Future Brain

Book description

Super-charge your brain to gain a huge competitive edge in business and in life

Future Brain is the busy professional's secret weapon for boosting mastery, efficiency, and productivity to gain that coveted competitive edge — in business and in life. Designed to be implemented at the individual, team, or organisational level, this in-depth, step-by-step framework leverages neuro-scientific principles to help you develop a solid, habit-changing plan for building and maintaining brain fitness and healthy behaviours. Author Dr. Jenny Brockis will help you develop your thought processes and your regular routine to get more done with less effort and time. Based on the idea of neuroplasticity, these daily practices improve focus, creativity, and effectiveness to help you stay relevant, competitive, and way ahead of the pack.

You already have a magnificent brain, but you probably take it for granted; we often develop "survival techniques" that force our brain to work with an incompatible "operating system" in an effort to keep up with the ever-increasing velocity of change and information overload. This book helps you beef up your brain awareness so you can take advantage of the built-in features and native capabilities that make the human brain a truly awesome machine.

  • Reduce stress and avoid stress-related illnesses
  • Foster healthy thinking habits to boost efficiency
  • Build your expertise with renewed focus and stamina
  • Drive innovation through productive collaboration

A brain that can change, adapt, lead, and collaborate to operate with a high level of flexibility, agility, and creativity is a brain that will serve you well now and into the future. Future Brain turns neuroscience into actionable steps, helping you to train your brain to achieve high-performance in all areas of life.

Table of contents

  1. About the Author
  2. Acknowledgements
  3. Preface
  4. Introduction
    1. Back to the future brain
    2. Working nine to five. And six to twelve. And …
    3. It's time for greater organisational health
    4. Investing in mental capital
    5. The 12 keys to developing a high-performance brain
  5. Part I: Creating a high-performance brain
    1. Key 1: Nutrition: Refuelling smart
      1. You're such a fathead
      2. Gut instinct
      3. Food and focus
      4. The java jive
      5. Our daily desk
    2. Key 2: Exercise: You've got to move it, move it
      1. Business on the move
      2. Equipment order: one hamster wheel please
      3. The perils of too much sitting
      4. Moving towards a positive thinking space
      5. Don't stress me out!
    3. Key 3: Sleep: Bring me a dream
      1. Respect the zeds
      2. Swing shift
      3. Sleep stability
      4. Sleeping on the job: the power of the nap
      5. Helping ourselves to sleep better
    4. Key 4: Mental Stretch: Flexing our mental muscles
      1. Curiosity breeds success
      2. Train your brain to change your mind
      3. If I only had a brain: the Tin Man and other brainy myths
      4. Take the challenge: could you pull the sword from the stone?
  6. Part II: Operating a high-performance brain
    1. Key 5: Focus: Adjusting our lens of attention
      1. Fragmented focus
      2. Give your brain a break
      3. You don't pay attention to me anymore
      4. Rage against the machines?
      5. Why monotasking is the new black
      6. Strategies for focus
    2. Key 6: Mindset: Does your attitude suck?
      1. What's with the attitude?
      2. The power of belief
      3. For the individual: becoming brain type ‘be positive’
      4. For the organisation: keeping the door ajar
    3. Key 7: Healthy Stress: Creating a brain-safe environment
      1. Stress leave
      2. Why caring is sharing
      3. Managing stress
      4. Psychological techniques to alleviate stress
      5. Mobilising the brain to learn
      6. Why learning really does take AGES
      7. Promoting a culture for learning
    4. Key 8: Mindfulness: Finding enough thinking space
      1. Operating at fast-forward
      2. What's your perspective?
      3. Mindfulness over matter
      4. Team mindful
      5. Practice makes peaceful
      6. Mindful leadership
  7. Part III: Integrating a high-performance brain
    1. Key 9: Change Ability: Adjusting to progress
      1. Man overboard
      2. The drama of change
      3. The problem with change
      4. Project change
      5. Adopting a culture of change
    2. Key 10: Innovation: Curiosity leads to insight and innovation
      1. Whole-brain thinking
      2. Aha! So that's what insight is all about
      3. Free-range thinking
      4. It's brainstorming? Quick, get in out of the nasty weather!
      5. For the individual: creativity 101
      6. For the organisation: igniting the creativity spark
    3. Key 11: Collaboration: Side by side
      1. Start with connection
      2. Creating a collaborative culture
      3. Team intelligence
      4. The eyes have it — social sensitivity
      5. Taking turns does matter
      6. Girl power
      7. Team work
    4. Key 12: Leadership: Thought before action
      1. What makes a good leader?
      2. Laying a foundation for the future
      3. Listen
      4. Speak
      5. Reflect
      6. Inquire
      7. Connect
      8. The ones in the wings
      9. The TRAICE™ model
  8. Conclusion
  9. Sources
    1. Introduction
    2. Nutrition
    3. Exercise
    4. Sleep
    5. Mental stretch
    6. Focus
    7. Mindset
    8. Healthy stress
    9. Mindfulness
    10. Change ability
    11. Innovation
    12. Collaboration
    13. Leadership
    14. Conclusion
  10. Index
  11. EULA
  12. Advert

Product information

  • Title: Future Brain
  • Author(s): Jenny Brockis
  • Release date: December 2015
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780730322504