How to Have a Good Day: Think Bigger, Feel Better and Transform Your Working Life

Webb shows readers how to squeeze the most out of 24 hours, how to keep calm when the going gets tough, and how to work well in a team, as a leader and collaborator. And it all starts with you: the changes you make will affect everyone around you.

This book is a must-read for leaders who want to enhance their management skills. It's equally useful for team members who simply want to achieve more and feel better about it. If you believe that work can be fulfilling, energizing and creative, you'll be inspired.

It'll mean making some changes, putting in the effort, and pushing beyond resistance. But the reward is feeling better and thinking bigger. This book is like a "boot camp" for anyone working in an organization who wants to make the most of his own and his team's skills.

Helping companies boost their professional effectiveness is Webb's specialty. An Oxford- and Cambridge-trained economist, she has 15 years' experience as a management consultant at McKinsey and at her own consulting firm, Sevenshift. This experience has enabled her to find out what work is like for hundreds of employees in a variety of organizations. And she's observed that even small changes, such as fine-tuning the way people set priorities, can lead to great improvements in job satisfaction and performance.

Webb's work has been featured in the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Economist, and Forbes, and by the BBC.

So keep listening to find out why taking time out increases productivity, how understanding the brain leads to better decision making, and how recognizing there's no absolute reality will improve your relationships.

The book is divided into seven parts, with a chapter before part one setting up the theory and another after part seven aimed at making the learning stick. Each part is subdivided and, with headings like "Overcoming Overload" and "Beating Procrastination," it's easy to pinpoint what you're looking for. And each chapter ends with a bulleted summary for quick reference.

You can dip in and out of most of this book, thanks to its clear structure, but it's best to read the introductory chapter first. Titled "The Science Essentials," it outlines the scientific research underpinning Webb's practical tips.

Having a good day can seem like a matter of luck. We have no control over the crises that crop up at work, like the deadline that's been moved forward or the client who's in a funk. Or do we? According to Webb, we have more control than we might think. She bases this on her knowledge of psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience.

In recent years, the combined research from these three disciplines has unearthed some interesting ideas about how we thrive at work – emotionally, physically and mentally.

Psychologists have focused on what lifts our spirits and boosts our productivity, while neuroscientists have used MRI scanning to measure the brain's response when people are energized by something they've accomplished. Behavioral economists have focused on how we make decisions, finding that we sometimes make snap decisions on very important issues, yet weigh up all the options before making a fairly unimportant decision.

In the first chapter Webb explains the theory from these three disciplines.

The main idea is that the brain has two operating systems: a deliberate system and an automatic one. The deliberate system is concerned with planning, self-control and making sense of the world based on past experience. It's logical and analytical, but is also empathic and creative. This part of the brain is slow, has limited memory capacity, and tires easily.

Our automatic system, on the other hand, is instinctive and fast, and requires no conscious effort. It can handle complicated routines such as the journey to work or driving a car – once they become familiar. It multi-tasks, prefers short cuts, and filters out irrelevant data, showing the deliberate brain what to focus on.

The downside of the automatic system is that it won't process any information that's not on its radar, and will always plump for the task that requires the least conscious effort. So, it can easily miss important data that's not been flagged up as relevant and it won't consider all the options when making an important decision, unlike the deliberate system.

However, if you were about to step out into the road right in front of a truck, your automatic brain would snatch you out of harm's way before your conscious brain was even aware of the truck hurtling toward you.

In short, we have our tame, laborious, well-behaved, and highly reliable deliberate brain, and our racy, autonomous, often gung-ho automatic brain. We are in possession of two superb systems, says Webb, provided we take charge!

So, how do we harness the strengths of these two powerful brain systems? The greater part of the book is devoted to outlining strategies for doing just that.

Part one, titled "Priorities: Setting Intentional Direction for Your Day," outlines how to prioritize with purpose. Remember, you have two brain systems operating. If you turn up for work with no idea of what needs doing, your auto system may gallop off like a wild stallion without direction or focus.

So if you just let the day happen, you could end up missing opportunities. Webb suggests spending a few minutes at the start of the day prioritizing your aims and intentions. Then, at the end of the day, reflect on what went well – or didn't go well. In this way, you can determine what deserves your attention on the following day.

When you intentionally direct the brain, your automatic system filters out irrelevant data, which means your deliberate system has more capacity to focus on what's important. This way, you're making the most of your brain systems' collective talents.

Another trait of the brain is that it's always on the alert for both threats and rewards as we go about our daily lives.

When we perceive a threat, we tend to go into defensive mode, activating our fight-flight-freeze response. This response of the automatic system was useful when we were hunters. But in today's working environment, the "threat" will more likely be a complaint from a customer or criticism from a colleague than an attack by a wild animal. Clearly, the automatic system's fight, flight or freeze action is not the most appropriate response. Engaging the reliable, thoughtful, deliberate system will far more likely resolve the situation harmoniously and make you feel in control.

Once you understand these natural responses to a threat, you can learn to recognize when they're triggered, in you or members of your team. You can then retrieve the situation, rather than escalate it.

According to Webb, the automatic fight-flight-freeze response to threat is why a "take no prisoners" approach to leadership doesn't work. It puts people on the defensive and they don't function thoughtfully in this mode. They're more likely to react inappropriately, causing relationships to suffer.

So if "sticks" don't improve our work, how about "carrots?" Webb says rewards are far more motivating than threats, and can improve responses in a stressful situation. She says internal, or intrinsic, rewards are especially effective – things like recognition, praise, a sense of belonging, competence, and learning something new. In other words, rewards that make us feel good about ourselves.

So, when faced with a challenging situation, look for the potential rewards. This will re-engage the deliberate brain and shift you into what she calls "discovery mode" – exploring the potential pleasure or learning in the challenge or problem.

Another key idea is the mind-body loop. It sounds obvious, but the way you treat your body impacts hugely on the brain's cognitive and emotional function.

Webb points out that sleep, exercise and relaxation rarely get the respect they deserve. Most people are aware that these three essential activities make the brain operate more efficiently, but they often only get to them after they've completed all other tasks. But, says Webb, you need to make these a priority if you want to reach your peak performance and make every day a good one.

Studies show that getting enough sleep enhances blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, where most of the deliberate system is located. This results in increased creativity and boosts our ability to learn new things.

For its part, exercise stimulates the release of dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin, leading to faster information processing, better short-term memory, and increased concentration. It also boosts mood and motivation.

Webb points to the popular practice of mindfulness as a "bridge" between the body and brain, helping us achieve more fruitful periods of relaxation – the third essential activity.

Today, more and more organizations are using mindfulness, including the U.S. Army, which says it improves people's resilience and performance. And it's so easy and convenient to practice. Simply focusing on one thing, such as your breathing, for several minutes increases concentration, energy and sense of wellbeing. Brain scans show improved connectivity between different parts of the brain's deliberate system when participants have practiced mindfulness.

This is all very well, but taking time out means you get less work done, doesn't it?

Not according to research into the routines of world-class athletes, musicians and chess players by Florida State psychologist Dr K Anders Ericsson, who studies expertise. He found that these high-functioning individuals focus in blocks of no more than 90 minutes, with breaks in between. So, to get the most out of your brain, plan some downtime. That could mean stretching your legs, getting a change of scenery, or a few minutes of mindfulness.

Another aspect of having a really good day at work is recognizing that we all perceive reality differently. We all have our own versions of it. This is because the automatic brain uses a filtering system to speed up the processing of all the complex data it encounters. Back in 1967, Princeton psychologist Anne Treisman called this "selective attention."

It's hard to fathom how people can ignore data that's right under their noses, but psychologists Chris Chabris and Dan Simons proved that this is exactly what the brain does. In the late 1990s they conducted an experiment in which participants didn't notice a person in a gorilla costume walking through a group playing basketball! Sounds unbelievable, but participants were told to count the number of passes between the players in white shirts and their automatic system completely filtered out the gorilla!

So, on that basis, you can imagine what might happen if you attend a meeting entirely focused on getting your point across. Your selective automatic brain may ignore important ideas expressed by your colleagues. Given people's different skills, experiences and interests, co-workers may emerge from the same meeting with completely different conclusions about what was said. This can lead to confusion and even conflict as they try to work together.

Webb offers some advice for managing this phenomenon. She outlines a five-step process to help people find common ground, reduce defensive behavior, and eliminate conflict.

If you find yourself in a disagreement, first reflect back, by clearly describing the other person's point of view. This shows you've listened attentively and you respect her opinion.

Second, identify all the things you agree about. This helps to isolate the true disagreement and understand it – that's the third step. Ask yourselves why you see things differently.

Step four involves exploring how you could both be partially correct. And, finally, having established some common ground, work on how you can both move forward.

There are so many useful strategies like this in the book. "How to Have a Good Day" is akin to having a trusted mentor to guide you. Webb sets out to help readers have a good day at work, every day. If you follow the tips most relevant to you and your company, you'll go a long way to achieving this. You may already be familiar with some of the suggestions, but you're bound to come across some fresh insight too, so it's a great resource to have on your desk.

"How to Have a Good Day: Think Bigger, Feel Better and Transform Your Working Life," by Caroline Webb, is published by Pan Macmillan.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.