How to Overcome Procrastination?

A new article from "New Scientist" shed new lights on why people are prone to postpone.
Four factors are found to affect how likely a task is to be delayed:

• How confident you are of succeeding in the task
• How pleasant you perceived the task to be
  
• How easily distracted you are
• How much time will elapse before the reward for completing the task arrives

Some recommendations on how to do away with delay are also given:

• Make a firm commitment to your boss or partner to finish a task by a certain time. This will make delays more embarrassing and difficult to cover up.
• Strip your workspace of all distractions.
• Get a good night's sleep and try tackling the most unpleasant and difficult tasks early in the day.
• Set a series of realistic goals, such as drawing up weekly, daily or even hourly goals. The more readily sidetracked you are, the more you need to divide your main task into smaller chunks.
• Promise yourself a reward for each goal that you meet.
• Believe in yourself.
• Get someone else to regularly goad you into action, as the last resort!

One of my new year's resolution is not to procrastinate and finish all the tasks that have been accumulated in my to-do list, one of them being "to blog regularly". I will surely take these recommendations to get rid of this bad habit...

Recycled water potentially not drinkable...

According to a piece of news from "New Scientist" - Water may hide harmful chemical cocktail, recycled water from water purification plants may contain chemicals from consumer products and drugs that are linked to cancers and reproductive problems. Now New South Wales government's desalination plant seems a safer option...

Diet to protect your brain cells and boost your memory.

Mind power - Health Tip provided by Dr Michael Elstein, Sydney.

"To protect your brain cells and boost your memory, consume an antioxidant-rich diet similar to the one that enhances heart health. Lots of fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fish will provide you with the necessary platform for optimal mind power. Certain minerals, including boron (found in apples, pears and beans), zinc (in beef, oysters, ginger, herring, beans and peas) and magnesium (almonds, cashews, soy beans and seafood) are also considered to be important for memory."

This is one of my collection health tips over the years. As an IT worker, I need to learn and master new technologies every day. Therefore, I'm always looking for diets that can boost my memory...

Nutritious vegetables/fruits or environmental-friendly?

The top 10 most nutritious vegetables in the world are:

1. Broccoli
2. Spinach
3. Brussels sprouts
4. Lima beans
5. Peas
6. Asparagus
7. Artichokes
8. Cauliflower
9. Sweet potatoes
10. Carrots

And the top 5 most nutritious fruits in the world are:

1. Blueberries
2. Kiwi fruit
3. Strawberries
4. Guava
5. Cranberries

At the meantime, during his search for the perfect apple, John Cloud asked the questions "What's the most efficient way to grow food? How do our food choices affect the environment? What tastes better?". According to Gussow, a reporter for TIME in the 50s, shipping a strawberry from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel but provides the eater with only 5 calories of nutrition.

So, should we eat the the most nutritious vegetables and fruits even though they are not grown locally, ignoring the environmental effect and the loss of nutrition during the transportation? Or should we eat whatever is available locally and missing out some of the so-called top nutritious ones?

A recent study by Choice magazine found that canned and frozen vegetables, such as frozen English spinach, canned tomatoes, canned greeen beans and canned carrots, can be more nutritious than their fresh counterparts, with the exception of broccoli.

I wonder what are the effects of eating canned vegetables and fruits on the environment, especially when they are shipped from somewhere else?