David Rock. (2009). Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long.
This book gives very useful insights into how our brain works, and what we can do to make it work better. So far, it has been one of the most influential books for my own work in helping people be more productive in healthy and sustainable ways.
David Rock does a wonderful job bringing together a vast amount of research on cognitive neuroscience, and in helping us understand why our brains work better in some situations than others. Recognizing the limitations of our brain, he suggests very practical steps we can take to optimize our work days and maximize our brain’s potential.
He presents his advice through a series of anecdotes and stories of the “meet Emily and Paul” type. I am not the biggest fan of that style of story-telling in a popular science book: I prefer to read fiction in entirely separate–actual fiction–books, but that is entirely a matter of personal taste. For those who are like me: the stories are easily skippable and do not detract from the very well-researched content.
by Ursina Teuscher (PhD), at Teuscher Decision Coaching, Portland OR