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Brain Awareness Week (13 to 19 March 2023) has arrived to remind us to give daily effort and attention to our most important asset - our brain.
© Danielle Robertson Consulting Pty Ltd t/as DR Care Solutions
The brain is our most important organ but often the most neglected.
According to leading neurologists interviewed in the ABC’s “Our Brain” series[1], its strengths are under threat in our digital age.
Terms such as digital dementia and digital deduction are now common. And it seems to all stem from the fact that our brains are not designed to operate in a technology world.
Basically the human brain has not changed much in 40,000 years. It continues to seek information at a time and pace which is convenient to it. Its mode of operation directly conflicts with the technology age in which we live.
Information is constantly being thrust at us through technology devices. Take the statistic that 20,000 times more information is being thrown at us today than 20 years ago and you start to understand that our brains, with their finite capacity, are now overwhelmed.
The scientists call it “cognitive overload” and the result is the inability to think clearly and feelings of being foggy and irritable. It is linked to rising anxiety and depression.
What is the answer?
It lies in being able to filter information and focus. In fact some of the bigger thinkers of our time have the ability to block out 95% of the information circulating around them.
There are other menacing factors that are diminishing our brain strength.
Multi-tasking is a huge culprit. The term was created in 1966 to describe how computers operate, not how we operate as humans.
Humans are single-task orientated. Switching from one task to other in a single time frame is as toxic to our brain as cigarette smoking is to our lungs.
Some neurologists see it as the single most dangerous threat to our brain health with research showing that chronic multi-tasking causes shrinkage of the Hippocampus part the brain – the epicentre of learning and memory. It mirrors early Alzheimer’s Disease.
More immediately, multitasking causes you to take 40% longer to complete a task and increases your error rate by 50%.
Further, those digital distractions of alerts and new email notifications divert our attention to what is interpreted by the brain as “urgent”. When we are distracted, the research shows it takes nearly 24 minutes to get back to our deep focus state on the task in hand.
So the goal is to be a mono-tasker and tame your tech habits. Remember also the brain needs rest. It needs to wander and day-dream to allow those bigger ideas to seed.
Here are some tips from the experts:
To avoid digital dementia:
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Don’t outsource your memory capacity – read maps and don’t rely on the wayfinding Apps.
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Read from a paper book rather than a screen; and if you can’t avoid the screen write notes as you learn.
To avoid digital deduction:
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Don’t let technology do the thinking for you through its algorithms. Keep your critical thinking and analytical skills.
Try the 2 + 5 + 7 routine for brain health:
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Make it a priority each day to have two 45-minute sessions of deeper thinking.
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Take a five-minute break five times a day to give your brain a rest.
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Do seven new things each day to keep your brain innovative and flexible.
If you look after your brain you’ll have what they call “good cognitive reserves” for the day that your brain may be impacted by injury or disease.
[1] See Episode 2 of https://iview.abc.net.au/show/our-brain The statistics and research appearing in this blog are taken from Episode 2 of the ABC’s “Our Brain” series.
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Needing care assistance for your loved one? Please feel free to call me, Danielle Robertson, at any time for an initial discussion on how to set up the right care, support and assistance at the right time and in the right place.
Resources
[1] See Episode 2 of ABC iview's "Our Brain" series from which the statistics and research appearing in this blog are taken.
[2] Brain Foundation: Brain Awareness Week 2023
