When do babies typically start playing peekaboo. Why is peekaboo important for infant development. How does peekaboo contribute to cognitive and social growth in babies. What are the key milestones associated with peekaboo play.

The Fascinating World of Peekaboo: A Simple Game with Profound Impact

Peekaboo, a seemingly simple game, holds a treasure trove of developmental benefits for infants. This age-old pastime is more than just a source of giggles; it’s a powerful tool for cognitive, social, and emotional growth. Let’s delve into the intricacies of this beloved game and explore its significance in a baby’s journey of discovery.

The Developmental Benefits of Peekaboo: Unlocking Your Baby’s Potential

Why is peekaboo such an important game for babies? The reasons are numerous and far-reaching:

• Brain Development: The visual stimulation provided by peekaboo creates new neural connections, which are strengthened through repetition.
• Social Skills: Through this interactive game, babies learn crucial social cues such as turn-taking, eye contact, and reciprocal smiling.
• Motor Skills: Peekaboo encourages the development of gross motor skills and enhances visual tracking abilities.
• Cognitive Growth: The game introduces the concept of object permanence, teaching babies that objects (or people) continue to exist even when out of sight.
• Emotional Bonding: Peekaboo provides undivided adult attention, fostering trust and emotional security.

Does laughter play a role in the effectiveness of peekaboo? Indeed, it does. Research has shown that laughter enhances learning, and interestingly, peekaboo has been identified as one of the most effective ways to elicit laughter in babies across cultures.

The Timeline of Peekaboo: When Do Babies Start Enjoying This Game?

At what age do babies typically begin to engage in peekaboo? The answer might surprise you. Babies can enjoy aspects of peekaboo from the newborn stage all the way through toddlerhood. However, their understanding and participation in the game evolve as they grow:

• 0-3 months: Babies may smile or coo in response to the game.
• 3-6 months: Infants begin to visually track the reappearing face.
• 6-9 months: Laughter in response to peekaboo becomes common.
• 9+ months: Babies may start to imitate or initiate the game themselves.

It’s important to note that these are general guidelines, and individual babies may reach these milestones at different times.

Object Permanence: The Hidden Lesson in Peekaboo

How does peekaboo contribute to a baby’s understanding of object permanence? This crucial cognitive concept typically develops between 4 and 12 months of age. Peekaboo helps babies grasp that objects (or people) continue to exist even when they can’t be seen. This understanding is a significant milestone in cognitive development.

Even after babies have grasped object permanence, peekaboo remains enjoyable. The anticipation of your reappearance and the joy of your smiling face continue to make the game exciting and beneficial.

The Social and Emotional Aspects of Peekaboo

Beyond cognitive development, what emotional benefits does peekaboo offer? According to Tovah Klein, director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development, peekaboo plays a crucial role in emotional development:

“It’s a fun game, it’s a joyful game, but it’s actually getting at an emotional core for the toddler. They’re saying to the child, ‘I’m here for you every time you leave. I’m not going away.'”

This aspect of peekaboo helps build trust and emotional security, reassuring the child that their caregiver will always return. Interestingly, this trust-building aspect of peekaboo has been utilized in rebuilding trust with traumatized children.

When Should Parents Be Concerned About Peekaboo Engagement?

Is a lack of interest in peekaboo a cause for concern? Not necessarily. While peekaboo is a common and beneficial game, some babies may simply prefer other activities. It’s important to consider the whole picture of a child’s development rather than focusing on any single factor.

However, if you notice that your baby isn’t reacting to facial expressions or engaging in social games like peekaboo well beyond the typical milestone ages, it may be worth discussing with your pediatrician. Remember, every child develops at their own pace, and variations from average milestone ages are common and often not cause for alarm.

Peekaboo Variations: Keeping the Game Fresh and Engaging

How can parents keep peekaboo interesting as their baby grows? Here are some variations to try:

1. Use different hiding spots around the room
2. Incorporate toys or objects into the game
3. Try peekaboo with feet or other body parts
4. Use mirrors for a new perspective
5. Experiment with different sounds or phrases when reappearing

These variations can help maintain interest and provide new learning opportunities as your baby develops.

The Global Appeal of Peekaboo: A Universal Language of Play

Is peekaboo a universally enjoyed game? Research suggests that it is. Across cultures, peekaboo and similar hiding games are prevalent and beloved by babies and caregivers alike. This universal appeal speaks to the game’s fundamental alignment with infant development needs and the innate human desire for social connection.

The simplicity of peekaboo allows it to transcend language barriers, making it a powerful tool for bonding and development in diverse cultural contexts. Whether it’s “peek-a-boo” in English, “cu-cu” in Spanish, or “いないいないばあ” (inai inai baa) in Japanese, the essence of the game remains the same: a joyful exchange of hiding and reappearing that delights babies worldwide.

The Science Behind Peekaboo’s Universal Appeal

Why does peekaboo resonate so strongly with babies across different cultures? The answer lies in the game’s alignment with fundamental aspects of infant cognitive and social development:

• Predictable Patterns: Babies thrive on predictability, and peekaboo offers a consistent, repeatable pattern that helps them make sense of their world.
• Social Interaction: The game provides a framework for positive social interaction, which is crucial for emotional and social development.
• Surprise and Delight: The element of surprise in peekaboo triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and learning.
• Non-verbal Communication: Peekaboo relies heavily on facial expressions and tone of voice, making it accessible even before language skills develop.

These universal elements contribute to peekaboo’s widespread popularity and effectiveness as a developmental tool.

Peekaboo and Language Development

How does peekaboo contribute to language development? While not primarily a language-focused game, peekaboo can play a role in early language acquisition:

• Repetition of Key Phrases: The repeated use of phrases like “Where’s baby?” and “There you are!” helps familiarize infants with language patterns.
• Turn-taking: The back-and-forth nature of peekaboo mimics conversation structure, laying groundwork for future verbal exchanges.
• Associating Words with Actions: The game helps babies connect words with specific actions, enhancing their understanding of language in context.
• Encouraging Vocalization: As babies become more engaged in the game, they may begin to vocalize or attempt to mimic the sounds they hear.

While peekaboo alone isn’t a comprehensive language development tool, it can complement other language-rich activities in a baby’s daily routine.

Peekaboo and Technology: Adapting an Age-Old Game for the Digital Era

In today’s digital world, how has peekaboo adapted? While traditional face-to-face peekaboo remains irreplaceable, technology has introduced new variations:

• Video Calls: Distant family members can play peekaboo via video chat, maintaining connections across distances.
• Interactive Apps: Some apps incorporate peekaboo-like games, though these should be used sparingly and not as a replacement for human interaction.
• Smart Toys: Certain educational toys use peekaboo-inspired games to engage babies.

It’s crucial to remember that while these technological adaptations can be fun supplements, they should not replace the vital face-to-face interaction that traditional peekaboo provides. The emotional connection and non-verbal cues present in in-person play are difficult to replicate digitally.

Balancing Traditional and Digital Play

How can parents strike a balance between traditional peekaboo and digital variations? Here are some guidelines:

1. Prioritize face-to-face play: Make in-person peekaboo a regular part of your daily routine.
2. Use technology thoughtfully: Reserve digital peekaboo for special circumstances, like connecting with distant relatives.
3. Maintain interaction: If using digital tools, stay engaged with your baby rather than letting the device do all the work.
4. Set time limits: Ensure that screen-based play doesn’t overshadow other important activities and interactions.

By thoughtfully incorporating both traditional and digital forms of play, parents can provide a rich, varied play environment that supports their baby’s development in the modern world.

Peekaboo Beyond Babyhood: The Game’s Lasting Impact

Does the influence of peekaboo extend beyond infancy? While peekaboo is primarily associated with babies, its effects can have lasting implications:

• Trust and Attachment: The sense of security fostered by peekaboo can contribute to secure attachment, influencing future relationships.
• Cognitive Flexibility: The game’s structure helps develop cognitive flexibility, which is valuable throughout life.
• Social Skills: Early social interactions through games like peekaboo lay the foundation for more complex social skills later in life.
• Emotional Regulation: The excitement and mild surprise in peekaboo help babies learn to manage and enjoy a range of emotions.

While children outgrow peekaboo, the skills and experiences gained through this simple game continue to influence their development and interactions as they grow.

Peekaboo-Inspired Activities for Older Children

How can the principles of peekaboo be applied to activities for older children? Here are some ideas:

1. Hide and Seek: A natural progression from peekaboo that maintains the element of disappearance and reappearance.
2. Memory Games: Card-matching games that build on the concept of object permanence.
3. Storytelling with Surprises: Interactive stories that incorporate unexpected twists, mimicking the surprise element of peekaboo.
4. Magic Tricks: Simple illusions that play with the idea of objects appearing and disappearing.

These activities build on the foundational concepts introduced in peekaboo, allowing children to continue developing related skills in more advanced ways as they grow.

When do babies play peekaboo and why do they play it?

Peekaboo, I see you! The classic game of peekaboo teaches so much more than anyone could guess from how simple it is. It’s free and easy, and it builds so much in your baby’s brain each time you play. But what if they’re not interested? We’ll go over when babies peekaboo and when to worry if they don’t.

Contents

• Why should babies play peekaboo?
• When do babies play peekaboo?
• When should I be concerned if my baby doesn’t play peekaboo?

Why should babies play peekaboo?

Babies gain a lot from the seemingly simple game:

• Visual stimulation creates new brain cell connections, and the repetition strengthens them.
• They learn socially about taking turns, eye contact, smiling, and give-and-take.
• The game builds gross motor skills and strengthens visual tracking.
• Laughing enhances learning (one survey showed peekaboo is the best way to make babies laugh around the world).
• Peekaboo develops the idea of object permanence, the idea that something out of sight is still there.
• It gives them an adult’s undivided attention.
• It builds trust that you always come back.

“It’s a fun game, it’s a joyful game, but it’s actually getting at an emotional core for the toddler,” says Tovah Klein, director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development and author of How Toddlers Thrive. “They’re saying to the child, ‘I’m here for you every time you leave. I’m not going away.’” It can actually be used to rebuild trust with traumatized children.

Seeing your smiling face come out from behind your hands is so simple but your smiling face looking at theirs is one of the most important and beneficial foundations for your baby’s development. Even without all of the other benefits, this one alone makes it worth it.

When do babies play peekaboo?

Babies can love peekaboo even from a newborn stage and all the way up through being a toddler. The concept of object permanence develops anywhere from 4 to 12 months old, and the idea that you’re really “gone” will begin to fade then. However, waiting for you to come out of hiding is still fun even if they don’t think you’ve truly disappeared anymore. Their love of the game can stay throughout the whole time they begin to grasp the concept and trying to figure out if you’re really gone or not is part of the fun.

Even without the idea of object permanence, babies love the surprised and smiling expression you make when you pop out. Reactions to facial expressions begin around 3 months old.

Babies’ reactions to peekaboo develop as they do. At three months old or less, they may smile or coo at you when you play. At 3-6 months old, a baby can begin to visually follow your face where it reappears. At 6-9 months old, they may laugh at the game, and at 9+ months old, they may imitate or initiate the game.

Like with all milestones, expected ages are just averages and guidelines to give you a general idea, not a rule. If a baby isn’t reacting to facial expressions on the day they turn 3 months old, it’s no reason to panic. It becomes more of a cause for concern when months and months beyond the milestone guideline age pass and the baby is still not showing any interest.

When should I be concerned if my baby doesn’t play peekaboo?

Not playing peekaboo is not a reason to call the pediatrician between check-ups, but you can definitely bring it up with your baby’s doctor the next time you go if you are concerned.

Babies can begin laughing around 4 months old, but if they aren’t, don’t automatically worry. Babies all develop on their own time but discuss any missed milestones like this with your pediatrician.

Unlike a physical milestone like walking, laughing is about personality, and some kids are naturally serious. Some babies may never show interest in peekaboo just because they prefer other games and that can be chalked up to individuality.

Not showing an interest in peekaboo isn’t necessarily a reason to worry on its own, but you and your pediatrician will look at your whole child and see if it fits with other personality traits and parts of their development that all added together could help hint at a future diagnosis. Not playing peekaboo on its own cannot lead to any diagnosis without other contributing factors. If you have any cause for concern, always consult your pediatrician.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Why do babies growl? Understanding your little one’s weird sounds

• 6 reasons why all parents should let their kids have cellphones

• 7 avocado-based baby food combinations your baby will love

• 9 amazing sweet potato baby food combinations your child will love

• 5 bizarre baby behaviors that are actually totally normal

Peek-a-boo: A window on baby’s brain

• Published

  11 March 2014

This video can not be played

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Media caption,

Baby laughter: What it reveals about your baby’s brain

By Anna Lacey

BBC Health Check

A baby’s first smile is an exciting moment. But what can it tell us about their understanding of the world?

Boasting about the speed of childhood development is the sport of choice for many a doting parent.

From the 12-week scan right through the early years, monitoring the physical and mental progress of their pride and joy is a source of both excitement and concern.

Especially rewarding is the onset of smiles, squeals and laughter – the kind of milestones that make all the disturbed nights worth it.

But is it all just wind?

Apparently not, as researchers now think that laughter and games like peek-a-boo could be telling us something more, and giving us a way to peer inside the workings of their minds.

“Laughter and smiles start incredibly early, just like tears,” says Dr Caspar Addyman, a baby laughter researcher at Birkbeck College in London.

“So this leads us to think that it’s a form of communication,” he told the BBC.

Dr Addyman has collected nearly 700 questionnaires about baby smiles and laughter from around the world. He’s still looking for more examples.

He found that babies are smiling in response to pleasant feelings much earlier than expected, which can be as young as one month old.

Soon after that, at between two to four months, social smiles develop that are used specifically to engage the parents.

He now hopes to take the research further and use laughter as a new way of tracking what it is that babies understand about the world around them.

The person who most greatly influenced our current view of childhood development was Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget.

Careful observations of children at different ages led him to identify four stages that everyone must go through to reach the cognitive abilities of an adult (see box).

In the earliest months of life, Piaget said that babies are only able to learn about the world by directly interacting with it through grasping, shaking and sucking.

With each experience, he concluded, children gradually build up a picture of how the world works – a kind of naïve physics.

But Dr Addyman thinks that studying babies’ laughter can be just as effective at helping us pinpoint developments in the way their minds are expanding.

“You can’t laugh at something until you get the joke, so what they laugh at really tells us about their understanding of the world,” says Addyman.

Peek-a-boo

As a result of having experienced so little, small children are for the most part quite content to accept the absurd as completely plausible.

Dr Addyman, who sports a crop of bright blue hair, sees this regularly with his young volunteers.

“Young babies would never laugh at my hair. But older children realise there’s something wrong and that makes it funny.”

The ability of children to suddenly see the funny side, Dr Addyman believes, acts to highlight much more profound developments going on deep inside their brains.

The Baby Laughter Project, which has surveyed parents from more than 20 countries, has shown that games like peek-a-boo are perfect for showing one such fundamental development – object permanence.

The term describes the understanding that an object still exists, even if you can’t see it.

Very young children don’t know this, which is why babies under around six months can look shocked and startled at peek-a-boo.

They think that not being able to see mum or dad’s face means that they’ve actually disappeared, making their sudden reappearance come as quite a surprise.

However once a child understands (at around six- to eight-months old) that their parent is just hiding, then peek-a-boo becomes all about the anticipation of when they’re going to come back.

Laughing as conversation

“Peek a boo is all the best things. It’s mummy reappearing, but it’s also about shared communication,” says Dr Addyman.

“You can’t help but smile and laugh when a baby starts laughing with you, which is really valuable for them developing their ability to interact with other people. “

A potential link between laughter and language development suggests we’ve thus far underestimated babies’ sense of humour.

Joking requires an element of taking turns as well as other skills needed for advanced interaction, like imitation and eye-contact.

“Children can pick up the rhythms of conversation through joking and playing games,” says Dr Addyman.

In fact, smiles and laughter could be important communication tools for infants before they develop language.

Even primates seem to use laughter as a way of regulating social interaction.

“Laughter in chimps is predominantly used in play and it tends to be the youngest members of the group who have time for playing,” says Dr Katie Slocombe, a primate cognition specialist at the University of York.

“It’s been shown in chimps that laughter facilitates extended play, and we can’t rule out that it has some sort of role in social bonding. When a chimp laughs, it seems to encourage their play partner to continue tickling or chasing them – just like a baby keeping an adult’s attention for longer,” she told the BBC.

So should we try harder to interpret the deeper meaning in those burbles and titters? Dr Addyman suggests a certain level of caution.

“Historically, we’ve certainly been guilty of projecting adult interpretations about what babies are laughing at, and it’s a constant danger when doing this kind of research,” he says.

“You really have to look at this scientifically and at a range of ages to really start to understand what’s going on in their heads.”

Guessing the price of oil is a thankless task! So I won’t 😉 Instead, I’ll present your

Guessing the price of oil is a thankless task!
So I won’t
Instead, I will present to your attention excerpts from the Statat post on the peekaboo “So will oil be $380 or $40?”🤔
Here comes the analysis of the American article “Running Out of Spare Oil Capacity – What’s Next?”
Ready? It doesn’t matter, let’s go: 🚜
“The period of 2014-2020 corrupted us. Everyone is used to the fact that oil / gas is a relatively cheap resource. And you can not take into account the economic indicators if oil suddenly rises in price by 2-3 times.

In fact, the oil market in terms of production is one endless war. Easily accessible reserves that were in the first half of the 20th century have long been exhausted. And all subsequent decades there was a technological race in both exploration and production.

If the world were now looking for and extracting oil using the methods of the 50s, then our standard of living would be somewhere in the region of the late 19century, and in the Russian Federation it was practically not mined at all.
Let me remind you that during the Second World War, the USSR produced 80% of its oil in Azerbaijan alone. And all this oil was, by today’s standards, lying on the surface.
Another peak of cheap oil ended in the 1970s. The oil crisis in the West due to the conflict with the Arabs.

An important milestone in subsequent production came in the 1980s, when the old onshore fields were replaced by offshore production. The technologies of floating and rigid platforms created at that time made it possible to expand the volume of oil produced in an incredible way, and most importantly, expand the geography. A large number of countries eventually gained their energy independence.

Further, the shelf resource was systematically developed and by the 2000s it no longer gave enough growth. Prices crept up.

A new high-quality technological leap was needed. They became slate. In fact, this is just a new market milestone. When they figured out how to extract hard-to-reach oil at a reasonable price.

This slate was enough for about 8-10 years. Then he gasped. Why? All the oil readily available using this technology has already been pumped out. Then there was only hard-to-reach.

The idea that shale companies will do something now and bring down prices like in 2014 is simply not tenable. They physically cannot do it. Details in the article.

Once upon a time, the offshore shelf provided cheap oil for about 15 years. The slate was only enough for 8. The previous techno-era lasted about 30 at all.

This is logical. There is no more oil underground, each new technological jumping out of shorts extends to an ever smaller volume of oil “easily accessible” using this technology.

So there is no more slate. The market has entered the stage of overheating and is waiting for new technological breakthroughs. But demshiza forbade them to deal with. Ecology, jsw, renewable sources.

Whereas high price cycles used to send the oil industry huge investments in technology development, this is no longer the case. The American oilmen directly say that they do not want to do this, because then they will be dispossessed by Biden and co.
🧙‍♂️Summing up, I’ll say that you can’t really count on shale oil companies, since they were harshly thrown in 2014, dropping prices to negative values. 📉
Therefore, they will not invest money again.❌
So, perhaps we are in for an era of expensive gasoline.
Up

$USDRUB even up to 70, super profits are waiting for our oil industry again. 🤑
Therefore, be sure to take into your portfolio

$LKOH (which Shell bought) or

$SIBN (which pays dividends, by the way, unlike someone else)
Well,

$ROSN of course. (Qatar is sitting there at 19% and is unlikely to come out like other non-cuts)
Take this stuff for 15-20% of the portfolio and it’s fine.✅
And remember: Grandpa Buffett buys oilmen. And he will not advise garbage.
_______________________________________
Subscribe!

#analytics#what_to_buy

complete practical guide / Habr

Do you constantly put things off until later and don’t see a problem in it? I am familiar with this. I’ll tell you how not to repeat my mistakes and why it’s time to stop it. Don’t put off this article for later!

Meet Masha. She is still a procrastinator

I must say right away that it was a long process and the main mistake was that I was looking for some easy way, a magic pill. I thought that I would read something like that (or watch some kind of video) and everything would change in a second. Of course, it doesn’t work that way. We need an integrated approach. But there really is an algorithm, and today I will tell you about it.

Why is it so difficult to get rid of procrastination

→ We don’t know much about procrastination: The very concept of procrastination appeared not so long ago. Not everyone understands what exactly they are dealing with, but it has important features that must be taken into account.

— “Laziness, now also procrastination! They just don’t come up with anything, just not to work!”

→ We don’t take the problem seriously enough: we don’t see it as a problem at all that needs to be addressed. Procrastination somehow imperceptibly penetrates our lives and gradually becomes the norm. “Well, I can’t force myself, I’m probably trying badly.” And time is running out.

→ Looking for the red pill: think there is an easy way to beat procrastination. It’s like saying to a depressed person “don’t be sad, it’s not that bad!”

→ Advice from the Internet does not work: almost everywhere you can find only general advice in the spirit of “find motivation” and “believe in success.”

→ Procrastination and information addiction go hand in hand: which means that another serious problem has to be dealt with.

Causes of procrastination

Okay, now let’s look at why procrastination occurs and what affects it.

→ Our habitual way of life: we literally live in the flow of information: constant notifications, endless scrolling of the feed, dozens of open tabs, checking email every five minutes, replies to comments … Every second we choose to get “pleasure here and now”, and not “work and get later”. By making these choices every day, we become less disciplined and lose our ability to concentrate.

→ Stress and news background, with which we are constantly surrounded (2022, hello!): NWO, mobilization, pandemic, endless politics, relocation, loss of the usual way of life. The mental state is the same.

→ Meanings imposed by social networks, not real desires: in the endless race for a “good life”, we rarely think about our true desires and are often “half-positioned” – we don’t understand whether we need changes or we need to “be patient again” “.

→ Lack of quality rest. To work well, you need to have a good rest. But do we really rest? On vacation, we think about work, or we reproach ourselves for low productivity.

→ There are also psychological reasons: fear of failure, perfectionism, depression, and others.

Masha in 2022

✅ The fight against procrastination is, first of all, a change in the usual way of life. The way of life in which we have been living for several years. It is logical that this is very difficult to do and requires considerable effort.

A step-by-step algorithm that helped me and covers all possible causes of procrastination

The algorithm is divided into two parts: preparatory work and practical part

1. Understanding the theory: why procrastination is so scary and how it differs from laziness 9 0003

If Masha lies on the couch and thinks “I don’t feel like doing anything, I’d better watch TV” – then this is laziness. If “Damn, I have so many things to do, and I’m lying on the couch” and can’t do anything about it, then this is procrastination.

The main danger of procrastination is that you are constantly dissatisfied with yourself and reproach yourself for not doing anything . You beat yourself up for not doing enough. Even when you “rest” you don’t really rest, but you think that this rest is not deserved. The paradox is that all this takes away forces, which would be more than enough to carry out the assigned tasks. The result is a triple combo: you do nothing, scold yourself for it and still don’t rest!

Masha Lazy and Masha Procrastinating

2. Accepting the rules of the game

Now we know:

• We have a serious problem

• Even when we seem to be doing nothing, we are actually wasting energy and only making the problem worse. It’s time to get out of this vicious circle. It is necessary to “let go” of this and stop scolding yourself for unfinished business.

We also accept the fact that learning new things, changing your life and developing is difficult, there will definitely be difficulties along the way, but it is necessary.

In general, here you need to understand that difficulties are not only normal, they are even good. Difficulties are the foundation of all learning. That very moment when we cannot solve a problem and think how to solve it is learning.

3. We already have everything for changes

As I already wrote, for a long time I was looking for something that would help me change everything in a second. Alas, such knowledge does not exist. But there is good news: in order to overcome procrastination, we already have everything. No need to look for some additional motivation, ways to fight and so on. Just follow this algorithm and you will succeed!

4. Get less information

→ Goal number one: get less information of any kind and stop being dependent on it. Less news, less useless chats, less work chats (optimize this), fewer unnecessary calls. Even in the current situation, the most important news will find us by itself, for this we do not need to follow them.

Website blockers, unsubscribing from news channels, turning off notifications, checking messages a couple of times a day will help.

💡 Life hack: it’s clear that it’s hard not to follow the news at all now, as it can directly affect our lives. But you can leave, say, only one news source that you trust and read it a couple of times a day. In any case, important news will not pass you by, but you will hardly spend time on monitoring.

💡 Life hack 2: if you have a lot of chats in telegram and it’s a pity to unsubscribe from them, then there is a wonderful “folder” functionality. For example, you can make one folder with important chats, and hide everything else in others.

✅ Consider that you have reached Zen, when your acquaintances take off your news, and you say “wow, you didn’t even hear”

5. We release the head

for the accredator constantly hundreds of thoughts in the head every second. Everything seems important and urgent, and it is difficult to figure out what really needs to be done, and what can not be done at all. It’s time to stop this flow and write everything down on a piece of paper. Very banal, but working way. Just sit down and write down everything that comes to mind (absolutely all thoughts) for 30 minutes. It’s great if it becomes a habit and you do it regularly.

💡 Lifehack: you can make such a “piggy bank of thoughts and ideas” where you can write down everything that comes to mind. It can be a notepad, text document or any special service. By constantly writing down thoughts and ideas in this document, and then reviewing them later, it will become apparent what is really important and what is not.

6. Having a real rest

If you have mastered all the previous points, now you need to take a few days of real rest. This is when you will not think about work, about goals, about a thousand things, you will not scold yourself for this vacation. Relax with a minimum of notifications and distractions. Of course, outdoor recreation and away from the hustle and bustle are ideal.

In the same paragraph, I will add that it is important to improve the quality of sleep. A lot has already been written about this. You need to sleep 7-8 hours and keep a sleep schedule. Good sleep allows you to gain strength, including the fight against procrastination!

Masha has done the preparatory work, it remains only to arrange sleep

Great, we have done the preparatory work. Now let’s move on to the practical part!

1. Dealing with goals and real motivation

→ First of all, we need to understand how “our” goals are really ours and whether we need them. It is often the tasks that we strongly dislike that cause the most resistance. For example, everyone around says that programming and remote work is cool. This is true, but it should not be your only decision criterion. It’s good to think about how it suits you and are there any alternative options?

💡 Life hack: Finding what you like is not always easy, so you can act on the contrary: remove goals and tasks that you really don’t like. That is, we remove the most unpleasant things that “well, it’s definitely not mine” and continue to narrow the list.

→ Looking for deep motivation. The better we justify “why I really need it,” the easier it will be for us to force ourselves to do it. For example, you can learn English because “everyone learns it.” And you can “to be able to always move to any country in the world and find a job there.” Or even “try next year to get a job in a foreign company.”

2. Set goals correctly

→ Remember about positive and negative reinforcement

If we successfully complete the tasks and achieve the goal, we get positive reinforcement, if not, then negative. We remember how negative things affect us, so when setting goals, we must remember: it is better to do less, but do it.

→ Less is more

Start small. If you set big goals right away and a few hours of practice each day, then remember, until recently, you could not bring yourself to do anything at all. So even a little progress will be progress. And you can always do more if you want.

→ Way to achieve the goal

Each goal has several ways to achieve it. Here are some ways to learn English: on your own, with a tutor, offline courses, online educational platforms, apps, TV series, educational institutions. Each method requires a different level of discipline and motivation, choose what works best for you. Choose the easiest one.

💡 Life hack: there is a good SMART goal setting system. I recommend checking it out!

3. Improving discipline

→ Get good habits

A habit is some kind of regular action. Since the habit will be something new for you, you will have to regularly force yourself to do something. This is the best training of discipline. By practicing discipline, it will be easier for us to concentrate and achieve our goals.

💡 Life hack: always ask yourself the question “what if X happens?”. For example, if you want to run in the morning, what will happen if it rains? Will you run or not? What happens if you sleep until noon? Morning run cancelled? Such questions will help in an emergency not to score a habit.

→ Do something out of the ordinary

Sit quietly for 10 minutes without using any devices or distractions. Read for 20 minutes focusing on the text, not being distracted by notifications and not thinking about work.

4. Track progress and celebrate our achievements

For positive reinforcement, it is very important that we see our progress. Therefore, it must be visualized. Anything will do: it can be marks of completed tasks in the calendar, stickers on the refrigerator after each run, or a daily summing up of the day in notes.

💡 Life hack: the more often we see our progress, the better. Therefore, it is ideal to provide visualization in such a place that it is constantly in front of the eyes. That’s why refrigerator stickers are such a good option.

5. Applications that can help

Flow is a simple and convenient pomodoro timer. Minimalistic and allows you to set any time intervals.

One thing – pin your main goal to the poppy bar. It will be constantly before your eyes and remind you of it.

Notion – everyone loves notion. It is convenient because there you can create your own custom mind map, task tracker, and anything else.

StayFree is a simple and convenient website blocker. It also counts how much time you spend on different sites.

Endel is a personalized service with music for work, sleep, concentration. The creators claim that “Backed by neuroscience”.

💡 Life hack: You can set up notifications on Instagram when you use it for too long.