{"id":37141,"date":"2024-04-02T23:17:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T06:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37141"},"modified":"2024-04-02T23:17:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T06:17:47","slug":"tweak-to-optimize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/tweak-to-optimize\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweak to Optimize"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few weeks, there were few unexpected happenings<\/strong> and<\/strong> people<\/strong> just dropped into my schedule and derailing it into various directions. Some family members living nearby that never visited decided to visit; others flew into town, and I have to make time to see them, while others were work-related stuff that decided to follow me home during my off-hours.<\/p>\n

I could make time, but the hardest part is when I have to sit down and write, my mind is all wandering around, thinking about stuff that does not even related to my topic. Most of the time I wish I was taking this class on my tiny, isolated island in the middle of Pacific Ocean surrounded by nothing but blue and peaceful ocean and light breeze. As I read this book, \u2018Your Brain at Work,\u2019 I hope I could learn to keep my mind from wandering from place to place, but to be at bay and focus on the task at hand.<\/p>\n

Dr. David Rock, in his book, \u2018Your Brain at Work:<\/strong> Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long,\u2019 explains to us the daily challenges that goes on in our brain and how deal with efficiently.[1]<\/a> Our brain, is likened unto a powerful organism that knowing and understanding how to direct it could contribute to making our life easier. In the Forward of this book, Dr. Daniel J. Siegel wrote, \u201cLearning to live with the brain in mind is a power way to strengthen your mind and improve your professional life. With more ability to regulate the flow of energy and information in your work, you can become more effective and achieve greater sense of satisfaction.\u201d [2]<\/a> There are a lot to digest from this book; for the purpose of this blog, I will only focus on surface or general ideas of how to deal with you brain efficiently.<\/p>\n

From the readings, three take aways that I have gathered<\/strong>; they are as follows: (a.) the need to know yourself and your limitations, (b.) the need to guard your thinking from emotional distractions, and (b.) the need of socialization is healthy for thinking, or our brain functionality.<\/p>\n

We need to know ourselves and the limitations to our thinking.<\/strong> Dr. Rock (p. 243), \u201c\u2026you discovered that being able to plan, organize, prioritize, create, or do just about anything except repetitive mental tasks requires using a small, fragile, and energy-hungry brain region, the pre-frontal cortex\u201d [3]<\/a> The pre-frontal cortex as illustrated by Fig. 1 is the setting of all the activities as mentioned above.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is why the brain when undergoing various activities at the same time it slows down due to the space or area of the brain that allocates to the certain activities. In other words, when \u2018multi-tasking\u2019 we tend to overload our prefrontal cortex. So, to optimize our brain power, we should be aware that multi-tasking reduces the ability of our brain to process information.<\/p>\n

We need to guard our thinking from emotional distractions. <\/strong>Rock (p. 100),[4]<\/a> Our brain function to maximize reward and to minimize danger. He also mentioned that to be effective in this chaotic world, we must regulate (guard) our emotions instead of being at its mercy. Norman (October 21, 2023),[5]<\/a> in her review of this same book stated that one way to guard against emotional distraction is to \u2018staying Cool Under Pressure.\u2019 She further explained that throughout the day our brain scanning and evaluating not only what would be threatening to ourselves, but what is rewarding as well. And that our brain is actively looking out for ourselves, but it can also be overwhelmed by strong emotions such like anger, stress which deter it from optimal performance. For such reasons, emotional distraction should be kept at bay for optimal performance of our brain.<\/p>\n

We need to keep our brain healthy through socialization. <\/strong>\u201cAlong with the need for food, water, shelter, and a sense of certainty, there are \u2018social needs,\u2019 which if not met, create a sense of threat that can quickly devolve into conflicts between people (Rock p. 154).\u201d [6]<\/a> Just as we need food, water, and shelter to survive, Emily (Rock p. 154) needs the feeling to be safe among friends. The following scenes from 10, 11, and 12, speaks to the need of socialization through friendship, fairness and stature. Socialization is essential to keep our brain healthy.<\/p>\n

Before reading this topic, I tweaked my brain for optimization<\/strong> through cups of coffee, cans of Rockstar (Energy Drink) and large bags of corn chips. This was to supplement my brain needs for the sugar rush and the alertness from the caffeine and to have the energy to finish my work. Now, I will consider (1.) understanding my thinking limitation, (2.) guarding my thinking from emotional distraction, and (3.) maintaining a healthy thinking habit.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> http:\/\/fourminutebooks.com<\/a>. Your Brain at Work Summary. (Retrieved March 30, 2024).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Rock, David. Your Brain at Work, Revised and Updated: Strategies for Overcoming Distractions, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. HarperCollins, Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid (p. 243)<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid (pg. 100)<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> https:\/\/paminy.com<\/a> (Retrieved March 30, 2024).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid (p. 154)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past few weeks, there were few unexpected happenings and people just dropped into my schedule and derailing it into various directions. Some family members living nearby that never visited decided to visit; others flew into town, and I have to make time to see them, while others were work-related stuff that decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37144,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37141\/revisions\/37144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}