A woman looks out the window of her one-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp. A shift in racial hiring practices and the recent global economic crisis means many white South Africans have fallen on hard times. Researchers now estimate some 450,000 whites, of a total white population of 4.5 million, live below the poverty line and 100,000 are struggling just to survive in places such Coronation Park, a former caravan camp currently home to more than 400 white squatters.

Friends talk through the window of a one-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Children walk through a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Children play with a tyre used to block the entrance to a squatter camp for poor white South Africans, at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A family smokes together during a quiet moment at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Andre Coetzee, 57, drinks a mug of coffee at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A woman drives a car at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A man receives a monthly supply of food aid donated to residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A woman pushes a cart with a monthly supply of food aid donated to residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans line up for a communal meal at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans line up for a communal meal at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Leone Smit, 41, does dishes in her shack while her son and his friend rest on a bed at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Andre Coetzee, 57, (L) sits with a neighbouring family at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Mara Udwesthuizen, 64, sits outside her tent home at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Vernon Nel, (L) cuts the hair of Reynard, 14, at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Anne Le Roux, 60, calms down her grandson, Reynard, 14 at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Lukas Gouws (C), 29, scolds a boy for digging up snakes at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Lukas Gouws, 29, smokes at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A girl cries after being beaten by her father, in their makeshift home at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A teenager plays cricket at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Girls set up a play house in their garden outside a family shack at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Donovan Durant, 23, (C) weeps as he looks at blood-soaked rags burning in a fire after his girlfriend gave birth prematurely and their baby died after a few hours at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdor.

People attend an Afrikaans Sunday service in a makeshift tent church at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Anna Snyders (C), 20, grieves beside her boyfriend, Donovan Durant, 23, at the funeral for their baby who died hours after she gave birth prematurely at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Anna Snyders, 20, (C) is comforted during the funeral for her baby who died hours after being born prematurely at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans, in Krugersdorp.

Donovan Durant (C), 23, carries the casket of his baby who died hours after being born prematurely while his girlfriend Anna Snyders, 20, (L) is comforted during a funeral service at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Desmond Thomas, 40, (R) lights a cigarette beside the charred remains of his caravan that burned down the previous night after a candle set it on fire at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Residents work on reparing a car at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A resident works on reparing a car at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Rudolph, 12, does his homework in the kitchen of his family’s shack at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Accountant Vernon Nel checks his email on generator-powered computers using a wireless modem in a tented home attached to caravan that he shares with six other people at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Vincent Abbott, 42, enjoys an evening smoke as his wife Esther Botha, 41, knits on their bed inside their small single-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A girl stops by a neighbour’s fireplace before she walks to school from a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

A girl puts her hair in a pony tail as she gets ready to walk to school from a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Girls walk to school barefoot from a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

The sun rises over a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

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Turns out your diet may be healthier than you think. Those little extras you love like ketchup on burgers or hot sauce in tacos have hidden health benefits. New research shows that certain spices, herbs, and spreads not only boost flavor but can also help curb appetite, ease digestion, promote better memory, and even fight heart disease and cancer.

Here are 9 condiments to have on hand.

Ketchup

Benefit: Lowers risk of cardiovascular disease

Daily Dose: 3-4 tablespoons

How It Works: Lycopene — a powerful antioxidant in ketchup — may slow the process that leads to atherosclerosis, says Betty Ishida, PhD, a USDA research biologist. While all ketchup contains some lycopene, a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that organic versions contain up to 60% more per gram than conventional brands. The researchers also found that organic ketchup had the highest levels of vitamins A, C, and E.

Serving Tip: Use dark-hued ketchup for the most lycopene, and squirt on burgers and baked fries or stir with equal parts reduced-fat mayo for a Russian dressing, says Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, a dietitian in New York City. Or mix with chopped garlic and herbs to marinate grilled chicken, suggests Daniel Stern, executive chef and co-owner of MidAtlantic and R2L restaurants in Philadelphia.

Buckwheat Honey

Benefit: Fights aging

Daily Dose: 2-4 tablespoons

How It Works: Dark honey like buckwheat or blueberry contains the most antioxidants, say researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who analyzed 19 varieties. Antioxidants protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals and may reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, cognitive decline, and macular degeneration.

Serving Tip: Honey has a strong flavor, so add in small doses to oatmeal, plain yogurt, and tea, and use instead of refined sugar, suggests Stern. Whisk it into homemade salad dressing for a touch of sweetness.

Rosemary

Benefit: Eliminates foodborne carcinogens

Daily Dose: 1-2 tablespoons

How It Works: Rosemary minimizes or eliminates carcinogens formed when cooking some foods, say scientists at Kansas State University, who found that seasoning beef with rosemary before grilling can reduce cancer-causing substances called heterocyclic amines by 30 to 100%. Danish scientists got similar results when adding rosemary to dough. Acrylamide, a potentially carcinogenic compound, forms in carb-rich foods when heated above 250°F. “By incorporating 1 tablespoon of dried rosemary for each pound of f lour, we reduced acrylamide by more than 50%,” says Leif Skibsted, PhD, a professor of food chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. He believes that the antioxidants in rosemary “scavenge” the harmful compounds.

Serving Tip: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons per 2 pounds of pork loin, steak, or lamb, or spread a paste of chopped rosemary, Dijon mustard, garlic, and coarse sea salt on meat before cooking, suggests Marc Meyer, executive chef at Cookshop, Five Points, and Hundred Acres restaurants in New York City. Stuff chicken or turkey with citrus fruit and rosemary sprigs, then roast.

Horseradish

Benefit: Detoxes your body

Daily Dose: 1/4 teaspoon

How It Works: Glucosinolates, compounds in the roots and leaves of the horseradish plant, can increase your liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogens and may suppress the growth of existing tumors, says a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Horseradish is one of nature’s best sources of glucosinolates — it has up to 10 times more than broccoli, the next-best source.

Serving Tip: Mix into ketchup for a cocktail sauce or mustard for a sandwich spread, or add to yogurt to serve with lamb or fish, says Stern. Make a dip, adds Zuckerbrot: Combine 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup chopped dill, 3 tablespoons bottled horseradish, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; enjoy with whole wheat pita chips.

Olive Oil

Benefit: Boosts long-term memory

Daily Dose: A few tablespoons

How It Works: Olive oil is a top source of oleic acid, an omega-9 fatty acid that is converted during digestion to oleoylethanolamide (OEA), a hormone that helps keep brain cells healthy. In a new study from the University of California, Irvine, rodents fed OEA were better able to remember how to perform two tasks than those that didn’t eat it. Researchers hypothesize that OEA signals the part of the brain responsible for turning short-term memories into long-term ones. “OEA seems to be part of the glue that makes memories stick,” says Daniele Piomelli, PhD, a professor of pharmacology and biological chemistry at the university.

Serving Tip: Drizzle on roasted veggies or salad, or mix with crushed garlic and a pinch of salt and spread on toasted whole grain bread. Or blend equal parts olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and water with a squeeze of lemon and use as a dip for crisp veggies like radishes or cucumber.

Cinnamon

Benefit: Stabilizes blood sugar levels

Daily Dose: 1 teaspoon

How It Works: People who added cinnamon — one-half to a heaping teaspoon — to a sweet dish experienced a slower rise in blood sugar than those who didn’t consume any, found a series of studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The spice enhances insulin sensitivity, so it allows you to use more of the glucose in your blood, keeping blood sugar levels stable, says Joanna Hlebowicz, PhD, the studies’ lead researcher and a fellow in cardiology at Lund University in Sweden. Adding cinnamon to a carb-heavy or starchy dish may also help stabilize blood sugar after you eat, she adds. Keeping levels stable minimizes sugar highs and lows, and for those with diabetes, it could mean needing less insulin.

Serving Tip: Sprinkle on cake, cereal, or a latte. Work into starchy meals, like rice or grain dishes, by grinding together with cumin, coriander, and caraway and adding chopped nuts and dried fruit for a Mediterranean flavor.

Hot Sauce

Benefit: Curbs appetite

Daily Dose: A few dashes

How It Works: Eating just one meal that contains capsaicin — the compound that gives hot sauce and chile peppers their heat — not only reduces levels of hunger-causing ghrelin but also raises GLP-1, an appetite-suppressing hormone, says new research in the European Journal of Nutrition. Other scientists found that people who drank capsaicin-spiced tomato juice before each meal over 2 days ingested 16% fewer calories than those who drank it plain.

Serving Tip: Splash on tacos, brown rice, or low-fat tomato or lentil soup. Hot sauce also pairs well with citrus, adds Meyer. Top half a grapefruit with a few shakes, plus a teaspoon of brown sugar.

Sauerkraut

Benefit: Eases digestion

Daily Dose: 1/2 cup

How It Works: Sauerkraut is full of probiotic bacteria such as Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) that can help relieve the gas, stomach distension, and discomfort associated with irritable bowl syndrome — and may improve the quality of life in up to 95% of those with IBS.

Serving Tip: Use fresh sauerkraut (it has more probiotic bacteria than jarred varieties) as a relish for grilled meats or lean turkey hot dogs. Or toss into a veggie and tofu stir-fry, says Andrea-Michelle Brekke, RD, a nutritionist in New York City.

Black Pepper

Benefit: Guards against cancer

Daily Dose: To taste

How It Works: Piperine, a compound in black pepper, may help interrupt the self-renewing process of cancer-initiating stem cells, according to new research from the University of Michigan. “By limiting the number of stem cells, you’re limiting the number of cells with the potential to form tumors,” says lead study author Madhuri Kakarala, MD, PhD, a clinical lecturer in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Serving Tip: Sprinkle on all your favorites; to up the heat and add texture, toast whole peppercorns before grinding, suggests Stern. Mix into plain yogurt and use as a topping on fresh fruit, he adds.

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Everything You Know About Happiness is Wrong

Even in trying times, you have more control over your own happiness than you think.

What makes us happy

Having a bad day? A rough week? A not-your-year?
Past lessons teach us that we are surprisingly capable at weathering challenges that might at first seem overwhelming. We can’t control our circumstances—but we can control their effect on our well-being.

Experts attribute about 50% of a person’s happiness to genetic endowments and another 10% to circumstances—where we live, how much money we make, how healthy we are. That leaves 40% of our happiness in our control. Fortunately, science has much to say about how we can make the most of that 40%. Even small improvements in mood can have cascading effects. The trick is to pay attention to what strategies work best for you. Try these for starters.

1. Know what to want.

Most of us can’t predict what will make us happy in the future, and that inability often leads us down the wrong path.
“The average American moves more than 11 times, changes jobs more than 10 times, and marries more than once, suggesting that most of us are making more than a few poor choices,” notes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert, PhD, author of Stumbling on Happiness. One reason we so often guess wrong, he argues, is that we often imagine the future incorrectly. We forget how easily we adapt, even to painful circumstances. So when we picture what it would be like to be single again or to live in Seattle or to leave one job for another, we don’t factor in everything else—the new friends, the newly discovered interest in Cascade Mountains wildflowers—that might also affect our emotional well-being.

Unfortunately, Gilbert says, we can’t simply train ourselves to peer into the future with greater clarity. Instead, we should put more trust in other people’s experiences. “Start with the assumption that your reactions are a lot like other people’s,” Gilbert says. If you want to know whether to take a job at a new company, pay attention to the people around you when you’re there for an interview. Do they seem engaged and interested? That should count for a lot.

2. Savor mystery.

In a culture obsessed with the power of information, the fact that most of us are a little unnerved by uncertainty is hardly surprising.
Yet research suggests that a dash of mystery can make positive experiences last longer. In one study, University of Virginia psychologist Timothy Wilson, PhD, and colleagues found that students who were given a $1 coin with little explanation reported feeling happier a few minutes later than those who were given either the same amount of money by a known source or no money at all. Wilson argues that those who didn’t fully comprehend the reason for the gift spent more time mulling it over, extending their pleasure. “Once we’ve done the cognitive work to understand something, we kind of wrap it up in a little package and store it away and move on to other things,” he explains.

It’s not easy to stage surprises for yourself, but Wilson suggests a few tricks. Next time you’re nearing the end of an engrossing book, save the final pages for a few days later. Or shop from catalogs so you won’t know exactly when your purchases will arrive—if you’re lucky, when they do you may have forgotten what you’ve ordered.

3. Diversify your good deeds.

Being kind and helpful makes most everyone feel good.
But just as the novelty of a new car or electronic gadget inevitably wears off, so does the warm glow that comes from doing the same good deed over and over. People who performed various small acts of kindness every week for 10 weeks—shoveling a friend’s sidewalk, giving pets a special treat, sending a birthday card—grew happier with each passing week, and the benefit lasted for at least another month, found a study by University of California, Riverside psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, and colleagues.

In contrast, people who performed the same kind act repeatedly became less happy after a few weeks, then reverted to their prior level of contentment. Try this: Do several good deeds in 1 day; researchers say your happiness boost will be greater than if you spread them out evenly over time.

4. Hope for small changes, not big ones.

Research shows that even major life events, such as winning the lottery, hardly nudge people’s overall sense of satisfaction.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to improve your wellbeing. Recent research finds that the little things we do regularly, like exercising or attending religious services, can have a major impact on our happiness. In one study, Yale University psychologist Daniel Mochon, PhD, and colleagues at Harvard and Duke universities discovered that people leaving religious services felt slightly happier than those going in—and the more regularly people attended religious services, the happier they felt overall. The same is true for exercise—people not only feel happier after going to the gym or to a yoga class, but they also get a bigger boost the more often they go.

5. Invest in experiences, not stuff..

Doing things, not buying things, gives you the most bang for your buck.
Why? For one thing, says University of Colorado at Boulder social psychologist Leaf Van Boven, PhD, it’s easier to reinterpret experiences than to retool material purchases. If your new smart phone disappoints, you have to either shell out for a better one or lower your expectations. But if it rains on a hiking trip, you can recast the drenching experience in your memory as a character-building challenge.

Also, sharing life experiences with others helps satisfy our need for social connection— another known mood booster.

6. Shift your focus.

From work to relationships to health, we have choices about where to concentrate our attention.
When a snowstorm keeps you from getting to the office, do you choose to focus on how behind you’ll be by tomorrow or on the 8-hour gift of time you’ve just been given? When you paint your daughter’s bedroom, do you fret about how much you hate the drudgery or think ahead to how pleased she’ll be when she comes home for Christmas break? The answer to such questions has a big influence on your well-being, writes Winifred Gallagher, author of Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life.

Studies show that focusing on positive emotions—curiosity instead of fear, compassion instead of anger—leads to broader, more flexible thinking, more playfulness and exploration, and richer social connections. Positive emotions also temper negative feelings’ corrosive physiological effects—especially their impact on the cardiovascular system. It’s not surprising, then, that people who habitually adopt an optimistic focus have fewer health problems and live longer than their more pessimistic counterparts.

7. Let your mind wander.

The flipside of focus is daydreaming
Although we spend up to one-third of our waking lives in this luscious state of “undirected thought,” we often dismiss daydreaming as a sign of procrastination and laziness. But recent brain-imaging research shows that when you’re daydreaming, your brain is actually working pretty hard. In one recent study, University of British Columbia psychologist Kalina Christoff, PhD, and colleagues found that people who allowed their minds to wander while doing simple tasks tapped into not only their “executive” brain network (source of logical thinking and problem solving) but also their “default network” that is the wellspring for creative thought and relaxed, introspective thinking.

To rev brainpower, Christoff suggests alternating deliberate, focused thinking with more spontaneous mind-wandering. Another strategy is to occasionally set aside time for uninterrupted daydreaming, like a stolen hour for a stroll in the park.

8. Give money away.

Once a person’s basic needs are met, having more money does little to boost happiness, studies show.
What matters more is how much you give away. In a survey of 632 Americans, University of British Columbia psychologist Elizabeth Dunn, PhD, and colleagues found that the money people spent on themselves was unrelated to general happiness, but the more money people gave away as gifts and donations, the happier they were.

In another study, the researchers gave people $5 or $20 with instructions to spend the money on themselves, on someone else, or to donate it. Those who gave the money away or spent it on others—no matter the amount—were happier than those who used it for themselves.

9. Chat up your spouse like a stranger.

No one wants to make a bad first impression, so we tend to put our best face forward, especially with people we don’t know.
And that turns out to be a good strategy for enhancing our own happiness. In one study, Dunn and colleagues learned, observers judged that people conversing with strangers tried harder to make good impressions than did people conversing with their romantic partners—and the more they did so, the happier they felt after the interaction was over.

Another experiment showed that people instructed to talk with their romantic partners as though they were trying to make a good impression (as they would with a stranger) felt happier after the experiment ended than those who were told to interact normally.

10. Settle for good enough.

We tend to equate choice with freedom—and what could be wrong with that?
Plenty, according to Swarthmore College psychologist Barry Schwartz, PhD, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. Faced with a vast array of options—whether among consumer products like blue jeans and toothpastes or more consequential services like prescription drug plans and retirement plans—many of us end up bewildered. We can’t stop worrying whether what we don’t choose might make us happier. One simple solution, Schwartz argues, is to opt out of the multiple-choice game by narrowing your pick to several “good enough” options—then choose randomly.

11. Know when to fold ’em.

Most of us are not very good at knowing when to walk away from circumstances that are just plain bad.
Economists and psychologists call this human foible “the fallacy of sunk costs.” We keep holding when we should be folding—sticking with bad jobs because of the months and years we’ve already sunk into them, or unhappy relationships that we can’t imagine extracting ourselves from, or sluggish supermarket lines we’ve stood in too long to abandon. Because we’re so averse to wasting money, time, effort, or emotional investment, we fail to see that staying the course won’t recoup what we’ve already lost, says Ohio State University psychologist Hal Arkes, PhD.

But this is a failure we can overcome by deliberately thinking through our choices as though we weren’t already invested in one course of action. The next time you’re faced with a problem that has gone from good to bad to worse, think to yourself: If I were coming into this situation right now, what would I do?

12. Make something.

Few activities are as reliably pleasurable as making things with our own hands.
In one study, Harvard University psychologist Michael Norton, PhD, and colleagues asked participants to make origami, then to bid on their artwork along with others. People were willing to pay more for their own amateurish work than for others’ attempts—and in many cases, they rated their creations as more valuable than origami made by professionals.

One catch: To get the boost in satisfaction that comes from making something—whether an origami crane or a new coffee table—you need to actually finish the job. (Alas, a lovely knitted sweater with one sleeve won’t give you the same emotional boost.)

Ever walk into a room and forget why you entered? Or completely space out during an important meeting at work? It’s frustrating, but usually normal.

Your brain is naturally primed to wander whenever it can, according to a joint study by Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Using MRI, researchers found that brain regions responsible for “task-unrelated thought” (that is, daydreaming or mind wandering) are almost constantly active when the brain is at rest or performing a task that doesn’t require concentration.

Fortunately, brain experts say it’s possible to corral that brainpower, filter out distractions, and master any task by improving your concentration. Here are their top tips for refocusing during key moments when your mind starts meandering, but shouldn’t.

At Work

Unless you love everything about your job, you’re bound to zone out occasionally, according to one study: Among 124 people, mind wandering occurred about 30% of the time, even during crucial tasks–adding up to many hours of lost productivity. Boredom, fatigue, and stress all spur mind wandering, says study author Michael Kane, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

And although women were no more likely than men to lose focus, they reported general worrying and anxiety when their attention drifted. Fear not: Some mind wandering is simply your brain taking a healthy break, although sometimes it’s best left for another occasion.

Here’s what to do about it.

At Work: Get Organized

If you have several to-dos, decide what to tackle first, and clear all other projects off your desk and computer screen. “Out of sight, out of mind applies,” Kane says. “Get rid of memos, e-mails, and anything else that reminds you you’re behind.”

And go easy on your cubicle’s decor. “Even family photos are potential thought stealers,” Kane adds, because they’re people you’re prone to worry about.

At Work: Participate

If you daydream during meetings, challenge yourself by thinking of questions and actively joining the discussion, suggests Jonathan W. Schooler, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. You may miss a moment if you’re formulating a question, but you’ll stay focused on the current topic.

At Work: Change Your Scenery

When you start to lose concentration, leave your desk and take a walk outside or to the office common space for a mental breather. This way, your brain associates your desk only with work, not mind wandering.

Warns Schooler: “If you don’t take regular breaks–especially when you’re not enjoying your job–your brain will take them for you.”

In the Car

We’re most likely to space out during activities we can do automatically, according to a 2006 study. This is dangerous when you’re behind the wheel: If a car ahead stops suddenly, your reaction time may not be fast enough to prevent an accident.

Here, 2 tricks to avoid it …

In the Car: Tie a String on the Steering Wheel

When you think about the same things during your commute–anticipating the day’s workload, or what to cook for dinner–your brain begins to associate the car with zoning out, says Kane. A novel, visual cue such as a colored string or dashboard sticker can snap you out of your “dream-driving” habit.

In the Car: Play a Game

Those involving counting and geography are great ways for kids to pass the time en route–for good reason: The contests use items that you should be aware of while driving. Try tallying all the states represented by the license plates of the cars in front of you.

When You Read

Do you keep rereading the same passages in your novel? Don’t blame a poor memory. “Mindless reading” is common and requires considerable effort to control, says Schooler, who found that readers are actually mind wandering about 20% of the time: “Their eyes move across the page, but they’re not thinking about the text,” he says.

Fix it with these steps …

When You Read: Take a Break

Take time-outs to process the material; mentally recap plot points or a character’s motive, for example. “Periodically think over what you’ve read–it can improve comprehension, probably because it reduces mind wandering,” Schooler says.

When You Read: Go Backward

If you glossed over a few paragraphs, read them in reverse–reordering small packets of information can sometimes change how much of it you absorb. It may feel odd at first, but the extra effort required will force your brain back into focusing.

When You Read: Join a Club

A little peer pressure to finish a book by a certain date can go a long way, especially if you’re expected to talk about the content. Budget the number of pages you’ll need to read daily, and if you own the book, write notes in the margin and mark meaningful passages to boost both concentration and comprehension.

If You Have a Personal Problem

People who report being unhappy, usually because of a difficult problem, have more intense mind wandering during tasks than their carefree counterparts, according to studies by Jonathan Smallwood, PhD, a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen’s school of psychology. These feelings limit your ability to focus on anything else, he says: “You may spend a lot of time thinking about a problem when you’re upset, but this type of ruminating is actually quite unproductive.”

Instead …

If You Have a Personal Problem: Get It Off Your Chest

Talk about your worries with a friend or family member, either in person or on the telephone, to clear your head. Writing down your thoughts may be as effective as saying them out loud: List ways to address the problem and then move on, recommends Eric Klinger, PhD, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who has studied thought patterns during daydreams. “Committing a plan to paper helps put the problem on the back burner, so you can shift your attention to other things,” he explains.

If You Have a Personal Problem: Meditate

Meditation, a proven stress reliever, may also let you tune out distractions, found recent research. Amishi Jha, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, studied attention control in people before and after they learned mindfulness meditation (sitting quietly for 30 minutes a day, focusing on breathing; when the subjects noticed their minds drifting, they gently guided their thoughts back to their breath).

After 8 weeks, they showed significant improvements at “orienting,” or staying on task and quickly refocusing their thinking after being distracted. “Meditation trains you to put your attention where you want it and make sure it stays there,” Jha says.

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