HAMBURG — No one harms themselves with more dedication than humans. They do not exercise enough, live in noisy cities, drink too much beer and pollute the air they breathe. Even though they know how harmful all this is, they do it anyway. People also sabotage themselves at work. They distract themselves and others, waste time on unimportant tasks, and fail to make progress. For the mind, everyday office life can be as dangerous as running on an icy winter road.
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Friederike Fabritius is a neuroscientist and author who has trained executives at Google, SAP and BMW on brain-friendly working practices. “You should work with your brain, not against it,” she says.
It sounds simple, but it is rarely done. “Employees could be five times more productive if they used insights from brain research,” Fabritius says. She and other experts recommend the following strategies to overcome self-sabotaging habits.
Write to-do lists
The brain benefits greatly from to-do lists. “When people write down tasks, they no longer have to carry them around mentally,” says Volker Busch. The specialist in neurology, psychiatry and psychotherapy, who conducts research at the University of Regensburg and recently published the book Heads Up!, also gives lectures on how the brain works. He believes it is useful to briefly structure the workday in the morning. His recommendation: “Do not open apps and read the news first thing. Instead, write down the three most important items for the day — preferably in a notebook not on your smartphone.” Another option is to create the mini-plan the night before.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, does not look at any screen for the first hour after waking up not even his smartphone. He has often said that he instead has breakfast with his family, mentally preparing himself for the day while staying relaxed. He can work better with this slow, digital-free morning routine. Bezos probably knows what Busch warns about: constantly staring at your phone is harmful. Even the mere presence of the device is a distraction. Reducing daily screen time by just one hour makes people more motivated and satisfied, according to a study from Ruhr University Bochum.
The brain also benefits from maintaining a to-do list. Busch advises asking yourself now and then: What can I skip today? Which task is unnecessary? Radical prioritization, in other words. “Almost all of us could skip 30% of our tasks,” he says. For example, tidying up the digital desktop every day does not contribute to productivity but just satisfies a personal sense of order. Doing it once a week is enough to keep things under control.
Use the morning
Come into the office and turn off all notifications. First, some peace and quiet. Busch believes there is hardly anything people need more today. He often hears complaints from people who say they have been busy all day but accomplished nothing significant. “I advise companies to create a quiet corridor where no communication happens between 9 and 11 a.m., unless it is an emergency,” Busch says. During that time, everyone can focus on what matters most, without anyone knocking at their door or interrupting.
Why is it so important to focus in the morning? Because of the human biorhythm, Busch explains. The distribution of chronotypes — whether someone is a “lark” (an early riser), an “owl” (a late riser), or somewhere in between — has been studied extensively.
Yet many people waste their most productive time on meetings and emails.
Larks are most productive early in the morning and flag after 5 p.m. Owls work better around midday and evening and feel groggy in the morning. About 60% of the population are mixed types. They wake up between 7 and 9 a.m., perform best in the morning, dip at midday, and regain some energy in the afternoon, although not as strongly.
Yet many people waste their most productive time on meetings and emails. Microsoft founder Bill Gates took it even further. Twice a year, he secluded himself in a cabin in the state of Washington, where no one was allowed to disturb him. These “think weeks” were crucial to Microsoft‘s success. Busch compares uninterrupted time to a glass of water with sand poured into it. Stir it with a spoon, and it becomes cloudy and dirty. Let it settle, and the sand sinks to the bottom. “That is what happens in silence,” Busch says. “Everything settles in your head, and you start thinking more clearly.”
Know your stress curve
For some, a little stress is essential to perform well. For others, it is completely paralyzing. This is what the Yerkes-Dodson curve describes. Developed in 1908, it shows how inner arousal affects performance. It looks like an upside-down U: the horizontal axis measures tension, the vertical one measures productivity. The curve peaks at the point where a person performs best.
Fabritius advises every employee to know where they are on the curve. Do you work better under little pressure or only with looming deadlines? One way to find out is to keep a weekly log, noting whether you felt bored, overwhelmed or just right during different tasks. Or set an alarm every 90 minutes to quickly record your current mood with a symbol.
If chatter in the open-plan office overstimulates you, consider arranging more home office days with your boss. If your work has become too monotonous, maybe a job swap could help. “Everyone should work where they can naturally succeed,” Fabritius says. “But many people never even try. Instead, they meditate.”
Pay attention to breaks
In the 1950s, sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman discovered that human sleep follows roughly 90-minute cycles alternating between REM and deep sleep. He proposed that during waking hours, performance and recovery phases also alternate at a similar rhythm. More recent studies suggest individual differences, but one thing remains true: the brain needs breaks.
Even micro-breaks help: standing up, stretching, drinking water or simply doing nothing. These brief pauses improve productivity and mental health, reduce stress and exhaustion, and lower the risk of burnout. Some teams even create break contracts, such as a screen-free lunch break or a short group walk.
Remain silent in meetings
Meetings often turn into endless talking sessions, usually dominated by the same voices. A company Fabritius once advised introduced a new rule: the time spent silent in meetings must be at least as long as the time spent talking. After a two-minute discussion, there is a two-minute pause. Everyone processes what they have heard and prepares their next contribution.
Often in meetings, people do not truly listen because they are too busy thinking about their next response. But the silent moments improved focus and led to more thoughtful, concise contributions, Fabritius notes in her book Neurohacks. Those who needed time to reflect got it, which led to better ideas.
Another more familiar technique is the “minute to arrive.” Some startups and even big firms like SAP and Otto start meetings by setting a one-minute timer. Everyone closes their eyes, calms down, and leaves behind the tensions and distractions of the day. The brain focuses on the meeting ahead.
Learn discipline
Busch warns against multitasking. In truth, nobody can do two things at once. The brain simply jumps rapidly between tasks, a process known as “task switching.” According to the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, this increases cognitive load and raises the risk of mistakes.
Interruptions at work are constant and costly. The think tank NWI found in a 2022 study that three full working days are lost each month due to interruptions. In a survey of 637 employees from 25 companies, workers were interrupted every four minutes. Often, they interrupted themselves, checking email six times an hour instead of completing tasks.
Busch urges more discipline. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, video calls and chat apps have been used indiscriminately. Although these are useful tools, some employees now spend entire days just reacting to messages instead of doing real work. Managers should limit communication to essential times and avoid micromanaging. Not everything needs an immediate answer.
Breathe in and out slowly
People breathe constantly, but often incorrectly. A study from the University of Evansville found that 60 to 80% of people breathe too fast and too shallowly. They fill only the upper chest, not the stomach, and take 14 to 18 breaths per minute. Ideally, they should breathe only 10 times a minute when seated.
What causes this? Stress. Long exhalations, in particular, have a calming effect. One simple technique is the 4-2-6 method: inhale quietly through the nose for a count of four, hold for two, and exhale slowly for a count of six. Studies show this slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. All without anyone noticing.
“There are many connections between the body and the brain,” Fabritius says. “If I manage to put my body in a relaxed, contented state, my brain follows.”
Take small steps
Many companies make a big mistake: they try to change too much at once. “Drastic change scares the brain,” Fabritius says. New habits require hard work to establish, and that tires people out. It is better to take many small steps.
Small, continuous improvements, rather than huge overhauls, optimize production.
Large goals should be broken down into manageable tasks. If a nursing team is switching to a digital documentation system, management should roll out one module at a time. First medication plans, then treatment records.
This approach is the basis of the Kaizen method, made famous by Japanese consultant Masaaki Imai. In his 1986 bestseller, he explained how small, continuous improvements, rather than huge overhauls, optimize production and culture. Companies like Toyota, Honda and Nestlé still use this philosophy.
Provide dopamine boosts
Outstanding performance comes easier when employees’ brains are flooded with dopamine, the “reward” neurotransmitter. Managers can trigger this by focusing on employees’ strengths.
Fabritius, who previously worked at the Max Planck Institute and McKinsey, often saw absurd expectations: project managers pushed into spontaneous brainstorming, or teachers forced into administrative meetings. Managers demanded everything from everyone.
Instead, Fabritius recommends matching tasks to strengths. Praise progress. Recognize individual successes. This activates the brain’s reward system, boosting not only mood but also concentration and productivity.
Listen to the subconscious
The brain picks up far more information than we consciously realize. Fabritius believes we should listen more to our subconscious — but only when we have experience in a field. Experts can often trust their first gut reaction.
Overthinking can block good ideas. Sometimes the best ideas come after a nap, while jogging or in the shower. The paradox is that with all the busyness of modern work, people rarely have time for those crucial moments of inspiration.
