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

John Medina

Most of us have no idea what's really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—such as the brain's need for physical activity to work at its best.How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge? Is it true that men and women have different brains?In Brain Rules, molecular biologist John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a Brain Rule—what scientists know for sure about how our brains work—and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives. You will discover how:Exercise improves cognitionEvery brain is wired differentlyWe are designed never to stop learning and exploringMemories are volatile and susceptible to corruptionSleep is powerfully linked with the ability to learnVision trumps all of the other sensesStress changes the way we learnIn the end, you'll understand how your brain really works—and how to get the most out of it. Leer más…

James E. Loehr; Jim Loehr; Tony Schwartz

We live in digital time. Our pace is rushed, rapid-fire, and relentless. Facing crushing workloads, we try to cram as much as possible into every day. We're wired up, but we're melting down. Time management is no longer a viable solution. As bestselling authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate in this groundbreaking book, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance. The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. This fundamental insight has the power to revolutionize the way you live your life. __The Power of Full Engagement__ is a highly practical, scientifically based approach to managing your energy more skillfully both on and off the job. At the heart of the program is the Corporate Athlete® Training System. It is grounded in twenty-five years of work with some of the world's greatest athletes to help them perform more effectively under brutal competitive pressures. Clients have included Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in tennis; Mark O'Meara and Ernie Els in golf; Eric Lindros and Mike Richter in hockey; Nick Anderson and Grant Hill in basketball; and gold medalist Dan Jansen in speed skating. During the past decade, dozens of Fortune 500 companies have paid thousands of dollars to learn the Corporate Athlete training system. So have FBI swat teams, critical care physicians and nurses, salesmen, and stay-at-home... Leer más…

Nicholas G Carr; W. W. Norton

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, \*Slate\*“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the... Leer más…

Daniel H. Pink

First, let me make it clear that Pink's targeted audience is an uneducated majority or a group looking for a quick read. He paints his argument in a black-and-white fashion, ignoring complexities, probably angering more sophisticated readers. In addition, he seems to be writing to a "right-brained" audience to reinforce thinking rather than to create converts. Reason is, his arguments are not supported with factual data, but rather with anecdotes. Although they read well, "left-brainers" will be disappointed if looking for any type of intellectual thesis. Also, if you're shopping at Barnes & Noble, it will be found in "self-help," a section that is less hard science and more motivational. Reading Pink's book in this context will make it more enjoyable, because all in all, it's not a terrible book.It does make several big blunders. 1) It underestimates the capabilities of our Asian counterparts, reducing them to machines basically, while overestimating our own potential. 2) It encourages individuals to go into design fields, which economically, there is no demand for. Not to say it's not important, it's definitely a value-added function, but either the demand is being met or companies will have to find a way to make it a larger competitive advantage that can translate into $$. Apple has done it, but other companies have not.On the other hand, it does have good overarching messages (when you read through the crap).1) Society should focus on value-added activities because... Leer más…

Soundview Executive Book Summaries.;medina, John J

From Publishers Weekly Multitasking is the great buzz word in business today, but as developmental molecular biologist Medina tells readers in a chapter on attention, the brain can really only focus on one thing at a time. This alone is the best argument for not talking on your cellphone while driving. Medina (\*The Genetic Inferno\*) presents readers with a basket containing an even dozen good principles on how the brain works and how we can use them to our benefit at home and work. The author says our visual sense trumps all other senses, so pump up those PowerPoint presentations with graphics. The author says that we don't sleep to give our brain a rest—studies show our neurons firing furiously away while the rest of the body is catching a few z's. While our brain indeed loses cells as we age, it compensates so that we continue to be able to learn well into our golden years. Many of these findings and minutiae will be familiar to science buffs, but the author employs an appealing style, with suggestions on how to apply his principles, which should engage all readers. DVD not seen by \*PW.\*\*(Mar.)\* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "Oliver Sacks meets Getting Things Done." --- Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing Leer más…

Michael Maslansky, Scott West, Gary Demoss, David Saylor

What to say, how to say it, and why it matters: communicating with authority and honesty in an age of mistrust. Still struggling through the financial crisis that began in 2008, consumers aren't buying traditional sales approaches anymore. So how do salespeople, corporate communicators, managers, and marketers sell their ideas, products, and services to a generation of customers who are more skeptical and less influenced by conventional marketing than ever before? Based on groundbreaking consumer research conducted with thousands of individuals, this step-by-step guide will help readers understand their audience and how to communicate effectively with them. Topics include: ? The mechanics and mindset of communicating with trust and credibility ? Choosing the right words: being positive, using plain English, being plausible, and personalizing a message ? Structuring a message: putting benefits before features, context before specifics, engagement before discussion, and customers' interests before the company's ? Case studies from personal finance, consumer products, public utilities, and other areas Leer más…

Peter Bregman

Based upon his weekly Harvard Business Review columns (which is one of the most popular columns on HBR.com, receiving hundreds of thousands of unique page views a month), 18 MINUTES clearly shows how busy people can cut through all the daily clutter and distractions and find a way to focus on those key items which are truly the top priorities in our lives.Bregman works from the premise that the best way to combat constant and distracting interruptions is to create productive distractions of one's own. Based upon a series of short bite-sized chapters, his approach allows us to safely navigate through the constant chatter of emails, text messages, phone calls, and endless meetings that prevent us from focusing our time on those things that are truly important to us. Mixing first-person insights along with unique case studies, Bregman sprinkles his charming book with pathways which help guide us -- pathways that can get us on the right trail in 18 minutes or less. Leer más…

Jocelyn K. Glei, Scott Belsey, Dan Ariely, Leo Babauta, Lori Deschene, Aaron Dignan

**Stop doing busywork. Start doing your best work.**Are you over-extended, over-distracted, and overwhelmed? Do you work at a breakneck pace all day, only to find that you haven’t accomplished the most important things on your agenda when you leave the office? The world has changed and the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative minds, __Manage Your Day-to-Day__ will give you a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace. Featuring contributions from: Dan Ariely, Leo Babauta, Scott Belsky, Lori Deschene, Aaron Dignan, Erin Rooney Doland, Seth Godin,Todd Henry, Christian Jarrett, Scott McDowell, Mark McGuinness, Cal Newport, Steven Pressfield, Gretchen Rubin, Stefan Sagmeister, Elizabeth G. Saunders, Tony Schwartz, Tiffany Shlain, Linda Stone, and James Victore. Plus, a foreword from Behance founder & CEO Scott Belsky. Leer más…

John J. Ratey; Eric Hagerman

A groundbreaking and fascinating investigation into the transformative effects of exercise on the brain, from the bestselling author and renowned psychiatrist John J. Ratey, MD. Did you know you can beat stress, lift your mood, fight memory loss, sharpen your intellect, and function better than ever simply by elevating your heart rate and breaking a sweat? The evidence is incontrovertible: Aerobic exercise physically remodels our brains for peak performance. In Spark , John J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer's. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores), Spark is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run — -or, for that matter, simply the way you think. Leer más…

Charles J. Limb; Allen R. Braun

To investigate the neural substrates that underlie spontaneous musical performance, we examined improvisation in professional jazz pianists using functional MRI. By employing two paradigms that differed widely in musical complexity, we found that improvisation (compared to production of over-learned musical sequences) was consistently characterized by a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex: extensive deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions with focal activation of the medial prefrontal (frontal polar) cortex. Such a pattern may reflect a combination of psychological processes required for spontaneous improvisation, in which internally motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors unfold in the absence of central processes that typically mediate self-monitoring and conscious volitional control of ongoing performance. Changes in prefrontal activity during improvisation were accompanied by widespread activation of neocortical sensorimotor areas (that mediate the organization and execution of musical performance) as well as deactivation of limbic structures (that regulate motivation and emotional tone). This distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity. Leer más…

Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt

Do you know the #1 reason that stops people from getting what they want?Ten years later, it's still a **lack of focus**. In the __The Power of Focus, 10th Anniversary Edition__, you'll discover: * How to thrive in a turbulent economy. * Proven financial strategies for today's world that will give you freedom and peace of mind. * How to focus on what you do best and let go of the rest. * Easy-to-implement Action Steps with every chapter. Plus, the latest insights from the authors to help you prosper in all areas of your life. Leer más…

Joanna Jast

Tired of ineffective, blanket advice on improving your focus? Whether you're a student, freelancer, entrepreneur (or wanna-be preneur), employee or anyone else dreaming of being able to snap into focus and maintain it for however long you want, this book is for you. Discover how to sharpen your focus, improve your concentration, maximise your productivity and speed up your success with evidence-based strategies and proven tricks. This book is a practical, step-by-step guide on how to improve your focus with a twist - it helps you identify what's not working first, so you can target your specific problems head-on, without wasting time and energy on stuff that's unlikely to work for you. The approach presented in this book unlike many others, recognises and takes into consideration your individual situation, providing you with a roadmap so that you can check where you are and what you need to do to get where you want to be. This system will grow with you. Why you should check out Laser-Sharp Focus: This book is a good fit for you if you: - Struggle with distractions and interruptions - Are consumed by procrastination - Have tried and failed to constantly 'motivate yourself' - Suffer from 'wandering mind' - Feel you are not as productive as you could be. You will learn: - How to identify what specifically is not working within your current 'focus system' - What you can do to eliminate procrastination, minimise distractions, avoid interruptions, keep your mind on track, your... Leer más…

Michael Bungay Stanier, Lolly Daskal, Robin Sharma, Daniel H. Pink

In Michael Bungay Stanier's __The Coaching Habit__, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less hard and have more impact. Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples' potential. He unpacks sevenessential coaching questions to demonstrate how--by saying less and asking more--you can develop coaching methods that produce great results.* Get straight to the point in any conversation with **The Kickstart Question** * Stay on track during any interaction with **The Awe Question** * Save hours of time for yourself with **The Lazy Question**, and hours of time for others with **The Strategic Question** * Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with **The Focus Question** and **The Foundation Question** * Finally ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with **The Learning Question** A fresh innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, together with interactive training tools to turnpractical advice into practiced habits. Witty and conversational, __The Coaching Habit__ takes your work--and your workplace--from good to great. "Coaching is an art and it's far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide... Leer más…

Liz Wiseman; Stephen R Covey

A revised and updated edition of the acclaimed __Wall Street Journal__ bestseller that explores why some leaders drain capability and intelligence from their teams while others amplify it to produce better results. We’ve all had experience with two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drains intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them and always needs to be the smartest person in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment. On the other side of the spectrum are leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, light bulbs go off over people’s heads; ideas flow and problems get solved. These are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These are the Multipliers. And the world needs more of them, especially now when leaders are expected to do more with less. In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman explores these two leadership styles, persuasively showing how Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations—getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. In analyzing data from more than 150 leaders, Wiseman has identified five disciplines that distinguish... Leer más…

Brandon Webb, John David Mann

**What do you do at work when a hundred crises seem to be happening at the same time? Do you pick just one priority or try to put out every fire? How can you stay composed, figure out what really matters, and act decisively?**When former U.S. Navy SEAL sniper Brandon Webb transitioned to civilian life, he struggled to get his first startup business off the ground. He raised millions for his new venture, only to lose it all as problems spiraled out of his control. In the wake of that failure, Webb realized that successful entrepreneurs need a skill he had already mastered: total focus. SEAL snipers define it as the ability to filter out noise and chaos so you can make life-or-death decisions under the extreme conditions of combat. If he could maintain total focus while staring through crosshairs at a man who might (or might not) be an Al Qaeda terrorist, surely he could do the same in the business world. So Webb started over, applying total focus to a new startup, a media company called Hurricane Group. His approach was so effective that in just five years, Hurricane grew to have a staff of over fifty, an audience in the tens of millions, and a valuation of more than $100 million. In this book, Webb teaches us to make better decisions under extreme pressure by emulating the habits of his fellow warriors, as well as other skills he learned on the job and from great friends and business leaders like Solomon Choi of 16 Handles, Matt Meeker of BarkBox, and Betsy Morgan... Leer más…