Two Awesome Hours summary

It’s rare to have just one task to do at a time. In order to keep all of our responsibilities fulfilled, we’re forced to juggle them. Should you sort through your emails? Or should you prepare for today’s meeting? It’s important to choose wisely, as you only have so much mental energy to use.

Unfortunately, the juggling act itself can reduce the amount of mental energy available to us by causing mental fatigue. This happens when we overwork our executive functions, which are the parts of our brain that help us manage, regulate and control.

We’ve all experienced the frustration of wanting to get work done, but finding ourselves constantly distracted by incoming emails, calls and notifications. It’s not easy to maintain focus, but there’s a good reason for that.

Did you know that our brains are designed to get distracted? Consider our prehistoric ancestors: Do you think they would have been able to survive had they failed to shift focus from the berries they were picking to the saber-tooth that was creeping up behind them?

We all know that exercise is vital for good physical health. But if that’s not enough to motivate you, you might be interested in the positive effects it has on your mental performance, too.

These effects were revealed in a study where participants were presented with color words written in a different shade of ink (for instance, “yellow” written in green). The participants then had to say either the color of the word (green) or what the written word was (yellow), before or after doing physical exercise. The participants who solved this task after the physical exercise gave correct answers faster, showing that physical exercise enhances the brain’s ability to make decisions and solve problems.

Are you one of those people who needs complete silence while working? Do you worry that music and background noise will sabotage your concentration? In fact, noise such as intermittent speech and music inhibits your ability to perform your best at work.

Intermittent speech refers to words or sentences with pauses in between – basically, office chatter. Several studies have shown that intermittent speech negatively affects your ability to stay focused, read and process text.