Your Brain at Work

Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

By: David Rock

Narrated by: Bob Walter

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Emily and Paul: The parents of two young children, Emily is the newly promoted VP of marketing at a large corporation while Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their lives, like all of ours, are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, yet more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.

In this book, we travel inside Emily's and Paul's brains as they attempt to sort the vast quantities of information they're presented with, figure out how to prioritize it, organize it, and act on it. Fortunately for Emily and Paul, they're in good hands: David Rock knows how the brain works - and more specifically, how it works in a work setting. Rock shows how it's possible for Emily and Paul, and thus the listener, not only to survive in today's overwhelming work environment but succeed in it - and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

Your Brain at Work explores issues such as:

• Why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources
• Why it's so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions
• How to maximize your chance of finding insights that can solve seemingly insurmountable problems
• How to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible
• How to collaborate more effectively with others
• Why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier
• How to be more effective at changing other people's behavior

©2009 David Rock (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Good concepts, narration drove me nuts

Narrator sounded like Carl Sagan’s twin brother. Slow and the cadence drove me crazy. Had to speed it up to 1.25 to make it bearable.

Interesting and actionable

What did you love best about Your Brain at Work?

Great pop-science with broad application. I try to get GTD working in a number of ways, and see now why most of my efforts fail. In mr Rock's words, I haven't first cleared the stage, then made sure the right actors are on it (as few as possible), then made them go one at a time. It also ties in to traditional effectiveness techniques (parallels to the monk who sold his ferrari) such as meditation and mindfulness.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Your Brain at Work?

The introduction of the Director, I think. I had to go back to that part a few times to really soak it in.

Have you listened to any of Bob Walter’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No

Phenomenal book

Highly recommended thoughtful piece! This book will open your mind and truly Rocks (pun intended).

great book

very good inside about the brain learned a lot will recommend it to read yes

Brilliantly useful!

A great summary of neuropsychological evidence in an applicable and entertaining format. Excellent metaphors, stories and images along with tips to make the science of the brain understandable and practical.

Very insightful

Really enjoyed the stories and the application of brain sience in real life scenarios.

should be required reading in school

awesome book although the stories wear on you by the end, they are worth listening to

Comprehensive. Useful book. Bit dry.

Nice summary of up to day neuroscience research with practical application described in model situations. It reminded me Seagal's "Where atention goes, neural firing flows and neural connection grows". Right amount of evolutionary reasons of our brain/behavior settings are added.

There is some interesting material here

If you could sum up Your Brain at Work in three words, what would they be?

Some material interesting.

What other book might you compare Your Brain at Work to and why?

I compare it to some of the better productivity and self-improvement books out there. This book is not perfect (but what is?), but has some very interesting information.

Which scene was your favorite?

Not sure.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Any additional comments?

While I did not find everything in the book of value, there are certainly some really interesting points made by the author and very useful information within this book. I am glad I read it. I will be selecting useful "nuggets" from this book. That does not always happen and I think this book is a good selection for those who are seeking greater productivity for themselves, and those who seek self-improvement. There may be some material you can skim over, but other content is very useful.

The Best Explanation of How My Brain Works Yet!!!

These type books are my new infatuation and this is arguably the best one I have listened to yet. It probably helps that I have listened to so many books of this nature but I really liked the way this gentleman explains things. My honest opinion is that most anyone would enjoy this one.