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About Kevan Lee

Freelance writer by day, sports fan by night — and sometimes vice versa. Kevan Lee writes about email and nutrition (not at the same time) and a whole lot more. Live simply, give generously, watch football, beat cancer. Come find him on Google+.

Your Brain on Dopamine: The Science of Motivation

April 9, 2019 by Kevan Lee 52 Comments

Editor’s Note: This refreshed post was originally written by Kevan Lee in December of 2013, was revamped and updated for currency and comprehensiveness by Willa Rubin in 2017 — and again in 2019.Dopamine-representationI spent an hour on this opening paragraph.

The hour wasn’t time well spent, mind you. Sure, I was working — writing, deleting, tinkering with words here and there — but my one-paragraph-per-hour pace wasn’t out of indecisiveness as much as a lack of motivation.

I spent five minutes on email, ten minutes on Instagram, and fifteen minutes doing who-knows-what on Tumblr. (Just kidding, I know exactly what I was doing: watching cat videos.)

Sound familiar?

Motivation is a tricky thing to corral. Tricky, but not impossible.

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: dopamine, Goals, Intrinsic Motivation, Productivity, science

How Fast Web is Impairing How You Think

February 10, 2014 by Kevan Lee Leave a Comment

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Before you realize, habits form. How much thought do you put into your daily routine, and how much of your routine is formed as a response to outer influence? In other words, do you know why you work the way you do?

Being purposeful with your work philosophy might be the missing key to achieving a healthy rather than hasty, always running-behind pace. Understanding the psychological benefits of controlling the flow of your time and attention reveals the wisdom in taking things slow.

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Filed Under: Slow Web Tagged With: Productivity, Psychology of Productivity, Slow Web

The 3-Part Recipe to Stop Working Around the Clock and Beat the Rat Race

November 4, 2013 by Kevan Lee Leave a Comment

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Humans are not machines.

This is stating the obvious, but the obvious hasn’t seemed to sink in. We organize our work days as if we were machines, never turning off even when we get home.

These work habits are erroneous, unhelpful, and unhealthy.

When the Huffington Post polled 1,000 people on their work habits and routines, the results show just how far we’ve tilted the scales to a machine-like existence:

  • 60% take 20 minutes or less for lunch.
  • 25% never leave their desk.
  • 66% fail to take their allotted vacation
  • 25% leave at least a week’s worth of vacation unused each year

And to top it all off, 33 percent spend less than half an hour a day completely disconnected from email.

This isn’t a sustainable work style.

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Filed Under: Slow Web Tagged With: Energy Management, Productivity, Time Management

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