Happiness and statistics

About 10% of our happiness increase depends on circumstantial factors. I will try to find few relevant statistics related to each factor.

1.National, geographical and cultural factors
According to the World happiness report the most happy people live in Switzerland, with the last place being Togo. Check the link for top of the 2015.

2.Age, gender, ethnicity
Older people are happier than young people. In 1970 women were happier than men, but after 2000-2004 women happiness decreased and now men are happier than women. White ethnic group is the happier, Black ethnic group is the least happy.

3. Life status - marital status, occupational status, job security, job income, health, religious affiliations.
People who are paid more are happier, middle class individuals are happier than working class, married people are happier than single, divorced or widowed ones, (following the studies mentioned here: Diener, Sandvik, Seidlitz, & Diener,1993, Warr & Payne, 1982, Mastekaasa, 1994, Diener, Gohm, Suh, & Oishi, 2000). Being religious, doesn't matter what religion is, will increase your happiness overall.

4. Personal history - childhood trauma, car accident, winning and important award are influencing the happiness too

Need an idea?

One of them is here.

What if superheroes are real? A true story about mutation.

You wil hear sometime that often reality is more amazing than fiction. Have you seen the movie "Unbreakable" ? I just finished reading one of this kind of stories. One with a happy ending this time. I hope you all will enjoy it. I will say no more. 

Link here. 

Silly jokes for multipotentialites

1. Pavlov is sitting at a pub enjoying a pint, the phone ring and he jump out shouting: Damn, i forgot to feed the dog!

2. There are two types of people in the world.
Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

3. Never trust an Atom. They make up everything.

4. Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Sodium Batman!

5. Two scientists walk into a restaurant, the first says "I'll have a H20" and the second says"I'll have a H20 too." He died.

6. Year 2320. What do you think about that new restaurant on the moon? The food is great but it has no atmosphere.

7. How can you tell the difference between a chemist and a plumber? Ask them to pronounce unionized.

Do you get them all?

Super-vision

After months of penitence
I've seen my guardian angel,
he was in the coffee shop
across the street,
drinking a glass of milk.
I went inside,
i asked for a tray
full of sweet desires.
He told me:
Please pay my tab,
i need to
urgently go
to a meeting with
yourself.

7 ways to kill your productivity

With the risk of being redundant, i will show you some of the advice i got from Oscar (from growthzer.com)

1. Not planning your day.
You either run your day or the day is running you, there’s no third option. To take full control over your day, you need to plan it out, ideally the night before. Whenever I fail to schedule the tasks I need to complete and activities I want to perform, I’m more likely to make a minimal or even zero progress toward my goals. Writing down works like a kind of a commitment. Furthermore, you know exactly what needs to be done, so you can proceed without wasting the time.

By planning your day, you make yourself a huge favor. It takes me up to 15 minutes to prepare the strategy for the next day, and the results are always outstanding. My willpower levels are higher, I tend to be more disciplined and I work like a productivity freak. However, once I decide to go spontaneously, quite the opposite happens. I wander from task to task, which is ineffective and boring.

2. Allowing potential distractions to interrupt you.

Imagine trying to focus on your work while phone notifications distract you every 5 minutes. And then, there are people asking for your time. To make it even worse, there’s a complete mess in your room, so you are overwhelmed by the chaos.

You may travel all over the world, but you won’t find a person who could be productive in such an environment. For this reason, I always make sure to remove the potential obstacles before I even get to work. My phone is muted, my working space is fresh, clean and minimalistic, people around me know I need to be alone so I can focus. Paying attention to the possible productivity killers around you is incredibly important so never neglect that.

3. Checking Facebook Feed 114523 times a day.

Facebook is one of the biggest time-suckers ever invented. My brain would develop a tendency to want to check Facebook whenever I’d lose my focus. Sometimes, it happened automatically and I wouldn’t even notice until I wasted 20 minutes scrolling my feed to check out useless information. I found a solution which I recommend to anyone who’d like to keep Facebook to communicate with friends but also want to minimize the waste of time.

It’s a chrome extension named News Feed Eradicator for Facebook. Your news feed is replaced with motivational quotes so there’s no longer anything interesting to check.

4. Putting off the toughest task.

As they say, you should eat that frog first which translates to doing the most demanding task at the very beginning so that the rest flows more easily. We tend to postpone the hardest task over and over again so that in reality, we never get it done. If this happens, that’s a huge sign to actually make that thing the highest priority and complete it as soon as possible.

Accomplishing something which you were afraid of doing increases your motivation and discipline levels. Once it’s done you realize that things which seem hard can be easy once you do the first tiny step.

5. Trying to work like a robot.

We love automation because robots don’t insist on having breaks. They can work 24/7 for days, weeks, months or even years. Humans are the exact opposite. We need breaks, plenty of breaks. To reload the energy, to regain focus and to stimulate our minds and bodies. Whenever I try to work like a robot so I can spend more time on the things that need to be done, bad things happen. In reality, I always end up completing less that I planned.

It’s because there’re some rules in nature which we can’t overcome. One of the best ways to boost your productivity is to stop working in order to regain the energy. Take a short walk, perform a 7-minute workout or try to mute the throng of thoughts by meditation.

6. Ignoring your health.

There are certain elements we need to cover on a daily basis to make our bodies serve us well. These are physical activity and eating healthy. If you live a sedentary & lazy lifestyle and put crap into your body, you can’t expect yourself to be productive. Your body is the most precious asset you have, so neglecting it is ALWAYS a bad decision. I know the urge to put off a workout so you could work more on your project or to grab some fast-food so you don’t have to cook yourself. But be aware that it always works against you.

Based on my experience, if you put first things first: you treat your body properly without excuses, then you’ll spend the remaining time much more productive.

7. Neglecting the power of sleep.

People try to cheat their bodies with countless cups of coffee or energy drinks, but that’s a battle you can’t win. Whenever you cut on sleep, you drastically decrease your productivity. Personally, I need 8 hours of sleep to function at a high rate. Whenever I sleep less, the consequences are inevitable and they are always negative. Arranging a sleeping schedule works wonders for your productivity. you’ll be more energized and ready to conquer the day.

Become a better writer: 15 common errors made in writing

Here are 15 common errors made in writing formal diction. How many of these usage errors have you made?

1. A lot / lots of

Colloquial: Diana likes her apartment a lot.

Formal: Diana likes her apartment very much.

Colloquial: There are lots of books in our library.

Formal: There are many books in our library.

Note: Alot is not an English word.

2. Among / between (Tip: Among involves more than two; between involves only two)

Colloquial: Discussions between our group members were often very lively.

Formal: Discussions among our group members were often very lively.

3. Everyday/Every day (Tip: Everyday is an adjective meaning ‘typical’ or ‘not special’; every day specifies a habit)

Incorrect: We buy lunch there everyday.

Correct: We buy lunch there every day.

Correct: Our manager told us to wear everyday clothes to the Saturday meeting.

4. Loan/lend vs. Borrow. In some English dialects, the word “borrow” is substituted for “loan” or “lend,” as in, “Can you borrow me that book?” In Standard English, the person providing an item lends/loans it, but the person receiving it borrows it.

Colloquial: Borrow me that pen, please.

Formal: Lend me that pen, please.

Formal: Loan me that pen, please.

5. Based off of

Colloquial: Based off of that information, we can move ahead with the plan.

Formal: Based on that information, we can move ahead with the plan.

6. Kids/Mom/Dad (tip: When referring to family members or children, use the formal style in academic writing.)

Colloquial: His mom and dad took all of the kids to the park.

Formal: His mother and father took all of the children to the park.

7. Guys

Colloquial: I hope you guys can join me at the restaurant.

Formal: I hope all of you can join me at the restaurant.

8. Infer / imply (Tip: To infer is an act of thinking; to imply is an act of saying something.)

Incorrect: I saw your memo about a noon meeting. Are you inferring that we should have lunch together?

Correct: I saw your memo about a noon meeting. Are you implying that we should have lunch together?

9. It’s / its (Remember that it’s always means it is)

Incorrect: The committee has reached it’s goals this year.

Correct: The committee has reached its goals this year.

10. Less than / fewer than (Tip: Use less than only with uncountable nouns.)

Colloquial: There are less people in the store today than yesterday.

Formal: There are fewer people in the store today than yesterday.

11. Like / as (Tip: Use as when comparing actions, like when comparing things.)

Colloquial: Alan wants to write a new essay, just like Sarah does.

Formal: Alan wants to write a new essay, just as Sarah does.

12. Like / maybe (Tip: Avoid using like and maybe when estimating; use approximately, perhaps, or about instead.)

Colloquial: There were like thirty people at my birthday party.

Formal: There were approximately thirty people at my birthday party.

13. Meantime

Colloquial: Meantime, the rain continued to pour.

Formal: In the meantime, the rain continued to pour.

Formal: Meanwhile, the rain continued to pour.

14. Plenty

Colloquial: It has been plenty warm all week.

Formal: It has been very warm all week.

15. They’re / their / there (You’re / your) (Tip: remember that they’re always means they are, and you’re always means you are)

Incorrect: Do you know if their going to the party?

Correct: Do you know if they're going to the party?

Incorrect: You’re lunch is on the counter.

Correct: Your lunch is on the counter.

Incorrect: What is there address?

Correct: What is their address?