Do you sometimes find your mind wandering, making it hard to focus on the task you’re trying to finish?
Join the club. It happens to everyone, including the brightest among us.
Many of today’s workers are expected to operate with industrial-era efficiency. But in our technology-dominated workplace, the work that often matters most is about learning, generating ideas, and solving complex problems—things that can’t be manufactured like outputs on an assembly line.
Dr. Mithu Storoni understands this new world of work better than most. She’s a University of Cambridge-trained physician, neuroscience researcher and ophthalmic surgeon. She advises multinational corporations on mental performance and stress management. Her book is Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work.
So, how does people’s 2024 definition of “efficiency” differ from what it might have been 50 years ago?
“The concept of efficiency took shape in the era of industrial assembly lines, when a company’s profits were directly proportional to the quantity of products assembled by each employee” Storoni says. “The secret to producing more was to work faster, not take breaks, and work longer hours. Today, a company’s success hinges much less on the quantity of work done by humans as AI and automation are taking over the territory of “lower level” cognitive work.” Instead, she says, growth is increasingly driven by what humans can create, solve and innovate with these AI tools. “The quality of mental output – of ideas, solutions and innovation—is now key to productivity. Today, efficiency is not about getting things done, but about getting things done well.”
Storoni says the human brain operates in three modes—gear 1, gear 2, and gear 3—and she explains what it is about Gear 2 that makes it the most optimal mode for working efficiently.
“When you sit down to work, it helps to imagine the brain as an information-processing machine working in three different gear settings (this is a metaphor). The higher the gear, the faster it works, but it trades off accuracy for speed. In gear 2, you’re in a ‘Goldilocks zone,’ the speed-accuracy balance is optimal, your prefrontal cortex is fully engaged and you can precisely control your attention.”
But creativity, she says, is impossible in gear 3. So how does a person operating in Gear 3 “shift down” to a gear that’s more “creativity-friendly”?
Storoni says three things make your brain shift gear: your mental load, your perception of time, and the sense of uncertainty. “If your brain has a mountain of work to get through or you think the world around you is moving fast, your brain speeds up to keep up,” she says. “The same is true if your brain senses uncertainty—it tries to reduce that uncertainty by processing information faster. So you can ‘downshift’ to a lower gear by lowering all three—reducing your mental workload, making the world around you move more slowly, and calming any sense of threat or worry, such as an imminent deadline.”
Once you’re in gear 2, she explains, creativity happens best when your attention is not glued to a target and can wander. “You are more likely to get into an optimal mental state for creativity while walking than while sitting glued to your computer screen.”
By now you may be asking yourself, “How can people identify their ‘gear personality’ so they can seek environments in which they’re most likely to thrive?”
Everyone has a slightly different sensitivity to stimulation and uncertainty, Storoni says. “Some people need the thrill of a challenge, or the excitement of uncertainty to get into an optimal mental state, while others thrive in calmer, more predictable settings. You can estimate where you lie on this spectrum by considering where you are able to do your best work, and whether the prospect of competition and frequent deadlines help you perform better or worse.”
She says that in the world of mental work, “flow” is a kind of superpower. What exactly is flow, and how can it be managed to help a person be hyperefficient?
“Flow is a subjective mental state where you become so immersed in what you’re doing that you lose track of time and the work suddenly feels lighter, even though you’re producing your best work,” Storoni says. “It’s a kind of ‘superpower’ because focusing attention for long periods is usually mentally tiring—but you don’t tend to feel tired if you are in flow, and the state feels mentally energizing. Some researchers think mental work feels effortless in this state because the state is somehow energy efficient. If you can enter into flow while you work, it can help you stay in an optimal mental state without much effort.”
In terms of people’s ability to learn, what challenges and opportunities does the digital age present?
“The digital age is disrupting the work landscape,” Storoni says. “As AI and automation enter the workplace, workers are having to learn new skills and take on new roles. The AI systems are themselves evolving at a rapid rate and as they do, workers must keep learning to keep up.” She says the main challenge of this kind of “shifting sands” work landscape is workers will often have to “plunge in” and “learn on the job” rather than rely on formal learning. “This demands a degree of self-control and agility. The sense of continuous progress when learning a new skill or solving a problem feels intensely pleasurable and cultivates intrinsic motivation. The fast-evolving digital landscape offers many opportunities to learn and engender robust intrinsic motivation.”
What’s Storoni’s advice for people who struggle with urgency, deadlines, and focus in the workplace (or any place)?
If urgency and deadlines keep you on the edge of anxiety, work on something in parallel that gives you a sense of control, she suggests. “This can be as commonplace as tidying your desktop or organizing a file. If you’re struggling to focus more generally, adjust different elements of your environment where possible. For example, listen to white noise if you’re distracted by the noise on the office floor, or go on a quick run if your mind keeps wandering.”
She also offers advice on what to do when you experience a mental block: “Leave your desk and take a walk—even a short one. If you unglue your attention from what’s in front of you and let it wander, you’re more likely to see the big picture and identify new avenues that you previously couldn’t see. A walk is one of the best ways to do this.”