The book Impro by Keith Johnstone is described as a ‘landmark work’ by the blurb on the back of my copy. It describes techniques and exercises he developed for theatrical improvisation classes he ran. Notes There’s a lot in this book, too much to summarise easily. But some of the points that stood out most to me...

I’ve read The Breakout Principle by Herbert Benson and William Proctor as part of my exploration of the concept of creative incubation. The subtitle of this book is “How to activate the natural trigger that maximises creativity, athletic performance, productivity and personal well-being”. Notes The main claim is...

I’ve found that simple productivity techniques work best for me – the more complex the tool, the more likely they are to feel overwhelming and draining. The most helpful tools have been maintaining a simple to-do list daily and using the Pomodoro Technique (Wikipedia link) for short periods of focused work. I’ve...

Some things I’ve been thinking about or doing this month: With the end of a major project in sight, I’m hoping that I’ll have a bit more time for posting here soon (or soonish… or eventually). I’ve been thinking about topics for posts and a few changes for this website, including adding these monthly updates. I’d...

The “Growth without Striving” chapter from What Works by Tara McMullin contains a recommended method for identifying which values are most important to you. Notes Identifying and defining our personal values is a vital step towards working out what’s meaningful and important to us. We may have had values imposed on...

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the “Spiders of Paradise” exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery. This is a small collection of photographs and video by the artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso. The exhibition is about the Maratus (Wikipedia link) genus of spiders. They are commonly known as “peacock spiders”,...

Notes These are some things I learned from the book Circadian Rhythms: A Very Short Introduction by Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman: While mammals only have photoreceptor (light-detecting) cells in their eyes, other vertebrates also have photoreceptors elsewhere, such as in the pineal gland – sufficient light can...

Reflections on the week During this week, I started focusing on gradually increasing the amount of exercise I’m doing, particularly exercise that raises my heart rate. I think this helps improve my mental energy, but there’s a complicated trade-off: physical fatigue and mental fatigue are linked to some extent. For...

Reflections on the week I managed to keep to my planned sleep schedule over the week, and my levels of mental energy increased noticeably. I’m naturally waking up earlier, which is a bit annoying – I’d rather get more sleep instead – but I still seem to get enough sleep to maintain concentration throughout the day....

Reflections on the week I’m definitely noticing improvements from making my sleep schedule more regular. But I need to continue with this – in the past, I’ve found that I get the most benefit after a week or more of keeping to a fairly strict sleep schedule. Improving sleep: what’s worked for me Over the years, I’ve...

Reflections on the week This week was a bit of a rocky start to the experiment – I think I was trying to change too many things at once. I am just beginning to get my sleep schedule back on track, and this will be my focus for the upcoming week. Other thoughts Earlier today, I posted some notes on cognitive...

Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual (by Lenore Thomson) and Personality Hacker (by Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge) are two books that use the concept of “cognitive functions” to explain differences between personalities and the varying challenges people may face depending on their personality type. Cognitive...