How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

B
OOSTING
 Y
OUR
 B
RAINPOWER
In your next big task, try the following techniques to help you think as
clearly as possible:
Start with positive framing.
Think about something positive before
getting into the tough stuff. For example: review recent progress or
positive events; start with the ideal (and work back from that).
Draw the issue tree.
Break a complex task down into its constituent
parts, step by step, to allow you to focus on one thing at a time and
reduce the load on your brain.
Harness your social brain.
Imagine parts of your problem as people;
imagine a real person you know walking through the issue you’re
wrestling with (as a user or customer).
Look after the smart basics.
Remove distractions; surround yourself
with cues that you associate with good thinking; don’t skimp on sleep;
do some physical activity.

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PART V
Influence
Maximizing the Impact of All You Say and Do
Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will
have to ram it down their throats.
—
HOWARD AIKEN
Every day sees us writing and talking and tapping, working to communicate
our thoughts and directives to the rest of the world. On good days, our
words have instant impact. Our ideas flow confidently, and we get the
outcome we were after—whether it’s a lunch date with that special person,
backing for a big idea, or an agreement that we really do deserve a raise.
But on other days, all the traffic lights seem to turn red as we approach
them. We’re as smart and charming as ever, but our message somehow
doesn’t get through.
So this part of the book is about how we can more effectively
communicate what we believe, need, and want. I’ll look at how to get our
views across in a compelling way, so that even busy people pay attention.
I’ll discuss how to get colleagues on board with our proposals, and how to
be persuasive in encouraging them to do something differently. I’ll also
present some techniques for conveying more of our inner confidence to the
outside world, to add extra impact to all we say and do. And lastly I’ll talk
about how we can apply all this advice to make sure our hard work gets
recognized, so that everyone knows they should come to us the next time
they want brilliant results.

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