Category: appluenza

Agingappluenzabrain fitnessCarroll ReflectionsCarroll University USA

Applying 50 Years of Teaching Psychology: Transitions

on August 29, 2018

As I transition this last year of teaching psychology courses at Carroll, I am reflecting on what lessons I have learned which will ease my transition out of academe. In particular, today I am reflecting on habits: how they are formed, maintained, strengthened, weakened, and suppressed. I am finding helpful several books recommended by some LinkedIn individuals I “follow:”

  1. Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
  2. Nir Eyal’s Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (I also find his podcast and newsletter of value) and
  3. Scott Sonenshein’s Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less – and Achieve More than You Ever Imagined.

Among the habits I envision changing or developing are the following:

  1. Reading (Though I shall continue my reading of literature, I now am finding much pleasure in reading lengthy thought pieces in, for example, The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New Yorker.)
  2. Time Management (I shall not miss the day long series of meetings I have today!)
  3. Spending
  4. Health Maintenance
  5. Self-identity and Self-understanding
  6. Frameworks for understanding (e.g. how should one view the aging process)
  7. Writing.  I am interested in writing longer pieces and publishing them in venues like The Conversation or Medium or self-publishing a number of books.
  8. Exercise
  9. Playing
  10. Reflection Linked to Action
App GenerationappluenzaAppsBloggingCurious David

Banishing Computer Clutter (Part 1)

on November 27, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 3.41.27 PM

I am about to go through all the different applications that I have on this Mac and attempt to winnow them. Then, I need to do the same for all my other machines. Yes, I have done this before and yes I have written about it before (e.g. here). Appluenza is difficult to extinguish!

I call up 1-Password. Increasingly I am relying on such software to avoid the    F-word–the forgetting that seems to be an increasing concomitant of aging.  I am much more interested  nowadays in software or research claiming to enhance, protect, and expand memory. Fortunately this old man can find inspiring older role models in individuals like Roger Angell and his marvelous new book.

I load an application from hell. I bought this particular MAC software several years ago to convert videos to the many different formats existing.  Alas it won’t accept the registration code which somehow is encrypted in a fashion that doesn’t allow cut and paste and which consists of a long string of numbers, letters and hieroglyphics. Customer support is a series of FAQs that don’t address my needs. Humbug. Trash it along with another app that I never have used.

I discover several Apps built into the Mac whose existence I did not know or whose function I never realized. Embarrassing. Annoying. Wasteful. More to learn.

I load my Day One “journaling” software to record my progress. The newly downloaded voice dictation software works pretty well with it. I have all my student assistants using a shared Day One app to help us co-ordinate our work efforts.

And suddenly I am distracted by my Comic Life 3 software!

Time for a Thanksgiving holiday break and playing with the grand-nieces and grand-nephews!

Comic 1