【推荐2】Imagine that on a Friday afternoon, before leaving work to start your weekend, you are asked to solve two problems that require creative thinking. Do you: 1). Spend the first half of your time attempting the first problem and the second half of your time attempting the second; 2). Alternate between the two problems at a regular, predetermined interval (e.g., switching every five minutes); 3). Switch between the problems at your own discretion (自行决定).

If you are like the hundreds of people to whom we posed this question, you would choose to switch between the two problems at your own discretion. After all, this approach offers maximum autonomy and flexibility, enabling you to change tracks from one problem to the other when you feel stuck.

But if coming up with creative answers is your goal, this approach may not be ideal. Instead, switching between the problems at a regular, predetermined interval will likely yield the best results, according to research we published in the March issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

In an experiment, we randomly assigned participants to one of the three approaches. Participants who were instructed to continually switch back and forth between two problems at a fixed interval were significantly more likely to find the correct answer to both problems than participants who switched at their own discretion or halfway through the allotted time. The issue with both other approaches seemed to be that people failed to recognize when rigid thinking crept in. Participants who didn’t step away from a task at regular intervals were more likely to write “new” ideas that were very similar to the last one they had written. While they might have felt that they were on a roll, the reality was that, without the breaks afforded by continual task switching, their actual progress was limited.

The findings suggest that the hustle and bustle of your daily work life may facilitate your creativity if it leads you to step away from a task and reset your thinking.

So when you’re working on tasks that would benefit from creative thinking, consciously insert breaks at regular intervals—use a timer if you have to. When it goes off, switch tasks: Organize your receipts, check your email, or clean your desk, and then return to the original task. If you’re hesitant to break away because you feel that you’re on a roll, be mindful that it might be a false impression. We tend to generate redundant ideas when we don’t take regular breaks; ask yourself whether your latest ideas are qualitatively different. Finally, don’t skip your lunch breaks, and don’t feel guilty about taking breaks, especially when you are feeling stuck. Doing so may actually be the best use of your time.

【推荐3】Sometimes you may want to start a new good habit and it's difficult to do. You 've made good plans, but your body just doesn't do what you want it to do. On the other hand all bad habits started innocently enough,     1     Then, over time, as you practiced the habit over and over again, they seemed like they were a natural way to behave. Here are some tips for doing away with bad habits,

Create or change one habit at a time.

When you want to change a bad habit don't try to work on more than one at a time.     2     You may want to start with a smaller habit first, and once you' ve mastered it then you can move on to another habit that's more difficult for you.

    3    

Tell your commitment to create a new habit to your family, friends and co-workers. The more people, the better. Make a promise to text them, call them or con-tact them online as soon as there's a problem. Keep all these people updated on your progress to make you responsible to them.

Communicate with yourself too.

Remind yourself often of your commitment.     4    .Write down every day what happens, what your feelings are, and how you'll continue to create the new habit or change this bad habit. The journal helps you stay motivated, especially if you can see your progress every day.

Deal positively with relapse( 退步).

If you relapse, don't give up. First, figure out what happened what thoughts went through your mind and what to do or think differently next time.     5     Learn from your failure so that your failure becomes a positive thing that helps you to succeed.