Working Smart Is All About the Brain
Why do I call myself the Chief Brain Hacker instead of Founder/CEO (which are also accurate titles)? Many of my audience members get a little kick out of it. A little novelty, if you will (or even if you won’t) that human brains like. You might even get a little dopamine hit from hearing a new title that you weren’t expecting.
Aside from that, my work is centered around what we know about the brain. Because the noggin determines whether you have a productive day or not. It’s not up to your tech tools or whether or not you’re using AI properly. In honor of World Brain Day on July 22, here’s what’s important to know about the brain and being effective in your business.
The limitations of the human brain can interfere with having a more productive workplace
As you know if you’ve been reading my stuff, the brain is not a computer. It’s much more complex than that, and it also needs downtime in a way that machines do not.
Going through your day, you’re probably aware of a lot going on up there between your ears. Many of us have a running interior monologue, but even if you don’t, you probably recognize when you’re having thoughts even when you’re not specifically trying to think.
While a lot is happening in your conscious mind while you’re awake, there is much, much more going on subconsciously. That occurs whether you’re awake or asleep, though a lot of “housekeeping” happens when you’re snoozing. Many of the functions that happen while you’re asleep like pruning back some mental pathways, strengthening others, immune system boosting, getting rid of extra cell material, and so on, are key to remaining physically and mentally healthy. When you don’t get enough downtime (sleep) for your brain to accomplish all these tasks, you’re also less productive the next day.
The modern way of working (8+ hours a day, generally in knowledge work) is not natural to the human brain. In fact, work itself is mostly a product of economic systems that arose a few centuries ago. But human brains have been in existence for much, much longer than a few centuries.
Recent discoveries have muddied the waters about the direct ancestors of homo sapiens – other hominids are tangled up with each other. We’ve been around a couple hundred thousand years, give or take. Therefore, our brains evolved during times when humans were mostly hunting and gathering and hanging out with their tribe. Technology included fire, wheels, axes and spears.
Because humans didn’t develop in environments where they needed to focus intensely for long periods of time, brains tap out at about 4 ½ hours a day for concentrated “thinky” work.
If you run a business, that means you and your staff have about half a day max of intense thinky work available. Once you go beyond that, the reasoning part of the brain is fatigued, more prone to make mistakes, and more reliant on the emotional brain. None of which contribute to good decisions or solid problem-solving.
Eight-hour days were a concession won by unions in the days when many people worked in either farms or factories, so this time frame is completely unscientific and not really suitable for knowledge work.
Another thing that fatigues the brain is having to switch tasks. The ancestors probably didn’t gather plants, then run off to hunt a large animal, then go back to gathering plants. More likely they gathered at certain times and hunted during others. They also appear to have had plenty of time to rest and play, because it wasn’t like they had to beat rush-hour traffic to get home.
The other limitation is that you generally don’t get 4 ½ hours exactly. Because if you’re concentrating and focusing hard, your brain needs a break about every hour or so. It doesn’t have to be a long break, though – 10 or 15 minutes is usually all you need.
The good(?) news is that many businesses don’t have 4 ½ hours a day of required thinky work for everyone. We’re all supposed to be busy and do a lot of things, but usually, those things don’t involve intensely focused work. Admin, emails, sales calls, etc. don’t require all that concentration.
21st century American culture interferes with more productivity in the workplace
Not being busy seems to be a moral failing, but being busy (as I’ve uh, mentioned before maybe a few thousand times) is not the same as being productive. There aren’t that many activities that truly move a business forward, and other tasks are busywork. But if people have too many things to do, many of them inconsequential, they can have a hard time figuring out what their priorities should be.
In addition, since the human brain gets tired so fast when it has to switch tasks, you get a lot more done when you focus on one thing at a time. Modern American CultureTM says you get more done if you’re trying to do multiple things at once, but that’s wrong.
Not only is multitasking not possible, you get more done when you bring your full attention to each task. It may feel slower, particularly if you are used to the false idol of multitasking, but you’ll get more done faster and with fewer mistakes with one thing at a time.
As noted earlier, brains like novelty. Having popups and notifications for everything take your attention off what you were doing. That little ping or vibration or screen flash is designed to capture your attention. It’s the same pathway that gets co-opted in addiction and yes, that is how social media platforms design their offerings.
Having the ability to check email, news sites, social media, etc. with you at all times seems to wear away people’s ability to pay attention. Having unstructured time is actually good for your brain – again, this flies in the face of the design of Modern American CultureTM. But your brain needs you to be bored sometimes so it can be creative. When you’re passively consuming other people’s content all the time, your brain can’t be creative and it’s also less productive.
You’ll have a more productive day working on energy/attention instead of time management
It is helpful to know how long certain tasks take, so that you can budget enough time to make sure they can be completed. But aside from that, time management doesn’t really help you that much. Most people don’t account for interruptions and extra time, so their schedule can easily be thrown off at the beginning of the day, and then you’re scrambling and feeling like you’re not getting much done.
It also doesn’t take into account the fact that not all hours of the day are equally good for all tasks. If you get your best work done in the morning, then calendaring 30 minutes for a status meeting in the morning and saving the late afternoon hours for your thinky work makes you less productive. You might have been better off throwing your hands up in the air and dealing with things as they come at you.
Instead, look at your energy or attention when you’re making your schedule. The hours that you have the right energy for thinky work, which is generally the same time as you can focus your attention on it, should be devoted only to thinky work. No emails. No admin. No meetings. No pop-up notifications. No interruptions. All of those things can wait for the times of day when your energy is lower and your attention wanders more.
Batch similar things together so your brain isn’t switching and getting fatigued. If you do content marketing, for example, batch your writing for a few hours. Batch your editing for a few separate hours. Some people like to do different things each day, and others might dedicate one day a week to different activities, like content or making sales calls. It doesn’t really matter as long as you like to work that way.
Now, there’s the ideal schedule, and then there’s life. You might have an urgent request come through during thinky work time that you have to address immediately, or a networking breakfast that occurs during that time. The more you can stick to the ideal schedule, the better. But when you can’t, you can’t. Do what you can and you’ll have a more productive day.
Recap (tl;dr)
Your brain is the engine of productivity. If you maintain it the right way you’ll work smarter instead of harder. The human brain has limitations that you need to understand and work with. What’s happening in modern culture isn’t necessarily going to help you be more productive, so learn what works for your brain instead.
Interested in having your staff learn more about prioritizing and energy management? Contact us to chat about the ½ day Productivity Workshop.