Power Up Your Mind - Learn Faster, Work Smarter

Learn Faster, Work Smarter... Power Up Your Mind

-Contents

-Acknowledgments vii

-Introduction 1

-Part 1 Get READY to Learn: Going beneath the surface 6

-1 Unpacking Your Mind 8

-Taking your mind out of its box 9

-Your three brains 11

-Your divided brain 13

-Close-up on your brain 16

-Five key principles 18

-Brain or mind? 21

-Brain food 22

-Laughter, music, and sleep 25

-Nearly unpacked 28

-A day in the life of Annie’s brain 29

-Unpacking your mind—in a nutshell 33

-2 Getting Ready to Learn 34

-Checking your emotional readiness 35

-Curiosity and emotional state 36

-A hierarchy of emotional needs 38

-Reading your own moods 39

-An emotionally confusing world 40

-Raising self-esteem 43

-Learned optimism and the three Ps 46

-The joined-up revolution 48

-Mens Sana in corporate Sano 49

-Brain gym 50

-Getting to the spiritual dimension 51

--A new sixth sense? 53

-Getting ready to learn—in a nutshell 54

-3 Switching On Your Mind 55

-Understanding your fundamental drives 57

-Rewarding your own learning 59

-A formula for motivation to learn 61

-Motivation and the mind 63

-Getting the big picture 64

-Balancing challenge and threat 64

-The importance of where you learn 67

-Who you learn with 68

-Getting your learning environment ready 69

-The pressures of life 71

-Overcoming barriers to learning 72

-Switching on your mind—in a nutshell 75

-Part II GO For It: Becoming a competent learner 76

-4 Learnacy 78

-Understanding yourself as a learner 81

-Learning to use new techniques: the 5Rs 82

-Learning about learning 83

-The learning cycle 84

-Different types of learning 86

-Learnacy—in a nutshell 88

-5 Understanding Yourself as a Learner 89

-How you take in information 90

-Dealing with information 95

-Working out your learning style 96

-Learning styles and information preferences 97

-Learning styles and meetings 98

-Understanding yourself as a learner—in a nutshell 101

-6 Resourcefulness 102

-Getting the big picture 103

-Tuning in your mind 105

-Breaking down your learning 106

-Learning by imitation 108

-iv Power Up Your Mind

-Learning online 112

-Extending your range 114

-Resourcefulness—in a nutshell 116

-7 Remembering 117

-Understanding how your memory works 118

-Types of memory 119

-Key memory principles 121

-Memory pegs 126

-The importance of where you are 128

-Muttering 129

-Making regular deposits in your memory bank 130

-Your sleeping mind 131

-Remembering—in a nutshell 133

-8 Resilience 134

-Persistence 136

-Being an adventurer 137

-Dealing with difficulties 139

-Handling confusion 141

-Resilience—in a nutshell 143

-9 Harnessing Your Creativity 144

-Inspiration, ideas, and learning 147

-The characteristics of creative people 149

-The value of ideas 150

-Multiple intelligences 152

-The multiple intelligence workplace 158

-Barriers to creativity 160

-Making connections 163

-Creative thinking 169

-A world of possibility 179

-Harnessing your creativity—in a nutshell 181

-10 The Case for Learning at Work 182

-Six reasons it pays to learn 184

-The case for learning at work—in a nutshell 187

-Contents v

-Part III STEADY As You Go: Putting learning into practice 188

-11 Living and Learning 190

-Putting learning into action 190

-Change and the brain 192

-Living and learning—in a nutshell 194

-12 Reflectiveness 195

-The science of reflecting 197

-The craft of reflecting 198

-Making reflection normal 203

-Overcoming the barriers to reflecting

-A reflective world

-Reflectiveness—in a nutshell

-13 Responsiveness

-The feelings of change

-Responding to change

-Responsive learning

-Responsiveness—in a nutshell

-14 Balancing Your Life

-A life balance quiz

-Controlling stress

-A different kind of life planning

-Balancing your life—in a nutshell

-15 Making Time for Learning

-Making learning normal

-Why you need a learning practitioner

-Making a personal learning action plan

-Making time for learning—in a nutshell

-Part IV Useful Information

-An A–Z of brain-based approaches to life and work

-Troubleshooting

-Resources

-Index