NewsBeat

March 2019 NewsBeat 13 Your attention doesn't immediately follow–a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task. To get over that attention residue, we need some way to formally say: I'm done working on this task for now and it's time to move onto the next one. That's where rituals come in. Rituals are repeated behaviors just like routines (they can even be a part of your routine). However, they're imbued with deeper meaning beyond just a sequence of actions. Think of religious rituals or family traditions. These rituals signify a change or moment of importance of which we should take note. HOW TO BRING RITUALS INTO YOUR WORKDAY There are key moments during the workday where rituals can help guide you and alleviate attention residue. Think about switching from writing a document to having a one-on-one meeting. The mental expectations between the two are incredibly different. And we need some way to disconnect from our words and engage with the person in front of us. So what do you do? The simple answer is: pretty much anything. Rituals are deeply personal. You could go for a quick walk, grab a cup of coffee, or put away your laptop. The action itself doesn't matter as much as what it symbolizes to you— that you're finished with one part of your day and ready to move onto the next one. Now, I'd understand if you're skeptical. But research has found that rituals help with self-control, can alleviate disappointment after hearing difficult news, and can even reduce anxiety before stressful tasks and improve our performance. Part of this is because our behaviors lead us to conclusions about ourselves. When we repeat a ritual associated with a certain task, it tells us we're disciplined, motivated, and focused. As Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton, behavioral scientists at Harvard Business School, write: Despite the absence of a direct causal connection between the ritual and the desired outcome, performing rituals with the intention of producing a certain result appears to be sufficient for that result to come true. THE MOST FAMOUS (AND BIZARRE) RITUALS OF CREATIVES, ENTREPRENEURS, AND LEADERS Routines are easy to explain. But rituals can often seem pretty strange to people on the outside. Think of the relationship between athletes and superstition. It's hard to believe anyone really thinks growing a beard during playoffs or not changing your socks during a tournament will help them win. But they do it anyways. To help you feel less embarrassed, here are a few of the most famous (and a few totally bizarre) rituals of artists, entrepreneurs, and creatives: Simone de Beauvoir always corrected the previous day's work before launching into anything new: If the work is going well, I spend a quarter or half an hour reading what I wrote the day before, and I make a few corrections. Then I continue from there. In order to pick up the thread I have to read what I've done. Winston Churchill took a late-afternoon nap to separate his morning work from his evening work: At 5 p.m., after another weak whisky and soda, he went to bed for an hour and a half. He said this siesta, a habit gained in Cuba, allowed him to work 1 1/2 days in every 24 hours. At 6:30 p.m. he awoke, bathed again, and dressed for dinner at 8 p.m. Author Stephen King creates the same work environment every morning before he starts to put himself in the right state of mind: There are certain things I do if I sit down to write. I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There's a certain time I sit down, from 8 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning. I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you're going to be dreaming soon. Author Will Self smokes and drinks strange teas and coffees. As he explains in the "Guardian": Q: In your line of work, you spend much of your time alone. How do you survive?" A: Rituals. Smoking–pipes, cigars, special brands, accessories, the whole bollocks. Coffee, tea, strange infusions . . . And all the way on the other end of the spectrum, Picasso refused to throw out his fingernail clippings and and other bodily detritus for "fear of squandering his essence." Charles Dickens always slept facing north, believing it improved his creativity. ROUTINES POWER YOUR DAY, BUT RITUALS HELP YOU GET THROUGH THEM Days have a funny way of slipping past without us even realizing it. And while routines help us feel in control of our time, rituals make sure we stick to our plans. Sometimes it's the simplest actions that help us get through the day and stay motivated. — Reprinted from Rescuetime

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