Cognitive Terrorism

Technological progress  of the past 100 years has brought human civilization myriad of breakthroughs in almost all areas of human endeavours as well as radically transformed society and the world. From industrial machines, to computers to AI and WEB3, new technologies and innovations are popping up every day, fueling our endless pursuit for productivity and growth.  

However, another hidden trend is growing at an even faster pace -  major deterioration of physical and cognitive health, increased stress levels and growing anxiety that led to severe mental disorders, neuro-physiological conditions and suicides.  The central question here is  why, despite our best efforts to decrease it by introducing mechanisation, automation and digital technologies, our individual and social health is being so severely degraded ? In this essay I will introduce to you my perspective on why this might be happening and what are the possible solutions to this hidden mental crisis. 

Technologies, and computer technologies in particular, have enormously changed the way we work, move and communicate. Almost all parts of our life have changed in the last 50 years. However, workplace hardly changed much, with 3 particular areas in particular, which I coined as Cognitive terrorism:

1.Current work cognitive complexity and the amount of time we spent at a workplace mismatch.

2.Structure of a workplace and health implications

3.Productivity culture: Endless pursuit of productivity  as the only success metrics

I’ll address all of them and the implications they have on our mental health and society health as a whole.

1.Work cognitive complexity and the amount of time we spent at a workplace mismatch.

The introduction of the 8-hour workday can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the United States “8-hour working day” paradigm has been introduced on a legal level back in 1916. 100 years have passed and we continue working for 8 hours straight, despite the dramatic change in what we do, with social structures incentivising and rewarding to work more hours.

So what’s really changed  since then is the amount of cognitive effort to do work.  With the progress of computers, complexity of processes, task switching, we use much more cognitive effort than 100 years ago to do our work. As a result, an 8 hour work shift is creating a progressively increasing mental pressure on our nerve and cognitive systems that logically causes high levels of stress, mental breakdowns, and depression. 

The main misconception is that with the growing speed of computers and productivity software, the productivity of our cognitive abilities also grows. In fact - it stays the same and that is the root  cause of the continuous deteriorating mental condition of the whole society.  

2.Structure of a workplace and health implications

Another element is the system of a workplace. Traditionally we have 4 hours of work, 1 hour of rest and another 4 hours of intensive work.

4-1-4 Structure

I might have worked 100 years ago, but with current cognitive effort required to do work, 4 hours of continuous work is pushing our brain and heart to the limits, where they no longer have the capacity to operate within healthy limits. The outcomes of this we are observing, but looks like having no clue what’s going on.

Brain

Most if not all our biological systems are operating in the same manner, effort/rest cycles. Same applies to both physical and intellectual work. 

However, they are not equal.

We can do manual work, or run for 4 hours straight, but when it comes to intellectual work, it can have different levels of cognitive effort. Different tasks require different amounts of cognitive power or energy. Writing and creative work is less taxing, while writing code is a much more complex task that requires much more cognitive effort.

Heart

It seems like when we sit in front of the computer and are not moving physically, we should have a steady low heart rate. However, this is totally wrong and can be easily tracked with any HR device.

In fact, intellectual work is FAR MORE taxing to the heart, than even running a marathon. I’m fixing jumps to 130 HR during my work, with resting HR of 50-60. Running a marathon is around 70-80 in anaerobic mode.

That makes 130 HR an anaerobic mode, with all its implications.

Moreover, the longer the working session, the higher HR goes.

if I work  45 minutes - using what I call “the Cake Method”, HR goes to 100, and then goes back to normal.

If I work 1.5H it goes to 130-140.

If I work longer than that, by the end of this session I really don’t understand what I am doing. I know many of us feel that by the end of the day with one of the biggest reasons - our heart can’t take it anymore and is switching us off.

Most importantly, the higher our heart rate goes, the longer it takes to lower it. That could be one of the major  reasons of an unrest sleep.

This is a data-backed observation that can be checked by anyone with 100$ device or an Apple watch.

In sum:

Our current structure of work not only doesn’t match our biological system, it abuses it heavily. In fact we’re dying, wearing out our most precious organs - our  brain and heart.  

However, it doesn’t stop only on these organs. As the research shows and many similar,  heart health is directly connected and part of other conditions as pancreatic cancer. You don't need to be a medical expert, to get to one simple logical conclusion:

Heart is at the core of our health and the current workplace structure abuses and ignores it whatsoever.

3.Productivity culture - Endless pursuit of productivity  as the only success metrics

Needless to say, healthy employees create healthy work. However, we rarely use any metrics of health conditions, treating our employees as “black-boxes”, measuring only quantitative metrics. When these metrics don’t match our expectations, we replace them. That is ingrained in our culture.

I see this  is changing, with workplaces creating healthier environments and a culture of care. Evolutionary organisational structures, Teal and Holacracy, also maintain a healthier climate that improves productivity while reducing stress.

However, that’s not enough, as we need to address all 3 challenges to make this a comprehensive care.

Cognitive terrorism

This term in my opinion succinctly and perfectly describes the current workplace conditions. This is a wake-up call for organisations to rethink how we approach mental health structurally, and not to offer more “Gym” benefits and talk about it.

This needs to be addressed as a root cause of mental condition, and not fighting the symptoms with antidepressants, psychologists or “mental health PR stunts”.

Solution

While it’s just a tip of the iceberg, in gives some insights and address challenges listed above. I it base on by long-term  application of approach to my work and showed enormous productivity results in the long-term, resilience to health breakdowns and stress, as well as producing more qualitative results.

The cake method

I’ll provide a quick description here, while in the process of producing a white-paper, explaining all the structural benefits. However, it can be easily applied and adopted by any person or company TODAY, without radical changes in what they do.

The cake - 45-15 principle

45 minutes of work, 15 minutes of rest. It’s that easy. 

45 minutes

It is scientifically proven and perhaps unanimously accepted by all productivity experts as the maximum attention span possible. Everything else that we do beyond that point is unproductive and highly damaging work.

45 minutes working span is exactly approaching high levels of HR, that we all can see on graphs, allowing us to stay aerobic mode

15 minutes

Optimal rest period for our heart to restore its normal HR.

45+15  as a new working hour Paradigm

Instead of 60 minutes of continuous working hour, we  take for granted that we work 45 minutes and we rest 15, making our working calculations straightforward and clear.

45+15 work span that I called “The Cake”. Because it is a “Piece of cake”. It’s easy to stay focused, producing high quality work and gives you long-term resilience with all the health and financial benefits connected to that   

In fact 45+15 minutes will take us way further in terms of career success, than the current methods. 

The Cake planning - 6-hour work

As a result of a slightly changed structure that is already beneficial to our mental and physical health, it opens us a new opportunity to improve our planning.

Instead of to-do lists, that invites us for never-ending work, we make planning in cakes. What I’ve realised is that that focused work that is at the core of the Cake Method, allows us to do more in a shorter period of time and decreasing working hours, decreasing our stress levels even more.

Through many iterations of this method for a long-time, I have found that 6 cakes is the most optimal working day.   Planning changed from “to-do list” to planning certain tasks for 6 cakes per day, without expectations of the outcome. 

For example, today I planned 3 cakes writing this piece today, and 3 other daily tasks,with no plans to complete it, just work on it.

Instead of setting the results that invite us for long-marathons, we limit our work to cakes,  setting clear boundaries.  Not only does it decrease our stress of “need to finish”, inviting other phenomena “procrastination” or fear of big tasks, this focused approach clearly proved to be superior in efficiency of our work.  Not only does it provide us with multiple health benefits, it gives us resilience, consistency and increasing chances of completing highly complex tasks that require months or years to do.

In conclusion:

Cognitive terrorism is here and it silently kills us. We need to address the root causes - the structure of our workplace and organisation of work, if we want to solve a global mental crisis. 

While The Cake Method can provide us with a better structure and personal well-being, we must remember  the ultimate solution lies in a profound transformation of our workplaces at their very core.

I invite you to share your thoughts and feedback on this pressing topic. The conversation surrounding cognitive terrorism and mental health in the workplace is vital, and your insights can be a catalyst for meaningful change. Reach out to me at [email protected], and together, let's work towards a future where our workspaces not only protect our well-being but enhance our human potential.