Brain Rules: This is How to Use Your Brain Better!
I usually write my blog posts first thing in the morning as that’s when I have the most energy. But today something came up, so you will need to excuse me if I seem a bit off as it is 3 p.m. as I sit here in Miami writing this blog post.
Hang on a minute, I need to go do something for 26 minutes, be right back!
Ok, I’m back, ready and raring to go! I feel like a new man, hopefully, the rest of the blog post will reflect that!
The other day, I read a fascinating book that I wanted to share with you all. It is called Brain Rules: 12 Rules for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. In it, author John Medina introduces us to 12 things relating to how the brain works. He presents the science around each and then offers ideas for how we can use them to improve our lives at work and at school.
While it is tough to get into each of the 12 brain rules in too much depth in such a short blog post, I will do my best to briefly summarize each. I will also offer some ‘suggestions’ on how we can make each of the brain rules actionable in our lives. I say ‘suggestions’ as just like all the rest of the advice we give on Prime Your Pump, these are hypotheses rather than prescriptions. What works for me, may not work for you and vice versa. You can think of it as if you are doing your own little research project to see what works for you!
On that note, let’s check out Medina’s…
12 Brain Rules
As Medina says: “The brain appears to be designed to (1) solve problems (2) related to surviving, (3) in an unstable outdoor environment, and (4) to do so in nearly constant motion. I call this the brain’s performance envelope.” 1
With that being said, each of the following brain rules we discuss below relates to Medina’s ‘performance envelope’.
(1) Survival: The human brain evolved, too
Our brain has evolved over time to help us survive. We began with a ‘lizard brain’ which helped keep us breathing, we then added a brain similar to a cat’s, which was topped with a thin layer known as a cortex, which is the third and powerful ‘human’ brain.
While humans are not the strongest species on the planet, we do have the strongest brains. The fact that we can solve problems, learn from our mistakes, and build relationships with other people has helped us survive.
(2) Exercise: Exercise boosts brain power
The fact that humans moved and were active as a species early on is key to our evolution. In other words, our fancy human brains didn’t develop while our butts were on the couch but rather when we were exercising!
Exercise is good for the brain for a couple of reasons. First, it helps get more oxygen to the brain which decreases brain-bound free radicals which means you are more mentally sharp. Second, it helps neurons form and survive while increasing their resistance to damage and stress.
Make it actionable: Walk! Our brains were built for walking. Engaging in aerobic exercise just two times a week can not only decrease your risk of dementia but also cut your risk of getting Alzheimer’s by 60% as well!
(3) Sleep: Sleep well, think well
As we have discussed in a previous post, sleep is critical for attention, memory, learning, executive function, mood, quantitative skills, and logical reasoning. While we still don’t know exactly how much sleep we need as it varies on age, gender, puberty, pregnancy and more, what we do know is that the biological need for a nap is universal!
Make it actionable: Obviously get enough sleep, duh! Another idea is to set your work or class schedule based upon the hours where you are most productive. See our previous post on the best time to do things to learn when to do various types of tasks based on science.
(4) Stress: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way
Stress messes up almost every type of cognition there is. It hurts your memory and executive function and limits your motor skills. It can also wreak havoc on your immune system and disrupt your sleep.
As Medina says: “Emotional stress has huge impacts across society, on children’s ability to learn in school and on employees’ productivity at work.” 1
Make it actionable: Taking control over your life to reduce stress may mean leaving stressful jobs or abusive relationships. And as we said earlier, exercise is not only good for your brain, it can help reduce stress as well. Lastly, if stress is really affecting you, seek out professional help.
(5) Wiring: Every brain is wired differently
As Medina says: “What you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like—it literally rewires it” 1
This means that no two brains are the same as various regions of the brain develop at different rates for each of us.
Consequently, it hardly makes sense that schools expect children to learn the same way or companies treat all employees the same way.
Make it actionable: In terms of education, Medina suggests using software to figure out where student’s competencies lie and then create custom exercises to fill in the gaps. At work, he says: “…it will be up to you to push for the things you value: the balance of vacation time vs. pay, a flexible schedule, the way your role within the company works.” 1
(6) Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things
As we have said previously, we can only focus on one thing at a time, meaning multitasking is a no-no! Furthermore, we pay more attention to things that are interesting and exciting as exciting things help release dopamine which is like our brains ‘auto-save’ feature helping us to remember things better.
Make it actionable: Medina says we are only able to pay attention for 10 minutes at a time before our brain begins to wander. His advice for those who teach or conduct business presentations is to “find a way to get and hold somebody’s attention for 10 minutes, then do it again.” 1
(7) Memory: Repeat to remember
The forgetting curve says that if we have done nothing with the information that we have learned we will have forgotten roughly half of it within an hour, 70% of it within a day, and 90% within a week.
Make it actionable: Make sure to first completely understand what the information you have learned means and then deliberately re-expose yourself to it and repeat the information in fixed intervals to help boost retrieval.
(8) Sensory Integration: Stimulate more of the senses
As Medina says: “We absorb information about an event through our senses, translate it into electrical signals (some for sight, others from sound, etc.), disperse those signals to separate parts of the brain, then reconstruct what happened, eventually perceiving the event as a whole.” 1 In other words, the more senses that are stimulated, the better we are able to learn and remember.
Make it actionable: When delivering presentations or teaching, try to be creative to leverage multiple senses. For example, when you walk into Starbucks the first thing you smell is coffee, they have done a great job leveraging smell over the years to make sure that is the case.
(9) Vision: Vision trumps all senses.
Recently, we discussed the picture superiority effect which as Medina says: “When it comes to both recognition and memory and working memory, pictures and text follow very different rules. Put simply, the more visual the input becomes, the more likely it is to be recognized—and recalled.” 1
Make it actionable: During presentations, teaching or trying to persuade others: use pictures that grab the user’s attention, include video and/or animation, use relevant photos and remember that charts and graphs are fair game too!
(10) Music: Study or listen to boost cognition
While he discusses the benefits of music training and music therapy, the part that resonated with me was how music affects our moods. “…music’s ability to affect one’s mood and subsequent behavior is a common theme in literature. Researchers will tell you the reason is biochemical. It is a surprisingly well-established fact that music can induce hormonal changes. These changes result in the alterations of mood. Well duh, say music fans around the world.” 1
Make it actionable: Crank up that stereo and listen to your favorite tunes! But not too loud, we don’t want to disturb the neighbors!
(11) Gender: Male and female brains are different
Men’s and women’s brains are different both structurally and biochemically. This results in: differences in anxiety levels, depression levels, antisocial behavior, the handling of stress and the processing of emotions – amongst other things.
Make it actionable: One suggestion Medina had was to pair men and women in work teams to take advantages of each of their strengths.
(12) Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers.
Lastly, he explains how despite being confined to classrooms and cubicles we never lose the desire to explore what we had as babies. In fact, babies are the model for how we learn – observe, hypothesize, experiment and conclude.
Make it actionable: Give people time to experiment and explore. For example, Google has given their employees the autonomy to work on any project they want 20% of the time which has led to such famous products as Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, and Google Translate amongst others.
Where Did I Go?
Earlier in the post, you will remember that I left for 26 minutes. Where did I go?
If you guessed that I went for a nap…gold star for you!
Have you ever felt tired at 3 o’clock in the afternoon? Don’t worry, we all have. The reason is that it is at that time that your brain really wants to take a little nap.
In fact, one study conducted by NASA showed that a 26-minute nap was able to reduce a flight crew’s lapses in awareness by 34% versus a control group that didn’t nap.
Roger that!
Hopefully, my 26-minute nap made this blog post 34% better!
Until next time, keep napping, experiment with some of these brain rules and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
P.S. Wanna know more? Check out the entire book.
Use it or Lose It
The 12 brain rules from John Medina that we discussed above are:
(1) Survival: The human brain evolved, too
(2) Exercise: Exercise boosts brain power
(3) Sleep: Sleep well, think well
(4) Stress: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way
(5) Wiring: Every brain is wired differently
(6) Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things
(7) Memory: Repeat to remember
(8) Sensory Integration: Stimulate more of the senses
(9) Vision: Vision trumps all senses
(10) Music: Study or listen to boost cognition
(11) Gender: Male and female brains are different
(12) Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers.
When to Use It
Use these brain rules whenever applicable in your life.
What Do You Think
What do you think of Medina’s brain rules and recommendations to make them actionable? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it with people you care about via any of the social media platforms below!
Popular Previous Posts:
Hook Model: This is How Habit-Forming Products are Created!
10 Charlie Munger Quotes on Life, Education, and Happiness
5 Metaskills That Will Help You Transition to the Robotic Age!
Deep Practice Makes Perfect: This is How to Master Skills
References
Brain Rules: 12 Rules for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School by John Medina
Interesting blog! It makes sense that our physical needs must be met in order to optimize brain function. As you said our brains function differently. I have a friend who is fortunate to have a photogenic memory. She can see a series of numbers and letters with 7 or 8 characters and recall it 6 months later. I am jealous! Thanks Rick
Hi Eileen, It sure is interesting how the brain works and how some people, like your friend, are gifted in certain ways. Thanks for reading and commenting! Rick
Really nice summation of many previous posts. But don’t limit yourself to a pre-determined 26 minute nap. Naps should last as long as they need to, which is when you wake up.
(6) is priceless – as I mentioned in the reply to your Active Reading essay – Almost immediately the brain ignores or disregards things that are dull, boring, uninteresting, or irrelevant. I call it the “toilet response” – your brain flushes out all the useless unwanted crap. What did I learn in that required college economics class – absolutely nothing except that the instructor was a complete and total douche bag.
(10) is so true. As a kid, I loved having the radio on while doing homework or studying. Of course, my mother would throw royal shit fits – “how can you concentrate with all that noise?” I finally wised up and used an earphone.
Then there’s number (12). I let my brain wander all the time. There are instances when it does not return, and Joan has to send out a search party.
Hi Dave, Thanks for the great thoughts and comment. Yeah, the 26-minute thing was according to the NASA study. According to what I have read is that when you nap you don’t want to wake up in stages 3 or 4 of the sleep cycle or you will wake up groggy aka sleep inertia will kick in. So, between 10 and 30 minutes is ideal OR 90-120 minutes meaning you will avoid stages 3 or 4 on the other side. Too funny on Joan and the search party, lol! Take care, Rick