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

by David Rock

Surprises About the Brain Attention is easily distracted. When we get distracted it’s often a result of thinking about ourselves, which activates the default network in the brain. A constant storm of electrical activity takes place in the brain. Distractions exhaust the prefrontal cortex’s limited resources. Being “always on” (connected to others via technology) can drop your IQ significantly, as much as losing a night’s sleep. Focus occurs partly through the inhibition of distractions. The brain has a common braking system for all types of braking. Inhibition uses a lot of energy because the braking system is part of the prefrontal cortex. Each time you inhibit something, your ability to inhibit again is reduced. Inhibition requires catching an impulse when it first emerges, before the momentum of an action takes over. Having explicit language for mental patterns gives you a greater ability to stop patterns emerging early on, before they take over.