For Freethought Day, Unleash Your Brain and Boost Your Firm’s Productivity

All business owners are engaged in knowledge work. And if you have an accounting, legal, financial, marketing, or architecture firm, your business is also knowledge work. Which makes the most important tool in your toolbox – weapon in your arsenal – ingredient in your pantry… your brain.

But so many people don’t appreciate how powerful the brain is. They revere computers, which aren’t remotely as powerful as the human brain. Discuss AI in awe, when all it does is scrape a bunch of stuff off the internet and fuse things together.

Believe that planets or dates of birth determine personality type and influence on others. Try unproven healing methods, particularly if they’re not “western”, when the brain is so powerful it can heal the body. (Not all the time, sometimes you really do need medicine. But the placebo and nocebo effects are incredibly strong.) 

Always giving credit to outside sources and ignoring the power between their own two ears.

Instead, everyone’s out here trying to find the right app or technology that will magically make work easier. At the same time, they’re trying to do multiple tasks at once, getting caught up in what’s in front of them instead of prioritizing. 

Spending all their time switching from one screen to another, one type of task to another, constantly attending to beeps and dings and vibrations and popups, then wondering why they’re so tired at the end of the day. 

Or why decision making seems much harder at the end of the day. Scheduling meetings randomly and wondering why days with meetings seem so much less productive. Putting in ten, twelve, fourteen hours a day each day and wondering why their family seems so distant. Confused as to why they seem to keep running into the same hurdles in business no matter how many hours their butt is in the office chair.

Hint: none of this is good for anyone’s brain. 

Does any of this resonate with you? And what if, as a knowledge worker, you could unleash all that brain power?

If you want to be productive, you have to protect your task boundaries and promote focus on one thing at a time. This is true both for yourself and your staff, and will give you a huge boost in effectiveness.

True, science doesn’t know everything about the brain. But we do know a lot. And one thing we know is that multitasking – simultaneously doing one or more cognitive tasks – is not possible. (Read more about why that’s the case). 

You may feel like you’re multitasking, because you’re not aware of the rapid switching that’s happening inside your brain. But you’re not fully focusing on either one of the tasks.

Note this is not the same thing as wearing multiple hats, which we all do as business owners. It’s also not, say, taking notes while someone’s talking. They’re related to each other, so in a sense, this is one task (you’re trying to make sure you don’t forget what you’re learning.)

Multitasking is trying to watch a webinar and read your emails at the same time. Seems like doing two things at once would be more productive, right? But you’re actually not doing two things at once, which is why you’re less productive.

Switching between tasks is tiring for the brain, so you lose effectiveness faster.

Do cognitively demanding (thinky) work when your brain is most capable of it for more productivity in the workplace

I get a lot of questions about what “thinky” work is. (If you’ve read Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, I’m mostly talking about tasks that are System 2 oriented.)

The big difference between us and other intelligent animals is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for self-control, the ability to plan ahead, set and meet goals, and stay focused. It doesn’t mature in humans until we’re in our mid-20s, which is part of the reason that teens are so impulsive in their behavior - their brains literally aren’t there yet.

The prefrontal cortex is more active in humans. It’s where we make decisions based on advantages and disadvantages, think through the consequences of our actions, and so forth. It’s the part of the brain that we use for math and numbers as well. Thinky work is the kind that involves executive functioning or decision-making or dealing with numbers, strategies, and planning.

When we do this thinky work, it’s hard on the brain. This type of processing is agonizingly slow (compared to other types of activities) and is a total resource hog. The total brain prefers to conserve energy (as most animal brains do) and so it often defaults to the more automatic, emotional parts of the brain.

You also don’t get all day for thinky work. Humans throughout most of our history were busy not getting eaten by large predators, hunting and gathering our food, and hanging out with our tribe. We weren’t working on spreadsheets or calculating discounted cash flows or mortgage rates. No need for thinky work all the time back then, so we only get about 4 to 4 ½ hours for intense concentration on thinky work.

Not everyone has the same time of day for focus. But you’ll get a massive boost in effectiveness by simply doing cognitively demanding work at the time of day your brain is most ready to do this work.

What’s not thinky work? Meetings, administrative tasks, emails. Phone calls, including sales calls. You’re doing thinky work when you’re strategizing a new marketing campaign, but not necessarily when you’re calling prospects about your new product or service.

Keeping your tool sharp for improving productivity may not be what you think it is

Human brains are not machines. For one thing, they’re about 60% fat and do their work through electrical and chemical signaling. And they need rest. Thinky work is demanding, and so human brains require non-demanding time. But that doesn’t mean drinking a glass of wine the size of your head and binging on streaming shows every night. Passivity isn’t great for brains either.

They want good nutrition and good movement. You want a sharp brain, you need to give it oxygen-rich blood. The way to do that is to get your butt in gear and move around. More than ½ hour a day at the gym, though that’s certainly better than no movement at all.

We survived as a species by working together, so our brains have a strong need for socializing. (Yes, introverts too.) Spending time with family and friends away from work actually makes you more productive when you’re back in the office.

So does spending time on hobbies or activities that you enjoy outside of work. This allows your brain to recharge, so you’re not already drained of productivity when you show up at the office the next day.

Recap (tl;dr)

Your brain is powerful, but you may be draining it if you don’t treat it right. Give it rest and arrange your schedule to work with it instead of against it.

Have you hit a profit plateau in your business? I may be able to help. Click here to schedule a free productivity consultation call so we can find out if we’re a good fit to work together.