Do you want to be productive（富有成效的）at work or at home? Here's what you should do.

Turn off television

    I used to tell myself that I needed a break. So, when the kids slept I turned on the cable and watched whatever program that caught my fancy. Often, I found myself not watching, just channel-surfing. And I didn't end up watching a full program. I decided one day to just give up on TV as it made me sleep late and woke up exhausted（疲惫的）.

    If you want to be productive, cut off TV. You are better off reading a book. Without TV, I have managed to finish many books which I have bought but never read.

Limit Internet Use

    The other big distraction that can make you sleep late is the Internet. Probably because you will be checking your emails, updating your blog, watching YouTube, etc. Try limiting the use of it at home, or switch it to the morning session.

    Nowadays, I check all my personal emails early in the morning. When I get into work, I find myself less tempted to check personal emails.

Know Your Priorities(优先考虑的事)

    Really, it is all about the choices you make and the priorities you have. If you know it is competitive out there in the world, how can you be a better worker than the person who is also aiming for the position above you?

Rest Early, Rise Early

    You want to be productive? Rise early, read more books, have more energy, be more focused and set standards for others to catch up. It's as simple as that.

    Don't you hate it when someone snubs（冷落）you by looking at their phone instead of paying  attention? The word “Phubbing”, which comes from “phone” and “snub”, describes such behavior. With popularization of smart phones, we see a new "Phubbing" group everywhere in public places: in subway, restaurants, roads, people are checking the mobile phone, ignoring the people around completely. What is worrying us is that not only young people, but also the elderly and kids are getting addicted（上瘾）to Phubbing.

    On Dec 29th, a 28-year-old woman—a mother of two in Wenzhou, drowned after she fell into a river while looking at her mobile phone. A Pakistani man was killed on Dec 15th, 2015, after being hit by a fast moving train while trying to take a selfie (自拍)with it on the track. Last month, Justin, a college student was shot in subway in San Francisco, the U.S. The surveillance(监控)video showed that before Justin was killed, the killer pulled out the gun several times, and even wiped his nose with it. However, nobody noticed that. The surrounding passengers all focused on their cell phones.

    Phone is the tool for communication, but now it distances people and makes them separated from each other. Therefore, someone jokes “the furthest distance in the world is not the distance between life and death, but that you don't know I stand in front of you while you focus on the mobile.”

    Phubbing appears harmless; however, it does affect our life. 23-year-old Alex from Melbourne wrote in his blog: "I can no longer focus on what I am eating since I started twittering. My skill of food photography has improved very fast, while my interest in food drops a lot as a result."

    Last week, two companies, Kitty Hawk and Uber, announced their plans to bring flying cars to reality very soon.

    Imagine never having to worry about traffic, stop lights, or road construction. A flying car would get to a place much faster than one travelling by road. On the other hand, imagine having to avoid drones (无人驾驶飞机) and other flying cars. Also, what if your battery dies when you are in the air? And, how will you know where to land?

    Kitty Hawk is a start-up tech company supported by Google co-founder, Larry Page. According to the Kitty Hawk website, its car will be able to travel at speeds up to 40 kilometers an hour in the air. It says under US aviation law such a machine “does not require registration or a pilot's license and may be flown in uncongested (不拥挤的) areas for recreational purposes.” As of now, the car can only be flown over fresh water.

    Kitty Hawk is making a list of people interested in buying the flying car. They must pay a deposit of US$100. Those who get their names on the list early will receive US$2, 000 off the final cost of the car. However, Kitty Hawk has not yet announced the price. Kitty Hawk expects its first flying cars will go on sale by the end of this year.

    At a conference last week, Uber announced plans for flying taxis to begin carrying passengers. Unlike the Kitty Hawk company, Uber does not plan to build its flying cars. Instead, it will use the resources of partner companies.

    Like the Kitty Hawk car, Uber flying taxis will use electric power. Uber says its flying taxis could travel up to 241 kilometers an hour. The company said that could reduce the travel time between San Francisco and San Jose, California from two hours on the road to 15 minutes in the air.

    Riders could use the Uber app to book a flying taxi to take them to their destinations. The company has not yet said how costly air taxi travel would be compared to road taxi travel.

    I grew up on a farm outside Port Clinton, Ohio. I was the youngest son, with four brothers and four sisters, plus a girl my relatives took in when she was in sixth grade and was raised along with us.

    By the late 60s, most of us were married and had families of our own. One day, while we were visiting my parents in late summer or early fall, Dad mentioned he'd always wanted a Crimson King maple tree for the yard. Mom agreed that they were pretty.

    Like many parents, mine were hard to shop for, so I figured this was a great opportunity to get them something they'd appreciate. I checked the price at work and decided it was a bit more than I could afford but all of my brothers and sisters agreed to help.

    In northern Ohio, people don't plant maple trees at Christmas, so we decided to surprise Mom and Dad with a special Christmas in October before the ground froze. We asked my aunt if she'd help us with the trick, and she called my parents in advance to say she was coming for a Sunday visit. Then my sisters and sisters-in-law went into action, planning a big holiday turkey dinner.

    On the chosen Sunday, we all met at my house and loaded the trees in a pickup truck. I dressed up as Santa Claus, though at the time I weighed about 140, so all the padding(填料) in the world couldn't make me look like St. Nick. Then off we went, nine or ten cars loaded with people and food, plus the pickup truck.

    When the truck arrived at my parents' house, Dad came out of the back door, convinced something was wrong. He and Mom were amazed when we told them why we were there.

    When Christmas rolled around, of course, we couldn't go to our parents' house empty-handed, so Mom and Dad got double presents that year. Almost half a century later, I still drive by the old farm and smile when I see those big, handsome trees.

We are what we eat. That is an old expression, but one worth knowing. A recent look at diets around the world shows that people who eat healthy food—and not too much of it—live longer. But which areas of the world have the best diets？Researchers found that foods in some of the healthiest diets—Mediterranean, New Nordic, Japanese and French—may be very different, but they are all heavy on local, seasonal and limit processed foods, which are high in vegetables and seafood and low in red meat.

Mediterranean diet contains lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and olive oil. The diet has proper amounts of fish and poultry (禽肉). Red meat and foods high in sugar and salt are not big parts of this diet.

New Nordic diet has whole grains like oats and rye, vegetables such as carrots, broccoli and eggs, seafood, fruits, oil, low­fat milk and cheese. Very sugary desserts are not common in this diet.

Japanese people are some of the longest­living people on the planet, with women up to 87 years old and men up to 80. The Japanese diet is the reason for such lengths of life. The diet has many foods that are low in calories and high in nutrients. Japanese people eat a lot of seaweed, tofu, rice, vegetables and fish. The tradition there is to stop eating when your stomach feels 80 percent full.

However, French people eat fatty foods but do not get fat. And they live a long time. This phenomenon is called the "French Paradox". The reason why the French eat fatty foods without getting fat may be simple. They eat less. Serving sizes in French restaurants and in products sold in stores are smaller than those in most countries. And generally speaking, most French people do not snack. This means they do not eat food between meals.