How to work more efficiently, according a neuroscientist 

In her new book, neuroscience researcher Mithu Storoni breaks down how to best structure your work sessions and increase your productivity.

In an essay published in The Economist in 1955, British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson noted how work often “expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Writing a few lines on a postcard, he observed, can take an entire day if one has the entire day to write it in. Various factors, from perfectionism to procrastination and laziness to lassitude, contribute to this phenomenon, which has come to be known as Parkinson’s Law. When it applies to why you don’t get more done by working for three hours straight than by working for two, however, Parkinson’s Law may be explained by the rhythmic cycle of your mind.