【推荐1】We clearly live in an era with little patience. Entire TV series are available at once on streaming services, and burning questions are solved in seconds via a search engine. This instant satisfaction, undoubtedly, is killing our ability to wait.     1    . Here are some strategies to pick up that magic mix if you weren’t born with it.

Visualize success

There’s no need to set a real situation where you wait in a super long grocery checkout line to test yourself. Simply visualizing it helps a lot. See yourself smiling and breathing as you wait for the line to move.     2    . For example, you could say, “it’s not bad to enjoy this magazine while waiting”. Your mind will start to process the picture as a real experience and help to set you up for future successes.

Slow down

Racing around is not necessarily the only way to get what you want.     3    . Most adults do not feel happy when they’re rushing, and children are even less capable of doing it with a good attitude. Instead of sweating through your routine, turn on some background music you like and move at a normal pace.

    4    

The ability to let your mind wander, whether daydreaming or actively applying your imagination, is a skill that improves patience.     5    . Take a break and do something that could free your brain from the task that takes tons of energy. This helps you build up your staying power, so next time you might be more patient and more likely to focus on your task.

【推荐2】Whether you're learning English as a second language or are a native speaker who's never had the habit of writing, improving your English composition skills is very important. Knowing your shortcomings and practicing will allow you to write essay that is at first simply grammatically correct, and eventually sparkling with style.    1    

    2    Look up the definitions of words with which you are unfamiliar. The more words you can use successfully, the more often you'll be able to find the right one for the task at hand -- and the less likely your writing will be simplistic and repetitive.

Ask a friend with good English skills to criticize and correct your writing.    3    Rewrite your paper or letter after listening to her advice, making the necessary changes.

Use your word processing software spelling and grammar-check tools to fix simple errors. Whenever you misspell a word, replace it with the correct suggestion and then look at it carefully, noting the differences from how you thought it was spelled.    4    Use them.

Think in English while writing if you're a native speaker of a different language. Having to translate in your head slows you down, and can easily lead to errors. Study English grammar if you are having difficulties. Look up the rules whenever you're having difficulties or read a grammar book all the way through. It may be boring, but it's extremely helpful.

Practice writing!    5    Every skill requires regular repetition to achieve mastery, whether playing a musical instrument, flying a jet or writing good English prose.

【推荐3】How to support a child with test anxiety

It’s normal for students to feel nervous before or during a test. Often, parents can be pretty in the dark. If you doubt your child is one of the many strugglings with test anxiety,     1     .

Focus on time and stress management skills. Many children with test anxiety fear that they won’t be able to complete the test in time, so for these kids, focusing on time management skills may help. Winnett says working with planners and calendars and breaking up large projects into smaller tasks can be a good way.     2    Talk to your child’s teacher about tools students can use and practice deep breathing with your child, which can be a good way to help ease your child’s nerves the night before.

    3    Children with test anxiety may express a fear of disappointing their parents. Zeltser says parents may enhance that fear and advises parents to focus on other values-trying your best, for example. Parents can reframe(再构造) these thoughts by telling the child that it’s more important to try hard than it is to get a perfect score on every exam.

Communicate with educators. Teachers are likely to notice test anxiety earlier than parents are. Things like going to the bathroom frequently or shaky hands during exams could be signs of test anxiety that parents may never see.     4    

Know when to seek professional help. If you’ve tried all of these techniques and nothing seems to help, it might be worthwhile to visit a therapist(治疗师). Therapists who are trained in techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy will be able to help children with particularly terrible test anxiety.     5    

【推荐3】Making employees feel happy and healthy at work is good for many businesses. But it isn’t always an easy thing. A research suggests that just 33% of the U. S. employees consider themselves fully engaged (投身于) at work, while 16% are actively disengaged, and 51% are just showing up.

But there is an exception. When it comes to employee engagement, it seems that employees in small companies are doing better. According to the same research, the largest U. S. companies have the lowest levels of engagement, while companies with fewer than 25 employees have the highest. And in one recent report, 75 percent of small business workers surveyed said they were “very” or “extremely” satisfied with their role as a small company employee.

Unlike big companies, small companies are often short of resources but the employees can get more surprises there. Small companies offer excellent career opportunities to their employees. The bosses often know their staff very well and understand their personal needs. Employees of small companies are more likely to receive free meals, paid leave, and they can even bring their pets to work.

But of course, there’re many other draws in small businesses. One of the top draws is flexible scheduling (弹性工时). Another is being able to really see the fruits of one’s labor. Besides, noncash award is also a big draw. This could be something small that reflects employees’ interests and lifestyles.

While a parental leave might lead to some financial problems, small companies may do something to improve it. “It may be impossible for a five person team to be reduced to four for six months,” writes Camilla Velasquez, head of HR management platform Just works. “But it could be possible to allow new parents to take on reduced hours in a work from home environment.” This kind of method has been realized in some small companies.

【推荐1】When my daughter Sara was in the fifth grade, she came to me with a problem. “Marcy hates me!” she cried. “Because Kathy is my friend, too. She wants me to be her friend and nobody else’s. You talk to Marcy. You tell her that I want to be her friend, but I can have other friends, too!”

Oh! I looked at her for a few moments, wondering how I got into this mess (困境), when suddenly an idea came to me.

Picking up two baskets from the living room, I explained, “When everyone is born, he or she has a little basket. This little one here is yours. The big one is mine. As you grow, so does the basket. You can see your little basket is inside mine because when you were born, there were too many things you couldn’t do for yourself. I did everything you couldn’t do on your own.”

She nodded.

“Well, as you grew older and began to do some things on your own, I began placing a few more things in your basket. When you learned to tie your shoes, that went in your basket.”

She said softly, “I can tie my own shoes.”

“Right. As you grow older, there will be more and more things you must do on your own.” As I spoke, I gradually took her basket out of mine and handed it to her. “You will finally carry your own basket with things only you can do.”

She looked up at me and said, “I understand. There are some things that I have to do for myself because they are in my basket.”