Showing 50 posts tagged life
“As every aspect of our daily lives has become hyperconnected, some people on the cutting edge of tech are trying their best to push it back a few feet. Keeping their phone in their pocket. Turning off their home Wi-Fi at night or on weekends. And reading books on paper, rather than pixels.”
“You won’t keep control of your time, unless you can say ‘no.’ You can’t let other people set your agenda in life.”
“You could truly leave work. Work was work, and life was life.”
“People think of education as something they can finish.”
(via verymuch)
Some Companies Seek to Wean Employees From Their Smartphones
Resolutions to change behavior are common at this time of year, but they usually involve exercising more or smoking less. Now, some companies are adopting policies aimed at weaning employees from their electronic devices.
Atos, an international information technology company, plans to phase out all e-mails among employees by the end of 2013 and rely instead on other forms of communication. And starting in the new year, employees at Daimler, the German automaker, can have incoming e-mail automatically deleted during vacations so they do not return to a flooded in-box. An automatic message tells the sender which person is temporarily dealing with the employee’s e-mail.
No one is expected to be on call at all hours of the day and night, and “switching off” after work is important, “even if you are on a business trip,” said Sabrina Schrimpf, a Daimler spokeswoman, referring to the company’s recently released report, “Balanced! — Reconciling Employees’ Work and Private Lives.”
» via The New York Times (Subscription may be required for some content)
“Young, urban “minimalists,” as they’re called, have been turning their backs on excess ever since the economy went south a few years ago. These tech savvy twenty-somethings have been systematically embracing smaller, less cluttered and more meaningful lives, a rebellion against the consumer culture that defined their boomer parents. Their devotion to parsimony could be associated to a variety of social and cultural phenomena — the hoarding tendency, for example, that’s captured on television shows, or the disposable nature of fast fashion and cheap electronics.”
“The idea is not to be going back to a time where things were better,” Mr. Smith said, “but where the richness of each day is defined by the food you eat, the company you keep, the work you do.”
“Hobbies or other activities in which we create something new—be that music, food, or furniture—require problem-solving skills and imagination. Such tasks are often relaxing, and even when they take a lot of energy, they are usually fulfilling. It stands to reason, then, that creativity could reduce our stress levels, improve our overall health, and increase our longevity. Get out the finger paints.”
“The lifelong relationships of education and its correlates with health and longevity are striking,” the article said. “Education exerts its direct beneficial effects on health through the adoption of healthier lifestyles, better ability to cope with stress, and more effective management of chronic diseases. However, the indirect effects of education through access to more privileged social position, better-paying jobs, and higher income are also profound.”
“It started to occur to me that whatever you think education should be is probably analogous to what you think life should be. People who prefer structure and order will thrive in an educational experience that is structured and ordered. Radical Unschoolers see the ideal life as a being filled with unbridled enthusiasm, inspiration, and discovery, but few rules, so they approach their children’s education with a heady balance of anarchy and delight.”
