Boost Your Productivity By Working Smarter
Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary science that explores the structure and function of the nervous system. When applied to your professional life, neuroscience can help you unlock your greatest potential. When you can boost your meaningful productivity, you can greatly impact your daily work and influence your professional success in the long run.
Brian Peters, co-host of Buffer’s brand podcast, believes in working smarter, not harder. This means working on meaningful projects—not necessarily working on more. He says that many people feel their lives would be better if they could increase their willpower. Using neuroscience, you can increase your willpower and thus increase your meaningful productivity. In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we highlight Peters’ six ways to increase your productivity.
1. Start your day with difficult tasks. Willpower operates like a muscle. It can be strengthened with practice and fatigued with overuse. Willpower and self-control are at their peak first thing in the morning, making it the best time to make yourself complete the day’s hardest tasks. Peters suggests carving out time in your morning to handle your most challenging tasks. This helps you start your day on the right foot.
2. Add value and meaning to your work. In the field of neuroscience, dopamine comes up often. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which means it’s a chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells. One pathway for dopamine plays an important role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behavior. Vanderbilt researchers found that go-getters—those who are willing to work hard for their reward-have higher levels of dopamine in the reward and motivation part of the brain. Peters encourages professionals to tie their performance to something that contains value and meaning for them. This will move them to the go-getter side of dopamine production.
3. Don’t multitask. The human brain isn’t engineered to multitask. However, we can shift our focus from one project to the next with astonishing speed. Peters says the way to be most productive is to focus your full attention on one task at a time. Give it everything you’ve got. Then, once you’ve completed the task, move onto the next one and give that your full attention.
4. Take a deep breath. A handful of nerve cells in the brainstem connect breathing to states of mind. When you take slow breaths, you inspire tranquility in your body. Breathing not only reduces stress and increases focus, but it helps bring a sense of clarity of what really needs to get done.
5. Create a to-do list. If you love a good to-do list, there’s a reason for it—the human brain loves lists. It’s the most effective way for the brain to receive and organize information. Neuroscience tells us that the brain’s working memory stores information on a short-term basis.
6. Take a break and move. Your brain has the incredible ability to rebuild and rewire every day. Research shows that endurance exercise sparks new neuron growth and boosts alertness. When you exercise, you increase blood flow to the brain, which can help sharpen your awareness and make you more ready to tackle your next big project.
If you’ve been looking for ways to work smarter, not harder, use neuroscience to positively impact your productivity.
Source: Brian Peters leads Buffer’s digital marketing campaigns and initiatives. He also co-hosts and manages Buffer’s brand podcast, The Science of Social Media.