Check out the Men's Health November 2008 issue

If you happen to pick up the November issue of Men's Health Magazine, turn to page 26 for some tasty advice from yours truly. My thoughts were in response to the reader question When I'm Driving To The Office, Is It Better To Jumpstart My Brain With Talk Radio, Or Chill Out With Music? I'm always enjoy contributing to these, so feel free to send reporters my way.

And having Barack Obama on the cover? I was quite happy to make room for him :-)

As an aside, if you haven't seen it, you might enjoy the short New York Times article Obama on Vacationing and Time to Think in which he says:

...the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking.

Just what I tell my clients!

Comments

[DanGTD]

Congratulations for appearing in Men's Health.
But I wonder if in these days, after lowering the stress with some music, turning to the news will not raise the stress level again. :)

[matthewcornell]

Thanks for noticing it! The interviewer was at first looking for a black and white answer. I tried to give some balance.

[The Brainy One]

I think it depends how you feel at the time, I often listen to music but depending on what going on in the world, I switch to news or talks.
X C

[Lisa Braithwaite]

Congratulations, Matt! I was quoted in Men's Health in Jan/Feb 2007 and I've been waiting for them to call me back ever since. :-)

[matthewcornell]

Congrats! Did you get any work directly from it? I'm thinking of it as a continuation of working to get established as an expert (including blogging). Still, a nice lift.

[Drew Tarvin]

I always wonder the same thing- what's the best use of my time on the subway in the morning.

I recently wrote an article on [ motivators and demotivators | http://www.drewtarvin.com/blog/articles/identify-your-triggers-for-a-more-productive-day/ ], what are your thoughts on identify the right triggers to stay productive throughout the day?

[matthewcornell]

I'll have a look at your article. What I tell my clients is to always carry work for those "between" moments, including reading and/or tools and support files for whittling away at your tasks.

[Drew Tarvin]

The small tasks things make sense. Any thoughts on breaks during the day? I've found that if I take a break from work I come back more productive, but only if I take the right kind of break. If I browse the Internet, a lot of times I'll lose motivation.

[matthewcornell]

Getting away from the screen makes a lot of sense, both for the movement and the change of type of focus. After a little research:

First, there are arguments for these from the ergonomic perspective, e.g., from [ Ergonomic Microbreaks | http://www.stanford.edu/dept/EHS/prod/general/ergo/microbreaks.html ]:

Break and Microbreak Suggestions

• Avoid extended periods of continuous tasks (such as typing or pipetting) by taking short breaks (~2 min) or performing other tasks (maximum of 30 minutes continuous computer use/repetitive lab task at any time).


• Take microbreaks (approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute) every 10 minutes to rest the upper and lower extremities, back, neck, and eyes.
  

Then there is the productivity side of these, e.g., [ Study: Prompts for computer breaks increase productivity | http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/99/9.30.99/microbreaks.html ], which talks about the benefits WRT keystroke and mouse use were "13 percent more accurate on average" when using computer-generated break alerts.

Thanks for your comment!

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