Takeaways from the Extended Mind

I’ve just finished The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul. As a work from home designer, writer and publisher I’m always keen to improve my working practices in the pursuit of greater productivity and a better work/life balance.

For me, parts of the book were fascinating while other bits were less so. As I work essentially on my own from home sections of the book were less relevant to me than others. My favourite chapter was Chapter 2: Thinking with Movement which talked about exercise and how you can use it to affect your brain.

Running

I’m a keen runner and have long gone on and on to everyone I know about the benefits of running. I wrote a blog post years ago entitled, “The Surprising Habit that Makes Me a Better Designer”. That habit was running.

I was therefore delighted—as you can imagine—to discover proof in The Extended Mind that running does indeed help me be a better designer! Paul writes:

“Moderate-intensity exercise, practised for a moderate length of time, improves our ability to think both during and immediately after the activity.”

She continues:

“The benefits of this include an increase in the capacity to focus attention and resist distractions; greater verbal fluency and cognitive flexibility; enhanced problem-solving and decision-making abilities and increased working memory, as well as more durable long-term memory for what is learned.”

She notes, these benefits can last for up to two hours! And, it turns out, running faster and harder has another benefit:

“Very intense exercise, extended over a relatively long period can induce a kind of altered state conducive to creative thought.”

Creative thought is vital to a writer’s and designer’s work. I make my living being creative. When you see me running, don’t think I’m slacking off; think of me as getting ready for work!

Final thought: can I claim my running shoes as a business expense?

Standing Desks

I have a standing desk. I’ve had it for three years and love it. Now, I can’t imagine the horror of using a traditional desk for any considerable length of time.

It turns out, using a standing desk counts as low-intensity exercise and that you burn 13% more energy simply standing at a desk as opposed to sitting at a desk. Fascinatingly, she also writes:

“In adults, working at a standing desk has been shown to boost productivity.”

That fact alone is enough to justify the price of a standing desk, to me. Productivity is what it is all about; why spend more time working than you have to?

(If you are interested, I have a Bekant Sit/Stand desk that I got from Ikea. It’s not the biggest desk in the world, but it is easily large enough to hold my monitor, keyboard, trackpad and all-imporant notebook and coffee).

The Final Word

In Chapter 2, Paul was preaching to the choir. I’ve long believed exercise was a critical part of my work day, and I’m delighted to now have proof! If you are struggling to be creative or to focus go outside for a walk or run.