Читать книгу The New IQ: Use Your Working Memory to Think Stronger, Smarter, Faster - Tracy Alloway - Страница 43

Another skill crucial for productivity is time management. These days we all have to learn the art of doing more in less time. But the problem, as we all know, is that even as new technologies help us to work faster—responding to email, reviewing important sales data or new documents, all before we walk through our office door in the morning—they don’t always help us work smarter.

One downside of the new technologies is that they have given us many new ways to spend our time; we linger online, checking multiple news sources, travel deals, or sale items on our favorite websites. Instead of being productive, we end up wasting more time. Working memory plays a vital role in helping us keep on top of the time we’re spending and complete the tasks at hand.

Cognitive time management is a term Katya Rubia and Anna Smith at King’s College London used to describe how well we can estimate the amount of time we spend on a task, as well as manage the time we allocate to an activity. Their review of brain-imaging studies on cognitive time management revealed that the PFC is highly activated during tasks that involve timing. The theory is that working memory keeps track of passing time and modulates decisions about when to take action.