Hello and welcome to another episode of the Working Conversations podcast where we talk all things leadership, business, communication, and the future of work. I'm your host, Dr. Janel Anderson.

What if I told you that the key to unlocking your best ideas, working at peak efficiency and even improving your well being, isn't something some productivity hack or time management strategy, but it's inside your own brain. Every moment of the day, your brain is running on electrical frequencies, shifting through different states that control how you think, solve problems, and even rest. And here's the kicker. Most of us are operating on the wrong brain waves for what we actually need to do. Whether you're trying to be hyper focused on a project, spark creativity and innovation, or recharge for the next big challenge, learning how to tap into the right brainwaves on demand can give you an undeniable edge.

Now, research backs this up. A 2015 study published in Nature Neuroscience found that gamma wave activity is heightened during moments of creativity and insight. While a 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychology linked theta wave increases with problem solving abilities. The world's top performers, from athletes to business leaders, have learned to train their brains into optimal states of performance by controlling which kind of brainwaves they have.

In this episode, we're diving into how brainwaves impact work performance, creativity and overall well being. And more importantly, how you yourself can harness them to gain a competitive advantage in your professional life or wherever. Can you tell I'm a little bit excited about this topic. All right, now let's dive in.

So I've been talking about theta waves and things like that, and you might just be wondering, what is she even talking about? So before we talk strategy, let's break down the basics. Your brain and mine and everyone's, produces five main types of brainwaves. Each one is associated with a different state of mind. Delta waves are the lowest frequency. They go from 0.5 to 4 hertz. And you experience delta waves when you are in a state of deep sleep restoration and healing. So for example, when you are in the deepest stage of sleep, and remember, we cycle through different stages of sleep. When we are in that deep sleep, your brain enters delta mode where the delta waves are dominant.

And this is when your tissues get repaired, your memory gets consolidated and hormones get released that are the human growth hormone. So this is a really important restorative time. And your brain has to get into delta waves while you're sleeping in order for this level of restoration to occur. Now if you use something like a Garmin Fitbit like I do, or a Garmin, this is technically not a Fitbit. It's a Garmin brand watch. If you use a Garmin or a Fitbit or any of the other devices out there that are on the market that help monitor your sleep, you can then look to see when were you in a deep sleep state and how much deep sleep did you get. So there's ways to check to see if you're getting into the delta wave state. Okay, so that's the first one.

The second one is theta waves. And this is from 4 to 8 hertz. Now, of course, hertz is the level of frequency. So when you are experiencing theta theta brainwaves, this is when you are experiencing creativity, your intuition is firing and your subconscious thinking is doing its best work. So just for example, have you ever been in that half awake, half dreaming state or maybe a daydreaming state and had a brilliant idea pop into your head? Well, that is when the theta waves are at work in your brain.

All right, now the next and third type of brainwave is alpha waves. And alpha waves happen when your brain is the brain speed is 8 to 14 Hertz. Now, this is when you're experiencing relaxed alertness. This is a great place for you to be when you're learning something because your brain can really do that deep learning and lock things in for the long haul. This is also a great place for idea generation. So here's my favorite example of this. Have you ever been zoned out while driving or taking a shower or going for a walk and you suddenly solved a problem or had a great idea? This is when your brain is in alpha mode, having those alpha brain waves. This is the perfect state for that relaxed creativity and problem solving when the problem just pops into your head while you're doing something else.

Okay, the fourth state is beta waves. This is from 14 to 30 hertz. And in this state, your brain is doing active thinking, problem solving, and is highly focused. So for example, when you're giving a presentation, when you're leading a meeting, maybe analyzing some data, in that flow state, your beta waves are firing and they are dominant and they are keeping your brain sharp and engaged. So this is great for problem solving, that active problem solving, not the problem solving that we were talking about before with the, the, with the alpha waves. Because that's when your brain is just sort of like doing its own thing and comes up with the answer for you. Beta waves, on the other hand, are when you are highly focused on A specific data set, again, presentation, running a meeting, something like that, maybe an individual conversation, and then gamma waves.

Gamma waves are when your brain is firing at its fastest. This is 30 to 100 hertz. And this is when you've got peak performance, deep insight, innovation. So an example of this might be a researcher making groundbreaking scientific discoveries, or a musician having a creative breakthrough in the studio. Their brain is likely buzzing with gamma waves. Now, you might not be a scientist, you might not be a musician, but in those moments when you, maybe with a couple of other coworkers, are gathered around a whiteboard and you're doing some brainstorming, this would be your gamma waves fast at work, firing new ideas and coming up with those new insights. Especially when multiple people are playing off of each other. All right, so your ability to intentionally shift into the right set of brain waves and brain state can really make the difference between struggling through a task and working in that state of flow, between creative block and groundbreaking ideas, between burnout and true mental resilience. Okay, so now you know what those five brainwave states are. Now let's talk a little bit more specifically about how brainwaves impact your work performance and innovation. So let's start with deep focus and productivity.

And you've heard me talk about deep focus and productivity on the podcast in the past. To get into that state of deep focus and productivity, you need your brain beta waves firing. So when you need to power through a high stakes project or concentrate deeply, it is the beta waves that are going to help you stay sharp and stay engaged during that work. So how do you get into a beta state? Well, again, there are a couple of different techniques that I've talked about here on the podcast that can help you get into the beta state and get those beta waves fired. One of them is using the pomodoro technique. And again, if you've listened to any of the podcast episodes I've done on productivity, you've probably heard me talk about the pomodoro technique. So pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato. And this is based on the tomato shaped timer.

It was an Italian kitchen timer. So it was an Italian who came up with this technique. He used a kitchen timer, the one in the shape of the tomato. He would set it for 25 minutes and do focused work for 25 minutes. And then he would set it for five minutes and take a five minute break doing something light hearted or non work or certainly non deep focus related to give his brain a reset and help sustain his focus. And then he come back and do another cycle of 25 minutes and 5 minutes. And again, if you've heard me talk about it, you know that I like 27 minutes and, and three minutes. That 30 minute interval of 27 and three just tends to work best for me.

If you're going to use the Pomodoro technique, which I highly recommend you do, I recommend that you experiment with playing around with the numbers to see what really works for best for you. I don't need a full five minutes of rest. Three minutes of rest or doing something else kind of lighthearted and frivolous or just taking a quick walk is sufficient to reset my brain. Now you could also get into a beta state by drinking a moderate amount of caffeine. And I am all coffee, coffee, coffee, I love my coffee, coffee and other types of caffeine as well. Boost beta activity. But let's also be realistic here. Too much caffeine can put your body in a stressed out state and then you move beyond that beta state and it's not necessarily good for that high stakes concentration and high focus that you want your beta waves to produce, that your beta waves will produce for your brain.

So some caffeine. And again, each person's body is different in terms of how much caffeine it can tolerate. So I've been experimenting with backing off on some of my caffeine and really having higher quality cups of coffee in the morning. Instead of like half a pot or nearly a full pot of lower grade coffee, I am hand brewing individual cups of better quality coffee and it's making a good difference for me.

Okay, so here are a couple of other things that you can do to get your brain into that beta state. Try some active problem solving. So this could be writing to try to solve a problem. So this could be free writing, journaling, bullet journaling, brainstorming, jotting your ideas down on big flip chart paper or on a whiteboard.

So doing that kind of work kind of jumpstarts your brain into the problem solving mode so that you can get into that highly focused state. So an example of this might be an attorney who is preparing for trial, or a speaker like me who's preparing to give a presentation, or an engineer who's debugging. Complex software code needs to be in that beta wave activation for sustained focus. So before a presentation, before I give a keynote speech, I want to do some activities that are going to get me into that beta state so that I can sustain that beta state for an hour so I can be like really sharp and focused on my audience, focused on where they're understanding the content, where I might need to go deeper or offer a different example again. And I'm playing off of the interaction and the response of the audience in order to make sure they get exactly what they need for the content to land as best it can. So I need to be in that beta state.

All right, now, let's just say, for example, you don't need to be in that beta state. You need to be in a different state.You want creativity and innovative thinking. Well, the two types of brain waves that best support that are your theta waves and your gamma waves. So creativity happens when theta waves allow your subconscious insights to surface, and gamma waves integrate those insights into new, innovative ideas. So if you remember that I was saying, if you've ever been. So let's talk about how to get into theta and gamma states so that you can not only allow those subconscious insights to surface, but then also have that gamma state grab hold of those ideas and integrate. Integrate those insights into new, fresh ideas and new places to take you.

All right, so first of all, you want to step away from that intense focus state, and you want to intentionally engage in daydreaming, meditation, visualization. This could be taking a walk. Anything that's going to get you disconnected from that active state of thinking, thinking, thinking into that slower state of letting things just sort of bubble up. So you could try a state technique called the hypnagogic state technique. This is resting with a notepad before sleep, like Salvador Dali was known to do. Thomas Edison also did this. So is part of your bedtime routine instead of just jumping under the covers and intentionally going to sleep, allowing some time for you to experience that state of being that is half awake, half asleep. And again, you want to have something nearby, ideally not a cell phone, because that's going to send out that blue light that helps keep you awake. You don't want that blue light. So ideally, paper and pencil nearby that you can jot the ideas down that might come to you when you get yourself into that state of, again, half asleep, half awake.

Another thing that you can do is engage in play. States of play that get your brain deeply into what you're doing. So this could be an activity like improve, where you're highly engaged with the other people that you are doing that improvisational activity or comedy with. It could be music. If you are a musical performer, if you are an athlete, you could, whether that's going for a run or whether that's playing a game of Soccer, I gosh, this is going to date me here because this is probably 15ish years ago, I was on an adult softball league and so playing softball with this other group of women once a week and actively playing a game against another team. My head was so in the game. And what I loved about that, again, it put me into that state of deep play because all I was thinking about was, is the ball going to come to me when I was in the field and what am I going to do with it when it does come to me? So even if I was playing right field and wasn't getting a lot of action, my head was still totally in the game. I wasn't thinking about work, I wasn't thinking about parenting, I wasn't thinking about my grocery list or what I was going to cook for dinner the next day.

I was completely present and 100% in the game. And again, it unlocks something different in your brain. You know, even a really long shower can help unlock these kind of breakthroughs that happen when you are in that deep state of doing something. Again, play or engagement in a sport, a music, an activity like that. So here are a couple of examples which might spark your thinking. So Steve Jobs was known to take long, reflective walks and he was doing that intentionally to stimulate the theta waves in his brain. And this led to some of Apple's most iconic innovations. When I am working on something that requires new ideas, I will take my dog for a big long walk.

And this will be a big long walk where I'm not listening to a podcast, I'm not listening to an audiobook. I'm just aw of nature and aware of the dog sniffing everything and just being 100% present in the environment that I'm in. So there's, there's a number of different ways that you can get there. But making sure to take that time to get the theta and gamma state activated before you go into that, you know, before you expect a new idea to show up. Now, if you are looking, on the other hand for resilience and you're working on stress management, then you want those alpha waves to be firing. Now, alpha waves are essential for switching from stress mode. Like, you know, working really hard on something, being really focused on something that can be stressful, into a calmer, clearer thinking state. So if you know that you've had like, let's say a long day, or for me, if I have been on stage in front of an audience and I go and I'm just like, I need to decompress now is when I want to get into an alpha state.

Now, you could also want to get into an alpha state periodically throughout your day if you've got back to back meetings that are, you know, actively keeping you engaged and thinking and brainstorming and doing all those things. For goodness sakes. Yes. Carve out some time where you can grab five minutes. Even five minutes will absolutely help to take a break and get you into an alpha state. So here's what you would do to get that five minutes. Well, first of all, you know, if you've heard me talk about white space on your calendar, then you've probably got five minutes here and there to grab for that white space and, and take five minutes to get into an alpha state. If you haven't, you're going to want to listen to my podcast episode on the importance of white space.

Build some of that white space into your calendar. But you want five minutes. Even five minutes will do to close your eyes to get into that state of deep rest. Now, what I do when I get into that state of deep rest, and if you've seen the tour of my office, you know that I've got a small couch in my office, and that small couch is the perfect length for me to lay down, close my eyes and put my feet up. And I can do that for just five minutes. And in those five minutes, I close my eyes. And here's the trick that I do to keep to shut my brain down, because otherwise it will just be bouncing around between every idea that I have and everything that I'm working on is I will count backwards from 20, or I might count backwards from 100, but I will count backwards from 20. And if I lose my place because I start thinking a thought, then I just go back to 20 and I start counting backwards again.

And when I'm just focused on counting, or I could be focused on my breath, just like a meditate, like a meditation focused on the breath that keeps me from having the busy mind and that helps me get into that alpha state.

Now, you could also do a meditation. If you have a meditation app on your phone and I use the Waking up app, which I love, we'll link the free code to a free month's worth of waking up. If you want to try waking up, we'll link that in the Show Notes. But a meditation app where you are just simply focused on the guided meditation or your breath or whatever is going on in that meditation, that can also get you into the alpha state. Going for a nature walk again, not the nature Walk I was talking about before where you're trying to get ideas to bubble up, but just simply like a five minute around the block or maybe it's in nature, but just a five minute. A short walk will do. It doesn't have to be long.

You could also use breath work. There's two different types of breath work that I really like. One I like, I call it the four by four where you inhale slowly to the count of four, you hold your breath for a count of four, exhale slowly for a count of four, and hold that empty breath for a count of four. Just a few cycles of that will put you in the alpha state and your alpha waves will be firing. And that again gets you into a very, very meditative, calm state. Incidentally, that is the breath work that people who are in really highly stressful occupations like SWAT team members use to keep their sympathetic nervous system in a calm state so that they don't accidentally, you know, take out the wrong person or something like that if they are watching for a bad guy. Another type of breath work that you could use is called the four, seven, eight breathing. And four, seven, eight is you inhale slowly to the count of four and then you, you hold your breath for the count of seven and then you exhale slowly for the count of eight again, much like that four by four breath I was talking about, four, seven, eight pattern also will trigger those alpha waves and get you in that state.

Now, as a quick example, many top CEOs practice mindfulness meditation to balance high intensity decision making with stress and also help them be more resilient. Again, some of you may have heard me say this before, but when I am going into a really high stakes speaking situation, like let's say I'm keynoting and there's, you know, hundreds or maybe even thousands of people in the audience, when it's a really big audience or something about it is especially high stakes. I absolutely will be doing my 4x4 breath. Sometimes. I'm still doing my 4x4 breath right as the MC is announcing me and you know, reading my introduction so I could be found right in the wings just backstage doing my 4x4 breathing. Oh, it makes such a, such a difference.

And now for high quality sleep and recovery.That's when you want to get into delta waves. So sleep is where your brain is consolidating learning. It is consolidating memories, locking those memories into long term memory. And it is your delta waves that drive this process. So if you want to get better sleep and you want those delta waves to be active when you are sleeping, here are a handful of tips. First of all, no screens before bedtime. Really? The research says up to two hours before bedtime. So it is that blue light that comes off of our television screens, our laptops, our tablet computers, our phones, for sure.

That blue light suppresses natural brainwave transition to sleep and prevents us from having that deep sleep. If you do need to use screens, make sure you've got some blue light blocking glasses because that will help. It won't eliminate the blue light entirely, but it will help tremendously in terms of letting less of it get through to your eyes. You could also use biurnal beats tuned to delta frequencies for deep rest. So if you're wondering what are biurnal by beats, well, there is a certain type of music and rhythm that is going to support those delta waves. And I've got a YouTube track linked up for you in the show notes. You can find the show notes to this episode at janelanderson.com/206 for episode 206. So we've got some of those biurnal beats linked up for you as well as a couple of other tracks on YouTube that will get you into different types of waves as well.

So we've got all of those labeled for you. Another thing that you can do, if you haven't already is, you know, have that bedtime routine. We know how important that is for small children. Well, it's important for adults too. Establishing a wind down routine at bedtime, whether that's reading or journaling or some light stretching, doing that same routine before bed signals to the brain that you are shifting into sleep mode and delta mode. So one top example I wanted to share with you is that of elite athletes. Elite athletes optimize their delta waves for faster recovery from their workouts and from their team sports. So one of the most famous examples, and you can just google up how much LeBron James sleeps.

So LeBron James reportedly sleeps 10 plus hours a night. Now of course this is depending on whether he's traveling or if it's a game day, those kinds of things. The more intense his workout is, the more sleep he actually wants. So some reports are that LeBron James is getting even up to 12 hours of sleep on some nights for again, for recovery. Because that eight to 10 hours is going to really enhance your mental and physical performance in a way that 6 to 8 just isn't going to cut it. Okay, now let's go on to talk about your competitive edge. How can you use brain waves to get a competitive edge in the workplace? So first of all, use your mornings wisely. And I've talked about my morning routine here on this podcast in the past.

You can go check out those episodes if you haven't heard those before. Start your day with meditation Again, that's going to get you into the theta state. You could start your day with journaling. Whether that's bullet journaling or journaling about the data calm or whatever is on your mind. That's going to put your brain into the alpha state again. Remember, the theta state and the alpha state are both going to help you when you dive into that high focus work. When you are transitioning between tasks, you could use again, thinking about like transitioning from one meeting to the next. When you've got back to back meetings that are really depending on you to be at a high focus state.

You could take that five minute break that we were just talking about, or you could try some of those breathing exercises. You could maybe even just get in a few minutes of ambient music to shift gears when you need to balance high productivity modes with recharge time. Again, as an example, after a long period of beta wave intense focus, you could unwind with a short creative activity like sketching, if you like to draw. Now, I'm not a very good artist. If I draw anything, probably I'm not going to let anybody see it, but I might just sketch out some things or do a word puzzle or something like that. I'm a big fan of the word puzzles. They do really help me check out. It could also just be as simple as listening to a track of music to get your mind in a completely different state.

And speaking of music, leverage music strategically. So alpha waves increase with lo fi beats or nature sounds, while beta waves are stimulated by fast paced instrumental music. And again, we're going to link up some examples of different type of music that you can use in the show notes. So again, I mentioned biurnal beats. So we've got theta and theta waves and creativity and there's a couple of different tracks for that. We've got some ambient music and some focus music and we've got some choices for you in that area as well. So as we leave this discussion of brainwaves, let me just give you a few final thoughts for mastering your mental state for your success.

So your brainwaves are your hidden superpower. They dictate how well you focus, how well you innovate, and how fast you recover. And how effectively you recover. So instead of forcing yourself into overdrive, I want you to start intentionally shifting into the right state at the right time for the type of work that you're doing. So whether you need to crank out a high priority project, generate your next big idea, or simply get better sleep, you now have the tools to make it happen. So here's your challenge. Over the course of the next week, try at least one of the techniques that we discussed today. Maybe it's a morning mindfulness session to enhance creativity. Maybe it's a focus sprint with the Pomodoro method or simple breathwork exercises in between high stress things to shift out of that stressful state and promote resilience.

The more you experiment with these states, the more control you'll have over your own competitive advantage in the workplace. And because this episode is packed with dense content, this absolutely is one of those episodes that you're probably going to want to hop back over to the show notes and check out what were all those brainwaves and what activities can I do to get myself into those brainwaves? So again, this is episode 206. So you'll go to janelanderson.com/206 for episode 206 and let me know how it goes.

I'd really love to hear which of these techniques is working for you, and if you find this episode helpful, please share it with somebody else who might benefit from hearing it. Even just one share does a world of good for me personally when you share my ideas with somebody else. I appreciate it so much. Now, until next week, keep working on what matters most and get your brain waves lined up with the work that you're doing and the activities that you're doing to help you function at your best. As always, stay curious, stay informed and stay ahead of the curve.

And tune in next week for another insightful exploration of the trends that are shaping our professional world. Again, as I mentioned, if you learned something or if you just simply enjoy this content, there are a handful of ways that you can support me. First of all, subscribe to my channel over on YouTube, you can subscribe to the podcast on your podcast platform of choice and follow me over on social media. All of these are excellent no cost ways for you to support me in my work. And you'll find links to my social media over on the show notes page at janelanderson.com/206 for episode 206.

Until next time my friends, keep thriving and keep working toward the future of work. The future that we all want. Stay connected, stay curious, and I will catch you next week.