Pile On Motivation

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Category: Self Help

  • How to train our brain to effectively “Multi-Task”

    David Rock in his book Your Brain at Work, clearly explains the limitation of working memory capacity of the new rational human brain i.e. Prefrontal Cortex

    As a result of this trying to perform more than one conscious task at a time can be detrimental in terms of performance.

    Yet few people effectively multi task.They practice and practice to create habits out of mundane tasks e.g driving a car.The habits sit in long term memory i.e. Basal Ganglia and have nothing to do with working memory.This is precisely the reason that few have mastered the art of driving as well as taking conference calls at the same time.

  • What is “Dual Task Interference”

    David Rock in his book “Your Brain at Work” , very scientifically explains the fact that our rational brain i.e. Prefrontal Cortex is not capable of performing more than one conscious task at a time.

    This syndrome named “Dual Task Interference”.

  • How does “chunking” improve brain efficiency

    David Rock in his book “Your Brain At Work” states that smaller the information the prefontal cortex(processes thoughts , decisions etc.)is loaded with better the efficiency.

    Chunking of information into manageable pieces results in efficient brain processing with less energy drainage.

  • “Prioritize Prioritizing” for most efficient use of your brain

    David Rock in his book “Your Brain At Work” makes a mention of the fact that parts of the brain involved in thought related processing e.g problem solving , creativity make most use of energy e.g. glucose , oxygen.

    As a result of this “Prefrontal Cortex” involved with this function needs to be used optimally once when most needed.

    For this to happen meticulous white board planning needs to happen to determine the prioritized list of tasks to engage this part of the brain with.

    Generally this planning should happen at times when we are least loaded e.g. early morning , late evening vefore bed.

  • How about a “FedEx Day” every quarter

    Dan Pink’s book “Drive” emphasizes the importance of “intrinsic motivation” for a modern day knowledge worker.

    He makes a mention of the iconic company named Atlassian(invented Jira ,Confluence etc. agile software lifecycle tools).

    To encourage creativity as a drive towards intrinsic motivation one day every quarter is celebrated as “FedEx Day” wherein anyone can develop anything of his or her choice provided something is shown as a deliverable.

    Amazing thought process!!

  • Time to upgrade our “business operating system”

    Dan Pink’s book named Drive explains in great depth the modern day motivational drivers.

    “Carrot & Stick” method that has worked as a short term driver in the factory age , needs to be replaced by the new age intrinsic motivation related drivers namely : “Autonomy” , “Mastery” & “Purpose”.

    There is indeed a need to upgrade the business operating system since there exists a yawning gap between what science knows and what business does.

  • “Mastery” – 3 principles

    Attainment of “Mastery” is bound by the following three principles.

    Dan Pink’s book Drive makes a mention of the same.

    1) Mastety is a “Mindset” – Continuity in excellence needs a learning mindset rather than a performane mindset

    2) Mastery involves “Pain“- Excelling in a particular field needs a lot of personal sacrifices.

    3) Mastery always follows an “Asymptotic” pattern – Attainment of mastery will never touch the ceiling , even though the final destination may seem very near.

  • What is common among “Gmail” , “GoogleNews” & “PostIt notes”?

    Google , 3M have been very well known for providjng a lot of autonomy to employees to showcase their creativity.

    In an effort to create a Result Oriented Work Environment(ROWE), it has historically provided employees a leeway of using 20% of their time to do something outside their realm of work.

    This autonomy provided to employees have incidentally given birth to these iconic creations.

  • Ever heard of the term “Homeshoring”??

    Dan Pink’s book Drive makes a mention of this term.

    To make customer service more interesting , JetBlue had started diverting customer calls to homes of service representatives , without any monitoring.

    This was contrary of the popular practice of offshoring such work for cost savings..

  • Components of “Intrinsic Motivation” -Dan Pink’s book Drive , takeaways

    Components of intrinsic motivation to help switch to Type I (Intrinsic motivation) personality are:

    1) Autonomy

    2) Mastery

    3) Purpose