Better Thinking = Better Decisions

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the Healthy Mind Platter which is from a Neuroleadership Journal by David Rock, Daniel J Siegel, Steven A.Y. Poelmans and Jessica Payne.

The platter consists of – Sleep Time, Physical Time, Focus Time, Time In, Down Time, Play Time and Connecting Time.  I asked you to consider this platter as a concept for you to ensure your mind has all your daily mental nutrients.  This was so you could cope with the mental and emotional threats of our present-day saber tooth tigers.

The present-day saber tooth tiger is a symbol of the psychological and social threats that we encounter every day.  We know that these threats bring up the same fear responses of flight, fight, freeze or flock that physical threats create.

Some examples of these psychological and social threats are

• A scheduling diary malfunction with one of your best customers
• You’re excluded from an important business meeting and no explanation is provided
• You’re worried about your financial situation
• The teacher tells you that your child is not coping at school

You need to be able to cope with your threat responses around these events so that you can live the best life that you want.  You need the best thinking for your best decisions.

The newer part of our brain the pre-frontal cortex is tiny.  It is expected to perform our executive functions of

• Differentiating among conflicting thoughts,
• Determining good and bad, better and best, same and different,
• Understanding the future consequences of current activities,
• Working towards our defined future goals,
• Predicting outcomes and expectations from our current actions, and
• Controlling our emotions so that we fit into our social group and don’t commit social suicide

Our mind needs assistance to cope.  The Healthy Mind Platter is a wonderful tool to keep your mind fit and healthy.

Of course, you are wondering how you are going to include all your essential mental nutrients in your busy schedule each day. 

Yes, some of the platters require discipline eg sleep time – (where possible) making certain you have a set time for going to bed and waking up, physical time – finding regular time to focus on this although a simple suggestion might be extra walking in your day, time in – allocating 15 minutes in your day for mindfulness  – a simple solution for this could be eating one meal a day with mindfulness – what you are eating, every bite, every chew, smells, taste, visual etc etc

Down Time, Play Time and Connecting Time could be a wonderful way of spending time with your family especially if you have young children who need to play to develop.  You could allow yourself to check-out from your busyness and just let whatever happens unfold.  Your children (depending on their age!!) will love you for it.

Strangely enough Focus Time is the one that most of us are struggling with in this digital age.  There are lots of shiny, visually pleasing and interesting stories to distract us on our devices that have almost become extensions to our bodies.  I know I feel naked if I’ve forgotten my smart phone.  It feels like I cannot function until I have it with me again.

Our mind loves distractions, colour and movement.  These things trigger the reward centres in our brain.  I know if I hear a ping on my smart phone, I just need to look to see what is going on.  Someone might be wanting to contact me.  There might be something new for me to find out.  Perhaps it might be more interesting than what I’m doing .

So, we carry these distracting devices attached to us and a lot of us now work in open office environments.  It is not conducive for a good period of focus time for our minds.

Some suggestions that work for me.

• Allocate a period to just focus on the important tasks for your work.  If you are in an open office environment, headphones with quiet music may work.  At our office we know that if someone has their headphones on, they do not want to be disturbed.
• Turn off all notifications on your smart phone or turn it off for a focus period.  Seriously, the world will not end in that time.
• Don’t open your email first thing or if you do just scan for urgent matters and then close.
• Put the “do not disturb” on your work phone.
• If other ideas come up during the focus time, note them on a list and come back to them later.

I’ve discovered that making this focus time in my day has reduced my feeling of mental confusion where my thoughts are all over the place and I’m jumping from one idea to the next without any cohesion.   I don’t know about you, but I really dislike this feeling.  It is such an “out of control” kind of feeling.

So, my recommendation to you is to take the time to plan your day with your mind in mind.  I know you will find that better thinking equals better decisions.

Remember all of this and much, much more is provided in my Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Program.  The next program is on 10th and 11th May, 2018.