Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus and Working Smarter All Day Long
By David Rock
HarperBusiness, 304 pages, $26.99
Whatever you think you do for a living, you actually get paid for using your brain. David Rock wants to help you get more from that mass of squishy tissue in your cranium using insights from modern neuroscience.
Rock structures his book around the workday of a fictional couple, Emily and Paul, who must deal with the usual onslaught of traffic, tasks and anxiety while doing their jobs and keeping their cool. The morning's avalanche of e-mail, for instance, is first used to show how nonessential tasks can deplete mental resources -- and then to describe the limits of the prefrontal cortex, where such "executive" functions as self-control and problem solving reside. Rock makes the science of your mind accessible and relevant.
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