The key to a less stressful life is not just restricted to organising your desk, it is also about organising your mind and following a rule of order, says Dr Paul Hammerness, Harvard Medical School professor and psychiatrist. In his book Organise Your Mind, Organise Your life, being released by Harlequin India, Dr Paul tells you how multitasking is just a myth. It is not possible or practical for the brain to engage itself in many tasks at one time. Excerpts of an interview by Shalini Saksena
You co-authored the book with Margaret Moore who is a wellness coach and you are a psychiatrist. How did the two of you get togetherIJ
We came together through Harvard Health Publications — which was publishing a series of books about brain sciences. The editors of Harvard Health were interested in experts in organisation, from a medical/psychiatric perspective, complimented with a ‘real world’ practical approach, through wellness coaching. And that’s how we both came together. The association has been lovely. I have learnt many things from Margaret and I am sure she will share the same opinion too.
Could you tell us what the book is aboutIJ
The book is about organisation — a ‘how-to’ guide to getting and staying organised. Yet unlike other books, our book provides a medical/scientific framework that grounds the reader before considering techniques and tools. We believe that with a deeper understanding of the brain systems involved in being organised, readers can make more lasting changes in their lives and times. I am hoping to get a positive feedback on the book after our readers are through.
The reason for writing the bookIJ
Disorganisation impacts everyone — and can lead to poor health, stress, discouragement, a sense of personal and professional dissatisfaction, so on and so forth. We wrote this book to help people in any and every facet of their lives, to be more organised, happier and, of course, more fulfilled.
We wrote the book to take brain science and make it understandable and accessible to people — to translate science to real world insight and change. I think we have done a successful work out of what we had set out to achieve. let’s leave the rest to our readers.
Could you tell us about the latest neuroscience research on the brain’s extraordinary built-in system oforganisationIJ
Neuroscience research is allowing us more and more to ‘see’ the functioning of the brain, in action, as it works to focus, ignore distractions, use memory and planning to achieve the endgoal of being organised. In this book we describe these brain regions/functions in detail, citing studies in support of these functions. For example, we discuss how the cortical regions help scan the environment and pull in details, while other areas help resist impulses to get us off task.
Please explain with an example how one can use the power of the brain to make life less stressful, more productive and rewardingIJ
A patient of mine was helped to understand the importance of paying attention and reducing environmental distractions with the simple example of consistently placing her keys on a set “launching pad” by the front door of her house. This simple exercise, grounded in her understanding of the importance of focus, led to great changes in her morning routine — no longer would she frantically search for her keys every morning, which would lead to her being late for work, starting out her day stressed, with less time for lunch, accumulating stress and lateness throughout the day, a snowball effect which always started with the loss of her keys due to disorganisation. No longer was the case and it helped her in leading a positive and free life.
Your book talks about Rules of Order. What are theseIJ
These are essentially building blocks, grounded in science, which are necessary components of being organised. The book walks through these “rules” one at a time, describing the brain area/function (like focus, working memory), and then providing practical solutions to improve these individual functions.
How does one start to tap into the innate ability to be organisedIJ
One step at a time, with understanding the brain functions or ‘rules’ and then working on those you need to work on the most — this may vary for every reader.
Your book says that the brain was not built for multitasking. Can you please explainIJ
Multitasking is a myth — the suggestion that you can accomplish several tasks at once, effectively and efficiently is not true. It is not practical. We see multitasking as simply scattering or splitting up your attention, leading to a number of half complete or poorly completed tasks. It’s far better to focus on one task at a time, and then to shift your attention if necessary, but not to try to maintain focus across a number of tasks.
How difficult is it to train the brainIJ
We firmly believe everyone can train their brain, they just need some framework, some way to ground or understand the process of becoming organised.
RUlES OF ORDER