As knowledge workers, the raw material of our work is thinking. Whether our jobs require us to calculate, analyze or create, our brainpower drives the work we do.
But how often do we stop to consider whether we’re optimizing that critical tool…our brains? Or a better question might be, how often do we just stop—take a pause to clear our minds or intentionally change our mental state?
Let me explain. Our brains aren’t designed to go-go-go without rest and refueling. They can’t work optimally while constantly task switching and fielding distractions, which has become the norm in our workplaces.
In order to empower our brains for productivity, we need to focus our attention for extended periods. And then we need to stop and give our brains a complete break. Or else we get frazzled and exhausted and unable to achieve our desired results.
What Is Brainpower Momentum?
Unleashing brainpower momentum is the process of mustering the full range of our resources so that we can offer our best to our work. These include knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, but also kindness, empathy, diplomacy—the very traits you were hired for in the first place!
Brainpower
To complete knowledge work tasks, you need to focus your attention to apply yourself fully. In other words, you want to apply your brainpower to do your best work.
Momentum
But what about momentum? Constant distractions from people, technology and even your own thoughts impede your ability to fully mobilize the full range of your intellectual and emotional resources in service of achieving your desired results.
Constant interruptions to thoughtful work require you muster these resources all over again. It’s the mustering, the getting going, that takes tremendous time and energy. But once you’re in the zone, you can really produce.
Distractions, no matter what the source, derail your momentum and prevent you from truly applying your brainpower to achieve your most significant results.
How to Unleash Your Brainpower Momentum
Sometimes you might find yourself in a period of flow, when you lose track of time and are immersed in your project. But can you control when this happens? If you’d like to be able to proactively unleash your brainpower momentum on a regular basis, you’ll want to learn to manage your attention, in part by implementing strategies to decrease distractions.
Attention Management
Learning to manage your attention is a skill that you can get better at through practice. When you know how to manage your attention, you can consciously direct your attention in any given moment. Attention management allows you to be more proactive than reactive, and unleash your brainpower momentum more often.
To maintain brainpower momentum, you need to minimize distractions: You need to know how to be the boss of your technology and not the other way around. You need to understand exactly how to set boundaries with people who may interrupt your work with the best of intentions. And you need to understand how interrupting yourself by task switching compromises your ability to unleash the breadth of your resources in service of achieving your goals.
Learn More About Brainpower Momentum
If you know how to unleash your brainpower momentum on demand, you can skyrocket your own productivity. But imagine the impact when every member of your team has the ability to unleash their true gifts and focus on your team’s most significant results.
I train teams across the globe to implement a workflow management system called Empowered Productivity, a system based on attention management that applies at both the individual level and the organizational level. Teams using this system know how to work together to unleash their brainpower momentum and optimize productivity. Contact me to learn more.
- Maura Nevel Thomas, author of Everyone Wants to Work Here