工作中，這幾種簡單方法讓你的大腦集中注意力！

This research-based approach has shown improvements in brain function in as little as 12 hours.
這種研究型方法在短短12小時內改善了大腦功能。

What separates strategic, visionary thinkers from the rest of us? And why do we tend to worry about our ability to remember names—or where our keys are—rather than loss of cognitive memory that makes great performers?
是什麼將我們和那些有遠見、有戰略意識的思想家區分開？我們又是爲什麼總傾向於擔憂自己記不住名字或者把鑰匙放哪兒了，卻不擔心自己對認知記憶的丟失——而恰恰是認知記憶促成了好的表現？

These were questions that puzzled Sandra Bond Chapman, founder and chief director of the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas—Dallas. She wondered if high-level cognitive function could be taught or improved and set about figuring out how to do so. As a result, she and her team have developed Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART), a research-based brain training program that they claim can improve focus, memory, and cognitive function, starting with just nine hours of training.
這些問題困擾着德克薩斯—達拉斯大學大腦健康中心的創始人兼主任桑德拉·邦德查普曼。她想了解高層次的認知功能是否可以被訓練或改進，並開始着手研究如何做到這一點。因此，她和她的團隊開發了“策略記憶高級推理訓練”（簡稱SMART），這是一項研究型的大腦訓練計劃。他們表示只需9個小時的培訓就可以提高人們的注意力，記憶力和認知功能。

Multitasking, information overload, and constant interruptions are impairing the way our brains work.
多任務作業，信息負載和不斷的干擾正在損害我們大腦工作的方式。

If that seems unlikely, randomized clinical trials indicate that even relatively short periods of this type of training can have an impact. A 2013 study found that just 12 hours of directed brain training altered brain function, increasing blood flow, enhancing information communication across key brain regions, and expanding the connections between brain regions that lead to new learning in adults over 50 years old.
這聽起來似乎不太可能，但是隨機臨牀試驗表明，即使這種類型的訓練只進行了相對較短的時間也會對大腦產生影響。2013年的一項研究發現，50多歲的成年人僅經過12小時的定向大腦訓練就改變了大腦功能，增加了血液流量，關鍵腦區域的信息溝通也增強了，還擴大了管控學習的腦區之間的聯繫。

“It’s paradoxical that some of the things we think are good for our brain, the brain science is showing are almost like tobacco for the brain,” Chapman says. Multitasking, information overload, and constant interruptions are impairing the way our brains work, she says.
查普曼說：“我們以爲有些事情對我們的大腦有好處，但是大腦科學卻顯示這些東西對大腦而言就像是菸草一樣可怕，有時候就是這麼矛盾。”她還說，多任務作業，信息負載和不斷的干擾正在損害我們大腦工作的方式。

THE SMART APPROACH

“策略記憶高級推理訓練”方法

The SMART program focuses on the brain’s top-down processing. Think about when you’re listening to someone tell a story: You think about the main themes and the bottom-line summary of what’s being said. Bottom-up processing is where you pay close attention to the specific details to understand what’s being said. That’s important because you need to be master the fundamentals, but if you get stuck in that way of thinking, it’s tough to be visionary, she says. To help improve the brain’s ability to think in these broader, bigger ways, the program has three areas of focus.
SMART項目以大腦自上而下的信息處理爲重點。想象一下，當你在聽某人講故事的時候，你會兼顧故事主題和結尾的總結。而自下而上的信息處理方式則需要你密切關注細節來明白到底說了些什麼。這非常重要，因爲你需要掌握基本的知識，但如果你在這種思維方式中陷入困境，那麼就很難有創造力，她說道。爲了提高大腦在這些更廣泛，更大的方面思考的能力，該項目有三個重點。

Strategic Attention
策略注意

Focus is essential for memory and learning. The SMART program teaches participants to eschew multitasking and, instead, truly concentrate on the task at hand. The increase in productivity and learning when we stop trying to do several things at once is remarkable, Chapman says. Participants learn how to block irrelevant or extraneous elements and better understand root issues.
集中注意力是記憶和學習的關鍵。SMART項目旨在教會參與者避免一心多用，而是真正專注於手頭上的任務。查普曼說，當我們停止嘗試同時做幾件事情時，生產力和學習效率的提高十分明顯。參與者可以學習如何中斷不相關或無關緊要的事情的干擾，更好地釐清根本問題。

Integration
綜合技能

Chapman says this area is where the training has the most impact. Integrative reasoning hones mental tools that exert cognitive control to “zoom in” to quickly scan the critical details, then quickly reprocess that information into global ideas by “zoom out” strategies, evaluating how those details fit into the big pictures. Trainees learn to reach broader perspectives and construct generalized applications through that toggling of focus, otherwise known as “zooming deep and wide.”
查普曼說，整合這個部分受培訓影響最大。綜合推理能夠對我們的思維進行“打磨”、“推敲”。而思維對我們進行認知控制，使用“放大”策略來快速掃描重要細節，然後通過“縮小”策略快速將這些信息重新處理來適應全局，同時評估這些細節是否符合總體情況。通過切換焦點，學員可以學習用更廣闊的視角來看待問題，並做到推廣應用，也被稱爲“推近拉遠”策略。

Mental Flexibility
靈活性思維

Being able to consider varied viewpoints and perspectives is another, possibly surprising, element of improving mental sharpness and cognitive function. Rather than processing information in the same way, adopting different perspectives and using information in new ways is important to improve key aspects of brain performance.
能夠考慮不同觀點和用不同的視角看問題是提高精神銳度和認知功能的另一個因素，這也許會讓你感到意外。採用不同的視角看待問題、以新的方式來處理信息，對待問題不總是千篇一律，這對於改善大腦反應的關鍵方面十分重要。

The center has plans to release an app based on SMART called “BrainHealth” later this summer. In the meantime, Chapman says that there are things we can do in our everyday lives to mimic some of the training’s methods and improve our own brain function.
該中心計劃在今年夏天發佈一個基於SMART項目的名爲“大腦健康”的應用程序。同時，查普曼說，我們也可以在日常生活中做些事情，來模擬一些訓練的方法，然後改善我們的大腦功能。

STOP MULTITASKING

別再一心多用啦

When we’re constantly shifting our attention from one thing to another, we inhibit our ability to learn and to get things done, Chapman says. While it’s fine to watch television while cooking dinner, for example, trying to answer email messages while focusing on a big writing project is likely going to detract from performance on each. The increase in productivity and learning when we stop trying to do several things at once is remarkable.
查普曼說，當我們不斷將注意力從一件事轉移到另一件事時，很大程度上抑制了我們學習和完成工作的能力。雖然在烹飪晚餐時，看看電視也無妨，但是比如你一邊想回復郵件信息，一邊又想專注於一個大型寫作任務，很可能兩件事的結果都會大打折扣。當我們停止嘗試同時做好幾件事情時，生產效率和學習效果的提高是顯著的。

DISTILL AND SUMMARIZE

提煉總結

Chapman says that we should all think like reporters, meaning that we should be looking at information, stories, and other forms of input for the key thematic element, as well as the broader storyline, then focusing on the particular applications and meaning.
查普曼說，我們都應該像記者一樣思考，這意味着我們應該關注專題要素的關鍵成分，包括信息，故事和其他形式的素材，以及更大的故事情節，然後還得聚焦在具體的應用和意義上。

Shifting back and forth between that “big-picture” perspective and the nitty-gritty of what it means to us helps us gain greater understanding and learn more. “If we can move it through taking in information, abstracting very quickly, and applying it, we get brain change very dramatically,” Chapman says.
在這種“大局”觀和事情的本質中來回轉換視角，可以幫助我們瞭解更多也學到更多。她說：“如果我們可以完成獲取信息，快速提取總結並應用，我們的大腦將有大大的改變。”

EXPLORE NEW VIEWS

探索新觀點

Related:
What Happens To Our Brains When We Exercise And How It Makes Us Happier
Your Brain Has A “Delete” Button—Here’s How To Use It
How Giving Up Refined Sugar Changed My Brain
Here’s How To Trick Your Brain Into Making Smarter Mistakes
How Your Brain Reacts To Change
相關話題如：
當我們運動時，我們的大腦會發生什麼變化，它又是如何讓我們更快樂的？
你的大腦有一個“刪除”按鈕——該如何使用它？
放棄精製糖會如何改變我的大腦？
怎樣讓你的大腦犯更聰明的錯誤？
面對變化，你的大腦會如何反應？

Chapman says that forcing ourselves to think in new ways and develop understanding of how other people view things is another important element of the training. Sometimes, that requires difficult work. In her team’s work with Navy SEALS, she asks them to consider why Osama Bin Laden was a charismatic leader to some people.
查普曼說，訓練中另一個重要的模塊就是強迫自己以新的方式思考，並且瞭解別人是如何看待事物的。有時候，這需要大量的努力。在她的團隊與美國海軍“海豹”突擊隊一起工作時，她讓海軍們思考一個問題：爲什麼對某些人來說，奧薩馬·本·拉登是一個有魅力的領導人。

That’s an unthinkable concept to many, but pushing people to be more broad-based in their thinking is essential to developing visionary ability. It also helps participants get used to exploring highly volatile or uncomfortable ideas without getting emotional.
對許多人來說，另闢蹊徑地思考是一個不可想象的概念，但是逼着人們開闊思想對發展創造力十分重要。它也幫助參與者習慣於探索、觸碰反覆無常的或讓人不舒服的想法，而不會變得情緒化。

TAKE BRAIN BREAKS

讓大腦休息一會兒

“The more information we download or take in, the more shallower our thinking is, and the more fragmented our brain systems are.”
“我們下載或接收的信息越多，我們的思維就越淺薄，而我們的大腦系統也就越碎片化。”

Five 5-minute breaks each day where you get away from technology and work, and give your brain a few moments of rest can yield remarkable results. That’s all it takes, Chapman says. She jokes about the power of bathroom breaks during her sessions. “People go to the bathroom and come back and they had a breakthrough idea, and I say, ‘What was going on in the bathroom?’ It really is just because they stopped trying push through. The brain break is one of the ways to keep your brain’s mental energy on high charge,” she says.
遠離工作，每天五次爲時五分鐘的休息，讓你的大腦放鬆一會兒，這樣得到的效果頗好。查普曼說，大腦只需要這點休息時間。她拿會議期間上洗手間這件事對人們造成的影響開了個玩笑。她說道，“人們只是去了下洗手間，回來之後立馬就有了突破性的想法，我就想問問‘洗手間裏到底發生了什麼啊？’這真的只是因爲他們停止了不斷強迫自己在問題上有所進展。所以，讓大腦得到休息是保持大腦活力和高能量的方法之一。

READ LESS—AND DEEPER

閱讀，求精不求多

Stop trying to know everything about everything and be more selective in the information you’re taking in. Instead of skimming dozens of stories each morning, choose a handful on which you can truly focus and you’ll retain more, Chapman says.
查普曼說，不要試圖瞭解所有事情的全部細節，要更有選擇性地掌握你所收集到的信息。比起每天早晨走馬觀花似的讀幾十個故事，選擇一小部分你真正關注的，這樣記住的更多。

“The more information we download or take in, the more shallow our thinking is, and the more fragmented our brain systems are,” she says. “it’s counterintuitive because we think that if I could just take in 20 things and quickly absorb them, I would be smarter, and the science has shown that the smartest leaders are those who know from the get go to literally block out some information.”
她說，“我們下載或接收的信息越多，我們的思維就越淺薄，而我們的大腦系統就越碎片化”。“這是違反直覺的，因爲我們自認爲，如果我能夠接收20件事情並快速學會它們，我會變得更聰明，而科學表明，最聰明的領導人深知習得的東西確實會阻礙一些信息的進入。”

So, while our focus on getting more done through multitasking, skimming, and moving on to the next thing as quickly as possible seems effective, Chapman says the key to truly developing the sharp focus necessary to get things done requires working at a deeper level. “We keep loading ourselves down so we’re mentally exhausted all the time. Our battery is too worn down to really engage in deeper-level thinking and be more efficient,” Chapman says. Cognitive improvement is possible when we slow down, stop letting technology interrupt us repeatedly, and practice focusing on the task or information with which we’re engaged, she says.
專注於同時進行多個任務，略讀或儘快着手下一件事，似乎能有效地幫助我們更多地完成任務，但查普曼說，如果真的想要提高做好事情的能力，關鍵是在更深的層次上付出努力。“我們一直負重前行，所以一直處於精神疲憊的狀態。大腦損傷地太厲害了，已經很難進行更深層次的思考，也很難更有效率。” 她表示，當我們放慢速度，認知能力的提高才有可能，不要再讓技術不停地干擾我們，練習專注於眼前所從事的任務或要處理的信息。