Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

by David Rock

Here’s a new perspective: each time you use your mental stage, allocate it to something important. It is a limited resource that can’t be wasted. No matter how much effort you put in, you can’t sit there and make brilliant decisions all day the way a truck driver can stay on the road.

Save mental energy for prioritizing by avoiding other high-energy-consuming conscious activities such as dealing with emails.

Schedule the most attention-rich tasks when you have a fresh and alert mind.

Morning or evening. Or after break or exercise

only uncontrollable stressors cause deleterious effects. Inescapable or uncontrollable stress can be destructive, whereas the same stress that feels escapable is less destructive,

“The loss of prefrontal function only occurs when we feel out of control.

Imagine you are frustrated by having to hire a new team member and feel you have no choice. If you take a quiet moment and find a positive reason to hire someone (to reduce your long-term workload, for example), your limbic system will shift to more of a toward response.

When a child won’t go to bed, you might reduce her resistance by giving her back a choice. She can choose whether she is read a book or told a story. This choice can have a big impact. It’s the “perception” of choice that matters to the brain.

This idea of consciously choosing to see a situation differently is called “reappraisal,”

To play against yourself gives you the chance to feel ever-increasing status, without threatening others.