For the last few weeks, I have often been conspicuously absent from my desk. I’ve curled into the corner of the office’s sofa listening to white noise with my eyes closed, my shoes off and my head lolling to the side. Normally seated from 9am to 6pm, I’ve gone for marching walks around the i paper newsroom, wandered up and down stairs, and sat in chairs staring into the middle distance. Instead of a hasty leftover lunch in front of my monitor I’ve disappeared to potter around the edges of private parks in Kensington. And it has all been in a bid to become more efficient.
I’m doing this (with my editors’ explicit permission, mind) because I’ve been finding it harder to snap into focus recently. My attention is prone to flit constantly, like a cornered bird and getting everything done has become markedly more difficult.
I am not unique in this matter. Research by King’s College London shows nearly half of adults feel their attention span is shorter than it used to be. Another study found 80 percent of employees said they can’t go an hour without being distracted, while the work messaging app Slack reports that just under one third of the average UK desk worker’s day is spent doing performative work rather than productive work. This is all in the context of the UK’s “productivity problem” – a large body of evidence shows we produce less than our European counterparts while working longer, more protracted hours.
In her new book Hyperefficient: Simple Methods to Optimise your Brain and Transform the Way you Work, neuroscientist Mithu Storoni argues that this problem stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the brain works. She explains that we see the value of work in terms of volume rather than quality, and as such treat our brains like a factory assembly line – but working this way is counterproductive.
“Your mental performance can soar to exceptional heights,” she writes, “if, instead of imposing the rhythm of assembly-line work on your brain, you impose the rhythm of your brain on your work.” Even though this may sound at odds with the average working day in the office, this is precisely what I’ve been trying to do.
Storoni and other experts argue that we can transform our productivity by recognising the brain is an organ like all the others in our body, with finite resources. It cannot function if it is not properly fuelled.
“People don’t realise that conscious thought processes are metabolically quite demanding,” says Dean Burnett, neuroscientist and author. “The brain’s an incredibly hungry organ, and it uses loads of resources to just exist.” Everything from responding to touch to focusing on a complex puzzle requires the brain to use its resources, and they are finite.
To ensure the best use of those resources, the brain has different processes and systems in place – for example, working memory.
“Working memory is the information you can retain and work with in any given moment, and that has a limited capacity in the brain,” says Burnett. “Data suggests we can handle four or five bits of information or tasks at any one time.” But if there are more than a few things demanding your attention, your brain can get overwhelmed and unable to do anything.
In order to be productive and to focus, the brain needs balance – for example, ensuring that our working memory is not stretched.
The rhythm of the brain is also important. Some evidence suggests that the brain works in 90 minute cycles, mirroring those we experience when sleeping, taking you through rising and falling levels of alertness. This makes a certain intuitive sense: movies, football and rugby matches and even scheduled tea and coffee breaks in the workplace are all around – or close to – the 90 minute mark. Extending focus beyond an hour and a half can lead to a dramatic drop off in quality.
The trouble is our working patterns do not accommodate these rhythms. Rather than following that mental ebb and flow, interspersed with breaks to regain focus, we’re encouraged to power through and disengage from these bodily cues.
This is what has been happening when I can’t concentrate at work: I strongarm myself into focusing, continuing to deplete my brain’s resources further until I was exhausted.
Working with, and not against your brain means reducing distractions, engaging in the right kind of work at the right time, controlling your environment – and many breaks. Storoni’s suggested work structure calls for working in 60 to 90 minute increments – any longer brings diminishing returns, she says – broken up by breaks of between 10 and 20 minutes and a two hour lunch break that includes a 20 minute nap. Which sounds wonderful, but impossible.
She says the beginnings and ends of the day are best for creative work: as you are waking up or winding down your brain is most likely to make unexpected connections and generate new ideas. Prolonging that state where possible by staying in a gently lit, unstimulated (and ideally caffeine-free) environment is ideal and also means your working memory is less crowded by unnecessary information.
During each 90 minute cycle, you should aim to do 80 per cent of the complex work in the first 20 minutes of each session, and in general focus on the more demanding work earlier in the day.
Crucially, Storoni suggests taking a break whenever you find yourself flagging – this is an excellent way to boost performance, rather than a sign of laziness. Breaks have been found to reduce or prevent stress, help maintain performance throughout the day, and facilitate recovery by helping you bring your mental and physical systems back to your baseline.
Storoni recommends walking as a key way to take this break, especially if you are stuck on something complicated. “Walking lets your attention float,” she says.
Even a ‘micro-break’ of just a couple of minutes has been found to increase productivity.
And as for the naps, the thinking behind this is to combat what is known as the ‘post-lunch dip’ where your energy levels dip around midday. This is a real, recorded phenomenon that is thought to be linked to a 12 hour rhythm that prompts sleepiness at midpoints in the 24 hour circadian cycle. Taking a nap to combat the brain being worn out, Burnett says, is a neurologically sound bit of advice. “Sleep is when your brain processes all the information you’ve accumulated… and allows for new pathways to connect.”
It all sounds great: a work day that’s productive – with a mandated nap!
But of course, not all of this advice is practical for most people – including me. Storoni suggests that if you can’t implement her advice to the letter, you let common sense prevail. If you cannot take a walk outside, go for a small one in the office. If you cannot leave your desk, rest your eyes when possible. If you can’t nap at work she recommends sitting on a park bench, chair or sofa, and zoning out for 15 minutes.
So what happened when I put her advice to the test? In my pre hyperefficient life, my day would start with an onslaught of information (scrolling news in bed, podcasts on my way to work, at least two cups of coffee in the first hour). I would then spend my working day wrestling my attention into focus, often spending hours toggling between various jobs, rather than just getting one done. Breaks were unstructured, infrequent and distracting, usually spent on a smaller screen or a different tab while still at my desk.
During my experiment, over a few weeks I avoided my phone – and any coffee – until I got to work, where I worked in 60-90 minute chunks. I interspersed work with meandering walks, spending short periods with my eyes closed ‘staring’ at a wall and generally allowed space for creative flashes of genius. When writing, I used background music (which Storoni says can give the bottom up attention system something to focus on) and found that in a few instances, I achieved that elusive ‘cognitive flow’. On a couple of occasions while working from home I even attempted a 10 minute nap. In the evenings I eschewed TV for reading.
The result? I became far more efficient. Deliberately keeping my early mornings calm meant I didn’t feel like I had a skull full of wasps before sitting down to work. I found that ideas would appear, unbidden. My output sped up; my to-do lists became more manageable. While distractions like social media remained a temptation, it was far easier to get myself back on track if I succumbed.
I only managed to nap a couple of times, but I can highly recommend the focus that follows a peaceful ten minutes spent thinking about nothing.
The real change, though, came after I officially stopped the experiment. In particular, I am left feeling much more attuned to the fact that, if I do start my day scrolling through terrible news, or don’t take proper breaks, it’s reflected in my work and how I feel.
My real epiphany is the realisation that feeling distracted, tired or bored is my brain’s way of telling me it needs time off. And, instead of just switching to my phone, I will go for a wander or even just close my eyes for a moment. Small changes, admittedly. But working with this mental gearbox, rather than grinding against it, has made work not only doable but enjoyable.
