Complaining Is Terrible for You, According to Science

By Jessica Stillman, Inc.com, Feb. 29, 2016:

Why do people complain? Not to torture others with their negativity, surely. When most of us indulge in a bit of a moan, the idea is to “vent.” By getting our emotions out, we reason, we’ll feel better.

But science suggests there are a few serious flaws in that reasoning. One, not only does expressing negativity tend not to make us feel better, it’s also catching, making listeners feel worse. “People don’t break wind in elevators more than they have to. Venting anger is…similar to emotional farting in a closed area. It sounds like a good idea, but it’s dead wrong,” psychologist Jeffrey Lohr, who has studied venting, memorably explained.

OK, so complaining is bad for your mood and the mood of your friends and colleagues, but that’s not all that’s wrong with frequent negativity. Apparently, it’s also bad for your brain and your health. Yes, really.

On Psych Pedia, Steven Parton, an author and student of human nature, explains how complaining not only alters your brain for the worse but also has serious negative repercussions for your mental health. In fact, he goes so far as to say complaining can literally kill you. Here are three of the ways he claims that complaining harms your health:

1. “Synapses that fire together wire together.” This is one of the first lessons neuroscience students learn, according to Parton. “Throughout your brain there is a collection of synapses separated by empty space called the synaptic cleft. Whenever you have a thought, one synapse shoots a chemical across the cleft to another synapse, thus building a bridge over which an electric signal can cross, carrying along its charge the relevant information you’re thinking about,” Parton explains.

“Here’s the kicker,” he continues. “Every time this electrical charge is triggered, the synapses grow closer together in order to decrease the distance the electrical charge has to cross…. The brain is rewiring its own circuitry, physically changing itself, to make it easier and more likely that the proper synapses will share the chemical link and thus spark together–in essence, making it easier for the thought to trigger.”

So let’s boil that down–having a thought makes it easier for you to have that thought again. That’s not good news for the perpetually gloomy (though happily, it seems gratitude, can work the opposite way, building up your positivity muscles). It gets worse, too. Not only do repeated negative thoughts make it easier to think yet more negative thoughts, they also make it more likely that negative thoughts will occur to you just randomly walking down the street. (Another way to put this is that being consistently negative starts to push your personality towards the negative).

Parton explains how these closer synapses result in a generally more pessimistic outlook: “Through repetition of thought, you’ve brought the pair of synapses that represent your [negative] proclivities closer and closer together, and when the moment arises for you to form a thought…the thought that wins is the one that has less distance to travel, the one that will create a bridge between synapses fastest.” Gloom soon outraces positivity.

2. You are whom you hang out with. Not only does hanging out with your own negative thoughts rewire your brain for negativity, hanging out with negative people does much the same. Why?

“When we see someone experiencing an emotion (be it anger, sadness, happiness, etc.), our brain ‘tries out’ that same emotion to imagine what the other person is going through. And it does this by attempting to fire the same synapses in your own brain so that you can attempt to relate to the emotion you’re observing. This is basically empathy. It is how we get the mob mentality…. It is our shared bliss at music festivals,” Parton writes. “But it is also your night at the bar with your friends who love love love to constantly bitch.”

The takeaway lesson is, if you want to strengthen your capacity for positivity and weaken your reflex for gloom, “surround yourself with happy people who rewire your brain towards love.”

3. Stress is terrible for your body, too. All of which sounds like a good argument for staying away from negativity to protect your mental health, but Parton insists that quitting the complaining habit is essential for your physical health, too. “When your brain is firing off these synapses of anger, you’re weakening your immune system; you’re raising your blood pressure, increasing your risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes, and a plethora of other negative ailments,” he says.

The culprit is the stress hormone cortisol. When you’re negative, you release it, and elevated levels of the stuff, “interfere with learning and memory, lower immune function and bone density, increase weight gain, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease…. The list goes on and on,” says Parton.

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Are You Lacking in the True Knowledge?

By Dennis Edwards:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.[1]

What is this lack of knowledge that the Lord is talking about? First we need to understand what knowledge is when used in the Bible. One author made the following summary: 

The word “knowledge” in the Bible denotes an understanding, a recognition, or an acknowledgment. To “know” something is to perceive it or to be aware of it. Many times in Scripture, knowledge carries the idea of a deeper appreciation of something or a relationship with someone. The Bible is clear that the knowledge of God is the most valuable knowledge a human being can possess. But it is also clear that simply being aware of God’s existence is not sufficient; the knowledge of God must encompass the deep appreciation for and relationship with Him.[2]

Another author expresses knowledge in the Biblical sense in this manner:

The Hebrew root “yada,” translated "know"/"knowledge, " appears almost 950 times in the Hebrew Bible. It has a wider sweep than our English word "know," including perceiving, learning, understanding, willing, performing, and experiencing. To know is not to be intellectually informed about some abstract principle, but to apprehend and experience reality. Knowledge is not the possession of information, but rather its exercise or actualization.

Thus, Biblically to know God is not to know about him in an abstract and impersonal manner, but rather to enter into his saving actions. To know God is not to struggle philosophically with his eternal essence, but rather to recognize and accept his claims. It is not some mystical contemplation, [3] but rather an intimate relationship.

When we look in Proverbs we find that the beginning of understanding or knowledge is the fear of the Lord. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.[4]

In another Proverb we read,

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.[5]

And another:

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.[6]

The Lord was telling His people that they had rejected knowledge. They had lost their fear of the Lord. In other words, there was no fear of God in the land and the people went about their own way. Therefore, because of their lack of fear of the Lord and lack of obedience to His commandments, which were not grievous, God was rejecting them. 

In the Old Testament we read that when Jehoshaphat began to re-teach the tribe of Judah from the book of the Law of Moses, that

And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.[7]

So sometimes the fear of the Lord falls upon the people because of some event that takes place. A tsunami, an earthquake, a hurricane, a tornado, a war, or the re-dedicating to God’s Word may be events that cause people to have a fear of the Lord.

In the New Testament we read,

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.[8]

If we stop fearing the Lord by rejecting God in our knowledge, we end up being reprobate fools believing lies. Apostle Paul writes, 

because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.[9]

In fact Paul tells us that these two facts, people not retaining God in their knowledge and people believing lies, are indications of decadency and would be prevalent before Christ’s second coming.

In the Psalms we read,

I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.[10]

Jesus makes the same point when he tells the parable of the houses built upon the sand and the rock. He states that whosoever hears His word and follows its instruction, would be a wise man.[11]

In Proverbs we find the Lord stretching forth His hand unto his people, but no man regarding it.[12] He says, 

Ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.[13]

Because we do not listen and desire the Lord’s instruction and knowledge – when finally we are in trouble and in need of His help, He says,

They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.[14]

Why? Because 

They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. [15]

In another Proverb we see that if we receive the Lord’s words, if we seek His knowledge as one that searches for a hidden treasure,

Then shall thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.[16]

The idea of desperately seeking for the Lord and finding Him fits exactly with the Lord’s words through Jeremiah when he said,

Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.[17]

Jesus said something very similar, when He said that they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.[18] He also framed the first and most important commandment as 

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.[19]

In Isaiah we read,

Ho, every one that thirsts, come ye to the waters, and he that has no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.[20]

In other words, like Jesus said, we are to seek the Lord and relationship with Him to be satisfied. I can’t get no satisfaction with the things of the world, because God has made me a spiritual being. Only relationship with Him, which cost no money, can bring satisfaction of heart, mind and spirit. We are made in His image. [21]

God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.[22]

Apostle Peter tells us to

Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.[23]

We need to separate and make holy our relationship with God. It needs to be the single most important aspect of our lives. If we truly do that, put God first and make that relationship with Him special, then we will learn the fear of the Lord. With the fear of the Lord we will learn knowledge or right doctrine, so that we can properly defend the faith with reasons and answers for those seeking them.

In Isaiah we read, 

Whom shall He teach knowledge? And to whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast.[24]

Apostle Peter says that new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby.[25] So God's Word needs to be to us like a baby on its mother's breast. We need to be in relationship with God's Word. We need to be sucking from God's Word. We need to find our spiritual nourishment from God's Word. If we are constantly feeding on God’s Word and being obedient to His voice through His Word, then we will get understanding, knowledge and wisdom. 

Paul goes on to say,

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.[26]

Isaiah tells us,

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.[27]

In other words, only with a thorough understanding of God’s Word, because it has become our life-blood, can we really have knowledge and wisdom and learn doctrine. 

In Psalms we learn it’s important to meditate upon God’s Word day and night. We read that blessed is the man whose 

delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night.[28]

In the book of Joshua we read, 

But this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate therein day and night.[29]

Paul tells his disciple Timothy to 

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.[30]

But if we continue reading from each of the above passages, we read that the person whose puts God first by spending time in His word and meditates there on gets the following blessing:

whatsoever he does shall prosper,[31]

for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success,[32]

that thy profiting may appear to all.[33]

Do you want to have good success? Do you want to be seen profiting by your peers? Do you want to prosper? Do you want true knowledge and understanding? Do you want wisdom? Then put God first in your life. Put God’s Word first in your life. Put your relationship with God first in your life.

Put love first in your life, for God is love.[34] Get your priorities straight and God will work everything else out. He’s promised to. He said, 

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.[35]

Have a great week! I love you!

[1] Hosea 4:6 

[2] http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-knowledge.html 

[3]http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/know-knowledge.html 

[4] Proverbs 1:7 

[5] Proverbs 9:10 

[6] Proverbs 4:7 

[7] 2Chronicles 17:10 

[8] Romans 1:28 

[9] 2Thessalonians 2:10-11 

[10] Psalm 119:99-100 

[11] Matthew 7:24 

[12] Proverbs 1:24 

[13] Proverbs 1:25 

[14] Proverbs 1:28 

[15] Proverbs 1:29 

[16] Proverbs 2:5 

[17] Jeremiah 29:13 

[18] Matthew 5:6 

[19] Mark 12:30 

[20] Isaiah 55:1-3 

[21] Génesis 1:27 

[22] John 4:24 

[23] 1Peter 3:15 

[24] Isaiah 28:9 

[25] 1Peter 2:2 

[26] 2Timothy 2:15 

[27] Isaiah 28:10 

[28] Palm 1:2 

[29] Joshua 1:8 

[30] 1Timothy 4:15 

[31] Psalm 1:3 

[32] Joshua 1:8 

[33] 1Timothy 4:15 

[34] 1John 4:8 

[35] Matthew 6:33

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Is it time for Britain to give up its nuclear weapons?

By Elisabeth Braw, CS Monitor, March 11, 2016:

LONDON–Britain is one of the world’s few nuclear-armed powers.

But should it be?

That question is under increasing public debate in Britain, especially after Defense Minister Michael Fallon’s announcement that the government will invest £642 million ($910 million) in Britain’s nuclear submarines.

“Our nuclear deterrent provides the ultimate guarantee of our security and our way of life,” Mr. Fallon said in a statement. “That’s why we are getting on with this investment.” The announcement seemed intended to preempt a vote on Trident renewal by the British parliament.

But with the threat of nuclear annihilation overshadowed by more immediate economic and national issues–including tensions between Scotland and Westminster and between London and Brussels–some Britons are asking whether the country’s small but expensive fleet of nuclear submarines is worthwhile any more.

During the British nuclear program’s six-decade existence, the former empire has shrunk to a mid-sized power that sometimes feels at odds even with its allies in the European Union. Trident, however, puts it in the same league as its fellow UN Security Council members, the United States, Russia, China, and France–all nuclear-armed states.

“Since the end of the cold war, the justification for Trident has really been that of a long-term ‘insurance policy’ made on the basis that we cannot predict the shape of the security environment in 15-20 years’ time,” explains Ben Jones, a former defense adviser for the Liberal Democrat party and an academic defense expert. “For many this is not enough to justify the expense, although I suspect that Russia’s recent behavior will have put some agnostics back in the pro-Trident camp.”

Still, any NATO ally is automatically protected by the US nuclear umbrella.

“There’s no need for Britain to have its own nuclear deterrent, just as little as there is a need for Lithuania to have its own nuclear deterrent,” notes Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. “Britain’s nuclear deterrent has more to do with tradition, national prestige, and some people in London believing that Britain must have its own nuclear strike option despite the US security guarantee.”

Indeed, Trident, is in a sense, the military equivalent of Brexit: a way for Britain to publicly beef up its status as a country that stands above its EU and NATO allies. A parliamentary vote on the future of Trident, initially requested by the Ministry of Defense for around Easter, has been postponed and is now unlikely to take place in the current parliamentary session, which ends in late June. The Brexit referendum will be held on June 23.

Britain’s nuclear stockpile is, in fact, rather modest: some 215 warheads carried by the four nuclear submarines that sail around the world’s oceans, compared to the US nuclear arsenal of an estimated 6,970 warheads that can be dropped from planes, mounted on ballistic missiles or carried by submarines.

Russia maintains the world’s largest nuclear stockpile, an estimated 7,300 warheads, and even France and China have more warheads–an estimated 300 and 260 each–than Britain, according to the Federation of American Scientists, which maintains the most trusted database of world nuclear stockpiles.

And the program is not cheap: the government estimates total cost of Trident renewal to be £31 billion.

But renewing Trident would create jobs. As a result, even Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s pacifist, left-wing leader, supports keeping the nuclear submarines. In January, he suggested that the submarines could sail around the world without nuclear weapons, an idea met with widespread ridicule as the warhead-less nuclear submarines would signal British impotence. Some Labour parliamentarians, meanwhile oppose renewing the submarines.

In Scotland, where the submarines are based, Trident is also a sore subject. While the fleet provides jobs to many around its Faslane base, the nation’s dominant Scottish National Party is utterly opposed to their presence. “We believe that nuclear weapons are immoral, ineffective and expensive. In times of imposed austerity, the £100 billion which would be spent on a Trident replacement over the next 30 years could be far, far more effectively used on improving healthcare, childcare, education and building a better future for our children,” the party argues on its website.

The fact that Fallon announced the new investment–which will be followed by several other disbursements–before Parliament has voted on the matter has left nuclear disarmament activists and Scottish politicians alike incensed.

“Yes, Trident is a status symbol,” acknowledges Arthur West, a Trident opponent in Ayrshire, Scotland. “But it’s a very expensive status symbol.” As Anthony King, a professor of war studies at Warwick University, points out, the money to renew Trident may be better spent on conventional weapons as well as emerging capabilities such as drones and cyber-defense.

Most Britons, however, support keeping the expensive status symbol: a January poll shows 51 percent in favor of full renewal, 29 percent in favor Mr. Corbyn’s non-nuclear subs, and only 20 percent opposed to renewal. Scots trend the other way: 38 percent oppose Trident renewal, 36 percent in favor, and 26 percent for non-nuclear subs. Trident is certain to play a large role when Scots go to the polls on May 16.

For now, Mr. West and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament are occupying themselves monitoring the transport of Trident warheads across their nation. Sighed West, “Nuclear warheads are part of life here.”

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A Lumber Executive Loses His Voice and Finds Balance

By Jennifer Van Allen, NY Times, March 9, 2016:

CASCO, Me.–Kevin Hancock, chief executive of his family’s lumber company, thought things could not possibly get worse: The housing market was sputtering, hundreds of lumberyards had shut down and his company had to resort to painful cuts, hiring freezes and layoffs at its sawmills and retail stores.

The future of Hancock Lumber, started in 1848, and the livelihoods of hundreds of workers weighed heavily.

“It was pretty stressful,” Mr. Hancock said.

Then, he lost his voice.

When he tried to talk, his throat would tighten. He sounded and felt as if he were being strangled. What Mr. Hancock initially dismissed as a sore throat was diagnosed as spasmodic dysphonia, an incurable neurological condition that causes spasms in the vocal cords and is made worse by stress.

Mr. Hancock worried whether his work would prevent him from regaining consistent use of his normal speaking voice. He wondered whether he could continue as chief executive.

He did.

That was in 2010. Today he considers the loss of his voice a positive turning point. It prompted a trip to one of the most impoverished corners of the country. And in the five years since, the privately held company has hit record levels of efficiency and productivity, and sales of nearly $140 million in 2015.

It is not known what causes spasmodic dysphonia, which affects an estimated 50,000 people in the United States, including the radio host Diane Rehm and the environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. For some people, like Mr. Hancock, the initial onset follows a stressful event, said Dr. Andrew Blitzer, director of the New York Center for Voice and Swallowing Disorders.

Mr. Hancock got temporary relief from speech therapy, and from injections of Botox into the muscles of his larynx, a standard treatment.

When his symptoms were at their worst, efforts to speak left him gasping and sore. “It was pretty isolating,” he said.

He had to reinvent the way he worked. At meetings he once led, he now sat in the second row, jotting down notes. As he spoke less and listened more, he discovered how many managers and front-line employees had ideas for changes and wanted to take responsibility for them. He began delegating more.

“You see the passion and ideas coming from others,” he said. “People are smart, and they know what needs to happen and they want to do a good job.”

By 2012, the company had regained firm financial footing, and Mr. Hancock was ready to take some time off.

He had always been interested in the history of the American West in the late 19th century. He had read about the severe housing shortage at Pine Ridge, an Oglala Lakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota. He felt drawn there.

At Pine Ridge, Mr. Hancock completely unplugged from his duties as chief executive. And he began to realize how much those duties had come to define him.

“I learned that being C.E.O. of Hancock Lumber was just a role that I played,” he said. “I felt that I acquired S.D. because I had become too consumed in my roles and work responsibilities. I needed to bring more balance into my life, which for me meant that the work would be important but not all-consuming.”

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Astronomers just discovered a structure that’s bigger than anything that’s ever been found in the universe

Becca Stanek, The Week, March 11, 2016:

Astronomers have discovered a wall in space so huge that even Donald Trump would be impressed by its size. The wall, aptly named the BOSS Great Wall after the international galaxy mapping effort Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, marks the biggest cosmic structure ever observed in the universe. It’s comprised of 830 separate galaxies, spans 1 billion light years across, and has a mass estimated to be 10,000 times greater than that of our own Milky Way.

But wait, a wall in space? Scientists explain that these walls, which are the biggest things in space, are formed when gravity pulls galaxies together forming superclusters. Those superclusters are then linked together by filaments of hot gas, forming walls that Smithsonian Magazine says resemble “a cosmic honeycomb.”

The discovery of the BOSS Great Wall comes as researchers for Sloan Digital Sky Survey attempt to map space’s web of walls to gain insight into the universe’s past, its present size, and its future growth. And while the BOSS is big, what’s even more surprising is that scientists think that even bigger structures are still out there.

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How Asking 5 Questions Allowed Me to Eat Dinner With My Kids

By Charles Duhigg, NY Times, March 10, 2016:

Four years ago, when I began working on a book about the secrets of productivity, I had a hidden motivation: I wanted to figure out how to eat dinner with my kids.

Both my wife and I had demanding jobs. We have two sons–now 7 and 4–and knew it was important to eat dinner together. But it proved consistently impossible for us all to sit down at the same time. Every morning, we would announce our intentions of leaving work early enough to dine as a family. 

But one thing would lead to another, we would get delayed at the office, and then the babysitter would call to say that the children were starving and so we would tell her to appease them with snacks. Most parents know where this leads: Kids all hopped up on Pirate’s Booty, parents guiltily sipping wine while re-heating leftovers, full of self-recriminations and promises that next week, things will be different. Until, that is, next week rolls around and the same thing happens again.

So, when I began interviewing exceptionally productive companies and people for my book, “Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business,” I often asked them to help me solve our family’s woes. I eventually found a solution in the most unlikely of places–an old car factory–and a method known as “the Five Whys.”

In the 1980s, the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota opened its first American plant in Fremont, Calif. The factory was guided by a management philosophy known as the Toyota Production System, which at its core holds that even the most complex problems have simple causes–if you know how to look for them.

For us, “the Five Whys” worked in a fairly straightforward manner. We began by identifying a problem: We never managed to have family dinner. Then we explored, at the most surface level, why that was true: Because my wife and I always got home later than we expected.

Then came another question: Why were we getting home so late? The answer was that, although we intended to leave the office by 5, we often found it impossible to walk away from our desks because there were so many miscellaneous tasks we had ignored during the day.

That prompted the third question: Why had we ignored all those tasks? Well, inevitably, we arrived at work each morning just as our first meetings were starting, and so rather than deal with unread memos and emails, we put them aside until later in the day–and then, when we finally got to them, there were new memos and emails that demanded our attention.

The fourth question: Why were we arriving at work right before our first meetings, rather than earlier in the day? Because although we always intended to leave the house at 8 and get the kids to school, we usually ran late, and didn’t get out the door until 8:20 or so.

And, finally, why were we leaving the house later than we planned? Because it took so long to get the kids dressed in the morning that we always left later than we expected.

We had started by identifying a problem–we never managed to have family dinner–and by using “the Five Whys” found a root cause: Our kids were taking too long to get dressed in the morning. Before conducting this exercise, I had never suspected that there was a connection between our morning routines and our evening mealtimes. But once we forced ourselves to ask why after why, it was clear what needed to change. 

If we could convince our kids to get dressed earlier, we could make it out the door faster, and in turn would have time at our desks to deal with emails and memos before the day started getting crazy, and then we would be able to leave work earlier, and make it home in time to have dinner together. So we instituted a new family rule: Now, each night before going to bed, our kids lay out their clothes for the next day, and then they get dressed as soon as they wake up.

Researchers have found that this method of looking for root causes works in dozens of settings. “The Toyota Production System is arguably the most important invention in operations since Henry Ford’s Model T began rolling off the production line,” the Harvard Business Review observed in 2011. The Five Whys is “a process of continually asking questions until you get to the root cause,” and getting closer and closer to a problem until you understand what’s really going on. The Five Whys method has helped managers eliminate waste, aided executives in figuring out what projects to pursue and which to discard, helped children understand how to analyze problems and find solutions and assisted teachers in creating environments where even underperforming students can succeed.

At the center of the Five Whys–and the reason it’s so effective–is a basic insight: “Productivity” means different things to different people, but at its core, it’s about thinking a little more deeply about the choices we make every day. For my book, I interviewed neurologists and executives, as well as the filmmakers behind “Frozen” and teachers who transformed the Cincinnati school system, and found each of them echoing this idea. Productivity isn’t about running faster or pushing yourself harder, but rather, about working smarter and paying a bit more attention to what is really going on.

Nowadays, our kids are dressed every morning by 7:30. They choose their outfits the night before, and we’ve made a game of laying out their clothes before they fall asleep. It’s a small shift in how we get things done, but the impact has been profound: Mornings are calmer, we’re out the door more promptly, we get home from work earlier and we usually have dinner as a family at least three times a week. Applying business strategies can’t solve every problem in every family, and productivity isn’t every family’s goal, but understanding how to analyze problems by drilling down to their roots can go a long way toward making life easier.

And in my house, learning to make small adjustments in our routines is delivering big returns. Parenting will never be considered a purely productive activity–but it’s getting easier, and better, every day.

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