Comments on: Toning up your thinking muscles

By: Frederick Ross

Frederick Ross — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:40:32 +0000

Sarah: That is exactly the same part of the brain. It’s wonderful except for two things: I never know when what I put in is going to come out, whether it will be five minutes or five years; and when I’ve put something really big in there, I find that I have trouble concentrating on other things. It really is like being continuously drowned in white noise.

Robert: There is such a world of “mental athletes.” There’s not much discussion of what to do with the brain because they tend to be pretty smart and often figure it out for themselves, or (unfortunately) burn out. My own work habits were a cycle of obsession and burnout for years, to the point where it was a regular monthly cycle for me. Unfortunately, it catches up with you over time.

About the best discussion of the care of your brain I’ve ever found is Littlewood’s “The Mathematician’s Art of Work” (you can find it in his Miscellany, or probably somewhere online). It is unlikely to jibe with many employers in the US since it insists on the importance of at least a day and a half a week of complete mental withdrawal from work, and three weeks contiguous vacation a year to let the brain heal.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:47:11 +0000

I often experience the use of the part of the brain that works subconsciously at problems when I am working on cryptic crosswords. I will take a look at the clues in the morning and find some of them to be unfathomable… yet when I come back to them later in the day the answers will pop into my head, seemingly from nowhere.
The brain is a quite amazing organ and my experiences so far with GTD (I’m very much a novice, having only implemented the system very recently) have been incredibly positive in terms of giving my brain breathing space. I feel sure it is just the beginning of what I hope will turn into a creative flood!

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:08:34 +0000

I enjoyed this insight in particular because it helps me understand my own experience. As a knowledge worker, I think about my relationship to mental work in a similar way to how I imagine an athlete approaches her chosen sport–that is, I’m continually aware of what brings me to my best, when I need rest, and how various “exercises” can improve my mental strength and stamina. As a migraine sufferer, I also think a lot about how to take care of my brain to prevent pain.

Writing software code means engaging in almost pure symbolic reasoning for an extended time. When I come out of that coding “zone,” I had better have parsed my projects and actions sufficiently well that I can remain productive–for the same reasons that a runner still needs to be able to walk after a sprint–since I’ve still got places to go. Coding is sprinting. No love handles on this visual cortex.

Interruptions can also be almost physically painful when immersed in code. Having an inbox into which I can “stack” non-critical interruptions (first in, last out) is as important as a computer processor having short-range memory close at hand on the circuit board. Without it, I can actually feel my brain start to overheat, like a CPU.

Finally, there are times when the scope, variety, intensity, and duration of my daily tasks leaves me mentally tired. I have an @braindead list with useful actions I can take in this state. I don’t have an @just-drank-coffee or @just-ate-sugar, however–but the same principle could apply equally well to the opposite end of the spectrum. Adrenaline and blood sugar spikes are like pouring fuel on the afterburner. But, as we all know, there is a price to pay at the other end.

Just focusing, consciously, on how to sustain high output with complex, varied, and challenging mental work means treating the muscle of the brain with respect and care. Hearing that others think and operate in this way is a terrific affirmation of some of the instinctual adjustments I make to to tone up my mental game. Perhaps there’s a wide world of “mental athletes” out there who likewise think about the brain, and understand the power of GTD, in this way. I’d certainly love to hear from others who work in this way.