Being Geek Chic is the yammerings of a Midwestern nerd named Elizabeth Giorgi. My vision impairment is real, which is frustrating because I really would like to see a 3D movie.
Send questions, requests and ideas to [email protected]. Please put your complaints on a napkin and toss it.
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Note
2nd August 2012
Guest Post: Internet ruining your attention span? Here’s a cure
Feel like the internet is ruining your brain? Do you refresh Facebook every 3 seconds? Are you endlessly scrolling through tumblr gif sets of Tom Hiddleston? (GUILTY, RIGHT HERE!) In fact, I think I’ve developed a weird eye thing from all the Tumblr scrolling.
Sarah Von of Yes and Yes agreed to contribute a guest post to Being Geek Chic on the topic of increasing your attention span in a world full of distractions.
If you’re as bad as me, you need this advice.
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You guys, the internet is breaking my brain.
Several weeks ago I decided to join the world of Serious Bloggers and put together a newsletter/email list. In order to put together said newsletter, I had to watch a ten minute instructional video on MailChimp.
And after about three minutes of watching this video? I had completely lost interest.
I could not handle watching a well-edited, informative, funny video that would teach something I needed to know. Because that video required me to really pay attention to something for more than three minutes.
Twitter/facebook/google, I blame you. Also, I blame myself. I don’t want to be the person who can’t sit still for more than ten minutes and won’t read things without bullet points! I don’t want my instant reaction to a tough bit of code, an unpleasant email or some uneditable writing to be “Ugh. Has anything popped up in Google reader? I’m going to see if anyone has responded to my latest hilarious facebook update!” Puke.
So! Let’s talk about ways to increase our attention spans! And let’s bold those ideas so we can skim them as quickly as possible and then get back to our Facebook refreshing.
Meditate
Most hippie-dippie things make me roll my eyes and groan. I’m deeply pragmatic and if you try to talk to me about your chakras I’ll get all uncomfortable and slowly back away. With that said, meditation has been scientifically proven to make you calmer, more focused and less likely to be depressed. And you don’t need to view it as a spiritual practice. Simply set the timer on your phone for five minutes, sit with you back against the wall, close your eyes and actively empty your mind. Ommmm-chanting and incense-burning not required!Do a bit of physical activity
We’ve all heard it a million times - physical activity makes you happier, calmer, more focused and generally more awesome. You don’t have to join a gym or do a Gillian Michael’s caliber workout to see the effects. Just a ten minute walk through the park, a bit of stretching a few rounds of sun salutations or even just a dance break can do wonders. Sometimes when I’m feeling listless, sleepy or unfocused, I’ll pull up the She Wolf video, put it on repeat and dance around the kitchen for ten minutes. I am not kidding at all.Set a timer
Have you heard of the Pomodoro technique? It will change your life. The crux is this: set a timer for 25 minutes and then do one thing for those 25 minutes. When the timer dings, you get a five minute break to do whatever you want, then you set the timer again and keep going. And no multitasking! Here’s another variation on this technique that uses boredom as a motivator.Do five more
Your attention span is like a muscle - the more you exercise it, the better it gets. So if you hit a wall (like losing interest in a useful instructional video) force yourself to do five more. Read for five more minutes, do five more problems, write five more sentences. You might catch a second wind and if you don’t? At least, you’ve been slightly more productive and you’ve stretched your attention span muscle.Limit your screen time
In my fantasy life - in which my self control is about triple what it is now - I stop watching TV or using my computer after 7 pm. I’d love to spend my evenings hanging with friends, making dinner, reading, going out or creating things with my hands rather than my computer. I bet we could all be better about this, eh?Have a snack
Kiddos aren’t the only ones who get cranky and shifty when their blood sugar is low. I rarely produce anything worth reading after 3 pm but if I eat some nuts or fruit, I can usually string sentences together till at least 6:00!Think of happy stuff
If you can’t concentrate because half of your brain is obsessing over your botched work presentation or that thing your frenemy said, take a break and think of good stuff. Look at the sky for two minutes. Check out CuteRoulette. Send a sweet email to a friend. Write down all the different ways you can deal with that thing that’s bugging you and then imagine you’re pushing that problem out the door and turning your key in the lock.Cheater methods
These won’t actually cure your jacked up attention span - but they will put a cute Hello Kitty bandaid on it.
Leechblock
This free Mozilla add-on is gonna change your life, friends. You can set it to block specific website between set hours, on certain days or to cut you off after a designated amount of time. So you can set it to block you from Facebook-stalking after 1:00 am on Saturdays or just cut you off after you’ve been on there for 3 hours straight. Handy!
Wifi-free coffee shops
I’m fairly sure these still exist, somewhere in rural America. Or, um, most places in Wellington, New Zealand. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you don’t have the option to access the internet!
Stick with good ol’ fashioned, non-wifi internet at home
I know a self-employed couple whose lives slowly devolved into working on their laptops from bed, 18 hours a day. So they reverted to a one-internet-cable household and now if they want to work together, they make an active choice to find a wifi coffee shop, set a time frame and get to work. And if they want to use the internet at home, they can use it one-at-a-time, sitting at a desk. How novel!
Coffee
Seriously. I know that coffee makes some people jittery and insane, but for me it’s Liquid Ambition.
How’s your attention span? Any tricks to share?Sarah Von is a world-traveler, mighty blogger at Yes and Yes and MSPer who I totally admire.
In her own words: she wants to see the world, save the dolphins and read The New Yorker while wearing cute outfits and eating bon bons.
You can follow her on Twitter @yesandyes
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Note
21st June 2012
Guest Post: A Smart Girl is a Sexy Girl
So I’ve admired Sarah Von of Yes and Yes’s work for years. Finally, I just reached out and said, “hey, we live in the same city and we should totally meet.” And she was, of course, a wicked cool person in real life too. She agreed to contribute a guest post and I think you’re going to love it.
True story: A few years ago, while living in Taiwan, I was sitting in a bar discussing travel with some friends of mine. They were detailing the ridiculously rutted and bumpy road that connects Cambodia and Vietnam.
And instead of cooing consolation over their six hour bus ride from hell, my thought process was “Wait. What? Isn’t Vietnam an island? Isn’t, like, every country in Southeast Asia an island?”
This was the extent of my knowledge of Geography, whilst actually living in Southeast Asia.
Good lord.
Since this rather humiliating experience I’ve started making a more active effort to avoid brain rot. Now, I’m not saying we should give up on The Real Housewives of New Jersey or speak only in four syllable words, but a smart girl is a sexy girl, no?
Some of my favorite ways to stave off the stupid?
Salon, Slate and The Morning News - Well written feature pieces, current events, and headlines from around the world. In a much more friendly, consumable format than CNN.
Free Rice - Take quizzes on a variety of subjects. Each right answer earns a few grains of rice for the UN World Food Program. I’m a sucker for the vocabulary quizzes, but should really be dabbling in the pre-algebra area. Uggg.
The Daily Show - Eye candy and brain candy all rolled into one! My boyfriend Jon Stewart makes politics delicious and nutritious.
This American Life - I’m not sure exactly how listening to The Best Radio Show in The Land makes me smarter. Maybe it just makes me a more compassionate, involved human being. Or maybe I just love me some Ira Glass.
Reading Non-Fiction - Because truth is often so much more fascinating than fiction. If I really want to geek out, I read anthropological case studies (what?!)
What do you do to feed your head? And are you willing to share some of your most epic brain farts?Sarah Von is a world-traveler, mighty blogger at Yes and Yes and MSPer who I totally admire.
In her own words: she wants to see the world, save the dolphins and read The New Yorker while wearing cute outfits and eating bon bons.
You can follow her on Twitter @yesandyes
