Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work

by Mithu Storoni

Science-backed, easy-to-follow advice on how to get your mind working at peak efficiency
 
We all know how to nudge our brains to perform better. A strong cup of coffee helps us get through a dull meeting, and a brisk walk helps us think more clearly. But what if some nudges could optimise how we focus, create and process information even more effectively, to take mental performance to new heights?
 
Today, most office workers are expected to operate with industrial-era efficiency. Yet the work that matters most in our technology-dominated workplace – generating brilliant ideas, solving complex problems, and learning – can’t be manufactured like outputs on an assembly line. Instead, we need a new, HYPEREFFICIENT way of rather than imposing the rhythms of work on our brains, Dr. Mithu Storoni proposes we impose the rhythm of our brains on our work.

Storoni explains that our brains function like a car’s engine, with multiple gears that put our brains in optimal mode for different mental challenges. Drawing on the latest research, she shows us how to seamlessly shift our brains into the best gear for the tasks we need to be doing, so we can perform at our best throughout the day, every day.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Business, Productivity, Science, Personal Development

239 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2024

Reviews

[Eric von Rothkirch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tremendous neuroscientific insight into the mechanics of attention, focus, and finding flow states. It has practical recommendations for increasing attention and managing work around natural peaks and valleys throughout the day. Highly recommended for anyone who does knowledge-work or regular creative work of any kind.

[Yusuf Adeyemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned that harnessing optimal cognitive performance involves understanding and applying the power law of work-rest cycles, adjusting mental gears for varied tasks, and strategically using breaks.

You can boost your creativity and focus by alternating between high-energy and tranquil states within gear 2, and effectively managing breaks to rejuvenate and maintain momentum. Recognizing your cognitive style – or gear personality – enables you to tailor your environment for maximum productivity, enhancing both deep focus and creative exploration.

[Sarah Cupitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

main takeaway - blah blah hunter gather communities - this rhythmic work-rest cycle mirrors a mathematical principle known as the power law, where the intensity of work inversely correlates with its duration. Such patterns allowed for high-energy efforts in short spans, ensuring energy conservation and avoiding exhaustion – critical in unpredictable living conditions.

Notes:
- a common challenge for knowledge workers everywhere, tasked with maintaining high cognitive performance amidst constant distractions and a never-ending to-do list.
- the outdated expectation to maintain industrial-era efficiency in tasks that demand innovative thinking and complex problem-solving. Traditional productivity strategies often fall short because they don’t account for the way our brains actually work.
- The legacy of the power law is also evident in the work habits of some of the most influential minds of the modern age, such as Darwin, Freud, and Einstein, who demonstrated that high-quality intellectual output doesn’t stem from continuous labor but from well-timed bursts of focused activity.
- It’s best not to exceed 90 minutes of continuous mental effort. Breaks should ideally last 15 to 25 minutes to fully transition into gear 1, where your mind can relax and explore gently. But if you want to maintain momentum, a shorter break of around 10 minutes may suffice, provided a longer break is taken later.
- Are you feeling relaxed but tired, or are you feeling wired and tense? Actively relaxing your mind is crucial, especially if work leaves you feeling wired. Techniques like focused breathing, yoga, or even engaging games can distract and slow down your mind, helping shift back to a relaxed state. If you’re feeling merely tired, daydreaming, walking slowly, or reading a light novel can be particularly restorative. It’s beneficial to avoid emotionally charged or intellectually demanding activities during such breaks to maintain relaxation.

ON GEARS

Understanding and managing your brain’s operational modes is crucial for maximizing cognitive performance. The brain operates through distinct “gears,” each tailored to different mental activities, enhancing both efficiency and creativity.

Gear 1 represents a slow-power state essential for mental rest and recuperation. In this mode, your brain doesn’t process complex information but maintains a relaxed state where attention freely drifts. This gear is ideal for fostering creativity and allowing subconscious thoughts to surface, providing a panoramic yet unfocused view of the environment.

Shifting into Gear 2, your brain enters a state of heightened focus and engagement, suitable for tasks requiring deep concentration such as learning, critical thinking, and creativity. The prefrontal cortex is fully activated, sharpening focus on the task at hand. This gear supports a range of activities from reading to brainstorming, with the ability to adjust the focus intensity to accommodate various cognitive demands.

At the threshold of Gear 2, entering a high-energy state, the level of attention neurotransmitters peaks, creating an environment conducive to learning and creative problem-solving. This biochemical state boosts your brain’s ability to form new connections and enhances lateral thinking, fueled by intrinsic motivation.

Gear 3 is marked by rapid, reflexive mental activity, optimized for high-stakes, urgent situations where quick decision-making is essential. This gear operates at high speed but compromises precision and depth, ideal for emergency responses or routine actions perfected over time.

leveraging the intense focus of Gear 2 for complex tasks, and reserving Gear 3 for when rapid responses are paramount.

To effectively determine your current mental gear, consider your focus ability. If you can maintain good focus, you’re likely in Gear 2. If focus is challenging and distractions aren’t overly disruptive, you may be in Gear 1, which is less about focus and more about relaxed awareness. If distractions overly impact you, you’re probably in Gear 3, suited for quick, automatic actions. Difficulty in focusing without significant distraction sensitivity suggests remaining in Gear 1, where daydreaming is effortless. Conversely, if daydreaming is nearly impossible, it indicates operating in Gear 3.

Some people have “springy gears” that respond quickly to minor stimuli, while others have “stiff gears” that need significant challenges to kick into action. Most of us are somewhere in between.

[Sarah Griswold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repetitive and kinda obvious? Got a couple good things from it.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have selected this book as Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 10/13, as it stands heads above other recently published books on this topic.

[Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work", Mithu Storoni explores how aligning work habits with the brain’s natural rhythms can enhance productivity, focus, and creativity. Modern productivity strategies often ignore these rhythms, leading to inefficiencies and burnout. Instead of pushing through fatigue or distractions, Storoni advocates syncing tasks with the brain’s optimal states to boost cognitive performance.

A key principle of the book is adopting work-rest cycles that follow the power law, an evolutionary pattern where intense bursts of effort are followed by periods of rest. Research shows that productivity peaks during shorter, focused intervals of work (no longer than 90 minutes), interspersed with restorative breaks. These cycles mimic the rhythms of ancient hunter-gatherer societies, ensuring sustainable performance and protecting against mental fatigue.

Storoni introduces the concept of "cognitive gears," highlighting the brain’s ability to operate in different modes depending on the task. Gear 1 represents a relaxed, creative state ideal for subconscious problem-solving and free-flowing ideas. Gear 2 is a high-focus mode best suited for deep learning, critical thinking, and creative output. Gear 3 is a reflexive, high-speed state designed for urgent decision-making or routine actions. Recognizing which gear you’re in and aligning it with the demands of your work can optimize cognitive output while preventing burnout.

Breaks play a pivotal role in maintaining mental energy and focus. The book emphasizes tailoring breaks to the intensity of the task, with longer, restorative pauses for cognitively demanding work and shorter, energizing breaks for monotonous tasks. Activities like mindfulness exercises, walking, or napping can effectively reset the mind. By strategically managing breaks, you can sustain productivity and avoid the cognitive drain that comes with extended periods of focus.

Another critical insight is understanding your "gear personality." Individuals differ in how they respond to stimulation. People with “springy gears” are highly sensitive to distractions and perform best in calm, controlled settings. Those with “stiff gears” need high-pressure environments or significant challenges to engage fully. Recognizing your gear personality allows you to tailor your work environment, ensuring it supports your natural tendencies and maximizes output.

Finally, Storoni explores how modulating focus unlocks creativity. Creative problem-solving requires alternating between tranquil states, where spontaneous insights arise, and high-energy focus, which fosters divergent thinking. This balance can be achieved by engaging in activities that naturally shift attention, such as light chores, walking, or altering physical environments. The interplay of these cognitive states leads to richer insights and innovative solutions.

By understanding and respecting the brain’s biological and cognitive mechanics, "Hyperefficient" offers practical strategies to optimize productivity, enhance creativity, and sustain mental well-being. From power law work-rest cycles to leveraging cognitive gears and tailoring your workspace, Storoni provides a roadmap to working smarter, not harder.

[Loren Heistand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting topic. I enjoyed this book and plan to read more on the topic.
Could be a difficult read for some since it does have some deep technical discussions.

[Rituja Tripathi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very efficient at teaching how to be hyper efficient. The book is filled with research on productivity hacks and experiments. But none of them seem to be groundbreaking or unheard of. The book fails to create a unified narrative or keep the reader hooked. A lot of created jargon like gear 2/gear 3 is used for signifying mental states throughout the book. Somehow it felt like the writer could have done away with that as it was confusing rather than enabling the reader. Additionally jargon would be acceptable if the book actually had many interesting actionable insights. Most of the chapter talks about “why humans are they way they are” and very little insights on “how to improve” and be better.

Honestly I had to push myself way too hard to complete this book. Could have been a LinkedIn post. Many better books out there on this very topic.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first book. This one didn't work as well for me - it felt more like a corporate training manual. It didn't feel like there was enough in here for a book. A few blog posts, a short video course, or a training session, yes. Fundamentally, it has three ideas:

1. We have five gears. Gear 1 is low gear, ideal for rest, recuperation and daydreaming, but not very productive. Gear 3 is overdrive, great for rapid, unthinking emergency response, but not sustainable for long. In between is Gear 2, which has three states, ranging from quiet awareness to moderate productivity and high-performance flow.

2. We work best when we move between these gears, adopting the right one for the task at hand. We can't stay in high gear all the time, we need to take breaks and relax. Our brains require it. There are techniques that can help you move between gears: it can be hard at times. Take a break, get up from your desk, eat at sensible times -all things we already know, but don't do.

3. The modern world, particularly for knowledge workers, often demands that we're always at our peak. That's just not possible. We'd get more done if our jobs respected the natural rhythms of our minds and bodies. That's true, but most employers don't want to hear that. The only thing they value is high-performance work. They brag about giving 110%, all the time, even though that's not possible.

I found myself ending up with a feeling of "Yes... and how does that help me?" I know how I work best. I know what I ought to do. But at the end of the day, I'm not entirely in control of my working life. If my client decides that they want to pay me by the hour, I don't get to decide that it would be more efficient and productive to take breaks and get the same amount of work done in half the time. (Well, I could do, but then I'd be halving my income.) Maybe it should have been aimed at employers. Don't tell the staff how to organize their working day: tell the management how to adjust their expectations to get more out of their staff by focusing on overall output and quality, rather than hours.

[Mick de Waart · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the advent of AI, creating content at a rapid pace has become easier. As a result, the quantity of output in knowledge work is becoming less important, while the emphasis on quality is increasing. However, the way we structure our workdays and use our brains is still oriented around a quantity-driven mindset—one that, moreover, our brains are not particularly well-wired for. That is the basic premise of Storoni’s book.

Storoni introduces a way of thinking that likens the mind to having three gears, each suited to specific types of tasks. In the rest of the book, she describes various strategies to consciously shift our brains into the appropriate gear for the tasks we want to accomplish, such as by taking frequent breaks.

I really liked the idea behind the book and did learn a thing or two, but I’m not sure an entire book was necessary (even though it was quite short). It felt like there was a lot of unnecessary filler.

Overall, I liked Storoni’s premise but would have appreciated a higher density of information.

[Rogival Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book, Storoni—an ophthalmic surgeon and neuroscience researcher—argues that the traditional “assembly-line” model of work is mis-matched to how the human brain actually functions.
Le Guardian
+1

She introduces the metaphor of brain “gears” (slow, medium, fast) to explain how our cognition shifts through different states of arousal and attention (what she terms the “blue-dot network” or LC-NE system).
Google Books
+1

The core proposition: Instead of forcing our brains to conform to rigid schedules and continuous output metrics, we should align our tasks, breaks, and environments with our brain’s rhythms—thereby becoming “hyperefficient.”
She also provides practical strategies for optimizing when we do our creative work, how we manage fatigue, how we structure work blocks and breaks, and how we adapt to the information-load and digital distractions of modern knowledge work.

[Max Caboti-Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty typical psychology book with tips on how to improve your efficiency at work. Didn't provide anything groundbreaking, but more of a reminder about good and bad habits. The book is broken up into different sections that are not very well connected with one another, and there isn't a very cohesive overall thesis. For example, mental 'gears' are talked about throughout the first half of the book and then almost forgotten about by the end. Within the sections, the same information is often repeated. It is also sometimes self-contradicting, like when talking about how creativity is impossible in gear 3, but that a 'high-level' gear 2 is ideal for certain creative tasks. This just doesn't make a lot of sense as you learn about these concepts. That being said, I enjoyed the book since it's a pretty quick, light read

[Cordes Lindow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harness your brain’s full power

This book, combined with Mihalyi Csikzentmihalyi’s “Flow’, taps into how we can take control of how we think and design our days and our life for optimal living. Storoni outlines how our work lives which were established during the Industrial Revolution are not designed for optimal use of our brains, and by continuing to work in these patterns, not only do we not tap into our full potential, we put ourselves at risk for higher stress and burnout.
Fortunately, Storoni provides many practical and evidence-based practices that we can all incorporate to change how we approach problems and work, so that we can maximize our brains’ awesome capacity.
I highly recommend this book for anyone obsessed with learning to perform at their best.

[Ginger Snaps · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting and scary all at once. I found the portions that talked about how you can train your brain to stay in the optimum mode for work, relaxation, working out, whatever you want to do, very interesting. I found the parts where it talks about how we are losing control of our surroundings to AI and more complicated systems all the time (from vehicles to doorbells) quite unnerving. Of course, I already knew this, but having it pointed out in a very analytical way did nothing to ease my mind.

I loved that the author confirmed what I already know about myself: that multi-tasking is a misnomer at best and a nightmare at worst. It forces you to keep changing your attention so that you can't really do any of the things well that you're trying to multi-task.

[Jose Fernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the book was written well. It is concise. The primary premise is that we live in three states: State 1 we are unaware as we go through the world or at least relaxed. State 2: we are in a creative state and can work, but not in a full frenzy. State 3, we are working extremely hard and focused but we cannot stay here or we will burn out. The author describes how we can more efficiently move between these states of mind. What I was disappointed with was the complementarity of AI with these states. I wish there was a larger discussion about how the future will evolve.

[Shervin]

Some decent tips in here that are covered in more depth in other places. Hard to rate it since it's more a compilation of useful tips than a book with a more drawn out structure.

I like what Storoni says about creativity being hampered by deadlines, because deadlines force people into "gear 3" when creative work is best done in "gear 2," with less pressure to deliver. This is fundamentally true in my experience, and a lot of people in creative fields too easily pat themselves on the back for meeting deadlines and "getting it done" while ignoring the subpar quality of their work.

[Emily Mellow]

I couldn't do it. This book looked like a typical maximize your life kind of book, but it turned out to be very historical, theoretical, and not useful for me. Like, not even interesting. Granted, I only got through 25%, but I was being generous. It just didn't have a take or a tone that appealed to me.

[Mikhail Filatov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mumbo-jumbo of “new age” recommendations, common sense (like walking helps to clear mind) and pretty horrific examples cited positively (Chinese company monitoring brain waves of employees for task assignments).

[Poppy-Jayne Morgan]

Blinkist version, discusses rest, creativity, challenging productivity norms.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry. Different studies about ways human beings focus and work.

[Lino Verde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brain and three gears of performance

Strategies to move your brain gears depending on the need of the tasks at hand

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come...

[Noel Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic book on how to survive working in a modern world. Must read - I will be implementing these techniques in my work life.

[AAYUSHYA BHASKAR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely an undergem. Must read for everyone

[Hannah Katakam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Content was refreshing and unexpected. The book was a little repetitive, but I really liked the concept.

[Brian Hallissey · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting selection of topics but the narrative is clunky and the examples are often quite superficial. Still worth reading.

[Emily Feldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book. super practical, new information for me, and neurodivergent affirming/inclusive (mostly for adhd)