Ever felt like your brain wasn’t exactly your best friend? Well, you’re probably not simply paranoid. Over at Lifehacker, Kevin Purdy has compiled a list of the Top 10 Ways Your Brain Is Sabotaging You (and How to Beat It), which should be required reading for, um, anyone with half a brain.
My personal bugbear? “You Let Negative Feelings About Putting Off Tasks Prevent Actual Work”:
Could sending out that email really be so painful that you’ve put it off three days in a row? Likely not, but it certainly feels that way every time you try to dig in. It’s what a Psychology Today post describes as the “overwhelming wave” of negative emotions, building and seemingly towering over you when you try and address yourself to a task. Knowing that it’s really this kind of meta-misery, though, you can perhaps acknowledge it, let it go, then move on.
I guess I’m not alone, since that one tops the list at #1. Check out the full list here. Be sure to take a look at the original articles linked to each of the points for more information. As with most things “brain”, knowing a problem, bias, or predisposition exists is half the battle. Otherwise, as Purdy says (paraphrasing our new bff Socrates?), “An unexamined brain is a tricky thing to carry around.”