Embracing The New Paradigm Shift in "Balancing Life" !

We, humans, have always craved for harmony and sought balance in life. The more ways we have invented/ discovered to keep ourselves busy and occupied, work-wise, the more need we have generated to find ways to focus and pay attention to other areas of our life, beyond "work".

Various paradigm shifts have shaped our evolution and growth (if one may call it so !) as a modern society - a society which thrives on technology and seeks impeccability in everything. The shift from industrialisation to urbanisation, opened us up to more work and skills, but also had repercussions, which made us vulnerable to stress, pressure, ill-health, and like. When the realisation of a holistic health dawned on us, we started our quest for achieving/ maintaining work-life balance, to ensure that life is lived well in all dimensions.

Now, it's time for a reality check - the above mentioned quest for "work-life" balance was good as long as technology had not permeated our lives. With the advent of Internet/ Web, things shaped differently for us. The paradigm shifts, triggered by technology, have been frequent and overwhelming, with the result that we are given no time and opportunity to look away from the screens (desktops, laptops, tablets, gadgets, smartphones, and the like). Each of these paradigm shifts have left us hopping from one tool to another and our addiction to these "screens" has in fact created a resultant shift in the act of balancing our life. It's no longer "Work-Life" Balance that we need to worry about, now it's the "Online-Offline" Balance.

The need or desire to be more productive, efficient or effective, that kept us glued to our gadgets and smartphones has now turned into a strong urge or habit and this has become our undoing and the key reason for not letting us detach from this addiction of "Online".  And this addiction comes with a plenty to be regretful about later - be it our health (physical, mental and emotional), relationships, achievement or peace of mind, whereby everything takes a hit and leaves us deficient.

Science tells us that humans have immense capability and potential for more but i am sure, in all probability, this was not in reference to our ability to manage multiple gadgets and screens. This "Online-Offline" imbalance has, in fact, rendered us deficient in terms of focus, attention span, concentration and ultimately achievement. The psychological impact of this "Online-Offline" imbalance is quite alarming where it could result in acute depression, low self-esteem and self-confidence.

With so much at stake because of this "Online-Offline" imbalance, it makes sense to address it and bring order and peace back in our life. The 3-step approach of Reflect, Analyse and Act

• Reflect - Aren't we all living life in the fast lane, courtesy technology ? And most of the time, don't we lose track of where we are headed because of this "busyness" ? This is precisely why "Reflect" step provides a great opportunity to take stock of things and seize back control of our life. This (Reflect) is the time to ponder and ask ourself few pertinent questions such as 

• Am i spending a major chunk of my time being "Online", consciously or unconsciously, with or without reason ?
• Am i compromising on important offline tasks, actions, activities ?
• Have i ever felt short of time to complete certain important tasks because of my online busyness ?
• Do i have a plan/ schedule/ purpose for my "Online"activities ?
• Has "being online" become a habit or addiction for me ?
• Do i tend to spend endless hours/ minutes being "online" and ignore/ shy away from doing anything else, even though it might be an important matter ?
• Has "being/ working online" become a habit or addiction for me ? 

• Analyze -  This is where we get specific about details and ask ourself the following questions 
• What are my online and offline needs and how much is the time demand for them ?
• Against the identified time need for online and offline activities, how much time do i actually spend on online and offline activities ?
• How much am i losing out in terms of time, effort, energy and achievement by being unnecessarily online ?
• In recent past, what important tasks, projects, assignments I could not complete because of my excessive online behaviour ?
• What is my driving force to go "online", most of the times ? Is this driving force constructive and taking me closer to my life goals ?
• Identify your online consumption, in terms of few key areas like Work(Professional), Personal, Leisure, Self-Development, Entertainment and Networking. 

• Act - Achieving the "Online-Offline" balance is a continuous process and only concrete and consistent actions/ steps could help us achieve this balance. Some of the actions we could take are as mentioned below :

• Always have a tentative daily plan or a checklist, clearly segregating the online and offline activities you need to do during the day
• Prioritise your activities (online and offline) in terms of their importance and assign them a timeline. For online activities, define a time cut-off limit to remain on track
• Limit your screen time by applying strategies like
• switching off gadgets at a specified time
• keeping gadgets out of bounds when working offline
• observing a technology downtime day during the week
• Attach an objective to every online activity
• Align your every online activity to a goal, big or small, short-term or long-term
• Seek/ Engage an accountability partner for keeping you on track about your online consumption. It could be a friend, colleague, relative or even a coach.
• Wherever possible, shift from small screen to a big screen to reduce too much interactivity
• Be mindful while working online as this will help you remain focused and observant.  
• If most of your online consumption is for leisure/ entertainment, replace that time with some useful and constructive hobby, such as reading, music, drawing/ painting, etc.
• Find appropriate substitutes for online activities that could be replaced with their offline counterparts, without any loss of productivity, such as reading the traditional print books instead of reading a digital version, meeting close by friends in person than chatting online.  
• Never lose any opportunity to be in the "real world", such as meeting up with friends/ people in person, go travelling, playing a sport, going for a walk, and things similar. 

Value yourself and you will always make the best use of time !

Reinvent Life And Give It A Fresh Start !

Life is never a smooth ride and imagining it to be so is a big error in judgment that is bound to leave us more disgruntled. Thing may not always favour us and there may come a time when we may find ourselves at crossroads and when that happens we are lost for the way forward !

Among the top thoughts that confront us, when we lose our way in life, are - Shall I give up ? Shall I continue as long as I can with whatever I have ? or Shall I reinvent and then move ahead with a new plan ?

Deciding on any one of the above mentioned three courses of action becomes lot easier when we base our decision on the biggest realisation that inspite of all the hiccups and holds, we still need to maintain a forward momentum in life if we want to progress in life.There are bound to be times and situations in our lives when we may find ourselves stuck and frozen, stagnancy may stare at us in our face and we may find ourselves unable to move ahead. Life may appear to come to a standstill and we may be as confused and lost as we could be - the mind may always be operating in a state of commotion, with thoughts all jumbled up and actions all botched up !

So, when "progressing in life" is the mantra for us, "reinventing" seems to be the best course of action that can enable us to build/ develop new outlook and fresh perspective to things, and give life a fresh start.

Reinventing becomes easier when we constantly strive to learn and improve. There are 4 steps that can help us make the entire process of "Reinventing" a worthwhile approach/ strategy for times when  we find ourself stuck and immobilised for action. Let's find out what these 4 steps are 

• REFLECT - The future path becomes clearer when we derive learning from past. Unless we know what needs to be changed, we just can't change anything and make things happen. The moment we start to "Reflect" is the stage where we analyse things in terms of what and where things went wrong and what could have made things right. The "Reflect" step gives us a clarity about the road ahead by enabling us to identify whether the problem lies with our goal or actions or resources or some other relevant element of our life. So, whenever we find ourselves at crossroads, let's look back with an intent to learn from things gone wrong so that we can  take corrective actions going forward. "Reflect" is the step that lays the foundation for providing a fresh start to life.     

• REFOCUS - This is where the channelising of energy happens. "Clarity" about goals or destination is a key outcome of the previous step i.e. Reflect, and this outcome helps establish a better focus for future actions. Once a new goal or destination is in place, it paves way for expending our energy and effort in the right direction.  

• RECHARGE - It is quite natural to feel drained when things don't go right for us. Our energy, enthusiasm, positivity, effort and everything related hits rock bottom. Therefore, in such a scenario, giving our best to anything new requires us to refresh ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally. "Recharge" is the step where we are all pumped up and charged up again for the new goals/ challenges. Attempting things with renewed vigor defines the "Recharge" step appropriately. Once the mind-body alignment has been achieved, attempting any challenge or  task becomes lot easier.    

• RESTART - Now, the final step without which all the planning/ preparation/ alignment done in the previous steps go waste. This is the "Restart" step, which is all about execution/ implementation/ action. Once we have set ourself up mentally and emotionally, it's important that we follow it up with appropriate action and take the relevant steps with confidence and trust.    

Remember - When life hits you hard, give it a fresh start !

Cognitive Biases - Braving The Brain Barriers !

Cognitive Bias

Time for Reflection

Haven't we all been victims of distorted thinking, at some point in our life, that lead to poor judgement and bad decision-making on our part; the times when when we acted irrational and took decision based on certain influences/ factors ?

What is Cognitive Bias ?

This sort of behavior where people commit systematic error in thinking that affects their decision-making and judgement, resulting in an irrational behavior, is termed as Cognitive Bias. The mistakes/ errors in reasoning, evaluating, remembering or any other cognitive process are examples of cognitive biases.

Why/ How does Cognitive Bias occur ?

Our brain has a tendency to 

• look for shortcuts while processing information
• perceive information through a filter of personal experiences and preferences

So, when our brain is presented with a need to take decision based on the vast amount of information it has to deal with, the brain tries to create shortcuts (heuristics) to simplify information processing. This is what creates the Biases. These shortcuts are based on the existing beliefs and preferences that  we tend to hold onto.

Few Key Things About Cognitive Bias

• Since it is not possible to eliminate the brain's disposition to take shortcuts, so biases are bound to occur. 
• there are different types of cognitive biases, some related to memory, some related to attention and many more related to other conscious part/ activity of our brain.
• It's not possible to eliminate biases always, but we must try and minimize the impact of the biases
• Biases are not always negative or limiting in nature. Many biases create a positive impact on us and help us in effective decision-making  

Studying Popular Biases

I have attempted to detail few important/ popular Cognitive Biases (mostly) through my blog series on the same. Listed below are 20+ biases with hyperlinks to the respective posts. 

Anchoring Bias  - Blind Spot Bias  - Confirmation Bias - Distinction Bias - Egocentric Bias

Fading Affect Bias - Groupthink Bias - Hindsight Bias - Implicit Bias  - Just World Bias

Kantian Fairness Tendency - Loss Aversion Bias - Money Illusion Bias  - Negativity Bias

Optimism Bias - Projection Bias - Quality Consciousness Bias - Restraint Bias 

Scarcity Bias - Trait Ascription Bias - Unit Bias - Von Restorff  Effect  - Wishful Thinking -

Xtra Bias  - Yin-Yang Effect - Zero Risk Bias

Hope you enjoy reading them all and find the posts useful. 

Zero Risk Bias

Zero Risk Bias

Time for Reflection 

When it comes to issues related to our health, housing, safety and security, don't we all look for a fool-proof solution, where we expect a complete elimination of the possible risks ?

Somewhere, while expecting a complete elimination of the possible risks, we have fallen trap to the "zero-risk" bias.

Definition

Zero Risk Bias is the tendency to prefer the complete elimination of a risk even when alternative options produce a greater overall reduction in risk. So, while making a choice, our brains prefer to select an option that totally eliminates the risk over options that could, in fact, eliminate more risks and end up with better results. This bias leads us to ensure absolute certainty of outcome while making decisions.We prefer guaranteed benefits over the possibility of much more significant benefits. 

This bias makes use of the human tendency to prefer large decrease in small risks to small decrease in large risks, even when the overall benefit of the latter is vastly superior to the former. Zero risk bias is an extreme form of this behavior, often triggered under conditions of uncertainty.

Few possible reasons for the bias to occur are

• thinking proportionally instead of thinking quantitatively
• minimizing cognitive strain - by eliminating one risk entirely, we reduce the amount of cognitive strain we face, making the option more appealing. 

This bias has applications in many areas such as financial investments, laws related to food and health, sales and marketing, quality adherence and assurance in various domains. This bias proves to be a blessing in disguise when we talk about eliminating zero % harmful elements from food products. Many of the public health/ hygiene, safety campaigns may also promote a zero elimination for the larger benefit of the masses. But for many other area, its at the discretion of the customer/ investor/ stakeholder, like, an investor, might opt for a choice based on his/ her risk and return appetite. 

Zero-risk bias can be reduced by re-framing the problem and building in a different perspective to the problem/ situation, focused on the other side. Being aware of the potential risks helps in addressing the problem at hand. Perhaps the most important strategy to mitigate the impact of zero-risk bias is to be well aware that we live and thrive in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. This VUCA world is dynamic in nature and full of risks where every moment could present a new challenge. The best way to thrive in this VUCA world is to upgrade our decision-making and critical thinking skills so that we become more rational in our approach. 

Risk is Real - Don't Avoid It, Just Embrace It !

Yin-Yang Effect

Yin-Yang Bias

About Yin-Yang Bias

Talking about equilibrium and duality in life and by default Yin-Yang occurs in the scenario. The concept describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

The same concept of Yin-Yang may act as a bias and affect us while seeking holistic well-being, work-life balance, spiritual awakening. When yin-yang bias affects us, our quest for a balanced life takes a hit.This bias results in the feeling of incompleteness as we are always seeking the missing component of yin-yang to complete the picture.  

Few of the key challenges posed by this bias is  

• to focus on which part of the yin-yang 
• Deciding how much to incorporate (the magnitude)
• Deciding how long to incorporate (the frequency) 

The yin-yang bias could be addressed by  

• Accepting the unpredictable and incomplete nature of life
• Practicing Mindfulness 

Xtra Bias

Xtra Bias

Time for Reflection

Has there been times when you wanted that extra bit or that add-on to motivate you to decide "in favour", maybe while shopping for your favourite dress, negotiating for your house with a realtor,  negotiating for your salary package with a new employer, or any other similar situation.

The above tendency to look for that extra bit is an indicator of presence of "Xtra Bias".

Definition

Xtra Bias is exhibited by a tendency to decide only when something "extra" gets provided.

Humans always want that something "extra" as part of the bargain or deal. This "extra" is what provides them look out for that something "extra" to allows to decide. Whether we go shopping, or negotiating or communicating, interacting/ connecting, we are always on the look out for that "add-on". Somehow, when we are affected with this bias, we see "value for money" proposition in our every deal.

The occurrence of bias may possibly be because of 

• self-centric or ego-centric natute of humans
• tendency to seek "value for money"  
• assumption that the things/ goods are over priced

This bias impacts us negatively by

• prompting us to undervalue things, though they may be rightly priced.
• overestimating our ability to negotiate a better deal

The bias also has a positive side by way of building our ability to manage a "Win-Win" scenario in every situation involving 2 or more stakeholders.

Few ways, the damage of "Xtra Bias" could be mitigated are

• be up-to-date date with the latest pricing trends 
• do a comparative before taking final decision
• opt for a trust worthy brand or a brand you trust

Wishful Thinking Bias

Wishful Thinking Bias

Time for Reflection

Haven't we all engaged in wishful thinking, some time or the other, and then realising that things don't turn out to be as we assumed them to be ?

Well, the only explanation to the above is that there's a difference between illusion and reality and we tend to ignore it because of a fallacy known as "Wishful Thinking"


Definition

Wishful Thinking Bias refers to the tendency of decision-making and belief formation based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality.

Our interpretation of things is around how we want to interpret them and not as how they actually are.  Few examples of wishful thinking are - hallucinations, religious/ spiritual beliefs, day-dreaming, assumptions aligned with our beliefs and goals.

Wishful-Thinking Bias is an outcome of 

• our belief in something that we believe to be true/ false
• overstimation of our abilites which may, in fact, be influenced by our earlier success or failure and impacted us to develop generalisations
• our inability to actualise things and therefore falling back upon being wishful
• our long-held belief, maybe as a result of our culture or religion

Few of the key negative impact of the Wishful-thinking bias are that 

• it leads us into creating a self-affirming universe of ours, a Utopia, which, in fact, might be a Dystopia  
• it may hinder our progress and growth
• leads us to develop self-limiting habits like procrastination, etc.
• it may have a detrimental impact on our self-confidence and self-esteem, when we realise that things have not turned out to be as we wanted them to

Some of the simple ways to address wishful thinking are to

• become more action-oriented
• spend sufficient time in planning stage 
• take smaller steps
• establish realistic goals and do a regular follow up on progress made
• regularly update our belief system (wherever and whenever needed)
• ensuring that our religious beliefs and practices do not turn into an obsession