Gerrymandering is not only designed to preserve majorities. It’s also designed to preserve cynicism and non-participation. When I’ve been out on the campaign trail, I’ve found one thing is reliably true. Regardless of party, nobody likes gerrymandering. I got confirmation of that when I recently put together a thread on Twitter showing how gerrymandering worked in my own district. It touched a nerve. Americans agree that, in a democracy, everyone ought to have an equal vote. And they are tired of living under a rigged system.
Author: signordal
The 3 Types of People That Ruin Meetings
Aah, the office meeting. While there are many grievances in the average workplace, none is quite as loathsome as having an unproductive meeting. And yet, we still spend around 31 hours a month doing it. If you’re in the upper management, you can expect to spend 50% of your time in meetings. While some meetings- like brainstorms and quarterly reviews- are justified, many are just awful time-suckers that yield no productive results. So, what makes these meetings unproductive and so terrible? Check out these 3 types of people you should never invite to your meetings.
Naked Ned
Remember the parable about the Emperor with no clothes? Fast forward him into the 21st century, arm him with an excel spreadsheet, and get ready to have the worst meeting of your life. The naked Emperor may have a position of authority but he actually spends his time doing very little. To compensate for this, he hides behind an incomprehensible spreadsheet and spends several hours every week explaining it to the team. But, is there an explanation? Never! Instead, the naked emperor weaves together buzzwords and gibberish sounds so that nobody really understands what’s happening. He tries so hard to hide the fact that he is actually spending that six-figure salary going through Pinterest.
How To Defeat: Ask direct questions and don’t let the Emperor’s words fool you. What is that spreadsheet for? What is the ROI? What is the objective? Keep drilling until you get clear answers in English. When the Emperor inevitably trips up and makes a fool of himself, hopefully, he’ll decide that dragging everyone into a pointless meeting isn’t the best way to disguise his laziness.
Sad Sally
Sad Sally is supposed to be breaking down the budget but she’s just breaking down. Before your coffee cools, Sally has already shared with the meeting that she’s recently gone through a break-up, she’s about to get evicted or her car got a flat tire this morning. While sharing personal information with colleagues can often be a bonding experience, the Monday round-table isn’t the best time and place to do it.
How To Defeat: Create a meeting agenda and write down who gets to speak about which topic. If Sally starts veering off course in the next meeting, gently remind her to stick to the agenda.
Angry Amber
In every business, things go wrong. A team failure is hard for everyone but the only thing worse than making a mistake is being publicly raked over the coals for it. A good leader will learn from that mistake and create a plan to avoid it from happening again. A bad leader will drag everyone into a meeting to scream and throw things at them. Worse than general yelling is when a boss decides to single out one employee and scream at him in front of the entire team. That is not leadership but harassment. Generally speaking, there are two types of screaming bosses. The first one is emotionally unstable and cracks under pressure. The second one enjoys belittling people to make himself feel bigger. While neither are fun, the first boss is likely to return to normal once the crisis is over while the second type remains a toxic bully.
How To Defeat: Dealing with a toxic boss isn’t easy for anyone. You can say nothing and wait for the storm to pass, attempt to talk it out, speak to HR, or jump ship.
See Also: 3 Easy Ways To Stay Positive When Dealing With A Difficult Boss
Does This Really Need A Meeting?
The best way to make meetings better? Only host them when they’re very necessary. While a Naked Ned, Sad Sally, or Angry Amber might be too tone-deaf to realize that everyone hates their meetings, you can be a better colleague by refusing to engage in unproductive meetings.
See Also: How To Make Meetings More Effective
Not sure if you should host that meeting? The following infographic, courtesy of Fundera, has a handy flowchart to help you decide, along with key facts about the true cost of unproductive meetings.
The post The 3 Types of People That Ruin Meetings appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
9 Game-Changing Products to Improve the Quality of Your Life Today
You’re reading 9 Game-Changing Products to Improve the Quality of Your Life Today, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Most of society chooses to purchase materialistic things that don’t offer any tangible value to their lives. But like many things in life, certain products offer more rewards than others.
When it comes to improving our lifestyle, I believe that there are 3 major areas that have the most impact:
- Quality of sleep
- Increasing your productivity (time management)
- Improving your brain function
The good news is, these valuable products don’t have to break the bank either. Here are 9 game-changing products that will improve the quality of your life.
Improve your sleep
1. iGOTHAM Bluelight Blocking Eyewear
The average person spends over 10 hours a day in front of our digital screens. This includes our phones, TV, and laptops. What is blue light you ask? Exposure to blue light leads to eye strain, disruption of our sleep cycle, and macular cellular damage.
iGOTHAM has designed stylish eyewear with premium blue light blocking lenses that block up to 100% of harmful blue light. Compared to normal eyewear, it blocks nearly 5x more blue light from entering into your eyes. Best of all, they look pretty stylish!
Ever find yourself sweating from heat or shivering in cold while you sleep? This is especially evident if you sleep next to someone else. One person may be used to different sleeping temperatures to the other.
ChiliGel Body Pad allows you to control the temperature of your body by placing it inside your pillows, under your back, or anywhere else you would find useful.
3. Philips Morning Wake-up Light
Wake up feeling fully refreshed by being exposed to natural warm sunrise lighting. The morning light by Philips have versatile functions, acting as an alarm clock and as a night light.
Get more things done
4. Lumo Lift
When it comes to getting more done, posture can play a big role. And this product aims to help. Using electric buzzers, this wearable technology will zap you whenever you are slouching. Don’t worry, it won’t actually hurt you 🙂
This planner has templates in a beautiful journal to help you stay organized and get more done. My favorite part about this journal is the ability to reflect on your previous day.
6. Saent
This button will instantly block out all distractions, including social media, web pages, and other distractions that prevent you from focusing. It turns out that only 3% of people are capable of multi-tasking effectively. If you’re part of the 97%, then Saent can help!
Enhance Brain Function
This is not so much a specific product recommendation as much as it is a recipe shoutout. Bulletproof has certainly popularized this movement, where you place grass-fed butter into your freshly brewed coffee (using a blender). The goal is to add healthy fat into your diet to prevent crashes throughout your day. Powerful stuff!
8. Alpha Brain
Alpha Brain is essentially a nootropic, which claims to improve your memory & focus. Onnit is one of the many companies that sell these supplements, but they’ve done double-blind studies to show the effects of its products.
9. MCT Oil
MCT stands for medium-chain triglycerides. It’s a saturated fatty acid that is shown to have numerous health benefits, including weight loss, mood improvements, cognitive function, improvement in energy, and more. What’s great about MCT Oil is that you can add it into virtually anything you eat and drink throughout your day, including coffee, tea, shakes, salads, and more.
Which of these game-changing products did you resonate with the most? We’d love to hear your thoughts on any previous experiences you’ve had and any other products we may have missed out on!
You’ve read 9 Game-Changing Products to Improve the Quality of Your Life Today, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
>
9 Game-Changing Products to Improve the Quality of Your Life Today
You’re reading 9 Game-Changing Products to Improve the Quality of Your Life Today, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Most of society chooses to purchase materialistic things that don’t offer any tangible value to their lives. But like many things in life, certain products offer more rewards than others.
When it comes to improving our lifestyle, I believe that there are 3 major areas that have the most impact:
- Quality of sleep
- Increasing your productivity (time management)
- Improving your brain function
The good news is, these valuable products don’t have to break the bank either. Here are 9 game-changing products that will improve the quality of your life.
Improve your sleep
1. iGOTHAM Bluelight Blocking Eyewear
The average person spends over 10 hours a day in front of our digital screens. This includes our phones, TV, and laptops. What is blue light you ask? Exposure to blue light leads to eye strain, disruption of our sleep cycle, and macular cellular damage.
iGOTHAM has designed stylish eyewear with premium blue light blocking lenses that block up to 100% of harmful blue light. Compared to normal eyewear, it blocks nearly 5x more blue light from entering into your eyes. Best of all, they look pretty stylish!
Ever find yourself sweating from heat or shivering in cold while you sleep? This is especially evident if you sleep next to someone else. One person may be used to different sleeping temperatures to the other.
ChiliGel Body Pad allows you to control the temperature of your body by placing it inside your pillows, under your back, or anywhere else you would find useful.
3. Philips Morning Wake-up Light
Wake up feeling fully refreshed by being exposed to natural warm sunrise lighting. The morning light by Philips have versatile functions, acting as an alarm clock and as a night light.
Get more things done
4. Lumo Lift
When it comes to getting more done, posture can play a big role. And this product aims to help. Using electric buzzers, this wearable technology will zap you whenever you are slouching. Don’t worry, it won’t actually hurt you 🙂
This planner has templates in a beautiful journal to help you stay organized and get more done. My favorite part about this journal is the ability to reflect on your previous day.
6. Saent
This button will instantly block out all distractions, including social media, web pages, and other distractions that prevent you from focusing. It turns out that only 3% of people are capable of multi-tasking effectively. If you’re part of the 97%, then Saent can help!
Enhance Brain Function
This is not so much a specific product recommendation as much as it is a recipe shoutout. Bulletproof has certainly popularized this movement, where you place grass-fed butter into your freshly brewed coffee (using a blender). The goal is to add healthy fat into your diet to prevent crashes throughout your day. Powerful stuff!
8. Alpha Brain
Alpha Brain is essentially a nootropic, which claims to improve your memory & focus. Onnit is one of the many companies that sell these supplements, but they’ve done double-blind studies to show the effects of its products.
9. MCT Oil
MCT stands for medium-chain triglycerides. It’s a saturated fatty acid that is shown to have numerous health benefits, including weight loss, mood improvements, cognitive function, improvement in energy, and more. What’s great about MCT Oil is that you can add it into virtually anything you eat and drink throughout your day, including coffee, tea, shakes, salads, and more.
Which of these game-changing products did you resonate with the most? We’d love to hear your thoughts on any previous experiences you’ve had and any other products we may have missed out on!
You’ve read 9 Game-Changing Products to Improve the Quality of Your Life Today, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
>
Be an encourager…
via Bits Of Wisdom http://ift.tt/2AMCfml
God’s Oppressed Children
Sujatha Gidla’s Ants Among Elephants, which records the life of a Dalit family in the central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and spans nearly a century, significantly enriches the new Dalit literature in English. Gidla grew up in India and now works as a conductor on the New York City subway. She knew firsthand the poverty and discrimination that several generations of her family had suffered. Defiant in the face of endless cruelty and misery, and tender with its victims, she seems determined to render the truth of a historical experience in all its dimensions, complexity, and nuance. The result is a book that combines many different genres—memoir, history, ethnography, and literature—and is outstanding in the intensity and scale of its revelations.
Here’s a spellbinding shot of this week’s snow at Catoctin…
Here’s a spellbinding shot of this week’s snow at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland. With 25 miles of hiking trails, popular trout fishing streams, great camping spots, horseback riding paths and beginner skiing areas, Catoctin is as fun as it is lovely. Photo by John Zuke, National Park Service.
Mark Dion: The Science of Art
“Misadventures of a 21st-Century Naturalist” isn’t comprehensive, but it offers a good overview of Mark Dion’s art. Viewers get an introduction to his primary method: gathering objects—whether on a self-conducted excavation or through the more casual means of collecting—and arranging them according to varying logics to create meticulous tableaux, often in the form of cabinets. At the heart of this practice is a challenging but fruitful contradiction: Dion is a dedicated artist and environmentalist who repurposes older methods of museological and scientific inquiry, which are mired in colonialism and anthropocentric belief systems, in an effort to expose them.
Early morning sun creates a tunnel of light along the Craggy…
Early morning sun creates a tunnel of light along the Craggy Pinnacle Trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. As fall colors fade and snow covers the upper elevations, the Blue Ridge Parkway offers amazing views of rolling mountains trimmed with frost and fog. This is a park that keeps you coming back. Photo by Michael Sherburne (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Sig Nordal 