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This week I was in London, UK, for a friend’s wedding and to visit my sister. London is a beautiful city with so many interesting boroughs that you can easily spend a full day in. I was also blown away by how well they’ve integrated green spaces and parks into the city – something cities (like Toronto) can learn from.
I also had a chance to visit the London branch of The School of Life. I love their focus on developing emotionally intelligence and their store was full of interesting personal development resources.
It’s another motley assortment of tips, resources, and links that will hopefully give you a bit of inspiration for the upcoming week. Enjoy!
What I’m reading —
What Do You Want to Create and Why Haven’t You Done It? by Neil Strauss
We’re at our best when we can create something to share with the world. Overcoming the fear and status quo has many benefits; Neil reminds us to forget about the outcome and experience the process of creating something you believe in.
A quote that’s inspiring me —
The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive.
— Seneca
“ah-ha!” thought of the week —
Use tools for their intended purpose.
We hear more these days about the negative impacts of tools like our smart phones. They distract us, reduce our ability to focus, and even impact the quality of the relationships with people around us.
Paradoxically, one of the reasons why tools like the smart phone is reducing our ability to focus is because of how versatile it is. On the surface it’s nice to have a device that can do many different things. But when you start adding things like news, music, podcasts, the web, email, messaging, etc. etc. you can easily get lost in this labyrinth of stuff.
This can’t be good for our (easily distracted) brains.
I suggest that we shift our thinking with each device that we own and use it for its intended purpose. A phone is a communication device so it should strictly be used for that purpose – calling, texting, and emailing. For entertainment or informational purposes, use your computer, tv, or some other device. Just don’t mix up the intended purpose; our brains love distraction and the dopamine hit – prevent it from being a click away by keeping your phone clear from these non-essentials.
App that I’m loving —
Moves is an app that shows you all the places you visited during the day along with a step and distance count.
I found it really interesting while I’ve been traveling over the past couple of weeks to see where I’ve been. It’s a nice little recap of my travels and helpful for orienting myself especially in a foreign country.
The bad news is that it uses up quite a bit of battery. My iPhone SE barely made it through the day with Moves running in the background.
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Featured image via Gratisography.
As always, thanks for checking out this Weekly Learnings Roundup. Follow me on Twitter @peternakamura to see the full list of articles that I share on a daily basis.
Peter Nakamura 