Feeling Unproductive? Learn How to Manage Your Brain Better

EXPERT OPINION BY PETER COHAN, FOUNDER, PETER S. COHAN & ASSOCIATES @PETERCOHAN

Here’s a productivity technique I started doing years before I learned that neuroscience endorsed it: Scheduling my daily work around my changing brain function. What does this mean? Simply put, I do things that require creativity and mental sharpness during times that my brain is functioning at its best – right after breakfast. 

I leave difficult-to-solve problems for the middle of the day when I go out for a run. I do more mundane tasks—such as grading, gathering research, conducting non-critical meetings, or responding to emails for the time of day when my mind is not at its peak—in the afternoon. 

Having published my 17th book, Brain Rush, last July, I put this scheduling approach to work in the year between when I signed the book contract and publication.

It worked pretty well.

For example, when working on a book chapter, after breakfast I wrote the first draft, which involved reading through my research, highlighting the most relevant parts, deciding what I wanted readers to know, and writing the draft. I tended to collect research and conduct interviews in the afternoon. And if there were knotty problems I could not solve, answers seemed to magically pop into my head during my midday run.

Scheduling my days around those activities made me more productive, thereby reducing my stress about meeting critical deadlines and making me more effective at the most rewarding tasks. 

As it turns out, a neuroscience researcher endorses this practice of scheduling daily activities to align with the fluctuations in the state of your brain. What is the one thing that makes successful people more productive and less stressed at work? They “manage their brain better,” according to David Rock, founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, whose work was featured by CNBC.

People have limited decision-making ability, Rock argued. He found successful people are good at scheduling the most difficult and important tasks for times when their brains are working well—often in the morning—and doing the more mundane tasks in the afternoon when their brains slow down. Successful people are also good at knowing when to switch out of problem-solving mode, and letting their “unconscious solve it,” noted CNBC.

To be happier and more productive, Rock’s research concludes that people will make the most of their limited daily decision-making ability by doing “creative work first, urgent and important work second, email and everything else third,” according to CNBC.

Four steps to greater productivity and lower stress at work

Here are four steps you can take to apply this concept as you embark on a new project:

• Observe the times of day when your brain works most effectively. Not everyone is most creative in the morning. For some people, that time is late in the evening. You need to observe which times your brain functions most effectively.
• Identify the most creative and important tasks at each project phase. When I wrote the book, the most creative tasks were writing chapter drafts and brainstorming solutions to the knottiest problems.
• Develop a project plan. When I write a book, the first step is a book proposal, which outlines each chapter and sets deadlines for completing the first chapters, completing the entire book draft, and responding to editorial comments to enable publication.
• Make the most of your finite decision-making ability. During each phase of the project, do the most critical tasks when your brain is at peak function, leave time for your unconscious mind to solve the knottiest problems, and do your most mundane tasks when your brain is not working as well.

If you follow this process, you could be happier, more productive, and less stressed. That is backed by research and, for what it’s worth, by me as well.

Photo credit: Getty Images.