Chesapeake Bay and the entire Potomac River was frozen solid, allowing people to walk from Annapolis to Kent Island and from Alexandria in to D.C.

Ice

Black ice is extremely dangerous, because this type is difficult if not impossible to see. Black ice usually forms in a very thin, very slippery layer, and usually forms first on structures such as bridges. Much of the damage done by winter storms is not from snow, but from the weight of ice.

Boy that's cold!

The coldest temperature ever recorded in the world was -128 degrees Celsius, in Vostok Station in Antarctica in 1983.

Chinophobia

People with chionophobia are simply said to have a fear of snow. One of the largest components to this fear is the idea of becoming snowbound. A forecast calling for a snowstorm can bring on cold sweats, panic attacks, and even an unrealistic feeling of doom and dread. People with chionophobia will rarely venture out into the snow for fear of being stranded as well.

No two snowflakes are alike!

Snowflakes start as ice crystals that freeze around small pieces of dust in the air. As they fall to the earth, the ice crystals join together to form snow flakes. The shape of each snowflake is determined by temperature, wind, the amount of time it takes to fall to the ground, and the amount of water vapor in the air.

The Largest Snowflake

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, on January 28, 1887, a 15 inch wide, 8 inch thick snowflake ever observed fell in Fort Keogh, Montana.

 Seasonal Affective Disorder

 The "winter blues" were first diagnosed in 1984. And have recently been named seasonal affective disorder or S.A.D. According to the Mayo Clinic, Seasonal affective disorder (also called SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year. If you're like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.

World's Tallest Snowman

It was built to bring attention to the Bethel, Maine area and allow the total community to come together for a project. The people of Bethel and the surrounding area worked 5 months to plan and build the 113 foot 7 inch tall snowman which broke the former record held by Yamagata, Japan of 96 feet 7 inches. At 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 17, 1999 the record was officially broken. Two town officials, a regional photographer, a videographer, a licensed professional surveyor and the president of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce were on hand to verify the actual size and height for the Guinness Book of World Records.

If improving your sense of work-life balance (or work-life integration — what matters more than semantics, though, is that you achieve it!) is a goal for you in 2024, licensed counselor Nedra Glover Tawwab's book will be a welcome addition to your bookshelf. Maintaining healthy boundaries at work isn't just a way to grow and develop as a leader; it's something that, really, you can't succeed at work — in a sustained way — without.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• Our world is an increasingly chaotic one, with multiple things vying for our attention at any given time. Tawwab draws on research and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) techniques to spell out practical ways for setting and maintaining boundaries, in and out of the workplace.

• If you struggle with people-pleasing at work, Tawwab's book can help you replace those tendencies with the mindset and kind of peace that will actually get you ahead professionally.

Conventional wisdom ties success to happiness: the more successful we are, the happier we’ll be. In this book, Harvard lecturer Shawn Anchor explores the possibility that happiness fuels success. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. He outlines seven actionable principles that lead to success, backed by research in psychology, neuroscience, and management studies. He highlights how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It can help you apply positive psychology principles to enhance workplace success and professional development.

• It can help you integrate happiness strategies to enhance overall productivity, leading to improved performance and success.

Bruce Tulgan's book is a guide to thriving in the modern workplace by becoming indispensable. Tulgan provides actionable insights on how individuals can contribute value, stay relevant, and stand out in their professional roles.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It can help you learn practical strategies for adding tangible value to your role, making yourself indispensable in the workplace.

• It can help you gain insights on staying agile and relevant in a rapidly changing work environment, enhancing your professional longevity and success.

Watkins presents a practical guide for professionals entering new leadership roles or navigating organizational changes. Focusing on the crucial initial phases, the book offers insights to help individuals not only survive but thrive during these transitions. Watkins advocates for proactive onboarding and provides a roadmap to accelerate learning, minimize risks, and establish a solid foundation for long-term success.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It provides proven strategies for effectively transitioning into new roles, accelerating your learning curve, and making a positive impact from day one.

• It can help you learn valuable skills for successfully leading through periods of organizational change.

My understanding of how to teach thinking skills like critical thinking, decision making, problem solving etc. to young learners got a boost by coming across Marzano’s Taxonomy, which in turn led to reading up several papers on the subject.

The biggest insight for me has been that all such thinking skills have a process (or a protocol). For example, decision making (which is nothing but choosing the best options from two or more options) has the following process: generate and list down options, think of criteria on which the options will be evaluated, carry out the evaluation criteria by criteria, and select the option which appears the best in evaluation. Likewise, we can think of the process for all such “higher order” thinking skills, and then ensure that students have absorbed these processes.

The second part of teaching, as you can guess, is to give opportunities to students to apply these thinking processes from time to time so that it becomes their second nature. I have come to believe that the best way to provide this opportunity is to engage them on long term exploratory projects connected with the life around them. Such projects will get students to read, interview people, watch videos etc. and apply their critical thinking process to draw conclusions; investigate causes and prioritize them; generate solutions and evaluate them to decide on the best, and so on. Such projects should be done in small groups where students can discuss, debate and challenge each other. I would suggest that at any point of time, every student should be engaged in at least a project.

One related topic, which is attracting attention these days, is that of “computational thinking” – it appears to be a new “animal” but I will show you in my next blog that it is nothing but “problem solving” in a new garb!

I want to suggest two such initiatives which will make a significant difference to the quality of the school education system in the country.

First is putting together the learning outcomes for each subject across grades (also called syllabus). As a nation, we have not been able to do so, yet. In absence of this, teachers interpret the learning outcomes from the prescribed textbook, and usually think of "memorizing" types of learning outcomes. And therefore, rote learning is perpetuated. Other countries have dealt with this issue by articulating "learning standards". Interestingly, NCF has made an attempt to do so but there are two problems - one, it has left gaps (for example, while Grade 5 and 8 have been spelt out, Grades 6 & 7 are left out), two, it has confused the issue by thinking of learning goals only as competencies, and suggests that competency and learning outcome are two different things.

Second initiative is all about developing an English vocabulary teaching program. We all know that language is the vehicle for all learning, and language is vocabulary. Each word in any language represents a concept. I believe that if we can ensure that every student acquires a good vocabulary by Grade 8, that student will be on the path to becoming an independent learner. I have mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that there are around 10,000 unique words in the English language that a student must absorb by Grade 8. Therefore, the need is to develop a program which will get these words across over some 8-10 years.

It’s why we debate the science of intermittent fasting and ketogenic diets instead of following Michael Pollan’s advice to “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” It’s why we pay financial planners to tell us how to save for retirement instead of taking 15 minutes to open a Vanguard account, select an index fund, and set up an automatic monthly deposit. And it’s why we’re drawn to the finicky intricacies of productivity systems like Getting Things Done instead of simply working on our most important tasks first.

Complexity can keep life interesting, as when we develop complex rituals for making a simple cup of coffee or when we carefully tend our sourdough starters for the perfect loaf of bread. However, complex systems are more difficult to maintain over time.

In addition, the perception of complexity often leads to avoidance. When we think something is difficult to do or understand, we don’t even try. If we believe that organizing our lives requires a complex system like GTD, we’re less likely to experiment with a simpler system we might have a better shot at sticking to. The trick is to embrace complexity when you genuinely enjoy the process, but don’t let the perceived complexity keep you from getting started.

What you can do about it:

Develop a bias for action over research. You don’t have to fully understand a concept to get started. Instead of seeking perfect knowledge at the start, take an iterative approach to your endeavors: Try things, see how they work, and slowly improve over time. It’s the fastest way to learn. Done is better than perfect.

Choose the system you’ll stick with. It may be that intermittent fasting is objectively the best way to burn fat or that GTD is the ideal way of organizing your tasks, but it won’t do you any good if you can’t stick to it long-term. Look for systems that work with your natural inclinations, even if they aren’t the "best" way of doing things.

Apply Occam’s Razor. Occam’s Razor states that, when faced with two possible explanations for the same evidence, the one that requires the fewest assumptions is most likely to be true. While there are exceptions to every mental model, Occam’s Razor is a good rule of thumb for counterbalancing the complexity bias.

We can't talk about morning sunlight and improved sleep hygiene without first addressing our circadian rhythm. This is the body's 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. It naturally responds to light and darkness, and it dictates when we get hungry, when we get sleepy and when it's time to wake up. Think of it as an internal clock. 

According to Johns Hopkins, the SCN (or suprachiasmatic nucleus) is the area of your brain that controls your sleep-wake cycle. In the morning, your eyes sense the sunlight, and then the SCN triggers the release of cortisol to help your body wake up. Getting sunlight in the morning helps regulate your circadian rhythm as the light signals to your body and brain that it's time to start the day. When it gets dark at night, the SCN triggers the release of melatonin, which makes you sleepy.

Now that we've gone over how morning sunlight can affect your sleep quality, let's dive into ways to get more sunlight.

• Rise with the sun: Waking up around sunrise can be a game-changer for your sleep. Aim to wake up early and catch the first rays of sunlight to help regulate your circadian rhythm.

• Open your curtains and blinds: One easy way of maximizing natural light in your home is to open your blinds and curtains. This allows the sunlight to provide a natural wake-up signal for your body.

• Do outdoor activities in the morning: Whether it's going for a brisk walk or just stretching on your patio, exposure to natural light and physical activity can help you wake up naturally.

• Eat breakfast by a window: If your time is limited in the morning and you just can't find 15 extra minutes to get sunlight, try having your breakfast or coffee near a window.

• Invest in a light therapy lamp: If you have limited access to natural sunlight or live in a region with overcast weather, consider a light therapy device that mimics the spectrum of natural light.

Must Visit Churches: St. Paul’s Church, Cathedral of Bom Jesus
Places to stay: Silver Sands Beach Resort, Hotel Casa De Damao
Things to do: Witness the midnight mass at churches
Nearest Railway Station: Vapi Railway Station

Shimla – Snow-Laden Hills 

Must Visit Churches: Christ Church Shimla, St. Michael’s Cathedral Catholic Church
Places to stay: Shimla Nature Ville, Snow Valley Resorts
Things to do:  Attend prayers, listen to carols and enjoy all the customs at the churches
Nearest Railway Station: Kalka Railway Station

Chennai – Of Carols And Masses

Must Visit Churches: St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica, Armenian Church, St Andrew’s Church
Places to stay: Sarovar Inn Hotel, Ibis Chennai
Things to do: Visit the town square and bazaar
Nearest Railway Station: Chennai Central

Lansdowne – Enjoy A Quiet Christmas

Must Visit Churches: St. Mary’s Church, Saint John Church Lansdowne
Places to stay: Fusion Lansdowne, Blue Pine Resort
Things to do: Enjoy a camping picnic, visit the calm cafes
Nearest Railway Station: Kotdwar Railway Station

Sikkim – A Picture-Perfect Christmas

Must Visit Churches: HopeCity Church, St. Thomas Church
Places to stay: The Mighty Gardens, Hotel Himalayas
Things to do: Enjoy Christmas meals, witness the festive environment
Nearest Railway Station: New Jalpaiguri Railway Station

Dadra And Nagar Haveli – For A Quaint Christmas

Must Visit Churches: New India Church Of God, Our Lady of Piety Church, Church Silvassa
Places to stay: Khanvel Resort, VITS Kamats
Things to do: Visit the decorated attractions in the area
Nearest Railway Station: Vapi Railway Station

Ooty – Witness The Stunning Churches 

Must Visit Churches: St. Stephen’s Church, CSI Holy Trinity Church, Union Church
Places to stay: Hotel Lakeview, Delightz Inn Resorts
Things to do: Ride in the Nilgiri mountain toy train, visit the cafes of Ooty
Nearest Railway Station: Udagamandalam Railway Station

• Pondicherry – Find Crunchy Cookies And Gifts

  Must Visit Church: Domus Dei Cathedral
  Places to stay: Maison Perumal Hotel & Restaurant, Anantha Heritage 
  Things to do: Attend midnight mass and various Christmas markets
  Nearest Railway Station: Puducherry Railway Station

Practicing optimism and positivity has been linked to various health benefits, less stress, and increased productivity. Optimistic employees are happier and more engaged in their work, so it’s absolutely a win-win situation.

So, this Christmas let’s just spread some positivity in the air as ‘positivity is contagious’.

Spread Your Smile

A simple smile can work wonders in uplifting the collective spirit of a workplace. Even during challenging times, make a conscious effort to turn your frown upside down. The act of smiling, even when not genuinely felt, triggers a positive response in the brain, creating a ripple effect of optimism. Your genuine smile can serve as a beacon of hope, reassuring your colleagues that everything will be alright. As numbers may fluctuate and uncertainties prevail, the warmth of a smile can be a constant source of comfort.

Express Gratitude

In the hustle and bustle of the workplace, acknowledgment often takes a backseat. However, a culture of gratitude can significantly impact the overall atmosphere. Take a moment each day to express genuine thanks to your colleagues for their hard work and dedication. A simple 'thank you' can go a long way toward boosting morale and cultivating a sense of appreciation. By recognizing and valuing the efforts of those around you, you contribute to a positive feedback loop that benefits everyone.

Practice Positive Messaging

Words can influence perceptions and attitudes. In the workplace, positive messaging can be a game-changer. When communicating with your colleagues, choose words that exude optimism and encouragement. Constructive and positive communication fosters a supportive environment andenhances the way your feedback is received. Strive for communication that is uplifting, personal, empowering, and passionate to create a positive impact on those around you.

Build Relationships

Work is not just about tasks and deadlines; it's also about the people you interact with daily. Fostering healthy work relationships is essential for creating a positive and collaborative atmosphere. Take the initiative to organize social gatherings or regular check-ins to strengthen connections with your co-workers, supervisors, and employees. Be mindful not to limit your interactions; building work relationships requires a broad perspective and genuine interest in others.

Decorate the Workspace

One of the simplest yet most effective ways to usher in the Christmas spirit is by adorning the office with festive decorations. Encourage employees to contribute to the festive ambiance by bringing in decorations, such as twinkling lights, wreaths, and ornaments. Transforming the workspace into a winter wonderland can instantly lift everyone's spirits and create a warm, welcoming atmosphere.

Celebrate Achievements

Amidst the daily grind, it is crucial to take a step back and celebrate achievements, no matter how small. Recognizing and applauding accomplishments, whether individual or team-based, boosts morale and motivates everyone to strive for excellence. Consider implementing a recognition program or a shout-out system to publicly acknowledge and appreciate the hard work of your colleagues. It  spreads positivity and fosters a culture of success and collaboration.

Encourage Team Building Activities

Team building activities are not only a fun way to break the monotony of the work routine but also an effective means of fostering positive relationships among colleagues. Organize team-building events, workshops, or outings that encourage collaboration, communication, and camaraderie. These activities strengthen the bond among team members, promoting a positive and supportive work culture.

Celebrate Diversity and Inclusion

Embrace and celebrate diversity within your workplace. A diverse and inclusive environment promotes creativity, innovation, and a sense of belonging. Ensure that your company values and policies reflect a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Celebrate cultural holidays, organize diversity training, and create affinity groups to foster a sense of unity and appreciation for the unique backgrounds and perspectives that each team member brings.

Organize Secret Santa and Gift Exchanges

Nothing embodies the spirit of giving quite like a Secret Santa exchange. Encourage your team to participate in this festive tradition, exchanging thoughtful gifts that reflect the season's goodwill. Setting a reasonable budget ensures that everyone can participate, fostering a sense of unity and appreciation among colleagues.

Host a Christmas Potluck

Food has a remarkable way of bringing people together, and what better time to share a meal than during the holidays? Organize a Christmas potluck where colleagues can showcase their culinary talents by bringing in festive dishes to share. It not only adds a delicious dimension to the celebration but also provides an opportunity for team members to connect on a personal level.

Encourage Flexibility and Work-Life Balance

The holiday season is a time for rest and rejuvenation, and recognizing the importance of work-life balance is crucial. Encourage employees to take time off to spend with their loved ones and create a flexible work schedule when possible. By acknowledging the importance of personal time during the holidays, you contribute to a healthier work environment and strengthen the bond between employees.

Volunteer as a Team

Christmas is a season of compassion and generosity, making it an ideal time for corporate social responsibility initiatives. Consider organizing a team volunteer day where employees can contribute their time and efforts to a charitable cause. Whether it's serving meals at a local shelter, organizing a donation drive, or participating in a community event, giving back as a team fosters a sense of purpose and community spirit.

Conclusion

This Christmas, let the spirit of giving and gratitude permeate your workplace, creating a positive and uplifting atmosphere for all. By embracing festive traditions, fostering inclusivity, and recognizing the achievements of your team, you can transform the office into a hub of joy and camaraderie. As we celebrate the season, may the positivity cultivated at work extend far beyond the holidays, creating a lasting impact on the overall well-being and satisfaction of your team.

• Join a gym or fitness class.

• Explore yoga or pilates for mind-body balance.

• Commit to daily walks or runs, even if just for 20 minutes.

• Follow a balanced diet rich in whole foods.

• Schedule annual health check-ups.

2. Go Green: Resolutions for Nature 🌿

• Switch to reusable bags, bottles, and straws.

• Plant a tree or maintain a small home garden.

• Participate in local clean-up drives.

• Reduce your carbon footprint by opting for public transport or carpooling.

• Start composting organic waste at home.

3. Strengthen Family Bonds 👪

• Dedicate quality time to family every week.

• Plan regular family dinners or outings.

• Engage in activities that strengthen communication.

• . Embrace Adventure and Exploration 🎩

  • Take up a new adventure sport like skydiving, trekking, or scuba diving.

  • Plan a solo trip to a destination you've always wanted to explore.

  • Learn a skill like surfing or rock climbing.

  • Challenge yourself with a multi-day hike.

  • Try a food tour in a new city or country.

• Expand Your Knowledge and Skills 🎓

  • Enroll in online courses to learn something new.

  • Read at least one book per month.

  • Attend seminars or workshops in your field.

  • Learn a new language.

  • Master a musical instrument or a creative skill like painting.

This may just be the easiest new year’s resolution, and also one of the ones that can really help you feel better. In fact, research has shown that recognizing the things in your life that you can be grateful for is good for your mental and physical wellness.

Be more mindful.

Contrary to popular belief, mindfulness doesn’t require hours of weekly meditation or any special training. In fact, practicing mindfulness is just doing everything you can to be grateful for what you have in the moment, where you are in life and who you are right

Cook new foods.

We all have our go-to meals, and they serve us well when we’re short on time or don’t have the energy to plan for something novel. But chances are you’re missing out on tons of foods that are both yummy and healthy. Set aside one meal every week (even lunch on a weekend!) to try cooking with a new ingredient or making a new-to-you dish.

Read more books.

There’s nothing quite like getting cozy on the sofa with a new book when it’s cold outside. That makes right now the perfect time to set a reading goal for the year.

Prioritize sleep.

It’s time to stop shrugging off issues like insomnia and sleep apnea and make a solid effort toward high-quality shuteye. A lack of sleep can lead to an array of problems, from memory problems to immune system challenges. Fortunately, there are many different ways to improve your sleep routine beyond going to bed earlier.

Schedule annual health screenings.

Open your calendar app (or planner!) and make your appointments for the year in one sitting — not only will you get the anxiety-inducing nuisance over with, but exams will be less likely to get squeezed out as life gets bonkers. Start with your primary care provider, and ask which screenings (e.g., mammogram, colonoscopy) you're due for. Slot those in, then move on to the dentist's office and head over to your ophthalmologist, too.

Become a plant owner.

Swing by the garden center after brunch this weekend. Just the presence of indoor plants can lower human stress levels, research shows, and one study found that actively caring for plants calmed the autonomic nervous system and lowered blood pressure. And when people work near plants, they report greater concentration, satisfaction, and perceived air quality.

Take the stairs.

Take 10 minutes to run up the stairs in your office, home or nearby park. A published study in the journal Physiology & Behavior found that tired women who climbed stairs for 10 minutes got a bigger energy boost than those who had the caffeine equivalent of a can of soda or half a cup of coffee (and burned calories too!).

Stop procrastinating on a tough decision.

The stress around a major life decision often causes individuals to freeze in their tracks. Mental capacity has been known to be reduced by stress and anxiety, but a major change requires a fair amount of brain power to navigate. The ironic aspect of this is that prolonging what needs to be done can further exacerbate stress — and restart the vicious cycle

Decorate with family history.

In happy and long-lived cultures, people often display items from their families' pasts, says The Blue Zones of Happiness author Dan Buettner. "They remember and honor where they come from," he says. "We find that in happier cultures around the world, folks feel like part of a continuum." So hang your grandparents' wedding portrait, or put meaningful memorabilia on shelves.

City/ State: Patna, Bihar

Best Known For: Super 30

Age At Which Initiative Commenced: 25

What do all bright students having a superb academic record have in common apart from excellent grades? The drive! What makes these bright students “excellent” is their great vision and their urge to make a difference.

Anand Kumar is one such name, who not only excelled academically himself but also helped others crack the highly competitive JEE to reach the prestigious IITs. A major setback in his life was when he got admission to his dream university, Cambridge University, but could not attend it due to financial problems. The incident broke him, but perhaps this was destiny’s plan for something greater. 

Anand commenced the Super 30 program in 2000, in which he helped and taught students to prepare for IIT JEE. As of 2015, 391 out of 450 of his students have successfully cracked the super-hard IIT JEE examination and got a seat in the prestigious institute. The silver screen too has applauded his journey with a movie titled ‘Super 30” based on his journey and initiative. The movie starred Hritik Roshan as the main protagonist and proved to be a hit!

City/ State: Haryana, Delhi

Best Known For: Former IAS and founder of Drishti IAS Coaching Classes

Age At Which Initiative Commenced: 23

Every UPSC aspirant faces tremendous challenges during the preparation time, but everything seems easy under the guidance of Vikas sir. Dr. Vikas Divyakriti is a popular name among UPSC aspirants aiming to shape the nation in a positive direction.

The man has always had a great academic record and has pursued a number of degrees. He cleared the prestigious IAS examination like a cakewalk in one go and became an IAS officer under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, the man found his calling in teaching and thus resigned from the post to simplify learning for IAS aspirants.

In a world where English is the formal code of command and communication, the man chose to simplify learning by teaching in Hindi. Today, his company Drishti IAS Coaching Classes is one of the most sought-after coaching institutes in the country.

City/ State: Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh

Best Known For Physics Wallah

Age At Which Initiative Commenced: 23

Are you really a science student if you do not know “Physics Wallah?”

We can see a wide grin on your face!

Physics Wallah is one of the best platforms in India that simplifies education and exam-cracking material for science students.

Alakh Pandey, the man behind “Physics Wallah” shoots and posts videos surrounding study material. Today, he has a subscriber base of 2 million students. He is one of those teachers students look up to simplify their concepts and understand them firmly.

City/ State: Murshidabad, West Bengal

Best Known For Teaching at 16 years of age

Age At Which Initiative Commenced: 16

What image comes to your mind when you think of a “teacher” or a “professor”?

Let us guess; you must be thinking of a middle-aged man or woman with grey hair demonstrating his long years of study and rigorous teaching experience.

What if we tell you about a 16-year-old young guy teaching more than 800 children?

We are talking about the “youngest headmaster in the world”, as coined by the BBC, Babar Ali. The guy was just a 16-year-old teenager who not only studied himself in school but also taught young children. Today, Babar Ali, along with his group of 10 other teachers, teaches around 800 students outdoors. Today, the 16-year-old guy is 29.

Best Known For: Unconventional fundraising method to run his school

The man runs an English-medium school for the not-so-privileged children in Rajasthan and rural Maharashtra. What’s so unique? Well, he didn't even shy from begging on the streets to fund his school. Yes, you read it right! The man wasn’t able to fund the school all alone, but that did not stop the man from pursuing his passion for teaching.

When nothing worked in his favour, he started begging on the streets to fund his very own English-medium school. To gain the trust of people and to appear authentic, he carries laminated copies of the newspaper clippings talking about his school and his ideas.

India ranks 4^th and 5^th in the wind and solar power installed capacities respectively. India is also ranked number 5 globally for overall installed renewable energy capacity. International Solar Alliance (ISA) was launched in 2015 by India, at the India Africa Summit. The framework agreement of the ISA opened for signatures in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016, and 122 countries have joined.

PRIORITY #1 - BETTER AIR

The government of India has set a target of electric vehicles making up 30% of new sales of cars and two-wheelers by 2030 from less than 1% today.¹ In 2018, to encourage electric vehicles, Niti Aayog has come up with the policy framework for Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs).² Indian Automotive industry will transit from the Bharat Stage (BS)-IV emission norms to the BS-VI emission norms on April 1, 2020

SUNNY DAYS AHEAD

India’s geographical position on the globe ensures that it receives ample sunshine throughout the year. India recorded its biggest ever solar power capacity addition of 9.362 GW in 2017-18. India also houses the second largest solar power plant in the world. India has an installed capacity of 24.33 GW and another 36.60 GW under implementation and tendering. 

SMART LIKE THAT

India took a giant leap towards sustainability when it launched the Smart Cities Mission in 2015. With sustainability at the core and adequate water supply, electricity connections, affordable housing, robust IT connectivity, safer and cleaner cities, the Government of India aims to develop 100 smart cities under this scheme. This also marked the start of investments in the urban sector based on competitive selection among cities, to be taken up further for the project.

• The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor is being set up by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA). It consists of the following six nodal points with the potential to develop defence industries in the corridor:

  1. Agra

  2. Aligarh

  3. Chitrakoot

  4. Jhansi

  5. Kanpur

  6. Lucknow

• Plug and Play support will be provided to the industries in the corridor, which will consist of the following facilities:

  1. Assured water supply and uninterrupted electricity (132 KVA) along with pelican wire fencing boundary wall at the site

  2. Connectivity with 4-lane heavy-duty highway connected with Bundelkhand Expressway and Delhi-Jhansi

  3. Single Window approvals and clearances to Defence and Aerospace (D&A) manufacturing units via Nivesh Mitra, the single window system of the state

  4. Labour Permits for D&A industry towards flexible employment conditions

  5. Simple Procedures and rationalized regulatory regime with easy reimbursement of incentives and subsidies

• TAMIL NADU DEFENCE CORRIDOR

  • The Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor, being set up by the Government of Tamil Nadu, consists of the following five nodal points:

    1. Chennai

    2. Coimbatore

    3. Hosur

    4. Salem

    5. Tiruchirappalli

  • The State holds the following strategic advantages which makes it a suitable destination for a defence corridor:

    1. The large coastal line which has four large seaports (three government and one private) and 22 minor ports

    2. The state has four international airports at Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai; and two domestic airports at Tuticorin and Salem

    3. A power surplus state with renewable energy capacity of 11,113 MW

    4. Tamil Nadu’s capital city Chennai is connected to the world by three submarine cables providing a bandwidth of 14.8 Tbps

    5. A destination of choice for Korean investors; the state is the largest Recipient of Korean Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to India

• Keep your back straight, in particular:

  • Avoid rounding your shoulders forward (for this, you must have your screen at your eye level)

  • Avoid rounding (or arching) your lower back

• Keep your shoulders relaxed and back

• Place your elbows so that they form an angle of 90-100 degrees (never less)

• Keep your knees at a height of your hips (the thighs should form an angle of 90-100 degrees with the torso)

• Leave your legs relaxed, bent at about 90-100 degrees, leave your feet resting on the ground and do not cross your legs

Prioritise Movement Breaks:

Sitting for prolonged periods can be detrimental to your health. Set reminders to take short movement breaks throughout the day. Get up from your desk, stretch your legs and take a short walk around the office. These breaks not only provide physical activity but also help to clear your mind and boost productivity.

2

Incorporate Desk Exercises:

Performing simple exercises at your desk can help increase your physical activity levels. Try incorporating exercises like chair squats, desk push-ups, or seated leg raises. These exercises can be done discreetly and effectively to keep your muscles engaged throughout the day.

3

Use Active Transportation:

Consider incorporating active transportation into your daily commute. If possible, walk or bike to work instead of driving or taking public transport. If the distance is too far, try parking farther away from your office or getting off a few stops earlier and walking the rest of the way.

4

Opt for Active Meetings:

Rather than always sitting in a conference room, suggest walking to meetings whenever possible. Walking meetings not only provide physical activity but also stimulate creativity and improve focus. Take advantage of nearby parks or outdoor spaces for a refreshing change of scenery.

5

Utilise Desk-Friendly Fitness Equipment:

Invest in desk-friendly fitness equipment such as resistance bands, small dumbbells, or under-desk pedal exercisers. These tools allow you to incorporate strength training or cardiovascular exercises into your workday without disrupting your workflow.

6

Take the Stairs:

Avoid elevators and escalators whenever possible. Opt for the stairs instead. Climbing stairs is a great way to get your heart rate up and engage your leg muscles. Start by taking one flight of stairs and gradually increase as your fitness improves.

7

Stand and Stretch Regularly:

Sitting for long periods can cause muscle stiffness and poor posture. Stand up and stretch at regular intervals throughout the day. Incorporate stretches for your neck, shoulders, back and legs. Simple movements like shoulder rolls, neck rotations and toe touches can help relieve tension and improve flexibility.

8

Stay Hydrated:

Make it a habit to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Not only is staying hydrated essential for overall health, but it also encourages regular movement as you'll need to get up and refill your water bottle or visit the restroom more frequently.

9

Seek Opportunities for Activity:

Look for opportunities to incorporate physical activity into your workday. Instead of emailing or calling a colleague, walk over to their desk for a face-to-face conversation. Take the long route to the restroom or use a restroom on another floor. These small changes can add up and contribute to a more active lifestyle.

10

Balanced diet

Also a balanced diet is necessary – look for frequent small meals, less carbohydrates, more protein & less fatty diet.

“It is very difficult to eat well without intention, and very easy to eat poorly without planning,” explains Meghan Lyle, MPH, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Arivale Coach. “In-office snack traps abound, from goodies in the kitchen to mandatory meetings with sub-par fare, to candy bowls at reception. Having a plan for how to deal with these temptations first is key. This will likely involve preparing healthy snack options to bring in yourself, or stashing a week’s worth of healthy options at your desk.”

“Whether you meal prep and bring your meals and snacks or find a few restaurants with dishes that fit your goal, create a weekly meal plan,” adds registered dietitian and CEO of Nutrimedy, Karolina Starczak. “It will help remove the decision making when you're under the influence of hunger and checking off the meals can is just downright fun.”

2. Get enough sleep.

“An overlooked key to sticking to your weight loss during the workday is ensuring that you get enough sleep the night before,” says Chris Brantner, certified sleep science coach at SleepZoo.com. “While most people require around eight hours of sleep a night, the average person gets six hours and 40 minutes. The resulting sleep deprivation leads to poor food choices the next day. Why? Because lack of sleep can increase levels of ghrelin, a ‘hunger hormone,’ and decrease levels of leptin, a hormone that helps you feel full. Not only that, when you're tired, you can't think as clearly and your willpower suffers. It's harder to say ‘no’ to those cookies when you're tired. In fact, your body will crave carbs when you don't get enough sleep.”

3. Start your day off right.

“People who eat two eggs for breakfast will typically remain less hungry in the morning compared to someone eating toast or a bagel,” explains Carol Michaels of Carol Michaels Fitness. “It takes longer for the body to break down the protein meal. Adding vegetables to the protein gives you the fiber and nutrition necessary for a healthy meal. Try to stay way from processed foods—anything that comes in a wrapper is processed. And of course drink plenty of water or green tea throughout the day.”

“Having a big breakfast would solve some issues for a lot people,” adds Caleb Backe, health and wellness expert for Maple Holistics. “Furthermore, and this may shock some people, if you know you are going to snack anyway, do it in the morning. If you want to eat some junk, make an attempt to incorporate it into your breakfast. Not instead of breakfast, mind you, but in addition to. You burn more energy during the day, so it is best to snack in the morning. By the time crave-o’clock rolls around, you are not as hungry as you would otherwise be, hence you are less likely to be tempted.”

4. Don’t deprive yourself.

“Hunger is the enemy to weight loss,” Lyle says. “In other words, depriving yourself by skimping on breakfast or going ultra low-calorie for lunch is likely to backfire. We are wired to reach for high-fat, high-sugar treats when our blood sugar dips, so you are fighting a powerful biological pull if you try to fast your way to weight loss. Not to mention a pattern of skimping early in the day and caving to afternoon treats can leave you lethargic, less productive, and less likely to hit up the gym after you get off work.” 

“When you come prepared it’s easy to stick to your plan,” adds Ginny Wright, certified health coach and fitness expert. “Of course, if someone in the office is celebrating a birthday go ahead and eat the cupcake. Since you’ve learned to eat healthfully 80 percent of the time, it’s perfectly ok to splurge every now and then!”

5. Choose wisely.

Rachelle Mallik, registered dietitian specializing in reproductive nutrition for fertility, prenatal and postnatal wellness says that you should choose snacks that will give you sustained energy, instead of a sugar high that’ll make you crash. “Some easy, office-friendly options are hummus and veggie sticks or whole grain crackers (Mary's Gone Crackers and Simple Mills are two of my faves), a small apple or banana with almonds or peanut butter (Justin's makes single-serve packs, which are super convenient), two clementines and a quarter of a cup of roasted nuts (California Almonds makes portable snack tins for portion control), or a cup of lentil soup," she advises.

“If you choose to have a snack, choose something you know you will enjoy and will satisfy you,” adds Renée Jones, counselor, coach and author of What’s Really Eating You: Overcome the Triggers of Comfort Eating. “If it’s a temptation, and you’re going to give in to it, take the time to enjoy the food, chewing and savoring the flavors rather than swallowing it whole. Sit down at a table, use a plate and utensil, and enjoy every bite. Give that food the same honor you’re giving your craving. Make it count.” 

6. Tell your coworkers about your goals.

“If you lack willpower, I recommend telling people about your goals and what rules you have created for yourself,” says Marcey Rader, productivity and health coach. “This keeps you accountable and invites people to call you out if you decide to go for the jelly bean jar. This time of year, others may have that goal, as well. Ask others if you all can take turns bringing in healthier (raw nuts, fruit, veggie tray) or less calorie-dense snacks (popcorn or pop-chips).”

“You can and should tell select (read: helpful) colleagues of your intention to eat well, and let them help you stay accountable, and ideally find a buddy to celebrate your successes with,” adds Coleman Collins, an NSCA-certified coach (CSCS) and author of the forthcoming The Road Warrior: A Practical Guide to Maintaining Your Health, Productivity, and Sanity While Traveling for Work. “Tell them that you’re not going to have any office snacks, and then when you’re tempted, skip it and tell them you didn’t succumb. It’s another way divert the habit loop but still get a reward.” 

7. Hydrate.

“Keeping on top of hydration is also important as sometimes hunger signals can be confused with thirst, so make sure to drink half your weight in ounces of water each day," says Jamie Logie, personal trainer, nutritionist and health and wellness coach of the blog and podcast called Regained Wellness. 

But that's not the only benefit of hydrating. “Not only is [drinking water] important for the healthy hydration factor but it will also help you get up and out of your desk more often, for refilling the bottle and emptying the bladder,” adds Kate Campbell, dietitian and nutrition program coordinator.

8. Eat smaller meals more frequently.

“Eating smaller more frequent meals that are high in protein, complex carbohydrates, and fiber (egg white frittata for breakfast, turkey chili and salad for lunch, or oven roasted salmon with roasted asparagus) can make us feel satisfied for longer, thus cutting out unnecessary snacking,” says Priya Khorana, EdD, exercise physiologist and nutritionist.

9. Stabilize your blood sugar.

“Your ability to stabilize blood sugar is greatest in the morning, which makes breakfast significantly important,” explains Brandon Mentore, strength and conditioning coach, functional medicine practitioner and sports nutritionist.. “Many people either skip breakfast, make a poor food selection and/or begin their morning with caffeine, which in itself destabilizes blood sugar in the short term. The ideal scenario is to eat breakfast; it doesn’t have to be a lot of food, but something with an adequate amount of fat and protein as the primary macronutrient that drives the meal. The more appropriate your breakfast is in stabilizing your blood sugar the less you’ll crave or have the desire to snack, the more you’ll be able to resist the urge to snack, the more satiated and relaxed you'll be, and the more potent your willpower will be (it's more potent when your blood sugar is stabilized).” 

10. Focus on the whole journey.

“Never have the mindset that if you slip up, the ‘day is ruined,’” Lyle advises. “Healthy eating and progress towards a weight loss goal will be uneven, and there will inevitably be the days that don’t go perfectly. It’s not about perfection, and a perfection mindset can get in the way of progress. If you eat a donut at that recurring meeting, make a plan for next time, and meanwhile get back to your plan for the rest of the day.” 

“Your weight and waist size are bad yardsticks with which to measure your progress or derive motivation (both positive and negative),” says Collins. “They’re bad for two reasons: The feedback loop is not tight enough, and you can’t tie progress or lack thereof to a single, changeable thing. Instead, focus on the smaller wins, the behavioral change, the daily successes, and let the outcomes take care of themselves.”

2. Take 20-20-20 Break

3. Use Safety Eyewear

4. Maintain Proper Posture

5. Adjust the brightness

6. Protection while driving

First, we have to understand what peace really is. Depending on the context, peace can mean different things to different people. For a mother, it may be her child’s smile. For you, it may be your favorite song. For some other people, it may be an opportunity to create an impact. I believe the first and most important thing to achieve is peace of mind. 

According to Remez Sasson, “Peace of mind is a state of mental and emotional calmness, with no worries, fears or stress.”

Today, a lot of young people suffer from depression, anxiety, or stress. Anxiety can be enhanced by social media, increased financial obligations, the current context of the world, thoughts about our future, etc. However, you should never forget that you have total control over your mind, your thoughts, your actions, and your inactions. When you accept this, you become in control of your response to situations, instead of letting them control you. 

In the news, there’s almost always conflict. It could be bombings, war, domestic violence, killings, police brutality, racism, etc. It gets overwhelming and a lot of time, we want to do something about it.

Here are little steps you can take to work towards peace:

1. Educate Yourself On How To Be Inclusive:

Most times, you may think that you’re an inclusive and tolerant person, but with proper introspection and reflection, you may notice that you have some cultural conditioning that you need to dismantle (for example, you might be a feminist, but there’s still some misogyny you need to deprogram in your brain). 

We have to understand that there’s beauty in variety. Wherever we find ourselves, we should make conscious efforts to remove bias that affects people that are not of the same culture, tribe, religion, gender, status, race, etc. Do not make fun of people that sound, look, or dress differently. Be welcoming of other opinions. When we do this, we promote inclusivity and make people understand that there’s no need for prejudice.

2. Make kindness your non-negotiable:

We feel unnecessary pressure every day to be the smartest, or the most interesting, or the nicest looking person in the room. Why not try to be the kindest person in the room? Showing kindness to others makes them feel better. 

We don’t know what people are going through, the best thing to be is to be kind.  Remember the last time a complete stranger offered you some help or gave you a wholesome smile. How did it feel? Now, when we make conscious efforts to show kindness to the next person, the world becomes a more peaceful place, starting from you.

3. Good listeners are extremely rare, are you one of them?

When other people talk, listen. Don’t just wait to have your own say. Try to listen and understand their views. There are over 7 billion people in the world today. We were raised differently, in different environments, by different types of people. We have also had different experiences in life. So wherever you find yourself, do not expect that others share the same thought with you. Listen to them, understand them, and if you feel their reasoning is flawed, give them another perspective.

4. Start the conversation:

We as young people need to start the conversation about hard topics with our friends, family, social media network, etc. What is it that bothers you? What ill in the society makes you cringe? Are you concerned about the glaring inequality at your workplace? Are you worried about the little attention that mental health gets?  Is it the fact that kindness is now a costly commodity? 

Say something, start something. Ask that question that is sitting in your heart. Ask people for their opinions on different topics, you’ll be able to understand the reality of other people. Be honest in your approach. When we speak up, we work towards a peaceful society, and change happens. It doesn’t matter how little that change may seem to you. What matters is that you have added your voice to a noble cause. 

Always remember ‘IT STARTS WITH YOU’.

5. Prioritize self-care:

In the midst of everything, you should make sure that you’re taking care of you. You have to be kind to yourself, visit parks, plant trees, be grateful for little things, be optimistic, sing songs, and dance! For me, dancing in the shower, practicing meditation, and breathing exercises are great ways to relieve stress. You should try that sometime!

When we achieve a level of inner peace, it becomes easier to strive for a peaceful society.

The achievement of a peaceful world is up to us. We shouldn’t sit and wait, we can start something. We have to make conscious efforts every day in our little way. We have to learn to love ourselves so that we can radiate that love to the outside world. I hope you strive for peace today and every other day. Now I ask, what do you do for peace in your own little way?

Volunteer Your Time

Offering your time and skills is one of the most impactful ways to give back. Volunteer at local organizations, schools, shelters, or events. Your efforts can make a significant difference and inspire others to do the same.

Support Local Businesses

Choose to shop at local businesses, dine at local restaurants, and buy from local artisans. Supporting these enterprises helps the local economy thrive and sustains the unique character of your community.

Donate to Local Charities

Consider donating gently used clothes/household items, or canned/packaged food to local charities. Your contributions can assist those in need within your community and alleviate some of their burdens.

Mentorship and Tutoring

Offer to mentor or tutor students in your community. Sharing your knowledge and guidance can help young individuals reach their full potential and succeed academically.

Clean Up and Beautify

Organize or join community clean-up drives or restoration projects. It's a simple yet effective way to demonstrate care for your community and enhance its overall beauty.

Organize Community Events

Initiate or assist in organizing events like street fairs, cultural festivals, or fundraising events for local causes. These gatherings bring people together and promote a sense of community.

Neighborhood Watch and Safety Initiatives

Participate in or establish a neighborhood watch program to enhance community safety. Working together to ensure the protection of your neighborhood fosters trust and a sense of security among residents.

Share Your Skills and Hobbies

Host workshops, classes, or sessions where you can share your skills and hobbies with others. Sharing your passion brings joy to the community whether it's teaching cooking, crafting, or playing musical instruments.

Lend a Helping Hand to Neighbors

Offer to assist elderly or disabled neighbors with everyday tasks like grocery shopping, gardening, or household chores. A little help can go a long way in improving their quality of life. November is National Family Caregivers Month. Learn about resources that support caregivers.

Spread Positivity and Kindness

Simply being kind and spreading positivity can make a significant difference. Offer compliments, smile at strangers, or lend a listening ear to someone who needs it. Acts of kindness have a ripple effect that can brighten anyone's day.

Embrace the Joy of Giving

Giving back to your community is not only about improving the lives of others but also about enriching your own life. It brings fulfillment, builds lasting connections, and creates a thriving, supportive environment. Embrace the joy of giving and witness the beauty of a compassionate and connected community. Together, we can make the world a better place, one act of kindness at a time.

“We bow to the bravery of our CRPF personnel who sacrificed their lives for the nation. Their sacrifice will continue to inspire every Indian to work towards a terror-free India,” said Prime Minister Modi in his tribute.

The Pulwama attack is a painful chapter in India’s history but also a powerful symbol of the nation’s resolve. It reminds us to remain united, vigilant, and committed to the cause of peace and security. As we remember the fallen, let us also pledge to uphold their legacy and work tirelessly toward building a stronger, safer India.

During the week, educators across the globe share their inspiring stories and moments of connection with students.

Through social media, blog posts, and community discussions, they exchange heartfelt reasons for continuing to teach despite the challenges they may face. It’s a time for teachers to unite, reenergize, and remind themselves of the positive impact they have on young lives​.

How to Celebrate International Boost Self-Esteem Month

During this month, individuals are encouraged to reflect on their accomplishments, accept compliments, and develop habits that enhance their self-improvement.

By doing so, people can foster a positive mindset and create a supportive environment for themselves and others​.

Cheerful Compliments

Why not start the day with a compliment party? Send a nice message to friends and family. Watch their faces light up! Everyone enjoys a genuine compliment. Don’t hold back on praising others, and you’ll feel good, too!

Mirror Magic

Practice positive affirmations in front of the mirror. Say things like, “I am strong” or “I am capable.” It might feel silly at first, but it works wonders. Try different affirmations and see what makes you smile the most.

Achieve and Reflect

Celebrate small victories by writing them down. Did you finish a tough task or try something new? Jot it down in a journal. Reflecting on accomplishments boosts your confidence and motivates you to achieve more.

Fun and Fitness

Engage in fun physical activities. Dance around the living room or take a nature walk. Exercise releases happy chemicals in the brain. Choose something you love, and enjoy the movement!

Creative Expression

Express yourself creatively. Draw, paint, write a story, or play music. Creative activities help you explore your talents and passions. Don’t worry about perfection, just enjoy the process.

Kindness Campaign

Perform random acts of kindness. Pay for someone’s coffee or leave a kind note for a coworker. These small gestures create a ripple effect of positivity. You’ll brighten someone’s day, and you’ll feel great doing it.

Learning and Growing

Learn something new. Take a cooking class, read a book, or try a new hobby. Expanding your knowledge and skills boosts self-esteem. Embrace the joy of discovery and personal growth.

Relaxation Rituals

Pamper yourself with relaxation rituals. Take a bubble bath, meditate, or enjoy a cup of tea. Taking time for self-care helps you recharge and feel valued. Treat yourself with the love and care you deserve.

With the Eisenhower matrix, the x-axis represents urgency while the y-axis represents importance, leaving you with the following categories (from the top-left going clockwise):

• Important but not urgent tasks are lower priorities that you should add to your to-do list for later.

• Important and urgent tasks are your top priorities.

• Urgent but not important tasks are ones that must get done but can be delegated to someone else. 

• Not urgent or important tasks are probably unnecessary distractions. 

To use it, evaluate each task based on its urgency and importance, and then place the task in the corresponding quadrant.

By placing each task on your list into a quadrant on the Eisenhower Matrix, you can determine what needs to be done now, what you can save for later, what's worth delegating, and what you can scratch out altogether.

• High effort, low impact 

• High effort, high impact 

• Low effort, high impact 

• Low effort, low impact 

To distribute your tasks accordingly, evaluate how much effort each one will take and the impact completing it will have. Any tasks in your Low effort, high impact quadrant are your top priorities, followed by ones in your High effort, high impact quadrants. 

If you have a lot of tasks in these two quadrants, consider working on one or two from your Low effort, high impact quadrant. The sense of accomplishment from checking off these quick wins might give you that much-needed boost to tackle the rest.

• High value, low cost

• High value, high cost 

• Low value, high cost

• Low value, low cost

Evaluate how much your task will cost (in terms of time) and the value it'll provide. Tasks in your High value, low cost quadrant are your quick wins, while ones in your Low value, high cost are tasks you should probably avoid. 

With any of the matrix models above, you can sketch them out on paper or in a spreadsheet.

• M – Must do: M tasks are things you absolutely have to do.

• S – Should do: S tasks are things you should do, but they're a lower priority than M tasks.

• C – Could do: C tasks are nice-to-dos. You'd like to do them, but if you don't, it's probably not a big deal.

• W – Won't do: W tasks are things that just aren't worth doing.

  Note: If you have a lot of tasks that need delegation, the MoSCow method isn't for you. Jump to the ABCDE method for a better-suited alternative technique. 

  After you've assigned each task to a category, delete your W tasks. Breathe a sigh of relief at how much shorter your task list is now. Then get to work. Focus first on M tasks, followed by S tasks, and if you have time, C tasks. 

  By working on your list from the top down, you can ensure that you're always working on your highest-priority tasks.

For example, say your highest priority task is to re-tile your bathroom floor. However, you know that you also need to have plumbers run new pipes in your bathroom, and they'll have to cut into the floor to do so. Getting new pipes run may be a lower priority, but since it will impact your highest-priority task of re-tiling the floor, it needs to be completed first.

In Scrum prioritization, you evaluate each task on your list using three criteria:

1. How important is this task?

2. How important is it compared to the other tasks on this list?

3. Is any other task dependent on this task?

Then, using the answers to those questions, you assign each a unique number from one to n (where n is the total number of tasks on your list). 

Start with a horizontal grid and assign each task to a cell.

Start with a horizontal grid and assign each task to a cell. 

Then, take the first two tasks and evaluate them against each other by asking, "Which task is more important?"

Whichever task from the previous step is most important gets moved to the left. In the example below, Task 2 is more important than Task 1, so the two tasks switch places.

Then compare the next two tasks. Which is more important? The more important task gets moved one cell to the left.

Continue this process until you get to the end of the list. Then repeat the process from the beginning. Continue repeating the exercise until every task is to the left of a less-important task. Your priorities are now listed from left to right.

There's no specific tool designed for the Bubble sort method, but you can easily use a Kanban, to-do list, or project management app for this. The only difference is that your sets of tasks will run from top-to-bottom instead of left-to-right.

One of the most compelling reasons for adopting a plant-based diet is the potential for improved health. Numerous studies have shown that plant-based diets can have a positive impact on various aspects of health. Here are some of the key health benefits:

a. Lower Risk of Chronic Diseases

b. Weight Management

c. Improved Blood Pressure

d. Better Digestive Health

e. Enhanced Blood Sugar Control

Environmental Benefits

a. Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions

b. Preservation of Natural Resources

c. Decreased Deforestation

d. Water Conservation

e. Reduced Pollution

Powerful antioxidants are important for the immune system. Almonds, cashews and walnuts are excellent sources of vitamin E and act as powerful antioxidants. To stay healthy in changing weather it is advised to have almonds. Because, they are rich in proteins and lipids, which maintain high levels of energy for a longer period of time.

Coconut water

Due to its alkaline content, coconut water is one of the most refreshing and effective drinks. It also helps to regulate the stomach’s acid levels and boost immunity. It helps soothe the inner lining of the stomach, keeping your stomach cool and easy. 

Power of citrus

What are you waiting for if grapes and lemons are your favourites? Start the lemonade preparation. Or to avoid viruses and bacteria, sip a glass of fresh grape juice every morning. Add more lemon juice to recipes that call for it as well. Its vitamin C content will boost your immune system during the changing weather.

Veggies with green leaves

Broccoli, spinach and other such green leafy veggies usually don’t catch our fancy, but keep in mind that these excellent vegetables are loaded with fibre, vitamins (vitamins A, C, and E), minerals, and antioxidants. These vitamins and minerals strengthen our immune system’s ability to fight infections. Green veggies supply a bioactive substance that boosts gut immunity. To keep the nutrients, always try to consume these vegetables raw or barely cooked.

The mud festival was first held in July 1998 and lasted four days, including 16 fun-filled programmes. Boryeong city is located in the coastal area of Chungcheongnam province in South Korea. The Boryeoung Mud Festival was first commenced to promote the city’s mud business and turned to be the world’s most famous and messy fest. The festival introduced the beautiful Daecheon Beach to the world. Even if the festival looks dirty, the fun fact is that the benefit-rich mud is good for slowing skin ageing, exfoliating, rejuvenating and more. Go Muddy!!

2. La Tomatina

La Tomatina is a festival similar to Holi, known for its vibrant colors and lively atmosphere. Don’t wait to dive in a truck full of tomatoes because, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara!!! In La Tomatina, people throw tomatoes at each other with pure entertainment purpose just like water-filled balloons on Holi. It is held annually in the Valencian town of Buñol, Spain. It is a festival to promote happiness and entertainment. There is uncertainty about how La Tomatina originated, but it has been in tradition since 1944 or 1945.

3. Chinchilla Watermelon Festival

So. Done with tomatoes? It’s time for Watermelons! The Chinchilla watermelon festival takes place every second year in the Chinchilla town of Australia, located in Darling Downs region of Queensland. This festival is a week full of melon-themed events like Melon Bull’s eye, Melon Skiing, Melon Chariot, Melon Bungee, and Melon Ironman. This festival was first held in 1994 to bring more and more visitors to the town

4. Haro Wine Festival

Haro Wine is a wet, hot, sticky, and messy festival where people toss wine on each other until everyone is left soaked in Wine. It is a summer festival held in the town of Haro in the La Rioja region of Northern Spain On Saint Peters Day. Haro Wine festival is associated with Batalla Del Vino meaning Batlle of Wine and is declared a Festival of National and Touristic Interest by the Spanish Government. Spanish festivals are Insane!

5. Songkran

Songkran is one of the most similar messy festivals to Holi because people tend to throw ice-cold water and apply the beige coloured paste to each other. It is celebrated to mark Thailand's New Year. It is a festival of unity that represents purification and the washing away of one's sins and bad luck. The name Songkran is derived from Sanskrit word Sankranti meaning transmigration of the sun from one Rashi to the next.

6. Battle of Orange

One more messy fest, but this time, Oranges are victim!!

Battle of Oranges is an Italian version of La Tomatina. Held in the northern Italian city of Ivera, it is the largest food fight in Italy where people throw oranges at each other in organised groups. The battle of oranges was first celebrated in 1808. About 400 tonnes of oranges gets juiced every year.

Red is a bold color choice that’s been associated with excitement, passion, danger, thrill, energy, and action. You may notice that some brands use red for their “call to action” buttons (“order now,” “shop now,” etc.). This is because red is an intense color that is able to provoke strong emotions which can encourage you to buy things.

Personality traits of red:

• Bold

• Thrill-seeker

• Adventure-lover

• Can be a little impulsive

• Can be perceived as intimidating

Orange

Orange is often representative of creativity, happiness, freedom, success, and the balance that brings it all together. Marketers may use this color to draw your attention to a catchy heading or important note on their website (many “alerts” are orange to catch your eye) —but orange isn’t nearly as bold and enticing as red.

Personality traits of orange:

• Fun and playful energy that people admire

• Social, perhaps an extrovert

• You nurture things

• Enjoys deep conversation

• Cheerful

• Loves to play the host at parties or events

• In regards to productivity, you like to dive right into work and get things done

Yellow

Happiness, positivity, and warm summer sun is what yellow reminds us of. Brands may use a splash of yellow in their logo to make you feel happy when you see their products. Many “free shipping” icons on websites may be yellow to attract you to something that is cheerful and positive.

Personality traits of yellow:

• A positive spirit

• Optimistic

• Cheerful

• Adventurous

• Calming for those around them

• Infectious smiles and happiness that spreads to each person they encounter

Blue

Blue is stable, harmonious, peaceful, and trustworthy. Brands who want to be most well-known for their durability, strength, or reliability will use blue in their logos. Many popular computer companies (Dell and HP) and websites (Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo) are known for their predominately blue and white logos.

Personality traits of blue:

• Dependable

• Trustworthy

• Gentle

• Compassionate

• Peaceful

• Loyal

• Strong

• In regards to productivity, you like to strategize the best way to handle a task and can adapt when obstacles arise

Green

Two of the things that make the world go ’round are associated with the color green: nature and money. Green can signify growth, fertility, health, wealth, wellness, or generosity. Green can also be associated with negative connotations such as jealousy or envy.

Personality traits of green:

• Practical

• Down-to-earth

• Loves to give advice

• Loves to help others

• Enjoys the outdoors and finds balance in life important

• In regards to productivity, you like to analyze the situation before diving in, you’re a problem solver and you can find inventive ways to think outside the box

Purple

Purple can be connected to royalty, power, privilege, wisdom, and spirituality. Purple can be something of a frustrating color as well, as it can cause feelings of frustration or be perceived as arrogant – this is why websites and brands (Hallmark, Yahoo) will use a splash of purple or mix purple with a warmer tone such as white.

Personality traits of purple:

• Quick-witted

• Craves own identity

• Loves unique things and wants to stand out from the pack

• Dances to the music no one else can hear

• You thrive on creativity and inspiration strikes you randomly, allowing you to tune out the world and focus on it

Pink

Pink is often associated with femininity, playfulness, and love, but pink can also be perceived as a somewhat immature color. You will notice a lot of pink in a child’s toy packaging or brands to signal playful, whimsical fun. Other brands (Victoria Secret for example) have signified the color to mean something cute, fun, playful and sexy.

Personality traits of pink:

• Fun

• Playful

• Maybe a little naive

• You wear your heart on your sleeve and aren’t afraid to express your emotions

• Love and family are important to you

White

White is often associated with purity – in Western cultures, white is for weddings and hospitals, often signifying purity, cleanliness, and order. Brands will often add a splash of white or use white to offset more intense colors (such as red).

Personality traits of white:

• Calm

• Peaceful

• Innocent

• Perhaps a bit naive

• You like things clean and orderly

• You like the thought of a “fresh start” or a blank canvas

Black

Black can mean so many different things: boldness, uniqueness, mystery, intrigue, and power. But it can also mean unhappiness, darkness, sadness, pain, or grief. Black is associated with death and mourning, but can also be associated with strength, luxury, and intensity.

Personality traits of black:

• Bold

• Risk-taker

• Perhaps a little impulsive at times

• Serious (maybe a little too serious)

• You’re strong and command a sense of respect from your peers

• You’re trustworthy

• Perhaps a little intimidating

Researchers at the University of Arizona discovered the ability to see red comes from a gene that is attached to the X chromosome. Since women have two X chromosomes, the two copies of these genes help women perceive the red-orange spectrum better.

2. Pink soothes the nerves and is often used for anger management.

Pink has been known to suppress anger and anxiety and have an overall calming effect. It is often used in mental health care institutions and even prisons to help create a sense of calm. Check out the book Drunk Tank Pink by Adam Alter for more pink details!

3. Worldwide, blue is the most common favorite color.

Studies conducted by various global marketing firms show that blue is the most common favorite color worldwide, followed by purple.

4. Some people have a phobia of color.

Chromophobia, or chromatophobia, is an ongoing and irrational fear of colors that can have a negative impact on a person’s daily activities. This fear often stems from a traumatic event associated with a particular color.

5. Yellow and red together make you hungry.

Fast food chains figured this out years ago and use this color combination over and over in branding, advertising and restaurant decor.

6. Isaac Newton invented the color wheel.

Around 1665 Isaac Newton used a prism to turn white light into a rainbow and identified seven colors. He felt the last color, indigo, was a recurrence of the first color, red and decided to arrange the colors in a circle.

7. Red is the first color a baby sees.

Red has the longest wavelength of the colors and scientists speculate this makes it easier to process in developing receptors and nerves in a baby’s eye. This definitely helps explain every baby’s love of Elmo!

8. Color has a big impact on a first impression.

62 – 90% of a first impression is based on how someone is recognizing color in the situation. For those who want to make a strong first impression, avoid neutrals. Heading out on a first date? Add a pop of bright color to be more memorable.

9. People are more likely to forget something when it’s in black and white.

A black and white movie, or photograph is often not as easy to recall as a color image. Scientists believe this may be because color has a stronger appeal to the sense and as a result makes a more lasting impression on the memory.

10. Wearing black makes you appear more powerful.

The power suit, the little black dress, graduation gowns, and judge’s robes; wearing black comes with a gravitas perceived as powerful. Going on a job interview or into a meeting to ask for a raise? Wear that black outfit!

Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. This statement reminds me of the old computer programming saying, “Remember that there is no code faster than no code.”

The same philosophy applies in other areas of life. For example, there is no meeting that goes faster than not having a meeting at all.

This is not to say you should never attend another meeting, but the truth is that we say yes to many things we don’t actually want to do. There are many meetings held that don’t need to be held. There is a lot of code written that could be deleted.

How often do people ask you to do something and you just reply, “Sure thing.” Three days later, you’re overwhelmed by how much is on your to-do list. We become frustrated by our obligations even though we were the ones who said yes to them in the first place.

It’s worth asking if things are necessary. Many of them are not, and a simple “no” will be more productive than whatever work the most efficient person can muster.

But if the benefits of saying no are so obvious, then why do we say yes so often?

The Role of No

Saying no is sometimes seen as a luxury that only those in power can afford. And it is true: turning down opportunities is easier when you can fall back on the safety net provided by power, money, and authority. But it is also true that saying no is not merely a privilege reserved for the successful among us. It is also a strategy that can help you become successful.

Saying no is an important skill to develop at any stage of your career because it retains the most important asset in life: your time. As the investor Pedro Sorrentino put it, “If you don’t guard your time, people will steal it from you.”

You need to say no to whatever isn’t leading you toward your goals. You need to say no to distractions. As one reader told me, “If you broaden the definition as to how you apply no, it actually is the only productivity hack (as you ultimately say no to any distraction in order to be productive).”

Nobody embodied this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

There is an important balance to strike here. Saying no doesn’t mean you’ll never do anything interesting or innovative or spontaneous. It just means that you say yes in a focused way. Once you have knocked out the distractions, it can make sense to say yes to any opportunity that could potentially move you in the right direction. You may have to try many things to discover what works and what you enjoy. This period of exploration can be particularly important at the beginning of a project, job, or career.

Upgrading Your No

Over time, as you continue to improve and succeed, your strategy needs to change.

The opportunity cost of your time increases as you become more successful. At first, you just eliminate the obvious distractions and explore the rest. As your skills improve and you learn to separate what works from what doesn’t, you have to continually increase your threshold for saying yes.

You still need to say no to distractions, but you also need to learn to say no to opportunities that were previously good uses of time, so you can make space for great uses of time. It’s a good problem to have, but it can be a tough skill to master.

In other words, you have to upgrade your “no’s” over time.

Upgrading your no doesn’t mean you’ll never say yes. It just means you default to saying no and only say yes when it really makes sense. To quote the investor Brent Beshore, “Saying no is so powerful because it preserves the opportunity to say yes.”

The general trend seems to be something like this: If you can learn to say no to bad distractions, then eventually you’ll earn the right to say no to good opportunities.

How to Say No

Most of us are probably too quick to say yes and too slow to say no. It’s worth asking yourself where you fall on that spectrum.

If you have trouble saying no, you may find the following strategy proposed by Tim Harford, the British economist I mentioned earlier, to be helpful. He writes, “One trick is to ask, “If I had to do this today, would I agree to it?” It’s not a bad rule of thumb, since any future commitment, no matter how far away it might be, will eventually become an imminent problem.”

If an opportunity is exciting enough to drop whatever you’re doing right now, then it’s a yes. If it’s not, then perhaps you should think twice.

This is similar to the well-known “Hell Yeah or No” method from Derek Sivers. If someone asks you to do something and your first reaction is “Hell Yeah!”, then do it. If it doesn’t excite you, then say no.

It’s impossible to remember to ask yourself these questions each time you face a decision, but it’s still a useful exercise to revisit from time to time. Saying no can be difficult, but it is often easier than the alternative. As writer Mike Dariano has pointed out, “It’s easier to avoid commitments than get out of commitments. Saying no keeps you toward the easier end of this spectrum.”

What is true about health is also true about productivity: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Why We Say Yes

We agree to many requests not because we want to do them, but because we don’t want to be seen as rude, arrogant, or unhelpful. Often, you have to consider saying no to someone you will interact with again in the future—your co-worker, your spouse, your family and friends.

The Difference Between Yes and No

The words “yes” and “no” get used in comparison to each other so often that it feels like they carry equal weight in conversation. In reality, they are not just opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes in commitment. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

The Power of No

More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. And if that is the case, elimination is a more useful skill than optimization.

I am reminded of the famous Peter Drucker quote, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

As you might expect, journaling is a favorite habit of many writers. From Mark Twain to Virginia Woolf, Francis Bacon to Joan Didion, John Cheever to Vladimir Nabokov. A journal was rarely far from any of these artists. Susan Sontag once claimed that her journal was where she “created herself.”

Journaling has been utilized by scores of brilliant thinkers and inventors. Charles Darwin. Marie Curie. Leonardo da Vinci. Thomas Edison. Albert Einstein. Similarly, leaders and politicians throughout history have kept journals in one form or another. People like George Washington, Winston Churchill, and Marcus Aurelius.In the sporting world, athletes like Katie Ledecky, winner of multiple gold medals, and Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder in the marathon, rely on journals to reflect on their daily workouts and improve their training.

Why have so many of history’s greatest thinkers spent time journaling? What are the benefits?

What Journaling Can Do for You

Nearly anyone can benefit from getting their thoughts out of their head and onto paper. There are more benefits to journaling than I have time to cover here, but allow me to point out a few of my favorites.

Journaling provides the opportunity to learn new lessons from old experiences. When looking back on her previous journal entries, Virginia Woolf remarked that she often “found the significance to lie where I never saw it at the time.”

Reading your old journal entries is a bit like reading a great book for a second time. You pick up on new sentences and see the past in a different way. Only this time, you are re-reading the story of your life.

Journaling sharpens your memory. When Cheryl Strayed wrote her hit book, Wild, she relied heavily on her journal. She recalled, “My journal provided the who, what, how, when, and why with a specificity that memory might have blurred, but it also did something more: it offered me a frank and unvarnished portrait of myself at 26 that I couldn’t have found anywhere else.”

Time will change your face without you noticing, but it will also change your thoughts without you realizing it. Our beliefs shift slowly as we gain experience and journal entries have the ability to freeze your thoughts in time. Seeing an old picture of yourself can be interesting because it reminds you of what you looked like, but reading an old journal entry can be even more surprising because it reminds you of how you thought.

Journaling motivates you to make the most of each day. There is something about knowing that your day will be recorded that makes you want to make at least one good choice before the sun sets. I will sometimes find myself thinking, “I want to have something good to write down tonight.”

Journaling provides proof of your progress. Writing down one sentence about what went well today gives you something powerful to look at when you’re feeling down. When you have a bad day, it can be easy to forget how much progress you have made. But with a journal, it’s easier to keep a sense of perspective. One glance at your previous entries and you have proof of how much you have grown over the months and years.

Of course, despite the numerous benefits of journaling, there is one problem.

Many people like the idea of journaling, but few people stick with the act of journaling. It sounds great in theory, but making it a habit is another matter.

This is where we return to Oprah’s story.

The Challenge of Making Journaling a Habit

In November 2012, after wrapping up her 25-year television career, Oprah wrote, “For years I’ve been advocating the power and pleasure of being grateful. I kept a gratitude journal for a full decade without fail—and urged you all to do the same. Then life got busy. My schedule overwhelmed me. I still opened my journal some nights, but my ritual of writing down five things I was grateful for every day started slipping away.”

She picked up one of her old journals.

“I wondered why I no longer felt the joy of simple moments,” Oprah said. “Since 1996 I had accumulated more wealth, more responsibility, more possessions; everything, it seemed, had grown exponentially—except my happiness. How had I, with all my options and opportunities, become one of those people who never have time to feel delight? I was stretched in so many directions, I wasn’t feeling much of anything. Too busy doing.”

She admitted, “But the truth is, I was busy in 1996, too. I just made gratitude a daily priority. I went through the day looking for things to be grateful for, and something always showed up.”

Most people know that journaling is helpful, but they never get around to making it a priority. How can we make journaling frictionless? What is the simplest way that to get the benefits of journaling without it feeling like another obligation?

How to Make Journaling Easy

I’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to make journaling easy over the past year. In fact, I thought so much about it that I partnered with the premium notebook maker Baron Fig to create the Clear Habit Journal—a combination dot grid notebook, daily journal, and habit tracker that not only makes it easier to journal, but also easier to build any habit.

But before I start hawking my wares, let’s get something straight.

Here’s the truth: There’s no one “right” way to journal. You can do it wherever you want and in whatever way you want. All you need is a piece of paper or a blank document. However, although there is no right way to journal, there is an easy way to journal…

Write one sentence per day.

The primary advantage of journaling one sentence each day is that it makes journaling fun. It’s easy to do. It’s easy to feel successful. And if you feel good each time you finish journaling, then you’ll keep coming back to it.

A habit does not have to be impressive for it to be useful.

Journaling Prompts That Make Journaling Easy

Let’s talk about the process I designed to make journaling a cinch.

Every Habit Journal is designed to make the process of keeping a daily journal as easy as possible. It starts with a section called One Line Per Day.

At the top of each One Line Per Day page is space for a journaling prompt. Here are a few examples of journaling prompts you could use:

• What happened today? (Daily journal)

• What am I grateful for today? (Gratitude journal)

• What is my most important task today? (Productivity journal)

• How did I sleep last night? (Sleep journal)

• How do I feel today? (Mood journal)

In a utopia you can set your own schedule, beat resistance, get into a state of flow, and get things done by following a set of ideas, principles, guidelines, and hacks. Unless you are delusional you are pretty sure this isn’t the case in the real world. Real world is very different from the one painted in productivity books.

Maybe the people with these grand ideas have the luxury of setting their own schedule. Their ideas may apply to a niche who have the same luxury, but us common folks don’t have much of a choice, do we?

No matter how logical these ideas sound on paper, they are absurd in real life. But not all hope is lost. While we cannot have the perfect solution, we can definitely have an optimal one. In the real world, that is good enough.

Unlike that in self-help books, schedules aren’t fixed in real world. In the real world, scopes aren’t defined, time estimates are never perfect, and everything is of utmost priority.

In such a chaotic, unorganised, and unstructured world, the only sensible strategy is the ability to pause, leave something midway, and switch to another task, i.e., multitask.

Experts scorn this vehemently, but despite its side-effects, multitasking gets a lot of things done.

Before delving into the benefits, let’s understand the side-effects. For starters, multitasking is not doing things simultaneously, but rapid switching of tasks. And none of this back and forth switching is real work. It’s metawork. And metawork doesn’t really advance the state of the actual work being done.

Secondly, real work requires a good amount of “context setting”— playing with an idea in your head before actually writing it down, or meditating on a problem before attempting to solve it. For me, it takes 30 minutes to get into the zone before I can get any actual writing done. For all of us, it takes some time to heat up a metal before it’s malleable.

If I’m interrupted after getting in the zone, I’ll need a good amount of time to rediscover the zone again. Constant “context switching” leads to a series of, “Now, where was I?” moments where we waste time trying to figure out what we were actually doing.

Reaching a state of flow is hard work, and subsequent context-switching makes it impossible to get any real work done. This not only leads to delays in work, but also errors. If I interrupt you few times an hour, you are not going to get any real work done.

Despite its side-effects, metawork is important. It’s a necessary evil. The question is, how do we tame this monster so that it doesn’t turn on us.

Time will always be lost in metawork, but we have to prevent it from reaching its nightmarish extreme when all the time is spent in doing metawork, and none spent in doing real work. This happens when you take on more work than you should and there’s (theoretically) infinite overhead.

If you’ve ever had a moment where you wanted to stop doing everything just to have the chance to write down everything you were supposed to be doing, but couldn’t spare the time, you recognise this state very well.

When merely remembering everything we need to be doing occupies our full attention, or prioritising every task consumes all the time we had to do them, or our train of thought is continually interrupted before those thoughts can translate to action—it feels like panic. This is when your system (literally) crashes.

A simple tactic to avert this fate is to master the art of saying no so that you don’t have more than necessary overhead. But it has its limitations. You cannot say no to everything, especially when it comes from your boss.

The other tactic is to act dumber instead of smarter. Choosing how to schedule your day or figuring out what to do next is overwhelming enough to crash your system. It’s also time consuming. Therefore simply do things at random.

Instead of answering the “most important” emails first—which requires an assessment of the whole picture that may take longer than the work itself—just answer the emails in random order, or in whatever order they appear in your inbox.

This isn’t the smartest way, but compared to your system crashing—where you’re making no progress whatsoever—doing tasks inefficiently in the wrong order is better than doing nothing at all.

Getting real work done involves a negotiation between two principles—responsiveness (how quickly you can respond to things) and productivity(how much you can get done overall)—that aren’t fully compatible. That’s why the whole issue is so complex! And that’s the reason people hire assistants so that they can be productive while their assistants remain responsive. But all of us cannot afford assistants.The best strategy for those of us who cannot afford assistants is to slow down to an optimum level.

Commit to a task for a minimum amount of time (productivity) before you even think about context-switching (responsiveness). This way you avoid getting overwhelmed. This is what pomodoro technique is based on—commit to something for a given amount of time before thinking about anything else. As mainstream as this may sound, it’s actually very effective.

But how much time should you allocate? Although it appears tricky—because the more productive you are, the less responsive you are—it has a straightforward answer. Decide how responsive you need to be—the minimum amount—and then, if you want to get things done, be no more responsive than that.

If you don’t require to respond to emails in less than twenty-four hours, limit yourself to checking your messages only once a day. Don’t pay your credit card bills as they arrive. Instead take care of them all in one go when the last bill comes. This is planned procrastination. Procrastinate as long as you should, but not more than that.

Software startups do fixathons. They tolerate buggy products in favour of moving fast. But once it gets beyond a certain limit that it starts to hurt growth, they conduct fixathons—hackathons to crush bugs.

The secret to graceful context switching is minimum responsiveness to get most productivity. Holding office hours is a way of coalescing interruptions from students. Weekly standups is another example. Whatever their drawbacks, regularly scheduled meetings are one of our best defenses against spontaneous interruptions and unplanned context switching.

Graceful context-switching is the only antidote to an ASAP culture where everything is expected in Realtime which in turn gets no real work done.

Sage 

Growing Sage

Sage is a perennial herb known for its earthy aroma and silvery-green leaves. It's relatively easy to grow, thriving in well-drained soil with plenty of sunlight. Sage prefers a slightly alkaline soil, so adding some lime can be beneficial. Plant sage in a spot where it can receive at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. It can be grown in pots or directly in the ground, making it suitable for various garden sizes.

Uses and Benefits

1. Digestive Health: Sage has been traditionally used to aid digestion. It can help alleviate bloating, gas, and indigestion. Drinking sage tea after meals can promote digestive health.

2. Anti-inflammatory Properties: Sage contains rosmarinic acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties. This makes it useful for reducing inflammation in conditions like arthritis and asthma.

3. Cognitive Function: Sage is believed to enhance memory and cognitive function. Studies have shown that it can improve concentration and mental clarity, making it beneficial for students and professionals alike.

4. Sore Throat Relief: A sage tea gargle can soothe a sore throat and reduce inflammation. Its antimicrobial properties can also help fight infections.

Culinary Uses

Sage pairs well with poultry, pork, and sausages, adding a robust flavor to your dishes. It's commonly used in stuffing, soups, and stews. Sage butter, made by infusing butter with sage leaves, is a delicious topping for meats and vegetables.

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)

Growing Stevia

Stevia is a natural sweetener that is significantly sweeter than sugar but has no calories. It thrives in warm, sunny environments and well-drained soil. Stevia can be grown in containers or directly in the ground. It requires regular watering but ensure the soil does not become waterlogged.

Uses and Benefits

1. Natural Sweetener: Stevia is a healthy alternative to sugar, ideal for those managing diabetes or looking to reduce calorie intake. It does not raise blood glucose levels, making it safe for diabetics.

2. Weight Management: As a zero-calorie sweetener, stevia can help with weight management by reducing the overall calorie intake without sacrificing sweetness.

3. Antioxidant Properties: Stevia contains compounds that have antioxidant properties, which help combat oxidative stress and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

4. Dental Health: Unlike sugar, stevia does not contribute to tooth decay. It can be used in various recipes and beverages to maintain oral health.

Culinary Uses

Stevia can be used in baking, beverages, and desserts. It is available in powdered, liquid, and dried leaf forms. When using stevia in recipes, remember that it is much sweeter than sugar, so a small amount goes a long way.

Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi)

Growing Ajwain

Ajwain, also known as carom seeds, is a hardy plant that can be grown from seeds. It prefers a warm climate and well-drained soil. Ajwain plants need plenty of sunlight and should be watered regularly but not overwatered.

Uses and Benefits

1. Digestive Aid: Ajwain is renowned for its digestive benefits. It helps alleviate indigestion, gas, and flatulence. Consuming ajwain water or chewing ajwain seeds can provide quick relief from stomach discomfort.

2. Respiratory Health: Ajwain has bronchodilatory properties, making it effective for treating respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and cold.

3. Anti-inflammatory: The thymol present in ajwain has anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce inflammation and pain.

4. Antimicrobial: Ajwain exhibits strong antimicrobial activity, which makes it useful in fighting infections and promoting overall health.

Culinary Uses

Ajwain is a staple in Indian cuisine, adding a distinctive flavor to dishes. It is commonly used in bread, pastries, and savory snacks. Ajwain seeds can also be used to flavor soups, curries, and pickles.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Growing Thyme

Thyme is a low-growing perennial herb that is easy to cultivate. It thrives in well-drained soil and full sun. Thyme is drought-tolerant once established, making it suitable for xeriscaping. It can be grown in pots, garden beds, or as ground cover.

Uses and Benefits

1. Antimicrobial Properties: Thyme has potent antimicrobial properties due to its high thymol content. It can be used to treat minor cuts and wounds.

2. Respiratory Health: Thyme is effective in treating respiratory ailments such as coughs, bronchitis, and chest congestion. Thyme tea or steam inhalation can provide relief.

3. Digestive Health: Thyme aids digestion and helps alleviate gastrointestinal issues such as bloating, gas, and cramping.

4. Skin Health: Thyme's antiseptic properties make it useful for treating skin conditions like acne and eczema. Thyme-infused oil can be applied topically to affected areas.

Culinary Uses

Thyme is a versatile herb used in a variety of dishes, including soups, stews, roasted meats, and vegetables. It pairs well with other Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, oregano, and basil. Fresh or dried thyme can be used to enhance the flavor of marinades, dressings, and sauces.

Rosemary 

Growing Rosemary

Rosemary is a fragrant evergreen herb that is relatively easy to grow. It prefers well-drained soil and full sun. Rosemary can be grown in pots or garden beds, and it requires minimal watering once established. Pruning regularly helps maintain its shape and encourages new growth.

Uses and Benefits

1. Cognitive Health: Rosemary is known for its ability to enhance memory and concentration. Inhaling rosemary essential oil or drinking rosemary tea can improve cognitive function.

2. Anti-inflammatory: Rosemary has anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce pain and swelling. It is beneficial for conditions such as arthritis and muscle pain.

3. Antioxidant: The antioxidant properties of rosemary help protect the body against free radicals, reducing the risk of chronic diseases and aging.

4. Hair Health: Rosemary oil is often used to promote hair growth and reduce dandruff. Massaging the scalp with rosemary oil can improve blood circulation and nourish hair follicles.

Culinary Uses

Rosemary is a popular herb in Mediterranean cuisine, adding a piney, slightly peppery flavor to dishes. It pairs well with roasted meats, potatoes, and vegetables. Rosemary can be used to infuse oils, vinegars, and marinades, and it also makes a flavorful addition to bread and crackers.

Turmeric: This golden spice is not only a staple in cooking but also a powerhouse of medicinal benefits. It has strong anti-inflammatory effects that help soothe everything from menstrual cramps to toothaches. Traditionally used as a natural antibiotic, turmeric promotes wound healing and can improve skin health. Additionally, it’s an affordable solution for treating hyperpigmentation. Most notably, turmeric is currently being researched for its potential cancer-preventing properties.  

Cumin: More than just a tasty seasoning, cumin’s aromatic seeds are loaded with beneficial volatile oils. In traditional Indian medicine, cumin is used to alleviate toothaches, aid digestion, and treat conditions like jaundice. This spice is widely cultivated in India and exported globally in forms such as seeds, powder, and essential oil, finding uses even in pharmaceutical products due to its extensive health benefits.  

Fenugreek: Known for its culinary uses in Indian cuisine, fenugreek stands about 2-3 feet tall and offers impressive health advantages beyond the kitchen. It is valued in alternative medicine for its ability to moderate sugar absorption and boost insulin production, making it a valuable tool for managing blood sugar levels. Historically used in ancient China to treat skin conditions, fenugreek is now also popular for promoting natural hair growth.  

Coriander: An indispensable herb in Indian kitchens, coriander does much more than enhance flavors. It belongs to the family that includes parsley and carrots and offers numerous health benefits. It can help lower blood sugar levels, improve intestinal health, and boost heart and brain functions. Coriander is also known for its antimicrobial properties and its ability to promote healthy skin.  

Clove: Recognized for more than its strong flavor, the buds of clove trees have a broad spectrum of medicinal uses. Clove oil, derived from these buds, is famed for its analgesic properties, providing relief from joint and muscle pain, including discomfort caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, clove oil is beneficial for soothing skin irritations, combating bacterial infections, and addressing acne.  

While these spices offer great health benefits, they are most effective when used consistently as part of a balanced diet. Here’s how you can seamlessly integrate these powerhouse ingredients into your daily meals and reap their medicinal benefits:  

1. Blend into Smoothies 

Adding spices like turmeric and cinnamon to your morning smoothie can provide a significant health boost. Turmeric offers anti-inflammatory benefits, while cinnamon can help manage blood sugar levels. These spices blend well with a variety of fruits and vegetables, enhancing the nutritional profile of your smoothies without overpowering the taste.  

2. Brew as Teas 

Spices such as ginger, clove, and cardamom are perfect for brewing into soothing teas. Ginger tea can help alleviate nausea and boost digestive health, clove tea is known for its pain-relieving properties, especially for dental issues, and cardamom tea can soothe the stomach and freshen breath. Simply steep these spices in boiling water, alone or combined, to make a comforting herbal brew.  

3. Cook with Spices 

 Incorporate a range of spices into your cooking to enhance flavor and nutritional value. Spices can be added to soups, stews, marinades, and even desserts. For example, add black pepper to curries to enhance absorption of nutrients, or sprinkle some cardamom into baked goods for a flavor boost and digestive aid.  

4. Create Spice Rubs and Marinades 

Mix various spices to create dry rubs for meats, poultry, or vegetables. Spices such as turmeric, black pepper, and ginger are excellent for inflammatory conditions and can enhance the taste and health benefits of your grilled or roasted dishes. Marinades with a base of olive oil, garlic, and your choice of spices not only tenderize but also infuse deep flavors and increase the nutritional content of your meals.  

5. Season Salads and Sauces 

Elevate your salads and sauces with a dash of spices. Cinnamon can add a sweet touch to a fresh fruit salad, while turmeric and black pepper can give a health-boosting kick to homemade salad dressings. Spices like garlic and ginger work wonderfully in sauces and dressings, offering both flavor and heart health benefits.  

6. Spice Up Your Snacks 

 Sprinkle cinnamon on your oatmeal, add turmeric to your popcorn, or create a spicy trail mix with nuts, seeds, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. These simple additions make your snacks not only tastier but also healthier.  

7. Use in Baking 

Spices such as nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon can be incorporated into baking recipes for cookies, cakes, and other treats. Not only do they add unique flavors, but they also bring antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to your baked goods.  

By integrating these common kitchen spices into your diet, you can enhance the medicinal value of your meals and contribute to a healthier lifestyle. Remember, while spices are beneficial, they should complement, not replace, a balanced diet and professional medical advice when necessary. Enjoy the journey of discovering the flavors and health benefits of your spice rack as part of a holistic approach to wellness.  

In today’s workplace, talent and hard work alone aren’t enough — you need to stand out, command attention, and leave a lasting impression if you want to get ahead. Unforgettable Presence is your practical guide to building executive presence, confidence, and influence.

Drawing from over a decade of experience as a founding editor at top tech firms like LinkedIn and Prezi, Lorraine K. Lee shares actionable strategies to help you go from overlooked to unforgettable. Through relatable stories and expert insights, she teaches you how to communicate with impact, lead meetings with authority, present with confidence, and build a powerful personal brand — so you can create a presence that is truly unforgettable.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It focuses on small but powerful shifts that instantly enhance how others perceive you.

• It features authentic stories and 140+ expert insights from three dozen top business leaders, content creators, and bestselling authors.

• It offers practical exercises to boost credibility, influence, and leadership presence — and includes a dedicated chapter on elevating your LinkedIn presence, an often-overlooked career accelerator.

What Cal Newport calls a “valuable” and “increasingly rare” skill, having the ability to deep work will not only allow you to feel truly fulfilled, but to be better at your job and to be more successful in both work and life. With practical and actionable advice, Newport teaches you how to transform your mind and your daily habits so that you can learn the life-changing art of deep work and become the professional you have always wanted to be.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It provides rules and strategies for navigating a distracted world, empowering professionals to maintain focus and achieve meaningful results.

• It can help readers learn to achieve professional excellence through concentrated, focused efforts, promoting sustained success in the workplace.

Ethan Mollick explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the way we live and work, offering actionable strategies for leveraging AI as a partner in creativity, productivity, and decision-making. This book provides a balanced view of the opportunities and challenges AI brings, equipping readers with the knowledge to thrive in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Mollick combines cutting-edge research, practical tools, and engaging examples to show how AI can augment human potential rather than replace it.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It empowers readers to integrate AI tools into their workflows, enhancing efficiency and innovation.

• It offers insights into the evolving relationship between humans and machines, helping professionals adapt to future workplace dynamics.

• By embracing "co-intelligence," readers can stay ahead in their fields, fostering a mindset of collaboration and lifelong learning in the AI era.

Renowned expert Tony Robbins teaches you how to master your mind, body, relationships, and money so you can take control of your life and find your purpose. Through practical steps, you can learn how to propel your career forward and reach your true potential in your professional life through the power of self-mastery, goal setting, and perseverance.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It can empower individuals to set and achieve personal and professional goals, laying the foundation for long-term success.

• It offers insights into financial destiny, guiding readers on achieving financial goals and fostering a holistic approach to professional development.

Conventional wisdom ties success to happiness: the more successful we are, the happier we’ll be. In this book, Harvard lecturer Shawn Anchor explores the possibility that happiness fuels success. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. He outlines seven actionable principles that lead to success, backed by research in psychology, neuroscience, and management studies. He highlights how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It can help you apply positive psychology principles to enhance workplace success and professional development.

• It can help you integrate happiness strategies to enhance overall productivity,

Bruce Tulgan's book is a guide to thriving in the modern workplace by becoming indispensable. Tulgan provides actionable insights on how individuals can contribute value, stay relevant, and stand out in their professional roles.

Why it’s a recommended professional development book:

• It can help you learn practical strategies for adding tangible value to your role, making yourself indispensable in the workplace.

• It can help you gain insights on staying agile and relevant in a rapidly changing work environment, enhancing your professional longevity and success.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Schiff wrote, “Bitcoin was born out of the financial crisis of 2008. Ironically, the financial crisis of 2025 will kill it.”

Schiff's assertion comes as Bitcoin experiences significant volatility amid escalating global trade tensions. Recently, the U.S. imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, prompting retaliatory measures from China. This escalation has led to concerns about global economic growth and increased market volatility.

Bitcoin's price has reflected this uncertainty. After reaching an all-time high of over $100,000 in January 2025, it has since declined by approximately 27%, trading around $75,000 as of April 10. This downturn has also impacted crypto-related stocks, with companies like Coinbase and MicroStrategy experiencing notable losses.

In response to the economic instability, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs on many countries, aiming to ease market tensions. This move provided temporary relief, with Bitcoin briefly rebounding above $82,000. However, the broader concerns about the global economy persist.

Schiff has also criticized the U.S. government's recent decision to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. He argues that this move is ill-timed, especially as the value of Bitcoin held in the reserve has declined by over 12% since its inception in March 2025. Schiff suggests that investing in gold would have been a more prudent choice, noting that gold prices have seen modest gains during the same period.

While Schiff's predictions are contentious, they underscore the ongoing debate about Bitcoin's role in the global financial system, especially during periods of economic stress. As markets continue to grapple with uncertainty, the cryptocurrency's performance in the coming months will be closely watched by investors and critics alike.

Medium-term risks to the baseline are tilted to the downside, while the near-term outlook is characterized by divergent risks. Upside risks could lift already-robust growth in the United States in the short run, whereas risks in other countries are on the downside amid elevated policy uncertainty. Policy-generated disruptions to the ongoing disinflation process could interrupt the pivot to easing monetary policy, with implications for fiscal sustainability and financial stability. Managing these risks requires a keen policy focus on balancing trade-offs between inflation and real activity, rebuilding buffers, and lifting medium-term growth prospects through stepped-up structural reforms as well as stronger multilateral rules and cooperation.

Thought 1: The West is in trouble and has become a potential source of instability for the world.

During the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, the West’s political leadership has been squandered. But now the economic fundamentals of the Western way of life are also being squandered. This is serious. Barack Obama’s election will reestablish the credibility of the United States in the world but it will not reverse the trend of decline. The challenge ahead is to manage a peaceful decline of the West while rescuing as many of the West’s liberal political and economic values as possible. This will only work if the multipolar world is accepted as a reality and as an opportunity for a new style of global cooperation and governance.

Thought 2: The troubles of the West are contagious.

Even in decline, the West will weather the financial crisis and a recession better than emerging and developing countries. It can be hoped that solid democracies should be better equipped to deal with economic instability. But how will Russia and China behave in a recession? Despite systemic differences, there is no room for complacency if Russia, China, and other emerging economies suffer economically, as instability there will have huge political (and economic) repercussions for the West. Economically stable times are usually better for settling differences.

Thought 3: Leverage requires sound and credible resources.

The world is still celebrating the Obama revolution in the U.S. But the hard times ahead will require hard decisions from the new U.S. president. He has a large bank of goodwill from people around the world and he should use this credit wisely and responsibly. The financial crisis has also taught a useful lesson: in international politics, it is possible to leverage support and resources successfully only if your resources are sound and credible; for example, leveraging support from others on human rights and democracy only works if your own house is in order. Otherwise, playing with other people’s credit can and will backfire.

Thought 4: Global issues have to come to a boiling point before global action is taken.

But if they boil over and a global interdependent system is close to a standstill, global leaders can and do act. Who would have thought that trillions of euros would be found within a matter of weeks to deal with the global financial crisis? This should be a lesson for other global issues such as climate change and poverty. How much would the recommendations in Nicholas Stern’s review of climate change cost to implement? How many G8 summits were spent talking about “making poverty history,” without the required follow-through? The question is whether we will have to come to boiling (or drowning) point before such dramatic government action will be taken on climate change and poverty reduction. On climate change, global leaders cannot afford to wait until the system comes to a standstill, because it will then—even with all the money in the world—be too late to get it going again.

Thought 5: Globalization is here to stay.

We are interdependent, no question. Naomi Klein’s No Logo was fun; “No Lehman Brothers” is the hard reality of globalization. On the opportunities side, the attempts of major countries to work together shows that hardcore globalization can force global government action. Will history books mark the collapse of Lehman Brothers as the start of building a 21st century global-governance system?

Thought 6: Global governance has made a comeback.

A new opening for global governance in the 21st century has emerged, and it is created by awareness that “it’s the economy, stupid.” We need new global governance which can both manage the ascent of China, India, Russia, Brazil as well as the relative decline of the United States and Europe. Europe and the U.S. must concentrate on shaping this new global governance and enshrine its progressive values within it, while they still have some power to do so.

Thought 7: The early European Union: a model for 21st century global governance.

The EU started as a coal-and-steel community, not as the value community of today. While the architects of the EU had a value-driven vision of Europe in mind, they started pragmatically with coal and steel. This can be a lesson for global governance. Can we rebuild global governance based on global financial governance and then move ahead in ways that echo the EU’s evolution? Could this be an example for building a global open society? This would certainly be in line with the EU’s founding father Jean Monnet, who thought that “the community we have created is not an end in itself. The community itself is only a stage on the way to the organized world of tomorrow.” The conclusions of the EU financial summit of 7 November 2008 are a step—albeit timid—in this direction.

Thought 8: Yes we can create a new energy revolution.

While we are still in the midst of the financial crisis, global leaders are already turning to the fast approaching recession in the real economy. After major bailout packages for the banks, major economic stimulus packages are now in preparation. This is the right approach. But these packages should be targeted and used to stimulate the new, renewable-energy growth sector and help to initiate an energy revolution which creates sustainable growth now and in the future. The trillions of euros which will likely be spent on fighting the global recession should be spent on fighting climate change at the same time. It’s a question of efficiency and forward thinking. And it combines the urgent with the important. The European Union’s structural funds model, based on EU co-funding of up to 80 percent, can be used to disburse the EU’s new energy-stimulation package, making it attractive also for east-central European member-states to join the new energy revolution.

Thought 9: A tightening of funds in the development and nonprofit sector makes reforms essential.

Development money will be scarce, at the least in the short term. This will apply to governments’ development aid but also the nonprofit sector in general. The outcome may be a consolidation in this sector—but also lots of broken promises. However, rather than competing for scarce resources, the development community should use the crunch in development aid to assess approaches and structures, to reform in a way that allows letting go of ineffective models. Competition for creativity should result in doing things better with less. Undoubtedly there are many more sophisticated angles to the global financial crisis. The importance is to understand the crisis as an opportunity which should not be wasted.

Thimmakka, now 105-years-old, began her environmental crusade during World War II and has not showed many signs of slowing down. She’s responsible for single-handedly planting and tending to an estimated 300-400 Banyan trees — and her environmental activism has gone a long way toward sparking large-scale change in India. 

According to the Saalumarada Thimmakka International Foundation, Thimmakka grew up in Gubbi, a small, rural area in southern India. Because her town did not have proper educational facilities, she began working as a coolie (an unskilled laborer) at age 10, and eventually married into another poor family.  

After 25 years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive a child with her husband, Sri Bikkala Chikkayya, Thimmakka found a different way to bring life into the world. She began to plant trees, hundreds of them, in rows that stretched on for about four kilometers.  

Despite the fact that an estimated 15% of couples worldwide are affected by infertility, according to the World Health Organization, many women who are unable to bear a child face discrimination and stigmas throughout their lives on account of a natural occurrence they are unable to influence. 

Luckily for Thimmakka, her husband was supportive of her desire to plant trees, and faithfully helped her in her endeavor until he passed away in 1991. 

Though fame was not what she sought by planting trees, she became a bit of a legend in India and throughout the world, winning at least 50 awards for environmentalism and receiving international press coverage for her work. 

“As the trees she planted grew in height, her stature as well as a legend has grown,” Al Jazeera wrote in 2013. 

Thimmakka herself is no longer planting trees, but her protege and foster son Umesh B N, is now the president of the Saalumarada Thimmakka International Foundation, which was founded in 2014 in her honor. 

Along with focusing on preserving the environment, it serves as an educational resource for poor Indians, provides poverty-relief programs, and even aims to establish a maternity hospital in the region.

Thimmakka’s environmental activism falls in line with the direction the country of 1.25 billion people has headed in recent years. India has placed a renewed focus on environmentalism, formally signing on to the Paris Agreement in October of last year, and pledging that at least 40% of its energy will come from renewable sources by 2030. 

As the founder of the Child Movement and one of the youngest climate activists to date, Kangujam is known for calling on world leaders and global organizations to take immediate action to combat climate change.

She first began her activism two years ago at the age of 6. She started out by urging the Indian government to change its climate policies to help curb the amount of air pollution in the country. 

After attending the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in July 2018, Kangujam knew she wanted to get more involved in climate change activism.

Since then, she has founded an organization, traveled to 32 countries, attended her first parliament strike, and called on world leaders to take direct action on climate change at the 2019 United Nations Climate Conference (COP25) in Madrid. 

She has also advocated to include climate lessons in school curriculums, which will be implemented in schools in Rajasthan and Gujarat at the start of the next academic year.

Kangujam’s main areas of focus are climate justice and climate education, and she has a list of demands for her government that must be fulfilled to achieve those goals. She also wants fossil fuel and carbon emissions to be regulated.

"This will bring transparency and accountability to our leaders. This will benefit people, especially millions of poor people in the country," Kangujam told Global Citizen. 

She wants every student in India to plant a total of 10 trees each upon passing their final exams. With around 350 million students in the country, doing so would result in the planting of 3.5 billion new trees every year.

"All the above ... policies are possible," she said. "This can help to fight climate change and also change the system of the world. This can go a long way."

As a youth activist, Kangujam has had to take some extra steps to make sure that her voice is heard. 

Social media, particularly Twitter, has placed an important role in amplifying her voice and ensuring that her message is spread to world leaders and other activists across the globe. The UN has also given her a platform to raise her concerns about the future of the planet.

In doing so, she has been able to meet with political leaders to discuss various climate issues plaguing India, like air pollution and its links to poor health and illness.  

"I’m pressuring the government to ensure the health of every child in India. I will continue to put more pressure on our world leaders," Kangujam said. "The future is the children. The world needs to make a better planet for us. Our leaders need to act now before it’s too late."

His project to rejuvenate of the Kali Bein river is more than an amateur environmentalist stunt.

Almost 100 miles long, the Kali Bein river is a tributary of Beas in Doaba region of Punjab. It was filled with waste materials that reduced it to a small drain a decade ago. The river water dried up in several places and the water became alarmingly scarce.

The river poses both an environmental and economic crisis for farmers and the people of Punjab.

In 2000, without the help of government, Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal set out on a mission to clean the Kali Bein river. He knew he couldn’t do it alone. He wanted to teach the importance and benefits of protecting and cleaning the river water to others so he gathered a large number of volunteers.

Taking nearly a decade, Sant Balbir Seechewal and his trusty team of volunteers cleared the hyacinth and silt out, restoring the river’s normal flow of clean water. They also planted trees and made an effort to beautify the area.

The team did not stop at the Kali Bein river, they proceeded to restore river banks all over.

Through this simple restoration, the water problems in the Doaba area of Punjab were solved. The project that was once a man’s wish, turned into an incredible economical and environmental success.

Hearing of his efforts, the local government collaborated with Sant Balbir in creating a low-cost sewage model. The underground sewerage system model stores sewage waters in ponds and treats it in a natural way for usage in agriculture and irrigation. Around 50 villages have benefited in using the Seechewal model and farmers have been able to participate in organic farming because of it.

The Eco Baba was even approached by the Central Government to help clean the Ganges River, a river that poses an even larger environmental and economic risk because it flows through many rural areas and is historically very important to a wide range of communities.

Sant Balbir has also worked with the global community in the fight to eliminate extreme poverty, ignorance, superstition, and work towards a world with true gender equality. He has established schools, technical centres and degree colleges, where advanced and technical education is provided at a very low cost to the girls and those experiencing poverty.

Other than being known as the “Eco Baba”, Time magazine crowned Sant Balbir as a “Hero of Environment”, claiming him as the only Indian and the only Asian to get this honor.

With her extraordinary achievements, she has become a symbol of hope and strength, inspiring millions of individuals across the country. In 2024, her hard work and determination were recognized when she was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri. 🏅

Chami Murmu's story is a powerful example of how a single individual can drive significant change. Let’s take a closer look at her journey, the hurdles she overcame, and the impressive environmental contributions she made, all while empowering women and transforming her community. 🌱

🔹 A Humble Beginning: The Making of a Green Crusader 🔹

Born in 1973 in Bagraisai village, Rajnagar block, Seraikela Kharsawan district, Jharkhand, Chami’s early life was marked by hardship.

After losing her father and elder brother at a young age, she became the primary caretaker for her three younger siblings and her ailing mother. Forced to leave school after completing the 10th grade, Chami worked as a laborer to support her family. Despite these challenges, she never lost sight of her dreams. 💪

Her life would take a pivotal turn in 1988, when a life-changing encounter sparked her passion for environmental conservation. This meeting introduced her to the significance of tree planting and protecting the natural resources of her region. Determined to make a difference, Chami set out on a mission to rejuvenate the green cover of Jharkhand. 🌳

🔹 A Vision for a Greener Future: Sahayogi Mahila Bagraisai 🔹

In 1996, Chami founded Sahayogi Mahila Bagraisai, a women-led organization dedicated to environmental preservation and women’s empowerment.

What started with just 11 members soon grew into a robust group of over 3,000 active participants. Their mission? To plant trees, conserve water, promote organic farming, and most importantly, uplift the rural women of Jharkhand. 🚺🌿

But Chami's path wasn’t smooth sailing. She faced stiff resistance from male community members who didn’t initially support her tree-planting efforts.

She also battled the notorious timber mafia, which posed a serious threat to the success of her mission. However, her determination and passion drove her forward. In the face of opposition, Chami and her team persisted, and slowly but surely, they started seeing the fruits of their labor. 🌱

🔹 Overcoming Challenges: A True Tribal Warrior 🔹

Chami’s fight for the environment wasn’t just about planting trees; it was about empowering the people of her community.

She believed in the strength of collective action and knew that it would take a united effort to restore the green cover of Jharkhand.

Her work with self-help groups, especially focusing on empowering women, became a cornerstone of her activism. She provided women with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to take control of their futures. 💚

Despite facing countless hurdles, Chami’s resolve never wavered. She continued her work with an unwavering belief in her cause, eventually transforming her community from one of environmental degradation to one of hope and sustainability.

Her group has planted more than 3 million trees across over 500 villages in Jharkhand, ensuring that future generations will benefit from her hard work. 🌍🌳

🔹 The Recognition: Padma Shri and Beyond 🔹

In recognition of her groundbreaking work, Chami Murmu was awarded the Padma Shri in 2024, one of India’s highest civilian honors. This recognition was a testament to the significant impact she has made not only in Jharkhand but across India.

Her tireless efforts have been acknowledged at both national and international levels, with numerous awards such as the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award in 1996 and the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2019. 🏆

Chami’s life story is a powerful example of what one person, with a vision and determination, can achieve.

From a poor village girl to a nationally recognized environmental activist, she has demonstrated that true warriors don’t fight battles with weapons, but with passion, perseverance, and an unwavering belief in their mission. 💪🌍

🔹 Impact Beyond Trees: A Legacy of Women Empowerment 🔹

Chami Murmu’s contribution goes beyond just planting trees. Through her organization, Sahayogi Mahila Bagraisai, she has empowered over 30,000 women through self-help groups, giving them the tools to improve their lives and their communities.

By teaching them about organic farming, water conservation, and environmental protection, Chami has not only helped save the environment but has also uplifted countless women in rural Jharkhand. 🌱

Her work has created a ripple effect, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps. Chami’s dedication to environmental activism and women’s empowerment has sparked a movement that continues to grow. She has shown that when women are empowered, entire communities can be transformed. 👩‍🌾💚

🔹 The "Lady Tarzan" of Jharkhand: A Role Model for Future Generations 🔹

Chami Murmu has been aptly called the "Lady Tarzan of Jharkhand" for her extraordinary achievements in environmental conservation. Alongside fellow activist Jamuna Tudu, Chami’s story serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative power of passion, perseverance, and love for the planet. 🌍

Her work has left a lasting legacy not only in Jharkhand but across India. As a woman who has fought against the odds, empowered countless others, and made a profound impact on the environment, Chami Murmu is truly a role model for future generations. Her story will continue to inspire individuals to take action and make a difference in the world around them. 💪🌳

🌿 Join the Green Revolution: What We Can Learn from Chami Murmu 🌿

Chami Murmu’s journey proves that no matter how humble your beginnings, with dedication and a passion for change, you can leave an indelible mark on the world.

Her life teaches us that environmental conservation isn’t just about planting trees—it's about fostering a sense of community, empowering others, and creating a sustainable future for generations to come. 🌱

Let Chami Murmu's incredible journey inspire you to take action in your own life. Whether it’s planting a tree, empowering others, or simply spreading awareness, we all have a part to play in protecting Mother Nature. Together, we can create a better, greener world. 🌍💚

As we approach the end of our academic year, today marks our final Friday Forum for the 2024-2025 session.

Throughout the year, we've shared various training updates, insights, and articles through this platform, aiming to connect with each of you and keep you informed. We believe that as a team, we've been able to reach you through these Friday Forums.

We extend our sincere gratitude to everyone for your engagement and for making the Friday Forum a successful initiative. Your readership and participation have been invaluable.

We will be taking a break from the Friday Forum now and look forward to relaunching it in the new academic year 2025-2026 with fresh themes and engaging articles.

We would also love to hear from you! Please feel free to suggest topics or themes you would be interested in reading about in the next academic year. Your feedback will help us tailor the Friday Forum to your interests and needs.

As you all prepare for your well-deserved summer vacation, we wish you a truly amazing and rejuvenating break. May this time bring you joy, relaxation, and renewed enthusiasm for the upcoming academic year 2025-2026.

Thank you once again for being a part of the Friday Forum. We look forward to connecting with you again in the new academic year!

Warmly,

TEAM QAG

2. Organize your office based on practicality

3. Sort by “keep,” “recycle/trash,” and “belongs elsewhere”

4. Get your cables under control

5. Digitize your notes and documents

6. Develop stronger organizational habits

Before going back to work after a vacation, you may experience anxious thoughts, worries, sleep problems, headaches, and more. All of these symptoms are very common. Some call this state re-entry anxiety or stress, others — post-vacation blues, and even post-vacation depression.

Why do you feel this way? The abrupt change of routine and having to go back to a stricter set of tasks instead of doing whatever you want make returning to work stressful. 31% of people dread catching up on administrative tasks, 27% find busy work overwhelming, and 26% feel especially anxious about unread emails and messages.

But there are other reasons as well. Some may feel unsatisfied with their vacation and regret going back without a proper reset. Others don’t want to return to an unwelcome work environment.

Mistake 1: Leaving in a hurry

Were you so excited about a vacation that you shut your laptop closed without planning a return? Well, that’s one reason why coming back may not be smooth. On your first day, you may need to tackle new tasks, remember where exactly you left off, and try to tie up some loose ends. 

If you still can, plan your return beforehand.

Mistake 2: Making a harsh transition

When we do leave on vacation, we all want to make the most out of what we got. If you travel, you may even want to postpone heading home till the last moment. But being in mid-air 8 hours before your work starts isn’t such a great idea.

In fact, you should give your mind and body time to recover.

Mistake 3: Settling right into your previous routine

During your vacation, you enjoyed waking up early. But when you return home and go back to work, you get up 5 minutes before the morning call just like you used to do before? Well, one of the most insidious mistakes you can make is to ignore your vacation experience and follow your habitual routine without a change. 

Vacations are so much more than just periods of rest. They can help you reflect on your life, try something new, and learn more about yourself. It all goes to waste if you don’t put what you discovered into practice. 

In fact, we are especially susceptible to trying things differently when we return from a vacation. And who knows, maybe a different routine is exactly what you need!

Mistake 4: Losing yourself

It’s possible that your vacation changed you in more ways than you expected. So coming back to the office, your coworkers wouldn’t even recognize you. But being on this side of the spectrum isn’t good either. 

Try sticking to the middle: don’t neglect everything you’ve learned and experienced during the vacation but don’t forget what your life at home is as well.

Mistake 5: Staying in your shell

Did you update your Slack status to “Leave me alone” as soon as you’re back to work? Closing yourself off and trying to navigate the changes in your workplace alone isn’t a good idea. If you want to ease into work and quickly learn what’s new — simply talk to your colleagues! You will learn the latest news and also make the day go by faster.

Mistake 6: Just winging it

So, you open your laptop on the first day back. You check your inbox and start tackling tasks in the order that they arrived, or maybe even in no particular order, just whatever catches your eye first. Right? Wrong!

If you start working right away, without understanding everything that needs to be done, you risk losing time and not coming around to the most important tasks. Instead, take time to assess tasks that piled up while you were gone and prioritize them.

Mistake 7: Tackling everything on your first day

So you made a to-do list, and it’s probably quite lengthy. What’s the next logical step? 

If you think it’s trying to fit everything into the first day, you’re wrong. You probably won’t finish everything in one day. And even if you do, you risk running yourself dry. That means you will get overwhelmed and tired quicker and start the next day without a smile on your face, to say the least. 

Mistake 8: Turning into a couch potato

During your vacation, you climbed every mountain, forded every stream, and followed every rainbow? No wonder you don’t want to get off the bed! 

But after resting for a couple of days, you should really go outside or spend some time exercising. Trust us, it will improve your health and well-being!

Mistake 9: Having tunnel vision

When you return from vacation, it’s tempting to ignore everything except the tasks you have at hand. It might be a good initial strategy, but it can also create tunnel vision and even lead to messaging and communication mistakes. For example, you might mention something that has become irrelevant or create unintentional associations with an event you were unaware of. 

Mistake 10: Walking in someone else’s flip-flops

Following advice is good and all, but taking it at face value isn’t going to help you much. Some things just aren’t for you, and before stepping into someone else’s shoes (or post-vacation flip-flops), reflect on your needs, values, and desires.

Some people prefer to forget about work entirely on vacation or even give a digital or dopamine detox a go. But it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some members of the Selzy team don’t unplug from work, so they never have to truly go back from a vacation.

Welcome back everyone! We hope you had a wonderful and refreshing vacation. While we’re happy you took a break, we’re even more pleased to have you back.

As we step into a new academic year, let's bring that renewed enthusiasm and motivation to everything we do. We're truly looking forward to a productive and fruitful year ahead, filled with growth, learning, and success.

Here's to a great start!

When setting your goals, you need to walk the tightrope between big ambitions and what’s actually possible.

According to Harvard research, dream too big, and you risk disappointment and fatigue, dream too small, and you will never push your boundaries.

2. Reflect on what you did, or didn’t achieve, in 2021

It’s no coincidence that a lot of people have the same resolutions on repeat. Common things like; losing weight, getting fit, starting a business, quitting smoking or saving more money. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with these pursuits, they can be repetitive and vague.

Instead, consider reflecting on the year that was to personalise the year ahead. As 2021 was another tumultuous twelve months, there are lots to reflect on.

3. Understand the motivation behind your goals

Even if it’s not responsive to last year, understanding the reasoning behind your goals is key.

When the going gets tough as you work towards your resolution, it’s not the work ahead of you that will keep you motivated. It’s the payoff at the end.

When you’re establishing your goals for 2022, think about why you want them. This can stop you falling into that common trap of reaching for a goal that doesn’t align with your personal values.

Say your goal is to save $10,000. Why? Is it for a deposit for a property to make a home in? Is it to go towards your dream wedding? Is it for the motorbike you’ve always wanted?

Know your why, and you can reach for it when you feel like giving up.

4. Write down your goals

“People who write down their goals feel a greater sense of accountability and have a much higher chance of accomplishing them,” psychologist Elizabeth Ward told Self.

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the (note)book, but making a note of your goals is essential. It’s annoying but true; If you don’t write down your goals from the get-go, you’ll likely have forgotten them within a few days.

5. Keep your goals and motivations visible

As the old saying goes – out of sight, out of mind.

We’re all guilty of writing down our goals with every intention of ticking them off one by one. But what about after the new years’ refresh wears off. More than once, I’ve found the note of my goals months later, gathering dust.

Writing down your goals is one thing, but where you display your goals also matters. Home offices are the perfect place to put them on the wall in a highly visible spot. Display them in an obvious place, and use colours or big letters so that they consistently catch your attention.

As a wise person (me) once said;

“a note of a goal gathering dust is as good as a goal itself gathering dust.”

6. Make it fun

When we are trying to achieve our goals, we can sometimes summon a sort of ‘punishment’ mentality.

Getting fit is a good example. We might decide that we want to exercise more, and hours on the treadmill or stationary bike is the easiest way to do that. Well, it might be the simplest approach, but it’s also probably the most boring, and you’ll most likely disengage pretty quickly.

Instead, you should take the time to look for something that you actually enjoy doing. Whether it’s salsa dancing or a pilates class, rock climbing or ocean swimming – finding something you genuinely enjoy will make it more achievable.

Remember, just because it’s the end goal that you want to achieve, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the path to it.

7. Assist others with their goals

Just as someone will be a great accountability partner to you, playing the same role for someone else will help you stay inspired.

Being there for others not only makes us feel great and forge wonderful relationships, it can galvanise us to carry on down our own path. Either talk to your own accountability partner about returning the favour, or help someone else pay it forward. Who doesn’t love sharing success?

Over the past couple of years, as I took stock of the pandemic that brought the modern world to its knees and left people in isolation, I reached the conclusion that the power to create happiness lies within me. Within you. Within each of us. That might seem obvious, but upon further reflection, very few of us actually utilize the power we wield. As I struggled to make sense of the tragedies occurring around the world and in my own personal sphere, happiness seemed both a distant memory and an unlikely future. Realizing that I needed an outlet, I sought therapy and spent the Covid lockdown trying to navigate my troubled past and conquer my fears about the future, with the hope that I might learn to live fully in the present.

Because of the decision to focus on well-being, I developed a heightened sense of self-awareness, which led me to understand more about the source of happiness. All too often, we either look to others to define our happiness or hold them responsible for it. I realized that as long as I continue to blame my parents for my lifelong anxieties or expect my spouse to provide the cure for my discontent, I will never achieve true happiness. I began to contemplate what “happy” meant to me.

Before long, I could admit that happiness meant more than just my roles as a mother and a spouse, and that I had never felt entirely fulfilled in my career as a lawyer. I wanted more. I wanted to live life on my terms for the first time, not on everyone else’s. Happiness wasn’t just about the big-ticket items, but trickled down to the details, like how much sleep I was getting each night, and how much time I was allotting for simple acts of self-care. “Happy” now seemed attainable, and I felt transformed. That transformation manifested visibly to my family and friends, much to their wonder and awe.

If it’s so obvious that the way to happiness rests at our own feet, then why do we not exercise our autonomy? With everyone so interconnected through technology, the pressure of conforming places an enormous burden on the choices that we make. We’re so busy taking cues from everyone else that we don’t take the time to stop and reflect on what we need. Many of us hide behind fears of rejection, failure, and ostracization. And when we find ourselves disappointed or thwarted, it’s far easier to point fingers at others and deflect responsibility. 

A recent interaction with my eldest son, a high school senior, comes to mind. His teenage self has been a force to be reckoned with over the past couple of years. One day he stormed into my room, frustrated and angry about the restrictions on his screen time during the school year. Insisting that no other parents exerted that kind of control, he declared that we were making his life miserable. At first, I tried to reason with him, explaining that his oversleeping and lax attitude about his homework had resulted in those restrictions. I assured him that all parents want their children to thrive in school and that we were hardly the exceptions.

When my words fell on deaf ears, I waited until his anger was spent. Then, I told him that while we had his best interest at heart, he alone could decide whether to stay mired in his frustrations or alter the landscape. Eager to give him the benefit of what I had started to embrace, I told him that he could continue to complain and remain miserable or figure out a way to be happy. Calling attention to his desire for freedom, I hinted that he could show his maturity by acting more responsibly, earning the right to manage his time without supervision. I’m happy to say that he went on to do just that, with some stumbles along the way, ultimately resulting in a happier kid and happier parents.

This leads me to another observation – cultivating happiness inevitably fosters a happy environment and leads to healthier relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.  

In essence, we forget that what makes us human is our beautifully complex brain and the ability to reason and think for ourselves. Happiness is so very individual and cannot be designed by anyone else. Creating our own happiness takes courage. It requires an unshakeable commitment to stay true to ourselves, and a fierce determination to follow through with our passions, regardless of the outcome and in the face of adversity. Happiness demands that we place self-worth and well-being as priorities in our life so that we be authentic. Whether we live more than one lifetime or not remains a mystery, so with that uncertainty we would do well to remember another old saying, “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal.” Choose to be happy now and be the architect of your own happiness. You are in the driver’s seat.

The following daily habits may help you achieve more happiness in your life.

1. Exercise

Exercise isn’t just for your body. Regular exercise can help balance brain chemicals involved in stress, anxiety, and depression while boosting happiness and life satisfaction.

The trick is to avoid overexerting yourself. If you suddenly engage in a strenuous routine, you may just end up frustrated (and sore).

You can start small, such as a walk around the block or 5 minutes of stretching. In time, you’ll notice the added benefits and may want to step it up a gear.

2. Get plenty of sleep

Most adults need at least 7 hoursTrusted Source of sleep every night. If you find yourself fighting the urge to nap during the day or just generally feel like you’re in a fog, your body may be telling you it needs more rest.

No matter how much our modern society steers us toward less sleep, we know that adequate sleep is vitalTrusted Source to good health, brain function, and emotional well-being.

Learn some tips to help you sleep better.

3. Practice gratitude

Simply being grateful can give your mood a big boost, among other benefits.

They don’t always need to be big things.

For example, it could be something small, such as a co-worker offering you a cup of coffee or a neighbor who waved to you. It could even just be the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Over time, you’ll find yourself noticing more and more positive things.

Weekly habits

The following tips include weekly habits that may help you feel happier.

4. Declutter

Decluttering sounds like a big project, but setting aside just 20 minutes a week can have a big impact.

Set a timer on your phone and tidy up a specific area of one room — say, your closet or that out-of-control junk drawer. Put everything in its place and toss or give away any extra clutter that’s not serving you anymore.

Keep a designated box for giveaways to make things a little easier (and avoid creating more clutter).

You can use this trick anytime you feel like your space is getting out of control.

5. See friends

Humans are largely considered social beings, and it’s generally thought that having social relationships can make us happy.

In adulthood, it can feel next to impossible to make new friends. But it’s not about how many friends you have. It’s about having meaningful relationships — even if it’s just with one or two people.

If you don’t know where to start, you could try getting involved in a local volunteer group or taking a class. Both can help connect you with like-minded people in your area. And it’s likely they’re looking for friends, too.

6. Get into nature

Spending 30 minutes or more a week in green spaces can help boost your mood.

Your green space could be anything, such as your neighborhood park, your own backyard, or a rooftop garden — anywhere you can appreciate and enjoy nature and fresh air.

Better yet, add some outdoor exercise into the mix for extra benefit. The same aforementioned study found that people who spent time in green spaces were also more likely to exercise more frequently and for longer each time.

Monthly habits

You might want to give these monthly habits to improve your happiness a try.

7. Give back

Some people find that giving back to the community can help boost their mood.

Maybe that’s helping out at a food bank on the third weekend of every month or offering to watch your friend’s kids one night per month.

If that isn’t something you have time for currently, you can always try giving small compliments to people to spread the joy. People often feel benefits from small acts of kindness.

8. Take yourself out

No one to go out with? Well, what rule says you can’t go out alone?

Consider going to your favorite restaurant, watching a movie, or taking that trip you’ve always wanted to take.

Even if you’re a social butterfly, spending some deliberate time alone can help you reconnect with the activities that truly make you happy.

9. Create a thought list

You arrive for an appointment with 10 minutes to spare. What do you do with that time? Pick up your cellphone to scroll through social media? Worry about the busy week you have ahead of you?

Trying to take control of your thoughts during these brief windows of time can offer benefits.

You might try making a short list of happy memories or things you’re looking forward to on a small piece of paper or on your phone.

Yearly habits

Try following habits once a year or more to reflect and plan for happiness.

10. Take time to reflect

While the start of a new year is a good time to stop and take inventory of your life, you can set up yearly habits at any point in the year. Try setting aside some time to catch up with yourself the way you would with an old friend:

• How are you doing?

• What have you been up to?

• Are you happier than you were a year ago?

But try to avoid judging yourself too harshly for your answers. You’ve made it to another year, and that’s a reason to celebrate.

11. Reevaluate your goals

People change, so try thinking about where you’re heading and consider if that’s still where you want to go. There’s no shame in changing your plans.

Let go of any goals that no longer serve you, even if they sound nice on paper.

12. Take care of your body

You’ve likely heard this before, but your physical and mental health are closely intertwined.

As you build habits to improve your happiness, it’s important to follow up with routine appointments to help take care of your body, such as:

• seeing a primary care physician for an annual physical

• seeing a dentist for an oral cleaning and dental exam, and follow-up as recommended

• getting your vision checked

Let me ask this question: 10 things happened to you today – 9 good, one bad. Which one do you remember and share with your family members once you are back home? The bad one, right?

Negativity sticks to the brain, while positivity flows like water through the brain. Hence, happiness may not always be natural or easy to cultivate. We need to learn to take in the good! You can watch this video by Dr. Rick Hanson to learn more about this.

40% Margin of Happiness

Sonja Lyubomirksy, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Riverside, defined happiness as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”¹

She conducted a meta-analysis of over 200 studies on the effects of happiness, and observed that happy people have stronger health, longer life, and better careers; plus they are more creative, have stronger relationships, and even have healthier cultures and communities.

If happiness is so beneficial, she wondered why we are not excelling in it! In her article, “Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change,”² she found that:

• 50% of happiness comes from our genetic baseline, i.e. how predisposed we are to happiness. This is related to biological and personality traits which do not change much through life. We cannot do much about them.

• Only 10% comes from external factors, e.g. our health, bank account, relationships, new phone or tablet, new boss, etc. That surprisingly low percentage is due to the phenomenon of habituation. We tend to revert to our happiness baseline, whether an important good or bad event happens to us. For instance, if you win the lottery, you will tend to come back to the same level of happiness after one year.

• 40% comes from intentional activity, i.e. our choices. Thus, the quality of our mindset is responsible for 40% of our happiness. This is actually where we can contribute to a happy life.

Whether or not we were lucky enough to have a positive joyful childhood, 
we can all learn how to bring about positive deep inner transformation.

While most people spend the majority of their time improving their material life, which is accountable for only 10% of happiness, we have a 40%margin of happiness that is dependent on our choices.

We cannot take happiness for granted! Happiness is intentional, effortful, and trainable. How can we develop this mindset and cultivate the habit of happiness?

Learn to Take in the Good

Dr. Rick Hanson explains that the brain has the natural tendency to retain negative experiences and forget positive ones as a survival mechanism. Therefore simple positive thinking strategies are not the answer.

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change its structure and functioning due to its activities. Positive neuroplasticity consists in intentionally engaging in those activities that develop positive changes of the brain. In short, we need to learn to take in the good!

In his book, Hardwiring Happiness,³ Hanson suggests 3 steps to ensure long-lasting transformation and to learn to take in the good:

Pause: take distance from negative information.
Focus: on positive experience and let in positive feelings.
Absorb: savor the experience by feeling the thoughts, emotions and sensations associated with the positive experience.

The longer that experience is held in awareness, and the more emotionally stimulating it is, the more neurons wire-in those pathways. By letting the moments spread across the emotional and mind-body system, small shifts are created, and overtime this weaves positive experiences into the fabric of the brain.

This is exactly what we are doing in the Heartfulness practices. We meditate on the heart, and this trains the brain to absorb positive feelings and experiences associated with the heart – love, compassion, care, kindness, appreciation, harmony, patience, courage, and many more qualities that support happiness.

We may only have a 40% margin of happiness, so let’s take up that opportunity. We can cultivate the habit of happiness.

Vision and Purpose:

The Wari is driven by a clear vision and purpose: to seek blessings and express devotion to Lord Vitthal. Similarly, effective leaders establish a compelling vision for their teams or organizations, providing a sense of direction and purpose that motivates others to work towards a common goal.

Inclusive Leadership:

The Wari transcends barriers of caste, creed, and social status, bringing people from diverse backgrounds together. It exemplifies the power of inclusive leadership, where leaders embrace and respect differences, creating an environment where everyone feels valued and included.

Servant Leadership:

During the Wari, devotees engage in selfless service by providing food, water, and shelter to fellow pilgrims. This act of servitude highlights the importance of servant leadership, where leaders prioritize the needs of their team members and actively support their growth and well-being.

Resilience and Perseverance:

Covering long distances on foot, enduring physical hardships, and facing adverse weather conditions, the Wari demands tremendous resilience and perseverance. Leaders must possess these qualities to navigate challenges, overcome setbacks, and inspire others to keep pushing forward, even in difficult times.

Teamwork and Collaboration:

The Wari is a collective endeavor that relies on teamwork and collaboration. Devotees work together to ensure the smooth functioning of the pilgrimage, from organizing logistics to supporting fellow participants. Leaders should foster a culture of collaboration, encouraging teamwork and leveraging the strengths of each team member to achieve shared objectives.

Trust and Faith:

The Wari exemplifies trust and faith in the divine. Leaders must cultivate trust among their team members, empowering them to make decisions and take risks. Trust strengthens relationships and encourages open communication, enabling teams to overcome challenges and achieve remarkable results.

Emotional Intelligence:

The Wari is an emotionally charged event, evoking deep feelings of devotion, unity, and compassion. Leaders with high emotional intelligence understand and manage their own emotions while empathizing with others. They create an environment where individuals feel supported, valued, and motivated to give their best.

Continuous Learning and Improvement:

The Wari provides an opportunity for personal reflection and introspection. Similarly, effective leaders are lifelong learners, constantly seeking ways to grow, adapt, and improve their leadership skills. They encourage a culture of learning within their teams, fostering innovation and embracing change.

In conclusion, the Pandharpur Wari serves as a profound source of inspiration for leadership. It teaches us valuable lessons about vision, inclusivity, servant leadership, resilience, teamwork, trust, emotional intelligence, and continuous learning. By embracing these principles, leaders can create an environment where individuals thrive, and organizations achieve extraordinary success. As we reflect on the Wari's teachings, let us strive to become better leaders, making a positive impact on the lives of those we lead.

Focus on one common goal: People from various walks of life, castes and socio-economic backgrounds participate in the Wari, with the common goal to reach Pandharpur. There is no other expectation, perks or benefits in return. In fact, it teaches one the journey is equally important and not just the destination. So focus on the process of work, enjoy the challenges of the assignment and not on the outcome (don’t think how much money or recognition it would get)

No hierarchy: Participants should lose their individual identities, egos, their positions in society and just experience the positivity energy generated by this unbiased ‘unity’. This equality and humanity for all rejecting discrimination, strengthens personality and deciphers the true purpose of life.

Co-ordination & team building : I am sure the true warkaris don’t even know these corporate jargons, but right from the time management of which group leaves at what time to the synchronization of abhangs (hymns) with co-ordinated dance steps and the accelerating rhythm and pace is something that onlookers behold in awe.

Sequence and Fleet management: Each route has approximately 200 Dindis (sub groups) with 400-500 trucks. With the main palkhi (palanquins) at the center of the procession, each group have an ascribed number and sequence position which is strictly followed. Each group have a truck where their luggage and food material is kept. These trucks need to quietly exit at the break of dawn…and yes again a designated sequence without GPRS and no whatsapp groups. Also the dindi management ensure that tents, food is ready before their respective group arrives at the location.

Start work early, embed a good discipline: Early to bed and early to rise, seems to be the secret energy formula for them. Every morning a Tutari (small trumpet) is blown thrice to alert all. At the first signal, all Warkaris get ready to leave. At the second signal, the dindis stand in the queue as per designated sequence and at the third signal, the procession begins. Lesson taught: By, punctuality and starting your day early you will realize you can achieve 50% of your targeted work.

Minimalism: Less is more and travel light is something all affirm by. The less baggage- emotional and materialistic means less worry and less backache. Its wonderful to see these simple people just carry 2-3changes in a bag and enroute spread out their sarees to dry.

Take a power nap: Its said you can judge a man by his sleep how rich he is. Truly I feel envious as we dragged our tired feet and see warkaris having a blissful cat nap under the shade of a tree, to get up rejuvenated and catch up with the rest of the journey or task. 

This past week, I completed the Wari to Pandharpur, a journey of 120 kilometers walked over four days alongside my wife, from Miraj to the revered town of Pandharpur. Beginning on November 6, 2024, and culminating with darshan on November 9, the experience was beyond anything I could have imagined. The journey tested physical endurance, mental resilience, and, most profoundly, spiritual faith.

For me, this was no ordinary walk; it was a lesson in discipline, strategic planning, and resilience—concepts central not only to a pilgrimage but to leadership and business as well. I had found out only earlier this year that I had heart blockages, and after undergoing two surgeries, the question loomed: was I fit enough for this physically and mentally demanding journey? Instead of letting fear answer, I turned to strategy and preparation.

Preparing for the Journey: A Lesson in Strategic Thinking

To evaluate my readiness, I created a plan. First, I undertook a 21-day fasting regimen, adjusting my body to the rigors of limited sustenance, much like a business lean period that tests operational strength. I followed this by incorporating a week of running, training my stamina incrementally, akin to stress-testing in business to ensure operational resilience.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson: every goal, whether personal or professional, demands preparation. Leaders, before embarking on ambitious projects, must strategize, evaluate their resources, and make calculated moves.

1. Discipline and Resilience: The Cornerstones of Success

Walking 120 kilometers in four days was not easy. Every step felt like a small victory. It’s easy to relate this with the journey of entrepreneurship and leadership—moments of exhaustion, moments of doubt, and, above all, moments of perseverance. In business, challenges often test our limits, demanding resilience and unyielding discipline. Those who succeed are those who persist, trusting the process and staying the course.

In every organization, discipline in execution and resilience in overcoming obstacles can be the difference between a dream realized and a plan left incomplete. When leaders embody these qualities, they inspire their teams to press on, even when the path seems long and challenging.

2. Faith and Vision: Walking with Purpose

The pilgrimage was more than just a physical journey; it was a journey of faith, much like the vision every leader must carry. Just as each Varkari (pilgrim) walks with a singular purpose, leaders must have an unwavering belief in their vision. Faith, whether spiritual or strategic, is essential—it keeps us moving forward, grounded in purpose and unshaken by obstacles.

Just as I walked with my heart and soul toward Pandharpur, every business leader must walk with conviction toward their vision, inspiring their teams to embrace and support that purpose.

3. Community and Support: No Journey is Made Alone

The Wari to Pandharpur isn’t a solitary journey. Thousands of pilgrims walk together, sharing stories, supporting each other, and uplifting one another when the going gets tough. This reminded me of how essential community is in business. Whether through mentorship, partnerships, or simply the camaraderie of a dedicated team, our journeys are fueled by the support of others.

As leaders, it’s vital to remember that we achieve our greatest successes not alone but with the collective strength of those around us. Community isn’t just a support system; it’s an integral part of achieving any vision.

4. Strategic Preparation: The Foundation of Success

I wouldn’t have undertaken this pilgrimage without a plan, given my recent heart surgeries. To prepare, I monitored my health, fasting for three weeks and testing my stamina through a running regimen. This was my way of ensuring I was ready, both physically and mentally. In business, too, success isn’t achieved by chance but through strategic planning and incremental steps that test readiness for future challenges.

By focusing on small, consistent actions, I created a foundation that allowed me to complete the journey. Likewise, businesses should focus on steady, incremental progress to build momentum and prepare for larger objectives.

Grateful Beyond Words

Reflecting on the journey, I’m filled with gratitude for every moment, every blessing, and every person who was part of this experience. To those who followed along and shared words of encouragement on social media—thank you. Your support made every step feel lighter. This pilgrimage reinforced an essential truth: no journey, personal or professional, is made alone.

As leaders, may we continue to walk forward with resilience, purpose, and the strength of community, knowing that with preparation and belief, any journey is possible.

Maybe you already know how to do your job, and maybe you do it well. But what if there were aspects of your job that could be made easier, and you just didn’t realize it? Oftentimes, an outsider looking in on your work world can see things you overlook. Being open to input from outside sources always leads to new ways of seeing things, even when you’ve been following the same routine for several years.

For example, if you work in sales, wouldn’t it be nice if landing sales came a little bit easier? There are multiple ways to sharpen your sales skills, and as times change and technology advances, so do the strategies you should employ. If you were to continue using the knowledge you have today, the same knowledge you gained during your first week of work when you were training and shadowing other employees, and you didn’t take time to build on that knowledge each year, it wouldn’t take long before you were falling behind and those that were receiving fresh trainings were outperforming you.

Attending training and conferences allows you to see new ways of performing the same task. Not only does it benefit you in the workplace, but you could gain a new perspective to carry with you in every aspect of your life.

2. Learn New Skills

Training is great for sharpening existing skills, but they can also introduce you to new skills. If your workplace acquires a new type of machinery or employs a new software and you aren’t familiar with it and don’t know how to use it, are you going to figure it out on your own? Surprisingly, many people would. But, just as getting to a new destination without a map could take you all over the country, attempting to know a new tool without instructions could eat up valuable time and you still won’t know the right path. Formal training gives you an overview of everything the new tool is capable of doing.

Learning new skills makes your value as an employee greater. There’s a bonus that comes with training that offers new skills. They often also offer a certification.

5 Tips For Making The Most Of Your Business TripsShareFullscreenPlayUnmuteLoaded: 24.86%Remaining Time -3:19CaptionsAuto(360pLQ)

3. Increased Productivity

Maybe you don’t care about increased productivity, because after all, it’s not your business. However, maybe you should. When you become a part of the reason productivity is increased, you also become indispensable. Good output gets you recognized by everyone in the company. It can also get you bonuses.

The best way to increase your productivity is to continually sharpen your skill set. Training offers you ways to increase your focus, better time management, and workplace safety. Grab every training opportunity that is offered to you. In time, you’ll be a well-oiled machine the company couldn’t afford to operate without.

4. Increased Work Quality

Training not only increases your productivity, they increase your quality of work. That’s because when you attend training you’re gaining all kinds of tools to perform your job better. Training as simple as how to deal with difficult people are capable of improving the quality of your work, because if you can deal with difficult people, you won’t overheat and become distracted when a co-worker offends you. Efficiency may be important, but quality tops the list when it comes to employee performance.

When employees attend training, they don’t just improve their own work performance. Whether they know it or not, they bring the knowledge they have gained back to the workplace and share it with their co-workers.

5. Resume Building

The training you attend develops you professionally. Over time, you’re going to have skills that make you an asset to other companies as well. Remember that certification you received for learning how to operate that new piece of equipment? You can now add it to your resume.

Workshops and training you attend, whether they come with a certification or not, look good on your resume. They show employers you are willing to learn new skills and apply them. Even something as simple as workplace harassment can give your resume value. Not only did you attend the training, but you took it serious enough that you included it on your resume.

6. Advancement and Compensation

For every training you attend, you should make sure a copy of your completion certificate finds its way into your employee file. When your annual review comes up, your manager will have to take notice of all your accomplishments over the past year as well as the time you’ve been with the company.

Even if you have a college degree, you should still attend training. Though your degree has served you well, your college courses don’t fully prepare you for every nuance of the job you’re performing today.

Trainings is your opportunity to start thinking ahead. They prepare you for career advancement. Be sure to attend seminars and training that prepare you for leadership and management roles. Not only do these look good in your employee file, they will actually prepare you for how to effectively handle new situations you might not otherwise have been prepared to handle.

Your manager or a manager from another department will also want to review your file when considering you for positions of career advancement. Your training could be the deciding factor between you and another employee who opted out of training.

7. Employee Retention

When your employer invests in your career goals and objectives, it increases your satisfaction in the workplace. That’s because you feel valued enough that you’re worth the investment. That investment includes time off work to attend that training, as well as cost of the training. Employers offer these opportunities and invest in them because they yield a high return.

The next time a training is offered and you’re tempted to pass it up, think again. Training isn’t a waste, but not attending is a wasted opportunity. Think of training as your doorway to boundless opportunities. It offers career progression, job satisfaction, knowledge to make tasks easier, and knowledge that can be applied to all avenues of your life. As outlined above, when you sharpen your existing skills, or develop new ones, your value as an employee strengthens. If you’re thinking of your career as long term, then mix in some supervisory training as well. Learning new skills never hurt anyone. Not learning them certainly held many people back. The only thing training is costing you is time, but even your employer has you covered there.

InDesign For How People Learn, Second Edition, you'll discover how to use the key principles behind learning, memory, and attention to create materials that enable your audience to both gain and retain the knowledge and skills you're sharing. Updated to cover new insights and research into how we learn and remember, this new edition includes new techniques for using social media for learning as well as two brand new chapters on designing for habit and best practices for evaluating learning, such as how and when to use tests. Using accessible visual metaphors and concrete methods and examples,Design For How People Learn, Second Editionwill teach you how to leverage the fundamental concepts of instructional design both to improve your own learning and to engage your audience.

Understanding the importance of timely feedback

Timely feedback is critical in any professional relationship because it helps individuals or organizations to take corrective measures quickly. When feedback is given promptly, it is easier to identify and address the issues before they become significant problems. Timely feedback also helps to build trust and credibility between the giver and the receiver. When feedback is given promptly, the receiver understands that the giver is invested in their success and is committed to helping them achieve their goals.

In addition to the above, timely feedback helps individuals stay motivated and engaged. When feedback is given promptly, it provides individuals with a sense of direction and purpose. They understand what they need to do to improve their performance, which helps them stay focused and motivated. Giving feedback promptly gives individuals a clear understanding of what is expected of them, which can help prevent misunderstandings and conflicts.

The benefits of providing timely feedback

Providing timely feedback has several benefits. First, it helps to improve performance. When feedback is given promptly, individuals can take corrective measures quickly, leading to improved performance.

Second, prompt feedback ensures the receiver understands that the giver is invested in their success, which helps build trust and credibility.

Third, it gives individuals a clear understanding of what is expected of them, which can help prevent misunderstandings and conflicts.

Fourth, it helps to motivate and engage individuals. When feedback is given promptly, it provides individuals with a sense of direction and purpose. They understand what they need to do to improve their performance, which helps them stay focused and motivated. Fifth, it helps to promote learning and development. When feedback is given promptly, individuals can learn from their mistakes and develop their skills and knowledge.

Conclusion

Timely feedback is essential for growth and development in any professional relationship. Providing feedback can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. By using strategies for effective feedback delivery, tips for providing constructive feedback, and best practices for giving feedback to different types of recipients, individuals can provide timely, constructive, and supportive feedback. By providing timely feedback, individuals can improve their performance, build trust and credibility, prevent misunderstandings and conflicts, motivate and engage individuals, and promote learning and development.

Be Constructive, Kind, and Specific

What if during a professional evaluation, a supervisor spent the entire meeting discussing the problems in performance? How would the employee likely feel? Answer: diminished and lacking confidence in his or her capabilities. This is how students feel when they are only told about their errors. Soon they will likely tune out of the conversation and miss what’s needed.

When receiving constructive feedback, learners need to know what they did well and whether their understanding is on target. Recognizing what’s working reinforces those practices. Too often the inclination is to focus only on what’s missing or underdeveloped. These concerns do need to be addressed, but receiving the message is just as important as delivering it.

Start with what’s working: This is a much kinder approach because individuals feel that their efforts are productive and their time is well spent. They become more receptive to dialogue about what skills and concepts are missing. Word choice is important to feedback. Consider using these starter stems to frame coaching students on giving constructive feedback:

• I like...

• I notice...

• I wonder...

• What if...?

  Kindness doesn’t mean avoiding critique: Ask, “What kinds of details—facts, examples, or illustrations—would help your reader better understand your position?” That’s more helpful than saying, “You need to show more effort in your writing if you want readers to value your position.” How we phrase feedback impacts how it’s received.

  Relevant feedback makes the most sense: Specificity of feedback helps the person understand its relevance. Focusing on the specific kinds of details that will be most helpful illuminates a clear direction. Vague feedback leaves behind confusion and resentment.

  Combining these three components—constructiveness, kindness, and specificity—helps establish a strong working relationship between those giving and receiving feedback.

  Reflections, Then Revisions

  A common concern expressed by teachers is that when students are given back assignments they’ve handed in, they don’t look at the comments. We need to teach them how to reflect on feedback. For years, students are conditioned to look for a grade as the only value of a returned assignment. This tends to occur when no time for thoughtful reflection is provided. Consider taking five to 10 minutes to have students review comments through a think-pair-reflect activity, or using guiding questions or thinking maps for students to review and reflect on feedback.

  One teacher passes back assignments with no grades, just comments. Students reflect on the feedback. The grade is provided later. Reflection in small groups, alone, or with the teacher helps students find areas to replicate what they know and address areas that are missing what’s needed.

  Revision opportunities lead to learning once reflection occurs with sufficient time. The act of making changes after reflection gives students the chance to re-evaluate what they now understand. If we break the cycle of accepting assignments without requiring revisions, students will develop a new culture for practice. First drafts are rough caricatures of achievement. True learning results from reflections, then revisions.

  Next-Day Service

  Feedback should be within 24 to 48 hours. This idea seems overwhelming for a teacher who sees 150 to 200 students in a day. But if students wait too long for feedback, they risk losing the context for the valued learning of the work. Strive to attain this response time as a goal, not a policy. With diligence, successes will happen when students need them most.

  feedback doesn’t have to come solely from the teacher. For example, there could be informal conversations or peer reflections. Technology supports feedback via discussion boards, comments, and videoconferences. Formal feedback needs to be strategically used for greatest impact. Stagger assignments to give yourself manageable, daily portions of student work for review. For greater learning impact, if the turnaround response time is longer than 48 hours, consider rethinking the assessment or narrowing the focus of the outcome.

  In The 47th Samurai, Stephen Hunter writes, “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” This point  about skill building is wisdom for building a culture that shifts students’ value of feedback. Incorporating these elements take patience and time both in practice and buy-in. Start slow if you feel that need. For many grade levels, teachers must undo a mindset that’s become well established from years of being a student whose first draft is the final draft. Undoing this mindset and that of the posted grade as the only valuable data means providing the rationale for the power of feedback and committing the time for powerful feedback experiences.

  
  

The Power of Passion: Unleashing Enthusiasm and Passion in Everyday Life

Zeal is a powerful force that drives individuals to pursue their dreams, live life to the fullest, and continuously seek new knowledge. This inner enthusiasm can be transformative, turning ordinary experiences into extraordinary journeys.

Zeal to Chase Dreams

When someone has passion for chasing their dreams, they are filled with a relentless energy and determination. This type of zeal:

• Inspires Action: It propels individuals to take steps toward their dreams, regardless of the obstacles in the way. Whether it’s starting a new business, writing a book, or traveling the world, zeal provides the fuel to keep moving forward.

• Fosters Resilience: The road to achieving dreams can be challenging. Zeal helps people bounce back from setbacks and stay focused on the bigger picture, even when things get tough.

• Encourages Creativity: With a zeal for chasing dreams, individuals are more likely to think outside the box and find innovative solutions to problems. This creativity is key to overcoming barriers and reaching new heights.

• Fervor for Life

  Having zeal for life means approaching each day with a sense of enthusiasm and a desire to make the most of every moment. This type of zeal:

  • Promotes Positivity: When you’re passionate about life, it radiates to those around you, creating a positive environment. This energy is infectious and can lead to stronger connections with others.

  • Boosts Well-Being: A zest for life often translates into healthier lifestyle choices, a greater sense of purpose, and improved mental health. It encourages people to engage in activities that bring joy and satisfaction.

  • Encourages Exploration: Zeal for life drives individuals to explore new experiences, whether it’s trying new foods, traveling to different places, or meeting new people. This sense of adventure enriches life and leads to personal growth.

  • Passion for Learning

    Zeal for learning involves a genuine curiosity and passion for gaining knowledge. This type of zeal:

    • Facilitates Growth: A constant desire to learn fosters personal and professional development. It allows individuals to stay relevant in their careers and adapt to changing environments.

    • Improves Problem-Solving: When you’re enthusiastic about learning, you’re more likely to develop critical thinking skills and find effective solutions to complex problems.

    • Creates Opportunities: A zeal for learning opens doors to new opportunities, whether it’s career advancements, networking possibilities, or personal enrichment. It can lead to discovering new passions and interests.

    • How to Cultivate Zeal

      If you’re looking to develop more zeal in your life, here are some steps you can take:

      • Identify Your Passions: Start by identifying what excites you. What are you passionate about? What activities or goals make you lose track of time?

      • Set Goals: Establish clear goals that align with your passions. This will give you a sense of direction and a reason to maintain your enthusiasm.

      • Surround Yourself with Positivity: Seek out positive influences, whether it’s supportive friends, inspirational books, or uplifting media. Being in a positive environment helps to maintain zeal.

      • Practice Gratitude: Reflecting on what you’re grateful for can boost your overall outlook on life, reinforcing your zeal for living.

      • Embrace Challenges: Instead of avoiding challenges, embrace them as opportunities for growth. The more you overcome, the more you’ll appreciate the journey.

      • Eagerness is a life skill that can lead to profound changes in your life. By fostering zeal in various areas, from chasing dreams to learning, you can create a more fulfilling and rewarding experience. Let zeal be the driving force that propels you toward your aspirations and makes every day an adventure.
        

The Power of Passion: Unleashing Enthusiasm and Passion in Everyday Life

Zeal is a powerful force that drives individuals to pursue their dreams, live life to the fullest, and continuously seek new knowledge. This inner enthusiasm can be transformative, turning ordinary experiences into extraordinary journeys.

Zeal to Chase Dreams

When someone has passion for chasing their dreams, they are filled with a relentless energy and determination. This type of zeal:

• Inspires Action: It propels individuals to take steps toward their dreams, regardless of the obstacles in the way. Whether it’s starting a new business, writing a book, or traveling the world, zeal provides the fuel to keep moving forward.

• Fosters Resilience: The road to achieving dreams can be challenging. Zeal helps people bounce back from setbacks and stay focused on the bigger picture, even when things get tough.

• Encourages Creativity: With a zeal for chasing dreams, individuals are more likely to think outside the box and find innovative solutions to problems. This creativity is key to overcoming barriers and reaching new heights.

Fervor for Life

Having zeal for life means approaching each day with a sense of enthusiasm and a desire to make the most of every moment. This type of zeal:

• Promotes Positivity: When you’re passionate about life, it radiates to those around you, creating a positive environment. This energy is infectious and can lead to stronger connections with others.

• Boosts Well-Being: A zest for life often translates into healthier lifestyle choices, a greater sense of purpose, and improved mental health. It encourages people to engage in activities that bring joy and satisfaction.

• Encourages Exploration: Zeal for life drives individuals to explore new experiences, whether it’s trying new foods, traveling to different places, or meeting new people. This sense of adventure enriches life and leads to personal growth.

Passion for Learning

Zeal for learning involves a genuine curiosity and passion for gaining knowledge. This type of zeal:

• Facilitates Growth: A constant desire to learn fosters personal and professional development. It allows individuals to stay relevant in their careers and adapt to changing environments.

• Improves Problem-Solving: When you’re enthusiastic about learning, you’re more likely to develop critical thinking skills and find effective solutions to complex problems.

• Creates Opportunities: A zeal for learning opens doors to new opportunities, whether it’s career advancements, networking possibilities, or personal enrichment. It can lead to discovering new passions and interests.

How to Cultivate Zeal

If you’re looking to develop more zeal in your life, here are some steps you can take:

• Identify Your Passions: Start by identifying what excites you. What are you passionate about? What activities or goals make you lose track of time?

• Set Goals: Establish clear goals that align with your passions. This will give you a sense of direction and a reason to maintain your enthusiasm.

• Surround Yourself with Positivity: Seek out positive influences, whether it’s supportive friends, inspirational books, or uplifting media. Being in a positive environment helps to maintain zeal.

• Practice Gratitude: Reflecting on what you’re grateful for can boost your overall outlook on life, reinforcing your zeal for living.

• Embrace Challenges: Instead of avoiding challenges, embrace them as opportunities for growth. The more you overcome, the more you’ll appreciate the journey.

Eagerness is a life skill that can lead to profound changes in your life. By fostering zeal in various areas, from chasing dreams to learning, you can create a more fulfilling and rewarding experience. Let zeal be the driving force that propels you toward your aspirations and makes every day an adventure.

Where all you need to have enthusiasm - In fact, I have yet to identify, one single positive outcome or desire or task – where you don't need enthusiasm.

Do you sometimes feel enthusiastic, motivated and energetic when you start something new, but after some time lose your enthusiasm and interest. Most of us would have experienced this phenomenon.

If you want to understand the definition of living life young forever, you only have to look at how to create zest and zeal for life's mundane.

Watch my video on YouTube "Impossible Achiever" of Dr. Bhagwati Oza, the 80+ years old who can show what enthusiasm and living life fully means.

You would have come across [or read about or can google to find] numerous people like her or those who have had worst of situations, misfortune, hardships, obstacles – still they accomplished mind-boggling feats and became example for generations to come.

You can have everything materialistic yet if you don't have enthusiasm for life, you are living dead.

When we are born, all of us are born with a large amount of enthusiasm, but in the way in our journey towards adulthood, we pick up many negative beliefs[which are only our interpretations and may not be the absolute truth] – which tells us why something can't be done or why to give-up* and what are possible and impossible etc.

We get burned-out, when our internal reserves of enthusiasm gets exhausted, and we do not consciously recharge it.

People with high levels of energy and enthusiasm often have a number of characteristics in common. They have sparkly eyes, their skin looks healthy, and they tend to smile a lot. There are also certain things they do, which help them to maintain their energy levels

Enthusiasm isn't just more fun, it's more attractive and more productive.

If you're dissatisfied with where you are right now and if You continue to do what you are doing – you will never get different results.

In my opinion, for the following aspects of your life you need enthusiasm, you can add any other areas where you need to have enthusiasm

1.As an employee [irrespective of whether you are a senior, junior or peer]
2.To you wake-up in the morning
3.As parent for parenting
4.As spouse [also for all your important relationships]
5.For your customers [also as a customer]
6.For your learning* and education
7.For building a really meaningful present and future
8.For overcoming odds, setbacks, failures*, hurts, mistakes, crises, shocks of life
9.For bouncing back*
10.For living a happy*, healthy* and successful*
11.Want to be a leader
12.Want to stand out and create legacy
13.Want to feel fulfilled, blissful and contended
14.Help others and make the world a better place for yourself as well as for others
15.Enjoying the journey of life, in spite of all the hard-knocks that life throws at you

Those who lack enthusiasm in any aspect of life, only go through the motion and many may do what needs to be done, but not with all their heart.

Having continuous supply of enthusiasm, needs disciplined practice and actions.

So how can you create enthusiasm - when you don't feel like being enthusiastic.

Tips for creating a self-propelling generator of enthusiasm - Putting the spark back into life

1.Learn from your past mistakes and change your approach
2.Learn from other's mistakes – this can only be done when you have had lots of failures and by experience you know the worth of learning from those, who are there where you want to be
3.Ask yourself these questions
4.Are you stuck in any part of life
5.Which areas of life you have given up or about to give up
6.Which areas of your life are working out well and where you are just dragging
7.Which are the things you want to do but yet to take action as been you are waiting for the right moment
8.What are the things you are not interested in, but still doing it
9.What are the things those are not working
10.What's missing which if present would make significant difference
11.Note How the above 7 points affecting you, What are you missing out on, What are your loved ones and the people who care about you are missing
12.Are you focusing your energies, time, efforts on challenges, worries, bad-luck OR you are taking action to get out of this whirlpool
13.What can you do to set yourself on a path, which is action-oriented and focused only on making things better rather than focus on what was wrong
14.What habits*, what discipline*, what skills*, what plan you need to create – in order to overcome the obstacles and steadily move towards your big picture
15.The scheduling and taking action, small actions everyday
16.Monitoring, tracking, improvising what does not work, till you get what you want or when your desired goals changes
17.Celebrating your milestones and successes
18.Exercise and get plenty of sleep. Be healthy. It takes energy to be enthusiastic. If you feel good about yourself in your health and your appearance, it's going to be a lot easier to be enthusiastic. So get enough sleep, eat well, and get your exercise in. Drink plenty of water
19.Surround yourself with enthusiastic people
20. Get rid of Toxic* & insecure* people and all those who bring you down ASAP
21.Devote 10 minutes a day to reading and thinking about the benefits of what you want to do or accomplish.
22. Every day, read about people who achieved success by being tenacious and persistence
23. Learn when to give up* and when to go on
24. Learn when your will power will not work*
25. Find a cause that fire you up
26. Share your vision with people who are your genuine well-wishers
27.Set audacious goals
28. Listen to motivational podcasts / audio program
29. Learn a new language and playing musical instrument
30. Focus on, work for and enjoy creating Excellence* in your life
31.Change your life* upside-down, purposefully
32. Changing your own appearance with a new haircut and some new clothes
33. Be Open to Opportunities, create your own opportunities*
34. Get your health checked-up, especially if you are feeling lack of energy
35. Manage your energies*
36. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH INSPIRATION, join new hobby clubs, professional forums
37.Mix with new culture people
38. Travel to newer places
39. Take challenging vacations – like going back-packing on very low budget and managing your expenses by doing any work that you can find in unknown places
40. Understanding the changes and trends and upskilling* yourself to be future ready and job-proof*
41.At times have a DO-NOTHING period
42. Declutter your house, your table, your wardrobe
43. Ask yourself - What Are Your Next Steps, When you're stuck, it's often because you haven't figured out what you need to do next. Try to work out a few next steps:
44. Find Who Can Help You, get yourself a mentor*
45. BE Authentically Yourself*
46. Learn to be humorous and practice witticism*
47.PLAY Outdoor sport Games
48. Be Grateful
49. Accept personal responsibility life so far and FUTURE
50. Devote few hours every week helping the underprivileged
51.Go deeper, learn more, expand your awareness about many things
52. Engage, Empower, and Enrich Your Employees
53. Create a Work Environment that Fosters Creativity and Innovation
54. Appreciate and Reward Your Employees
55.Focus on the Things that Inspire Your People
56. Be passionate*
57.Get out of victim-mode
58. Learn to Ask powerful questions*
59. Challenge your assumptions*
60. Learn to handle difficult* people
61.Learn to manage your stress*
62. Don't try to solve the entire world's problems at
63. Perform random acts of kindness*
64. Derive strength from your role models and mentors*
65. Take 30 minutes a day to do something you love
66. Get enough sleep
67.There's a prevalent notion in our "go-go-go" culture that sleep is for wimps. "You can
68. Meditate*
69. Learn to say no & be assertive*
70. Get over your fear by taking actions in your fear areas*
71.Try new things, experiment
72.Keep learning

1. Set aside time regularly to engage with your passion

Dedicate time in your schedule to engage with your passion. Being consistent with your passions nurtures their growth and cultivates a deeper bond between you and what you love doing.

2. Connect with like-minded individuals 

Join communities or groups of people who share your passion. Engage in discussions, attend events, and share your experiences. Connecting with others can enrich your journey and provide different perspectives. A sense of belonging is also important for your mental health and can provide you with support if your motivation wanes.

3. Continue learning and growing 

Be open to learning and expanding your knowledge about your passions. Read books, take courses, or attend workshops. Continuous learning allows your passion to thrive and evolve.

4. Share your passion with others 

Share your passion with family, friends, or through social platforms. Expressing and sharing your enthusiasm can be fulfilling and may also inspire others.

5. Be patient and kind to yourself 

Understand that nurturing a passion is a journey and takes time. It’s not a race to the finish line, as there is no end. Passions are ongoing. Be patient with your progress and kind to yourself along the way.

1. Engage in self-reflection

Reflect on your core values, strengths, and interests. Ask yourself what activities or topics spark your enthusiasm. Look at your existing hobbies and interests for clues. Think about what brings you joy. If you’re experiencing burnout, this can be difficult, so you might also need to discover the barriers to your growth, such as anxiety, depression, and overwhelm. 

Journaling your thoughts can help you delve deeper into what matters to you so you can take the time to understand what makes you feel alive and why.

💙 Get the most out of what you’re taking in with The Power of Reflection led by Jay Shetty.

2. Experiment and explore

Explore different activities, topics, or fields that pique your interest. Don’t hesitate to step outside your comfort zone (it can be worth pushing through the anxiety). If you have enough free time, attend workshops, read books, and join clubs or community groups. If time is scarce, you could listen to relevant podcasts on your commute or watch instructional videos online in your break. This phase is about discovery and opening yourself up to new experiences (even if they’re just micro-experiences right now).

💙 Move past your boundaries and step outside of your Comfort Zone with this mindfulness practice to help you take the leap.

3. Embrace trial and error

Try out lots of activities to find what resonates with you. It’s okay if you don’t find the thing that clicks right away — the process of elimination is just as valuable in leading you to your passion.

Thoughts like “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m wasting my time,” will probably arise at this stage because our brains try to protect us from change. Mindfulness techniques can help you to recognize and dismantle the power of these negative thoughts, allowing you to explore passions with a clear and peaceful mind. 

💙 Ditch the idea of Trying to Be Perfect and learn the art of embracing the moment with Jeff Warren.

4. Seek guidance from those who have specific passions

Connect with mentors, friends, or other people who inspire you. Seek their advice and learn from their experiences. This is more than just career advice. This is about working out what truly resonates with you. Engaging in discussions can provide new perspectives and may spark ideas that lead you closer to finding your passion.

💙 Learn why and how Community can change your life in this guided meditation with Tamara Levitt.

5. Be consistent in your commitment to your passion

Once you find a potential passion, commit to it. Dive deeper, learn, and grow within it. And keep trying, even when challenges arise. Your dedication to nurturing your passion will boost your self-esteem and overall wellbeing. Just remember to always prioritize your mental health and take breaks if you need them.

The human aura is an electromagnetic field that surrounds and permeates the physical body. Composed of various layers, each corresponding to different aspects of our being, the aura is thought to reflect our emotions, thoughts, and overall state of well-being. This invisible force is dynamic, responding to internal and external stimuli.

2. Vibrational Frequencies and Colors:

Energy within the aura is often described in terms of vibrational frequencies and colors. Each color is associated with specific emotions, qualities, or states of consciousness. For instance, a vibrant blue may signify clarity and communication, while a warm, golden hue may represent spiritual awakening. Observing these colors can offer insights into our mental and emotional states.

3. Energetic Imprints and Emotional Residue:

The aura is believed to act as a repository of our experiences, emotions, and thoughts. Negative experiences or unprocessed emotions can leave energetic imprints, creating a residue that lingers in the aura. Awareness and intentional energy work can help cleanse and release these imprints, promoting emotional and spiritual well-being.

4. The Law of Attraction and the Aura:

According to the theory behind the law of attraction, like attracts like. In the realm of the aura, this principle takes on a tangible form. The energies we emit through our thoughts and emotions are believed to resonate with similar energies in the universe, influencing the circumstances and people that manifest in our lives.

5. Intuition and Energetic Sensitivity:

A vibrant and balanced aura is thought to enhance our intuitive abilities and energetic sensitivity. As we become more attuned to the subtle energies around us, we gain insights into the intentions and emotions of others. This heightened awareness can guide us in making informed decisions and navigating interpersonal dynamics.

6. Energetic Healing and Self-Care:

Understanding the power of the aura opens the door to various energy healing practices. Reiki, meditation, and crystal healing are among the modalities that aim to balance and cleanse the aura. Engaging in regular self-care practices contributes to the maintenance of a healthy and vibrant energy field.

7. Manifesting Positive Change:

By actively working on our aura and cultivating positive energies, we have the potential to influence the course of our lives. Manifesting positive change becomes a conscious process, aligning our energies with our aspirations and creating a harmonious flow between our inner and outer worlds.

8. Daily Practices for Aura Maintenance:

Incorporating daily practices such as meditation, visualization, and mindfulness can contribute to the well-being of your aura. Surrounding yourself with positive environments, engaging in activities that bring joy, and expressing gratitude are simple yet powerful ways to maintain a radiant energy field.

Conclusion:

In the symphony of existence, the human aura emerges as a silent conductor, orchestrating the energies that shape our reality. By delving into the realms of our energetic essence, we unlock the potential for self-discovery, healing, and the conscious creation of a reality that resonates with the highest vibrations of our being. Embrace the power of your aura, and witness the transformative impact it can have on the tapestry of your life.

1. Maharashtra

Maharashtra continued to be India's leading destination for FDI in FY'25, recording inflows worth $16,651 million during FY 2025 till December 2024.⁴ The state accounts for 31% of India's total FDI equity inflows. A consistent performer, Maharashtra's robust industrial infrastructure, investor-friendly policies and business-friendly environment make the state a frontrunner in the FDI league. It boasts dedicated sectoral facilities and availability of the highest employable workforce (70%).⁵ Championing the Make in India initiative, the state has a strong presence of global investors in sectors such as automobiles, defence manufacturing, textiles, IT-BPM and food processing.⁶

Learn more about investment opportunities in Maharashtra here.
 

2. Karnataka

Karnataka, a thriving technology and startup ecosystem, attracted $4,496 million in FDI equity inflows during FY 2025 till December 2024.⁷ Accounting for 20% of India's FDI quity inflow, the state has robust economic fundamentals, driven by strong economic growth, increased consumer demand, better governance and a business-friendly environment.⁸ Karnataka's growing appeal in sectors such as IT, services and telecom reinforces the state's position as a global investment hub. The state received FDI equity inflow from Mauritius with a 25% share, Singapore at 24% and the US at 10%.⁹

Learn more about investment opportunities in Karnataka here.
 

3. Gujarat

Gujarat, India's third highest FDI recipient, clocked an FDI equity inflow of $5,566 million during FY 2025 till December 2024.¹⁰ Gujarat presents every possible mechanism that facilitates investments and businesses, ranging from state-of-the-art industrial infrastructure to business-friendly government policies.¹¹ It accounts for ~31% of India's total merchandise exports in FY 2023-24. Textiles and apparel, ESDM, food processing, ports and shipping and IT-BPM are the key sectors driving investments in the state.¹² As India accelerates its trajectory towards becoming a global manufacturing and innovation hub, Gujarat is leading the charge, turning investment into impact and potential into performance.

Learn more about investment opportunities in Gujarat here.
 

4. Delhi

The National Capital Region, encompassing Delhi, continued to be a favourable destination for foreign investors with $4,453 million in FDI equity inflows during FY 2025 till December 2024.¹³ This inflow is not incidental but a result of a strategic blend of location, policy, infrastructure and innovation. Sectors such as manufacturing, IT-BPM, tourism and healthcare are the frontrunners in attracting investor interest.¹⁴ As India continues to draw the world's attention as a key investment destination, Delhi remains at the forefront, bridging global ambition with Indian opportunity.

Learn more about investment opportunities in Delhi here.
 

5. Tamil Nadu

As the fifth largest recipient, Tamil Nadu demonstrated a positive trend in attracting FDI. The state attracted $2,903 million in FDI equity inflows till December 2024.¹⁵ Among the major states, Tamil Nadu consistently ranks among the top three in the Credit-Deposit Ratio (CDR), reflecting its high economic activity. The state is also well-positioned to tackle climate challenges through its 2023-2030 action plan, which focuses on emissions reduction, sustainable agriculture and water management.¹⁶ The reasons mentioned above and Tamil Nadu's blend of economic resilience, progressive governance and sustainability-driven initiatives, place it at the forefront of India's FDI landscape. As global investors seek stability, innovation and long-term value, the state continues to stand out as a hub that offers all and more.

1. Rapid economic growth

Several reports indicate that India’s economic growth and stability are poised to continue well into the future. With sectors such as manufacturing, construction and services expanding rapidly.
 

2. Private consumption growth

The growing middle class in India has been one of the key factors driving a considerable increase in private consumption, creating unprecedented economic opportunities. This surge in private consumption is transforming India’s economic landscape and establishing a broad consumer base for a wide range of goods and services.
 

3. Demographic dividend

India presents several demographic and market advantages that make it an attractive investment destination. One key advantage is its youthful population. As of 2024, nearly 65% of the country’s population is between the ages of 15 and 64, positioning India uniquely to leverage its substantial working-age demographic.⁶ With a median age of 28.4 years, India’s young population is expected to reach its highest proportion of the total population by 2036, making it increasingly appealing to global investors seeking expansion opportunities.⁷
 

4. Supportive government initiatives

The Government of India has implemented several initiatives and reforms to streamline processes, reduce regulatory hurdles and create an appealing ecosystem for foreign investments. Notable among these are:

1. Make in India
   Launched in 2014, the Make in India⁸ programme intends to establish India as a worldwide manufacturing hub by providing simplified regulations, including tax reductions and subsidies, for establishing manufacturing plants for domestic and international manufacturers. It focuses on essential manufacturing sub-sectors such as defence, automobiles, biotechnology and electronics. The scheme has been instrumental in catalysing domestic production and technological innovation.

2. Digital India
   The Digital India programme, launched in 2015, aims to build a digitally enabled economy by improving the internet infrastructure and connectivity across the nation.⁹ It promotes digital literacy, leading to a more tech-savvy workforce and customer base. India’s digital economy contributed 11.74% to the country’s GDP in 2022-23, amounting to $402 billion. The initiative remains crucial to India’s vision of building a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

3. Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme
   PLI scheme was announced in 2020 to make domestic manufacturing globally competitive and to create domestic leaders in manufacturing. The scheme provides incentives — in 14 key sectors like electronics medical devices, pharma drugs, telecom, food products, automobiles and auto components, advance chemistry cell, textile etc. — to companies for increasing their manufacturing capabilities by spending on plant, machinery, equipment and associated utilities, R&D and transfer of technology. As of July 30, last year, 755 applications have been approved across these sectors, leading to an investment realisation of ₹1.23 lakh crore by March 2024.
    

5. Expanding industries

From cutting-edge technology to life-saving drugs and aerospace, India’s industrial ecosystem offers appealing opportunities for multinational companies looking to expand their operations. The services sector, manufacturing, automobiles and construction are traditionally the key sectors driving foreign direct investment in India. However, the IT & ITeS, electric mobility, FinTech, renewable energy and MedTech sectors are rewriting the new chapters in India’s growth story by propelling innovation and attracting investments.
 

6. Geographic location

Situated in the heart of Asia, India provides a gateway to a 3.2 billion consumer market, connecting supply chains across South Asia, Middle East and Africa. India is ideally positioned for investors seeking not only a large consumer base but also new supply chain routes and sourcing hubs.
 

7. Infrastructural advantages

India’s well-developed port, railway and road infrastructure offers distinct advantages to global investors seeking ready infrastructure. The nation has the world’s second-largest road network, fourth-largest rail network, third-largest domestic aviation market and a 7,500-kilometre coastline with 12 main and 200 non-major ports.¹⁰ Besides civic infrastructure, India’s ready industrial infrastructure, including 280 operational Special Economic Zones (SEZs)¹¹, is a big draw among investors. The PM Gati Shakti, Sagarmala Programme, Bharatmala Pariyojana, National Infrastructure Pipeline, Regional Connectivity Scheme (Udan) and India Industrial Land Bank are some of the key initiatives transforming India’s logistics and infrastructure.
 

8. Technological advancements

India’s rapid digital transformation has also revolutionised business operations. With over 900 million¹² internet users, India is the world’s second-largest online market. Growth in related sectors such as gaming, media and entertainment, e-commerce, fintech, education, MedTech and others are testament to the untapped potential of India’s digital economy. Moreover, the rising adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is marking a digital payment revolution, asserting the nation’s adoption of technological advancements and its advantages for increased market access.
 

9. Export incentives

India also offers several export promotion schemes to encourage international trade and exports. The Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP), implemented in January 2021, attempts to repay taxes and tariffs incurred by exporters.¹³ Meanwhile, the Trade Infrastructure for Export (TIES)¹⁴ and the Market Access Initiatives (MAI)¹⁵ aim to boost exports and strengthen trade infrastructure. Promoting manufacturing in India, the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG)¹⁶ Scheme facilitates the import of capital goods to produce quality goods and services.
 

10. FDI Reforms

The government has implemented an investor-friendly FDI policy—allowing most sectors, except certain strategically important ones—to be open to 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under the automatic route. FDI policy provisions have been progressively liberalised and simplified across various sectors such as pension, other financial services, asset reconstruction companies, broadcasting, pharmaceuticals, single brand retail trading, construction and development, power exchanges, e-commerce activities, coal mining, contract manufacturing, digital media and civil aviation. Recent reforms in the FDI policy have been undertaken in sectors, such as defence, insurance, petroleum and natural gas, telecom and space.

Airbus

Airbus is deepening its presence in India through a broad-based expansion spanning manufacturing, engineering, training, and supply chain development, in alignment with the government's 'Make in India' initiative.² This expansion plan is fueled by rising demand for aircraft, components, and servicing in India's civil aviation and defence sectors. In the civil sector, Airbus plans to source nearly $2 billion worth of components and services from India by 2030 to support the country's domestic aviation ecosystem.³ On the defence front, Airbus is actively advancing key programmes in collaboration with homegrown companies. For instance, Airbus recently joined forces with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) to produce the C295 military transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force.⁴
 

Microsoft

The company has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to investing in India, including a $3 billion investment over the next two years, primarily focused on expanding its cloud and AI infrastructure.⁵ As more businesses and government departments move to the cloud, India's data centre capacity is set to surpass 4,500 MW by 2030.⁶ To support the growing demand, Microsoft is building new data centres in India and aligning its goals just in time to leverage the country's digital push.
 

Apple

Apple Inc. has significantly increased its iPhone production in India, registering over $22 billion worth of assembling in April 2025 alone, marking a 60% rise compared to the previous year.⁷ This shift aims to diversify manufacturing operations, taking into account the current global market's instability. Manufacturing in India is helping Apple stabilise its operations and effectively meet its ever-growing business demands. India has become a fertile ground for mobile manufacturing, with over 300 manufacturing units,⁸ capable of manufacturing mobile phones, including iPhones!
 

Foxconn

Following in Apple's footsteps, Foxconn, a major electronics manufacturer, is expanding its operations in India. The company is constructing three new manufacturing plants in southern India, including facilities near Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Foxconn has also received clearance to build India's first semiconductor manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with HCL.¹⁰
 

Amazon

Amazon has invested nearly $11 billion in its India businesses over the last decade.¹¹ It is also one of the largest employers in India and is directly responsible for hiring over 100,000 people.¹²

Recently, Amazon's cloud division announced additional investments of $8.2 billion in Maharashtra in the next few years.¹³ This FDI (foreign direct investment) in India is driven by the demand for local data storage due to the rise of AI-driven technologies. Recently the company also announced to invest $233 million in 2025 to enhance Amazon India's operations infrastructure, improve associate safety and well-being programmes, and develop new tools and technology for its fulfilment network.¹⁴
 

Samsung

Samsung is among the leading multinational companies in India, working with utmost dedication to expand its manufacturing presence in the country's electronics industry. It has established two of the world's largest mobile manufacturing plants in India, one in Noida and the other in Chennai.¹⁵ According to reports, Samsung is seeking to enhance its manufacturing capabilities in India further and diversify away from Vietnam, which is facing increasing tariffs from the US.
 

NTT Data

NTT Data, a global cloud service provider, is one of the most prominent multinational companies in India in the tech sector., a next-generation All-Photonics Network (APN) technology that has been used to interconnect data centres in the Mumbai region, facilitating higher performance data transmission at lower costs. This will likely support India's AI mission, which aims to develop indigenous foundational models trained on local Indian data.¹⁶
 

Vinfast

VinFast LLC is a Vietnamese automotive manufacturer that is rapidly expanding its operations in India. The company has invested over $2 billion in recent years to establish an EV manufacturing plant in Thoothukudi,Tamil Nadu.¹⁷ It is also considering further expansion with additional plants in Andhra Pradesh, aiming to produce electric cars locally for the Indian market. As part of its strategy, in addition to manufacturing electric cars locally, the company will concentrate its sales efforts on tier 2 and tier 3 cities, where the demand for affordable EVs is increasing. Operations in India are expected to commence by late 2025.
 

Nissan/Renault

Nissan and Renault are among the top global companies investing in India. They plan to expand their operations by FY27 with a planned investment of over ₹5,300 crores.¹⁸ This investment is being utilised to devise a bold product development strategy that will introduce new automobiles for the Indian market and enhance their manufacturing capabilities in the country. The company's focus will remain on increasing its exports from India and expanding its presence in the local Indian automobile market.
 

Nestlé

Nestle has been a significant investor in the Indian market for decades. Nestlé is among the top companies expanding in India to meet local and international demand for food products. The Swiss company has allocated ₹4,200 crore to establish a new manufacturing plant in Odisha, aiming to strengthen its supply chain, by this year. Additionally, Nestle SA recently bought a stake in Drools, a pet food firm, turning it into India's latest unicorn.¹⁹
 

Defence personnel selected for the awards will be seated at the Red Fort rampart, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver his address to the nation. The PM’s address to the nation is expected to highlight the success of Operation Sindoor and the contributions of defence personnel.

The celebrations will commemorate “the continuing rise of a prosperous, secure and bold ‘Naya Bharat’”, the theme of this year’s festivities, “as the nation is making giant strides towards realising the government’s vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047”, the MoD stated, adding the celebration will “provide renewed power to surge further ahead on the path to progress”..

The Indian Air Force will stage a special flypast over the Red Fort, with three helicopters flying in formation carrying the National Flag as well as the Operation Sindoor flag. As in previous years, the aircraft will shower flower petals over the public.

Invitations to the event also feature Operation Sindoor on the top right corner, with a sketch of the Chenab railway bridge in the middle replacing the image of the Central Vista previously embossed on the cards. Recently inaugurated by Mr. Modi, the bridge connects the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country by rail for the first time.

Happy 79th Independence Day!

As we celebrate this significant day, let's take a moment to reflect on the values of freedom, unity, and progress that our nation was built upon. The spirit of Independence Day is a powerful reminder of the strength we find in coming together, working towards a common goal, and building a brighter future.

Here at Ashoka, we see this spirit reflected in our own teams every day. Your dedication, hard work, and collaborative spirit are what drive our collective success and make our organization a place of growth and innovation.

May this day bring you and your families joy and a renewed sense of purpose. We are incredibly proud of all that we've accomplished together.

Wishing you a wonderful and memorable Independence Day!

Warmly,

Team QAG

One of Hinduism’s most revered personalities, Ganesha is widely recognized for having the head of an elephant and is the son of Shiva (the God of Transformation) and his wife Parvati. 

Every year, his birth is celebrated with a 10-day festival, during which four main rituals, namely Prana Pratishta, Shodashopachara, Uttarpuja, and Ganpati Visarjan are performed. 

Festivities begin as Ganesha deities, generally made of clay and decorated with flowers and lights, are set up in private homes and/or temporary public stages called pandals. Priests then conduct Prana Pratishta, a ceremony in which mantras are recited, invoking Ganesha’s presence into the clay deity, after which he is offered formal prayers in a 16-step worship called Shodashopachara. 

During each day of the celebration, prasad, or food blessed by the deity, is distributed throughout the community. Followers also meditate on the many aspects of his form, which symbolize deeper spiritual truths, while many choose to observe fasts. 

On the last day of the festival, Uttarpuja is performed, a ritual bidding Ganesha farewell. After, he is carried in a public procession with kirtan (devotional music) to a nearby body of water in which he is immersed. This custom is Ganpati Visarjan, and it symbolizes his return to Mount Kailash, a peak in the Himalayas where Shiva and Parvati are said to reside.

Though no one really knows exactly how far back in history Ganesha Chaturthi has been observed, some historians believe the festival became a major public event in the 1600s when Indian king, Shivaji Bhosale I, first sponsored the celebration. 

The festival is said to have been revitalized later in the 19th century as a symbol of India’s independence movement, by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 

In 1892, the cities of Pune and Mumbai became packed with devotees, despite the fact that such large gatherings were not allowed by the British. The 10-day festival was celebrated with a patriotic gusto fueled by a united deep devotion and love for Ganesha. 

To this day, Hindu festivals continue to be celebrated with similar pomp and fervor, signifying the everlasting power such devotion can generate.

The Beauty of the Matoli  

Matoli happens to be the most eye-catching thing about Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa. It is a ceremonial canopy built above the idol of Lord Ganesha with seasonal fruits and vegetables, coconuts, wildflowers, medicinal herbs, and forest products. They all have philosophical meanings, and acquisition is typically a family matter that is completed in days. To enter the Goan home during Goan Ganesh Chaturthi is like to enter a nature’s wonderland as the matoli serves as a rainbow-colored ceiling of abundance, mixing art with worship. In contrast to plastic decorations found elsewhere, this is a living art form specific to Goa that is learned through generations. Goa has never believed in throwing things away. Sustainable environment-friendly clay idols created by local craftspeople are the preferred option for most families. These idols are simple yet elegant, embodying religious simplicity that off-the-shelf idols typically cannot offer. Supporting these craftsmen is also the way of supporting Goa's cultural economy. Every idol possesses its own unique personality, treated with dignity and love. 

A Festival of Flavors 

No Indian festival is complete without food, and even this is no exception with some of Goa's most scrumptious festive fare. Patoli, a steamed rice rolls stuffed with coconut and jaggery, wrapped in turmeric leaves, which impart a unique aroma. Modak which happens to be Lord Ganesha's favourite the traditional sweet dumpling. Neureos a deep-fried pastries filled with nuts coconut and jaggery giving it a marvellous taste. Aluchi Patal Bhaji, often prepared as part of the festive meal, a tangy flavoured curry made from Colocasia leaves. Families exchange these sweets with neighbors, strengthening bonds within the community. For food lovers, this is one of the best times to explore Goa’s culinary traditions beyond seafood and beach shacks. 

Celebration with Bhajans, Aartis, and Togetherness 

If you want to feel a different aura of Goa, step into a Goan village during Goan Ganesh Chaturthi. Instead of loudspeakers and huge crowds, nights are filled with softness of bhajans and aartis. Neighbors and family gather to sing devotional songs, light oil lamps, and exchange prasad. There is laughter, gossiping, and that feeling of community that is both celebratory and peaceful. Temples and community halls also organize cultural events—dance, music, and folk plays—that help retain Goa's traditional arts. Visitors are received warmly, so it becomes an opportunity to really experience the local culture. 

Why Go to Goa During The festival? 

Most visitors consider Goa a summer or winter destination, but Goa in monsoon is magical—and that magic gets enriched with this celebration. You get to see Cascading waterfalls, a dazzling green paddy field, and misty hills providing a postcard-perfect setting. Instead of tourist-populated beach parties, you get to experience local customs firsthand. Traditional Goan sweets and seasonal foods that won't be available in restaurants. The Spiritual Vibe of the festival is more embracing, and less commercialized is something that make it worth visiting for all those who want to discover Goa beyond beaches, Ganesh Chaturthi is the best time to visit. 

Staying in Goa during The festival 

To fully experience The festival, stay in a private luxury villa in Goa. Villas are more private than hotels, provide comfort, and the feeling of being at home—facilitating easier balancing of cultural experience and relaxation. Spend your day discovering village festivals, indulging in festive pastries, and gazing at matolis. And then come back to your villa in the evening, where you can relax by the pool, drink a hot cup of chai as rain showers down, and immerse yourself in peacefulness. It's the perfect way to blend Goa's lively traditions with contemporary comfort. 

Travel Tips for Enjoying The festive Season in Goa 

Since the festival dates follow the Hindu calendar, so check before booking your trip. One should not leave without tasting patoli and neureos made in Goan homes, it tastes heavenly. Try to buy eco-friendly clay idols or souvenirs from local markets to support small artists and help in preserving the culture. Villages like Ponda, Quepem, and Bicholim, where celebrations are especially vibrant are the must visited place if one happens to be in Goa During the festival. 

The festival: Goa’s Best-Kept Secret 

Ganesh Chaturthi can perhaps be one of India's best-known festivals, but in Goa is a best-kept secret. It's a festival where tradition merges with nature, family ties are the focal point, and spirituality becomes an integral part of life. For tourists, this is not another festival—it's an opportunity to discover Goa in a different way. Away from beaches and nightlife is a Goa that is green, spiritual, and traditional. So, next time you plan to visit Goa, make sure this experience is in itinerary. Experience this festival in the way Goans do it, and take back memories of a side of Goa few ever get to witness. 

1. Nepal

In Nepal, Ganesh Chaturthi is also known locally as Vinayaka Chaturthi. It is celebrated in temples such as Maru Ganesh and Surya Vinayak. 

Families conduct pujas at home, share festive meals, and participate in temple ceremonies. Since Hinduism is widely practised in Nepal, the traditions are quite similar to those seen in India.

2. Indonesia

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in a very special way in Bali, Indonesia, also. lord Ganesha is an integral part of the island’s Hindu traditions.

Many temples of Indonesia host special prayers during Ganesh Chaturthi, blending ancient Balinese customs with Indian rituals. 

Archaeological findings, including old statues and carvings, reflect the long history of Ganesha worship in the region.

3. Thailand

Other countries other than India are Thailand, where Ganesha is venerated as Phra Phikanet, which is believed to bless devotees with success in the arts, business, and personal life. 

On Ganesh Chaturthi, temples such as Wat Phra Sri Umadevi hold elaborate festivals where devotees gather to seek his blessings with music, prayers, and offerings.

4. Japan

Another Southeast Asian country is Japan, where the honours of Lord Ganesha are paid in the form of Kangiten, a deity revered in both Buddhist and Hindu traditions. 

The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi is very unique to Japan; there are many devotees, and for them, daikon radishes are a symbol of purity and good fortune. 

The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi was also celebrated in Matsuchiyama Shoden in Tokyo and Hozanji in Nara, ar celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated in these temples of Japan.

5. Cambodia

The worship of Ganesha in Cambodia can be traced back to the Khmer Empire, where carvings of the deity still adorn temples like Angkor Wat.

Even today, Cambodian Hindus mark Ganesh Chaturthi with prayers and offerings, keeping alive a tradition that has lasted for centuries.

6. Malaysia

In Malaysia, the Hindu community celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi with great enthusiasm. Temples such as Sri Sithi Vinayagar in Kuala Lumpur host multi-day events featuring community prayers, cultural programs, and festive meals. Here, Ganesha is especially worshipped as the god of new beginnings.

Conclusion

Ganesh Chaturthi is devoted to all religions and celebrated across India, but the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi is not limited to India, but also crosses India's geographical borders and reaches many NorthEast Asian countries like Nepal, Japan, Cambodia and other countries.Each countries have its own and unique cultural significance for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi, but their wisdom toward devotion of Lord Ganesh is the same for all.

Again, this much is obvious — but the impact to performance is certainly worth a quick mention. 

According to Gallup, strength-based training and learning — a key tenet of continuous learning — can lead up to an 18% increase in employee performance. In focusing individual learners on their unique strengths and abilities, you’ll help facilitate growth in the areas that will have the highest possible impact on performance.

(And, of course, it won’t hurt for them to constantly be seeking out ways to improve on their weaknesses, either.)

2. Continuous Learning Makes Employees Adaptable

To be continuously learning is to be continuously adapting to new knowledge and information as it becomes available.

In short, adaptability is baked into continuous learning.

By adopting an “always learning” mentality, your employees will always be:

• Building on their current skill set and learning new things

• Working to overcome challenges and find new solutions

• Ready to change direction or tweak a process when necessary

Especially in fast-paced industries, this is an invaluable skill for modern employees to possess (and to continue flexing over time).

3. Continuous Learning Leads to Career Advancement

The more talented, knowledgeable, and adaptable an employee becomes, the more marketable they’ll be.

Ideally, you’ll provide the opportunities these ever-evolving employees are looking for in terms of career advancement. That way, you’re not only giving them the training they need to advance, but also providing a clear path to growth along the way.

If you can make that happen, they’ll have every reason to want to grow with your company.

4. Continuous Learning Increases Job Satisfaction

Having copious, ongoing opportunities to learn and grow is essential to overall job satisfaction for top-performing employees.

It goes hand-in-hand with pretty much everything we’ve said thus far:

If employees can continuously learn and grow — both in their current position and in their career — and are consistently enabled to do their best work, it’ll go a long way toward keeping them satisfied with their job.The Impact of Continuous Learning on Business

As with the above, the overarching benefits continuous learning can have on your company are pretty obvious.

But the impact of being so open to ongoing learning is much further reaching that you might expect.

1. Continuous Learning Improves Employee and Team Productivity

As your employees continue honing their skills and learning more, they’ll become more productive both individually and as a team.

Individually, you’ll be fostering growth in all the right areas for each of your employees. This will lead to the development of a high-quality and well-rounded team of specialists whose talents complement and empower one another.

With the above in place, your teams can focus on improving collaboration and cohesion amongst themselves — through both formal and informal learning methods.

2. Continuous Learning Helps Teams Stay Aligned

Speaking of cohesion, a focus on continuous learning allows team members to stay aligned with each other.

Your ever-curious employees will always be up-to-date on team progress, changes to processes, and other important information. Similarly, you can be sure all team members follow best practices when working together or individually — and are always double-checking themselves at every step.

In a wider sense, continuous learning can lead employees to become more invested in helping the company achieve its larger goals. They’ll gain a better understanding of their role in the company — and can then channel this knowledge into focused action moving forward.

3. Continuous Learning Enhances Employee Engagement

Going along with the above, continuous learning all but ensures employees stay engaged — both with their teammates and with their work.

Effective social learning practices open unlimited doors for colleagues to share ideas, provide guidance, and simply learn from one another. 

As this open communication is practiced over time, engaging for the sake of teaching and learning will become the natural way of things for your team.

By definition, continuous learners are more engaged in their work than those who stagnate. Strengthening your employees’ drive to learn more and do more at every turn will inherently get them more engaged in their work — and create opportunities for them to dive even deeper as they grow stronger.

4. A Culture of Learning Improves Talent Acquisition and Retention

Companies that offer ongoing opportunities for learning and professional development are likely to attract high-value talent — and keep them around for good.

Regarding talent acquisition, Gallup recently found that 66% of workers ages 18-24 rank learning new skills as the third-most important perk when evaluating new job opportunities. Driven workers want to learn and do more — and will actively look to work with companies that will cater to these needs.

Providing ongoing professional development opportunities also helps you reduce employee attrition of your top talent over the years. As BetterBuys found, learning-focused teams see 34% higher retention rates — with 75% of employees saying they’re likely to stay for at least five years.

(We also need to mention how crucial it can be to attract and retain those who are always looking to learn and do more as opposed to those who are not.)

5. Continuous Learning Leads to Improved Customer Satisfaction

A team that’s always learning will always be doing more to satisfy their customers — both directly and indirectly.

For one, your customer-facing teams will continuously strive to know more about your audience, and always be looking for ways to better serve them. Staying on top of your customers’ needs, and of the dynamic landscape of your industry, will be a top concern for your team.

Internally, your teams will consistently be working to streamline processes and otherwise keep things running smoothly — which ultimately improves your ability to effectively serve your customers.

6. Continuous Learning Makes Teams More Competitive

As we said at the beginning, the team that’s always learning and growing more knowledgeable and competent will outperform those that aren’t at every turn.

At the very least, you’ll measure up to your industry’s standards across the board. Really, knowing standard best practices for your most important processes will be table stakes for the team that’s constantly learning and diving deeper into their niche.

It’s more likely that your team will go even further than the industry’s status quo — and instead strive to become the leader of the pack. And, because they’ll never be truly satisfied with knowing what they know, they’ll continue growing more knowledgeable even after you’ve reached the top of your industry.

No matter what kind of life you’ve built for yourself, there’s a blunting effect that happens in adulthood, where we feel that we’ve seen everything before and nothing is new. That, of course, isn’t true, and there’s an inner child in you somewhere just waiting to feel curious in the face of new experience once again.

Silly Fun

Roald Dahl, famous British children’s author, once said that “A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” This of course, is true. This is why you might find that running a family talent show for mother’s day could be a great way to enjoy some silly performances with your kids. Or, perhaps the silly fun could involve going to a large playframe area for adults (yes, they exist). 

Silly fun could also mean just spending some time drawing your own comic book, or making time for writing like you did as a kid. Kicking a ball around with your children in the garden is a great place to start, too. What matters is making fun the goal, not worrying about being productive, or cool, or serious, or anything of that nature. Kids are fantastic at knowing how to play for the sake of playing. There’s no ulterior motive. In adulthood, we lose that. So, perhaps some silly fun is the best place to start gathering it back again.

Crafts & Hobbies

Crafts and hobbies can take on all shapes and sizes, which is why it’s important to find something that helps you geek out a little and spend time enjoying yourself. For instance, if you enjoy model trains, you may wish to visit online the best manufacturer of model replica steam models, allowing you to craft a perfect circuit in your garden or home.

For others, it might just be that painting a wonderful landscape with a few water colours in the park gives them the chance to see nature from a new perspective. It could also be that you decide to head to an event that provides you with much in the way of childlike fun, such as visiting a classic car convention, or even a board game gathering. As children we have time for our hobbies, as adults, they tend to take a back seat. Take one activity, and allow it to provide you the love you used to appreciate!

Irreverent Humor

Irreverent humor is the best. Dad jokes, kid jokes, it’s all the same. In fact, if you’re looking for some great humor, check out our fake news page. When it comes to dealing with the heaviness of the world around us, it can be good to crack wise from time to time, and to laugh it off. This is a healthy means of being able to emotionally process even the toughest times, provided we remain sincere.

Learning to laugh, not just at others but also yourself, can make a huge difference in the long run. You may even find that after you do that, you tend to feel so much more clear-headed. So – if you find that you’ve been a little uptight recently, dedicate yourself to a little more humor in your life. Head to a comedy show or just pick up a joke book at random. If there’s one thing children know how to do – it’s laugh.

With this advice, we hope you can keep your inner child alive in the best possible way. It might take just a little time to get right, but over time, it will make a major difference to how you feel about yourself, how you relate to your family, and how well you’re able to chart adult life.

When I look back on my childhood, various images flash by in my mind: playing with my friends in the vast fields near Samanwaypalli; sitting down beside the small window of our Dangalpara house during the rainy days; waiting eagerly in certain afternoons for the fortnightly children’s magazine Anadamela to arrive; sitting on a madur with my father on the roof at night during those frequent power-cuts while he sang one song after another.

Regardless of the external circumstances, everything felt idyllic. The fact that our rented house in Samanwaypalli just had one small room where four of us had to live, sleep, and cook made no difference. Rather, what mattered was our landlord had three children of our age, and we could run around the house and play. My parents didn’t have much money, but I had access to the vast fields outside, and plenty of boys of my age from nearby houses. I was rich.

When we returned to our family house in Dangalpara, the size of our room didn’t change. It was still a very small room and my mother still had to cook inside that room. In spite of that, my best memories are from that house. Regardless of the size of the room, I could be immersed reading a story book sitting on the bed, or watch the rain from the tiny window.

Every child, untainted by the world, has in him to find joy in the smallest things: in the sunrays coming through the window in a winter afternoon, in the fierce breeze hitting his face during a train journey, in getting together with other children of the house when studies are suspended due to a power-cut, in playing with friends with a paper ball and a chappal as an improvised bat, in returning home together after a school day.

As an adult, in the middle of our hectic days, endless striving, worldly pursuits, we sometimes feel this unexplained yearning to return to those simple joys of life: sometimes our childhood calls us during a dream, sometimes during the dead of night when everything is silent, or sometimes when we are alone by a window during a rainy day. In such times, we vaguely remember something that we left behind – which we can fleetingly feel but cannot any more touch.

Where did we lose that version of ourselves who could find joy in everything, who didn’t have any worldly needs, who could be completely immersed in many activities?

For me, personally, it happened imperceptibly, stealthily. After my tenth standard, when I automatically chose to study science and sit for engineering entrances, I took the first step towards becoming an adult, becoming ordinary. My first worldly decision was not even a decision – it felt like a natural course of action; after all, every one of my friends, and everyone who was any good at studies chose that path – how could I be different?

For the first time in my life, I led a compromised life – I didn’t enjoy learning, and overall didn’t like the IIT experience. New needs were born: I desperately needed to reverse this mistake. The cycle of adult life had begun.

I studied for CAT and went to IIM-A but I didn’t learn from my mistake. After finishing my MBA, I wanted to become an investment banker. Why? Because it sounded good, and because most of my friends – particularly the toppers of the class –  all wanted to become one. It sounds hilarious now, but I even chose a niche for myself within the broader investment banking work: I wanted to be a bond-trader.

Again, I was miserable during my short investment banking career in Mumbai, and spent the year desperately trying to reverse this mistake. By sheer luck, I then got into a role that worked for me. I didn’t choose it – it just happened to come my way. For a while, I did well and I almost had my childlike excitement towards back – this time directed towards work.

But on the personal front, I kept on making mistakes of the similar nature. World tells you to marry and have kids, and I didn’t give it a second thought – those steps seemed like the most natural steps one takes after a few years into a job. Very soon, my world became small: like all modern men, it became limited to my family. I did the routine things like going out with my wife to shopping malls to buy grocery, and playing with my daughter after returning from office.

So this is the way the world gnaws at you. It comes at you stealthily: when myths devour you, they don’t advertise themselves as myths. They pose as the most natural courses of action. And within a few decades, the pure child changes into a contaminated adult, who wants to increase his bank balance, wants to get a better designation, wants to do better than his batchmates, wants to get his child admitted to the best school, wants to live at a fashionable address, wants to post foreign vacation photos on social media, and wants to buy an expensive car.

At the altar of those so-called ambitions, the true ambition of life – to enjoy every moment, to be immersed in every activity, and hence to realise one’s full potential – is lost. I have finally realized that people who develop those worldly ambitions actually sell themselves short – they are the ambitionless ones, because life offers us far greater prizes than those small dreams.

So what must one do to remain a child? Unfortunately, ‘remaining’ a child is not an option. The pure childhood, that everyone is endowed with, will inevitably be lost when one comes into contact with the adult world of needs and pursuits. The childhood that you cannot lose is the one that is on the other side of adulthood.

There are some people who could indeed return to a childhood on the other side of adulthood: for example, authors like Rabindranath or Sunil Gangopadhyay who wrote until the very last day of their lives rather than trying to earn more money, fame, or power. They resisted the worldly pursuits and continued to do what they loved to do. However, even people like them must have gone through a phase where worldly pursuits shackled them for a while, but they actively wanted to resist it, scrub it off, purify themselves, and return to their purer selves. A lot of Rabindaranath’s songs actually talk about this struggle of his.

Once you are aware of how myths can imprison you, and once you can strike at the root of it – worldly needs and ego – then they lose their power over you. They cannot stealthily sneak back upon you any more. Then there is a possibility of returning to a purer self, which is as joyful and pure as our first childhood, but possibly more permanent, to the extent anything in this world is permanent.

1. Dream engineering

Until the turn of the last century, psychologists often argued that dreaming was a meaningless experience best confined to the fringes of science. But the 21st century has witnessed a surge of scientific interest in our nocturnal adventures and produced a steady stream of articles exploring the psychology of dreaming.

Some of this work has explored how dreaming can help people process negative emotions and prepare them for challenging events in the real world. Another strand of research has explored the link between dreams and creativity, and has shown that our dreaming minds often come up with new and innovative solutions to pressing problems.

There’s also work that has looked at the social side of dreaming, with psychologists arguing that discussing a dream with others is an effective way of forming and maintaining caring relationships.

Other scientists have taken a different approach and developed techniques that allow them to communicate with people experiencing a lucid dream.

Finally, there’s dream engineering, wherein researchers use smells, sounds and suggestions to manipulate our dreaming minds.

For years, trying to convince scientists to take dreams seriously was a nightmare. Now the tide has turned and we’re starting to uncover the many ways in which dreaming makes a vital contribution to our waking lives.

2. A new type of stem cell

Before 2006, if researchers wanted to work with human embryonic stem cells, they had to work with human embryos. This was ethically charged territory – the embryos were leftovers from fertility treatments and were destroyed in the process.

Then Prof Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University devised a way to make embryonic stem cells without using embryos.

By adding a handful of genes into cultured skin cells and nurturing them with certain nutrients, adult cells could be reprogrammed to become ‘induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.’

‘Pluripotent’ means that these lab-made stem cells can turn – or ‘differentiate’ – into many other types of cells, including heart cells and neurons.

Now researchers can take cells from an adult animal, turn them into iPS cells and then turn them into the specialised cells of their choice. iPS cells are now routinely used to help test new drugs and therapies, but perhaps their most exciting use is in the field of regenerative medicine.

Imagine a patient with heart disease. Now imagine taking some of their skin cells and using iPS technology to create a pool of healthy heart cells.

The replacement tissue could then be transplanted into the patient’s heart to repair it, and because the cells are the patient’s own, there would be no danger of the tissue being rejected.

The same method could be applied to other conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and kidney failure, raising the prospect of cures for currently incurable diseases.

3. Global heating

Only by looking into the past can we get an inkling of the seriousness of today’s climate predicament.

The terrifying reality is that the global average temperature rise, which is now teetering on the edge of the 1.5°C dangerous climate breakdown guardrail, is occurring 50 times faster than when the world warmed after the Ice Age.

That was 56 million years ago, during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

The episode of rapid heating saw dead, oxygen-depleted oceans and sea levels 50m higher than they are now. And the global temperature today is ramping-up at least ten times faster than during the PETM.

We’re in the middle of a unique climate experiment, continually pumping out 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, and hoping that it’ll be fine. I can tell you now, it won’t be.

By Prof Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL; Author of Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant's Guide

4. Attribution analysis

In a nutshell, attribution analysis seeks to determine the extent to which global heating has influenced a particular extreme weather event, such as increasing its intensity or raising its likelihood.

It involves running two computer simulations. One assumes today’s artificially heated climate, the other assumes a pre-industrial climate with all the human influences removed.

Comparison reveals whether global heating had an effect and, if so, what it was. The first-ever attribution analysis determined that the 2003 European heatwave (which claimed 70,000 lives and saw temperatures breach the 37°C/98°F mark for the first time in the UK) was made twice as likely by global heating.

Attribution analysis sheds light on the growing impact global heating is having on our weather patterns, while also loudly undermining the climate deniers – a win all round.

5. mRNA vaccines

5. mRNA vaccines

The use of mRNA for various medical applications has been in development for decades. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that the impact of the technology was first felt, however.

mRNA vaccines allow for the development of vaccines far more quickly than was previously possible – two months for COVID-19 compared to the previous record of four years.

It’s estimated that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines saved nearly 20 million lives in their first year of use.

In the coming years, we’ll likely have a range of new mRNA vaccines for other viruses that change regularly, like the flu, as well as for viruses that haven’t responded well to previous vaccine technology, like HIV.

6. The Human Genome Project

In 1990, scientists began to sequence the human genome. It took until 2022 to produce a complete sequence.

This achievement has profoundly changed biomedical science, allowing for research and technology that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, like using CRISPR to modify genetic diseases.

We’re just starting to feel the impact of this achievement on medical practice. By knowing our genome, it’s possible to find changes in genes that are associated with, or even cause, various diseases.

This increases our understanding of those diseases, as well as our ability to diagnose and treat them.

The einstein problem asks whether there is a shape that can tile an infinitely large horizontal surface so that the pattern never repeats.

ogether they came up with computer-based and analytic proofs for a whole family of shapes, and their preprint study was greeted with international acclaim in March 2023 – even though the ‘hat’ occasionally needed to be flipped over to successfully tile the plane.

But no sooner had the preprint of their work been released, than David came up with the ‘spectre’ – a chiral aperiodic monotile, which didn’t need flipping.

Even more impressive, the ‘spectre’ was a member of a larger class of such tiles that allows the straight edges to be wavy.

Again, his colleagues proved the truth of his intuition. This was a beautiful achievement, led by an extraordinary mathematical hobbyist.

8. The cure for HIV

There was a time when HIV was a death sentence. Then anti-retroviral drugs came along and prospects improved. More and more people became able to live with the disease, but a cure still seemed like a distant dream.

Then in 2007, an HIV-positive man called Timothy Ray Brown received a bone marrow transplant for his leukaemia. Chemotherapy had failed and Brown was running out of options.

His doctor, Dr Gero Hütter, thought that the treatment might be able to cure his cancer, but he also realised that if he could find a donor who was genetically resistant to HIV, there was a chance that the same treatment might also cure his HIV.

Some people are naturally HIV-resistant. They carry a mutation in a gene called CCR5, which codes for a receptor protein that HIV uses to enter host cells.

After scouring the register, Hütter found a donor who not only matched Brown’s immune profile, but also carried two copies of the mutated gene.

The transplant went ahead and a few years later, researchers could find no trace of HIV in Brown’s body. Brown came off his anti-retroviral meds and went on to live the rest of his life HIV-free.

He was the first person to be cured of HIV.

Since then, at least six more people with cancer have been cured of HIV using bone marrow transplants.

The treatment, however, is brutal, with risks so great that it’s unlikely ever to become a routine procedure, but it has taught researchers a great deal about HIV and given hope to the world that a cure for HIV will, one day, be possible.

Brilliant minds had searched for decades for such shapes. Then in 2022, David Smith, a retired print technician and amateur maths enthusiast, began working with software and cardboard cut-outs at his home in Bridlington, Yorkshire.

Smith had worked for years on tiling patterns and had a strong intuition his shape, nicknamed the ‘hat’, would both tile the surface and never repeat.

He didn’t have the mathematical tools to prove his hunch, however, so he turned to the community of tiling enthusiasts and got help from Prof Craig Kaplan at the University of Waterloo, Canada; Prof Chaim Goodman-Strauss from the University of Arkansas; and software engineer Dr Joseph Myers from Cambridge.

9. Transformers and large language models

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in the news for more than a decade, largely because one key AI technology – neural networks – finally started to work at scale.

The new AI era was heralded by the advent of ‘deep learning’ around 2005, driven by cheap computer power and plentiful data for ‘training’ neural nets.

The field exploded and we began to see a host of impressive applications. AI hit the headlines.

And then, something unexpected happened. In 2017, a Google team published a scientific paper describing a new architecture for organising neural nets – the so-called ‘transformer architecture.’

The transformer architecture is a neural network architecture for token prediction: taking as input a sequence of tokens (words) and then predicting the next token (word) to appear.

They’re trained by feeding them ordinary human text, and given a ‘prompt’ (for example: ‘a summary of Winston Churchill’s life’). They’ll then try to predict the word most likely to appear next. They do this one word at a time, but the process can be repeated over and over.

It wasn’t obvious in 2017 that transformers would be so… transformative. To realise their full power, you had to be prepared to build them on an unprecedented scale, throw mind-boggling quantities of training data at them and train them with AI supercomputers running for months.

Google didn’t make that bet; it was a little-known organisation called OpenAI, supported by Microsoft. And it paid off, spectacularly.

The first real hint that we were entering a new era was the release of GPT-3 in June 2020. Those with access to OpenAI’s new program seemed genuinely startled by how capable it was.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Just as remarkable for AI researchers was its emergent capabilities: the ability to do things that it wasn’t designed to do.

Questions, like the famous Turing Test, which had been of strictly philosophical interest previously, suddenly became practical experimental questions.

The unprecedented success of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT took Silicon Valley by surprise and now the world’s richest companies are pivoting to try to embed this remarkable new technology everywhere, in the hope that they’ll find the killer application.

For all their success, LLMs aren’t the end of the road for AI; the dream of a helpful household robot that can clear your dinner table and load the dishwasher still seems frustratingly distant.

But the technology is astonishing nonetheless. We’re living at a remarkable time in technological history: our history will be divided into pre-GPT and post-GPT.

In the kind of PR masterpiece we’ve come to expect from NASA, they didn’t play down the difficulty of landing their Curiosity rover on Mars. Instead, they called it their “seven minutes of terror” and explained that in those 420 seconds, it had to go from a speed of close to 21,000km/h (13,000mph) to zero in order to land safely on the planet’s surface.

When they achieved that, the mission’s place in history was all but secured, especially since they had used an innovative ‘sky crane’ landing system, which guided the rover to a much more precise landing than any previous planetary mission.

Then came the science.

Curiosity looks back to capture an image of the Marker Band Valley, where it found signs of an ancient lake. - Photo credit: NASA/JPL

Since 2012, Curiosity has made ground-breaking discoveries on Mars that help paint a more detailed picture of the planet’s past environment, its previous habitability and even its present ability to support life.

It found chemicals and minerals in Gale Crater that indicated the past presence of liquid water, clearly a pre-requisite for life. It then found various organic molecules that serve as the building blocks for life and can be used as food by microbial organisms.

While they don’t prove that life existed on the planet, they at least show that the correct molecules were present.

But perhaps the rover’s most tantalising discovery has been the detection of a seasonal release of methane from beneath the planet’s surface. Every Martian summer, the gas has welled up from Gale Crater.

While water-rock interactions could be responsible, scientists can’t rule out biological activity. The next generation of Mars rovers, such as ESA’s Rosalind Franklin will carry subsurface drills to investigate further.

Put together, Curiosity's longevity and its extraordinary scientific results significantly enhance our understanding of Mars, paving the way for future human missions and the search for extraterrestrial life.

To seal its place in 21st-century culture, Curiosity also took a selfie.

By Dr Stuart Clark (Astronomer, science journalist and author; Author of The Search for Earth's Twin)

24. NASA's DART mission

This entry made one of the biggest impacts both figuratively and literally. On 26 September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos.

The collision destroyed the spacecraft completely and shifted the orbit of the asteroid – all on purpose. DART was a ground-breaking test of our ability to alter the orbit of a small asteroid, should we detect one on a collision course with Earth – and it succeeded spectacularly.

For the first time in history, humankind changed the trajectory of a celestial object and in so doing, proved a method for averting a natural disaster.

The asteroid in question was the smaller component of a double asteroid. The larger of the two is called Didymos. Originally discovered in 1996, Didymos is a chunk of rock with dimensions of roughly 851 x 848 x 620m (2,792 x 2,782 x 2,034ft).

Its companion, eventually named Dimorphos, was confirmed in 2003. With a dimension of just 177 x 174 x 116m (580 x 570 x 38ft), it was the perfect test subject for the mission.

Being locked into orbit around Didymos meant that the amount by which it had been moved would show up in a change of the time it took to circle the larger asteroid.

Before the impact, Dimorphos took just under 12 hours to orbit Didymos. After the impact, this time had decreased by just over half an hour, showcasing a viable method for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids from Earth.

DART's accomplishments extend beyond planetary defence, though.

The mission has provided critical data on asteroid composition and impact mechanics, not to mention celestial navigation by hitting a 100m-wide (328ft) target at speeds of kilometres per second while having travelled millions of kilometres from Earth. SC

25. SpaceX's reusable rockets

SpaceX's reusable rockets are bringing down the costs associated with launching people and tech into space. - Photo credit: Getty Images

For decades, the biggest roadblock to the exploration and utilisation of space has been the cost of launching objects and people into space.

The enormous Saturn V, used to transport astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s, achieved a cost of around $5,000 (about £3,950) per kilogram lofted into space, but since the 1990s, smaller disposable rockets have only managed to achieve costs of around $10,000 (approx £7,900) per kilogram.

SpaceX has blown that figure out of the water and is currently in the process of revolutionising spaceflight. The game changer was the introduction of the Falcon 9 reusable rocket in 2015.

With a first stage booster that could return to Earth and land upright, the cost of launching people, supplies and technology into space started to tumble.

The reusability enabled more frequent launches, again expanding the range of commercial and scientific opportunities that space could offer. For example, it has made SpaceX’s Starlink project viable. This endeavour aims to fly thousands of smaller satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide unbreakable global internet coverage.

With Falcon 9, the cost of reaching orbit is around $2,000 (£1,500) per kilogram. The giant Starship rocket that SpaceX is now test-flying is estimated to slash the cost to an extraordinary $200 (£158) per kilogram.

SpaceX’s achievements have reshaped the global aerospace industry and mark a pivotal step toward humankind permanently extending its presence throughout the Solar System. But such progress doesn’t come without a cost.

The ability to launch so much into space threatens to dramatically increase the amount of space debris, which imperils working satellites and interferes with astronomical observations of the night sky.

Hence the innovation that these rockets allow must be understood in relation to the 'environmental damage’ that it could bring to Earth’s orbits and the night sky in general.

First and foremost, pursuing happiness is a natural inclination that drives us to fulfill our individual needs and desires. It encourages us to explore our passions, nurture our relationships, and make choices that align with our values. When we prioritize our happiness, we’re more likely to experience a sense of purpose and contentment. So, when we are feeling happy and fulfilled, this will, in turn, positively impact others around us; it becomes contagious. When we are genuinely happy, it tends to rub off on others. Our positive energy and enthusiasm can inspire and uplift those in our social circles. By pursuing our own happiness, we can create a ripple effect that spreads joy and optimism to our family, friends, and even strangers. It’s a beautiful way to contribute to the well-being of others and create a happier and more harmonious world.

HAPPINESS NEEDS BALANCE

However, it’s essential to strike a balance between our pursuit of happiness and its potential impact on others. Sometimes, in our quest for personal happiness, we may inadvertently overlook the needs and feelings of those around us. It can be very easy to become selfish with your time, only looking to your needs and desires and not taking time to listen to others and their journey and struggles. The proliferation of smartphones and earbuds effectively prevents you from interacting with others. You may be feeding your soul, but you are not present to others and their needs. We have to actively look at others to connect and ‘see’ them; being present to others is a gift to them. Cultivating empathy and compassion is crucial, considering how our choices and actions may affect others. Being mindful of our interactions and finding ways to support and uplift others can enhance our happiness while creating a more inclusive and compassionate society.

ALIGNING OUR HAPPINESS WITH GLOBAL NEEDS

Another aspect to consider is how our pursuit of happiness interacts with the suffering of others on a global level. While it’s natural to focus on our own well-being, it’s equally important to acknowledge and address the hardships faced by others. This requires cultivating a sense of social responsibility, promoting sustainable practices, and making charitable initiatives. How can we align our pursuit of happiness with making a positive impact on a broader scale? Are we wasting resources that others less fortunate could put to better use? Do we live with surpluses when others have deficits? How do we balance our happiness with that of others?

HAPPINESS IS ALSO RELATIONSHIPS

The cons of the pursuit of happiness lie in its potential to foster a sense of individualism and self-centeredness. In our quest for personal fulfillment, we may inadvertently neglect the collective well-being of society. This can lead to a culture of materialism, where the pursuit of happiness is equated with the accumulation of wealth and possessions. However, true happiness often lies in experiences, relationships, and a sense of purpose rather than material wealth alone. How can we use our wealth, talents, and position to uplift others and provide resources for them to pursue their happiness? Remember that people don’t just need money to be happy; they need relationships; how much time do you spend nurturing and building relationships? When a sense of community is built with healthy relationships in that community, it thrives. When people’s genuine needs are not seen, it is difficult for them to pursue their happiness, and neighborhoods break down, as we see here in Washington, DC.

WE CAN’T ALWAYS BE HAPPY

It is also crucial to acknowledge that happiness is not a constant state. Life is full of ups and downs, and suffering is an inevitable part of the human experience. Pursuing happiness does not mean avoiding or ignoring the suffering of others but rather finding ways to alleviate it. By cultivating empathy, showing kindness, and supporting those in need, we can create a more compassionate world where everyone has an opportunity to pursue happiness.

Pursuing happiness is a deeply personal and essential aspect of our lives. It brings joy, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. However, considering their needs and well-being, we must strike a balance between our happiness and its impact on others. By cultivating empathy, compassion, and social responsibility, we can ensure that our pursuit of happiness is not just self-centered but also contributes to the happiness and well-being of others on a local and global scale.

This is a great way to reflect on all your best moments and random bits from the past year (travel, laughs, screenshots etc.) Create a short reel or TikTok highlighting your best moments and share with others if you wish.

2.Cleanse your social media

Review who you follow, who you ought to follow based on your goals and desired skills and even who follows you. Who do you want to carry with you into 2022 and whose thoughts, energy and commentary should be left behind in the past?

3. Digital detox

Even if just for a day or two, take a break from personal & work emails, social media and ideally the internet generally. Take the time to recognise other things you can do in a spare 10mins you normally would spend scrolling. For instance, get some fresh air or read instead.

4. Read an autobiography

Nothing like a good autobiography to give you some inspiration for the year to come…

5. Gratitude

Send a couple of texts to people who made you smile this year or people who particularly supported you through tough situations. Everyone loves to feel acknowledged and it is free.

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6. Relax and treat your body

Book a massage or buy some nice candles or massage oils. Enjoy several unlimited lie-ins, go on at least one long idle walk, run a bath etc.

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? 

There’s so much that can happen in one year and so often it all flies by in the blink of an eye. Take some time to think about a moment you felt really proud of yourself and how it impacted the rest of your year. There’s no wrong answers here. Big or small, it all counts.

2. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them? 

No one wants to dwell on the negative but reflecting on tough times can show you just how strong and resilient you are. Maybe make a list of a few things that were tough and how you dealt with them. What did you learn? And how will you handle tough moments in the new year?  (If this was a particularly tough year, you may want to check out 15 mindful tips for overcoming adversity.)

3. What moments brought you the most joy? 

Once you’ve reflected on the tough moments, move on and get into the joy! Think about the times you laughed, felt loved, or had a great day. What were the circumstances? Were you with loved ones? Who had your back? (Maybe it was you!) Whatever the details, take a few moments to bask in the glow of the good times. 

4. What did you learn about yourself this year? 

This isn’t always an easy question to answer, but whether it was a good, bad, or just okay year, you probably learned a lot about yourself. Maybe you discovered a new strength, a passion, or a habit that needs changing. Maybe you learned that you’re more resilient than you thought you were. Take some time to jot it all down.

5. Who made a positive impact on your life, and how did they help you? 

No (wo)man is an island and our people can really make tough times brighter. Take a moment to appreciate the people who supported and inspired you this past year. Maybe they were people you know personally, or maybe they were artists or public figures who inspired you. 

6. What are you most grateful for as the year ends? 

Gratitude shifts your focus to the good things, no matter how small they may seem. Take some time to think of what you were grateful for in the last year. It could be a relationship you have with someone, your pet, or even your local barista. Grateful is grateful!

7. How did you spend your time, and did it align with your priorities? 

As the year flies by we might miss how much of our time we spend working, socializing, playing, working on personal growth, etc… Looking at where your time went can help you decide what to focus on next year. Take a look back at your calendar or even your camera roll to facilitate this reflection if needed.

8. What habits served you well, and which ones didn’t? 

Did you quit biting your nails this past year? Or take up daily mindful walks? Reflecting on your routines can help you decide what to keep and what to change. Pro tip: Sometimes it helps to list out the good habits you picked up, and the not-so-god habits you want to kick. Remember it’s all about growth, not just achieving goals.

9. What are you proud of that you didn’t expect to achieve? 

We all have goals or dreams we’re working towards—and to do lists to get there—but so often life unfolds in pretty unexpected ways. Scan back through the past year for surprising events and accomplishments that you found yourself in, and how they made you feel. These could be big or small, it all counts. 

10. If you could sum up this year in one word, what would it be? 

Find a single word that captures the essence of your year. It may not be easy, but trying to zero in on the theme or overall feeling of the last 365 days allows you to see common threads that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Once you have your word, reflect on all the ways it showed up in your days and months.

The most effective way to stick to a new habit or goal is understanding the neuroscience behind forming new habits. 

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences. As a result, the brain is constantly evolving.

“These changes can involve the creation of new neural connections or the weakening of existing ones,” Beas said. “This adaptability is the foundation for how we acquire new skills, form memories and establish new habits.”

However, sticking to new habits is often where people fall short. Beas explains that the brain strengthens through consistent, intentional practice. When a behavior is repeated with intention, the neural pathways that support that habit grow stronger and more efficient over time.

“When you consistently engage in a thought or action, the neural connections supporting those behaviors become stronger,” Beas said. “Over time, this makes the action more automatic and efficient, requiring less conscious thought and effort.”

Breaking myths about the brain and habits

When goals or habits do not stick, people often blame or confuse the brain’s ability. However, Beas explains that this can lead many to form misconceptions about the brain and discourage them from trying to change.

One common misconception is that learning abilities peak in youth and decline in adulthood. But research shows that adults can continue to learn and form new habits just as someone of a young age.

Another common misconception is that a person’s environment has little impact on the brain and its actions.

“Our environment has a significant impact on our emotions and actions,” Beas said. “Elements within our surroundings, such as our home or workplace, act as ‘cues’ that have a tremendous influence on our behavior.”

An example Beas gives is a person who frequently works in bed. This causes the brain to begin associating the bed with work, leading to difficulties when it is time to sleep. This is a result of the brain’s being conditioned to link the bed with work. Beas advises to pay attention to the environment and the signals inadvertently being sent to the brain.

Some believe that achieving a goal requires radical changes. This, however, is not the case.

“Creating change and achieving goals is more manageable when approached incrementally,” Beas said. “If your goal is to lift 100 pounds, you wouldn’t start by attempting to lift that weight immediately.”

Instead, Beas suggests breaking down large goals and habits into smaller, more manageable ones.

Neuroscientist approved brain hacks to make resolutions stick

When creating new goals or habits, apply these “brain hacks” to rewire the brain and make new behaviors stick.

• Leverage environmental cues: Create your own “habit loop”:

  • Cue: Identify what triggers a behavior.

  • Routine: The behavior itself.

  • Reward: The positive outcome that reinforces it.

To create a habit, design this loop; to break one, disrupt a component of it.

• Link a new habit to an established one: Use an existing habit as a cue.

  • Example: Letting your pet out can cue a morning walk.

• Let your present self help your future self: Make the habit easier.

  • Example: Place your walking shoes by the door the night before.

• Be consistent and do not get discouraged: Setbacks are part of the process. When stressed or tired, the brain tends to revert to established habits and patterns.

• Connect new goals and habits with your core values: For example, if being a good parent is a core value, you might link not working from bed to better sleep, which makes you more pleasant to be around for your kids and family.

In this recent context, being an authentic person means knowing who you are and what you stand for and creating a space for yourself in the world where you feel happy and confident to be yourself at all times – a space where you can be unapologetically you, showing your personality and being the same at work as you are away from it.

Sounds easy huh? However many people have experienced situations where they feel unable to be themselves. You may, like Chandler, have felt you need to act a certain way around your boss and colleagues, telling people what you think they want to hear, so that you will be liked, accepted or promoted. You may have hidden aspects of yourself and developed survival mechanisms to get through the day, so instead of being yourself, you have played a role. It can be exhausting and in doing so you are living inauthentically. In order to be authentic you need to identify and live according to your values and be willing to live your life proudly, displaying your true colours, regardless of pressure you may be under to act otherwise. Being authentic isn’t easy. People may fear rejection, getting hurt or being ridiculed, so the fear of being judged and the need to fit in often prevents this. However, authenticity has many benefits for both employers and employees.  Benefits of being authentic

• Relationships
  People who are able to be their authentic self, tend to attract people to them. Honest, open, character traits generally make it easier for people to trust and build long term relationships with you and in return they will be more likely to be the same with you.

• Love what you do
  A passion for work is more likely to lead to success than doing work you don’t enjoy. Following your passions will enable you to do what you love, leaving you motivated and eager to achieve.

• Confidence
  If you are being authentic at work, it will enable you to be more productive, confident in your opinions, happy to share your ideas and unafraid to speak up.

• Happiness
  If you are happy in your work because you have good working relationships, you are confident in your role and you love what you do, you will feel safe and secure in your working environment. 

• Overall being authentic is much more fulfilling than trying to be the person you think other people will approve of or trying to please everyone. As the saying goes ‘You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.’

• Tips for being authentic 

  Think you would like to be more authentic at work? Below are some things to try out.

  • Identify your values and aim to live by them at all times.

  • Identify who you are and don’t try to be someone that you are not. If you feel there is a difference between who you are at work and who you are outside of it, consider what you can do to bridge the gap.

  • Communicate honestly, respect the feelings of others but don’t play games or use passive aggressive behaviour to get what you want and don’t make promises you cannot keep.

  • Develop self confidence – being authentic is not for the faint hearted. Developing a strong sense of yourself and being assertive, will give you the necessary tools to get you through challenging situations.

While being yourself at work often means focusing on your own forms of self-expression, it's also important to listen to others in order to build relationships. Listening to others also helps your coworkers express themselves authentically. In order to demonstrate to your coworker that you're listening to them, consider asking them questions or reacting nonverbally to their stories with an action such as nodding your head.

2. Follow up with conversations

After sharing personal information about yourself or listening to a coworker's stories, consider following up with the conversation later. For example, if you tell a coworker about a new band you've started listening to, consider messaging the coworker later to share a music video if they seemed interested in the band as well. This helps you establish a relationship and allows you to share your interests.

3. Start small

If you are a more private or reserved person, you may find it challenging to tell your coworkers about your life or act authentically around other professionals. In order to still be your authentic self, start by sharing small or basic details about your life. For example, you could mention if you have a partner in conversation, place family photos on your desk or share your pronouns on your name tag or email signature.

4. Share your experiences

When appropriate, consider sharing your experiences, both personally and professionally. This may help others relate to you or establish your expertise in a certain topic. When sharing your experiences, try to consider the timing of your story and whether it's helpful to share it at that moment.

5. Establish relationships

When sharing information about yourself, it's important to recognize the relationship you have with that person. It's natural to be closer to some colleagues than others, which may change which stories and experiences you share. For example, if you are meeting a colleague for the first time, it may not be appropriate to tell them personal aspects about your life. Instead, start by sharing something basic, as mentioned earlier.

6. Build trust

As you establish relationships, you may start to trust your colleagues with more personal information. In order for other professionals to reciprocate this trust, try to actively listen to their stories and build a relationship with them. Often, sharing your authentic personality with them can help them feel comfortable doing the same. This builds trust between you and your coworkers, which helps foster a more positive work environment.

7. Be honest

Being your authentic self often requires being honest with others. It's important to only share stories about yourself that are true and to share your honest, respectful opinion if a coworker asks for it. Being honest also may include setting boundaries with your coworkers. For example, if they ask you a question that you do not feel comfortable answering, explain that you're uncomfortable and politely decline to answer. Being honest and setting boundaries helps establish your true personality in your workplace.

8. Show appreciation

Show appreciation for others when they share their personality or help you with a task. This helps to establish a workplace culture that values individuality, honesty and positive reinforcement. Expressing your appreciation for your coworkers also may help them feel more comfortable around you, which allows you to establish a deeper relationship with them.

9. Develop emotional intelligence skills

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, regulate and express your emotions in a healthy and accurate manner. These skills help you act more authentically and allow you to discover more about your own identity. Emotional intelligence skills also help you develop professional relationships and manage your emotions while at work.

10. Look for opportunities for growth

Throughout your life, you're likely to experience changes in your mindset and personality. Being able to recognize and adapt to these changes not only helps you be your authentic self but also provides you with opportunities for growth. Embracing opportunities for growth, both personally and professionally, often allows you to form deeper relationships and maintain a healthier and happy work life.

11. Consider the context

While it's important to be yourself, there may be some situations where you can adjust your behavior to be both authentic and professional. Consider the context you are in before sharing personal stories, jokes or interests because, in some work situations, it may not be relevant to the current task. For example, if you and a coworker are working on a project together with a tight deadline, it may not be appropriate to spend your working hours sharing stories about your life. Instead, it may be beneficial to take breaks together to maintain a relationship while still being productive.

12. Invite coworkers to events outside of work

If you feel comfortable with your coworkers and have a well-established relationship with them, consider inviting colleagues to events outside of work. This may include getting dinner together or going to a social gathering. Spending time with your coworkers outside of work allows you to strengthen your relationship with them and also gives you an opportunity to act authentically outside of a professional setting.

13. Express yourself with your attire

One way you can be your authentic self at work is by dressing in clothing that allows you to display your personality. Refer to your company's dress code in order to choose an outfit that both expresses your personality and follows the workplace rules. Expressing yourself with your professional attire can help you display your personality without having to share personal stories with your coworkers and may act as a conversation starter in some cases.

Leaders have a big job to do in any organization: they need to shape, communicate, and contribute to the organizational vision. Naturally, emotional intelligence helps immensely in this role.

This is an activity that leaders can do to assess their own emotional intelligence, which is the first step towards improving it.This activity consists of 10 descriptions of vision-killing behaviors that a leader may engage in, and a scale upon which to rate your own engagement in each behavior from ‘very seldom’ to ‘very often.’

The vision-killing behaviors include:

1. Treating people badly⁠—such as not showing people they care, forgetting to say thank you, not respecting people, not making people feel valued;

2. Living by the adage “Do as I say, not as I do,” and not setting good examples;

3. Focusing on too many things at once;

4. Pushing too hard on the task and forgetting the people;

5. Not giving clear direction;

6. Giving inconsistent direction;

7. Not taking responsibility for failure;

8. Focusing on the detail and forgetting to tell the “whys” or the big picture;

9. Showing little or no personal commitment to the vision;

10. Allowing people who aren’t performing the job to remain. If you find yourself frequently engaging in these behaviors, that’s a good indication that your leader EQ is low. Pay close attention to the three behaviors you engage in the most often and commit to working on reducing or removing those behaviors entirely.

2. Temperament Analysis

Another good assessment activity is the temperament analysis. It was designed to help participants learn about temperament, understand their own temperament, and learn how to work with it.

To get started, keep in mind that our temperament is made up of tendencies and feelings that are influenced by four factors or parameters: Describe your temperament with three adjectives. Choose the ones that describe you best.

1. Suggest three adjectives that others use to describe your temperament.

2. Go through each of the adjectives identified in the above two questions and see if each one is because of (or how much each one is driven by) Genetic Inheritance, Physical Attributes, Life Experiences, or Environmental Conditions.

3. How does each of the temperamental factors affect you on a personal level?

4. How does each of the temperamental factors affect you on a leadership role level?

5. Which of these factors do you want to change and why?

Think about each of the questions in detail and try discussing with a friend to maximize the learning opportunity.

3. Be the Fog (Regulate Your Emotions)

It can be very difficult for many of us to accept criticism, especially if receiving criticism provokes strong emotions. This simple exercise will help you “be the fog” and learn how to regulate and modulate your emotions in a difficult situation. Here’s what to do:

“Act like a fog! Imagine you are a fog. When someone throws a stone at you, you absorb that stone without throwing the stone back. This is a very easy and effective technique to use against people who keep criticizing you repeatedly.”

Here are some student-centered activities and resources you can use in support of your classroom efforts:

• Institute morning meetings. Starting your day with a morning class meeting provides numerous opportunities to support social and emotional learning: It helps build a sense of community, creates a climate of trust, encourages respectful communication, and much, much more. You'll find information about morning meetings, as well as other strategies for fostering emotional intelligence, at the Web site Responsive Classroom. (See more information about this resource below.)

• Introduce journal writing. This familiar educational tool can be an effective way to help students develop self-awareness. For an introduction to several journal-based activities in support of social and emotional learning, read, "Emotional Intelligence Toolbox: Expression Journals," one of many useful articles in EQ Today.

• Emphasize responsibility. Formalize tasks in your classroom, such as maintaining chalkboards or whiteboards, bringing papers to the school office, or handing out playground equipment at recess. Such duties help encouraging a sense of responsibility among your students and provides everyone with the opportunity to contribute to daily classroom management.

• Encourage creativity. Joshua Freedman, director of programs for Six Seconds, a nonprofit organization supporting emotional intelligence in families, schools, corporations, and communities, suggests that creativity is most necessary in times of emotional hardship, such as when we're frustrated or angry. By providing your students with ongoing opportunities to express their creativity, you'll also be helping them handle the inevitable curve balls that life throws at them. You'll find a helpful article on ideas and activities for using creativity to foster emotional intelligence in the KidSource Online article "Encouraging Creativity in Early Childhood Classrooms

Three such tests had been conducted in the previous four years, but they had failed to provide a solution. This fourth attempt didn’t happen as scheduled. An unplanned 10-hour delay caused a completely unprepared operating shift to handle the job.

The reactor power had to be decreased as part of the test. This meant disabled the safety system. But the power unexpectedly dropped to near-zero during the process. The operators could partially restore the power, but this put the reactor in an unstable condition.

Since the safety system was off, the risk wasn’t evident. Moreover, the operating instructions didn’t cover this use case, so the operators proceeded with the planned test.

Upon completion of the test, when they triggered the reactor to shut down, a combination of unstable conditions and reactor design flaws caused an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. The rest, as they say, was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

On 28 March, seven years back and 7,600 km away, a group of nuclear power plant technicians accidentally got a bubble stuck in a sensor during a routine cleaning procedure. This stopped the coolant pumps from circulating water. There were auxiliary pumps to handle this situation, but they were closed for maintenance (in violation of the plant’s operating procedure).

Even though the reactor detected a problem and went into emergency shutdown mode, there was no water circulation and the heat in the system had nowhere to go. The pressure relief valve—whose job was to let out the excess pressure—suffered a mechanical failure and got stuck open, thereby permitting coolant water to escape from the system.

This wasn’t detected by the technicians because the control room indicator light showed if the valve closing mechanism was powered on or off, not if the valve itself was open or closed. The open valve slowly leaked water necessary to cool the reactor and there was no extra water coming in.

There was, however, one coolant temperature sensor that was spiking in the control room. But the crew’s training for abnormal incidents directed them to refer other sensors, not this one. This chain of events caused the reactor to overheat for 11 hours. This led to a partial meltdown of the reactor and subsequent radiation leak in the Three Mile Island of the US.

When we do postmortems of both big and small failures, we heavily suffer from hindsight bias. Informed by Chaos Theory, we assume that avoiding the “root cause” of the disaster—the technicians being unprepared, or bubble getting stuck in the sensor—could have avoided the meltdown. What if they hadn’t done that? What if they were more careful? This assumption is wrong.

In theory, yes, a buttery flapping its wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas, but it doesn’t mean that it will. There aren’t as many tornadoes as butterfly flaps in real life—this bit is clear. By that logic, any random event can set off a series of events that can lead to some other event. But this knowledge doesn’t help us in any way practically.

In real life, the human body, the environment, a society, an organisation, a business strategy, or a space shuttle, are examples of complex systems. Errors are normal in a complex system. They happen every day. Bubbles get stuck, coolant systems fail, technicians ignore procedures. But there’s enough redundancy and margin of error in place to make sure such errors don’t collapse the whole system.

Catastrophic failures happen only when enough of these small errors line up, leading to a compounding effect via a chain reaction. Catastrophic failures—whenever they occur—happen regardless of a “root cause”.

By that logic, the Challenger disaster didn’t happen simply because of the O-ring seals failure. The second wave of the Coronavirus didn’t take over India simply due to lack of adequate healthcare in the country. A marketing strategy doesn’t fail simply because you didn’t include animal photos.

These so called “root causes” are part of many reasons, and they are definitely not the main reason. If you look closely, there are 500 other things that were erroneous but didn’t contribute to the disaster. In a complex system—where there are multiple moving parts—there is no “root cause”. In other words, avoiding them wouldn’t have been enough to avoid the disaster. It might have been delayed, but not prevented.

Catastrophic failures are usually due to a combination of bad system design, human error, human-computer interaction flaws, poor training, miscommunication, bad process, and countless other major and minor contributing factors. There’s seldom one major factor which has a cascading effect.

The same is true for success as well. A company doesn’t become successful just because it has a great CEO. You don’t have a healthy relationship just because you are a nice person. You don’t win a competition just because you worked hard. There are multiple other factors—some of which are outside your control.

Therefore, the goal isn’t to make completely error-free systems. It’s impossible to make them completely free of error anway. It’s hubris to even attempt that—be it a personal fitness regime, or the product development process in a startup, or the service design of an airport. What you should thrive for is to make them error-proof. Systems that work regardless of errors.

A good system helps you stay healthy regardless of occasional drinking and partying. A good system helps you get more done regardless of procrastination. A good system helps you ship the MVP regardless of developmental hiccups.

Every day, between one and five of your cells in your body turn cancerous. But your immune system is efficient enough to capture and kill them. Think of that. A couple of dozen times a week, well over a thousand times a year, you get the most dreaded disease of our age, and each time your body self-corrects.

The body works regardless of errors. So should the systems we design.

Williams suggested that the FBI should assemble a comprehensive list of all flight schools around the country, and flag anyone attempting to obtain a visa to attend one of these schools.

The memo was labelled as “speculative and not very significant”—or in layman terms “just a hunch”—by FBI analysts, and remained largely ignored. Few weeks later two passenger planes crashed into two New York buildings.

It’s true that if the FBI would start treating every other hunch with equal urgency, they’ll spend bulk of their time chasing ghosts and dead ends. But dismissing Williams’ idea only on those grounds misses a fundamental point. Williams’ hunch might have been speculative, but it wasn’t completely random or reactive—such as a gut feeling. It was an idea that slowly took shape over time, a pattern detected after countless hours of observation and inquiry. It was a Slow Hunch.

Most great ideas come into the world half-baked—more hunch than revelation. Charles Darwin didn’t think of the idea of natural selection the moment he arrived at the Galapagos. In fact, his notebook talks more about the geology of the Galapagos than its zoology. Unlike Darwin the trained geologist who was consciously processing and interpreting the facts as he gathered them, it was simply a fact-recording mission for Darwin the amateur naturalist. It took him several months after the Beagle voyage ended to realise the actual importance of his notes.

Snap discoveries based on intuition—as dramatic as they sound—are rarities. All hunches that turn into important innovations unfold over much longer time frames. As Steven Johnson writes, “They start with a vague, hard-to-describe sense that there’s an interesting solution to a problem that hasn’t yet been proposed, and they linger in the shadows of the mind, sometimes for decades, assembling new connections and gaining strength.”

When Joseph Priestley decided to isolate a mint twig in a sealed glass—an experiment that ultimately proved that plants can create oxygen, he was building on a slow hunch that he’d been cultivating for twenty years, dating back to his boyhood obsession with trapping spiders in glass jars.

But he didn’t pursue his hunch doggedly. During those twenty years, Priestley dabbled in a dozen different fields and concocted hundreds of experiments in his home lab. A minuscule percentage of that time was devoted directly to the problem of plant respiration. He just kept his hunch alive in the back of his mind.

Because slow hunches need so much time to develop, they are easily lost and often replaced by more immediate needs, but at the same time the lazy incubation period is also their strength. Developing slow hunches is less a matter of perspiration than of cultivation.

Stories of aha moments and serendipitous breakthroughs often blur out the details of the slow hunches in service of narrative pleasure. Unlike eureka moments, slow hunches are hard to convey, but the irony is that Archimedes didn’t simply get into a bathtub and stumbled on the original eureka moment just like that. It was the culmination of years of effort, spent dabbling in multiple fields such as mathematics, physics, engineering, astronomy, and cultivating multiple slow hunches in the back of the mind.

True insights require you to think something that no one has thought before in quite the same way. True insights take time. True insights come from slow hunches. In the story of intellectual discovery, a slow hunch isn’t an exception, it’s the rule.

In a utopia you can set your own schedule, beat resistance, get into a state of flow, and get things done by following a set of ideas, principles, guidelines, and hacks. Unless you are delusional you are pretty sure this isn’t the case in the real world. Real world is very different from the one painted in productivity books.

Maybe the people with these grand ideas have the luxury of setting their own schedule. Their ideas may apply to a niche who have the same luxury, but us common folks don’t have much of a choice, do we?

No matter how logical these ideas sound on paper, they are absurd in real life. But not all hope is lost. While we cannot have the perfect solution, we can definitely have an optimal one. In the real world, that is good enough.

Unlike that in self-help books, schedules aren’t fixed in real world. In the real world, scopes aren’t defined, time estimates are never perfect, and everything is of utmost priority.

In such a chaotic, unorganised, and unstructured world, the only sensible strategy is the ability to pause, leave something midway, and switch to another task, i.e., multitask.

Experts scorn this vehemently, but despite its side-effects, multitasking gets a lot of things done.

Before delving into the benefits, let’s understand the side-effects. For starters, multitasking is not doing things simultaneously, but rapid switching of tasks. And none of this back and forth switching is real work. It’s metawork. And metawork doesn’t really advance the state of the actual work being done.

Secondly, real work requires a good amount of “context setting”— playing with an idea in your head before actually writing it down, or meditating on a problem before attempting to solve it. For me, it takes 30 minutes to get into the zone before I can get any actual writing done. For all of us, it takes some time to heat up a metal before it’s malleable.

If I’m interrupted after getting in the zone, I’ll need a good amount of time to rediscover the zone again. Constant “context switching” leads to a series of, “Now, where was I?” moments where we waste time trying to figure out what we were actually doing.

Reaching a state of flow is hard work, and subsequent context-switching makes it impossible to get any real work done. This not only leads to delays in work, but also errors. If I interrupt you few times an hour, you are not going to get any real work done.

Despite its side-effects, metawork is important. It’s a necessary evil. The question is, how do we tame this monster so that it doesn’t turn on us.

Time will always be lost in metawork, but we have to prevent it from reaching its nightmarish extreme when all the time is spent in doing metawork, and none spent in doing real work. This happens when you take on more work than you should and there’s (theoretically) infinite overhead.

If you’ve ever had a moment where you wanted to stop doing everything just to have the chance to write down everything you were supposed to be doing, but couldn’t spare the time, you recognise this state very well.

When merely remembering everything we need to be doing occupies our full attention, or prioritising every task consumes all the time we had to do them, or our train of thought is continually interrupted before those thoughts can translate to action—it feels like panic. This is when your system (literally) crashes.

A simple tactic to avert this fate is to master the art of saying no so that you don’t have more than necessary overhead. But it has its limitations. You cannot say no to everything, especially when it comes from your boss.

The other tactic is to act dumber instead of smarter. Choosing how to schedule your day or figuring out what to do next is overwhelming enough to crash your system. It’s also time consuming. Therefore simply do things at random.

Instead of answering the “most important” emails first—which requires an assessment of the whole picture that may take longer than the work itself—just answer the emails in random order, or in whatever order they appear in your inbox.

This isn’t the smartest way, but compared to your system crashing—where you’re making no progress whatsoever—doing tasks inefficiently in the wrong order is better than doing nothing at all.

Getting real work done involves a negotiation between two principles—responsiveness (how quickly you can respond to things) and productivity(how much you can get done overall)—that aren’t fully compatible. That’s why the whole issue is so complex! And that’s the reason people hire assistants so that they can be productive while their assistants remain responsive. But all of us cannot afford assistants.The best strategy for those of us who cannot afford assistants is to slow down to an optimum level.

Commit to a task for a minimum amount of time (productivity) before you even think about context-switching (responsiveness). This way you avoid getting overwhelmed. This is what pomodoro technique is based on—commit to something for a given amount of time before thinking about anything else. As mainstream as this may sound, it’s actually very effective.

But how much time should you allocate? Although it appears tricky—because the more productive you are, the less responsive you are—it has a straightforward answer. Decide how responsive you need to be—the minimum amount—and then, if you want to get things done, be no more responsive than that.

If you don’t require to respond to emails in less than twenty-four hours, limit yourself to checking your messages only once a day. Don’t pay your credit card bills as they arrive. Instead take care of them all in one go when the last bill comes. This is planned procrastination. Procrastinate as long as you should, but not more than that.

Software startups do fixathons. They tolerate buggy products in favour of moving fast. But once it gets beyond a certain limit that it starts to hurt growth, they conduct fixathons—hackathons to crush bugs.

The secret to graceful context switching is minimum responsiveness to get most productivity. Holding office hours is a way of coalescing interruptions from students. Weekly standups is another example. Whatever their drawbacks, regularly scheduled meetings are one of our best defences against spontaneous interruptions and unplanned context switching.

The question isn’t whether we can find the shortest route. One can simply crank out a list of all the possibilities and measure each one. The real issue is that as the number of towns grows, the list of possible routes connecting them explodes. As the scale increases this problem is beyond the reach by even the most powerful computers.

In simple terms, a route is just an ordering of the towns. Trying to find all of them by brute force is the equivalent of sorting a deck of cards by throwing them in the air until they land in order. This works only in theory.

The travelling salesman problem is an example of an intractable problem. One that is practically impossible to solve! But this isn’t the end of the story. This is an opportunity for us to learn something: how to best approach problems whose optimal answers are unreachable. How to relax problems.

The simplest way to relax any problem is to relax one or more of its constraints. In other words, instead of solving the real problem we try solving the problem we wish we had.

For instance, you can relax the travelling salesman problem by letting the salesman visit the same town more than once, thereby letting Mr. Abraham retrace his steps for free. You’ll soon see that solving this looser problem takes no time at all.

While this loose solution isn’t the answer to the real problem, it is quite useful all the same. It’s the next best thing you have to an ideal solution. Trying to solve it any further may have diminishing returns—the effort for accuracy far outweighs the benefit of the difference. In practical problems, the next best solution is the best solution.

We often relax problems in real life without knowing it. If you have ever asked yourself, “If money wasn’t a problem would I be doing what I’m about to do?” you’ve engaged in relaxation. What you are doing here is making the intractable real life problem tractable by removing some of its constraints. These questions help you make progress in a loose form of the problem before porting it back to reality. If not a practical solution, this loose version gives you direction.

We may not have to face Mr. Abraham’s routing problem but there are multiple cases in real life where relaxation in necessary. For example, when you have to deliver a five-day-work in two days, or when you have to squeeze a one-hour presentation in 10 minutes.

You can either relax the quality of the output, for example deliver a less-than-ideal solution within time. Or, you can take more time and face the consequences. Both are strategies of relaxation and chances are you already use them in real life.

Relaxation is the best way to mitigate analysis paralysis. An answer at least half as good as the perfect solution in less time is a more practical solution. Always! Businesses that move fast and deal with a lot of ambiguity follow this method. Rather than wasting time searching for a perfect answer, they simply ask, “How close can we get to the perfect solution with a relaxed problem?” Turns out, pretty close!

Unless you’re willing to waste aeons striving for perfection every time you encounter a hitch, hard problems demand that you imagine easier versions and tackle those first. When applied correctly, it’s one of the best ways of making progress.

The message is simple but profound: if you’re willing to accept solutions that are close enough, then even some of the hairiest problems can be tamed with the right techniques. We all practise it in some form. This essays helps us create a system that codifies the decision-making process.