Using Science to Create the Perfect Day with Caroline Webb

In this episode, we look at how to use insights from behavioral science to improve your life. We look at what it means to have a “good day” and figure out how to reverse engineer more good days, by examining decision making, the power of rest and recovery, intention setting, setting boundaries, and much more with our guest Caroline Webb.      Caroline Webb is CEO of Sevenshift, a firm that uses insights from behavioral science to improve their client’s working lives. She was previously a partner at McKinsey consulting and is the best selling author of How To Have A Good Day, which has been published in 16 languages in more than 60 countries. Her work has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Fortune, and much more.       What does it mean to have a good day? What does that have to do with the science of improving your life?  What is a bad day? what is a good day?  3 Core things about having a good day  Working on your priorities  Feeling that you’re producing great work  Can it be repeated?  What is the science behind what actually allows people and organizations to change?  The two system brain - there are two systems that interact in the brain, as Kahneman called them System 1 and System 2.   “System 2” - the slow system, our conscious experience, deliberate thinking mind, but it moves slowly and can only process information slowly and clunkily   “System 1” - the automatic system - our subconscious mind, immense processing power, but it often takes shortcuts   How do we create the conditions for our deliberate system to be as successful as possible?  Breaks are not for wimps, breaks are crucial opportunities to reboot your deliberate system and improve your thinking and decision-making  Frequent, short breaks enormously enhance your mental ability   Short cardio activity will boost your focus and mood materially  When we are resting, we encode and consolidate information - and often create new insight  When you “single task” you work about 30% faster than someone who is multi-tasking - every time your attention switches, there is a cost in time and processing power  Why saying "ABCDEFG 1234567” is so much easier than saying "A1, B2, C3, D4, E5, F6, G7”  What’s the most important thing you’re doing today and how can you get yourself to single task on that?  Willpower is not the way to create big changes in your life, it's about changing your environment  Nudges vs Sludges - how to shift your environment to create behavioral change  Your brain is constantly filtering out a huge amount of information - and whatever is top of mind for you filter your reality  The hard science of setting your intentions - set what attitude you want to have, what your aim is, what your assumptions are, etc - setting intentions can have a material impact on your behavior Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.