4 Ways to Stop Work Stress From Following You Home Live Happy, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan August 20, 2017 Create a protective culture at home to relax and refresh in your off hours. While work stress might start at work, let’s admit that it never stays there. Companies demand more from employees not only…
Laugh Your Way to a Happy Workplace Success Magazine, Shawn Achor June 24, 2016 We are drawn to funny people. Researchers have discovered that humor is attractive not just in romantic partners, but in business partners and politicians as well because it is a sign of cognitive fitness. Your brain must be flexible and sharp to create…
4 Types of Mental ‘Noise’ You Should Ignore Success Magazine, Shawn Achor May 23, 2016 In the working world, where we’re subjected to an endless stream of information, noise such as interruptions from co-workers or breaking news alerts on our phones can be particularly dangerous. If you attend to the noise, it will hijack your motivation…
Why Working More is Making You Less Productive Success Magazine, Shawn Achor April 21, 2016 You could be much more efficient, productive and happy if you changed the way you view the hours in your day. Many of the business leaders and Harvard students I work with exhibit the telltale symptoms of the “workaholic’s curse.” They…
Why You Should Map Your Mental World Success Magazine, Shawn Achor March 10, 2016 While working as a teaching fellow for one of my psychology professors at Harvard University, I often conducted an insightful experiment called mental mapping in which students created a map of the world around them. The experiment was simple—students had three…
How Asking for Help is a Sign of Strength & Humility Success Magazine, Shawn Achor February 2016 My senior year of high school, I decided to become a volunteer firefighter. In order to do so, I had to complete 90 hours of training, plus a final test called the Fire Maze. The objective was simple: Rescue…
Increase Your Activity; Increase Your Happiness Success Magazine, Shawn Achor January 2016 Want to become more optimistic? Try playing tennis. Or walking a dog. Or go dancing. Supposedly if you run enough miles, you become addicted to running due to endorphins, the brain chemicals that lead to pleasure. I’ve never gotten close to this experience as…
The Busier You Are, the More You Need Mindfulness Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan December 2015 The most forward-looking companies are willing to take risks to achieve greatness. Most leaders give lip service to this idea, but few actually do it. We have worked with banks willing to take on toxic assets…
The Right Kind of Stress Can Bond Your Team Together Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor December 2015 This past fall, I did a documentary with HBO, directed by Peter Berg and produced by Michael Strahan, called State of Play: Happiness. In the film, we explored how to create a positive culture in organizations where the culture…
3 Secrets to Happiness this Holiday Live Happy Magazine, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan November 2015 Expectations and stress seem to increase over the holidays, especially in the weeks leading up to them. We need to make the perfect meals, wear the perfect clothes and, of course, get the perfect gifts. But while it is easy to…