Stephen Downes

There are three things in this post.  The first is a link to Jay Cross's new book: "The book offers insight into learning, and more specifically increasing learning efficiency to a point of a long-lasting AHA-moment, hence the title: "AHA! 75 ways to work smarter". The second is the concept of 'plog' - "writing daily. Short passages (15 min is enough), reflecting on your day, but on a daily basis (something my mom has been doing for over 20 years or more, talking about a role model!). A proven action to increase your mental health, while also adding to your focus, patience, planning and personal growth (research by Teresa Amabile , nice name). Jay calls it: writing a Plog." I've been doing it for years, but I can't guarantee the claims about mental health. And finally, the grit score. I still question the concept of grit. But my grit score, for the record, was 4.63, which makes me pretty gritty - some would say abrasive.