Zoning Out When Doing Routine Tasks?

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge -- Danile J. Boorstin

Ever zone out? You read a couple of pages in Newsweek and realize you missed the point. Or, on the way to a monthly meeting, 10 miles past the expressway exit, you finally come to. It's as if you were on auto-pilot.

Lack of attentiveness can occur to you and me, when we assume we know something. We're so accustomed to the route, for example, that we no longer see it. What's going on, anyway? It's connected to the way your brain works

Picture part of your brain as a filing cabinet chock-full of routines developed over a lifetime. That's how your brain's basal ganglia works. Not too surprisingly, when you read something that isn't interesting to you, your eyes routinely take in the words, but you're day-dreaming of purchasing that new HD TV you saw a few pages back. Similarly you may be so familiar with a route that you don't pay close attention to it, though you are aware of the cars around you. In some ways that's scary. But the driving routine's deeply entrenched.

Good news... we can overcome mindlessness by seeing our world with fresh eyes, according to Ellen Langer of Harvard. "To be mindful," Langer notes, "stressing process over outcome, allows free rein to intuition and creativity, and opens us to new information and perspectives." Tapping intuition and creativity stimulate your brain's working memory.

Picture another tiny part of your brain as a graph that takes in new information quickly, combines it with what's stored in the filing cabinet to develop brand new patterns. That's similar to the way your working memory works. And the problem is if you do not act on the new information, the graph can quickly lose all the data.

Override your brain's default for ruts, Dr. Ellen Weber says. Get control of your distraction reflex...Put the ordinary under a looking glass and discover a surprising element. Or, change your performance in subtle ways as Weber advises.

Test your concentration level Here's a quick test to determine your ability to concentrate on a task and whether you have a well-developed portfolio of strategies to apply yourself.

How would you Reinvent Yourself through Mindful Creativity at work? I'll include your ideas in a follow-up blog.

No Holding Back Ella Mae Johnson from Inauguration

Nurses tried to persuade 105 year old Ella Mae Johnson not to go to the inauguration today because of bone chilling cold.

Ella Mae replied that she had parents who lived under slavery...

Knew the indignity of being called lesser than...

Experienced Women's Suffrage...

Rejoiced during the civil rights movement...

And today she desires to participate first-hand in Martin Luther King's... I Have a Dream,

by celebrating her 105th birthday attending the inauguration of a black President.

But it's too cold for you, Ella Mae, it'll be too hard on you. The crowds will be so big and it'll be top hard to get you there...

And... Ella Mae replied stoically. Now you've named the problems, and the solutions are?

Ella Mae will be there... She's on her way now. Nurses are pushing her in her wheel chair this morning.

As Aretha Franklin sings, My Country 'tis of Thee, and Barack Obama says the final words to the Oath of Office, "...So help me God," Ella Mae will be satisfied.

My Country 'tis of Thee

No turnin' back
No turnin' back...

Obama's an Avid Reader - You?

Barak Obama's often spotted carrying a book. He enjoys novels, non-fiction and biographies. Obama's an avid reader. You? Benefits... reading stimulates writing, vocabulary development, speaking and understanding a variety of viewpoints.

Intriguingly, reading has shaped our history, our culture, our civilization, neuroscientist Maryanne Wolfe says.

Reading unleashes your brain's thinking box... Not too surprisingly, reading pushes you to reason at high cognitive levels. Here's what goes on in your brain as you read...

The large mass of white matter, consisting of bundles of fibres, links the white matter of your brain's two cerebral hemispheres. The corpus callosum carries a large number of fibres from one cerebral hemisphere to the other and is the major route of communication between the two hemispheres to control cognitive and motor function.

White Matter Matters in Reading Performance The white matter is basically the wiring in the middle," Dr. Christian Beaulieu, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering in Alberta, Canada, explains.

"The way I see it, the grey matter is the computers and the white matter is the wiring or the Ethernet cable that connects them all up and lets them communicate."

His research team concentrated on the "wiring" that connects different parts of the brain and observed that measurable differences in the wiring can be found in children... They found that the stronger the connectivity of the white matter "wiring," the better the child's reading ability. Since our brains have remarkable plasticity, as you begin to read more, you build more reading acumen.

Here's my current book queue: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam, and Your Life as Story: Discovering the "New Autobiography" and Writing Memoir as Literature by Tristine Rainer. Plus, I expect two books in this week's mail.

What's in your current reading queue?

Mental Rehearsal Boosts Performance

Ever take a golf lesson, practice, think you have it, but it's not working a couple of days later? Happened to me last time I paid for a lesson.

You and I don't retain all details when learning brand new tasks. Here's why... The brain's working memory holds only small bits of new information. Steps just learned for a great golf swing sequence easily spill out of the working memory during activities you engage in before you're back on the course.

Interestingly, you can use mental rehearsal to raise performance.

Just think, if someone teaches you to use video software or to play a solo on your sax, running through a routine in your mind, sometimes benefits you more than doing it. When I learned that golf swing, evidently I lost some information... so next day, I practiced incorrectly. If you physically go through a skill incorrectly, you can hamper learning in future lessons... I can see why now!

The secret -- envision the whole new task as soon as possible. Thirty minutes of mental practice works well. Mental practice helps you and me remember since the process is picked up by your brain's basal ganglia. The more you practice, the stronger the memory. And once you "have the skill," you can improvise and even adapt to new situations.

Matthew Hutson, Psychology Today author, suggests three tips for optimum mental rehearsal:

1. Stick to Vivid Detail Try to remember your own body movements and visualize as accurately as possible.

2. Adjust Your Speed When beginning, go slowly through process so you can focus on detail. If you're an excellent golfer, quick works best.

3. Watch and Discover Take time to observe others who perform well.. Careful observation activates the brain's motor skills as if a person were performing the task.

See possibilities to rehearse new skills on your next plane trip or as you wait in the doctor's office? Thoughts?

Doubting Customers Reevaluate Brands

Lately, McDonald's mailed discount coupons, so I decided to eat lunch at a newly revamped restaurant. A once over of the menu, revealed salads and healthy food choices. More kinds of offerings than hamburgers, the Big Macs, and fries laden with fat calories I associated with the brand. A major change. Interestingly, many customers listen to marketing messages and, like me, give older firms another try. Have you reevaluated any brands lately?

New research shows that most consumers crave clear understanding of brand images related to companies and products. Consumers may be "swinging between doubt and closure more often than we think," claims Susan Shavitt, University of Illinois marketing expert. When customers read fine print or face other constraints with products, they're more open to new messages. “Consumers expect a strong sense of understanding for those brands," Shavitt adds, "and when that’s threatened it can lead them to be more open to reevaluating a brand.”

Four tactics to tempt customers to reevaluate brands

1. Create a sense of struggle through polls, surveys and contests with new information that counters a brand’s long-established image. McDonald’s, a brand used in the study, instilled doubt by asking consumers how many salad varieties appeared on menus or the sodium content of its burgers and fries.

2. Develop a logo projecting brand character Interestingly, even the briefest exposure to well-known brand logos can cause people to behave in ways that mirror those brands’ traits. For instance, when people see the Apple logo, they behave more creatively.

3. Outdistance Well-Established Brands by Using Distinctive Features Consumers more strongly associate common characteristics with traditional brands and unique traits with brand new brands, according to Cunha and Laran's research findings. They noticed a stronger connection between the unique feature and the new kid on the block's brand may result in an advantage when the unique features are more valued than the common characteristics.

4. Repeated unconscious exposure to a brand increases people's likelihood to select it How many times to you see someone walk down the street with a Starbuck's coffee or mow their lawn with a John Deere mower? All your exposures to a brand register subconsciously in your brain and affect what brands you pick. How is your brand exposure working beyond paid advertising?

Many parts of human brain activate as people select brands. Advertising and communication experts say that seeing the process in the brain and how it works will help organizations learn what people really feel about something, whether an ad or other stimulus. Novel stimuli tend to activate the hippocampus more than familar stimuli do. Because the element of surprise triggers release of dopamine, it creates stronger connections that lead to long term storage.

Keep in mind that novelty stokes memory. "Not surprisingly, memory strengthens and the brain’s rejuvenated in the presence of novelty," Ellen Weber reports. You can see exactly why uniqueness for brands is top consideration.

How do brands grab your attention and change your choices?

Falling asleep on the Job - Take a Hike

Ever have trouble staying awake at work? If you frequently experience afternoon slump you'll be interested in the Treadmill Desk invented by Dr. James Levine as a way to exercise while you're at your desk! Seems like there's no way you'd be sleepy if you're walking while you work!

On the average Dr Levine's research subjects burned 100 extra calories every hour while walking slowly -- at 1 mile per hour -- than while sitting in a chair. Just think of what could be done if you walk a bit more briskly!

And if you battle zzzz's during boring meetings with long-winded speakers, and/or diet-busting doughnuts, Jennifer Baran offers an antidote... a walking conference room. Everyone walks on treadmills or elliptical machines so there is no sitting going on.

In addition to staying awake, the new Treadmill Desk benefits you by...

1. Increasing your brain power

"Exercise in many ways optimizes your brain to learn," says Dr. John Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston who's at work on a book about exercise and the brain.

"The brain cells actually become more resilient and more pliable and are more ready to link up," he says. It's this linking up that allows us to retain new information.

2. Trimming the fat Without breaking a sweat, the so-called work-walker can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour, Mayo research shows.

3. Improving concentration

“I thought it was ridiculous until I tried it,” said Ms. Krivosha, 49, a partner in the law firm of Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand.

Ms. Krivosha said it is tempting to become distracted during conference calls, but when she is exercising, she listens more intently.

“Walking just takes care of the A.D.D. part,” she said.

4. Relieving stress and enhancing mood

"Exercise improves circulation throughout the body, including the brain," Harvard's John Ratey explains. "Exercise also boosts metabolism, decreases stress and improves mood and attention, all of which help the brain perform better," he says.

5. Creating a climate for high impact minds

"Increasingly science is shedding light on how we create settings that work either for or against human brains," Ellen Weber points out.

Seems like the Treadmill Desk may be a thoughtful answer to transform the way you and I work this year. Thoughts?