A myriad of factors influence the popularity and circulation of articles. I’m talking about things like content, headline, pictures, and writing style. But there’s one factor that’s often overlooked: word count. During the last year, I’ve consistently observed that 1) relatively shorter posts tend to do better in the WordPress Reader and 2) relatively longer posts tend to better with search engines.

I get the sense that many bloggers follow a large number of blogs and value broad familiarity with what’s going on in the blogosphere. They often seek creative inspiration or something to improve their lives with no particular agenda in mind. This translates into an interest in relatively shorter posts. Search engine users, on the other hand, know exactly what they’re looking for. They don’t have a Reader full of blogs they follow and must go out of their way to find particular content that appeals to them. This makes them more eager, once they do find that content, to linger over it.

Another factor is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which determines how search engines rank the order of webpages. Based on my research, search engines like Google prefer relatively longer posts in the 1,000 to 2,000 word count range. I doubt the Reader has this same preference (without any hard data). Also, when you follow a blog, you get a notification for every new post, even if it’s as short as Word of the Day. As an author determining when to cap your posts, you should consider your audience. Is this post targeted to other bloggers in the WordPress Reader or to readers who will find it via search engine?

I routinely check the site stats WordPress collates, and more than 85% of the the traffic for Creator Villa comes from search engines. That is partially why many of my articles tend to be on the longer side—I believe people will read them and benefit from them. However, I also know an article like this one is likely to generate more interest among bloggers via the Reader, so it’s wise to take into account particular articles as well as overarching site trends.

Is article length something you are intentional about, as a blogger and/or reader of blogs?

No school system is perfect, and if you’re like me, you have many ideas on how it can be better. The stakes are high, after all. Many kids spend more time in school than they do in their own homes. Outside the family, school is the most formative institution in society. It goes without saying that young people’s development and well-being are largely determined by their experience at school.

Modern school systems are frequently criticized for killing creativity. Students are encouraged to regurgitate information and are often penalized with bad grades for experimenting with new ideas. A stringent grading system and infrequent recesses/breaks can also lead to a stressed-out learning environment. And artistic development is of marginal importance since it does not fuel economic growth in the same way as other subjects. I’m not suggesting alternative models are without their shortfalls, but people, especially those with authority, should give serious thought to an institution as crucial as the school system.

Ken Robinson is author of Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. I’ve reposted a Ted Talk in which he entertainingly addresses the topic. As you will see, his purpose isn’t to present specific policy prescriptions but rather to provoke people to think based on their own experiences and perception. His presentation has struck a chord with millions of people and is one of the most popular Ted Talks ever delivered.

Transcript:

Good morning. How are you?

(Audience) Good.

It’s been great, hasn’t it? I’ve been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I’m leaving.

(Laughter)

There have been three themes running through the conference, which are relevant to what I want to talk about. One is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity in all of the presentations that we’ve had and in all of the people here; just the variety of it and the range of it. The second is that it’s put us in a place where we have no idea what’s going to happen in terms of the future. No idea how this may play out.

I have an interest in education. Actually, what I find is, everybody has an interest in education. Don’t you? I find this very interesting. If you’re at a dinner party, and you say you work in education — actually, you’re not often at dinner parties, frankly.

(Laughter)

If you work in education, you’re not asked. And you’re never asked back, curiously. That’s strange to me. But if you are, and you say to somebody, you know, they say, “What do you do?” and you say you work in education, you can see the blood run from their face. They’re like, “Oh my God. Why me?”

(Laughter)

“My one night out all week.”

(Laughter)

But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall, because it’s one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? Like religion and money and other things. So I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do. We have a huge vested interest in it, partly because it’s education that’s meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp. If you think of it, children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise that’s been on parade for the past four days, what the world will look like in five years’ time. And yet, we’re meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.

And the third part of this is that we’ve all agreed, nonetheless, on the really extraordinary capacities that children have — their capacities for innovation. I mean, Sirena last night was a marvel, wasn’t she? Just seeing what she could do. And she’s exceptional, but I think she’s not, so to speak, exceptional in the whole of childhood. What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication who found a talent. And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.

So I want to talk about education, and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

That was it, by the way. Thank you very much.

(Laughter)

So, 15 minutes left.

(Laughter)

“Well, I was born … ”

(Laughter)

I heard a great story recently — I love telling it — of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was six, and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson, she did. The teacher was fascinated. She went over to her, and she said, “What are you drawing?” And the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” And the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” And the girl said, “They will in a minute.”

(Laughter)

When my son was four in England — actually, he was four everywhere, to be honest.

(Laughter)

If we’re being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four that year. He was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story?

(Laughter)

No, it was big, it was a big story. Mel Gibson did the sequel, you may have seen it.

(Laughter)

“Nativity II.” But James got the part of Joseph, which we were thrilled about. We considered this to be one of the lead parts. We had the place crammed full of agents in T-shirts: “James Robinson IS Joseph!” (Laughter) He didn’t have to speak, but you know the bit where the three kings come in? They come in bearing gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. This really happened. We were sitting there, and I think they just went out of sequence, because we talked to the little boy afterward and said, “You OK with that?” They said, “Yeah, why? Was that wrong?” They just switched. The three boys came in, four-year-olds with tea towels on their heads. They put these boxes down, and the first boy said, “I bring you gold.” And the second boy said, “I bring you myrrh.” And the third boy said, “Frank sent this.”

(Laughter)

What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. Am I right? They’re not frightened of being wrong. I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original — if you’re not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.

Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it. So why is this?

I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago. In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. So you can imagine what a seamless transition this was.

(Laughter)

Actually, we lived in a place called Snitterfield, just outside Stratford, which is where Shakespeare’s father was born. Are you struck by a new thought? I was. You don’t think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you? Because you don’t think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebody’s English class, wasn’t he?

(Laughter)

How annoying would that be? “Must try harder.” Being sent to bed by his dad, to Shakespeare, “Go to bed, now!” To William Shakespeare. “And put the pencil down!” “And stop speaking like that.” “It’s confusing everybody.”

(Laughter)

Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles, and I just want to say a word about the transition. Actually, my son didn’t want to come. I’ve got two kids; he’s 21 now, my daughter’s 16. He didn’t want to come to Los Angeles. He loved it, but he had a girlfriend in England. This was the love of his life, Sarah. He’d known her for a month.

(Laughter)

Mind you, they’d had their fourth anniversary, because it’s a long time when you’re 16. He was really upset on the plane. He said, “I’ll never find another girl like Sarah.” And we were rather pleased about that, frankly — because she was the main reason we were leaving the country.

(Laughter)

But something strikes you when you move to America and travel around the world: every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn’t matter where you go. You’d think it would be otherwise, but it isn’t. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities. At the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on earth. And in pretty much every system, too, there’s a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they’re allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don’t we? Did I miss a meeting?

(Laughter)

Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.

If you were to visit education as an alien and say “What’s it for, public education?” I think you’d have to conclude, if you look at the output, who really succeeds by this, who does everything they should, who gets all the brownie points, who are the winners — I think you’d have to conclude the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors. Isn’t it? They’re the people who come out the top. And I used to be one, so there.

(Laughter)

And I like university professors, but, you know, we shouldn’t hold them up as the high-water mark of all human achievement. They’re just a form of life. Another form of life. But they’re rather curious. And I say this out of affection for them: there’s something curious about professors. In my experience — not all of them, but typically — they live in their heads. They live up there and slightly to one side. They’re disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads.

(Laughter)

Don’t they? It’s a way of getting their head to meetings. If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics and pop into the discotheque on the final night.

(Laughter)

And there, you will see it. Grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat. Waiting until it ends, so they can go home and write a paper about it.

(Laughter)

Our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. And there’s a reason. Around the world, there were no public systems of education, really, before the 19th century. They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas.

Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? “Don’t do music, you’re not going to be a musician; don’t do art, you won’t be an artist.” Benign advice — now, profoundly mistaken. The whole world is engulfed in a revolution.

And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities design the system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can’t afford to go on that way.

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history. More people. And it’s the combination of all the things we’ve talked about: technology and its transformational effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion in population.

Suddenly, degrees aren’t worth anything. Isn’t that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn’t have a job, it’s because you didn’t want one. And I didn’t want one, frankly.

(Laughter)

But now kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games, because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. It’s a process of academic inflation. And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.

We know three things about intelligence. One, it’s diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn’t divided into compartments. In fact, creativity — which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value — more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

By the way, there’s a shaft of nerves that joins the two halves of the brain, called the corpus callosum. It’s thicker in women. Following off from Helen yesterday, this is probably why women are better at multitasking. Because you are, aren’t you? There’s a raft of research, but I know it from my personal life. If my wife is cooking a meal at home, which is not often … thankfully.

(Laughter)

No, she’s good at some things. But if she’s cooking, she’s dealing with people on the phone, she’s talking to the kids, she’s painting the ceiling —

(Laughter)

she’s doing open-heart surgery over here. If I’m cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, the phone’s on the hook, if she comes in, I get annoyed. I say, “Terry, please, I’m trying to fry an egg in here.”

(Laughter)

“Give me a break.”

(Laughter)

Actually, do you know that old philosophical thing, “If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, did it happen?” Remember that old chestnut? I saw a great T-shirt recently, which said, “If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?”

(Laughter)

And the third thing about intelligence is, it’s distinct. I’m doing a new book at the moment called “Epiphany,” which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. I’m fascinated by how people got to be there. It’s really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who maybe most people have never heard of, Gillian Lynne. Have you heard of her? Some have. She’s a choreographer, and everybody knows her work. She did “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.” She’s wonderful. I used to be on the board of The Royal Ballet, as you can see.

(Laughter)

Gillian and I had lunch one day. I said, “How did you get to be a dancer?” It was interesting. When she was at school, she was really hopeless. And the school, in the ’30s, wrote to her parents and said, “We think Gillian has a learning disorder.” She couldn’t concentrate; she was fidgeting. I think now they’d say she had ADHD. Wouldn’t you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadn’t been invented at this point. It wasn’t an available condition.

(Laughter)

People weren’t aware they could have that.

(Laughter)

Anyway, she went to see this specialist. So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother, and she was led and sat on this chair at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes, while this man talked to her mother about all the problems Gillian was having at school, because she was disturbing people, her homework was always late, and so on. Little kid of eight. In the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, “I’ve listened to all these things your mother’s told me. I need to speak to her privately. Wait here. We’ll be back. We won’t be very long,” and they went and left her.

But as they went out of the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk. And when they got out of the room, he said to her mother, “Just stand and watch her.” And the minute they left the room, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And they watched for a few minutes, and he turned to her mother and said, “Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn’t sick. She’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.”

I said, “What happened?” She said, “She did. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was. We walked in this room, and it was full of people like me — people who couldn’t sit still, people who had to move to think.” Who had to move to think. They did ballet, they did tap, jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School. She became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School, founded the Gillian Lynne Dance Company, met Andrew Lloyd Webber. She’s been responsible for some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, she’s given pleasure to millions, and she’s a multimillionaire. Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down.

(Applause)

What I think it comes to is this: Al Gore spoke the other night about ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won’t serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children.

There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, “If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, within 50 years, all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within 50 years, all forms of life would flourish.” And he’s right.

What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, and that we avert some of the scenarios that we’ve talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way — we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

Today I want to share one of my few style experiments that I would label a success. I’m a pretty simple guy and don’t spend a lot of time accessorizing. If the car runs, then it’s good by me. But an item on Amazon caught my attention that looked like it could add value to my Honda Civic. And by value I mean the satisfaction I get by looking at the car and the additional cleanliness of an extra layer. Judge for yourself down below, but I’m happy with the end result.

Seat covers cover existing stains on the surface of the seats, prevent future stains, and add style and comfort. I have several unsightly stains from passengers eating and drinking, and now my interior looks brand new. And a lot of people commented on how much cooler the car looks after the installation. I bought my seat covers on Amazon from a company called PIC AUTO. Since my purchase, they’ve come out with a new universal design. I chose PIC AUTO because I liked the price, it had a 4+ star rating, and it was easy to put together. Assembly took about 30 minutes with the help of my brother, and neither of is a handyman. The universal design fit my Civic perfectly and they say it is built to accommodate most cars, SUVs and trucks. (UPDATE: It looks like they got rid of the mesh fabric universal fit in the red and black. The red and black is available in leather and the blue and black is available in fabric mesh.)

Here’s a link to the red and black variety as seen in the featured image. PIC AUTO Universal Fit Full Set Mesh and Leather Car Seat Cover(Red). They also offer Red, Gray, Dark Blue, Light Blue, and Beige (clickable links below). Make sure you check out the before & afters of my car down below.

</f

Before & Afters:

I hated haircuts growing up. Haircuts were what you got when your parents or the school district wouldn’t let you grow your hair long. My goal was always to have the barber cut off as little as possible. I can’t remember a single time I thought I looked better after a haircut. When I was a kid, my parents would take me to one of those brand-name franchises that would service you in less than 20 minutes. Every visit was with a different stylist who could never seem to figure out my hair in the short allotted time. They would cut it too short or botch the area with cowlicks in the front and back. I could no longer see the logic of paying someone to perform a service I didn’t want done to begin with and thought I could learn to do better myself. Plus, I was already getting my hands dirty as my neckline would get out of control after about a week in-between cuts. I decided to take action and started cutting my own hair.

At first, it wasn’t pretty. I remember grabbing a pair of school scissors I found in my drawer and began imitating my stylist. The first few cuts were uneven and I missed large spots. The neckline wasn’t straight. A few people noticed. But my hair grew back and I continued to make a little progress every few weeks. Eventually I bought a pair of clippers with attachments that made my life a lot easier. I liked the sides and the back short, so I could now get those done within a few minutes. I would alternate between leaving the top at the longest clipper setting (about 1 inch), and cutting it with scissors. I learned how to do my own neckline with a tri-fold mirror and would sometimes ask my brothers for assistance.

Today, more than 10 years later, I still cut my own hair. I’m definitely not a professional, but I have no interest in going anywhere to get my hair done. My initial motivation wasn’t to save money–it was to do a better job than my stylist. But I have undoubtedly saved thousands of dollars over the years. And I’m not convinced I would look any better getting it done professionally.

Learning how to cut your own hair requires patience and focus. It’s easiest for people with shorter hair. For longer hair, you have to use scissors, which require skill and are less forgiving. If your hair is long, plan on watching a lot of YouTube videos. Cutting your hair also makes more sense if you don’t enjoy going to a barber. A lot of people like the feeling of getting “treated” by a professional. It is a form of therapy for them. Or maybe they have a good relationship with a particular barber and like the cultural experience of getting a professional haircut.

If you decide to cut your own hair, the first thing you need are good tools. My last pair of Wahl’s clippers has lasted me 6 years, and I recommend this brand to everyone. This pair Wahl Professional 5-Star Cord/Cordless Magic Clip is a newer version of my old one. There’s no telling how long it will last if you take care of it. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, there’s Wahl Clipper Elite Pro High-Performance. It’s cordless and costs about half as much but will get the job done. Both products come with attachments for cutting at various lengths. You will also need a pair of scissors for hair you want to keep longer and for areas hard to reach with clippers. I haven’t bought scissors in a long time, but Equinox Professional Shears Razor Edge is Amazon’s top-rated product and is sharp enough for all hair types.

Remember, YouTube is your best friend. The fastest way to learn is to look up videos on how to cut hair, in general; how to cut hair that is similar to yours, in particular; and how to do so at home without a barber.

Cutting your own hair may not just be something you do to save time and money. It may evolve into an activity you enjoy, like many people when they go see a professional.

[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] On this blog, I’ve written about celebrities who practiced semen retention and documented a potential scientific explanation for its powerful benefits. In this post, I am going to share my personal experience with the discipline. I am not among those who treat retention as a cure-all, but I can say my experience has been altogether positive. I place retention in the same category as the disciplines of fitness, fasting, and meditation. It’s a tool in the toolkit of those wishing to become the best version of themselves. Whether or not it is your tool of choice, I think you will find this article fascinating. I’ve distilled my main takeaways into 7 pithy observations.

Observation #1: My Energy Levels Soared

By day 7, I could notice a spike in my overall energy levels. My energy seemed to increase for a couple more weeks before leveling off at about the one-month mark. This increase did not surprise me given how energetically taxing on the body I know the act of climaxing to be. Increased energy is, in fact, a commonly reported benefit of retainers. More energy is usually a good thing but not all energy is created equal. Observations #2-6 all involve different manifestations of greater energy, most but not all of which were positive.

Observation #2: My Libido Went Through The Roof

This effect was perhaps the most noteworthy. I observed a strong correlation between libido and overall energy levels during the first month. At day 7, my libido was quite high and continued to increase for a couple weeks. In months 2 and 3, there were many days on which I was so absorbed with other things that it wasn’t much of a distraction. However, there were other days, especially during month 3, when the desire for an outlet was extremely powerful. Libido is literally a force of nature that gains might over time. I imagine that if I had harnessed this impulse and gone beyond the 100-day mark I would have made even greater gains in the gym and in my various other intellectual pursuits.

Observation #3: I Relished Social Interaction

I observed after about day 14 that my desire for social interaction had noticeably increased. I suspect that dopamine may be responsible. After climaxing, dopamine levels rise mirroring the same increase brought about by positive social interactions. I have noticed in the past that my interest in socializing diminished in the days following climax. During retention, I believe that my brain sought out dopamine release by any other means, the primary one being socialization with other people. Many people who practice retention claim that women are more attracted to them. I personally observed the opposite of that–me being more attracted to women. This attraction manifested in a desire to be more social. However, the fact that I also wanted to be more social with my guy friends evidences that the desire wasn’t merely motivated by an increase in sexual tension.

Observation #4: I Invented Creative Ideas

Nikola Tesla famously attributed his productivity as an inventor to his celibate lifestyle. While I was retaining, creative ideas and impulses would come to me seemingly out of the blue. I thought of ways to make more money, build better relationships, and express myself more creatively. The biggest creative idea of all was www.creatorvilla.com Indeed, it was during my 100-day experiment that I developed the idea of starting a blog through which I could share the discoveries that have improved my life. Several weeks later it materialized.

Observation #5: I Asserted Myself More

I didn’t really notice this one until someone else pointed it out. But they didn’t describe it as me being assertive, they described it as me being confrontational. And in that particular instance I agreed with them. During the 100 days I felt a strong urge to express feelings that I would otherwise have held back. Others who retain have mentioned an increase in self-respect as the driving force of greater assertion. I think that is a piece of the puzzle. But I also think Observations #1-3 were exerting an influence as well. On balance, I believe that greater assertion is a good thing, especially when it results in greater authenticity.

Observation #6: I Experienced Mood Swings

Retention is not a cure-all. It’s not a silver bullet. And it doesn’t make you feel good all of the time. However, in my experience it does make you feel more. I recall experiencing stronger emotions of both the good and bad variety. I believe that climaxing, especially when it’s not done in the context of a committed relationship, can have a numbing effect on the mind. All of that goes away within weeks of retaining. There were moments and days of high irritability. There were moments and days of downright anger. I view these heightened emotions as raw expressions of my authentic self. Before I would have repressed them in my subconscious mind, where they would influence my life in subtle but powerful ways. While retaining, negative emotions were out in the open where I could experience, analyze, and process them more fully. Greater emotional sensitivity was not all bad. Some of the biggest emotional highs of the year took place during the 100 days.

Observation #7: I Eventually Relapsed

Owing largely to Observations #2 and #6, I eventually relapsed. In fact, I relapsed on day 99, prior to reaching the 100-day milestone. I initially did not intend to stop at day 100. My goal was to go as long as I could, whether that was weeks, months, or years. But all of that changed in a moment of indiscipline. In the days leading up to that moment, my energy levels and emotions were extremely elevated, and ultimately out of control. Had I exercised a little more discipline, I suspect the positive energy I had built up would have continued to soar.

Retention is a sacrifice. It involves forgoing instant gratification for the medium- and long-term gratification of living better in other areas of life. Retention also requires self-discipline. It takes days and weeks to build up enough momentum to start noticing a difference.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy spending the last waking moments of the day surfing the web and chatting with friends on WhatsApp. We can debate whether or not this is a healthy use of time, but one thing we cannot debate is the effect this habit has on sleep quality. Harvard researchers discovered that blue light suppressed the release of melatonin (link). Melatonin is a hormone that signals to the body that it is time to go to sleep at night. One of the ways it does this is by monitoring light in the environment. The sun used to be the primary guide in this process. Melatonin levels would plummet during midday when the sun was its hottest, and they would gradually rise after sunset. By suppressing the release of melatonin, our smart phones interfere with the body’s natural circadian rhythm. This is the body’s internal clock that dictates when we feel tired and when we feel wide awake. Being on your phone late at night can affect the time it takes for you to fall asleep and the quality of your sleep. Other studies have confirmed the detrimental effect of light exposure on sleep quality (here and here).

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for iOS users. Apple developers aware of the potential sleep damage caused by blue light developed a special setting called Night Shift. Night Shift modifies the amount of blue light being emitted by your smartphone. The app enables you to program the time of day your phone’s light becomes warmer (warm light is closer to red on the spectrum). Red light, unlike blue light, has no negative effect on sleep quality. Studies have, in fact, demonstrated that red light exposure improves sleep quality (here). To access the Night Shift app, go to Settings –> Display & Brightness –> Night Shift. As you can see in the graphic to your right, I have my phone programmed to emit warm light from sunset to sunrise. You can also modify the “color temperature” of the light. As the circle moves closer on the spectrum to “more warm,” the light emitted by your phone becomes redder. I find this effect cool and sometimes turn the setting on during the day.

For Android users, there is a similar fix available. A quick Google search found me this article explaining how to reduce blue light on Android devices.

I’ve shared this knowledge with my friends and family, and they’re already sleeping better. Don’t be mastered by your smartphone. Be the master instead.