Feel Better Blog

Photo by Nick Raniga In Douglas Adam's brilliant book The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, a great computer called Deep Thought spends seven and a half million years computing the answer to "life, the universe and everything". The answer, it declares, is 42. The computer then recommends that an even greater computer be constructed so that they may work out what the question actually is. I have now spent just over a year researching, developing and dogfooding the tool I call ZealPad and I'm delighted to report that it works! But what problem is it actually trying to solve, you might ask. Coming up with a clear and concise answer to that question, dear reader, is my current challenge. This is the second part of a blog post that I published back in January How to organize a scatterbrain - part one where I describe the shortcomings of existing productivity tools especially where there are executive skill weaknesses. In this post I hope to explain how ZealPad address...

  Is your mental health app backed by science?  Photo by Sarah Gualtieri via Unsplash.com When choosing a mobile app to help you in your mental health journey, look for features and design choices that are supported by scientific evidence. In this blog post, you will read about which mental health app features are common in apps according to a 2017 meta-analysis study, some of which are backed by scientific evidence. You will know which features are supported by science and which need further studies. Look for an app that uses data-driven design and contains evidence-based activities that improve mental health. Use an app in conjunction with a licensed therapist to get the most out of your mental health journey. After reading this blog post, you will be able to make evidence-based and informed decisions about the apps you choose and trust with their mental health. We looked at a meta-analysis that identified common features in mental health apps across 45 research articles an...

iStock/chameleonseye There you are sitting at your desk. You glance at the clock: 2:45pm, plenty of time to complete this email, you think, before you have to go to that important meeting at 3pm. You finally click on the send button and check the clock: 3:05pm, you’re late. Happens to us all, but for you, is it all too frequent?  Or you might find yourself standing there, staring into the refrigerator trying to recall exactly what it was that you came to retrieve. We’ve all been there. But for some it can happen multiple times a day along with a seemingly eternal search for keys, wallet, phone or glasses all of which you may occasionally discover in the refrigerator instead of the milk carton that’s slowly warming on your countertop.  These are just a couple of examples that might indicate a weakness in a person’s executive skills. This post is about how executive skills, stress and my ongoing project all fit together. What are executive skills? You might have already heard o...