How to be Productive, Parkinson's Disease, and 140,000 Neurons Later

Fun, Fear, and Focus©

Friederike Fabritius - WSJ Best Selling Author, Neuroscientist, Key Note Speaker, and Writer of The Brain-Friendly Workplace

What if I told you that there is a science based and very easy way to be five times more productive.

A cocktail of neurochemicals

All you need is the right balance of fun, fear and focus©. Why? Because in your brain when you get into flow, you can be up to five times more productive, and you can also learn five times faster. The flow state is characterized by being fully present in the moment you love what you do, and you reach top excellence or peak performance.

There are three neurochemicals that need to come together in your brain in order to reach peak performance. Those are dopamine, noradrenaline and acetylcholine. That’s a lot to remember, so I call it fun, fear and focus.

Why having fun matters

When you’re having fun, your brain releases dopamine, and dopamine just helps your brain to learn better, be more flexible, be more motivated, and whatever you do receives a real boost. You need fun. If you’re not having fun at work, you’re not performing at your very best.

So, try to make your work rewarding. Try to work in line with your strengths and look for opportunities to truly enjoy what you do. Because when you don’t, I can promise you that you’re not going to be able to get into flow.

The right kind of fear

Why is fear relevant in the workplace? I’m not saying that you should be scared of your boss or work in a toxic environment in order to reach peak performance. Not even close. What I want you to do is to be what I call slightly over challenged. What this means is that you should find something you love that’s the fun (that’s the dopamine), and then push your abilities to the very limits and just get better and better and better at whatever you do. It’s all about finding the right level of fear. If it’s too little, then you’re going to be bored. If it’s too much, you’ll be overwhelmed and anxious. You want to stay in the Goldilocks zone, right in the middle. That’s when your brain releases a healthy dose of noradrenaline, and that will really push your performance and enjoyment.

How to find your focus

Last but not least, you need focus. You won’t get into flow unless you’re fully focused. If you’re distracted at work, if you’re constantly receiving notifications and switching between tasks and doing multitasking, you’re not going to get into flow. When people multitask, they make 50% more mistakes, and they need 50% longer to finish the task. It’s ridiculously counterproductive! So, find ways to get rid of distractions. One simple way that I use is something that I call a “meeting of one”.

In a “meeting of one”, you close the doors, you turn off all notifications, you can even set a timer to anything up to 90 minutes and you fully focus on one task. Maybe you have to write an article, or you have to work on an important project, but you just can’t get stuck into it. A meeting of one can be a game changer. Make sure you give that one task your single-minded attention and see how much more productive you can be.

Be five times more productive

When all three factors come together, the fun that gives you the dopamine, the fear that gives you the noradrenaline, and the focus that gives you the acetylcholine, that’s when you reach flow. When these three aspects come together, you can be up to five times more productive. You’re also going to enjoy your work a whole lot more. They say you can’t buy happiness but think if you know how to get into flow, you’re taking a step in the right direction.

Why Resistance Training Should be on the Prescription List for People with Parkinson’s Disease

Ryan Meidinger, PhD - Application Specialist at Magstim, PhD in Exercise Science

Deep within the brain lives a set of neurons called the basal ganglia, within which lives the substatia nigra. The substantia nigra produces molecules called dopamine that drives motivation and has been related to the control of self-generated movement. The progressive death of these neurons leads to Parkinson’s disease with symptoms that effect movement and physical strength.

Providing dopamine and implanting an electrical stimulator into the brain of people with Parkinson’s disease can return some functions but not all. Even though pharmacological and device interventions provide an avenue to make an impact, there can be an added benefit of resistance training.

It is common to focus on training walking, the size of movements, and body weight movements, which can act on known symptoms but can risk falls and overlook the weakness that comes with the disease. These types of training have muscular and neural effects, but resistance training is superior in some aspects:

The table above roughly illustrates where resistance training could be a beneficial addition by showing which is greater but in cases like cognitive abilities and markers of plasticity both provide separate benefits over the other. One of the greatest benefits of resistance training is that most movements are performed in one position, significantly reducing the risk of falls. For these reasons, resistance training should be added to the prescription list for people with Parkinson’s disease. People with Parkinson’s disease are a resilient people, who inspired me with their ability to overcome and not ruminate on the progressive loss of function. If I can give back to them and inspire them to become even stronger than they are today, I will!

140,000 Neurons and a Fruit Fly

Nicolas Hubacz, M.S. - Business Development Manager at Magstim and Founder of NH Sponsorships

Scientists have mapped the entire brain of a fruit fly! This tiny brain holds nearly 140,000 neurons and over 50 million connections, making it the most detailed brain map ever made.

By studying how this tiny brain works, we can learn more about how all brains function, including the human brain! This exciting finding could help us get closer to understanding and treating diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. It’s incredible what we can learn from something so small!

Credit to Scientific American for the great image!

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