Getting the most out of your day
October 15th, 2009 // 8:35 am @ David Phillips
Your brain has energy limitations, particularly around activities of decision-making and controlling impulses. When we use those resources up, it makes it difficult for us to be effective when attempting the next activity. This energy can sometimes be restored by having a glucose drink, whether with sugar or a sugar substitute.
This fact helps us understand why it is difficult to make good decisions when we are tired, whether physically or mentally. It demonstrates why it is easy to get distracted when we are tired or hungry. On a side note, it also allows us to understand the reasoning for the increase in obesity. As brain processing increases, whether because of the transition of our culture to a knowledge society or the preponderance of video gaming, we need more and more glucose (sugar) to power those brain activities. That sugar, along with a more sedentary lifestyle, increases the opportunities for obesity to occur.
As a result, to make best use of our time, energy, and our brain, every time you use your mental processes, allocate to it something important. In other words, prioritize!
How to effectively utilize your mental resources
Prioritize your prioritization. This is because prioritizing is one of the brain’s most energy-hungry processes. Therefore, even after just a few mental activities, you may not have the resources for your brain to prioritize your day or specific activities.
Prioritizing involves “imagining and then moving around concepts of which you have no direct experience.” [1] Creating something you have not seen requires a lot of energy and effort. This is why people spend more time thinking about problems (things they have seen) than solutions (things they have never seen). It also helps us understand why goal-setting is so difficult. We are trying to develop something we have not seen or processed before.
Use visuals. One way to reduce the energy required for processing information is to use visuals. Picturing a concept activates the visual cortex in the brain. This is activated through pictures, metaphors, or storytelling, anything that generates an image in the mind.
Visuals are efficient for two reasons. First, they are high-information-efficient constructs. If you picture your bedroom, “that image contains a huge amount of information involving complex relationships among dozens of objects, their sizes and shapes, their relative positions, and so on.” [2] Putting all that information into words would create a huge energy drain on your brain.
Second, the brain has a long history of creating mental imagery. The brain translates everything into an image – it is highly efficient in this process. Studies have show that when you give people a logic problem to solve, they do it dramatically faster when you the problem is explained as people interacting rather than conceptual ideas.
Getting things out of your head. Using the brain to store and compare various concepts uses a lot of resources. When you get the concepts out of your mind and into to the world, you save on resources which will allow you to utilize your brain more effectively. Write things down. Type things out. Attempting to hold all that information in your brain is mentally and, since you are using up glucose reserves, physically draining.
How does this effect our work?
1. Schedule the most attention rich tasks when you have a fresh and alert mind. This could be early in the morning or after a break or exercise. The brain tires from use and can do more after a good rest. An afternoon nap could be a perfect prescription to make late-afternoon decisions. Make tough decisions after a good nap or a good night’s sleep.
2. Break work up into blocks of time based on brain use rather than topic. Divide your day up into different blocks of time, reserving time for intensive processing, another block for meetings, and another block for routine tasks such as emails. When I was working in the IT industry, I “do not disturb”-ed my phone, did my heavy processing in the morning when I was fresh, had lunch, and returned phone calls and emails from 2-4. I was so much more productive this way.
3. Don’t think unless or until you have to. Don’t pay attention to non-urgent tasks until you have to or until it is essential that you do it.
4. Learn to say no.
5. Delegate when possible.
6. Don’t think about a project until all information is available to you. Don’t waste energy solving a problem when you don’t have all the facts.
Your ability to work hard and make great decisions is a resource. Conserve this at every opportunity.
NOTES:
1. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
2. Ibid., 14.
Category : Business & Personal Development