The Organised Mind: Chapter 5 – Organising Our Time
1. Optimising Prefrontal Cortex
Drink less. Alcohol interferes with the ability of prefrontal cortex neutrons to communicate with one another by disrupting dopamine receptors
Exercise and meditate.
COMT gene: interesting gene that appears to modulate with ease with which people can switch tasks, by regulating the amount of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. Carries instructions to the brain for how to make an enzyme that helps the prefrontal cortex to maintain optimal levels of dopamine and noradrenaline, the neurochemicals critically to paying attention. Individuals with a particular version of the COMT gene have low dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex and show greater cognitive flexibility, easier task switching and more creativity than average.
To prevent Alzheimer's: do things that's not been done before, keep learning, retain social interactions. Social interactions are important as it involves so much of the brain: interpret facial expressions, understand new concepts, pressure to react in real time, assimilate new information.
2. Secret to managing big projects: the balance between doing and monitoring your progress that is necessary in any multi-step project. Have to review periodically.
3. Sleep and Learning
What happens during sleep that improves learning: unionisation. assimilation, abstraction
REM sleep is the phase during which the above activities occur. NREM sleep doesn't help very much. REM sleep constitutes about 10-20% of total sleep time? It pretty much occurs at the beginning and the end of one's sleep cycle.
You can't make up for lost sleep time. Sleep deprivation after a day prevents sleep-related improvements, even if you get good rest afterwards. Sleep is among the most critical factors for peak performance.
Bimodal sleep cycle: 2 sleep phases + 1 nap Bimodal sleep appears to be a biological norm that was subverted by the invention of artificial light; there's evidence that bimodal + nap regime is healthier and promotes greater satisfaction, efficiency and performance. Contrary to popular myth, the elderly do not need less sleep, they are just less able to sleep for 8 hours at a stretch (unnaturally).
4. Procrastination
- To combat it, adopt a strict policy of “do it now”.
Do the difficult things first in the morning when gumption is highest, as willpower depletes as the day moves on.
Procrastination = time to complete task * distractibility * delay / self-confidence * task value
One may have difficulty starting a task due to self-confidence issues; we delay putting our reputations on the line as an ego-protective manoeuvre. Break down tasks into smaller easier pieces to overcome the inability to get started. We should also try to mitigate self-worth issues: remember that successful people have paradoxically had many more failures than people whom most of us would consider to be, well, failures. They just deal with failures very differently from most people.
As for a chronic inability to finish projects that they've started, this is not procrastination, but may occur due to a lack of necessary skills to properly finish the job with acceptable quality. This can also arise from an insidious perfectionism.
5. Combatting Distractions
External distractions: set aside a designated spot and a stretch of distraction-free productivity time.
Internal distractions: makes sure you have captured every single thing that has your attention or should have your attention by writing it down. Externalise your frontal lobes.