Using my iPhone to Increase Patience, Memory and Cognitive Ability

I have heard a great deal of talk about how technology is causing a downward shift in our patience, short-term memory, and overall cognitive ability. (Can anyone calculate the tip for their check in their head anymore?) However, I have several great tricks that everyone can use on their smartphone to help keep their brain firing on all cylinders.

Short Term Memory Snap

If you don’t send Snapchat messages, you might have to sit this one out. This challenge requires you to open Snapchat and send a different question to 3-5 friends on your list. Then wait. When each of them answers you (which could be in 30sec or 7hrs) try to remember what the hell you even asked them and make sense of their answer. **Bonus points if you try to execute this challenge after 2 glasses of wine.

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How Your Relationship Can Make or Break Your Life

We have all heard the horror stories of relationship gone wrong. People are attacked, abused , cheated on, essential body parts are chopped off in fits of rage… things can get pretty ugly. The effect of these larger Bravo-TV-Style moments are easy to see in your life. You lose focus on work or school. The emotional toll is obvious. They usually end in a break-up – albeit sometimes drawn out and painful.

There are other ways that relationships can alter your life path that are not as visible on the surface. There are subconscious changes that you make to your career, lifestyle, – even your Tuesday evening plans, that can have a lasting effect on your life. I have experienced plenty of these, as well as watched friends suffer through them.

Being in a relationship means making someone else a priority in your life. Putting another persons’ needs ahead of your own. But, how can you make the right choices in your life, if you are putting someone else first? Ideally, your partner is making you the same priority in their lives, and things would balance out… however, the majority of our early relationships lack this symbiotic flow. Here are three major parts of your life that can be helped or hurt by your relationship:

Career: This one is huge. Being in a relationship means making the choice to stay in one city, choosing not to take that position with 40% travel time, not taking certain career risks that are only feasible when you are young. Continue reading “How Your Relationship Can Make or Break Your Life” →

How Every Gas Station Could Be Like QuikTrip

FullSizeRender (2) — Actual bathroom at Chevron. 7320 Roswell Rd in Sandy Springs, GA.

If you have ever used a gas station bathroom, you know exactly what I am talking about. The sticky floors, toilet paper hanging from a mangled coat-hanger, no soap, cracked mirror, no paper towels, “Joanie loves Chachi” scrawled in Sharpie across the stall door. It’s a mess. A lavatory nightmare.

From what I understand, most gas stations are franchised locations or privately owned stations with exclusive contracts with one brand of gasoline. If they are receiving any marketing assistance from these Gasoline Giants, it definitely doesn’t show. It blows my mind that large companies like Shell, Chevron, and BP will put their name on something so clearly devoid of standards. My internal marketer is crying in the corner. Continue reading “How Every Gas Station Could Be Like QuikTrip” →

How to Employ a Millennial

Are we really just an over-entitled, over-indulged generation with a taste for technology and no work ethic? A group of self-righteous kids with impressively useless degrees? I would like to say no. Are we different than the generations that came before us? Of course. The infamous Millennial generation is in full force in the workplace. We range from 18 to mid 30’s and, despite the common misconception, we are not all snap-chatting our breakfast and taking selfies. We are capable of a great many things with the right motivation.

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