Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series. Read Part 1, “Work smarter by honing your mental focus.”

Would you like to know which time of day is your most efficient and when you are least likely to function well? Would you be willing to spend 26 minutes a day to obtain a 34 percent improvement in your performance? If so, the latest brain research has some surprising findings that can help you make the most of every single minute of your working day.

Recover up to one-third of your workday

Part 1 of this series looked at how Broadman’s Area 10 (an area of the brain known as “Mother” in the neuroscience community) is incapable of multi-tasking. Instead, Mother requires 0.7 seconds to shift from one task to another. This finding, substantiated by numerous studies, means that it is impossible to multi-task. In fact, the research substantiates that most people spend up to one-third of their day recovering from interruptions.