5 Functions that Make up the Majority of Conscious Thought:

1. Understanding
2. Deciding
3. Recalling
4. Memorizing
5. Inhibiting

• Prioritizing is one of the brain's most energy-hungry processes.

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Making Decisions

• Your ability to make great decisions is a limited resource. Conserve this resource at every opportunity.
• Becoming an expert in any field seems to involve creating large numbers of chunks, which enables you to make faster and better decisions than amateurs.
• We often think about what’s easy to think about, rather than what’s right to think about.
• Taking time to work out the right order to make decisions can save a lot of effort and energy overall, reducing unresolved issues in your queue.

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Divided Attention

• You can focus on only one conscious task at a time.
• Consciously decide how long you will split your attention, then go back to focusing on one thing. An example of this is leaving a BlackBerry on for only a limited number of hours a day while you work, perhaps only in the afternoons, when you are not trying to do focused work.
• It can be helpful to let others around you know that you are splitting your attention.
• If you do multiple conscious tasks at once you will experience a big drop-off in accuracy or performance. 
• The only way to do two mental tasks quickly, if accuracy is important, is to do one of them at a time. Multitasking can be done easily if you are executing embedded routines.
• Switching between tasks uses energy; if you do this a lot you can make more mistakes.
• Catch yourself trying to do two things at once and slow down instead.

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Expectations

• Expectations are the experience of the brain paying attention to a possible reward (or threat). 
• Expectations alter the data your brain perceives. It’s common to fit incoming data into expectations and to ignore data that don’t fit. 
• Expectations can change brain functioning; the right dose of expectations can be similar to a clinical dose of morphine.
• Expectations activate the dopamine circuitry, central for thinking and learning.
• Met expectations generate a slight increase in dopamine and a slight reward response. 
• Exceeded expectations generate a strong increase in dopamine and a strong reward response.
• Unmet expectations generate a large drop in dopamine level and a strong threat response.
• Practice setting expectations a little lower. To stay in a positive state of mind, find ways to keep coming out ahead of your expectations over and again, even in small ways. 

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