Overwhelmed or demotivated? Blame your brain.
You know that feeling where you can’t quite get in the zone? You’re struggling to focus or to prioritize; you’re procrastinating, feeling overwhelmed and even physically drained? The blame goes to the pandemic, the weather, the current workload, too little sleep or perhaps your 3 year old. But what if it’s your brain?
The prefrontal cortex (the part that is right behind your forehead) is known as the “CEO” of your brain. It’s the newest part of your brain from an evolutionary perspective, as it helps you do things like make decisions, solve problems, focus, contemplate different possibilities, and is also responsible for creativity and your working memory. When your prefrontal cortex is high on energy, you feel in control, organized and efficient. When it’s low on energy, you feel forgetful, distracted, perhaps overly emotional and uninspired.
Overall, your brain represents only 2% of your total body weight, but it accounts for 20% of your energy usage. On an average day, you will burn more than 300 calories just to think. Unfortunately your prefrontal cortex requires the most amount of energy, and is drained most easily. Even more unfortunate is that the things you need to do on a regular basis to feel like you are on top of your to do list (prioritizing, planning, delegating) are the most draining of all. Your big picture deep thinking moments require that part of your brain to be extremely “fit”.
So what can you do?
Keep the slate clean and simple.
Dr. David Rock explains in “Your Brain at Work” that your prefrontal cortex is like a stage that can only hold a few actors. In fact, when it comes to ideas, he suggests only having one big idea in your head at a time. Your brain will be more attracted to small details (as those are easier to remember), and thus will have a harder time grasping big ideas. This also means that when you are dealing with a lot of different items on your plate, it’s important to protect yourself from the small details by grouping ideas together and keeping them high level.
How? Your prefrontal cortex responds very well to visuals, so if you can use story boards, mood boards, or even every day objects, that can be extremely helpful. For example, pick objects from around the room, or create symbols on a piece of paper to represent themes or concepts. This will allow your brain to keep things simple, not get lost in minutia, and as a result make you more productive.
When making a decision, he says to always keep your decisions to a choice between two. This could mean grouping options together in a way that allows you to do that. Finally, the brain is always going to prefer safety over danger, certainty over uncertainty, and the familiar over the unfamiliar. So if you’re working on something you’ve never done before, your brain will have a harder time to focus. Visuals can be very helpful here too, as visualizing what you want to achieve will help your brain grasp it much more easily.
You’re probably thinking that simplicity sounds great but also very hard. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
What are all the different types of tasks you do on a regular basis?
Which ones are the most energy draining? (which ones require deep thinking, prioritizing, brainstorming, delegating, planning for the future etc.?)
Which ones are the least energy draining? (which ones relate to work already done, or anything purely administrative?)
How can you group these tasks together in terms of energy required? Keep everything to a maximum of 3-4 as not to overwhelm your brain. When are the best times of the day/week for you to tackle these?
What changes could you make to your daily schedule that will allow your brain to be more efficient?
Switch off.
Constant emailing and texting sends a message to your brain that you are on high alert, and triggers your fight or flight response. Back in the day when perhaps being chased by a tiger, that would make sense. And even though you know that 500 emails in your inbox is not the same as a life or death tiger chase, your brain unfortunately doesn’t.
Your amygdala (the part of your brain that processes emotion) is like a built in red alert for potential danger. When you’re in a state of fear or anxiety, your amygdala is activated, which slows down the cognitive function of your prefrontal cortex. If you are in fight or flight mode, you are not in efficiency and productivity mode.
The extra adrenaline and cortisol running through your body while in fight or flight is counter productive to staying focused and efficient. In fact, constantly being “on” when it comes to emails and texts, actually lowers your IQ, to the equivalent for a woman of losing an entire night’s sleep, and for a man to 3 times the effect of smoking weed.
That’s quite a sacrifice just to be available to others. Reaching for that double espresso (although it might make you feel temporarily more alert) won’t help your brain, as it just increases your cortisol. Something else to think about is that the more available you are, the more your messages will increase, as people become aware that it is a good way to reach you.
Are there times of the day that you can truly switch off?
Are there times of the day that you can do something that calms you? (The best way to calm your amygdala and stimulate your prefrontal cortex is by meditating or practicing mindfulness.)
Mono task.
Studies have shown that multitasking can add up to 50% more time required to do the task. This is the equivalent of a person working 12 hour days and achieving the same results as a person working 8 hour days, but with more mistakes. When you multitask, due to the limited space in your brain, the more energy draining elements get kicked out by your brain first, as your brain prefers the easier ones.
This means the big picture conceptual stuff usually goes out the window, leaving you with the smaller and perhaps less important tasks. And when you are not focusing on the big picture and getting lost in the details, that’s exactly what makes you feel unproductive and unfulfilled at the end of the day.
Of course we cannot always mono task, and there are ways to make multitasking easier on our brains. The more we can switch on our “autopilot”, the more tasks can be done without much energy being used. This is thanks to the power of our Basal Ganglia, where patterns and habits are stored. They have a kind of “if then” function in our brain, and can be extremely useful in for example remembering a driving route, or to lock our front door before we leave the house.
Think of a standard response to certain emails, memorizing keyboard short cuts, or simply handling certain tasks the exact same way each time. What are some tasks that you can automate in your day to day?
The order in which you tackle tasks is also important. If you’re waiting for lots of other things to be able to finish a task, your brain will experience a kind of bottle neck. This means the same thoughts and tasks are circling around in you brain over and over again. This can be very draining and make you a lot less productive.
When you have a bunch of different things to do, ask yourself what absolutely needs to be done first, to be able to complete it fully?
Mono tasking is possible but requires planning, to consciously not put yourself in situations where you will be tempted to multitask.
Think of putting your phone on airplane mode at certain times, closing all tabs except the one you are working on, logging out of emails at certain times of the day. What can you do to plan for times of mono tasking?
It’s a shame that our brain hasn’t caught up with the knowledge worker times of today, and that it isn’t more equipped to deal with our highly addictive smart phones and fast moving schedules. Therefore, understanding your brain and respecting its limitations can be extremely helpful in avoiding frustration and stress, and help you become more resilient. (Also see “Work life balance. Does it exist?”).
If you need more help with this, you know where to find me!
About the author:
Noreen Chadha is a transformational coach in the field of leadership and personal development, based out of Berlin. Using the concepts of mindfulness as well as basic neuroscience, she supports clients in their quest to grow and unlock their full potential.
