Your prefrontal cortex is the most likely place where world’s collide.
It is this part of your brain that is involved in making decisions, problem solving, goal setting and controlling emotions. It is also a part of the brain that can actually only do a couple of things at any one time, and takes a lot of energy to do them. It works exceptionally well when in good shape, and does not do so well when you are tired and low on energy.

When work and home collide with all the conflicting priorities, sometimes it just cannot cope.

One way to help your prefrontal cortex deal with this is to separate your worlds. Before you leave work, spend a few minutes reviewing your day and plan for the next. Jot down your priorities and plan the day. Then forget about it. Use the journey home to relax, reflect and bring home into your prefrontal cortex.

When you arrive home, you will be mentally recharged and focussing on all the right things.

I have worked on the dining room table, in a spare bedroom, half a block away, a 40 minute train trip and a 30 minute drive away.

All have their pros and cons – but I did like the 30 minute drive home. ( I liked the 40 minutes but not the train!)

So much is being written these days about the importance of ‘Reflection’ as a way to integrate your mind and keep it healthy and balanced. The 30 minute trip home allowed me to do that. It also gave me time to adjust my mind, re-focus and alter my priorities.

By the time I got home and walk in the door, I really could say, “Hi everyone, I’m home.” I was home both mentally and physically.

I was working with a guy last week from the finance industry. His HBDI profile was a 1122.
When he saw it, his first reaction was to say, “But I’m different at home.”

I asked him what he meant. He explained that, yes, at work he was very logical and financially minded. Hs job demanded him to be. But he said he was very different at home. He went onto explain how he read his kids stories at night and always played with them. He thought that this immediate meant he should have a higher score in the C quadrant.

When asked, he did say that he liked reading stories about trains and things. He always read them at the same time each night. And when he played with them, it was always with the trucks and roadways - and in his way. He liked building things for them.

After a while he realised that reading and playing with kids could be done from many quadrant. You just do it differently.

The HBDI collects clues from work, home, hobbies and other places. It really does give you a measure of your preferences, across the entire range of your world.

And any quadrant can be a loving parent. They just do it in different ways.

” I don’t do green!”.

I was in a workshop when one of the participants said this. Their HBDI profile was a 2311. They had a very strong preference in the Yellow Quadrant. This was in stark contrast to an avoidance in the green.

They went on to explain how, for them, their avoidance was so strong that they simply did not do ‘green stuff’ - planning, being organised, prioritising things and generally managing things around the house.

I am not sure how they got on at home but I know I would be in big trouble if I said that. And I am 155 in the Yellow Quadrant.

The important thing to remember about the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) is that it measures your Thinking Preference, not your competence or ability.

This means that we might not be turned on by it, but we can still do it.

Moving between work and home requires a lot of mental flexibility. It also requires a lot of cooperation and sharing. Hiding behind your HBDI profile and saying “I don’t do that!” is not going to achieve anything.

Using the Whole Brian Model as a way of understanding the thinking required both at home and work is a powerful tool and can help many a house hold avoid colliding.

If you’re like most of us, your brain is full right now. Everyone I talk to says they’re trying to do more with less while getting more productive and more innovative at the same time. We know we have to do it, but are we using our thinking to our advantage, or is it actually standing in the way of where we want to go? Over the next several posts, I’ll address some of the ways you can take control in tough times with better thinking.

Tip 1: Get Out of Your Own Way!: Watch for the dangers of your own experience. The Curse of Knowledge (Make it Stick, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath) will cloud your thinking, trapping you in past patterns and keeping you from seeing new ideas and fresh opportunities.

How can you get out of your own way?

Disarm your brain by looking for situations that are novel and outside of your experience, talking to others who have different backgrounds.
Watch how your personal style filters can get in your way.
Define and reverse your “truths” (from “our customers will scream if we change that” to “our customers will love it if we change that”).
Use metaphors to shift your mindset. Ask yourself, “how is this situation like…” and see where the possibilities can take you.
Remove self-imposed limits, even just for a moment, to discover what new options might be out there.
Try these exercises in your next brainstorming meeting or the next time you revert back to your default responses. You might find that your thinking styles and preferences are filtering out the very ideas you need right now.