Want to learn the ideas in Your Brain At Work better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Your Brain At Work by David Rock here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of Your Brain At Work
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Your Brain At Work, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by David Rock.
1-Page Summary of Your Brain At Work
Overview
Have you ever had a day at work where your to-do list just keeps growing? There’s more and more to do, but less and less time. You’re under pressure and it won’t go away. If this happens, the way you think about things can get really messed up.
Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long by David Rock provides strategies to overcome common problems in the workplace. These include distraction, focus issues and burnout. The author explains how your brain works so that you can apply this knowledge to daily challenges in the workplace.
Rock uses the story of a typical couple to demonstrate how our brains can be trained to function better. The husband and wife are both overworked, but they don’t really understand how their brain works when it’s working at its best. They’re stressed out and unable to meet deadlines because they’ve made too many commitments than they can handle. However, once we learn about how our brains work, we have the power to change them so that they work better for us.
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that handles most logical, linear thinking. It’s located in the front area of the brain and makes up roughly 10% of its total volume. This structure has evolved more recently than other parts of our brains and is responsible for executive functions such as decision-making, long-term planning, and problem solving.
Without the prefrontal cortex, humans would not be able to plan or execute basic tasks. The brain uses a lot of energy when planning and executing those tasks. It’s important to understand that limitation so we can organize our workload efficiently and use our limited amount of energy for higher-level thinking.
The brain is like a theater. The audience represents thoughts and memories, while the actors represent whatever occupies your attention at any given moment. This could be information from the outside world or signals you’re getting from your inner world.
The prefrontal cortex can only hold so much information. If you try to concentrate on too many things at once, your brain will get confused and make mistakes.
It’s not easy to master the skill of inhibition, but it is essential for time management. To be effective at prioritizing tasks, we must also learn how to prioritize our priorities. By understanding how the brain functions, we can maximize its potential and get things done without going nuts in the process.
Key Point 1: Higher-level thinking requires a great deal of energy that is rapidly depleted by executive functions like deciding, understanding, and recalling.
Societies have always required people to do more complex work. People in the past may have relied on basic brain functions, but as society has evolved, so too has our brains. In competitive corporate settings or managing your own businesses, you must use your brains to complete challenging tasks while performing routine ones like taking out the trash and filling out applications.
High-level thinking takes place in the prefrontal cortex. Without a prefrontal cortex, people would be unable to make decisions, solve problems, control impulses or set goals. The prefrontal cortex allows humans to interact with the world instead of being dependent on automatic processes they are unaware of and can’t control.
Despite the human brain’s ability to think on a higher level, it requires large amounts of energy. In today’s workplace, people are required to focus and concentrate for long periods of time. If they don’t have enough fuel (energy), their brains won’t function at an optimal level. People who understand how much energy is needed for different tasks can make more efficient decisions about how they work in order to conserve that energy.
