Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much

  • Subjects checked their phone once every 6.5 minutes (1) – page xviii preface
  • Putting our health, values, and relationships on hold for acquisition will do little to make us happier (2) – page xviii preface
  • Office workers often switch tasks every 3 minutes (3) – page xxx getting started
  • Time pressure reduces performance and it was the sense of time pressure, rather than the actual lack of time, which reduces performance (4) – page 6 1?
  • When we feel out of control, the limbic system fires up and we don’t think very well- our prefrontal cortex is impaired (5) – page 15 1
  • Subjects who were rated as a 4/5 in beauty were given grades 36 percent higher than those rated a 2/5 (6) – page 26 2?
  • 52 percent of the “whether or not” acquisition decisions failed, compared to only 32 percent that asked “which” between two ore more alternative options (7) – page 31 2?
  • When people were focused on a mental task, they exerted 50 percent less physical force when squeezing a lever (8) – page 69 3?
  • Performance dropped significantly whenever subjects attempted to do two things at a time (9) – page 46 3?
  • The pros who were thinking about three aspects of their swing began to falter, while those with a simpler focus continued to perform well (10) – page 49 3
  • Those who had made a specific plan did not still have the task churning in their mind (11) – page 50 3
  • Participants estimated that they switched attention every four minutes, but instead it was every fourteen seconds (12) – page 54 3
  • Office workers tend to hopscotch between tasks every three minutes (13) – page 55 3
  • The limiting factor in computing is often the human’s ability to focus (14) – page 83 4
  • Monthly planners were getting better grades than daily planners, who outperformed those with no plans (15) – page 99 4
  • People were happiest doing mundane rote tasks that asked little of the person’s brain preferring the work to more complex tasks where stress levels rose (16) – page 132 8
  • Subjects spent about 25 percent of their waking hours actively resisting temptations…  Attractions of busyness, such as email or the internet – were harder to resist than food… 50 percent of these temptations were resisted (17) – page 133 8
  • Strong willpower led to better self-control because of the strength and effectiveness of habits… strong willpower helps you to set up good habits… it helps you avoid temptations, not resist them (18) – page 133 8
  • A promotion focus was strongly related to task and job performance… it was also related to other good things like openness, innovation, helpfulness, job satisfaction, and commitment (19) – page 142 8
  • When we suppress our emotions, they become more potent (20) – page 145 8
  • The students’ confidence that they could quit smoking had a greater impact on their intentions than the severity of the disease, the risk, or the effectiveness of quitting (21) – page 150 8?
  • Social connectedness drives health (22) – page 181 10?
  • Those with fewer social ties were 2-3times more likely to die (23) – page 181 10?
  • Relationships even boost the mood of people who don’t feel like they want more relationships (24) – page 181 10?
  • Loneliness is a bigger risk factor than obesity or smoking (25) – page 181 10?
  • Giving support is more beneficial than receiving it (26) – page 181 10?
  • The most common factor among happy people was their strong relationships (27) – page 181 10?
  • Offering support to patient helped those who gave the support more than those who received it (28) – page 188 10?
  • Companies where the ratio of positive comments to negative comments was at least 2.9 were doing well (29) – page 195 10?
  • When students were enjoying an assignment, their performance improved, they stayed focused for longer and the work tired them less (30) – page 207 11
  • Children with more unstructured time had better executive functioning (31) – page 212 11

References

  1. 150 times a day:  a preliminary investigation of materialism an impulsiveness as predictors of technological addictions among young adults
  2. Pursuing personal goals skills enable progress but not all progress is beneficial
  3. No task left behind?  examining the nature of fragmented work
  4. Perceived time pressure and the iowa gambling task
  5. The biology of being frazzled
  6. Productivity or discrimination? beauty and the exams
  7. The identification of solution ideas during organizational decision making
  8. On the measurement of mental activity through muscular activity and the determination of a constant attention
  9. Attention and performance
  10. Choking under pressure in sensorimotor skills conscious processing or depleted attentional resources
  11. Consider it done plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals
  12. Media multitasking behavior concurrent television and computer usage
  13. No task left behind examining the nature of fragmented work
  14. Toward distraction free pervasive computing
  15. Specificity of planning in adult self control an applied investigation
  16. Bored mondays and focused afternoons
  17. Everyday temptations:  an experience sampling study o desire conflict and self-control
  18. Taking stock of self control a meta analysis of how trait self control relates to a wide range of behaviors
  19. Regulatory focus and work related outcomes a review and meta analysis
  20. Emotion regulation affective cognitive and social consequences
  21. Protection motivation and self-efficacy: a revised theory of fear appeals and attitude change
  22. The role of social relations in health promotions
  23. Social networks, host resistance, and mortality a nine year follow up study of alameda county residents
  24. An intraindividual process approach to the relationship between extraversion and positive affect is activating extraverted as good as being extraverted
  25. Health psychologypsyhological factors and physical disease form the perspective of human psychoneuroimmunology
  26. Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it
  27. Very happy people
  28. Altruistic social interest behaviors are associated with better mental health
  29. The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business teams a nonlinear dynamics model
  30. THe role of interest in optimizing performance and self regulation
  31. Less structured time in children’s daily lives predicts self directed executive functioning