By The Editor
The modern worker and small business owner often has to balance many tasks at once to keep clients and customers happy, pay the bills on time and meet other deadlines.
But the human brain is often not programmed to deal with these multi-tasking demands, and along with distractions from email and/or phones, sometimes it’s close to impossible to achieve meaningful progress.
However, it may be possible to train the brain to increase your focus and manage yourself and your team/s better.
Writing for the Harvard Business Review, psychiatry professor Paul Hammerness and founder of the Wellcoaches Corporation Margaret Moore declare as experts find out more about the human brain and how it works, techniques are emerging to ‘teach’ the brain how to be more productive.
In their article, they declare there are three ways to ‘train the brain’:
‘Taming the frenzy’
When multi-tasking and trying to do many things at once, you may simply become overloaded and feel out of control. Brain studies have found that the negative emotions that result from this have a negative influence on decision-making.
Medical research has discovered when focusing on positive emotions improves the brain’s capacity for effective function and creative thinking, so little exercises like starting team meetings with a joke or positive feedback will lead to better results. One researcher has even created the positivity ratio to ensure you get enough positivity every day.
‘The ABC method’
Distractions are common and can pop up at any time. The ‘ABC’ method has been designed so the impact of distractions is minimised. ABC stands for:
- Become aware of your options
- Breathe deeply and consider your options.
- Choose your option: stop or continue?
‘Set-shifting’
Switching your entire focus from one task to another when necessary can be challenging. ‘Set shifting’ reinforces the idea of having a break and giving your brain a chance to leave the last task behind before commencing something else. This break could be in the form of a walk, stretching, breathing exercises or something physical – and preferably not checking email!
What do you think – would these three techniques help to focus your brain? Or perhaps you use another method? Let us know!
