Research psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has spent many years studying "the theory of ‘flow’ – a state of consciousness in which concentration on activity is so intense that complete absorption is achieved," notes the magazine Free Inquiry. Their article "How to Find Flow" relates details of an interview with this expert, who says that "people who seem to feel most positive about their lives possess a set of common characteristics, such as knowing clearly what they have to do, getting feedback on what they are doing, and being able to match their abilities with the opportunities for action so that skills and challenges are in balance. When those characteristics are present, people begin to concentrate very highly. As a result they forget the problems of everyday life, and they seem to step into a kind of alternative reality." In her Web Worker Daily article "Making Time for Your Pre-work Rituals," Celine Rogue says, "Pre-work rituals are an essential part of your workday" because they help build your mindset, keep you energized, and shift your perspective. Rogue’s advice:  "Find your ideal working hours… The span of time when you produce the most amount of work in the least amount of time… Find those hours, make sure you factor them into your schedule, and guard those hours with your life."

Karl Staib, the man behind WorkHappyNow.com, shares his routine in "Creating a Project Ritual to Create Happiness." To get in the zone for one of his current projects, Staib’s ritual is to "Clean off my desk" to "only focus on the task at hand," "Close all open computer windows" to avoid the temptation "to do a quick email check," then "Put on music to fit the mood I need to be in."  His next steps are to "make a list of what I want to accomplish," take "a one minute relaxation," self-coach by asking himself "how can I enjoy the work?" and, finally, "Get started. This is where I used to hesitate," he explains, "but now I just jump in because I’ve prepared myself for what I want to get done."

In his book Brain Train: Studying for Success (London: E & FN Spon, 1996), 164, Richard Palmer offers great insights on how to study… and enjoy it. One example of the information he delivers is this memorable list of Rules of Grammar for Report Writing:

1. Remember to never split an infinitive.
2. The passive voice should never be used.
3. Punctuate run-on sentences properly they are hard to read otherwise.
4. Don’t use no double negatives.
5. Use the semi-colon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn’t.
6. Reserve the apostrophe for it’s proper use and omit it when its not needed.
7. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
8. No sentence fragments.
9. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
10. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
11. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a lot of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
12. A writer must not shift your point of view.
13. Give slang the elbow.
14. Conversely, it is incumbent upon us to avoid archaisms.
15. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!!!
16. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 onwards or more, to their antecedents.
17. Hyphenate between sy-llables; avoid un-necessary hyphens.
18. Write all adverbial forms correct.
19. Writing carefully: dangling participles must be avoided.
20. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck in the language.
21. Take the bull by the hand: always pick on the correct idiom and avoid mixed metaphors.
22. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
23. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
24. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
25. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, resist hyperbole.
26. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
27. Don’t string together too many prepositional phrases unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
28. ""Avoid overuse of quotation marks.""""
29. For Christ’s sake don’t offend your readers’ sensibilities.
30. Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

Print out this list to use as a handy reminder when you’re doing all those writing assignments. And check out Brain Train: Studying for Success for many other useful tips.

"Boolean Search is an algebraic concept," says the University System of Georgia’s Online Library Learning Center adding, "but don’t let that scare you away."

"Boolean connectors are all about sets," they continue, noting that the words used as Boolean connectors are "and," "or" and "not."

They explain:

Think of each keyword as having a "set" of results that are connected with it. These sets can be combined to produce a different "set" of results. You can also exclude certain "sets" from your results by using a Boolean connector.

 

AND is a connector that requires both words to be present in each record in the results. Use AND to narrow your search

OR is a connector that allows either word to be present in each record in the results. Use OR to expand your search.

NOT is a connector that requires the first word be present in each record in the results, but only if the record does not contain the second word.

Visit USG’s pages on Boolean Search for examples and an interactive demonstration showing how connectors impact various searches.