Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

One of the biggest problems with audio books in general is that they rely to a very large degree on the ability of the reader. Excellent material can be utterly spoilt by the narrator - and this is the case here. I have no-one to blame but myself. Listening to the sample I thought I could stand Bob Walter's extraordinary read. I was wrong. This professional reader has absolutely no idea of the meaning of the narrative. It is a self indulgent presentation by someone so enamoured with the sound of his own voice that the meaning is buried beneath a dreadfully inept delivery. The book itself is excellent - and David Rock has achieved another sale because I had to buy the hard-copy to extract the value. So do yourself a favour - cut out the middle man and read this one the old fashioned way.

A fantastic piece of work.

I'm on my second read-through. I have bought a hard copy on Amazon to use as a reference. This is the best of recent psychology put into a practical self-improvement book.

Personally, I am developing a strategy to implement just about everything in this book that are not already doing.

I read many self-help books but I think this is one of the best ever written.

Interested in the content of this book, but I can't get going with it because the narrator is just awful. The rhythm of his delivery sounds completely random - as if he isn't actually paying attention to the context of what he is reading, or hasn't looked at it in advance. The effect is so unbelievably distracting that I can't listen to more than a few minutes without going insane. Really disappointed. Avoid (or buy the printed version).

Very good; scientific research made applicable to every day situations. Listened twice now and becoming more used to the terms it's already helping the way I work daily and with others.

I really enjoyed this book. Excellent subject matter and novel way of delivering the content.

The narrator is a little difficult to get used to at first, quite dry and slow paced, but once you become accustomed to his style its a good listen.

I especially liked the ending when it culminated in the SCARF acronym. I wont ruin it by expanding this but I found this to be very insightful and actually an enlightening view on human psychology.

All in all a good listen. I would have given 5 stars but the narrator was not quite to my taste.

Simon

Sorry, but this is just terrible.
It is so monotonous, and in all honesty all the 'advice' and 'insight' is just plain common sense - don't try to do too much at once, you use energy to think so have a snack, go for a walk to clear your head, brains are easily distracted so disconnect the phone, etc. etc. You don't need to sit and listen to a book for goodness knows how many hours to realise this - come on, you already know this stuff.

The whole 'take two' thing is a nice idea, but it just doesn't work because its all circumstantial given that the author can just say all the right things were done by the character, but this does absolutely nothing to help YOU do the right things; reading a book will never change the way your own brain functions, I'm afraid.

Oh, and if I ever hear 'PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX' ever again I will go insane. Just by saying a medical term lots and lots does not make this anything clever or insightful, just flipping annoying.

Finally, at the risk of sounding zenophobic, this book really is very 'American' in its tone and approach, so if you are into all this self-help stuff then perhaps you might get something from it (it is clear that my 'give it a go' approach to this did not pay off myself!), but otherwise it will probably just annoy the hell out of you.

First of all, I was not bothered by Bob Walter's narration at all, in fact I liked his tone and pace, as well as his voice. The content of this book is so interesting and so dense that I found his slower narration helping me stay focused.

Second of all, this book is amazing. I think it might be the most useful book I have ever read. I am re-listening to it for the second time now because I find the methods David Rock recommends so useful for a happy, productive life. This is the ultimate self-help book, except that it is based on science, not BS. If every person on this planet read and lived by this book, humanity would be lightyears ahead of where we are now... Will buy the print version for reference. I highly recommend this audiobook!

I love this audio book. It gives accounts of daily rituals which most of the population undertake and the obstacles that prevent us from achieving our potential. With practical advice and reasoning, and through repetitive actions, we can become so more efficient within our daily lives.
If you can learn how to anticipate your thought process and remove the habitual processes that prevent positive thoughts coming through, you can achieve so much more!
Great stuff!

I did not like this audio book and only managed to about two thirds of the way through before giving up. I'm not quite sure what it was that put me off although the constant repetition of the examples given from a positive and negative aspect got boring quickly. I also didn't like the narrators voice which didn't help with keeping the subject interesting.

It was good to know it was not just me who, when I get to work find it very hard to concentrate on one thing as my brain decides to jump around all over the place especially when under pressure.



This book brought out several things I know I do - That feeling of dread when 100 emails download in the morning, the lack of focus and the feeling of being constantly interrupted by my own thoughts, putting things off etc



By using the analogy of the stage to represent how your brain works and how much energy somethings require it was really easy to understand the key points from this book. At first I was worried as the narrator started talking about Frontal Cortex, frontal lobes etc and thought this would be a dull listen but by using the characters in the book, couple of busy married people with pressured jobs and typical family life, it made the theories and approaches from the book very relevant, easy to understand and grasp.



Really good audio book if you are trying to focus more and understand how your brain works (at work and at home) and how you need to manage your brain and stop it losing focus and energy then I would recommend this book.



Highly recommended!