James van Riemsdyk (Boston Bruins) with a Goal vs. Los Angeles Kings, 02/17/2024
February 2024
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‘Mental Time Travel’ Can Help You Make Better Decisions
Whether you’re someone who can quickly assess a situation and come to a decision, or you painstakingly weigh every pro and con before making a choice, your memories of the past probably play a larger role in your future than you think. This isn’t necessarily just a matter of learning from previous mistakes or having traumatic experiences of the past inform your outlook on the future. It’s more about our ability to draw on the past in order to actually picture what our potential futures might look like. This feature of our brains—also known as “mental time travel”—can also help us make better decisions.
What is mental time travel?
The concept of “mental time travel” is used in disciplines like psychology and neuroscience to describe our ability as humans to recall and reconstruct past events from our lives, as well as to visualize how various situations and events might play out in the future. In fact, some scholars argue that the main purpose for having memories from earlier in our lives is “to provide information from the past as the scaffolding of the future,” as the authors of a 2023 study put it.
Similarly, other researchers describe mental time travel as a survival skill, giving us the chance to think about and plan for hypothetical future events. This ability to mentally construct a narrative for a situation that isn’t actually taking place can also help us make decisions.
How to use mental time travel as a decision-making tool
In her 2022 book Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything―Even Things That Seem Impossible Today, Jane McGonigal, PhD—a futurist, researcher, author, designer of alternate reality games, and 2015 participant in Lifehacker’s “How I Work” interview series—explains how to use mental time travel as part of your decision-making process.
In short, mental time travel—which is also referred to as “futures thinking” or “episodic future thinking”—isn’t a way to escape from reality, or a form of daydreaming, but rather “a way of connecting who you are today with what you might really feel and do in the future,” she writes. That’s where its role in decision-making comes in: According to McGonigal, it can help mentally prepare us so we can quickly adapt to new challenges as they arise.
Here’s an exercise adapted from one she includes in Imaginable—a portion of which can be read in this excerpt—if you’d like to give mental time travel a try:
Level 1
Take 30 seconds to imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and mentally describing what you see, and answering these questions:
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What room or space are you in?
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What wakes you up—an alarm, the sunlight, someone nudging you or calling you?
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Is it light out or still dark?
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Is there anyone with you?
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What are you wearing?
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What kind of mood are you in?
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And what’s the very first thing you do now that you’re awake?
Make it a point to keep going until you’re able to answer—and clearly picture—your answers to the questions.
Level 2
Take 30 seconds to imagine yourself waking up one year from now. Once again, mentally describe what you see, and answer these questions:
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What has changed?
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Are you somewhere different?
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Are you physically changed?
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What’s your mood?
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Do you have a different morning habit?
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What might that new habit be?
Like last time, keep going until you’ve answered all of the questions.
Level 3
Last one: Picture yourself waking up 10 years in the future.
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Where are you?
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What’s around you?
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What do you see, hear, smell, and feel?
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What’s the first thing on your mind when you wake up?
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What do you have planned for the day?
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How are you physically different?
Be realistic: This isn’t time for fantasy, or trying to manifest your dream life into existence. You’re using your imagination to picture, in a more neutral capacity, various ways in which your future might unfold based on what your life has been like up until now.
Decision time
According to McGonigal, most people find it more difficult to picture themselves a decade in the future, compared to only a year from now. That’s because as we’re thinking through that scenario, our brain intuitively accounts for the fact that our lives could look very different in 10 years. “So instead of confidently projecting one possibility, it opens up a blank space for you to consider multiple possibilities,” McGonigal writes.
This is where the work comes in: Repeat the final exercise, picturing yourself waking up 10 years from now. This time, don’t worry about trying to come up with a single vision of your future. Instead, allow your imagination to flesh out multiple potential—and yes, still realistic—versions of what your life might look like in a decade.
It will take time and effort to fill in all the blanks, but, according to McGonigal, that’s why mental time travel can be so powerful: Once your brain creates these potential futures, they become new memories that it can revisit and refer back to moving forward. When your brain does make its way back to one of these imagined scenarios, pay attention to any emotional reactions it prompts.
“These pre-feelings can help you decide: Should you change what you’re doing today to make this future more or less likely?” McGonigal writes. “And because you invented this memory, you can change it whenever you want.”
Because it’s been a few years since McGonigal wrote Imaginable, I asked if she had any new insights into using mental time travel as a decision-making tool. As it turns out, she does, and they come from the growing body of research on using mental time travel to the future as an intervention for substance use disorders—and can apply to anyone.
One example comes from a 2023 study, which found that when people living with addiction practiced future mental time travel techniques in the moment when a craving arises, it can help them resist short-term temptation for addictive substances, and make the better decision to abstain.
“This finding is relevant to everyone, really, who wants to motivate themselves to do things that may be hard in the present, but good in the long run,” McGonigal says. “If it can work for addiction, it can work for any of us to make better choices not just for right now, but for our most important long-term goals.”
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10 Hidden Safari Features You Simply Must Try
Safari has long been the default browser on your iPhone and Mac, but there’s a good chance you don’t use it. It might be time to rethink that. Even if you prefer other browsers such as Chrome or Firefox, Apple has been improving Safari with each passing year, and in 2024, it has some interesting hidden features that might just tempt you to ditch your other options.
Here’s a look at the best hidden Safari features definitely worth trying.
Turn shared links into beautiful pull quotes
Credit: Pranay Parab
When you’re sharing a link via iMessage or SMS, Safari lets you create a nice pull-quote with text you’re trying to highlight. To try it, open an article in Safari on your iPhone or Mac and select any sentence or paragraph you like. Hit the Share icon in the browser and select Messages. You’ll note that the selected text is rendered a pull-quote that appears in place of the usual link preview thumbnail, with a link to the article attached. This is great for highlighting an important quote in a piece, and can also compel people to click the link you’re sharing.
Use extensions to make everything better
Credit: Jake Peterson
Yes, Safari has browser extensions too. They sometimes take a backseat because Apple has decided that browser extensions need to be on the App Store, which means that you have to go to a different app to view Safari extensions. Even so, Safari has lots of great extensions that will enhance your browsing experience. For example, you can enable dark mode on all sites, stop sites from loading annoying Google AMP links, or even block YouTube ads.
Take scrolling screenshots of entire webpages
Credit: Pranay Parab
iOS allows you to take full-page screenshots of webpages in Safari. This means that you don’t have to manually scroll down, take screenshots, and worry about stitching them together. Open any webpage, take a screenshot, tap the preview thumbnail, and select the Full Page option to capture the entire page. (There’s also a crop button in the top bar that lets you remove parts of the webpage that you don’t want to screenshot.) You can save these screenshots as PDF files in Apple’s Files app or store them as pictures in the Photos app.
Use profiles to your advantage
Credit: Pranay Parab
Safari allows you to create separate profiles, and you can use this feature as a distraction blocker. When you create a new profile in Safari, you can choose which extensions you want on that profile, use a different set of bookmarks, and even set up specific new tab and start pages. This will allow you to create a work profile where there are no distracting elements—because your history, cookies, and site data is also separated by profile.
Turn your favorite sites into “apps”
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
If you like to open a few sites every single day, Safari allows you to add these sites to your Mac’s dock. This turns them into web apps, which will allow you to browse the site without seeing your bookmarks, Safari toolbars, or other distracting elements. This a good way to browse sites without getting sucked into social media or other black holes on the internet.
Make Safari’s Start Page beautiful
Credit: Pranay Parab
You can customize the Safari Start Page on your iPhone and your Mac. These changes sync across devices, so you can add your favorite photo as a Safari wallpaper and it’ll show up on all your Apple devices. You can also choose to clean up the clutter on the Start Page to keep the focus on elements you actually use.
Quickly switch between Safari tabs
Credit: Pranay Parab
On your Mac, Safari has a neat keyboard shortcut to let you switch between tabs. You can press Command-1 to go to the first open tab, and replace the number to visit each subsequent open tab in the browser. The shortcut works up to the ninth tab, after which, you’re on your own. (You can always open more tabs in a new window and use the same keyboard shortcut again. Or just close some tabs, it’s ok.)
When you’re using Safari on your iPhone, you can swipe to switch between tabs. Swiping left or right goes to the previous or next open tab, respectively, while swiping upwards on the tab bar will reveal the list of open tabs.
Copy links to all your open Safari tabs with a few taps
Credit: Pranay Parab
Some of us like to live on the edge by using open tabs as bookmarks on our iPhones. That’s all well and good until the browser crashes and the tabs are lost. To avoid this catastrophe. you can periodically save links to all your open Safari tabs. It’s as simple as pressing the tabs button in Safari and holding the bottom bar that tells you how many tabs are open. This will reveal a Copy Links button, which use can to easily save all your tabs.
Automatically close open tabs
Credit: Pranay Parab
For those of us who can’t be bothered with closing tabs, Safari is here to save you the hassle. You can easily ask the browser to automatically close all open tabs by going to Settings > Safari > Close Tabs on your iPhone, and selecting a duration. This preference is located under Safari Settings > Tabs > Automatically close open tabs: on the Mac. (Once again: It’s OK to close your tabs. Just close ’em!)
Make sites easier to read
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Safari now has a couple of features that make it easier to read content on the internet. You can either ask Safari to read pages out loud, or use its excellent Reader mode to hide distractions on a webpage. While these features are great, lots of websites don’t let you use Reader mode and as a result, also end up breaking the read-aloud feature.
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Building a DIY Solar Panel Is Surprisingly Straightforward
Solar energy is magic, really. You place a bulky panel in the sun and electricity is created from thin air, ready to power anything you need. It’s cheap, pays for itself in a relatively short period of time, and it’s absolutely renewable. Of course, the cost of installing a solar panel system at your home can be kind of terrifying—on average, it’ll cost you about $25,000. A lot of that cost is labor and other materials, but the solar panels themselves aren’t exactly cheap, ranging in price from around $200 to $300 depending on wattage and the type of panel.
Those prices might lead you to wonder if you can’t just make your own solar panels. The answer is, you sure can. If you’re moderately handy, have ever used a soldering iron, and understand basic electricity principles, you can definitely whip up your own solar panels. All the stuff you need can be ordered online or found at your local hardware store, and the process isn’t very difficult. Keep in mind, however, that building your own panel will likely cost as much if not more than buying a professionally-assembled panel, so you shouldn’t think of this as a way to save a lot of money.
Solar panel DIY materials
Solar panels are surprisingly simple things. You need just a few basic materials:
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Photovoltaic (PV) cells. This is the silicon-based material that actually absorbs sunlight and converts it to electricity. You can buy these online pretty easily, so it’s just a matter of deciding how much power you want to generate and purchasing enough to get you there. If you’re looking for a super cheap DIY approach, you could even buy a bunch of $1.50 solar lights from a dollar store and extract the small cells in them for a cheap array of solar cells.
If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can go full-on DIY—using copper sheets, you can create your own PV cells. But the cells you make in your kitchen won’t last nearly as long or produce nearly as much power as even the cheapest manufactured cells, so if your goal is power over DIY cred you should just buy your cells.
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Tabbing wire. This is flat wire used to connect cells together into “strings.”
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Liquid silicone. This will be used to seal your connected PV cells. John Burke, chair of the American Solar Energy Society Photovoltaics Division, recommends DC 184 from Dow for this, but any clear liquid silicone will work.
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Solder and soldering iron. If you don’t already have these, you can pick up lead-free solder and an iron at any hardware store.
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Caulk or glue. Use 100% silicone caulk to seal up your panel. In a pinch, a strong glue can also be used, but won’t be as waterproof as caulk.
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Encapsulation material. Once you’ve connected your cells into strings and sealed them in silicone, you’ll need to encapsulate them further—PV cells are delicate things and need to be kept free from dirt and damage. Your best bet is to seal them between two sheets of glass. But if you have or have access to a laminating machine, you can also laminate your panel. This won’t be as durable as glass, but will work just fine.
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Multimeter. A multimeter tool is optional, but recommended because you should test your connections throughout the assembly to ensure that nothing has broken or become detached, and that you’re getting the wattage you expected.
If you’re more focused on the fun of assembling your own solar panel, keep in mind you can purchase DIY kits that provide everything you’ll need to build a small panel.
How to make DIY solar panels
Once you have all your materials, you can begin assembling your DIY solar panel:
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Lay out your PV cells in a grid. You’re setting up “strings” of cells—a line of cells that will be wired together into one connected row. A typical panel layout is four strings of nine cells each, for a total of 36 cells. It’s a good idea to use a ruler and create a neat grid so that all your wiring lines up perfectly. You can use tile spacers to ensure you’ve got a tight layout.
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Measure your tabbing wire so you have two lengths that will stretch from top to bottom of your strings.
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Solder the tabbing wire from the front of the first PV cell to the back of the next one, connecting positive to negative. Repeat until your strings of cells are all soldered together. If you’re using multiple strings, connect them by running wire across the top and bottom where the wires stick out and soldering it all together.
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Test. This is a good moment to break out that multimeter and make sure your connections are good and you’re getting the power you expect from them. if you’re not, investigate and re-solder where necessary.
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First encapsulation with liquid silicone. Mix your silicone and then gently apply, using a soft brush to spread the silicone. Make sure you leave our wires out so they can be connected to a battery or whatever it is you plan to charge. Let the first layer dry, then apply a second coat.
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Second encapsulation. Place your cell strings on a glass plate. Making sure no dirt or other contaminants get inside, place a second glass plate on top. Again, make sure your wires are outside the encapsulation so they can be connected. Seal with caulk.
That’s it. If you connected everything correctly, you should now get some usable juice when you place your panel in the sun. You can build a plywood frame for the glass panels for extra durability, if desired.
If you want to get a little fancier with your DIY solar panel you can incorporate more durable frames, pegboards for a super tight grid, and other enhancements. If you want a bit of a deep dive into the science and engineering behind solar energy and DIY solar panels, you can download the free PDF To Catch the Sun by Lonny Grafman, an Instructor of Environmental Resources Engineering and Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University and Joshua Pearce, a professor at Western University in Ontario.
How to Respond When Your Kid Hurts Your Feelings
When it comes to insults, kids have stepped up their game. You can blame social media or more delicate parenting styles, but this generation knows how to throw some good barbs. But with great power comes great responsibility, and sometimes, when children toss ridicule in the direction of a parent, our feelings can get hurt.
“When [kids] learn that [they] can say whatever [they] want to say, and nothing really comes of it, except for a mother telling you really shouldn’t say that, it’s not severe enough to change behavior,” says psychologist and co-author of The Social Black Belt, Dr. Christopher Cortman.
Then how should a parent respond when a child says heartbreaking things to them?
They’re testing your limits, so set some
While it doesn’t feel good when your children hurl some digs your way, it shows they are developmentally on the right track. When they are growing up, kids test your limits to see how far they can go.
“It’s important as parents to provide that structure because if you don’t, it’s not in their best interest,” Cortman says. “It’s definitely not in yours.”
Something else you may have noticed about your young ones is that they are astute observers, but while they know how to read the room, they aren’t capable of drawing the proper conclusions about what they are observing. For example, if a kid sees his dad dive headfirst into a pool and his hairpiece falls off, the child, unaware that his dad wears a wig, may conclude that diving headfirst will cause their hair to fall off, too.
“Kids don’t know until they’re taught,” Cortman says. “It’s up to us to provide a lot of good training for what’s acceptable. You want to give them exactly the amount of help they need so that they can do as much of it on their own.”
Sometimes, they’re saying it because they’re hurting
A child knows the best way to hurt your feelings is to say they hate you. Cortman says what your child is really trying to say is that they hate how they’re feeling at the moment and are in a lot of pain. They don’t actually hate you. Take a deep breath and use the opportunity to discuss what they’re going through.
“Make sure that your discipline is reasonable,” Cortman says. “Always make it fair. That allows your kid to say, ‘Yeah, that’s a natural consequence of what I did.’ It shouldn’t feel like you’re hitting them with an elephant gun when it’s just a mosquito bite.”
Remember that you’ll get what you give, and vice versa
Families know each other best, and with that familiarity can come a joke or two at someone else’s expense. Cortman doesn’t believe this sets a bad example for children, but it can introduce them to an unspoken social construct.
“You better expect they’ll get back at you,” he adds.
Tell them how you feel
We want to teach our kids to be open with their emotions. However, if they hurt your feelings with an insult or two and you keep those sentiments to yourself, you are not setting a good example. Not only are you missing an opportunity to connect with them, but they are unaware of the consequences of their actions.
“If you show that you’re bulletproof, you’re not teaching them good things,” Cortman says. “Then they’re just going to up the ante.”
You can also share past examples of when their feelings were hurt by someone else so they can recall what it’s like.(“Do you remember that time when…? That didn’t feel good, did it?”) It can help them develop empathy toward others. Most importantly, keep the lines of communication open despite your feelings so your kids don’t fill in any blanks and assume the worst. Your kid likely didn’t intend to hurt you.
Believe it or not, they’re saying it because they care
Occasionally, kids can cut to the quick with a sharp critique. Maybe they think you drink too much beer or soda, or they’re concerned about your weight or smoking habit. Remember, they’re saying these things because they’re worried about you, not to hurt your feelings.
However, if you’re concerned about how someone else might take their critiques, Cortman recommends teaching them to know their audience. Show kids to begin with kindness so the recipient understands the intention behind what they have to say. Start with, “I love you so much, and I would never want anything to happen to you, and I’m concerned about….” It will set the tone for what’s coming next.