This 15-30 minute routine makes your brain smarter

This 15-30 minute routine makes your brain smarterThis 15-30 minute routine makes your brain smarterEverything popular is wrong? - ?Oscar WildeIn the book,BLUE ZONES Lessons for Living Longer From the People Whove Lived the Longest,author Dan Buettner details some incredible science on how to live the longest possible life.One of the key insights is to continually learn NEW and different things. You will age very quickly if you stop learning.Use different learning stylesLearning tons and tons about one idea or subject is good. But its also ineffective to learn about one thing in the saatkorn learning style.WHAT you learn about matters, but HOW you learn matters a lot more.If you only read books, even if youre reading about multiple subjects, your brain will atrophy in certain areas, which will age you faster.According to 50 years of research on learning theory, we all have a dominant learning style. We all also have several backup learning styles we rely on when were in a difficult s ituation. However, there are also several other learning styles that each of us neglect and avoid.Ladders is now on SmartNewsDownload the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.Some of these learning styles includeImagining which involves coming up with ideasReflecting which involves learning about the ideas you come up withAnalyzing which involves synthesizing what youve learning and making strategic plans about what to do with those ideasDeciding which involves making a decision on ONE WAY you will go with a specific ideaActing which involves DOING SOMETHING toward the attainment of your ideaExperiencing which involves learning from multiple angles, whether that be with other people, creating something, failing, or attemptingThe more learning styles you can regularly experience, the better and healthier your brain will be.Spend 15-30 minutes per day learning something TOTALLY DIFFERENT (do it just for fun, nut in an aggr essive way)When you were a kid, you tried tons of different things. Your brain was expanding and stretching left-and-right. Unfortunately, most people stop trying new things the older they get.If you want to make your brain healthier, and if you want to become a super-learner, its essential to continually learn different things.LanguagesLearning new languages is amazing for your brain. However, you dont want to learn those languages with the same methods. The more methods you can implement the better.For example, here are a few methods you could useUse an appUse flash-cardsWatch films in that languageHave conversations with people who speak the languageListen to music in the languageWrite journal entries in the languageEat food from the cultureThe more immersive the experience the better. However, even just actively learning something new for 15-30 minutes per day will open your brain and consciousness in so many ways.Musical InstrumentsLearning musical instruments is also very, ver y healthy for your brain. I recently started learning piano off a cool app. Its addictive A few days ago, I practiced for three hours straight I couldnt get myself to stop it was so fun.If you can gamify your learning, all the better. By gamify, I mean to make it into a game. In video games, you have quests or goals to accomplish.The reason I like the app Im learning piano on is that I have 15-minute lessons, and within those lessons, I have 5-10 sub-lessons. The competitor in me loves knocking-out as many lessons as possible.Just like in a video game, its fun to landsee how far you can go.How your brain changes when you learn something newThere is a lot of brain science into how this works and how to maximize the experience.Firstly, learning is all about memory - and about enhancing your memory. The best learners can develop a nearly photographic memory. This is a skill you can absolutely develop.Secondly, your confidence is all about winning, and creating quick wins - so the mor e you can win and keep winning, the more your confidence will boost.Thirdly, as you learn one subject, youll get creative breakthroughs in the other areas of your life. This is particularly true if youve developed mastery and expertise in a specific area. As you learn a new subject in a completely new learning style, youll make all sorts of unique connections in your brain related to your expertise. This is called, non-linear learning or indirect learning, and its perhaps the most effective learning tool.Albert Einstein, the Beatles, and several of the best innovators and artists got their biggest breakthroughs in an indirect and non-linear manner. For example, Albert Einstein was working in a patent shop, notlage an academic setting, when he got his insights about time relativity.The Beatles studied totally different and foreign music which led to their breakthroughs in Rock and Roll.Grant Achatz, considered one of the top chefs alive, studied abstract art to get inspiration for hi s cooking.How to maximize your experienceIf you really want to give yourself a brain-workout, here are some things you could doDaily, learn something totally different (it could be an instrument or a language, but it could also be something else like cooking, travel, public speaking whatever you want)Even though its just for fun, set goalsGamify the process as much as you can - you can make it a competition with friendsSpend 1530 minutes, at least 5 times per week, learning this thing (it will be a very healthy mental break from your job)Once every week or two when you have time, do an intensive 3-4 hour session when you totally focus-in and geek-outWhile in your deep intensive session, take 5-minute fitness breaks every 30 minutes like sprinting around your house and doing 50 push-upsDrink tons of waterHave a journal near you and document ALL of the creative insights you get that are either related or unrelated to your core expertiseAllow yourself to imagine where you could take t his small learning hobby. Now that youre an adult, you can think about and approach this differently than when you were a kid. Rather than going through the motions, you can get creative with this.For example, rather than just learning the piano to play it, I also want to learn it to more fully develop a photographic memory and to enhance my artistic sides. I want to learn piano because music can literally heal and release suppressed emotions. But I also want to learn to write and compose amazing music because it will teach me about learning, creativity, and the brain.In other words, you want to have some profound WHYs behind what youre learning. But you also want to have specific milestones or achievements to keep yourself going, to gamify the process, to build your confidence, and to make it fun.Heres whats truly amazing When you learn new things, you change as a person. Changing is the most healthy thing you can do.You cant actually have hope for your future if you dont believe y ou can change.The more you change, and the more you learn how to transform in a positive and intentional direction, the more hope youll have for your future.Hope is a powerful and positive EXPECTATION not just mere wishing.So, when you take 1530 minutes per day, focused exclusively on activating different areas of your brain, you heal yourself and make yourself younger. But you also infuse deep levels of HOPE into your future.Not only that, but you enhance the areas of your life where youve already developed deep mastery. You get to re-experience the beginners high and humility. You get a new perspective of yourself and the world.This pulls you from the rut and apathy of routine. It allows you to see the other areas of your life with fresh eyes. This changes EVERYTHING. As Wayne Dyer once said, When you change the way you see things, the things you see change.Youll start to infuse hope and healing into your loved onesPut simply, when you change your cognition, you transform your en vironment, your psychology, and your biology. You change yourself and you change others - because you interact with them differently.You become more loving and interested in your relationships. Because your own hope and healing is deepening, you become a more powerful vessel for healing, hope, and transformation others.You love your family and friends more. You see them in different ways. You notice the small things. You appreciate those small things. You thank them and acknowledge them for those small things.You smile more - because youre learning and changing and healing. Youre appreciating this amazing this we call life more.Your imagination starts to take-off, and you remove limiting models of thinking. Again, non-linear learning is about seeing things from totally different perspectives. So, by practicing, playing, and challenging yourself in new ways, youll start to get insights to improve the current approaches youre taking in your work and in other areas.Put simply, if you re not doing this, youre missing-out HUGE.This article first appeared on Medium.

How To Stay Organized While Job Searching

How To Stay Organized While Job SearchingHow To Stay Organized While Job SearchingWhile it seems as if everyone has a soft spot for beautiful office supplies and organizational tools, the truth of the matter is that not everyone knows how to stay organized. This struggle can often come to light during the job search, when organization is one of the key skills that allows you to coordinate a resume, cover letter and interview with a new company. Fortunately, you dont have to be a certified Type-A nerd to manage a successful job hunt. If you tend to be a little scatterbrained, here are three things you can do to keep your job searched organized.Start Fresh on Your ComputerNo matter how cluttered your computer desktop or your file system, you can always start fresh for a current job hunt. Instead of hoping youll know where to find your updated information, create a new folder for each position. Label each folder with the company and job title you are applying for and include a new copy of your resume, cover letter and background notes. Maintain a Guide DocumentAs you find and apply for jobs, maintain an Excel spreadsheet that includes pertinent data regarding those positions. For example, you may want to record the link where you found the job, the way you applied (electronically or by email) and the date of your last follow-up. This will help you remember who you are talking to when you get a response. Choose One Calendar and Use ItIf you arent committed to one system for planning your appointments, youre leaving the door open to embarrassing scheduling conflicts. Whether you prefer a paper calendar, your personal digital calendar or your business digital calendar, its vital that you choose one and use it for all of your appointments so that you wont accidentally miss one or double-book yourself. This is also an important habit you can mention in your interviewto explain how you stay organized. If you decide to use a digital calendar tied to your workplace, use a cronyms to be vague. Appointment or unavailable are perfectly acceptable descriptions to have on your work calendar if you dont want to advertise the fact that you are interviewing for a new job.Keep Your Career Goals Organized, TooOrganization isnt just for physical and digital items, its also for your mental state and career goals. As Monica and Chandler from Friends showed us in a previous Simply Hired post, organizing your thoughts and making a clear path between the skills you have and the jobs for which you are qualified. Beyond making sure your files and calendars are organized, spend some time reflecting on why you are pursuing the jobs you are pursuing and which jobs will be the best fit for your five- and ten-year career goals. Dont let your scatterbrained nature derail your job hunt. Use these tips to stay organized as you find, apply and interview for a new job.

The Best Way to Review a Resume

The Best Way to Review a ResumeThe Best Way to Review a ResumeThe work of resume review starts well before the applicant resumes fill your inbox. Reviewing a resume starts with a job description or role profile so that you know broadly what the job entails. Part of the job description, in an effective job description, details the qualifications and experience of the candidate you seek to fill the job. Using the key qualifications and experience you identified for the role, develop your online and offline job deutsche bundespostings, post them on your recruiting website, and make them available to contacts and employees for referrals. Determine a Salary Range Then, determine the salary range by using a market pay study and the additional salary research materials you have on hand. Better candidates will inquire about the pay range before they invest a lot of time in your company. Be prepared with an appropriate response so as notlage to lose your best candidates. This issue is a l ong-term controversy for people who work in Human Resources, but it is a matter of respectful treatment of candidates. Your best potential candidates are not going to waste a lot of time applying for positions without knowing the salary range. Develop a Key Qualifications List or Candidate Profile This process gets you started. The next key is for HR staff and the hiring manager to narrow down all of this information. Create a list that spells out your fruchtwein important candidate selection criteria. This is often called a candidate profile. Youll want to list the key characteristics or traits,the most important skills,the most relevant experiencethe desired educational level, andthe other most important factors that you will consider in candidate selection. You now have distilled the job information into a list you can use to write ads, post jobs online, or highlight on your recruiting website. This list is the essence of the candidate you seek to fill your open job. This can didate profile is a list of key experiences, skills, traits, and education and is essential for reviewing resumes. It forces discipline into the resume review process and gives you valuable criteria to use in resume review, and later, in candidate comparison. The list also serves as the basis for the job interview questions you will use in screening and in-person interviews with candidates for your job. Job Posting Example Here is an example of an actual job posting that was created from a list of key qualifications. Notice that the candidates qualifications are carefully defined. absatzwirtschaft Specialist Company X, an award-winning global leader in the xxx, xxx and xxx of xxx seeks a motivated, proactive, Marketing Specialist to develop marketing materials and website content, design ads, and generally, support the work of the marketing function. The successful candidate has a degree in marketing, and 1-3 years experience in advertising, website development, and Internet competitive research. The successful candidate is an independent self-starter, creative, customer service oriented, and writes well, Must be familiar with web design software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Company X offers a competitive salary and a generous benefits package. Please send resume with salary requirements to the HR Recruiter. This posting enables you to screen resumes and evaluate potential candidates. The job posting ensures that you dont settle for a person who is less qualified than the individual you were seeking. Or, you may occasionally decide that you underpriced the market in terms of the qualifications you seek at the salary you want to pay. In a recent search for a Planning and Scheduling Supervisor, as an example, a manufacturing company found that the $60,000 they wanted to pay the chosen employee, will not attract the qualified person they had hoped to find for the job. Their best applicants already make $75,000 as stated in their cover letters a nd on their resumes. All of this information helps you scan resumes mora quickly. The information and preparation help you narrow down the many resumes to the chosen few resumes with greater accuracy. This preparation makes resume review relatively painless. Preparing to Review Resumes The preparation for resume review enables you to get down to the serious job of applicant resume review quickly. Set aside a block of timewhenever possible. Part of resume screening is comparing one candidates qualifications and credentials to those listed in the other resumes you have received. Additionally, with the use of electronic applications and recruiting websites that accept applications, resume screening has taken on new dimensions. Some of the traditional devices used to screen resumes no longer bear the weight they once did. These include the quality of the stationery, the design of the actual document, and the envelope in which the documents arrived. Still viable for mailed-in resumes , these are useless for electronic applications, especially applications from job boards that can lose their formatting. In a typical website job application, you will fill out a form to apply and then the company supplies a button thatallows you to attach your resume and cover letter. Employers can read these applications online and forward the link to members of the screening committee. Some employers and screeners still print the application others read the resumes online. Other resume screening techniques never go out of style, including the search for proper spelling and grammar. Your quick, first skim of the resume should yield an overall impression of your candidates carefulness and attention to detail. Potential employees, who make careless mistakes in application materials such as resumes, do not warrant the attention that a more careful candidate deserves. Assuming the candidates resume passes an initial inspection, this is the recommended process for reviewing resumes. Steps in the Resume Review Read the customizedcover letter. Look especially for a flawless presentation, correct spelling and grammar, and the applicants attention to detail. What- there is no cover letter? This is the downside of electronic resume spamming. Receiving countless, usually unqualified, applicant resumes, occurs following every job posting. The tip-off? Usually,unqualified applicantsfail to write a cover letter.Worth noting, too, is the fact that advice to job applicants has changed in recent years. Disagreement exists about whether a cover letter is still a necessary component of an application. Supporters contend that it is a wonderful opportunity for an applicant to demonstrate that their credentials are perfect for your job requirements. Then, choose, orchoose not, to continue your resume reviewat this point. Scan the resume to obtain an overall impression of the applicant. Youll want to see at a glance that the applicant fulfills your key expectations. experience , and qualifications of the person whom you would hire. Look especially for a flawless presentation, correct spelling and grammar, and their attention to detail. Paper resumes must pass the feel test.In the first skim, look for the easy-to-find qualifications. (As an example, if you are requiring a college degree, does the applicant have one?) If not, reject the resume or distribution policy it in your maybe meets qualifications pile or electronic folder. Read the description of what the candidate says they are looking for in their next job. Is the statement customized to your job or does it describe any job in the world? For example, generally reject resumes thatmake statements such as, I seek a challenging opportunity to utilize my skills with a progressive employer who will provide opportunities for growth. Honestly, youve got to do better than to offer this type of generality to pass the resume screen.Look for a summary statement of qualifications and experience. If the candidat e has taken the time and customized their summary for your job, this enables you to quickly find the characteristics you seek from your role profile. These resumes quickly hit the further review pile. Applicants also need to recognize that more and more, larger organizations are scanning resumes into databases. When a job becomes available, resumes are scanned for relevant keywords. Make the keywords easy to find.Review the most recent employers and the applicants stated experience, accomplishments, and contributions. At this point, you must have found significant cross-over between the applicants resume and your requirements. Place the resume in your to be reviewed further folder unless you have encountered problems. Red flagsat this point in your resume review, that are unexplained on the resume or in the cover letter, includeemployment gaps, evidence of decreasing responsibility,evidence of a career that has reached a plateau or even gone in the wrong direction,short-term employm ent at several jobs, and multiple shifts in career path.Review your selected resumes against your criteria and each other.Telephone screenthe seemingly qualified candidates. Schedule interviews with the candidates who pass your initial screen. The more you review resumes, the better your resume review will become. With practice, you may begin to refer to your resume review as gone in twenty seconds, or even, gone in ten seconds, while your resume review continues to yield great candidates.