Book SummaryYour Brain at Work, by David Rock

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Your Brain at Work

In Your Brain at Work, David Rock argues that by understanding the neuroscience behind how the brain functions, you can increase your productivity at work and optimize your efficiency and performance by working with your brain’s natural rhythms.

Rock specializes in neuroleadership—a term he coined to describe the use of neurological research to determine the best practices in leadership. He co-founded the Neuroleadership Institute to advise business leaders on how to improve their effectiveness and to generate productive work...

Your Brain at Work Summary How to Energize Your Brain

Rock claims that when you’re aware of the fluctuation of your brain’s energy levels, you can plan your day around your ebbs and flows, enhancing your productivity. When you learn your brain’s patterns, you coordinate tasks that require your peak performance with times when your energy levels are highest. Conversely, you can schedule refueling or low-energy tasks for when you predict you’ll need them. In this section, we’ll cover the science behind your brain’s energy use and then give you approaches to work in tandem with your energy levels.

The Science

Today’s work environment often requires a series of cognitive tasks that drain the brain’s energy rapidly, decreasing productivity. Cognitive tasks occur in the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex and include complex processes like critical thinking, problem-solving, and planning. When performing a cognitive task, your brain summons a large, interconnected neural network that includes all related data. For example, if you’re trying to plan for your next meeting, your brain will retrieve a network that consists of protocols your job requires, memories of past meetings, and even emotions tied to how well...

Your Brain at Work Summary How to Regulate Your Brain’s Emotions

In order to accurately manage your productivity, be aware of how the emotional part of your brain influences your mental energy. Rock explains that while cognitive tasks occur in the front of the brain, emotions are processed in the center regions, collectively called the limbic system. We’ll first discuss how the limbic system can both enhance and impede your productivity, and then we’ll cover ways to regulate your emotions so they don’t disrupt your energy levels.

The Science

Rock classifies the signals we receive from our limbic system as toward and away emotions because they pull us emotionally either toward something or away from it.

(Shortform note: Rock credits scientists Evian Gordon and Leanne Williams with developing the emotional spectrum of toward to away, defining an emotion as an automatic response to a stimulus; the response either puts your brain in a toward state, in which it’s receptive and eager for more information, or an away state when your brain can’t process information well. Gordon’s and Williams’s theory has been widely adapted in the fields of psychology and education.)

...

Your Brain at Work Summary How to Get Your Brain to Collaborate

Even after you have a grasp on monitoring your prefrontal cortex’s energy levels and moderating your limbic system, your productivity can still be impacted by the people around you. Most careers require some level of collaboration. However, coworkers, bosses, and clients can all have varying degrees of mental energy and emotional regulation themselves. While you can’t control the emotions and actions of others, you can understand which work situations trigger intense away emotions (and thus drain energy) as well as methods to mitigate these situations.

(Shortform note: Susan Cain argues in Quiet that too much collaboration can hurt productivity and that in fact, learning and creativity best happen in solitude. Studies show that with the increased opportunity for socialization that accompanied the rise of open-office designs came a rise in interruptions, social friction, and background noise—all of which deter productivity. Cain suggests an office space that provides areas to collaborate and...

Your Brain at Work Summary How to Reactivate Your Brain’s Creativity

Creativity is a cognitive function that requires a significant amount of mental energy, and most jobs today require creativity to some degree. With technology advancing at an exponential rate, many workers must create solutions to problems that haven’t been seen before or invent new ways to distinguish their work from what’s already been done. When your brain doesn’t have an adequate amount of energy or loses focus, you can experience a creative block. We’ll cover the basics of what a creative block looks like and then the three steps Rock proposes to reactivate your creativity.

Too Much Creativity Can Be Counterproductive

While innovation is an important part of business, some business experts warn against over-emphasizing creativity when hiring new employees. Conforming to company policies, like following repetitive procedures and completing mundane tasks, is necessary if employees are to contribute effectively to a company’s operations. When a company prioritizes creativity, it must allocate time for brain-storming (which may or may not produce tangible results), accept failures as part of the process,...

Your Brain at Work Summary How to Focus Your Brain

Your brain can be filled with innovative ideas and creative solutions, but if you aren’t able to maintain the focus to implement them, you won’t be productive. Rock writes that the key to understanding focus is to recognize how the brain processes various tasks and apply strategies that support the brain’s system.

The Science

Most tasks at work require several different brain functions, and your focus shifts as you operate each one. Even a simple task like sending an email has many elements. For example, if you’re emailing a colleague about corrections you made on their project, you’re activating the network connected to your coworker, you’re recalling the changes you made, you’re considering your words carefully to minimize misinterpretations, you’re inhibiting your limbic system from making you anxious about sending feedback, and you’re physically typing. If you were to add a second task, like being on the phone, you’d double the list of functions that your brain now has to juggle.

Thus, if you need to do something accurately and creatively, Rock argues that you shouldn’t multitask. Neuroscientists have observed that when you add a second task, your brain...

Shortform Exercise: Alternate High-Energy and Low-Energy Tasks

Rock argues that you can conserve your mental energy by alternating between high- and low-energy tasks.

List your daily work tasks and identify each as high-energy (planning, creating, and so on) or as low-energy (organizing, eating, and so on).

Shortform Exercise: Manage Emotional Situations at Work

Rock provides options for responding to away emotions. Before a stressful situation, you can avoid or modify the situation, or keep emotions out of it. During a stressful situation, you can express, suppress, or reinterpret negative emotions.

What is an event or task at work that elicits away emotions (stress, anxiety, and so on)?