Might have to read Quiet Leadership next. ( )

The title says almost everything: this is a psychological / neuroscientific book about the brain dynamics at work when you are at work. And it is one of the best, thanks to its nice structure and clarity. ( )

This is a great overview of lots of good advice in terms of focus, emotional regulation, understanding your own thought process, mindfulness etc.

What's unique about it is that it takes it from a basis of neurobiology, then brings it in to practicality, and drives it home with a little story about people struggling with everyday work problems.

Granted, this isn't the most in-depth overview of these kinds of techniques, but the format and real attempt to drive these points home to actionable techniques towards solving actual daily problems... that was something unique. ( )

Yet another take on brain science with very relatable examples - analyzing situations gone wrong from a particular family, explaining brain science rationale behind it, and then replaying the situation and showing how it could be applied to the situation to make it great. The book could have been more condensed and some of the situations seemed a bit far-fetched thus 4 stars. Great read nevertheless.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #1: Your ability to think well is a limited resource, so conserve the resource at every opportunity.

Focus only on the most important things. Turn the recurring tasks into a habit and do them automatically without wasting brainpower.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #2: Our attention is very easily distracted, but there are strategies for staying focused.

As we know from the famous marshmallow experiment, people who manage to resist distractions reap huge benefits in the long run. Distractions will pull you out of the flow state. Try to eliminate as many of them as possible.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #3: Optimal mental performance requires just the right level of arousal of your brain.

Being alert (norepinephrine) and interested (dopamine) sharpens our focus. We need just the right amount of these chemicals in the brain. To increase the level of arousal (try imagining what will happen if you miss a deadline), write things down or take a walk to decrease it.

To increase dopamine think about the rewards of doing really great work.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #4: Insights make it possible to overcome mental blocks that limit you to the same small set of solutions.

Sometimes we reach a mental impasse (hit a wall) when a creative solution is needed. We need the insight (which depends on the unconscious mind ) to break through it rather than conscious logical reasoning. Take a break, move, exercise, or meditate to turn off your conscious reasoning.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #5: Mindfulness can help you focus by actually changing the structure of your brain.

To improve your brain it is important to see what's happening there and where your attention goes - mindfulness. It gets better with practice and can even alter the brain. Focusing on physical sensations, meditating, can help a lot with that.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #6: Feelings of certainty and control are very rewarding to the brain, and you can activate these feelings yourself.

If we feel in control (have certainty) there is less stress in unexpected situations. It comes from our outlook on the situation. To have this feeling we need to interpret hard situations from another perspective - reappraise.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #7: Regulating your expectations is key to a general feeling of happiness.

We need to manage and regulate our expectations. We can do it by having a habit to evaluate our expectations constantly. Always keep them low and you'll not be disappointed.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #8: A feeling of relatedness to others and a sense of being treated fairly are primary rewards for the brain.

For our brain, our sense of relatedness is a crucial basic instinct, just like food. When we feel connected, our brain releases oxytocin thus decreasing stress levels. Fairness is an important part of this. In the Ultimatum game, people would reject an unfair offer even though it still would be a better outcome for them.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #9: We are wired to feel rewarded for increases in our status, and can trick our brains into status rewards.
We're driven by how others perceive our status. If it increases, not only our happiness but also our ability to think. Increase status by finding areas where you are superior. The best way is to do it with yourself (competing from yesterday's you) and doing something better.

Your Brain at Work Key Idea #10: Feedback rarely creates positive change in others; instead, try helping them arrive at their own insights.
Feedback often is taken as a threat, the real change occurs when people see errors for themselves. A better approach is to guide/coach the person to find the issue/solution. By doing this we not only remove the threat but also increase their status (see #9). The next level is to coach them to give feedback for themselves (e.g. they should reflect on their work and iterate on their own feedback) ( )

Other books go in more depth, but they lack the breadth of Your Brain at Work. I enjoyed the mix of background science with practical application. In terms of the topics covered, this book is the most comprehensive single source I have read on practical application of our understanding of how the brain work.

At first, I was skeptical of the "scenes" involving two characters, Paul and Emily, going about their day. But the scene, background, redo, recap structure worked really well for helping to cement the ideas presented in the book. ( )