3 Ways to Protect Your Brain

Ian Bennett Alas highlights Nicholas Spitzer's interview with The Economist in his latest post about how to protect your brain.  

[L]et me dispel a brain development myth. Many people think classical music is going to enhance brain function (the Mozart effect) or playing particular games sharpens ones cognitive function. These theories have been looked at in detail and they don’t stand up. It is disappointing in a way, but what we have learned is that exercise is the key thing for brain function.

Doing crosswords isn’t good for your brain?

It is good for improving your crossword skills but does it lead on to other kinds of advanced cognitive function? No. There is no translation of the crossword skills to other skill categories. That shouldn’t discourage anyone, they are a lot of fun, but a vigorous hike will do more for your cognitive function.

What about playing an instrument? Don’t you have to use right and left brain for a stringed instrument?

Yes. That has clear cognitive functions that do crossover. Especially learning to play and read the music at the same time. But exercise is number one, diet number two and then social interaction. These are the important things for brain function.

What do you do to protect your brain?

I’m a rock climber and an ice climber. I go to the Sierra Nevada mountains, anywhere above 10,000 feet I’m a happy guy. At home I go to the gym.

A New Methodology for Managing Email

CEO of LinkedIn Jeff Weiner follows four clear cut rules when it comes to managing email mayhem. 

The first is rule is to ramp up a routine. If email won't structure itself (and no, it never never never will) then structure your own email routine. Weiner's routine looks like this:

Wake between 5am and 5:30am; spend roughly an hour on my inbox; catch up on the day's news; have breakfast and play with the kids; workout; go to the office; carve out roughly two hours for buffers each workday; come home; put the girls to bed; have dinner with my wife; and then decompress, typically while watching tv (sporadically cleaning up my inbox via mobile during commercials and the boring parts of whatever we're watching.)

Since technology erodes structure, we need to create rituals to create structure--and productivity--in our days.

The second rule is to write with extreme clarity. "Vague emails beget clarifying follow-ups, further crowding your inbox." Put another way, the best shortcut is to not take one the first time around.  

The third rule is to pay attention to the To: and the CC: fields. The former is inteded for whoever needs to respond. The latter is for context.

The fourth rule, according to Weiner, is to use "email to communicate highly nuanced, sensitive subjects that are bound to generate controversy if not a flat out aggressive response."

This echoes the advice old-school adman David Ogilvy gave regarding preventing communication stagnation in his self-same office:

Crusade against paper warfare. Encourage your people to air their disagreements face-to-face.

My only addition to Weiner's four rules: don't strive for the zero unread inbox. For many of us, its an unrealistic possibility. Striving for the zero unread inbox can often interfere with Weiner's first rule - creating rituals - if it means breaking dinner time to clean up your inbox. The value added from a pleasant meal (and thirty minutes without looking at a screen) is much more rejuvenating than the value added from a 13 unread count down from 14.