Spiders will look larger to people who fear them, hills will look steeper to someone who is tired, unfit, or has a heavy backpack, and tasks will appear easier if we have an appropriate tool available.

We see the world from our own perspective and predict and anticipate how our…

Choices make us feel that we have some control over our environment and our lives. We believe that the more choices we have, the happier and more satisfied we will be. …

The mere presence of our smartphone, with all its possibilities, affects how we think, feel and behave. It distracts us, and we find it more difficult to fully focus on a task, and other people, particularly children, can perceive us as not being fully present when we are with them. Research has shown a “brain drain” effect which can adversely impact our performance on a task when a smartphone is within reach compared to being left in another room.

In the book ‘Intelligence in the Flesh’, Guy Claxton describes how interacting, moving, and anticipating the natural world is incredibly complex. To survive we have evolved to predict the immediate future, so we are ready to process and take almost instantaneous actions.

However, our attention is predisposed to be drawn…

A consequence of our always connected digital world is that more and more people are suffering from the effects of burn-out. The World Health Organisation defines burn-out as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress which is characterised by feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and reduced professional efficacy.

Jennifer Moss, author of ‘The Burnout Epidemic,’ gave some great insights into this phenomenon in September at a Harvard Business Review online presentation.

She stressed that burn-out results from unresolved stress at work. This means that it’s not just an employee problem, something that we have to go away and…