The willpower has failed in the adoption of habits, but the brain has a better trick: personal automation

Bet everything to willpower when you want to acquire a new habit It does not usually work. That I knew San Mateo: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” James Clear, author of the Best Seller ‘Atomic habits‘He already warns that leaving the acquisition of habits to willpower is a decision that brings you a little more to failure. Our brain is not designed to constantly fight against what is comfortable and known. Clear bet for creating systems that lead to the execution of the new habits that you want to acquire to achieve your goals without having to depend on discipline and constancy. However, there is a method that can simplify it much more: Personal automation. Habit, what a habit? One of the best strategies for acquire a new habit Without depending on willpower, it is simply not having to think that there is that new habit. That is to say, Automate habit In the same way you don’t think when you wash your teeth or what breakfasts daily. An example of personal automation can be the one used by Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg (before Your style change) in which They had adapted their wardrobe to reduce the number of decisions they made up to date, and thus reduce their mental load. Neither Jobs nor Zuckerberg were planted every day before their closet thinking about what they were going to put that day, they simply opened the closet and took a clothing that was already previously selected, without mental debate. In fact, the brain has a natural tendency to procedure. The creation of habits is based on cerebral plasticity or, which is the same, the brain learns to perform a task Based on the repetition of the sameuntil he learns, optimizes it and executes it unconsciously and involuntary. Do you think every movement of the fingers when you tie you a shoe, brush your teeth or scrub your dishes? Obviously not, because it is something you have practiced so much that Your brain has automated it. Now think of your new habit as that automated action and how you can assimilate it without even having to think about it. The key to generating that automation is to integrate the habit into a specific routine and in a specific order, to repeat it every day, in the same way that every morning you get up, show you, you dress, breakfast in a certain order. It is not usual to change that order once you have acquired it because you have automated the process and the strange thing will be to skip one of those steps, so it will not depend on whether you woke up without wanting to shower, or breakfast. You don’t even consider it, you simply do it. The benefits of personal automation Such and As they point out from Thinkwasabione of the greatest benefits of personal automation is mental energy saving. However, this system helps reinforce Acquisition of new habits or objectives without leaving any loophole to temptation not to do so. In addition, personal automation can stimulate your creativity and ability to solve problems. When the automation process of a certain action or habit is already very settled, the brain enters “autopilot” while this process is carried out, which leaves space for creative thinking by promoting the “Eureka” moments. Ideally, start little by little, choosing one or two things you can automate in your daily routine, and then add more progressively. For example, if one of your goals is to eat healthier or save, you can start by integrating in your weekend routine the elaboration of A menu for the whole week. By having it prepared, you will not have to think about your diet daily or worry about cooking during the week to eat healthy. If your goal is start sportsprepare your shoes and sports clothes in advance so that you just have to hear them and run. Having to look for them under the bed can become a more than enough excuse for your brain to mine your willpower. Do not give that advantage. The key to this technique is in the consistency and anticipation. Make small actions repeatedly until they become automatic habits. In Xataka | Until recently, people were very proud of how little I slept: today they are candidates to suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s In Xataka | The simple habit that provides a surprising impact on productivity: order the work space before starting Image | Unspash (Isaac Smith)

It is not infallible, but we have a trick to protect the mobile against invisible malware: a reset on time

Putting the shoot after the wound is not optimal, but it is something we usually do in the digital world. When our accounts or passwords – or those of someone close – are violated, is when we start worrying about cybersecurity. We change the passwordsWe add Two -step verification systems And we see what we can do so that Our accounts and devices are safer. And, between All types of malwarethere is a tremendously annoying and dangerous one: the spy software that performs Zero-Click attacks. The good thing is that we can protect ourselves by acquiring a simple habit: restart the mobile. Zero click. When we talk about such vulnerability, we refer to a security failure that allows someone to enter malicious software on our device without having to perform any action. Taking advantage of a mobile safety failure or PCs, hackers are capable of ‘strain’ software on the device without having downloaded anything or punctured in strange links. That is why it is called ‘Zero Click’, since, to open the doors of our device to another type of malware -like phishing, for example -we do have to perform an action. This is something that has been used recently in apps such as Outlook or in him iPhoneand the same thing always happens: failures in the safety of the app or the system opens the door torque to the click zero malware. Pegasus. These vulnerabilities usually occur the same day to launch a new version of an app or an operating system. Taking advantage of possible programming failures and safety gaps, malware can go through a back door without us knowing. And these attacks usually go hand in hand with spy software, very difficult to identify by the user, but that has almost ease access for our device. Surely sounds to you Pegasusthat spy software developed by the Israeli company that He infected mobiles of thousands of journalists, politicians and other personalities. Using capacities similar To those who attack taking advantage of the Zero-Click, it allows to see, even, conversations in encrypted apps. Through WhatsApp. But it is not the only one, since recently, spy software known as Graphite infected the mobile of several people using a WhatsApp failure. Rocky Cole is the co -founder of a cybersecurity company and has commented A ZDNET that Graphite sneaked into the mobile through an image or a PDF sent by WhatsApp To the mobile of the victims, and the underlying processes that are activated when files are received in the app are the ones that the attackers explode to infect the device. It is not known, at least publicly, if Graphite can move to the core of iOS or only operate on WhatsApp, but could take advantage of an “escalation of privileges” – a vulnerability of the app – to move outside the messaging application. Cole states that this attack was aimed at concrete people, but comments that it is an emerging threat to all. “And the world is not, at all, prepared to deal with something like that,” he says. Tract it as a computer. In the report, Cole leaves the wedge of the advertising of its application Iverify, but also two tips that are not unknown, but it is worth remembering. The first is that we should acquire the habit of restarting or off the mobile every day. The reason is that many of these vulnerabilities exist only in memory and, not being files, in theory the malware should be eliminated when cleaning the memory after a restart. The bad thing is that it is easy for the spy software to return to the device, so something that it also recommends is to install the updates as soon as they are available. These patches usually cover the vulnerabilities found by both companies and external groups, such as Mozilla Security Groupwho analyzes the software and warns those responsible to patch it. Better turn off. Although several security experts agree that we should not leave the mobile on 24/7, not everyone agrees that a simple restart can solve these problems. The reason is that, when restarting the device, some mobiles try to maintain everything as it was before, storing certain data in memory and these being the ones that would take advantage of the hackers. The NSA – the United States National Security Agency – commented that It is best to turn it off completely and wait a few seconds before turning it on again. In this way, all applications have to start from scratch again. And, according to the NSA, it is something we should do once a week. Beyond security. The NSA itself coincides with school that restarting or turning off the mobile is not a magical solution against this type of malware, but it can stop cybercriminals and make them engineer new ways to maintain access, perhaps being these more visible for device safety systems. But well, apart from security, both on iPhone and, above all, in Android mobiles, make a restart every so often Close processes and release RAM. It happens, as we say, especially in Android, where the system code can ‘fight’ against the manufacturer’s customization layer, making the mobile not do well that we should have been without restarting/off because there will be many waste in the RAM. Bad? That is something that forces us to acquire a new habit. Turning it only takes us for a few seconds, but if we are not used, the easiest thing is for us to forget. The good thing is that many mobiles already include restart and off options programmed in their adjustments. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The rear door that the United Kingdom wants in Icloud is a nightmare for all: Apple has just taken an unprecedented measure

There are people putting toilet paper in the fridge. What does science say about the trick to eliminate bad odors

If one day we open our fridge and encounter A roll of toilet paper insidewe might think that we live with a very clueless person who has confused the fridge with the bathroom closet. We would probably be wrong: There is a reason To put toilet paper in the fridge. The question is whether it is a good idea. The first question that comes to mind is: why? What is sought with this strange idea is to reduce the bad odors that are sometimes presented in our fridge. The “trick” also promises to extend the life of our food and even save energy consumption. Ok and work? Although we have not tested the method, the toilet paper could help us Eliminate bad odors from our fridge. Although there are some issues to consider to go for our paper rolls. The logic behind is that the toilet paper can absorb moisture (this paper is absorbent so it is capable of collecting environmental humidity by dehumidifier) ​​and with it the bad smell of our fridge. It would also help to preserve food better, reducing the rhythm to which they spoil and avoid passing that emit new bad odors. Insert paper into the fridge is one of the “tricks” that he proposes The Food Security Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), but not as a way of maintenance but as a way of ending persistent odors in our fridge. In an article dedicated to how to eliminate bad odors from the fridge, the service suggests filling our fridge of Rolled newspaperthen close the door and leave it like this for several days. After taking out the paper, they recommend cleaning the fridge with water and vinegar. Using newspaper has the advantage that this will be a role that will be discarded equally, but it is also an increasingly weird paper to find in our homes. If we use toilet paper we must avoid using paper that we have had stored in the bathroom outside its wrapping since it will have been accumulating moisture and will be more “loaded” from it. Avoiding bad odors It should be noted that the use of paper, whether newspaper or hygienic, is not the first method suggested by the USDA on its page as a way to eliminate bad odors from our fridge. The first thing to do in these cases is to eliminate any food spoiled that could be causing bad smell. Then, remove all the trays and drawers from the fridge and clean them with soap and water. Then we can give them a bath with a “sanitary solution” making a tablespoon of bleach not aromatized in 3.5 liters of water. Also use this solution to clean the interior of the fridge. After that we must leave the appliance open for a quarter of an hour. Appliances manufacturers are also A good source of information when looking for tricks that allow us to improve our use of the devices that manufacture. These methods include several cleaning products, we must be aware of Do not mix them. For example, mixing bicarbonate and vinegar will cause the different levels of acidity of the products to be annulled since vinegar is acid, while bicarbonate is a base. Mix vinegar and bleach, on the other hand, It is a risk to our health since the mixture will release harmful gases. Interestingly, this “trick” could help us save energy. Every time we open the door of the fridge we can generate air currents that introduce warm air from abroad into the fridge. When we close the door, the fridge must renounce this air, spending more energy. The more full the fridge is, the less air it can be exchanged with the outside, so a fridge fills less energy. If we put a roll of toilet paper (as if we put a brick), the fridge will cool it once alone, and not as many times as we open and close the door. This “trick” can be useful in very specific contexts, if for example we have our refrigerator halfway fill more or less constantly. In Xataka | The International Space Station receives its first space refrigerators: with them they hope to improve the astronaut diet Image | Xataka with Gemini

The price of housing in Spain is already higher than in the bubble peak. But the data has a small trick

That Spain has A problem With housing it is no novelty. Even so, it is interesting to find data that specifies to what extent it has been complicated to access a house in this country. The Property Registrars they just disseminated one that results especially valuable And it shows that those who want to buy an apartment today meet the highest prices of the historical series, even above those of the 2007 real estate bubble. However, it is convenient to handle those figures with perspective. Prices above 2007. The real estate market is in full Price climbing. That also does not suppose any surprise and can be seen in the ascending curves that have been showing for a long time graphics like those of the idealistic portal. This week the College of Registrars published A report That leaves an extra, more interesting reading. The sustained price increase has led to the average housing price has reached in Spain “A new historical maximum”overcoming the values ​​that were handled in 2007, before the real estate bubble. According to the data collected by the registrars, the average cost during the last quarter of 2024 stood at € 2,164/m2. Table of the study of registrars on the evolution of the price of housing. Going down to detail. The dossier It allows to delve even more and check for example how the new and ‘second -hand’ housing housing market is responding, which has accumulated from afar the largest volume of sale operations. In fact, almost 637,000 transactions Scored by the professional body throughout 2024, just over 505,000 were starring used properties, 6.4% more than the previous year. The new house left ‘Solo’ 132,000 sale, although that data reflects a considerable increase with respect to 2023, of 21.6%. As for prices, at the end of 2024 the square meter of the release was charged on average to 2,338 euroswhile that of the already used properties was quoted at 2,133. In the first case the price exceeds that it was handled between 2006 and 2007, before the brick bubble exploded. The same does not happen with the second -hand housing, which although it has been more expensive, it would still continue slightly below of those prestisis values. Prices with small print. The study of registrars of Spain effectively shows an average price of housing in historical maximums, above of the 2007 level, but the big question is … does that mean that the houses are more uninquerable today than before the real estate bubble? To answer that question, you have to take into account the difference between the nominal valuesthat measure the current prices of each moment (in this case 2024) and The real onesin which the effect of inflation is taken into account. A few days ago, after the publication of the registrars dossier, Doctor of Economics Daniel Fuentes He warned in x which shows nominal prices, with which the comparison between 2007 and 2024 has 17 years apart. And its inflation. The nuance does not remain value to the report data, but it should be taken into account if comparisons are made with the prices prior to the 2007 brick crisis. Click on the image to go to Tweet. More perspectives. In fact, registrars are not the only ones who have published more or less updated information on Spanish real estate market prices. In April 2024 the Bank of Spain launched A report in which it clearly reflected the differences between nominal and real values. According to their calculations, in 2023 the average housing prices had been recovered since 2014 with a nominal revaluation of 56%; But in terms of real revaluation that rise was much lower, of 30%. What does that mean? That in the first case the prices of 2023 were about to exceed those of 2007 (they were 2% below); But in the second, taking into account the real values, the average of 2023 was still 28.5% lower at 2007. The indicator Tinsa Imie (monthly real estate market index) December It also shows that, although the values ​​have grown clearly, the general indicator It is still below of the scored in 2007. Graph of the Annual Report of 2023 on the housing market in Spain. Graph of the Bank of Spain on the evolution of the price of nominal and real housing. Evolution of the price of housing in Spain reflected in the October October report. Different situations. That current prices approach or exceed those of 2006 and 2007 also mean that the current scenario is the same as that of the years prior to the brick crisis. “The demand after the bubble was speculative, the one now is demographic,” says Fuentes In your tweet. During A talk with The country Santiago Carbó, Professor of Economic Analysis, also ruled out a crisis similar to that of the bubble. The reason: the great current challenge of Spain is the mismatch between supply and demand, rather than indebtedness, as was the case then. The problem, Carbó aboundsis that finding affordable housing becomes “increasingly difficult” and it will be difficult for the measures taken by the Government to let their effects feel this year or even the next one. “The incorporation of thousands of floors to the market would be needed to relieve this tension, and that requires years.” Is there more? Yeah. The study of the registrars allows to know three other factors equally interesting: the differences between regions, the number of signed mortgages and the weight of foreign buyers. With regard to the first issue, that of the lags between communities, the report shows that disparate realities coexist in the Spanish market. For example, while Madrid led the cost of the house, with € 3,780/m2, in Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura that average did not even reach the € 1,000 barrier. The weight of the foreign buyer … and the banks. The report also shows that the vast majority of purchases are made with bank financing. Throughout the last quarter of 2024, 124,000 … Read more

The consumption of amphetamines in Spain is concentrated in an autonomous community. And we know it with a “single” trick

The surveys are very useful for “taking the pulse” to the population, but they can also lie (or at least fool) in many ways. Not this is not a cooking thing and how its results are interpreted: sometimes the lack of truth comes from the basis, and asking for some issues can be very delicate. And a great example of this is found in illegal substances, such as drugs. OEDA report. He last report prepared by the Spanish Observatory of Drugs and Addictions (OEDA) and the Government Delegation for the National Drug Plan He investigated not only social perceptions about the drug use of Spaniards, but also in their consumption habits. One of the most striking results was the “differential clear” in the pattern of amphetamine consumption: and the report found that the consumption of this substance was concentrated in an autonomous community: Euskadi. Estimates on the consumption of this substance in the Basque Autonomous Community far exceed the state average and records in the regions treated in the report. According to these calculations, the consumption of SPEED (name with which reference is also made to this substance) oscillates, according to areas Between 700 and 2,100 milligrams A day for every 1,000 inhabitants, while in the rest of the areas of study the average estimated consumption was 24 mg/(day 1,000 inhabitants). Not as easy as it seems. Estimating the consumption of this and other substances can be complicated. In the case of illegal drugs, its illicit nature makes the task of investigating its consumption complicated through simple surveys. To this we must add the social perception of drugs as taboo, something that also applies to legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco. So how are scientists save the scientists studying these substances? OEDA reports They consult the population to know their perception of this type of substance (both legal and illegal). However, to know drug use habits follow another strategy: search in waste. Sewage. Specifically, in wastewater. Our body discards these substances or their metabolites (the compounds derived from the medicalization of a compound) through the urine, which implies that the tests end up in our wastewater and from there in the water treatment plants. The equipment responsible for the analysis took water samples in a series of purifying stations sewage (WWTP) distributed in various autonomous communities, 28 in total. The samples were taken over a week (usually in spring) in the years between 2021 and 2023. In some of the stations additional samples were taken in the second half of the year. Different habits. None of the substances analyzed presented a pattern of consumption as centered as the case of amphetamines, although in the case of cannabis, for example, some trends with the Catalan stations and the Canarian station can be interviewed indicating the areas of greatest consumption. On average, a consumption of 13 g/(day 1,000) of THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol) was estimated. The study of wastewater also gives us information about legal substances such as alcohol and nicotine. The median reading of the national WWTP ethanol showed an estimated consumption of 7.6 l/(day 1,000 inhabitants). In the case of nicotine on the other hand, the global median indicated a consumption of 1,641 mg/(day 1,000 inhabitants). Not only Spain. This type of analysis based on wastewater is not exclusive to Spain. At European level we can also find similar studies. Another recent study Performed by the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) analyzed consumption patterns in European countries and observed that Spain (as well as the Netherlands) showed a relatively high consumption of substances such as cocaine, MDMA, THC or ketamine. Of course, in this case, the study analyzed less water treatment stations: six located in different parts of the Mediterranean coast and one more in Galicia. The concentration of stations in the Mediterranean and absence of samples in other highly populated areas such as Madrid implies a serious limitation in this study if we want to extrapolate its results to the whole. In Xataka | Drugs, mental health and pre -Hispanic civilizations: the clash between modern medicine and millenary traditions Image | Colin Davis / Abdo Alshreef

Georgina Rodríguez’s trick to sculpt his face in 3 touches and other secrets of his makeup

Cover skin? Yes please. And our guide will be Georgina and her looks. Although you have to recognize the merit of its trusted makeup artist, Sergio Antón, who puts into practice all these tricks for an impeccable face. His last viral trick has been the way with just a makeup product, he sculpts all the face with lifting effect. He has done it with the cream contour Hollywood Contour Light Wandof the brand Charlotte Tilbury And it has revolutionized the Internet. The firm has Georgina among its ranks of best ambassadors and has taught in networks such as With only 3 light touches on the face, he manages to raise it visually. “I always start with a light line above the cheekbone to lift it,” says. Next, it shows how another small line traces on the temple and another in the mandibular bone. And if there is an easy product to use it is this, considered the magic wand of Hollywood for its formula, with which the skin is illuminated thanks to the effect Soft Focus and its applicator, a sponge fantasy that blurs perfectly. The perfect smoked If there is something that Georgina is attesting, it is that to enlarge and tear a look there is nothing like a good smoked and blurred in ascending and diagonal direction. A classic that does not fail: tear and inner area in light tones and even brushing the white shadows and a very well blurred transition in the center of the eye that turns towards a dark toast at the outer end of the eye. The key: clean the blur well when the tone passes to the final area of ​​the eyebrow. As? It permeates a baston with micellar water and follows a straight and diagonal line up. Postizas eyelashes, for infarction looks It is another of the keys to their makeup: either in smoked techniques or in more ‘Clean’ makeup, Georgina does not fail its post -fitting eyelashes that increase the density from inside out of the eye, that is, shorter in the inner part of the eye and more elongated and dense from the center to the outside of the eye. In addition, to integrate them better, do not hesitate to delineate through the water line and between the tabs, for a much more organic result. The trick to give more volume to the lips It is the favorite not only of Gio, but of many more Celebrities: The brown profiler. Many have already confessed that they cannot live without him. And it is that the immediate volume effect it has is impressive. Combined with a Glossthe result is some juicy and fleshy lips In seconds. In Tiktok, Georgina is a muse. There is no influencer that you have not tried to recreate any of your looks. And the tricks have caught him well. For example, another Tip which remembers the Tiktoker @beautyBasicsalon, is to use makeup palettes only in warm tones, the most used by Georgina. And with them, not only shows how to make a good blur (also attending to the area below the eyebrow arch) but another trick: use the same shadow in a neutral warm tone to create definition at the beginning of the nose bone . This spring, marcate one of its most iconic looks. The tricks already have them … (Tagstotranslate) Beauty

Trick to avoid oil splashes in the kitchen

The splashes of oils They cause accidental burns, dirty the kitchen and can damage or stain clothing, To avoid these inconveniences when cooking, an expert advises adding a little salt to the pan and problem solved. Chef and author of the recipe book Every day with Babs, Barbara Costello shared a practical tip to avoid splatters; Add salt to the bottom of the pan to keep splatters at bay. Splattering is a reaction when the water in the food mixed with the hot oil evaporates. The trigger for splashing is the steam that produces a reaction in the hot oil that splashes. There are several reasons why splashes occur. 1.- Pans or vegetables with traces of water, so it is recommended to dry them before starting to fry. 2.- Dehydration of food, which is a natural process when frying, since as the Tasting Tablet experts say, the moisture has to come out somewhere. Why use salt? Add salt to the pan before frying, Helps absorb moisture, which reduces the amount of water reacting with the oil, decreasing the chance of splattering. This trick works when using a thin layer of oil, since it is not effective for frying fries or crispy chicken wings. Yes, it works when it comes to sautéing, pan searing, and shallow frying. To fry food in deeper pans, the first thing to avoid is throwing the food, instead it should be placed gently in the oil to avoid splashing. Adding food uncontrollably and getting too close makes us more prone to splashes. To handle food more easily, you can use kitchen tongs. Keep reading:

The “Finnish trick” to insulate your house from the cold by hand sounds great. Has major leaks

We all know those videos that started on Facebook and reached TikTok of fixes or repairs in less than five minutes. Some were useful, others logic itself told you that it couldn’t be like that. In this line and with the arrival of the cold, ingenuity sharpens, last winter the trick was simple: Use a plastic film that adheres to the window frame and is sealed with tape, creating an additional layer of insulation. However, they have now changed it to a Finnish trick that uses bubble wrap. Finnish trick. The trick consists of using bubble wrap as insulation for windows during winter. By spraying water on the glass and placing the smooth side of the plastic, the bubbles act as a layer of air that improves thermal insulation, reducing cold entry and heat loss. It’s a cheap and easy solution, although visibility will be somewhat blurry. You can keep it all winter if placed correctly. But is it safe or recommended? A video taken from social networks must be taken with a grain of salt, because we do not know if it really works. In this case, the trick can offer A temporary, economical and easy solution to improve the insulation in windows. In this Finnish trick, the efficiency lies in the layer of air trapped inside the bubbles, which acts as a thermal insulator. However, this method is not a long-term option and can become damaged over time if not installed properly. Along those same lines, the use of plastic and poor installation can cause humidity between the plastic and the window, favoring the appearance of mold. In addition, you have to seal the material with tape, which can cause air leaks. Although the technique may be useful as a quick or temporary solution, it should not be considered a replacement for more effective and permanent methods of isolation. Alternatives without reforms. Among the different options, the most popular is the use of thermal insulation window films, which offer a more resistant barrier to the cold without compromising visibility. These easy-to-install films cling to windows and create an insulating layer of air, but unlike bubble wrap, they are thinner and less prone to damage. In the same line is the sealing of windows and doors with weather stripping or special tapes that prevent air leaks. For their part, without the need to carry out a renovation, there are thermal curtains, which can be a simple solution to keep the heat inside the rooms, since they are designed to block the cold outside and maintain the inside temperature. Invest money. Now if your goal is to continue improving your home, then install double-glazed windows, because they offer superior insulation and reduce heat loss and the entry of outside noise. And if you are going to continue investing, another alternative is gas condensing boilers, which can reduce energy consumption while reducing CO2 emissions. The impact of plastic. While the hacks circulating on TikTok, like this one from Finland, may seem like clever and inexpensive solutions to dealing with the cold, it’s important to consider their environmental impact. Excessive use of plastic, even in small quantities, contributes to the growing waste problem. For this reason, although these ideas may be effective in the short term, we must be responsible when using it and think about the long-term environmental impact. Image | Unsplash and Unsplash Xataka | A kick forward of 75 days: the extension that Trump has granted to TikTok is pure uncertainty

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