Is multi-tasking productive?

I had an important deadline to meet yesterday. I blocked out the day and appart from taking incoming phone calls and stopping to eat and drink, I did nothing else. It was a big task and it took all day, but by 10pm I was done. Once again it was a lesson in how a focussed approach delivers results.

So why don't I (and maybe you) do this every day? Well in my case some of the reasons are:

• Boredom
  
• That important phone call that can't be ignored
  
• Another task arrives that I can do relatively quickly (and so drop the original one)
  
• The need for company
  
• Tiredness
  
• A really, really interesting email arrives and I just have to open it
  

Those are just some of things that catch me off guard; do they sound familiar?

So now I have a strategy to help me deal with these, 'can't be delayed items.'

• Exit your email program; if it's really important they'll call you
  
• Cut yourself deals throughtout the day, for example, "I'll work till 11.30am and THEN I'll make a coffee. Delayed gratification feels much more rewarding.
  
• No web browsing unless as part of the task. It's wayyyyy too easy to get sidetracked. When I find something interesting but unrelated to my core task I bookmark it for later. The truth is that those bookmarks rarely get revisited.
  
• If another task comes to mind whilst on your core activity, write it down on a todo list for later.
• Take regular breaks (but see the note about cutting deals above)

This strategy works and delivers what Jack Canfield call 'The power of focus'; it gets tasks cleared.

Whilst thinking about this strategy I came across this article in the Huffington Post site that compares multi-tasking with multi-goaling and demonstrates that the much lauded ability to multi-task is rather overated when it comes to really getting things done.

The other very important thing I have realised about myself though, is that there are days when I find it easier to focus and other days when a butterfly might be able challenge my attention span. Sometimes I have found it most effective to do 'that' task' when I feel most able to focus. Planning is the key; making sure that you have enough time to pick a suitable day to do the task before any deadline.

Depression and the link to Omega oils

The Food Programme goes out on the BBC Radio 4 network in the UK. The most recent show discussed the essential fatty acids, Omega 3 and Omega 6 and their effect on both our physical and our mental wellbeing.

Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential fatty acids that we can only obtain from our food. Scientists say, ideally, they should be in balance in the body, at a ratio of 2:1 for Omega 6 to Omega 3. But the average in the UK is around 10 : 1.

While the government health departments continue to promote the idea of reducing saturated fats, it's possible that some of the damaging effects attributed to these normally animal fats should have been attributed to Omega 6.

We need both Omega 3 & 6 but in the last thirty years we have changed our diet so that it includes many more seed oils and it is these that contribute the Omega 6.

What foods contain Omega 3?
Salmon, flax seeds and walnuts are excellent sources of omega 3 fatty acids.

Very good sources of these healthy fats include scallops, cauliflower, cabbage, cloves and mustard seeds.

Good sources of these fats include halibut, shrimp, cod, tuna, soybeans, tofu, kale, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts.

What foods contain Omega 6?
Cooking Oils - sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed, peanut and soybean
Egg yolks
Grain fed meats, particularly organ meats
Farm raised fish
All manner of processed foods

Why is this important?
According to Professor Michael Crawford of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition we need much more Omega 3 than we consume today. Ideally the ratio of Omega 3 to 6 would be aroud 1:2. The current epidemic of mental illness and arthritis, he says, is because we have this balance wrong. He believes we need to consume fewer Omega 6 essential fatty acids and expresses his concern at government health messages regarding Omega 3 essential fatty acids found in fish and all seafood.

Put simply, to maintain good mental health we should eat much more fish, as he says "we once came from the sea". This Omega 3 vs Omega 6 balance became far worse in the 20th century as we moved away from eating fresh fish and towards processed foods made with vegetable oils.

To look at the BBC programme web site click here.

My own 'take away' from the program was to reduce my sunflower oil intake, keep taking cod liver oil capsules once a day and use olive oil (a monounsaturated oil) when possible.

The virtues of tea and the perils of hot drinks

Since the Dutch went to China (or possibly Japan) and discovered the medicinal drink of tea, it has come an awfully long way.

The British were introduced to it by the Dutch and Charles II's wife (who was actually Portuguese) made it popular. In 1664 the English East India Company brought the gift of tea to the British king and queen. In the same year the British took over New Amsterdam, named it New York, and the British tea tradition began.

Tea has been called the drink of Britain in spite of the fact that almost none is grown in the UK. (There is at least one small tea growing farm in Cornwall.) It has been the beverage that fuelled the growth of empire.

Tea has been in the news again recently, it appears that regular consumption of tea may boost your memory (BBC story here) and reduce the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

If the health benefits are what you are looking for then Green tea is the way to. If like me nothing gets you started in the morning like a cup of tea then it's the black leaf every time and this still has some protective effects on the brain.

Black tea or traditional English breakfast tea, is derived from the same plant as green tea, Camellia sinensis, but has a different taste and appearance because it is fermented.

Hot tea can kill!
But now there is shock news from Iran that drinking your tea too hot can increase the risk of throat cancer! It appears that if you regularly drink tea that is hotter than 70 degress C, it increases the risk of throat cancer. This thought to be because of the repeated damage to the cells in the throat from the heat of the liquid. In Iran, tea is typically drunk black i.e. with no milk. In Britain, most people add milk and this is enough to lower the temperature to around 60 degrees C.

More tea Vicar? Splash of milk? Lovely!

Cheek chewing: a testimonial for hypnosis CD

A while back I created a hypnosis audio programme to deal with tongue and cheek chewing. It's an unusual topic area but I had come across a couple of clients with very similar needs and so created the program.

I recently sent out the CD to a lady who has been chewing the sides of her cheek for years and go the most amazing testimonial back; here is what she said.

I've been chewing my cheeks as long as I remember; I don't know why I started but I tend to chew when I'm stressed or bored, or on a long car journey. Most of the time I don't even realise I'm doing it till I draw blood, and then regret it and promise not to do it again ... till the next time.

I used one of the Gift4Life hypnotherapy CDs; this was one specially for people who chew their cheeks or tongue. I listened to the CD every night at bedtime for two weeks and to be honest I was a little bit cynical about it and didn't think it would help. However, over the course of that fortnight I noticed I was chewing my cheek less and less - and when I did do it I realised and stopped really quickly. By the end of the two weeks I'd almost stopped completely - I did catch myself doing it at a moment of great stress, so I listened to the CD again a few times and now I don't do it at all.

The CD itself was very relaxing, and quite unlike any other hypnosis CD I've heard in the past. John Burns' voice is very restful and as he invited me to visualised myself surrounded by colour I drifted away ... I can't actually remember much of what else was said, but whatever it was it obviously worked!

It's really changed my life - it might not sound like a big deal but when you chew your cheeks regularly it hurts, and you tend to leave rough bits of skin, which you then chew ... so it carries on. Having smooth, pain-free cheeks has really cheered me up and made me feel much better overall.

Alison Neale, Oxfordshire

That's hypnosis that works and it can work for you too.
You can download the program as an MP3 or buy the CD by going to my web site here.

The Jade Goody effect

Jade Goody rose to public fame after entering Channel 4's Big Brother house. She became famous (or perhaps that should be infamous) for outrageous behaviour whilst on that program and then later she took part in the Indian version of Big Brother.

She died on Mother's day, a more poignant date would be hard to imagine for this 27 year old mother. The final weeks and days of her life were lived out in a whirlwind of publicity that led towards the grim but inevitable conclusion of ever advancing cervical cancer.

As I sat in a garage cafe yesterday drinking a cup of coffee, I realised I was facing a rack of magazines and it seemed that each one featured a picture of Jade Goody on the cover. Something in her life has clearly moved many people to want to know more about her. The question is why?

By her own admission, Jade had little talent and yet lived her life through the lens of TV. What prompted people to watch and often ridicule her? And why, when her illness was diagnosed, did many people's view of her change from antagonism to sympathy?

Perhaps it is because it is so much easier for us to see what is wrong with another person's behaviour whilst being blind to our faults. We feel compelled to watch as things go wrong, just think about the 'rubbernecking effect' seen on motorways after a traffic accident. So when Jade was diagnosed with cervical cancer, some felt compelled to watch, it became a grim fascination with the impending death of another; a view into that last taboo.

Now we have a very real Jade Goody effect happening; the waiting time for a cervical smear in my local area is over a month. Women who have not had a smear test for years are now booking in to be tested. As women witnessed the heart rending path of Jade's life perhaps they came to realise that all of us are mortal no matter how famous or rich we may be.

A final thought; as Jade faced her own death head on and still shared her life with millions, somehow she became transformed from a loud mouthy TV personality to a brave mother doing anything it took to provide for her own children. Perhaps we can all be inspired by that transformation.

Changing capitalism=happiness?

There is much talk at the moment about changing capitalism to something that delivers results but has a more human face. 

President Sarkozy of France is promoting this 'New Capitalism' at the moment in the lead up to the G20 meeting.

If we believe that our actions are driven by our core beliefs, then perhaps it is these that could usefully be changed. Now that mainstream religion has become less important for many people, there is often no stock set of morals or beliefs to immediately align with. So like President Sarkozy, we are tempted to modify capitalism and maintain that as a belief system. I dub  this the "If I can just have one more handbag I'll be happy approach".

Sadly, I have found that in all the personal change work I have done with others, having one more handbag or one pair of shoes resulted in nothing more than a brief moment of satisfaction which is often followed by a sense of guilt or shame. Consumerism as a religion or core moral code does not work.

But as a society we have been in a similar position before. In the 19th century there were capitalists who both made money and had a core set of values that led them to use there business and money for the greater good.

One example of this was Joseph Rowntree, a chocolate maker and a Quaker (The Religious Society of Friends). Rowntree for example set up the first ever occupational pension scheme.  He built bought land to provide low cost housing and in 1905 set up charitable trusts that continue the work today (www.jrf.org.uk).

Could his example help us today? Not necessarily using his religion for guidance, but even anon religious  humanist could use their core inner beliefs and moral sense to guide them to a better way of working and living.

If capitalism's core belief is that any profit gained is good and that return on investment is the only true measure of worth, then we are probably doomed to repeat the boom/bust cycles every few decades. Greed will be the core belief at work and we already know that this on its own is destructive.

But just perhaps, if we and the people who invest on our behalf (pension funds for example) took a wider view than just monetary return on investment, we might have a better society for everyone.

Weight loss and hypnosis

Hypnosis and weight loss seem to go together like strawberries and cream. It is one of the key reasons why people go t a hypnotist or a hypnotherapist.

In my own practice it tends to be anxiety that clients call in for most often and the second most common issue is weight control.

It's not that clients don't know what is going on; they know that the habits they have are driving them further away from what they want to be.

Almost always there is an emotional driver that causes poor eating choices and habits, often coupled with a lack of any meaningful exercise. If we can deal effectively with the underlying emotional issue then the weight tends to fall away.

I came across this American hypnotist talking about weight loss on a news video; it's worth watching if you are considering taking this path. See the video here.

PS Yes you can call me on 01935 700333 to book sessions with me!

Cityboy; the book

I have just finished reading the book Cityboy. It is the fictionalised life of an Analyst working in the city of London finance district during the 1990s and up to the present day.(Actually to around 2004)

It is a great read but also very sobering. It exposes how the naked greed and aggression of traders can both manipulate the market and be manipulated by the potential for bonus payments that could many times annual salary.

If you want a clearer understanding of how human emotions and insecurity can drive a kind of collective madness I doubt you'll find a better book than this one.

Pac Man, progress & power pills

There are times when each of us can blocked and unable to move on to "the next level".
Whether this relates to controlling our weight or dealing with personal debt, the barriers feel the same. On occasion they may be our lack of knowledge or more often they are our own fears that hold us back.

Steve Pavlina of the web site www.stevepavlina.com talks about this on a recent post he called "levelling up". He compares life to a series of levels in a Pac-Man video game; sometimes we get stuck on a particular level, unable to gobble up all the pellets (life lessons) and blocked in by ghosts (our fears).

So if we feel stuck, perhaps we still have things to learn about on our current level, maybe we have not yet absorbed the key lessons about being where we are. It's an interesting read and well worth spending some time on (it's quite a long post).

Very definitely food for thought, check it out by clicking here.

Alcohol, the drug of choice

There is much talk in the news today about the idea of raising the price of alcohol to a minimum of 50p per unit (around$0.70). That would make the average can of 5% beer (which contains 2.2units) cost £1.10 ($1.54), quite a bit more than it would be today for a mid range product.

The purpose of the increase is to reduce alcohol consumption, which has doubled since the 1960s (more information here) to around 11.5 litres per person, per year.

It might be useful to look at some of the changes that affected that increased consumption apart from the price. In my youth (I am a man in my mid 40s) there was very little in the way of Off-Licence (i.e. not being served in a bar) outlets. If you wanted to have a drink you either bought the booze from a shop during the day (remember that they closed at 5pm) or you went to the off sales counter in the pub.

Put simply, supply was much more restricted than it is today. Since a greater proportion of the sales went through pub, Landlords were more directly in control of who that alcohol was served to. This had the effect of controlling under-age drinking reasonably well.

The demand was always there, it was the supply that was restricted.

Today we have a vast supply capability, the demand is the same (or greater) as it ever was but the social controls have all but disappeared. Those pubs still in business are often much larger (the Wetherspoons mega pub model) and run by bar staff rather than a Landlord. So the control over who is buying and drinking is much reduced.

Virtually every small shop has an alcohol licence and they have a living to make. Can you remember how much media noise there was about garages selling wine and beer and how normal that is today? Youngsters will often persuade an adult stranger to buy booze on their behalf in exchange for cash or a can. The ability to control the supply has gone. All this without even beginning to consider the impact of the famed 24 drinking licence that was supposed to deliver cafe culture and instead started the Friday night ruck culture.

The Chief Medical Officer may be right, price may be the only way to reduce overall consumption but it will not stop the demand for drugs that make living in this society more tolerable than it is today. We seem to live in a world where each of us is pushed to deliver ever more and are coping with that less and less well. If it is not alcohol, it may tum out to be Prozac or weed instead.

Alcohol misuse is a societal problem that shows up as an individuals response to intolerable pressure. In the end there has to be a recognition that our society structures need to change to make life better. That sounds like a job for a clear thinking politician and they seem to be in very short supply.

The unlikley perils of pusuing a personal growth plan

Jamie Schaab of the Merritt Herald in British Columbia, Canada has written an amusing piece about the normally hidden downside of pusuing a path of personal growth; the number of book s you have on your shelf!

Read the article here, it might make you smile.

You can now follow me on Twitter

You can now follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/johncburns.

I'm still not sure about how twitter works but this new form of microblogging seems to have many fans so I thought I'd join the twitters.

Tax chocolate to beat obesity?

Yesterday the idea of taxing chocolate as a way of beating obesity and diabetes was proposed by David Walker, a GP (family doctor) from Scotland.

Unsurprisingly many people took a dim view of this proposal, chocolate it seems is about much more than a sweet snack. Chocolate is eaten as much to change mood as anything else; typically it's eaten as aid to emotional well being not because we are hungry.

Putting a tax on something that is used to change our mood won't change consumption but will take more from the pockets of those who love chocolate.

The proposal ignores the underlying reason why we eat chocolate; it's only when we can deal effectively with the situation that causes low moods that consumption of sweet, fatty treats will reduce.

Why do students kill in their school?

Yesterday there was another case of a former student who went back to his school to kill teachers and children.

The 17 year old young man in Germany appeared to have no reason to be so angry that he could take the lives of others, so what is going on?

This latest mass killing is just another in a long line of student killings where the killer seeks to exact revenge on a real or imagined slight on their character. Invariably the killer himself (it is, so far always a male) is also killed.

In the past, some of these killers were on medications for depression or learning disorders and it prompts the question, did the medication make things better or worse? Did it hide what seem to be suicidal tendencies or did it make them more apparent?

Since any person embarking on such a mass killing knows that they are likely to killed themselves, it does appear that this is an extended version of what Americans call 'suicide by cop'. This is where a person engineers a situation that they know will end with their death through being shot by the police; for example by taking a hostage.

So is this a suicide where the person involved believes themself to have been so cheated by life that the only value they feel they have left is a posthumous notoriety that they will never be aware of?

What ever the reason it is a tragic aspect of the way we live today.

Is £93Million enough?

The UK Government recently announced an additional £13Million for mental health services to help them cope with the number of people suffering because of the economic downturn. This is in addition to the £80Million funding already provided to Primary Care Trusts.

But the question is, what will that £13Million buy?

If we assume that an average counselling or therapy session costs about £50 (for an hour) how many people will that £13Million help?

£13Million divided by £50 is 260,000 sessions. At 6 session per person that's about 43000 people that could be helped, assuming that none of that money gets swallowed up in administration (unlikley).

But with unemployment numbers set to top 3 million people this looks like a very half hearted response to the impending problem.

Even if just one in ten of those unemployed needed help that £13Million looks hopelessly inadequate. Compared to the vast sums being deployed to keep the banks afloat the difference is startling.

The term recession depression is likely to crop up a lot more in the news over the next 12 months.

Death, a policeman's perspective.

Death in the western world is still a taboo subject for many in spite of the increase in suicide.

It's not often that I read about it in a blog though and even less often would I be tempted to share it but this posting from the blog "A proper cup of tea" did make me stop and think.

Have a read...

Death

I have a rather grim sense of humour which is handy because so does everyone else in the police. It's good job too really, because if you didn't you'd crack up. In most other lines of work if someone were to announce that they'd come across a bloke with a burn on his face following an attack on him with red hot iron, you'd expect an outpouring of horror and concern. Announce it to the rest of your shift during a morning briefing at the nick however and you get the following response from your boss:

"Attacked with a red hot iron you say? Clearly that's a pressing issue."

"Well it could be. Personally I just think he was letting off steam."

And so it goes on, and everybody groans as the puns grow worse. It's not that people don't care or that they're insensitive, it's just that once you get used to going into houses that are carpeted with human and animal excrement, having to strip-search heroin addicts who haven't washed or changed their clothes for 3 months, or going to serious car accidents and then telling people that their nearest and dearest has just died, you kind of become a little bit indifferent to it all. If you actually stopped to think about how each and every assault, burglary or car accident really affected the lives of those involved, you'd break down and cry and never go to work again. The black humour becomes a defence mechanism and you don't bat an eyelid when the radio operator asks you to go to woods to look for a suicide victim who's been reported to be hanging around and scaring the local kids.

Nowhere is the ability to remain good natured and emotionally detached from your job more important than in dealing with death. I used to think that when you went to tell somone that one of their loved ones had died they'd be terribly British about it and nod politely, sit down, have a cup of tea and then mutter something like "Mustn't grumble. Next door had his leg bitten off by a crocodile last week. Terribly sore."

But the British stiff upper lip is rather more wobbly than you might imagine. You think that bereaved people wailing, screaming and hitting themselves over the head is something that only happens in far away countries but it happens in modern England too all the time, and being surrounded by a screaming, crying family from whose grief you are utterly and completely detached is a strange experience.

Even stranger is the way in which people die. I'd like to think that when I die it'll be nice and peaceful in bed surrounded by my family, although statistically I am far more likely to die of a heart attack while straining too hard on the toilet. I wish I was joking but toilet deaths are extremely common. Recently I went to a death where an 80 year old woman had died on the toilet and then sat there for a week before she was discovered. Then the time before that was another elderly lady who had been dead in bed for three days and laid there totally undisturbed by her slightly confused husband, who remarked that he thought she had been unusually quiet recently but that he didn't like to trouble her when she was resting.

Some people who have never had to tidy up the domestic (and literal) mess that a dead body brings can have a rather unhealthy fascination with the subject, but as far as death goes my advice would be to have as little to do with it as possible.

Busy on a new web page

I've been busy over the weekend revamping one of my web sites. In this case it's www.gift4life.co.uk (my main one is www.gift4life.com). The site used to have just a simple redirect to the .com address but I figured I was probably losing some traffic by not having something a bit more search engine friendly; but I have another reason to make the change as well.

I recently overheard a bank teller ask a man if he used on-line banking facilities. "oh no" he replied "that's far too risky" and went on to explain how a particular on-line incident had sworn him off this for good.

So it occurred to me that there are probably many people out there who prefer not to buy online but would still appreciate being able to get hold of relaxation and hypnosis CDs and DVDs by post. With this in mind I will be adding some information on the the www.gift4life.co.uk web site about ordering products by post, paying by cheque, credit/debit card and even postal order.

The site redesign is not finished yet but I'll be making changes to it over the next week or so. There will be some free resources as well as downloadable order forms to make life easy for those who prefer not give their card details over the internet.

IMPORTANT The www.gift4life.com site is a secure site powered by the industry leading software Actinic with all the payments handled by the UK based card processor Nochex. I have every faith in the security and integrity of the process.

The new site is simply a recognition that for some people, buying on-line will always be something they do not wish to do.

Why do we drink so much?

The Scottish government has recently proposed to set a minimum price for a unit of alcohol. This new approach is being described as a means of reducing alcohol consumption especially with 'problem drinkers'.

But while this makes alcohol more expensive it is unlikely to be a successful method of reducing consumption. Those people who drink to excess will continue to do so because what the politicians have failed to recognise is that for many people, alcohol is a form of self medication. Drinking is a way to deal with pressures in an individual's life. You can blot out just about everything with enough booze. Of course it doesn't fix the problems, but if the problem is so difficult to deal with that it seems impossible to change, then escapism can seem like a useful way out.

So if the politicians in Scotland really want to deal with drug use, (and alcohol is just another drug after all) it is the social conditions that must change. Attempting to deal with the alcohol misuse through a price increase alone is akin to dealing with the symptoms of a disease instead of the underlying cause.

I looked out the window and saw SNOW!

It still makes me feel like an 8 year child when I look out the window in the morning and see snow.

Just for a moment everyday cares and troubles are brushed aside by the luxuriant covering of pristine white snow. I check for footprints, I want to be the first, even the only person to make a mark on this new and transient environment.

Today I had some errands to run first thing in the morning and so I drove in the snow. What was so beautiful and white was quickly turning into a grey and watery slush but since I had a camera in the car I took a couple of pictures. The driveway in the picture leads to Montacute House near Yeovil in Somerset. It is owned by the National Trust and is open to visitors during the summer. You don't often see it covered in snow though.

The curse of 'The Course'

For some time now it has been almost fashionable to attend 'The Course'. Often these work sponsored training events are held in hotels or converted stately homes where attendance is a requirement from the company or organisation that employs the trainees.

Often these events are seen as little more than an irritation or an excuse for 'going on a jolly' by those who attend. Rarely do those attending a work based training event come back enthused by what they learned and all to often, little, if any change filters through to the workplace.

Donald Clark has written a powerful article on http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/ that rips into some of assumptions made about the positive outcomes available from group based courses. It's a good thought provoking read that seems to resonate with some of my own experiences of training days.

Some of the best personal training I have received has been in the 10 minute coffee break of a so called 'course' I was attending and that would be from a fellow 'trainee'. So much for 2 or 3 days of residential brain dumping. Read the piece by clicking this link.

What do your doodles reveal?

Doodling is often seen as a rather rude thing to do whilst in front of someone else. In the past it has been taken to mean that you are not paying attention to the conversation. However, recent research turns this idea on its head and shows that doodling whilst listening can actually aid memory recall.

Plymouth University conducted the study and the result was that doodlers tended to remember almost 50% more detail of a phone message than the non-doodlers.

But what do you doodle? Linear shapes like squares and cubes? Overlapping circles or wavy lines? Flowers or other natural objects? My recent doodles have included arrows and cubes.

I know graphologists will offer to interpret character traits from handwriting styles but has anyone done something similar for doodles?

Is failure the pathway to sucess?

I came across a great little article on the life hacker web site that I thought many people would appreciate.

In this time of job insecurity, it's good to be reminded that we all have skills that we can develop and use in new ways to start a new business or find a new career.

Check out the article here.