To boost productivity and cognition in the Knowledge Age, prioritize Deep work, avoid the Shallows, and Self-Quantify

By Luc P. Beaudoin | September 26, 2016

————— In 2009, Winifred Gal­lagher pub­lished his excel­lent Rapt: Atten­tion and the Focused Life, per­sua­sive­ly argu­ing that pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, enjoy­ment and human devel­op­ment require extend­ed peri­ods of focus­ing. The next year, Nicholas Carr pub­lished his fas­ci­nat­ing The Shal­lows: What the Inter­net Is Doing to Our Brains in which he argued that the Inter­net is ‘rewiring’ our brains.…

Read More

For a good night’s rest, combine general sleep hygiene with mindful and cognitive techniques

By Luc P. Beaudoin | May 2, 2016 |

——- Most Sharp­Brains read­ers under­stand the ben­e­fits of stress reg­u­la­tion, and also the ben­e­fits of sleep. Rec­om­men­da­tions for sleep hygiene are well pub­li­cized. They include avoid­ing alco­hol and stim­u­lants like caf­feine; stick­ing to reg­u­lar bed and wake times (even if you don’t get enough sleep); exposing

Read More

7 Key Lessons from the 2011 SharpBrains Summit: Retooling Brain Health for the 21st Century

By Luc P. Beaudoin | April 21, 2011

Sharp­Brains served a high­ly thought-pro­­vok­ing and infor­ma­tive 2011 Vir­tu­al Sum­mit on Retool­ing Brain Health for the 21st Cen­tu­ry over 3 days, March 30th — April 1st. Here is a brief dis­til­la­tion of the large num­ber (40+) of pre­sen­ta­tions. 1.The range and vari­ety of pre­sen­ta­tions left no room for doubt that the dig­i­tal brain health market…

Read More

Will the Apple Tablet Support or Hinder Users Cognitive Fitness?

By Luc P. Beaudoin | January 26, 2010 |

Rumor has it that Apple is going to announce a tablet com­put­er, which may well become a rev­o­lu­tion­ary new way for users to read and expe­ri­ence all kinds of edu­ca­tion­al con­tent. Will it sup­port or hin­der our Cog­ni­tive  Fit­ness? In this arti­cle, I describe the cri­te­ria that a tablet com­put­er and its tech­no­log­i­cal ecosys­tem must…

Read More