You can change your life in 10 minutes — if you take that time to learn a life-changing technique.
In a Quora thread, users answered the question, “What can I learn right now in just 10 minutes that could be useful for the rest of my life?”
Here are a few of our favorite takeaways that will save you time and improve your life.
1. Truly listen to people. Pay attention to their body language, and mirror it with your own.Listen graciously rather than waiting to talk. —Adam Goldman
2. Learn to speed read. We learned to say each word aloud in our heads back in grade school, but we can comprehend language much faster than we can say it. So train yourself to read without having to use that slow-moving voice. —Raj Rai
3. When someone tells you their name, make an effort to remember it. One of the best tricks is the memory linking technique. To do it, self-help legend Dale Carnegie says to”paint a mind picture of the person whose name you wish to remember doing something that reminds you of the person’s name.” —Arjuna Perkins
4. Learn basic mindfulness meditation. It doesn’t have to be a major commitment, just 10 minutes in a day. All you need to do is pay attention to your breath as it goes out and comes back in. Remember, it’s not about clearing your head of thoughts. “Real Happiness at Work” author Sharon Salzberg says mindfulness means having a “balanced awareness” of what’s happening around you, so that you can understand your experience rather than just react to it. —James H. Kelly
5. Before you have an important meeting or presentation, watch some standup comedy. The happy feelings that come with laughter enhance your judgment, improve your memory, and make you more willing to take risks. —James Altucher
6. If you want your phone to charge faster, put it on airplane mode. If your iPhone is about to die, turn it on airplane mode and hop in the shower. It will be well-charged by the time you get dressed. —Himanshu Yadav
7. When you have to sign up for a service, don’t give your real email. Instead, use 10 Minute Mail and sidestep the spam. —Abhishek Mandora
8. Get into proper posture at your work station. It will save you heaps of neck and back pain. It’s also important to get up at least once an hour, since you need to reset your body’s posture once it drifts into bad positioning. —Ben Mordecai
9. Set your Gmail so you can “un-send” a message. Just in case you write something you wish you could take back. —Vipin Agrawal
10. Talk to at least one stranger every day. Whether on the subway, in a cafe, or at a networking event. Because who you know shapes your health, happiness, and success. If you’re shy, learn a few dependable conversational techniques. —Abhishek Roy
11. At the end of the work day, reflect on what you did well. Research out of Harvard Business School shows that keeping a journal of your daily successes improves your performance and wellbeing.
