Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the tag “Game Playing”

29 Jul 2008

Just Seven Things

: Dice by Andrew Beierle

I have Google Alerts set-up for a number of different key words or phrases across the web. I track references to the company I work for, our competitors, our industry etc. I also track references to my consultancy (Scarlet Monday) and to Just Seven Things.

Now the company, Madgex, has very few other references made to it. It’s a construct of the initials of the founding shareholders and they slapped an ‘x’ on the end.

Scarlet Monday has more references as you would expect with the nouns Scarlet and Monday. But not that many.

The results for Just Seven Things however are really interesting. There’s a reason for me using this title for my blog. At the heart of my passion is a fascination for the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious. As in you can see in the ‘about’ this blog, ‘The Magical Number Seven’ is the hook that I hang my fascination from.

The Psychology of Game Playing… continued

Kid's Game 5 by Adrian van Leen

Further to a series of posts on game playing, it was great to be able to add to the different tools after reading a post on Mark Forster’s blog about Chaining.

Mark explains ‘There is a simple method called “Chaining” which can greatly increase your chances of success. It takes the form of competing against yourself to produce the longest chain of days in which you succeeded with your goal.

For example, if your goal is to practise the piano daily you manage to carry this out for two weeks and then miss a day. You have made a chain of fourteen days. Now your aim is to beat your record of fourteen days.’

Great links on the comments, including one from Janine Adams to http://www.dontbreakthechain.com./

I’m still fascinated though why game playing is so effective in helping us change. Why is it so core? I thought about a number of different nature/ nurture sources, and will explore these further in weeks to come. Steve Nichols’ article on Game Psychology provides a fascinating primer before then.

Posted in Conscious and Unconscious, Game Playing, Habits and Routines, Learning, Mindfulness and tagged Conscious vs Unconscious, Game Playing, Habits and Routines, Learning, Mindfulness

22 Jul 2008

2 Comments

Work Stress: Is it Wrong to Create it Yourself?

Men Sunset by Hilde Vanstraelen

For a long (long) time, I’ve known very clearly about certain aspects of my personality. One of them that I had always labelled as somewhere along the spectrum of procrastination and laziness was the trait of always leaving important things to the last minute. Whether it was the last minute homework; the university essay deadline extension. The professional examination cramming or the Board papers finalised minutes before deadlines.

I had always put it down to laziness/ procrastination whilst at the same time being surprised whenever I came upon the output of my ‘rushed’ work. Invariably I was amazed with what I came up with in those final minutes. I was often left with the feeling that ‘if only’ I pulled my finger out, and gave myself ten times the time, I’d be able to incrementally improve what I produced tenfold.

Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the tag “Game Playing”