PDF Summary:Your Brain at Work, by David Rock

There are many tips and tricks for how to optimize your productivity, but how do you know what works best for you? In Your Brain at Work, business consultant David Rock argues that the secret to productivity boils down to knowing how your brain uses energy, and if you understand the neuroscience behind that process, you can more effectively schedule your day, regulate your emotions, collaborate with others, spark your creativity, and find your focus.

In this guide, we’ll explore Rock’s recommendations for using your brain’s natural energy fluctuations to boost your productivity, and we’ll outline actionables he recommends based on his research. We’ll also look at how his strategies compare to advice from other productivity experts and psychologists.

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Identify What’s Within and Outside Your Control

One of the tenets of Stoic philosophy, according to Ryan Holiday in The Daily Stoic, is to gain control over your emotions by realizing they are one of the few things that are actually in your control. You can’t control what happens, but you can control how you feel and respond to it.

One of the Stoic methods of asserting control over your emotions is modifying your self-talk, or what your mind “says” to you after being triggered by a negative event. For example, if you had an embarrassing experience during a public speaking engagement, giving speeches may trigger your away emotions. While you’re on stage, your brain may be thinking, “I’m in danger. I’m going to humiliate myself again.” Instead, think to yourself with kindness and encouragement: “I’m doing something brave. I’m going to be OK.”

How to Get Your Brain to Collaborate

Even after you have a grasp on monitoring your prefrontal cortex’s energy levels and moderating your limbic system, your productivity can still be impacted by the people around you. Most careers require some level of collaboration. However, coworkers, bosses, and clients can all have varying degrees of mental energy and emotional regulation themselves. While you can’t control the emotions and actions of others, you can understand which work situations trigger intense away emotions (and thus drain energy) as well as methods to mitigate these situations.

(Shortform note: Susan Cain argues in Quiet that too much collaboration can hurt productivity and that in fact, learning and creativity best happen in solitude. Studies show that with the increased opportunity for socialization that accompanied the rise of open-office designs came a rise in interruptions, social friction, and background noise—all of which deter productivity. Cain suggests an office space that provides areas to collaborate and areas to work alone.)

The Science

In the modern world, jobs are usually tied directly to our livelihoods. Therefore, when you feel as though your job is being threatened, your brain interprets these threats as a risk to your survival, similar to the way our primitive ancestors would have assessed the danger of a predator. When you’re in danger, adrenaline kicks your brain into a fight-or-flight response; in the workplace, this can translate into either avoidance or intense confrontation. Either reaction can harm productivity.

You feel the most threatened at work when you encounter change you weren’t prepared for. Your brain functions best when it’s at an equilibrium, so any change—big or small—puts your brain into a state of dissonance, or disorder. It takes time and energy to regain your balance. If your brain doesn’t have an adequate amount of either, you’re more likely to respond with unchecked emotion.

For example, imagine that tomorrow is your annual review—the results of which determine your bonus for the year. You run into a coworker who reminds you that they sent you an email yesterday and makes a joke about how long you take to respond. Your brain probably didn’t anticipate this interaction, and most days, your brain may perceive it as friendly banter. However, with the stress of the upcoming review in which your job performance is evaluated, your brain could easily interpret the joke as a threat instead. This reaction could lead to lashing out at your coworker or being anxious during the review.

For leaders, it’s especially important to understand how unexpected change can cause threat responses in employees, and diminish them when possible.

(Shortform note: Rock’s counsel to minimize threat responses at work is especially relevant to the Covid-19 pandemic—surveys show that work-related stress has amplified since the virus’s outbreak. The pandemic introduced unexpected change into people’s work lives and intensified the strain of other stressors, such as anxiety over safety, job security, and work-life balance. Adequately preparing employees before making changes in these three areas may help reduce workers’ threat response.)

How to Use the Science

Rock points to two things that can upset the brain’s equilibrium, which leaders need to be particularly aware of: feedback and irregular procedures.

Giving Feedback

Feedback is inherently stressful. Criticism usually comes from an authority figure who has the power to make change in your life. Even if the criticism is intended to be constructive, an employee’s brain is going to immediately prepare the body for the threat of a major change.

(Shortform note: In Nine Lies About Work, authors Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall assert that corrective feedback may not be necessary in the workplace, as it inhibits learning because it sends people into flight-or-fight mode. Instead, they recommend that leaders focus on providing positive feedback by pointing out what employees are doing well. They recommend that if an employee asks for corrective feedback, the leader asks them to first think about what they’re doing right, which will prepare their brain to accept negative feedback.)

Here are some ways Rock recommends that leaders reduce the stress of feedback:

Regularly provide positive feedback. The brain interprets positive feedback as things that are stable or even better than expected. Positive feedback also generates toward emotions, so the recipient will receive a dopamine boost, which can also increase energy and motivation.

(Shortform note: Positive feedback should be genuine and not seen only as a way to buffer negative criticism. Psychologists say compliment sandwiches don’t work. A compliment sandwich is an attempt to buffer negative criticism by placing it in between two compliments. Formatting feedback this way actually leads to people becoming less receptive to positive feedback. Instead, it conditions people to expect negative criticism to follow the compliments each time, and people become distrustful of expressions of appreciation.)

Consider public positive feedback. When people receive praise in front of their peers, it creates an even stronger dopamine response. However, Rock cautions that you must be careful using this method: Public positive feedback can sometimes backfire by eliciting an away response if another employee feels like they never receive recognition. Be deliberate in providing feedback to employees equally.

(Shortform note: Although it takes extra time to ensure public feedback is consistent and equal, sharing positive recognition is becoming the norm in many companies. Business experts recommend creating a designated space for public praise, like on the company’s social media page or within a company newsletter.)

Normalize learning curves. One of the most significant pieces of feedback for an employee in a new position is reassurance that an adjustment period is normal. A new worker may feel uncertain about their role and stress about potential negative feedback. A leader can reduce these away emotions by offering empathy. For example, a mentor can say something like, “I got lost a couple of times when I first started, so don’t be hard on yourself if that happens to you.”

How To Get Past a Learning Curve

A learning curve at a new job is stressful and can lead to anxiety and disappointment. Initially, you’re learning a lot of new information or skills, and it seems like you’re improving rapidly. However, once you get into the nuances of your new responsibilities, the sense of improvement will slow down to a more normal—and thus gradual—rate. This natural shift in starting a new position can cause employees to develop imposter syndrome, doubting their fit for the position and even quitting before they fully acclimate to the job.

Cognitive scientists suggest two ways to get through a learning curve:

• Assume your company values learning. Most companies invest in training and want you to ask for help.This assumption gives you a more optimistic outlook and motivates you to keep trying.

• Keep a log of your improvements. When everything is new, gains are noticeable, but you need to continue seeing your growth as the novelty wears off. A personal record of your accomplishments will help quell the doubts of imposter syndrome.

Focus “negative” feedback on the goal, not the employee’s weaknesses. When feedback consists of multiple ways the employee can do better, the conversation will center around the employee trying to defend themselves or feeling uncomfortable. Instead, Rock suggests asking the employee to reflect on how they can reach a specific goal. For example, if an employee routinely turns in work late, ask them how efficiency can be improved on projects. When you validate their solutions and add suggestions if needed, the employee feels more empowered in the evaluation.

(Shortform note: Psychologists say that it’s important to build trust before giving negative feedback. The receiver should believe that you have their best interest in mind and that your feedback is for their benefit. Once trust is established, experts also recommend that negative feedback be timely (given close to precipitating incident), concise (focused only on the feedback), and given without pre-judgment (listen to what the employee has to say about the issue.)

Be transparent. When feedback results in corrective measures, Rock says you should explain your reasoning, and make sure the other party understands the full context of a situation. For example, if an employee is being put on an improvement plan for a series of mistakes, the leader must be clear in what needs to change and why the improvement plan is being established. The dissonance the brain experiences will abate if the employee understands the specific actions that led to the consequence and what they need to do in the future.

Setting Clear Expectations for Feedback

Another way to be transparent is to define and separate the kinds of feedback you give. In Thanks For The Feedback, Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen explain that poor reactions to negative feedback are mostly due to a disconnect between giver and receiver. The recipient of criticism may feel like the feedback isn’t fair or isn’t accurate. Meanwhile, the person giving the feedback feels like their honesty and expertise aren’t being appreciated. A way to prevent a bad reaction is to set the expectation of what kind of feedback you’re giving. There are three types:

• Evaluation: The recipient should expect to be measured against co-workers or company standards. This kind of feedback will most likely come with consequences if the behavior is not improved.

• Education: The recipient should expect advice or suggestions for improvement. This kind of feedback is meant to encourage the employee to improve their performance without a threat of change to their status or position.

• Appreciation: The recipient should expect recognition for their good work.

Establishing Regular Procedures

To reduce potential threat responses in employees, Rock recommends that leaders stabilize as many aspects of a job as possible. The brain is in its comfort zone when it knows what to expect. Surprises are unavoidable on the job, whether it's a glitch in a piece of equipment, a client responding unexpectedly, or any number of other everyday occurrences. That being said, the brain will have more energy to handle these obstacles if the supply isn’t exhausted by anticipating change or guessing what comes next.

A Flexible Schedule Is an Unpredictable Schedule

The brain’s adverse reaction to unpredictability partially explains why jobs that offer more flexibility end up making workers feel like they have less control. For example, if your job has an unpredictable travel schedule, it’s difficult to plan your life too far in advance. Employees who get to set their own hours often underestimate how long it will take them to do a task and consequently, make plans they can’t fulfill. Some experts suggest looking for jobs that value boundaries and balance rather than flexibility.

Here are some practices you can implement to establish consistency.

Develop routines or templates for recurring tasks. The brain doesn’t have to expend a lot of energy on something that’s become a habit. For example, if calling customers is a frequent part of the job, design a script employees can use to introduce themselves and the product. This way, employees don’t have to use energy to come up with a greeting for each phone call.

(Shortform note: Keep in mind that routines and templates should reduce mental energy for mundane and repetitive tasks; however, tasks that are complex or creative naturally require a lot of energy and don’t need to be as heavily regulated. Stoic philosopher Ryan Holiday argues that limiting workers’ autonomy is micromanaging. In Ego Is The Enemy, he explains that a leader who aims to control every action of their team members creates either workers who are resentful or workers who are dependent on corrections—both of which will lead to reduced productivity.)

Show your face in meetings. Facial expressions and body language help people understand what we’re communicating more fully. Misinterpretations can prompt threat responses, which happens much more easily over email or the phone than in person.

(Shortform note: If you must communicate using text, the authors of Difficult Conversations—Bruce Patton, Douglas Stone, and Sheila Heen—propose delivering your message with as much context as possible to avoid miscommunication. State your intentions, your expectations for follow-up actions, and provide specific details for your reasoning.)

Share goals and accomplishments across departments. When you send regular newsletters, emails, or other announcements reporting on the work of all departments, employees can get a sense of the goals the company is working toward and how their roles contribute. This information can help employees prepare for potential changes. For example, if a company wants to gradually implement a new kind of software, sharing the schedule of when each department will be updated gives employees more time to adjust.

Create spaces where people can share their personal lives. One of the ways to reduce uncertainty at work is for employees to have an idea of who they work with. Providing a lounge area or a digital forum that allows people to interact casually increases the likelihood of employees forming positive relationships.

Watercooler Conversations Can Be Productive

Studies have shown that building a sense of community can improve productivity and create a feeling of inclusion among coworkers. To create a sense of community, office spaces need to incorporate three factors: closeness, choice, and culture. If workspaces are missing any one of these, people tend not to engage in informal conversation and casual interactions.

People tend to interact with others close to them. Researchers found that the further people’s offices were from each other, the less they interacted. Connecting different departments or floors through a digital space such as an announcement board or messaging program can help bridge physical gaps.

People want the choice to interact. Open floor plans are meant to encourage conversation and collaboration, but many companies have found that people don’t use these spaces to work or talk together often. Researchers conclude that open floors don’t have enough privacy. Workers are likely to be interrupted or overheard. Separate spaces for work and community operate better, as employees can choose when to engage, and they have their own space for private conversation if necessary.

The work culture must foster interaction. If casual interactions are treated as a waste of time by management, or employees see that few people participate in social initiatives, they will not get the sense that the company wants them to socialize.

How to Reactivate Your Brain’s Creativity

Creativity is a cognitive function that requires a significant amount of mental energy, and most jobs today require creativity to some degree. With technology advancing at an exponential rate, many workers must create solutions to problems that haven’t been seen before or invent new ways to distinguish their work from what’s already been done. When your brain doesn’t have an adequate amount of energy or loses focus, you can experience a creative block. We’ll cover the basics of what a creative block looks like and then the three steps Rock proposes to reactivate your creativity.

Too Much Creativity Can Be Counterproductive

While innovation is an important part of business, some business experts warn against over-emphasizing creativity when hiring new employees. Conforming to company policies, like following repetitive procedures and completing mundane tasks, is necessary if employees are to contribute effectively to a company’s operations. When a company prioritizes creativity, it must allocate time for brain-storming (which may or may not produce tangible results), accept failures as part of the process, and enforce changes if the ideas are implemented—all practices that can be disruptive in the workplace. When it comes to hiring, experts of this philosophy suggest looking less for evidence of creativity and more for evidence of work ethic and follow-through.

The Science

Creativity is the process of taking various networks in our brains and creating new combinations. Rock calls the new network insight and a mental block to finding new connections an impasse. An impasse can occur when the prefrontal cortex is low on energy or the limbic system is distracting you from going through your networks efficiently.

For example, imagine you’re trying to come up with a creative way to present your latest project, but the previous presentation didn’t go well. The memory of the unsuccessful presentation keeps popping up and distracts you from gaining insight into your new project. Additionally, in your anxious state, you forgot your lunch and haven’t been able to refuel from this morning’s tasks with glucose. According to Rock, you’re not going to be able to access your creativity unless you can work through this impasse.

Break an Impasse With Hypnosis

Preliminary studies suggest that hypnosis may help in breaking creative impasses, paving the way for insights. It may be that the deep state of relaxation refuels the brain and clears pathways for new neural connections to be formed. Hypnotherapy (therapy using hypnosis) is trending in some mental health circles, and some wellness experts encourage trying it for yourself by following a few simple steps:

• Start by setting your intention. As an example, if you’re at an impasse, you could state your goal as gaining insight into your specific problem.

• Open your mind to suggestion. To do this, close your eyes and engage with your other senses. For example, imagine each part of your body slowly winding down and relaxing.

• Think (or listen to a recording of) positive affirmations. Foster an optimistic state of mind by reinforcing positive qualities about yourself. For example, think, “I am creative,” or “I am intelligent.” Positive affirmations help clear any anxiety or insecurity around an issue and encourage your mind to welcome solutions.

• Visualize the results. Picture what it will be like once you come up with the answer. Will you be proud of yourself? Will you get a positive reaction at work? Having the image of your success helps your brain see the possibility as more concrete and accessible.

• Make hypnosis part of your routine. The more you practice, the easier the process will get and hopefully lead to more insights faster.

How to Use The Science

Rock’s advice for finding a creative breakthrough is not to chase after inspiration but to methodically break the impasse.

The first step is to identify whether the source of the impasse is a lack of energy or an influx of away emotions.

• If the impasse stems from deficient energy, switch to a different, low-energy task, like going on a coffee run or completing an errand that is more routine. This will give your brain a chance to rest and recharge.
• If you’re feeling too overwhelmed by away emotions, let your mind go idle for a while with activities like meditation or doodling to clear your thoughts.

The second step is to reflect on your previous solutions. Ask yourself how you were coming to the solutions to your problems and see if you notice a pattern. Were you focused on just one aspect of the problem? Were you discussing the problem with the same people?

The final step is to try something outside of the pattern you’ve identified, and once you have an idea, take immediate action. Your brain will experience a dopamine release from finding your creativity again, which is the best time to set your idea in motion. Additionally, by coming up with an idea, you’ll have a positive memory in your network for the next time you experience an impasse.

How to Get Inspired

Rock’s steps to find creativity apply to situations where you’re assigned a problem and struggle to find a solution. However, there are times when you must come up with both the problem and the solution, like when you’re looking for an idea for a new business endeavor or you want to invent a product. In these situations, some creatives believe that finding ways to spark insight may be the answer rather than focusing on overcoming impasses. Experts recommend the following tips for finding that spark:

Take advantage of idle moments. There are times in the day when we’re just waiting, like waiting for food to reheat or standing in a long line. Many people would pass the time on their phones or otherwise try to escape the boredom, but these are the moments when your mind can rest. A relaxed brain is one primed for new ideas.

Take time to play. Many activities we find fun also include an element of creative thinking. Creative play may beget more creativity. Additionally, playing should remove you from your office space, especially if it’s outside in nature. The change in scenery activates a dopamine release that may motivate creativity as well.

Start small. It can be overwhelming to come up with a completely original idea. Instead, focus on how you can make an existing product or idea better, and you may realize new problems that you can provide the solution to.

Persevere through failures. Creating something new often requires trial and error. Giving up after your first idea will dampen your motivation to be creative.

Notably, even though these techniques are aimed at finding insight rather than overcoming impasses, they correspond in some ways to Rock’s advice on impasses. Allowing your brain to rest, for example, can not only spark insight, but it can also give you a chance to reflect on both the sources of your impasse and your previous solutions. And, taking time to play might help you come up with ideas outside of the patterns of solutions you’ve already tried, which can overcome your impasse as well as prompt new insight.

How to Focus Your Brain

Your brain can be filled with innovative ideas and creative solutions, but if you aren’t able to maintain the focus to implement them, you won’t be productive. Rock writes that the key to understanding focus is to recognize how the brain processes various tasks and apply strategies that support the brain’s system.

The Science

Most tasks at work require several different brain functions, and your focus shifts as you operate each one. Even a simple task like sending an email has many elements. For example, if you’re emailing a colleague about corrections you made on their project, you’re activating the network connected to your coworker, you’re recalling the changes you made, you’re considering your words carefully to minimize misinterpretations, you’re inhibiting your limbic system from making you anxious about sending feedback, and you’re physically typing. If you were to add a second task, like being on the phone, you’d double the list of functions that your brain now has to juggle.

Thus, if you need to do something accurately and creatively, Rock argues that you shouldn’t multitask. Neuroscientists have observed that when you add a second task, your brain experiences dual-task interference, in which each task prevents the other from being done properly, and the efficiency and quality of both tasks are cut almost in half.

(Shortform note: Productivity experts echo Rock’s advice to avoid multitasking but note that sometimes, you have no choice, and you have to juggle different tasks simultaneously. To minimize the inefficiencies that come when your brain has to switch between different neural networks associated with different tasks, try to work on related tasks together—working on tasks that are similar will allow you to more fluidly alternate between them because the neural networks for each overlap.)

How to Use the Science

To avoid dual-task interference, Rock provides some approaches to keeping your brain focused on one task at a time.

Reduce distractions. Put your devices away when you’re trying to concentrate. Even the smallest distraction from a notification or a pop-up on the screen takes your attention away for a few seconds, and your brain has to expend extra energy to refocus. Turn off or silence your phone. If you need to be more responsive, set a timer to check notifications periodically.

Dopamine Can Distract You

As we learned earlier, dopamine can boost your productivity by motivating you, but in Eat That Frog, Brian Tracey explains that dopamine can hinder your productivity when you multitask. If you’re working on a difficult task, your prefrontal cortex is expending energy to focus on this task. If a distraction comes in, such as, for example, your phone notifying you of text messages from a friend, your brain will release dopamine in response to the texts, which can pull you away from the difficult task. Thus instead of your brain being motivated to focus, it’s motivated to pay attention to the distractions.

When a task is challenging or tedious, the smallest distractions can create dopamine that will chip away at your focus. While silencing your device or blocking your line of vision may seem like minor changes, doing so can make a significant difference.

Follow a routine. Creating routines can help you keep your focus, as you don’t have to waste energy thinking about next steps. Even simple routines like the order in which you open your tabs at the start of work can ease your mind into a state of focus.

(Shortform note: According to James Clear’s Atomic Habits, you can create productive routines by being deliberate about your habits. Clear claims that as much as 50% of our daily activities are automated habits, so start by writing down habitual activity as you go about your day—including hitting the snooze button, brushing your teeth, and other small tasks—then reflect on what habits should be purposely arranged into a routine.)