Your Daily Brain by The Minds Behind Marbles

Your Daily Brain by The Minds Behind Marbles ISBN-13: 9780804140119 Paperback: 194 pages Publisher: Three Rivers Press Released: Aug. 18, 2015

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
In Your Daily Brain, the team behind Marbles: The Brain Store, a chain devoted to building better brains, shows you all the weird and wonderful ways your brain works throughout the day—even when you think it’s not working at all, like when you’re on the treadmill or picking the kids up from school.

Consider this book a wake-up call, a chance to take a closer look at and jump start your brain. From the minute your alarm clock buzzes in the morning until your head hits the pillow at night, your daily activities—everything from doing a crossword puzzle to parallel parking—are part of a process for how you evaluate the world, make choices and decisions, and reach short-term goals while keeping your eyes on the bigger ones. In each, you have the opportunity to use your brain for better or worse, whether it’s what to listen to you on your morning commute or avoiding mental traps at the grocery store.

Packed with information as well as useful tips and tricks, Your Daily Brain is the brain hack you’ve been looking for!


My Review:
Your Daily Brain is a collection of various studies about the brain which the authors summarize and explain in plain English in a casual, humorous tone. The authors also suggested things you can do to make use of these insights into your brain. It was more fun facts than life-changing insights, but I found it interesting from start to finish. Their suggestions were all do-able with minimal effort, so it's likely I'll apply what I learned in this book.

Each study was given a time-of-day heading though most also applied to other times of day. The "morning time" studies had more to do with getting your brain engaged and plans made for the day. Mid-day covered relating to people and tasks on the job. Evening times covered things like interacting with your family and how your brain knows it's time to sleep. We learn things like should you hit the snooze button? Eat breakfast and, if so, what types of foods? Aim for optimism or positive thinking? Multi-task? And what types of things help with creativity and problem solving? How does anger--or distraction--affect your judgment?

If you like brain studies, you may have heard some of this information before. Or you might have heard things that aren't actually backed up by studies (like different learning styles--using your preferred learning style won't necessarily help you learn better). But if you like learning about how your brain works and prefer the summary version of the studies, you'll likely to find something new and interesting in this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.