If you're a manager and are about to have a meeting with your reports, one good way to help clear their minds is to start the meeting with an exercise.
"I always do an icebreaker at every start of every meeting," says Golden, adding that,"an easy one is, 'you have 30 seconds, go grab something, no matter where you are, and you have to come back and in less than 30 seconds, you have to tell us why you grabbed it.'" This also helps people disconnect and get some blood flowing in their brains and bodies, and puts"an ease to solving some of the challenges that you're solving in that 30 minutes," she says."We tend to say we're going to refresh our brain when we take a vacation or at the weekend," says Golden. But you can give your brain refreshers throughout the day.
"What I encourage everyone to very simply do," she says, is"write down on a piece of paper what are the ways that you can refresh your brain in one minute, five minute and 15-minute increments." Call someone you love and tell them you love them. Do a crossword puzzle. Go for a jog. Do jumping jacks in the room — whatever is going to get you to disconnect for that period of time and come back to your task anew.
"My best idea didn't come when I was sitting tied to a desk," she says."It came when I was outside, when I was in the shower, when I was on a plane, when I was listening to music, when I was running … That's when the ideas come."Want to earn more and land your dream job?