12 Apr The Power of Your Neurobiology
“BE your brand; inhabit your work fully, and tap into your absolute capacity. BE your bandwidth because you already are your bandwidth.”
You know when they say “work smarter”? What does that even mean?
Here are some elements of my take on that.
Subconscious productivity:
I wrote those words – and many others – while asleep the other night. For years now I have been able to use a certain kind of sleep state to extend my productivity and, while I rest, continue to work on the things that are important to me. While my body recovers, my brain often goes to work reflecting, problem-solving, and generating ideas. All I have to do is jot it down when I wake up.
I am not going to lie to you; it’s awesome. Also, it’s thoroughly obsessive and possibly, insane. I don’t care. Works for me.
Ever since high school I learned how use the power of my subconscious and put it to work. The first time I wrote something in my sleep (a novella about tragic love across two generations) I was 17. I didn’t have a computer at the time (nobody did) so I woke up and wrote it by hand in a notebook (in one sitting, with no scratches, re-writes or interruptions), then gave it to my Dad who gave it to his secretary to type it (on a typewriter). That novella went on to win a youth national literature award that summer. The funny thing is that I didn’t think anything of it. It was just what I used to do back then.
So my invitation to you is to start using the power of your subconscious productivity. Give yourself a problem to solve before going to bed; it could be anything from a decision you need to make, to strategic questions you can ask yourself, to writing, and my favorite, stuff you need to figure out. The more you do it, the better at it you’ll get.
Altered states:
The brain is truly a magical machine, a friend that knows YOU better than you know you. From the tactical clock function that I have been using for decades to wake up, (see below for an explanation of the technique), to altered states (and if you think “altered states” is hippy mumbo jumbo, I have news for you: sleep is an altered stated. Driving is altered state. TV watching is altered state. Etc.)
At the age of 14, I had to take my high school entrance exams (that’s Romania in the 80’s for you), one of which was a 3 hrs math exam. I was decent at math and I was prepared, but I was never patient enough to be extraordinary and had too many other interests. Although 3 hrs seems like a lot of time, of course it almost never is. Except that, for some reason, in the middle of the exam, my brain kicked into this weird, altered stare where subjective time slowed down by several orders of magnitude and a deep calm washed over me. I placed my face on my folded left arm on the desk and started writing my equations and solutions. I am pretty sure I looked half asleep to most people. Times stretched forever and insights became crystal clear. The outcome in the outside world? Perfect score in the math exam, top 10 admission spot, and 20 minutes to spare. I am not bragging; just reporting on a case study.
This is not a singular experience; humans have experienced various versions of “the zone” since the beginning of time.
But you have to practice; everything is a muscle that needs training and strength. The brain is also a funny place: it needs room to operate, otherwise it discards and chunks, because its imperative is to process and make sense of things. Space is vital for creativity and for emotional health. Basically, we need mental space to think. Not an earth-shattering statement, but on oft-overlooked one…
The payoff, however, is huge, particularly in productivity. Without exaggeration, for decades people have asked me: “what kind of batteries do you function on?” The answer: same as yours. The difference is in the internal attitude, the commitment to action, and the discipline.
Clock functions:
Before you close your eyes to go to sleep tonight visualize the time on an analog clock. Let’s say it’s 11:12pm. Just see it (either on a real clock or in your mind’s eye): little clock hand at 11 and big clock hand on the dot that marks 12 minutes. Do that three or four times. Than let’s say you need to wake up at 4:15 am to catch a plane. Visualize the time the same way, three or four time. You can even say it out loud if you want. Then go to sleep (for beginners, no TV watching or email checking; later, when you are more practiced, you could).
You’ll wake up at the designated time, but the waking up part is not the best part (although it is awesome). The best part is that you wake up fresh and rested because your brain would have made sure that you didn’t get jolted awake by an alarm in a middle of a sleep cycle… This works for 20 minute cat naps or 8 hour night sleeps, and the more you use it, the more confident you will become in your ability.
Pattern recognition:
This is a quintessential aspect of human intelligence. We use it to spot a familiar face, to make connections between seemingly disparate elements, to make decisions, to “trust our gut” (which is a convergence of pattern recognition and quantum energy processing).
Yes, you do have facial recognition software in your head. We all do, in addition to much, much more… How much conscious information we get out of it is always a matter of practice and the availability of space to process the outputs of the system because there is little point in the production of insights if you are too distracted to even understand what you know.
To increase productivity on your pattern recognition processes, do these three things:
1). Feed the system with details. Basically, you need to practice your observation skills with all your senses: what color buttons does that man’s shirt have? What texture is the ceiling? Are there any birds here? Where is the wind coming from? What did she say? How were her hands moving when she said that? Did his eyes narrow or widen when she said that? Does the door you just walked through open towards the inside or toward the outside? Can you hear the trumpet playing in the background of that song? Etc. etc. The details are both not important and very important.
Acquire massive, massive amounts of detail in a constant flux. These details are telling you how the world IS at any given time, how people feel at this precise moment, what they want, what they need. The beautiful part about this is that you need to do nothing else than one thing: train yourself to pay attention. And once you do it enough, it becomes effortless, and transforms you into a ninja of perception, a James Bond of context.
2). Practice pattern recognition. While it can take 100 exposures until you see a pattern, you can spot that in as little as two exposures. Something that repeats itself 2 or more times could be a pattern. Anything from behavior to factual knowledge is subject to this. And once you master this, it can be a kicka$$ shortcut. It can save your life and it can save a lot of heartache while putting you at a constant advantage. Who doesn’t want an advantage?
3). Practice validated inference (I just coined that, so come up with your own name). The practical use of pattern recognition in behavior is so obvious that I won’t waste your time on that: if Mary does something 2+ times that is a pattern you want to use, change or stay away from. Enough said.
I will give you an example that shows how you can shortcut knowledge acquisition. People have been asking me since childhood how do I know all the things that I know. Part of it, clearly is classic knowledge acquisition (reading, experimenting, listening to the ones that know); a large part of it is not. That part is inference and validation. By inference I mean a deduction, an educated guess, and sometimes, just a guess. When you validate a guess, it transforms into fact.
Recently I was in Austin, Texas and I went to an event. As I was waiting for the concierge to take us to the elevator, I took 2-3 seconds to look at the abstract art piece behind it. That is pure information, neither valuable nor useless; just data (and beauty because that’s how attention enriches our life by creating a micro-moment of pause during which you say: “Hm. I inhabit this moment because I am conscious of this moment. And I know I am conscious of this moment because I used this moment to channel information abut this art piece through my eyes into my brain.” Of course, that’s not what I said to myself while looking at that art piece. I just looked for a long moment, noticing the colors, medium, technique.)
Later, I was walking through Austin and I saw a mural. “Hm. Pattern.” said my subconscious. I walked closer to the mural. While it was a completely different medium and subject matter than the collage behind the concierge’ desk, something looked familiar. There was a signature at the bottom: Lance Lestcher. All this information came to me without me actually stopping or slowing down; it just flows in. I walk 3 more feet and in a storefront window I see “art by Lance Letscher” which by that point, I deduced he must have been a famous/beloved local Austin artist. Then filed it away instantly. Next day, there is segment on TV about local artist. Boom! Connect the dots. I validated my inference by learning more about Lance, and now I know a fair amount, with less than 5 minutes invested, about Lance and his work. If this would have been a topic of significance for my health, my family, my business, this shortcut would have been invaluable.
And because not everything in life needs to be essential, at a minimum, by paying attention, one builds an encyclopedic knowledge base and a mechanism to access it instantaneously. Not a bad bargain.
The trick is to get that process of pattern-spotting down to minimum, and then act on it, by adding more information. By giving a voice to the pattern in your head and by acting on it, you rewire your brain to do this better and better, faster.
Flow pivot:
Watch the winds. Get used to being in the flow and being able to see the “why?” of the Universe. Why did you have to be there, in that exact spot, at that exact moment? What called you there in the first place? Trust that you know many times, but that you often don’t know.
You think you were there for A and then B happens. And if you are adroit at recognizing a pattern shift, then you are going to see in a split second what the next action needs to be. I call that flow pivot.
And the shortest path to it is to stop for a second and ask yourself “why am I here?” The answer will come.
All and all?
Attention. Use it.
Be well,
Cristina