智能手机泛滥，大脑不堪重负怎么办

    最新一期的《神经领导力杂志》（NeuroLeadership Journal）中，美国加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）的丹•西格尔和我，连同杰西卡•佩恩以及斯蒂芬•珀尔曼斯，一起概述了“健康心灵拼盘”（Healthy Mind Platter）背后更深层次的科学原理。西格尔和我在2011年共同提出了这个概念。“拼盘”列出了大脑恢复最佳健康机能所需的7种精神活动。

    休息

    我们都需要的一种活动是，足够的休息。这时候，大脑将通过放空，重新恢复精神。跟其他器官一样，紧张工作之后，一段时间的恢复对我们的神经系统有好处。对于解决复杂的问题，休息时间同样是一个关键要素。移动设备持续不断的蜂鸣声让我们的周围神经一直保持亢奋，以至于无法注意到安静的、非意识的大脑更加能够解决日常生活的问题（或是真正的大问题）。在这种“嗡嗡”声音持续不断的情况下，我们失去了在早上淋浴、步行上班或驱车回家时经常发生的灵光乍现。我们应该保证人们能够在某些时间断开连接，而且不至于出现问题。如果人们不擅长停下来休息（就像我们不擅长以合理的速度驾车行驶），那么我们或许需要做出一些限制。德国的大众汽车公司（Volkswagen）已经开始每天关闭黑莓邮件服务器12小时，让员工进行休息。其他公司也在尝试类似的设想，包括减少、甚或禁止内部的电子邮件。

    为了获得真正的休息时间，人们需要假期，这时候他们可以完全停下来。它可能需要我们改变自己看待年假的方式。我们并不鼓励人们度长假，而是推荐较短的年假和每月额外的长周末，以帮助恢复精力。4天的离线生活能够让人获得真正的休息，而两周的假期却可能成为两周地狱般的工作准备，人们休息两周之后往往还要花两周时间处理遗留下来的2,000封邮件。或许我们需要一条规则，每隔几个月至少休息数天时间。

    专注

    “健康心灵拼盘”的另一个要素是专注时间，这是我们极度专注于某一工作任务的时候，在大脑中进行更深层次的连接。专注时间对长期记忆和大脑整体健康来说非常重要。我们需要对工作场所进行设计，让人们可以在必要的时间段集中精力，完全不受干扰。

    我的研究表明，人们每天至多有一到两个小时的最佳工作时间。如果人们在这段时间受到持续的干扰呢？就像缺乏见解和无法深入到一个想法当中，任务的转换会让我们的大脑疲惫不堪。最近，我欣喜地看到一家大公司在办公区域设置了一些私密的安静工作间，不过我之后又注意到上面贴着“仅供会议使用”的标志，就好像跟其他人交谈要比专注于工作更加重要似的。我们是否需要这样一条规则，让能够专注于工作成为工作场所的基本权利，就像人身安全一样？

    “健康心灵拼盘”的另外两个关键要素是交流时间和休闲时间。前者是用来跟其他人进行交际，后者则是我们在大脑中建立新连接的时候。事实证明，对于我们自己的福祉，与他人交流甚至比保持良好的饮食习惯更加重要。通过在上班时帮助人们完成他们的工作，人们在工作以外就可以拥有更多的社交时间和休闲时间，更不用说获得更多的睡眠了。

    我们拥有了一些快捷而闪亮的新设备，它们能够在各方面加快我们的工作速度。以这种新速度行进具有一定的危险性，而这种危险一开始可能并不是很明显。也许是时候为我们过度连线的生活设定一些限制和边界了， 这样我们在信息高速公路上行驶时才能减少事故的发生。（财富中文网）

    大卫•洛克是神经领导力研究所的联合创始人，他是一名顾问，著有《正常运作的大脑》一书。（财富中文网）

    译者：王灿均

    In a recent edition of the NeuroLeadership Journal, UCLA psychiatrist Dan Siegel and I, along with Jessica Payne and Stephen Poelmans, outlined the deeper science behind the "Healthy Mind Platter" that Siegel and I launched in 2011. The "platter" outlines seven types of mental activities the brain needs for optimal healthy functioning.

    Shutting down

    One activity we all need is sufficient down time, when the brain is refreshed through being non-goal focused. Like other organs, our neural circuits benefit from a period of recovery after being stretched. Down time is also a critical component for complex problem solving. The incessant beeping of mobile devices raises our ambient neural activity too high to notice the quieter, non-conscious brain providing a solution to everyday (or really big) problems. With the "buzz" always on, we drown out the so-called eureka moments in the morning shower, on the walk to work, or the drive home. We should be making it okay for people to disconnect for blocks of time. If folks are not good at switching off (just as we are not good at driving at sensible speeds), perhaps we need to install some limits here. Volkswagen in Germany has started switching off their Blackberry email servers for 12 hours a day to let people rest. Other firms are experimenting with similar ideas, including minimizing or even banning internal emails.

    For real down time, people need vacations where they fully switch off. This may require changing how we think about annual leave. Instead of expecting people to take long vacations, we can encourage a shorter annual break, with an extra-long weekend each month to enable recovery. Four days offline can be truly restful. Whereas a two-week break can be two weeks of hellish preparation, two weeks of rest, followed by two stressful weeks digging out from under 2,000 emails. Maybe we need a rule that requires total down time every few months for a minimum of a few days.

    Focus

    Another ingredient of the "Healthy Mind Platter" is focus time. This is when we focus intensely on a single task, making deeper connections across the brain. Focus time is important for long-term memory as well as overall brain health. We need to design workspaces where people can focus, totally undisturbed, for blocks of time as needed.

    My research shows that people have one to two peak performing hours a day at best. What if those hours involve being bombarded with constant distractions? As well as having fewer insights and not being able to go deeply into an idea, the task switching exhausts our brains. Recently, I was pleased to notice some private, quiet working rooms at a large company's offices, before I noticed a sign saying "for conference calls only." As if talking to others is more important than focusing. Do we need a rule to make being able to focus at work a basic workplace right, like physical safety?

    Two other critical ingredients of the "Healthy Mind Platter" are connecting time, when we be social with others, and playtime, where we make novel connections in the brain. Having connecting time turns out to be more important to our well-being than even maintaining a good diet. By helping people get their work done at work, people can have more social time and playtime outside work, not to mention get more sleep.

    We have some fast and shiny new machines that are speeding up everything about how we work. Travelling at this new speed has dangers that may not be obvious at first. Maybe now is the time to build in some limits and boundaries for our hyper-connected lives, to reduce the number of accidents along our information superhighways.

    David Rock is cofounder of the Neuroleadership Institute, a consultant and author of Your Brain at Work.