10 Easy Steps From Top Scientists for Living Better

We're constantly learning more about what the human brain can do. We’re also learning quite a bit more about what it can’t do. “[T]he brain is not an all-powerful, all-purpose thinking machine that we can command at will to learn or pay attention or remember,” science writer Annie Murphy Paul explains. “Rather, it’s a very specific and limited organ, one that evolved to carry out tasks that are very different from the ones we ask of it today.”

Paul took a deep dive into how some of modern civilization’s most celebrated minds have found ways to think outside of their brains, then explored the science behind those techniques. The conclusions she shares in her bold new book, The Extended Mind, are startling — and empowering.

“The biological brain is really good at certain things: sensing and moving the body, manipulating material objects, navigating through physical space and interacting with other people,” Paul says. “The more we can leverage these natural human strengths in the service of thinking, the easier and more effective our thinking will be.”

How does that translate into actions that will make us happier and more effective? To grasp abstract ideas, ignore distractions, recall information and accomplish draining tasks, “the brain needs help — help from 'outside the brain' resources, like the body, like physical space and tools, like social interactions,” Paul says. Here are 10 truly game-changing ways to take what she's learned and put it to work in your life.

Your body can figure things out before your brain does, and you can use interoceptive signals — that is, cues from sensations generated by your organs, muscles and bones — to act on the information it offers. Paul reviewed how researchers at the University of Cambridge found this to be true among financial traders: those who were sensitive to (and able to accurately count) their own heartbeats, key markers of arousal that would correspond to "gut feelings" they experienced while making split-second financial decisions, tended to be more successful.

You can tap into your own unconscious knowledge by focusing on your body’s reactions as you make decisions. Paul did just that when house hunting: “I bought a house three years ago, and though it once might have embarrassed me to admit it, I bought it entirely on the basis of how my body felt as soon as I walked inside,” she remembers. In essence, it recalled other things that had made her happy, tagged those patterns for future reference and alerted her when they surfaced again.

“People who are more attuned to their internal signals are better able to make use of this non-conscious wisdom,” she says. “That day when I walked through what is now my house, I did pay attention to the sense of calm happiness I felt welling up in me — and I’ve never regretted my decision to buy it!”

Physical movements that are traditionally associated with distraction — such as drumming our fingers, tapping our feet and toying with small objects — can make us more effective, according to research Paul reviewed. They can actually provide the physical stimulation we need to maintain focus on a task; put simply, they’re a way to change what’s going on in our heads by changing what’s going on with our bodies.

Paul knows it works; she does it herself. “There’s a particular ballpoint pen whose cap I take off and replace, take off and replace. I like the idea that fidgeting allows us to very precisely modulate our level of arousal, allowing us to achieve an optimal state of alertness. I’ve moved decisively away from the idea that the best thinking happens when we are sitting still. In fact, I find, bodily movement gets my thoughts flowing.”

Anyone who’s taken a crash course in public speaking or searched the internet for tips on how to give an effective toast can tell you that hand gestures can have a significant effect on an audience. The surprise in Paul’s research? They have serious benefits for the speakers themselves.

“Before I did the research for The Extended Mind I didn’t give much thought to gesture,” she says. “I’m sure if you’d asked me then, I would have said that hands follow in the wake of our words, sort of clumsily approximating what we just said. I had no idea that our most cutting-edge and advanced ideas often show up first in our gestures, and that these hand motions then help inform our verbal accounting.”

Paul also learned that people are much more likely to remember the points we make when they’re accompanied with gestures. “So, now, when I give a speech I practice my gestures just as much as I practice the text of my talk,” she says. “I try to incorporate both ‘beat’ gestures — generic motions that emphasize a particular point I want to drive home — and ‘symbolic’ gestures [like holding up two fingers to offer a visual cue that represents the number two], which capture the meaning of what I’m saying. I even try to make sure that my gesturing hands are visible when I do an interview or teach a class by Zoom.”

As she learned about how we interpret sensations, Paul took a fascinating detour into … power ballads. In a memorable Harvard Business School study, subjects were asked to perform stressful tasks such as taking a timed IQ test, giving an impromptu persuasive speech or singing Journey’s 1981 monster hit “Don’t Stop Believin'.’” Prior to undertaking those harrowing tasks, some were instructed to tell themselves to stay calm and others were instructed to tell themselves they were excited — and the latter group gave better performances across the board.

Does Paul think it would work for her on karaoke night? “I do hope that I could take what I’ve learned from my research, which is that we actually construct our emotions from the raw materials of our bodily sensations. The sweaty palms and racing heart I would feel in anticipation of singing are identical to the physical sensations I would feel if I were in a state of positive excitement — so, the theory goes, if I tell myself, ‘I’m so excited!' I can actually intervene in the construction of the emotion I feel in that moment. What I know not to do is to tell myself, ‘Calm down!’ The body’s signals can be ‘reappraised’ but they can’t be ignored or dismissed.”

Tempting as it is to avail yourself of a local cafe’s iced lattes and Wi-Fi when it’s time to work remotely, study after study suggests that music- and conversation-filled spaces aren’t conducive to efficiency or effectiveness. That goes for wide-open shared offices, too. “The fact is that the human organism is not able to screen out novel sounds and movements of the kind that are happening all the time in an open office,” Paul explains. “Many workers resort to headphones, but it turns out that music with lyrics draws on exactly the same cognitive resources that we need to do our mentally demanding work, giving us ‘less brain’ to work with.”

“Noise-canceling headphones are an improvement, but better yet, find a space where you’re protected by walls or other barriers from the sights and sounds of other people,” she adds. Findings like these have fascinating implications as shared work spaces reopen: “It may be that as employees return to work, a hybrid model gets established, wherein employees can do their demanding cognitive work in a quiet setting (maybe at home!), and then come in to the office for work activities that involve collaboration and brainstorming.”

“All of us are eager to return to pre-pandemic life, of course, but there are some habits we adopted during COVID that I think are worth keeping,” Paul notes. “One is those regular walks so many of us started taking — especially the ones that break up the work day. One of the most fascinating areas of research I encountered while working on The Extended Mind was on what are called ‘metaphorical movements’ — that is, movements of the body that prime the brain to think in a certain way.” In other words, wild as it sounds, you’re better able to move past metaphorical stumbling blocks when you’re literally moving.

“If you think about it, many of our metaphors for creative thought involve movement — our thoughts are ‘flowing,’ we’re ‘on a roll ’— while metaphors of stasis characterize the state of lacking fresh ideas — we’re ‘stuck,’ we’re ‘in a rut.’ Walking is a kind of loose metaphor for dynamic thinking; we’re moving forward, new vistas are coming into view, we’re feeling loose and supple,” Paul says. These physical experiences help prime the brain to think in a related fashion.”

“I ‘refill the tank,’ so to speak, by getting outside at least once a day for a walk or a bike ride,” Paul says. “I find that we think and talk so much about ‘managing’ or 'controlling' our attention; we don’t think as much about actively replenishing our attention so that we have enough of it to do our work effectively. And the most effective way to restore our attention is simply to spend time outside.” Studies have shown that using a smartphone on those walks substantially counteracts the attention enhancement effects of being in nature, so it’s well worth your while to unplug for the sake of regaining focus.

“There’s a big maple tree outside my window, and I find myself gazing at it many, many times a day,” Paul says. “I watch its leaves rustling in the breeze and I’m aware of the relaxed state of mind brought on by that kind of gentle, diffuse movement. It’s such a different experience from the very intense, hard-edged focus we bring to our work or our studies; that kind of focus is very draining, and our attentional resources are very quickly depleted.”

It should go without saying that if you have the ability to work in natural light, as Paul does, you should park yourself beside a window. (As she reports, a 2014 study found that office workers exposed to daylight through windows sleep 46 minutes more per night than workers in windowless spaces, and workers at Google with window-adjacent desks report higher levels of creativity and productivity.) If you can’t, you’ll still benefit from bringing natural elements into your space: as Paul writes, research has also shown that the presence of indoor plants improves employees’ attention, memory and productivity levels.

If you do find yourself in a shared office — particularly a shared office in which your work station changes — don’t be shy about laying visual claim to your turf, even temporarily. “I am concerned about the growing trend of ‘hoteling’ or ‘hot-desking,’ in which employees have no assigned space in the office but simply grab what’s available when they come in,” Paul says. “Research shows that people are more effective and productive when they feel a sense of ownership and control over their space, and also when their spaces display cues of identity and cues of belonging — that is, symbols representing who they are and what groups they belong to. At the very least, it would benefit employees who find themselves in this situation to bring along an object or two that they could set on their desk to ‘mark’ it as their own and to remind them of who they are and what their purpose is.” That Agent Scully action figure perched on a shelf at your cubicle? She’s there because of science.