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Habits and routines

Person wearing sunglasses in partial shadow, resting hand on chin, with sunlight and striped top visible.

Anxiety

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How to tell whether you’re being careful or giving in to anxiety

It’s not always easy to tell what’s a sensible safeguard, and what’s an anxiety-fuelling habit. A few questions can help

by Jemma Todd, Amelia Scott, Rachel Menzies & Louise Sharpe

Person in a yellow jacket and blue hat jogging through a forest, with green foliage in the background.

The body and physical health

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Even a single exercise session can help shift depression

The long-term benefits of regular exercise for mood are well-known. What’s surprising is that just one session can help

by Matthew Bourke & Rhiannon Patten

A bowl containing a mobile phone, keychains, earrings, a key, and other small miscellaneous items.

Technology and media

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The pleasure, the pain and the politics of a digital detox

Studying why and how people take digital-media breaks can reveal what individuals and societies value in unmediated spaces

by Trine Syvertsen

Person typing on a laptop at a wooden table, with a pencil case, pens, and sliced peppers. Another person in the background is reading a book.

Focus and attention

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Go on, admit it. You’re multitasking. Here’s how to do it better

Our limited mental resources make multitasking inefficient. As you’re unlikely to stop it, you can learn to do it better

by Virginia Clinton-Lisell

Running shoes, a rolled-up red yoga mat, a water bottle, and a portable speaker on a carpeted floor.

Goals and motivation

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To meet your goals, forget willpower and fill your toolbox

Achieving your goals has nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with using the right mix of psychological tools

by Marina Milyavskaya

Photo of two men in orange uniforms sitting on benches in a jail watching a small TV mounted on the wall.

Habits and routines

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Prison life puts the ‘time work’ we all do into sharp relief

Trapped in an ocean of time, prisoners exemplify the human impulse to take temporal experience into our own hands

by Michael G Flaherty

Bronze bust of a bearded man with curly hair, showing detailed facial features, on a black background.

Thinking and intelligence

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Lost perspective? Try this linguistic trick to reset your view

By using ‘distanced self-talk’, you can leverage the structure of language to take a step back and see the bigger picture

by Ariana Orvell

Ski jumper in blue suit preparing for a jump, seen from behind at the start of a snowy ramp at night.

Goals and motivation

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There’s a way to avoid the slippery slopes of over-optimism

Optimistic people tend to enjoy more success, but that’s only when they put the effort in – wishful thinking is not enough

by Heather C Lench