Tag: cognitive psychology

Could you survive a week without emails?

monday
‘You’ve got mail’ – *groan*
It’s 7.30am and the emails have already started. As I sit, savouring a few moments calm over a bowl of muesli before leaving for work, the phone has already started to chime. The ‘silent’ phone setting insists on buzzing on the table top – vibrating my coffee mug. I have resigned myself to the alternative ‘classic’ ding-dong. I guess my working day has begun.

Although I can rarely follow my employer’s ‘good ICT policy’ – fastidiously filing every email into a named subfolder (I never know where to put ‘Today’s Lunch Offer’), most days I click each email just long enough for it to be marked as ‘read’. Few of my colleagues manage this. I guess working part-time has some benefits.

Relentless work emails and calendar invitations that materialise from the electronic ether is the norm for many. This incessant distraction is a drain and – it doesn’t take a genius to figure out – probably drains productivity. The phone is dead: the majority of interactions are now done digitally. Could we sever our digital ties and survive at work without the emails? One group of workers did just that – for one week they went without emails. Researchers watched what they did and remotely monitored their stress levels. How did they cope? Surprisingly well… Read more

Blue Lights Shown to Give a Brain Boost! But is a Better than Coffee?

This post was chosen as an Editor's Selection for ResearchBlogging.org

Can anything possibly beat the first coffee of the day?

It’s 6 am and the alarm sounds. Mornings aren’t a friendly place until you’ve had a coffee.

Loathed by some but loved by many more, caffienated drinks are the world’s most popular drug. Effective as a stimulant, a mood-booster and an learning-enhancer, caffeine is an indispensable part of modern-day living for 90% of Westerners. Coffee consumption has a variety of health benefits but is not without its problems; including addiction, withdrawal symptoms and adverse effects in children.

Now it seems, there could be a new kid on the block that threatens to topple the office coffee machine. It’s safe, legal and cheaper than a Starbuck’s. Move over Mr Drinks Dispenser and make way for invigorating power of the Blue Light Bulb! Read more

Flower Power! New Study shows Plants can Boost Your Brain Power!

His FingerprintsDo you ever struggle to concentrate? You’re probably not alone. If you, like millions of us, spend the day working at a computer screen – then you will now that distactions are aplenty. The internet has been widely blamed for undermining our attention spans, and using social networking sites like Facebook seems to be costing businesses millions of dollars a day in lost productivity.

If you hate getting distracted, and want to stay focused, a team of researchers from Norway may have come up with a simple and ingenious solution: Put a pot-plant by your desk! Read more