Take This Two-Minute Executive Dysfunction Test
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Roll For Initiative
Some of us struggle with executive dysfunction a lot; others, a little.
What Is Executive Dysfunction?
• Executive function is a broad group of mental skills that enable people to complete tasks and interact with others.
• Executive dysfunction can impair a person’s ability to organize and manage behavior
• Executive dysfunction is not a specific stand-alone diagnosis or condition.
• Instead, conditions such as depression and ADHD (amongst others) can affect a person’s executive function.
Take This Two-Minute Executive Dysfunction Test
How did you score? (8/16 here!)
Did you do it? (it honestly is really two minutes and is quite informative)
If not, here’s your cue to go back up and do it
For almost all of us, we sometimes find ourselves torn between several competing tasks, and end up doing… none of them.
For such times, compile yourself a “productivity buffet”, print it, and pin it above your desk or similar space.
What’s a productivity buffet?
It’s a numbered list of 6, 8, 10, 12 or 20 common tasks that pretty much always need doing (to at least some extent!). Doesn’t matter how important they are, just that they are frequently recurring tasks. For example:
- Tidy desk (including that drawer!)
- Reply to emails/messages
- Drink water
- Collect stray one-off to-dos into a list
- Stretch (or at least correct your posture!)
- Extend that Duolingo streak
- Read one chapter of a book
- Etc
Why 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20?
Because those are common denominations of polyhedral dice that are very cheap to buy!
Keep the relevant die to hand (perhaps in your pocket or on your desk), and when you know you should be doing something but can’t decide what exactly, roll the die and do the item corresponding to the number you roll.
And if you find yourself thinking “damn, I got 12, I wanted 7!” then go ahead and do item 7—the dice aren’t the boss of you, they’re just there to break the ice between you and your to-do list!
The Housekeeper In Your Pocket?
If you found the tidying tips (up top) helpful, but don’t like cleaning schedules because you just can’t stick to them, this one’s for you.
It’s easy to slip into just doing the same few easy tasks while neglecting others for far too long.
The answer? Outsource!
Not “get a cleaner” (though if you want to and can, great, go for it, this one won’t be for you after all), but rather, try this nifty little app that helps you keep on top of daily cleaning—which we all know is better than binge-cleaning every few months.
Sweepy keeps track of:
- What jobs there are that might need doing in each room (or type of room) in the house
- How often those jobs generally need doing
- How much of your energy (a finite resource, which it also takes into account!) those jobs will take
- How much energy you are prepared to spend per day (you can “lighter/heavier” days, or even “off-days”, too)
…and then it populates a small daily task list according to what needs cleaning and how much energy it’ll take.
For example, today Sweepy gives me (your trusty writer, hi! ) the tasks:
- Bathroom: clean sink (every 3 days, 1pt of energy)
- Dining room: clean and tidy table (every day, 1pt of energy)
- Bedroom: vacuum floor (every 7 days, 2pts of energy)
- Kitchen: clean coffee machine (every 30 days, 2pts of energy)
And that’s my 6pts of energy I’ve told Sweepy I’m happy to spend per day cleaning. There are “3 pts” tasks too—cleaning the oven, for example—but none came up today.
Importantly: it does not bother me about any other tasks today (even if something’s overdue), and I don’t have to worry my pretty head about it.
I don’t have to feel guilty for not doing other cleaning tasks; if they need doing, Sweepy will tell me tomorrow, and it will make sure I don’t get behind or leave anything neglected for too long.
Check it out (available for both iOS and Android)
PS: to premium or not to premium? We think the premium is worth it (unlocks some extra customization features) but the free version is sufficient to get your house in order, so don’t be afraid to give it a try first.
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Recommended
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
9 Little Habits To Have A Better Day
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Practically gift-wrapped, here are 9 key things to improve any day!
Mindfully does it
These are all things that seem obvious when you read them, but take a moment to consider: how many do you actually do on a daily basis, really? And could you implement the others?
- Remember to be thankful: train your brain to focus on the good in life, either in the morning to start the day positively or at night to unload stress. Or both!
- Change your scenery: visiting new places, even just a walk in the park, can refresh your mind and improve your mood.
- Do one thing at a time: multitasking leads to unfinished, low-quality work. Focusing on one task at a time all but ensures better results.
- Laugh: laughter releases feel-good hormones of various kinds, spreads joy, and relieves tension, making the day more enjoyable. It has longevity-boosting effects too!
- Help someone: helping others boosts happiness, enhances self-worth, and might even provide insights into your own problems. As a bonus, it actually helps the other person, too—so “pay it forward” and all that 🙂
- Prepare the night before: prepping ahead prevents morning stress, making for a smoother and more confident start to the day—which sets the tone of the rest of the day.
- Hype yourself up: even temporary self-belief can boost confidence and its effects are incrementally cumulative over time.
- Relaxation: establish an evening routine (like reading or listening to calming music) to de-stress and improve sleep quality.
- Take your time: being present in the moment enhances enjoyment, improves focus, and cultivates gratitude—which takes us back to #1!
For more on each of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Are You Flourishing? (There’s a Scale)
Take care!
Share This Post
-
Delicious Daily Daal
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
You’re not obliged to eat this every day, but you might want to. The reason we called this one this, is because it’s a super simple recipe (don’t be put off by the long ingredients list; it’s mostly spices making it look long) which, after you’ve done it a couple of times, you could practically do it in your sleep quickly and easily.
The name “lentil daal” is a bit like “naan bread”—a redundant tautology repeated more than once unnecessarily, but it helps for international clarity. The dish is usually served with naan, by the way, and rice. We don’t have room for those today, maybe we’ll do them another day; for now, you can just cook rice how you normally do, and buy naan if necessary.
Writer’s note: I love strong flavors; many people don’t. For this reason I’m going to give a “basic” version. Please feel free to multiply the spices if you feel so inclined. Where I give “one teaspoon” of a spice below, I’d use a tablespoon at home. Chili peppers can vary in heat a lot even within the same type, so what I do for any given batch is taste one (raw), judge the heat, and use an appropriate number of peppers accordingly. If you don’t want to do that, I suggest just guessing low (as per the instructions below) and if you find at the end you want more heat, you can always stir in a little hot sauce. I know that sounds heretical, but at the end of the day, the primary goal of cooking is to have the meal you want at the end of it.
You will need
- 1 1/2 cups red lentils
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 large bulb garlic, minced
- 1 oz ginger, grated
- 2 hot peppers (e.g. serrano), chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp garam masala (this is also ground, but it doesn’t come any other way)
- 1 tsp chili flakes (omit if you’re not a fan of heat)
- 2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp salt ← I wouldn’t recommend multiplying this one unless later, to taste. In fact, instead of 1 tsp salt I use 2 tsp MSG, which has less sodium than 1 tsp salt. But “1 tsp salt” is the “easy to find in the store” version.
- 2 large or 3 small tomatoes, chopped (or 1 can chopped tomatoes)
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 lime
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, or if you have the “that tastes like soap” gene, parsley, chopped
- Coconut oil for cooking (if you don’t like coconut, consider springing for avocado oil—if you use olive oil, it’ll add an olivey taste which changes the dish a lot; not inherently bad, but it feels a lot less like traditional daal; seed oils are less healthy and we don’t recommend them; ghee is a traditional option and not bad in moderation, but not as healthy as the oils we mentioned first)
- Water for cooking the lentils
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) In a saucepan, boil water and add the lentils; let them simmer while doing the next things.
2) Sauté the onions until translucent. This should only take a few minutes.
3) Add the garlic, ginger, and hot peppers, and keep stirring for another couple of minutes.
4) Add the ground spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala) chili flakes, and cracked black pepper, as well as the salt or MSG if using (not both), and stir them in quickly but thoroughly.
For the next step, you may need to transfer to larger pan if your sauté pan isn’t big enough to take the volume; if so, that’s fine, the sauté has done its job and can have a rest now. If your sauté pan is big enough, just carry on in the same pan; this is perfect.
5) Add the lentils with the water you cooked them in (there might not be much water left now, as the lentils will have absorbed a lot of it; this is fine) as well as the chopped tomatoes.
6) Simmer until it has the consistency of a very thick sauce (you can add a splash more water here and there if it seems to need more). In the West it’s common to serve lentils “al dente”, but in the East it’s usual to (for dishes like this) cook them until they start to
7) Add the juice of at least 1/2 of your lime, or the whole lime if you feel so inclined.
8) In a pre-heated skillet, flash-fry the sliced shallots and the seeds (cumin, coriander, mustard, black peppercorns) at the hottest temperature you can muster. Don’t worry if the oil smokes; we’re only going to be at this tadka-making stage for a moment and nothing will stick provided you keep it moving. When the seeds start popping, it’s ready. Add it all to the big pan and stir in.
9) Add the cilantro-or-parsley garnish once you’re ready to serve.
Enjoy!
Learn more
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Fiber (And How To Fix It)
- How Much Spice Is Right?
- Tasty Polyphenols
Take care!
Share This Post
-
Magnesium Glycinate vs Magnesium Citrate – Which is Healthier?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Our Verdict
When comparing magnesium glycinate to magnesium citrate, we picked the citrate.
Why?
Both are fine sources of magnesium, a nutrient in which it’s very common to be deficient—a lot of people don’t eat many leafy greens, beans, nuts, and so forth that contain it.
A quick word on a third contender we didn’t include here: magnesium oxide is probably the most widely-sold magnesium supplement because it’s cheapest to make. It also has woeful bioavailability, to the point that there seems to be negligible benefit to taking it. So we don’t recommend that.
Magnesium glycinate and magnesium citrate are both absorbed well, but magnesium citrate is the most well-absorbed form of magnesium supplement.
In terms of the relative merits of the glycine or the citric acid (the “other part” of magnesium glycinate and magnesium citrate, respectively), both are also great nutrients, but the amount delivered with the magnesium is quite small in each case, and so there’s nothing here to swing it one way or the other.
For this reason, we went with the magnesium citrate, as the most readily bioavailable!
Want to try them out?
Here they are on Amazon:
Magnesium glycinate | Magnesium citrate
Enjoy!
Share This Post
Related Posts
-
Brain Power – by Michael Gelb & Kelly Howell
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
What’s most important when it comes to brain health? Is it the right diet? Supplements? Brain-training? Attitude? Sleep? Physical exercise? Social connections? Something else?
This book covers a lot of bases, including all of the above and more. The authors are not scientists by training and this is not a book of science, so much as a book of aggregated science-based advice from other sources. The authors did consult with many scientists, and their input is shown throughout.
In the category of criticism, nothing here goes very deeply into the science, and there’s also nothing you wouldn’t find we’ve previously written about in a 10almonds article somewhere. But all the same, it’s good to have a wide variety of brain-healthy advices all in one place.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for a one-stop-shop “look after your brain as you age” guide, then this is a good one.
Click here to check out Brain Power, and improve your mind as you age!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Yoga Nidra Made Easy – by Dr. Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
We’ve reviewed books about yoga before, and about sleep. This one’s different.
It’s about a yogic practice that can be used to promote restful sleep—or just be a non-sleeping exercise that nonetheless promotes relaxation and recuperation.
While yoga nidra is as somatic as it is psychological, its corporeal aspects are all explored in a lying-down-on-one’s-back state. This isn’t a book of stretches and poses and such—those are great, but are simply not needed for this practice.
The authors explain, step-by-step, simply and clearly, how to practice yoga nidra, and get out of it what you want to (there are an assortment of possible outcomes, per your preference; there are options to choose along the way).
A lot of books about yoga, even when written in English, contain a lot of Sanskrit terms. This one doesn’t. And, that difference goes a long way to living up to the title of making this easy, for those of us who regrettably don’t read even transliterated Sanskrit.
Bottom line: if ever you struggle to relax, struggle to sleep, or struggle to find your get-up-and-go, this book provides all you need to engage in this very restorative practice!
Click here to check out Yoga Nidra Made Easy, and learn this restorative tool for yourself!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Language Fluency Beats General Intelligence & Memory For Longevity
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
And no, it doesn’t have to be a second language, although that helps a lot:
An Underrated Tool Against Alzheimer’s ← you don’t even have to learn the second language to a high level, to benefit
Rather, what we’re talking about today is your first language fluency. So, for most of our readers, English. For the study participants it was German, because this was a German research team using data from the German population.
The Berlin Aging Study
Previous research has linked intelligence to longevity, but intelligence comprises multiple traits. So, what’s most important? Memory? General intelligence? Nope. Language fluency!
Let’s clarify something before we continue: “fluency” does not, in linguistics, mean what most people use it to mean. It’s not about the size of one’s overall knowledge of the language (e.g. vocabulary size), but rather, it is about one’s ability to speak and/or write fluently—literally, fluently means “flowingly”, i.e. without undue hesitation or difficulty.
The study used data from the Berlin Aging Study, which tracked 516 people aged 70–105 from 1989 onwards.
Researchers assessed four cognitive abilities, with two kinds of tests for each of:
- Verbal fluency (detailed description below)
- Perceptual speed (pattern-recognition speed)
- Verbal knowledge (vocabulary size)
- Episodic memory (personal memory recall)
General intelligence, meanwhile, was assessed as “the average of those 8 scores”.
The two tests for the cognitive ability of “verbal fluency” were:
Categories
Participants had to name as many different animals as possible within 90 seconds. Their answers were subsequently rated for correctness by two independent research assistants, to assure that noticed or unnoticed repetitions, wrong categories, and morphological variants were not coded as correct.
Word beginnings
Participants were asked to name as many different real words starting with the letter s as possible within 90 seconds. The named words were rated for correctness by two independent research assistants to avoid considering repetitions, morphological variants, and wrong words as correct.
You can read about these and the other tests for the other cognitive abilities, in the paper itself:
Verbal Fluency Selectively Predicts Survival in Old and Very Old Age ← if you’re looking for the test descriptions, scroll to “Method” and then scroll past the table, and you’ll see the test descriptions
They found that of all these metrics, only the two verbal fluency tests (and none of the other tests) showed a significant link to longevity.
Why this is important
Although the study does not prove causality (it could be that people who are predisposed to live longer for other reasons are more verbally fluent because of some common factor that influences both language fluency and longevity), it seems as good a reason as any to develop and maintain language fluency.
This builds on what was found in “The Nun Study“, that followed a convent of nuns (because they are a very homogenous sample in terms of occupation, location, diet, routine, etc, so a lot of confounding factors were already controlled-for) and made numerous major discoveries about things that impact aging (including the relevance of the APOE4 gene! That was The Nun Study).
When it came to nuns and language…
Based on the autobiographies written by the nuns in their youth upon taking their vows, there were two factors that were later correlated with not getting dementia:
- Longer sentences
- Positive outlook
- “Idea density”
That latter item means the relative linguistic density of ideas and complexity thereof, and the fluency and vivacity with which they were expressed (this was not a wishy-washy assessment; there was a hard-science analysis to determine numbers).
Want to spruce up yours? You might like to check out:
Reading, Better: Reading As A Cognitive Exercise
…for specific, evidence-based ways to tweak your reading to fight cognitive decline.
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: