<story><title>Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;m incredibly fortunate to have a chairman on our board who brings so much clarity of thought to the business.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s unemotional yet thoughtful. If he doesn&amp;#x27;t have an immediate answer for something, he instinctively understands how to search for the answer. He has a natural sense of the real priority of work and discussions.&lt;p&gt;So I asked him for some of his favourite brain hacks...simple tricks he uses when he has a mental challenge to overcome. A couple of his insights were very useful to me, so I thought I&amp;#x27;d share them here and ask HN for their personal brain hacks in response.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt; Artificial deadlines &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has a clever technique for bringing tough choices to a conclusion and avoiding procrastination. This is especially useful for life changing decisions such as moving country or taking that new job.&lt;p&gt;To put an end to the decision making process he sets a deadline for the decision to be made. Say 6pm on Monday. At five minutes to 6 he usually doesn&amp;#x27;t know the answer but in those 5 minutes something clicks, and by 6pm the answer is always there.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt; 10&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;10 rule &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is something I&amp;#x27;ve read before but he applies this.  The 10&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;10 is the framing of the outcome of a decision across three timeframes:&lt;p&gt;How will he feel about the outcome 10 minutes from now?
How about 10 months from now?
How about 10 years from now?&lt;p&gt;The answers to these questions provide a different perspective and usually help him to find the correct answer without being misguided by circumstances at the time of making the decision.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt; This will all be over by 6pm &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;If there&amp;#x27;s an important meeting with stakeholders, a scary appointment with the doctor or a tough chat with an employee - he simply keeps in mind the fact that by &amp;quot;X time&amp;quot;, the thing will have passed and won&amp;#x27;t matter anymore.&lt;p&gt;If it doesn&amp;#x27;t matter after X time, chances are it probably doesn&amp;#x27;t matter now.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Formatting.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>nerpderp82</author><text>0) Keeping one&amp;#x27;s mouth shut. Trying to not have an opinion until a) having enough information b) only voicing it if it is important. I am trying to spend more time perceiving instead of broadcasting.</text></item><item><author>cdicelico</author><text>My top 3, in order of how I try to apply them (i.e., if 1 doesn&amp;#x27;t help, move on to 2, etc.). I learned these all from reading various philosophy works, by the way, so perhaps cognitive hack #1 should be &amp;quot;read books&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;1) Suspension of judgement (from Sextus Empiricus, Zhuang Zi, Ecclesiastes): avoid forming an opinion at all about things that are not evident. The way I do this is by thinking through an opposing argument or two, and using language like &amp;quot;it seems&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;it appears&amp;quot; rather than &amp;quot;I know&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I think&amp;quot;, etc. This technique saves time and energy by helping me avoid getting wrapped up in opinion-based thinking and helps me develop equanimity.&lt;p&gt;2) Suspension of value-judgements (from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Zhuang Zi, Ecclesiastes): being aware and in control of the value-judgement loop (this thing is good or bad). I do this by shifting the language in my mind from &amp;quot;that is bad&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;I feel this way because...&amp;quot; Again, like #1, this is about inverting the locus of control in my cognitive discourse such that my mind can easily go its own way from there, only on a more productive path.&lt;p&gt;3) Awareness of the mode of thinking I&amp;#x27;m in, and the kind of learning that&amp;#x27;s appropriate to the task or objective at hand (from Plato). There are several modes of thinking or learning (eikasia, pistis, dianoia, episteme, techne, phronesis, and noesis, for example). Simply being aware of which mode you should be in for a task is much more valuable than it might appear at first glance. I see these less as bins to put various kinds of thought in and more as tools to apply to a problem.&lt;p&gt;Reviewing this, a common thread is self-awareness developed to a point of disciplined introspection and intentional change by adopting these kinds of cognitive tricks. Also, reading is good for you. :)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sizzle</author><text>I do this too and it works great in personal contexts cause people love sharing their opinions and hearing themselves talk generally speaking.&lt;p&gt;This is in stark contrast to the workplace where I&amp;#x27;ve experienced that keeping my mouth shut in a meeting to gather my thoughts before contributing a well informed opinion, the loudest person in the room has already spoken a handful of times and left their mark and then continues to speak over people and dominate the conversation for better or worse (usually the latter unless they are a SME).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m then forced to revert to speaking ASAP to get a word in so I don&amp;#x27;t walk away from a meeting being perceived as contributing little cause I was getting enough words.&lt;p&gt;Maybe it&amp;#x27;s all in my head cause I&amp;#x27;m an introvert and meetings drain my energy. Anyone else experience this? Got any tips?</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;m incredibly fortunate to have a chairman on our board who brings so much clarity of thought to the business.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s unemotional yet thoughtful. If he doesn&amp;#x27;t have an immediate answer for something, he instinctively understands how to search for the answer. He has a natural sense of the real priority of work and discussions.&lt;p&gt;So I asked him for some of his favourite brain hacks...simple tricks he uses when he has a mental challenge to overcome. A couple of his insights were very useful to me, so I thought I&amp;#x27;d share them here and ask HN for their personal brain hacks in response.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt; Artificial deadlines &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has a clever technique for bringing tough choices to a conclusion and avoiding procrastination. This is especially useful for life changing decisions such as moving country or taking that new job.&lt;p&gt;To put an end to the decision making process he sets a deadline for the decision to be made. Say 6pm on Monday. At five minutes to 6 he usually doesn&amp;#x27;t know the answer but in those 5 minutes something clicks, and by 6pm the answer is always there.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt; 10&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;10 rule &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is something I&amp;#x27;ve read before but he applies this.  The 10&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;10 is the framing of the outcome of a decision across three timeframes:&lt;p&gt;How will he feel about the outcome 10 minutes from now?
How about 10 months from now?
How about 10 years from now?&lt;p&gt;The answers to these questions provide a different perspective and usually help him to find the correct answer without being misguided by circumstances at the time of making the decision.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt; This will all be over by 6pm &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;If there&amp;#x27;s an important meeting with stakeholders, a scary appointment with the doctor or a tough chat with an employee - he simply keeps in mind the fact that by &amp;quot;X time&amp;quot;, the thing will have passed and won&amp;#x27;t matter anymore.&lt;p&gt;If it doesn&amp;#x27;t matter after X time, chances are it probably doesn&amp;#x27;t matter now.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Formatting.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>nerpderp82</author><text>0) Keeping one&amp;#x27;s mouth shut. Trying to not have an opinion until a) having enough information b) only voicing it if it is important. I am trying to spend more time perceiving instead of broadcasting.</text></item><item><author>cdicelico</author><text>My top 3, in order of how I try to apply them (i.e., if 1 doesn&amp;#x27;t help, move on to 2, etc.). I learned these all from reading various philosophy works, by the way, so perhaps cognitive hack #1 should be &amp;quot;read books&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;1) Suspension of judgement (from Sextus Empiricus, Zhuang Zi, Ecclesiastes): avoid forming an opinion at all about things that are not evident. The way I do this is by thinking through an opposing argument or two, and using language like &amp;quot;it seems&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;it appears&amp;quot; rather than &amp;quot;I know&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I think&amp;quot;, etc. This technique saves time and energy by helping me avoid getting wrapped up in opinion-based thinking and helps me develop equanimity.&lt;p&gt;2) Suspension of value-judgements (from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Zhuang Zi, Ecclesiastes): being aware and in control of the value-judgement loop (this thing is good or bad). I do this by shifting the language in my mind from &amp;quot;that is bad&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;I feel this way because...&amp;quot; Again, like #1, this is about inverting the locus of control in my cognitive discourse such that my mind can easily go its own way from there, only on a more productive path.&lt;p&gt;3) Awareness of the mode of thinking I&amp;#x27;m in, and the kind of learning that&amp;#x27;s appropriate to the task or objective at hand (from Plato). There are several modes of thinking or learning (eikasia, pistis, dianoia, episteme, techne, phronesis, and noesis, for example). Simply being aware of which mode you should be in for a task is much more valuable than it might appear at first glance. I see these less as bins to put various kinds of thought in and more as tools to apply to a problem.&lt;p&gt;Reviewing this, a common thread is self-awareness developed to a point of disciplined introspection and intentional change by adopting these kinds of cognitive tricks. Also, reading is good for you. :)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tootie</author><text>You should avoid voicing a judgment, but you can certainly air your thoughts and opinions as they arise. Just be open to being convinced.</text></comment>