It is (or should be) common knowledge that you should never send an email, write a blog or forum post, or make a phone call when you’re totally ticked off about something! You are likely to say something you don’t mean or perhaps you’ll be a little too honest.

First cool down, and then respond. Easy enough, but what if you can’t wait to cool down using traditional methods (you know like, take a long hot bath)?

The solution: Simply write your name a few times on a piece of paper using your non-dominant hand. Apparently, it will force the logical side of your brain to start working, giving your emotional side a few seconds to forget why it is so upset (or sad, or excited, etc.). For all the neurosurgeons out there who might want to debate brain lateralization, I’m not the guy for you! But this technique has worked many times for me (and it recently got my sister-in-law out of a funk).

Over the past several days, I’ve also been looking into other ways to train my brain to either help in logical tasks, management tasks, programming, motivation, etc. I stumbled upon a blog entry (from Gary’s Historical Art) that spoke of the book “Drawing on the right side of the brain“. I remember this book from my childhood and was thrilled to see it has a new addition. It contains some additional information on (a) the latest developments in brain research, and (b) information on using drawing skills for problem solving. I plan to get a copy soon.