Give It a Rest Already!
The more you learn about the brain, the more interesting it gets. And the more you realize how powerful it is. Yes, even when compared to computers.
So often we denigrate our brains (especially those of us who are neurospicy, either on the autism spectrum or with ADHD or other issues.)
Brains get tired! Sometimes you have a word on the tip of your tongue but you can’t find it in your brain! You walk into the kitchen and can’t remember why you went there in the first place! You misread one word for another, or you put a wrong number somewhere. Grr, argh!
Computers don’t get everything right all the time either, though. Sometimes it’s because you don’t ask the question right, but sometimes, as with AI, the computer makes something up that sounds plausible (or not so much.)
By the way, that will never go away as it’s due to the mathematical algorithm that powers generative AI. So you will always, always, ALWAYS have to check the AI output to make sure it’s all true.
However, there are some things you can do to get your brain in better performance shape.
Why improving productivity and performance requires rest
Stop thinking of your brain as a computer if you want to be more effective at work. They are not the same, and your brain needs some things that computers don’t.
Computers don’t get tired, but the “thinky” part of your brain does. That’s the part that’s involved in things like planning, strategizing, number crunching, working with spreadsheets, writing marketing copy. It’s slower than other brain processes and takes a lot more energy.
Your brain wants to conserve energy, as just about all animal brains do. Especially for people – our brains make up about 2-3% of our body mass but need about 20% of our calories.
Computers are purpose-built, but humans are not. Our brains developed over a few hundred thousand years or so, and adapted to the environments we were in. None of which included chairs, telephones, cars, desks, condominiums, office buildings, or computers.
Our brains mostly needed us to hunt and gather food, during times when other predators might kill us. They helped us bond socially with our “tribe”, typically groups of 150 or fewer. We didn’t switch tasks constantly during the day, going from reading an email to answering a call to working on a spreadsheet then back to another email and then a big presentation.
We also didn’t need the “thinky” part, as described above, for eight or more hours a day. We needed it for a few hours if we were strategizing about how to kill a big animal (with our tribe members, not alone, BTW) and bring it back to the village. Or strategizing about how to move up in the social hierarchy or what-have-you, but we weren’t sitting around staring at screens all day.
As a result, the human brain didn’t adapt for task-switching or thinky work for eight hours. Can we do it? Yes, our brains are powerful and adaptable enough – but we can’t do it well. Sharp performance drops off after four and a half hours or so of thinky work. Plus, every time you switch tasks, a little energy drains out.
So if you’re treating your brain like a computer and trying to force it to work for hours on end and do a bunch of different tasks, you’re going to be disappointed. And exhausted, because both those things are energy draining.
What can you do instead? In addition to focusing on one task at a time and batching like tasks together, you can take breaks.
Why working through brain exhaustion doesn’t provide better time management
After all, a computer can just keep on computing, as long as it’s powered up.
We’ve all been there (yes, including moi.) You’re working on something and maybe you’re on deadline, maybe we’re not. But you’ve been head down working on the thing. For hours. You can feel like you’re getting tired… but you’re so close to being done. Just a little more!
Then you think you’ll take a break as soon as you finish the next paragraph or sheet or whatever. You’re almost there, almost there, so you decide to work through it. You notice that you’re making more mistakes, but again… almost there!
Hours later you’re finally done. You feel good, except you know you have to look at it again, maybe tomorrow, because there are mistakes that need to be fixed, but you don't have time to do it right now. Or you recognize you’re so fried that any more work will be disastrous.
You’re exhausted. You get something from the drive-through, because cooking after all that is simply NOT happening. You get home, put on your streaming channel, and kick back, probably with something alcoholic so you can relax.
Right? I don’t do this very much anymore, but I will admit that sometimes as I’m working I’m tempted to keep going even when I know I need to rest!
(I can always tell when I’m getting tired, if for no other reason than I’m really, really, REALLY fat-fingering the keyboard. My article turns into a sea of red underlines because absolutely nothing is spelled correctly. I generally enter this state after about 45 minutes to an hour of prolonged thinky work.)
But then I remember what I know about the brain. Again, it’s not a computer, so the fact that computers don’t need to rest means precisely f*ck-all when you’re working.
Your brain does get tired after some serious thinky work, and the way to maintain a high-performing brain is to let it rest for a bit. Usually ten to fifteen minutes is enough IFF (no that’s not a typo – stands for if and only if) you allow your brain to recover during the break.
Then, when you get back to work, your brain is recharged and ready to go for another 45 minutes to an hour (up to that four and a half hour limit.) You’ll be working quickly when you focus on one task at a time. Since you won’t be making as many mistakes, and your brain is recharged, you’ll actually take less time to finish the project.
That’s right: less time working to achieve your result.
Trust me, I get it. It seems completely counterintuitive to say that working less gives you better results, but that’s because your brain is not a computer. A computer can keep computing, but your brain needs a rest and reset periodically to keep you at the high level of performance.
The kinds of rest that make you more productive
Some of these ideas are also going to seem counterintuitive.
The reason they work is because your brain is not a computer. These suggestions help you support your brain and give it what it needs to sustain your thinking in a productive and effective way. They’re not necessary for computers, but they are for human brains.
Your human brain needs seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Many business owners cut back on sleep and exercise to work more hours, but that’s backwards: your brain needs all that time to do some repair and maintenance on the whole body, including your brain.
I’ve written about why your brain needs this much sleep elsewhere, but that’s not the only rest your brain needs.
Those ten to fifteen minute breaks every hour or so could make a huge difference in your performance. I noted above that your brain needs to properly recover for your performance to stay at a high level.
Unfortunately, people often do one of two things to “rest” that are actually hurting you instead of helping you: reading, often known as “catching up“ on emails, and scrolling through “social” media feeds.
Both of these are stuffing more information (not knowledge) into your brain, and potentially overloading your dopamine circuit in the case of “social” media. Neither of these is recovery.
Staring out the window (really) and meditating are two things you could do during your break.
Hydrate yourself
Take a bathroom break
Have a snack if you’re hungry
You could also go for a little walk (even inside your building if you have to, though outside, preferably in a green space, is better)
Play with your pets, kids, spouse.
Chat briefly with a friend, though not to work through a work problem. Recovery, remember.
Sketch or doodle, color, or if you have a craft step that can easily be done in ten or fifteen minutes, you could do that.
Any of these allow you to take a breath, give your brain a break, and destress as well. Play and creativity take up different brain circuits than thinky work, which is why they’re great for recovery.
Recap (tl;dr):
Your brain is not a computer and needs periodic rest. Giving it the recovery it needs allows you to stay high performing longer.
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Photo by Jessica Mangano on Unsplash