Every week, I come across loads of ideas. They can come from conversations, articles, podcasts, or just life happening. Most come and go. But a few stick. They challenge me, inspire me, or change my thinking.

Here's three ideas that stayed with me this week. Maybe one will stick with you, too.

1. The Lemon Analogy

This idea changed the way I view my phone use in the morning.

Your body releases dopamine as a reward for doing something that requires effort. Its a way to make you feel good when you do hard work.

But when you use your smartphone early in the morning, it distorts the system.

Smartphones stimulates a large amount of dopamine from a small amount of effort. It doesn't sound that bad until you understand that your dopamine stores are limited and can take time to recharge. So when you use your phone in the morning and then you do something that requires a greater amount of effort later in the day, it doesn't feel as good.

You get less of a reward compared to the small effort and big reward you got from using your phone.

Psychiatrist and YouTuber Alok Kanojia, aka “Dr. K” explains the effect early morning phone use has on your dopamine by using the analogy of a lemon.

When you avoid your phone in the morning and do some form of hard work, your body will release a large amount of juice when the lemon is squeezed.

But when you use your phone in the morning, it's a smaller squeeze of the lemon but it gives out more juice. So when you do something harder later, your body releases less juice even though you squeeze harder.

Check out the clip below for more from Dr K on this idea.

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It's changing how I'm using my phone in the morning.

I'm trying to limit my use for the first few hours of the day and put that saved energy to better use.

2. Financial Lingchi

Lingchi is a Chinese word that loosely translates as "Death by a thousand cuts". I came across this idea while reading about how our big problems in life are the result of small little "cuts". These cuts are harmless on their own, but when added up can cause big wounds.

One place where I've noticed this is with finances.

If you're like me, then you've probably got a few small monthly subscriptions for things that aren't essential. It's easy to fall into the trap. Subscribing for something that you needed for a bit, but now you don't use to it's full effect, or sometimes even stop using.

How often do you audit this?

How often do you take the time to work through and workout what you need and what you can get rid of?

I never really did. So I sat down and did the math. Turns out from cutting a few monthly subscriptions I could save over £2000 per year. Yes. Two thousand pounds. Now that I've realised this, I'm a lot more conscious about how I'm spending my money.

3. The 3-2-1 Framework

Here's a framework that'll help you stop rambling if you struggle with answering questions.

I don't know about you but I can feel like I'm waffling when I answer a question. It can come across as unclear and incoherent. Instead of communicating my thoughts I end sounding and feeling like an idiot. That's why I wanted to find something that can help me answer questions like a pro and not Boris Johnson.

Vinh Giang, communication coach and speaker, explains why this happens. It's your brain's panic response because you have no framework to help build an answer upon. In the video below, he explains what the the 3-2-1 Framework can help fix this.

In this 5 minute video, he explains how you can use it to come up with answers that are good, clear and coherent.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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