Using your head

Physically, you've arrived at work present and correct - but have you packed your mental briefcase? When was the last time you thought about the way you generate ideas, insights and reflections?

You can't make muscles appear when you need them without going to the gym. In the same way, if your brain has been languishing on its metaphorical couch, you can't expect to be able to think creatively on the spot when the boss demands it.

The personality of intelligence A new book, Brain Fitness At Work, explains intelligence as multi-dimensional and far beyond the limited scope of the IQ test that measures language and numeracy.

Psychologists now suggest that we have multiple intelligences including the visual, practical, emotional and social. What is clear is that people use their brain in different ways and no one way of thinking is necessarily better than another.

Thinking about the way you think may be the key to understanding why you can spark off one work colleague to produce great ideas, yet find another frustrating.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung suggested that personalities affect the way we choose to process information and make decisions with four main groups; Sensors, Intuitors, Thinkers and Feelers.

For example, if an argument is developing at a weekly meeting, Sensor thinks: 'Why can't they keep to the point?' The Intuitor switches off and gets on with a things to do list, while the Thinker thinks that no one is very businesslike, and Feeler wonders: 'How can I calm things down?'

One mode of thinking may be predominant but not necessarily overriding. In fact, we would benefit from a clearer communication of ideas in meetings, problem solving, improved long-term and shortterm memory, motivation, improved productivity and reduced distractions if we employed all four.

Massage those mental muscles

The dead time travelling to work could be used to warm up your mental muscles to arrive alert.

Try out the mind gym here to exercise your brain. It's more taxing than solitaire and your boss may even thank you for it.

But if you're thinking you like the sound of this work-out more than one that involves weights and treadmills - tough luck.

Studies of the relationship between physical fitness and mental ability show that exercise can boost mental capacity by about 25 per cent.