1. Stop checking your phone the minute you wake up. Phone first things means starting your day in a reactive mode, and increases the chances that you’ll procrastinate later in the day. 2. Disable all digital notifications – your laptop and your phone. Each ping or pop-up diverts precious neural resources and causes a perilous drop in IQ. 3. Check your inboxes no more than once an hour. More than that and you’ll not only be distracted, you’ll also be running the risk of elevated cortisol levels and perpetual anxiety. 4. Work in 60-90 minute *uninterrupted* sprints, and then have 10-15 minute br ..read more

A video to help you differentiate between the two types of emotional well-being, so you can improve your moment to moment experience AND your enhance your sense of purpose and meaning. The post Wellbeing appeared first on BrainWorkshops ..read more

A short video on the science behind the growth mindset – how you can improve your learning and improve your brain’s natural adaptability. The post Growth Mindset appeared first on BrainWorkshops ..read more

How to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake feeling rested Our collective relationship with sleep is one of the most paradoxical things I deal with on a regular basis. On the one hand, British doctors write more than 15 million prescriptions for sleeping pills each year. On the other, in the last 20 years, sales of energy drinks have also increased by 75%. It seems we can neither fall asleep nor stay awake. And yet insufficient sleep is correlated with impaired logical reasoning, decision-making, memory, and attention. Sleep debt is also cumulative; if you sleep for less than six hours a night f ..read more

As the end of the year approaches, it can be a great time to step back and reflect on the past 12 months. As the philosopher, John Dewey said, ‘We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.’ If you and your teams haven’t already booked in a detailed look back over the year, I recommend taking the time to do so. To get the most out of your reflections, here are the 5 questions I’ve found to be some of the most useful. >>> The 5 Questions: Looking back over the past 12 months, considering your work AND your life as a whole: 1) What’s gone well? The good stuff ..read more

A video introducing you to the five key variables of brain care, helping you protect your brain over time and improve your brain fitness. The post How to Protect Your Brain appeared first on BrainWorkshops ..read more

A short video to help you upgrade how you work, and how are you think about work – inspired by many of the common challenges of hybrid working. The post Hybrid Working appeared first on BrainWorkshops ..read more

  What do you think are the most significant contributors to your emotional wellbeing? What makes you happy? It’s an important question to consider. There’s so much talk at the moment about wellbeing and resilience. The more we use these words, the more they lose their meaning. So what do you think contributes significantly to your emotional wellbeing? If you’re anything like some of the teams I work with, you will probably include one if not all of the following—time spent with friends and the people you love, relationships and laughter. Do you enjoy engaging in stuff you love, like li ..read more

Here are some of the most useful questions to help you reframe challenges. When you’re faced with a challenge, a difficult situation, or a frustrating individual, it can be hard not to react. Instead, try to pause and reframe how you see the situation. Consider alternative ways of looking at it, and as you experiment with shifting your perspective, you’ll generally find you become calmer and more resourceful. Remember the Stoic philosopher, Epictetus: “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”. One of the best ways to reframe challenges is to simply ask yourself refra ..read more

How do you think your mobile phone affects your brain, or your mental health? ? We probably all have intuitions about how our phones affect our well-being, and the recent reports on how Facebook and Instagram are said to affect teenagers’ mental health may have sparked some reflection. Our relationship with our phone is complex, and involves more than just social media – it includes email, WhatsApp, the news etc. Given the importance of this topic, I thought it would be useful to summarise the research in this area, which has tended to focus on four key areas: 1. The amount we use our phone 2 ..read more