October 9, 2018

Never ever forget.

It’s been a while since our last post. I’ve been deep in my studies, still am but I found the solution surfing on the internet. Meet SANS FORGETICA, the font that helps you remember everything you’ve been reading:

March 26, 2018

Temptation bundling is the solution to Procrastination!

At last. We who love to procrastinate instead of taking care of long due tasks, like studying at the moment, finally found the solution. A friend of mine posted this article on facebook and I happened to stumble on it while, guess doing what? Yes! Exactly! Procrastinating!

Like many people, Katy Milkman knew she should be exercising more.
But each day she left her job as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania feeling exhausted and drained.

By the time she made it home, all she wanted to do was curl up on the couch and read a book or turn on her favorite TV show. On this particular day, she wanted to read The Hunger Games.

That’s when she had an idea.
What if she created a rule for herself? What if she was only allowed to read The Hunger Games when she went to the gym?

Temptation Bundling
“I struggle at the end of a long day to get myself to the gym even though I know that I should go. And at the end of a long day, I also struggle with the desire to watch my favorite TV shows instead of getting work done.

And so I actually realized that those two temptations, those two struggles I faced, could be combined to solve both problems.”

Milkman’s strategy worked. Not only did she go to the gym more often, she actually looked forward to going to the gym because it meant that she got to do one of her favorite things: read a good book or watch her favorite TV shows.

This idea that you can make it easier to perform a behavior that is good for you in the long-run by combining it with a behavior that feels good in the short-run is what Milkman refers to as “temptation bundling.” You are essentially bundling behaviors you are tempted to do with behaviors that you should do, but often neglect.

Milkman was happy with the progress that she was making in her own life, but she wanted to see if the idea extended beyond her own behavior. Given her interest in behavioral economics and her teaching post at one of the country’s finest universities, she naturally decided to design a research study.

Milkman and her colleagues studied the exercise habits of 226 students, faculty, and staff at the University of Pennsylvania. After teaching a cohort of the participants how to use temptation bundling, Milkman found that people who used temptation bundling were 29 percent to 51 percent more likely to exercise when compared to the control group. The findings were quickly published in Management Science (full study).

How to Create Your Temptation Bundle
There is a simple exercise you can use to figure out your own temptation bundling strategy.

You’re going to create a two column list:

In column one, write down the pleasures you enjoy and the temptations that you want to do.
In column two, write down the tasks and behaviors you should be doing, but often procrastinate on.
Take your time and write down as many behaviors as possible. Then, browse your list and see if you can link one of your instantly gratifying “want” behaviors with something you “should” be doing.

Here are a few common examples of temptation bundling:

Only listen to audiobooks or podcasts you love while exercising.
Only get a pedicure while processing overdue work emails.
Only watch your favorite show while ironing or doing household chores.
Eat at your favorite restaurant when conducting your monthly meeting with a difficult colleague.
temptation bundling

Getting a workout in will never feel like an urgent task on any particular day, but exercising consistently will change your health and your life.
Cleaning your office space or kitchen will rarely feel like an immediate need, but reducing clutter can clear your mind and reduce chronic stress.
Practicing the fundamentals of your craft is often boring, but when you master these core skills you begin to separate yourself from your competitors.
Temptation bundling offers a simple way to accomplish these tasks that are always important, but never feel urgent. By using your guilty pleasures pull you in, you make it easier to follow through on more difficult habits that pay off in the long-run.

May 31, 2016

Horror vacui

Or fighting the writer’s block.

Every author has probably been there. “Oh the horror! A deadline but a total writer’s block!” Staring at the empty sheet of paper, the blinking cursor. Did I hear a scoffing sound from my computer? “You won’t make it this time. This is the one that is going to blow your cover. This will be your last assignment!”
But rest assured. You’ll make the deadline. Once again it’ll work out just fine. It’s just a question of the right amount of pressure.

Writer's Block – A Supercut from Ben Watts on Vimeo.

February 5, 2016

Here’s your solution for annoying telemarketers.

Don’t you love it, when you get a phone call from some stranger wanting to sell you something you didn’t even think you needed it? Like a carpet cleaner, although you have a hardwood floor? Besides cold calls are still forbidden by the law. But some companies still seem to be unaware of this.

But the solution has finally arrived! One devious genius has created an obnoxious robot to trick telemarketers and it smells like sweet sweet revenge to us. Fed up with unwanted calls, telecom professional Roger Anderson programmed software — which he cheekily named the Jolly Roger Telephone Co. — to converse with the callers in the most infuriating way possible.
“Oh jeez, hang on, there’s a bee on my arm,” says the bot, several minutes into a recording with one confused man who’s trying to drum up business for a design company. “You keep talking, say that part again.”

Listen for yourself:

One telemarketer figures out, that he’s talking to a robot. Listen to 1:30

This one gives us the biggest satisfaction. It initially also sounds like a robot:

December 17, 2015

First you pay, then you eat.

Every ad agency has been in the situation where the question came up, how much are we willing to invest, to get an account. Numerous free hours of work, night shifts included. And at the end no account, as the potential client found a shop who’s even cheaper or willing to do the work for free (no kidding!). Can’t beat that. This can be fatal for smaller agencies, who are just starting in the advertising business. Only big agencies can afford to work for free. The video below shows how it should be absolutely natural that every work gets paid. As the restaurant owner puts it: ‘First you pay, the you eat!’ #SayNoToSpec