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David Rock

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long Hardcover – October 6, 2009

by David Rock (Author)

665 ratings

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A researcher and consultant burrows deep inside the heads of one modern two-career couple to examine how each partner processes the workday—revealing how a more nuanced understanding of the brain can allow us to better organize, prioritize, recall, and sort our daily lives.

Emily and Paul are the parents of two young children, and professionals with different careers. Emily is the newly promoted vice president of marketing at a large corporation; Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their days are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.

In Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock goes inside Emily and Paul's brains to see how they function as each attempts to sort, prioritize, organize, and act on the vast quantities of information they receive in one typical day. Dr. Rock is an expert on how the brain functions in a work setting. By analyzing what is going on in their heads, he offers solutions Emily and Paul (and all of us) can use to survive and thrive in today's hyperbusy work environment—and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

In Your Brain at Work, Dr. Rock explores issues such as:

why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources
why it's so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions
how to maximize the chance of finding insights to solve seemingly insurmountable problems
how to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible
how to collaborate more effectively with others
why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier
how to be more effective at changing other people's behavior
and much more.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Business
Publication date

October 6, 2009
Dimensions

6 x 1.01 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

9780061771293
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Simply put, this intriguing book offers fascinating research about the brain’s functions, limitations and capacities, and it teaches us how we can “direct” our own brain chemistry in order to achieve fulfillment and success. Well worth reading and ingesting these skills.” (Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

“This is the best, the most helpful, and the brainiest book I’ve read on how the brain affects how, why and what we do and act.” (Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business and University Professor, University of Southern California and author of On Becoming a Leader)

“This book will improve how you work―by showing you how your brain works!” (Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There)

“Rock makes the science of your mind accessible and relevant.” (Daniel Akst, Fortune Small Business)

“Rock deserves an ovation for his writing and direction.” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

“Rock makes the science of your mind accessible and relevant.” (Fortune Small Business)

"A highly informative look at the way our minds work at work." (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

From the Back Cover

Meet Emily and Paul: The parents of two young children, Emily is the newly promoted VP of marketing at a large corporation while Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their lives, like all of ours, are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, yet more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.

In this book, we travel inside Emily and Paul's brains as they attempt to sort the vast quantities of information they're presented with, figure out how to prioritize it, organize it and act on it. Fortunately for Emily and Paul, they're in good hands: David Rock knows how the brain works-and more specifically, how it works in a work setting. Rock shows how it's possible for Emily and Paul, and thus the reader, not only to survive in today's overwhelming work environment but succeed in it-and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

YOUR BRAIN AT WORK explores issues such as:

- why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources

- why it's so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions

- how to maximize your chance of finding insights that can solve seemingly insurmountable problems

- how to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible

- how to collaborate more effectively with others

- why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier

- how to be more effective at changing other people's behavior

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0061771295
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Business; 1st edition (October 6, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780061771293
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.01 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #480,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,208 in Humorous Coloring Books for Grown-Ups
- #1,295 in Art Therapy & Relaxation
- #1,512 in Business Decision Making

Customer Reviews:
665 ratings

About the author

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David Rock

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I have been interested in 'what makes us tick' since as early as I can remember, and my personal interest in brain research has been there since my teens.

In 2004 I found that brain research provided a missing piece in our understanding of how to be more effective leaders, managers or coaches. I have now written three books based on what I have been learning, including Quiet Leadership, the text book Coaching with the Brain in Mind, and Your Brain at Work.

I coined the term 'NeuroLeadership' in 2007, and am now closely involved with running a global Institute that is involved in research and education around how to improve organizations through the use of neuroscience. Learn more on that at www.neuroleadership.org I also run a consulting and training organization at NeuroLeadership.com

I maintain an active personal blog at www.davidrock.net, as well as posting regularly on psychology today, on a blog called 'Your Brain at Work'.

I live between Sydney Australia and New York City, and have a wonderful wife and two beautiful young daughters.

Customer reviews

5 star		76%
4 star		15%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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K. O'BRIEN

An indispensable manual for your brain

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

I have bought this book for many of my fellow solo lawyers. This one of the top 3 most important books I have read in the past 3 years - and I read a lot of books. It will cause you to reorganize how you approach each work day. Most importantly, it helped me overcome the feeling that I had at the end of each work day that I hadn't done enough. Once you understand the limitations of your brain, you stop expecting yourself to perform beyond the actual capacity of your brain. So instead of feeling defeated everyday, your performance is "just right." I'm grateful for this book.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

M Kramer

Entertaining Encapsulation of the Literature

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2012

Verified Purchase

In this review I will:

a. summarize the book's content,
b. provide an overview of the amazon reviews of this book, and
c. evaluate the book's merits.

CONTENT

The overarching message is that we benefit ourselves when we engage in metacognition (Rock's term). We improve ourselves by becoming more aware of how our power of awareness functions. Rock often expresses this idea metaphorically by telling us that it is to our advantage to develop a strong "director."

When we enhance our self-awareness, we appreciate that human beings are motivated by five types of phenomena: Social status, Certainty, Autonomy (independence), Relatedness (social connections), and Fairness. Enhancement of these five dimensions is experienced as rewarding. Diminution along any of these dimensions is just as aversive as physical pain.

When we are suffering because one or more of these dimensions has been threatened, we can use three procedures to restore our mental well-being.

The first is labeling. By describing an emotion we can reduce it. If someone insulted me, I can tell myself that I am angry. That will make me feel better.

The second procedure is reappraisal. By changing our perspective or our interpretation of a situation, we can lessen the negative emotion. If someone insulted me, I can take his perspective and realize that he is so upset that he is not responsible for his actions. Or, perhaps I could reinterpret the situation and realize that what I took to be an insult might not have been one after all.

The last procedure is lowering expectations. Decades ago I discovered that if many people told me that I must see a movie because it was amazing, I would often be disappointed, because it failed to be as amazing as I had expected it to be. On the other hand, if I just saw some random flick on a whim, and it was decent, I was really happy, because it was much better than I thought it would be. We experience exceeded expectations as highly rewarding, and unmet expectations as painful. We can develop the ability to set our expectations lower, allowing them to be exceeded more often.

In business and in life in general, we often confront difficult problems. Rock offers a number of methods for helping us develop better solutions.

First, we can simplify the problem to the greatest extent possible by using few words to state it.

Second, we can get our mind off the problem by quieting the mind-- e.g. by taking a shower or a walk.

Third, we can focus the mind on potential solutions and, as much as possible, stop thinking about the problem.

REVIEWS

I bought this book because it had some of the most forceful, positive reviews that I have ever read for a self-improvement book. Since I have read books that have deeply affected my own life, I was pleased to read the reviews of so many readers whose lives were positively altered by the methods they learned from this book. I actually stopped reading a couple of books that I am in the middle of, because the potential impact of this book seemed so much greater.

EVALUATION

It should come as no surprise to readers of Rock's book, that the over-the-top reviews of his book lessened my appreciation of it. Reading these reviews stimulated very high expectations in me. Unfortunately, those high expectations were not met. This book has had very little, if any, impact on my life. Very few of the reviewers have indicated what particular and specific changes they made based on the book's recommendations, and how that helped them. I have found it quite difficult to translate the insights given in the book into practical changes in my life.

As I stated at the beginning of the Content section, the overarching message of the book is the importance of metacognition, which is usually called "mindfulness." If your goal is to develop your powers of mindfulness, I can recommend books that give much more practical, useful advice than Rock's book. I started doing mindfulness practice about six months ago. To be perfectly frank, it's not at all clear to me that I have become any more mindful than I was before I started. But I am aware of the fact that there is a lot of evidence that mindfulness practice benefits most people who engage in it, so I soldier on hoping that at some point I will notice that mindfulness is benefiting me as well.

As far as lessening negative emotions using labeling, reappraisal, and lowered expectations, you would be better served by reading a cognitive-behavioral therapy book with practical exercises that help you develop those skills. David Burns's The Feeling Good Handbook is an excellent choice.

If you want to know more of the science Rock discusses, Heidi Grant Halvorson's Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals, covers some of the same studies Rock does, but she presents it in a more accessible manner, making it much easier to implement changes in my life.

If, instead of self-improvement, your goal is to be stimulated intellectually on the subject of awareness and thought, take a look at Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained, or Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.

In conclusion, Rock's book does a decent job synthesizing a lot of content into a relatively coherent presentation. But I had trouble translating this content into practical changes in my life. There are other books on psychology and mindfulness that do a better job demonstrating exactly what the reader needs to do to bring about positive behavioral and emotional changes.

282 people found this helpful

Helpful

Natural Expressions

Will use what I have learned

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Excellent book! I learned about this in a "Everyone's a Caregiver" video for work. The book breaks down how and why we think the way we do. There are examples of how we can change our way of thinking for a more productive outcome. The exercises are correct and enlightening. The book has a constant metaphor of actors, stage, director etc. which helps with relating and remembering. At times it is a bit of a difficult read. I will certainly use what I have learned for a lifetime, professionally and personally.

Helpful

Shantastic

This is a book I have already read twice. The explanations and analogies used are simply great.

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a great book.

It explores the limitations of the brain and its ability to prioritize, remember, and recall information. Sounds pretty dry right? Well actually it isn't. The author uses a very easy to understand analogy and real life situations that turn these complex topics into a fairly quick read.

I took a lot from this book. I have put several of the ideas into practice and have seen results in my overall capacity to prioritize and process information. If you are a busy professional, I see no reason why you cannot get at least something out of reading Mr. Rock's book.

My only complaint is that through the situational analogies recommendations are sometimes given that would be very difficult to follow in a fast paced corporate world...but I was even able to take some of these business situational ideas and apply them to personal tasks. It really is a valuable book. So much so, I read it twice.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

K. Ough

One of the best books I have ever read

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

Out of 250 pages I must have marked 200 pages as vital for me to reread. Fascinating, informative, and insightful information that I can put immediately into action. I loved this book. Very rarely do I find a book that I can read over and over and over again. I felt like that when I read the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and I feel like that having just read this book. It has opened a whole new world for me to coach differently

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

M. Hammers

Great book!

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

I'm in the middle of reading it for the second time...directly after reading it the first time! There is a lot of information here...impossible to take in and retain it all after just one pass. I told people at work about it and while they all seemed interested, at least one seems to have read it as well now.

I really find the information about "the stage" useful. When ever I have something I don't want to think about (like a repetitive song) I picture telling the person I really like their song, but asking them to leave the stage so I can focus. Sometimes they are okay in the audience, but sometimes I need to ask them to leave the theater altogether if I can still hear them. Sound weird? Well, maybe...but it works!

Also, knowing you can only have so many things on the stage at once, I now jot down things to look at later, so they will be removed from the stage for the time being.

And relaxing and focusing on (for example) your big toe, really can work to make you forget about being mad or stressed for the time being...and that short period of time can be long enough to make you less mad or stressed.

Lots of other good tips too. Definitely recommend.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Graffico

Mind blowing 🤓

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is a complete masterpiece for people trying to navigate the information overload of the information age. It teaches you about your brain how to improve its attention as well as how to change your mindset to easily assist you in achieving your goals.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the human brain as well as people who are interested in improving how they take in information and absorb it.

One person found this helpful

BookHopper

Very interesting - as well as being helpful for actually living life!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Haven't finished this book yet but I'm about half way through and it's already REALLY helped me to understand better how my brain works, and understand why things sometimes happen with me the way they do. The metaphor of having a 'stage' in your mind, and that when you're trying to hold too many ideas on it at once, you can't think properly, I find really helpful. I think this book makes the recent scientific research about the brain really accessible and actually USEFUL to everyday life.

I don't think the insights of the book are limited to the work context - I think they're useful for thinking about all areas of our lives.

2 people found this helpful

James Parker

5 out of 5 stars, without a doubt

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great book. It's written in an easy to follow, clear and logical way (as you'd expect from a book about brain!) and provides insight into how human brain works and how you can make it work better in order to take control of your life. I recommend the audiobook version too.

Amazon Customer

Buy the hardback, as you'll want to keep it and re-read it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is an easy book to read, but if you are like me, you'll need to read it twice. There are so many useful and sometimes new ideas that to take them in and of course, make use of the ides, a second reading is essential

I like to understand how things work, and when it comes to the brain, David Rock makes science relatively easy to understand.

The use of a make believe couple with busy lives made it really easy to relate to everyday workplace issues and no doubt I will work better, smarter, as a result of this read.

Paul Shrimpling

Improved results from practical brain insights

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

I'm now spotting ways that my brain (and others' brains) fail them when being used incorrectly. I'm managing distractions better, both external and internal. I'm able to help and show others how they can do the same. I believe this is a powerful and worthy book for any leader, manager or coach who wants to perform at a higher level. The concepts are explained in plain English using helpful metaphors making it easy to digest the learning and apply it too. I've already recommended it to many gifted it to several clients and colleagues.
The book blatantly suggests that the more you understand how your brain works the more effective you'll be at using it - I couldn't agree more.

3 people found this helpful

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Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long Hardcover – October 6, 2009

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