Section 2.1. The Focused Brain

2.1. The Focused Brain

Focus is about dedicating as much of your brain as possible to a particular task. The brain has many parts: the front part is dealing with whatever you are thinking about right now (the CPU and L1/L2 cache, if you will), the back part is where you store stuff (the RAM), and the far back part is where you store long-term knowledge (your hard drive). Focus deals with what I'll unscientifically call the front of your brain.

When you focus, you are trying to dedicate 100 percent of the front of your brain to your current task. To best understand this, let's look at an unfocused brain. Pretend you're trying to concentrate on a task, for example, writing a new Perl program to automate a procedure. However your mind is also cluttered with thoughts about the meeting you have in an hour, the three other tasks you have to do today, the milk you must buy on the way home, and you are still worrying about something your boss said to you this morning. All those things are taking up space in the front part of your brain, stealing capacity away from that Perl program you are writing! How good do you think that Perl program is going to be with all that other stuff filling up the front of your brain?

You wouldn't think that just trying to remember that you need to buy milk after work would take cycles away from your task at hand, but it does. Part of the brain is used to keep that memory alive. DRAM chips work the same way. They have to keep refreshing their memory or the information disappears. (Interestingly enough, SRAM doesn't require constant refreshing and is much more expensive.) Keeping a memory alive in the front of your brain is just as much "work" as doing any other physical task.

Clear all those "need to remember" things out of your brain by delegating responsibility for remembering to some other system. Set an alarm to ring before the meeting starts, write those three tasks on a to do list (see Chapter 5), write "milk" on your shopping list, and write down that you are going to visit your boss first thing in the morning to find out what he really meant (see Chapter 8). Now, you can rid your mind of those items and free up space for that task you're working on. Don't worry about forgetting those things; trust the systems you've delegated them to.

Sure, you're a smart person. You might be able to remember all those things and work at the same time, but why would you want to? I'm dumb as toast compared to most people I work with, but I use these techniques to level the playing field. If you are a smart person, you can have the effectiveness of people who are super-smart. And if you are super-smart, well, why are you reading this book? Give the rest of us a break!

Difficulty Falling Asleep?

Falling asleep is about letting your brain calm down. How can you calm down if you are expecting it to remember something for tomorrow? You can't do both at once.

Keep a pad of paper and a pen next to your bed. When something is keeping you awake, write it down and try falling asleep again. I bet you'll be asleep soon.

This technique also works if something is worrying you or making you angry. Worry keeps us awake because we're trying to remember to do something about what's worrying us. Anger keeps us awake because we're trying to remember to stay angry! If you write down what's worrying you or making you angry, your brain can relax a little because you know the pad of paper will be there in the morning.

Even bettercall your phone number at work and leave yourself voice mail. This works from anywhere there is a phone. This also eliminates the chance that you'll forget to take your note into work!

Many cell phones and MP3 players include voice recorders . Get in the habit of using them so you don't lose your good ideas.