Your Brain Is Slowing You Down — Here's How to Fix It

Summary

Podcast Summary: Help Wanted
Episode: Your Brain Is Slowing You Down — Here's How to Fix It
Date: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Jason Feifer (Entrepreneur editor-in-chief), Nicole Lapin (money expert)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Jason Feifer shares counterintuitive advice on boosting work performance by using less of your brain—emphasizing instinct and flow over overthinking. Drawing from personal anecdotes and psychological research, Jason outlines three practical strategies to help listeners get unstuck, have breakthrough ideas, and achieve better results by detaching from excessive mental control and allowing intuition to take the lead.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Counterintuitive Key to Better Performance (03:15)

• Main Thesis: You can improve your work, have better ideas, and power through tasks by using less of your brain, leaning into instinct instead of over-focusing.
• Personal Anecdote: Jason describes how his "Papa Shot" basketball scores are much higher when distracted with music—showing that dividing attention allows instinct to take over.

  “When I shoot in silence, my high score is maybe 50. But when I play songs I love and sing along, I become Steph Curry. My current high score is 121.” (04:48, Jason)

Psychological Basis: The Yerkes-Dodson Law & Flow State (06:12)

• Yerkes-Dodson Law: Performance is best at moderate, “just right” levels of stress—not too little, not too much.
  • Too little focus ⇒ boredom, poor performance.
  • Too much focus ⇒ stress, poor performance.
  • Optimal focus ⇒ engaged, productive, “flow state.”
• Flow State (07:38): The sweet spot where challenge and ability meet; tasks feel effortless yet engaging and highly productive.

Applying "Less Brain, More Instinct": Three Favorite Strategies

1. Walking and Talking (09:13)

• Problem: Excessive video calls lead to fatigue and stifled creativity.
• Solution: Take calls while walking; suggest off-video meetings.
  • Boosts creativity, decreases stress, builds rapport.
  • Even invites others to do the same—in person or virtually.

  “When I walk, my brain is engaged by multiple things and instinct can take over. Ideas flow more freely, I become more animated. The meetings are better.” (09:50, Jason)

2. Ideas On the Fly (10:23)

• Problem: Forced brainstorming rarely leads to great ideas.
• Solution: Capture spontaneous ideas from conversations or real-life moments. Don’t overthink or force creative sessions.
  • Uses the Reminders app to jot ideas on the fly.
  • Allows ideas to be refined and developed later, supports flow when creating.

  “The best ideas are generated on the fly. And this goes for collaborations too. … I'll often say, 'I'm just going to think out loud here.' And then I'll just kind of workshop an idea in monologue or conversation.” (11:41, Jason)

• Practical Example: The current podcast episode originated from such an on-the-fly note.

3. Don’t Micromanage the Moment (12:23)

• Problem: Over-preparation and scripting events (like keynotes or interviews) leads to stiffness and lost opportunities for real connection.
• Solution: Use outlines and familiar stories, not scripts.
  • Trust your instincts; allows real-time adaptation and genuine engagement.
  • For interviews, research deeply but let conversations unfold naturally—don’t stick to a rigid question list.

  “If you memorize something word for word, the opposite will happen. You will anchor yourself to your words, you will be stiff and you will lose your place. And once you lose your place, you will never find it again.” (13:05, Jason)

  • “You are at your best when you are you, not when you are trying to be you. So let go a little. Trust yourself. You've got this.” (13:02, Jason)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Flow and Performance:

  “If you're focused too much on [something], then you are overstressed… But when you have just that perfect, optimal level of stress, then you are engaged, but not overly engaged… that is when you do your best work." (06:35, Jason)

• On Spontaneity:

  “Come up with better ideas in conversation instead of sitting trying to think of ideas.” (11:01, Jason, referencing his reminder note)

• On Letting Go:

  “The point here is not to be prescriptive. It's to focus less and feel more. You are at your best when you are you, not when you are trying to be you.” (13:02, Jason)

• Closing Advice:

  “If you're ever in my basement playing basketball, sing as you shoot.” (13:06, Jason)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:15: Introduction to the episode theme (“use less of your brain”)
• 04:48: Personal "Papa Shot" anecdote
• 06:12: Yerkes-Dodson Law and psychological foundation
• 07:38: Flow state explained
• 09:13: Strategy One: Walking and talking during meetings
• 10:23: Strategy Two: Capturing ideas on the fly
• 12:23: Strategy Three: Don’t micromanage talks or interviews
• 13:02: Closing insights on trusting instincts

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Final Takeaways

• Optimal performance stems from balancing focus—enough to be engaged, not so much that stress and overthinking hinder your abilities.
• Leading with instinct and letting go of excessive control can actually increase creativity and productive output.
• Try Jason’s strategies: walk and talk, capture spontaneous ideas, and avoid rigid preparation.
• Ultimately, "You are at your best when you are you, not when you are trying to be you."

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For more:
Check out Jason’s newsletter “One Thing Better” at OneThingBetter.email for weekly, actionable insights delivered to your inbox, often ahead of their appearance on the podcast.

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This summary skips all ads, intros, and outros to provide the most valuable content from the episode itself.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of

[A]

Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

[B]

And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

[A]

And it starts now.

[B]

You are working hard on something, but. But that something just isn't working. Maybe you hit a dead end on a project or you fell behind on a deadline, or you're staring at a blank page just unable to create something brilliant. Today, I'm going to fix that problem for you. You are going to improve your performance. You're going to have a breakthrough idea and you're going to rock through your tasks. And all you have to do is this. You have to use less of your brain. It's a counterintuitive idea. I know. I stumbled upon it myself recently and then discovered that this has deep roots in psychology. So today I'm going to explain how to do it, how to just turn yourself off a little bit. But first I'm going to tell you how it helped me. So last year, I bought a Papa Shot. You've seen Papashot. Just imagine going to an arcade and there's like a little bit basketball game there, you know, like a. You know, some small basketballs, and you shoot into a hoop and then it rolls right back to you. Anyway, Papashot is just one of the brands that makes those things. It's a basketball game. I bought one of those things and I set it up in my basement. Because when you're an adult and you have a basement, you can buy one of those things and set it up there. I said it was for my kids, but let's be honest, this thing was for me. I was really excited about it. I love this thing. It's a great way to relax. And as I have played, I've noticed an interesting pattern. When I shoot in silence, I am just so. So my high score is maybe 50. But when I play songs that I love and sing along as I shoot, I become Steph Curry. My current high score is 121. Why is this? I developed a theory as it was happening. I figured when I'm shooting in silence, I'm focused on my shot. But when I'm listening to music, my brain is partially occupied, and so my body takes over, and that's when I shoot Better. It's like a little formula. Less brain, more instinct. And I wondered, is this a thing? Like a. Is this a real thing? It's just a thing I made up. So I started to do some research and I found. Oh, yeah, it is definitely a thing. In 1908, two psychologists developed what is called the Yerkes Dodson Law. Yerkes Dodson law is basically the Goldilocks theory of performance. It goes like this. If you are too passive or too intense about something, then you will perform it poorly. But when you get that stress just right, your performance spikes. And why is this? Well, the idea is that if you're not working hard enough on something, then you're kind of bored. And if you're focused too much on it, then you are overstressed. And neither of those leads to great performance. But when you get it just right, when you have just that perfect, optimal level of stress, then you are engaged, but not overly engaged, but not underly engaged. And that is when you do your best work. In the 1990s, we started calling this flow state. The idea is that people are most creative, productive, and happy when they are in a flow, when they are working on something in a way that almost becomes effortless, even as it is challenging. I'm sure that if you make anything, you have experience that flow state. Sometimes I will be writing something or I'll be making a podcast, and it's challenging. It's challenging my brain, but I've set aside time for it, and I'm working at it, and I'm just in it, and the time passes and my performance is high. This is something that psychologists have now been talking about for more than a century. It shows up in all sorts of studies. And it was what was making me do well as I was shooting baskets in my basement. And this all got me wondering, can we apply this elsewhere? Like, how else can we subtract our brains and increase our instincts? Well, let's start here. I have found three instances that really work for me. So here they are. Number one, walking and talking. My day, like yours, is full of video calls, and I don't like this. It's too much focus, too much staring at a screen and thinking about who I'm talking to and what I'm supposed to be saying. So I have started an experiment. Whenever it feels appropriate, I suggest that we go off video. I'll say to someone, you know, I'm gonna take a walk while we talk. I've just been stuck in front of the computer for too long. At first, I worried that this would seem unprofessional. But you know what? People thanked me. They don't wanna be on video either. And some of them have even joined me in going outside and taking a walk while we talk. When I walk, my brain is engaged by multiple things and instinct can take over. Ideas flow more freely, I become more animated. The meetings are better. I strongly suggest this, or even better, invite people to take an actual in real life walk with you. Multiple business partnerships of mine have started this way by just walking and talking. So that's strategy number one. Number two, ideas on the fly. People often ask me, hey, where do you get ideas for your newsletter and podcast? And here's the answer. I do not get them by thinking of ideas for the newsletter and podcast instead. My system is simple. Whenever I stumble upon an interesting idea based on something that I said in conversation in real life, or heard someone tell me, or just experienced in passing, I have trained myself to think that could be a newsletter or podcast. Then I write it down in my reminders app. I use the just, I have an iPhone and so I use the house Reminders app and I just jot down any idea that could turn into one of these things. So for example, here is something that I wrote a few weeks ago which prompted the thing that you are literally listening to right now. Here's what I wrote. I wrote loosen the grip when I play Papa Shot in my basement. I shoot better when I'm listening to music I love and singing along. Why? Because my brain isn't 100% focused on the shot, allowing instant to take over a little bit. This is like riding a mountain bike. You want to. You want your grip loose. Check with Andy on that. Come up with better ideas in conversation instead of sitting trying to think of ideas. Okay, that's what I. That's what I just jotted down to myself. And when it is time to create something, what I do is I pull out my reminders app and I scan around and I say, ah, that idea. I like that idea. And then I just start writing. I get into a flow state. I just write. I see where the words take me, even if it's. It means abandoning some of the original concepts because as you just heard a second ago, some of this stuff like a mountain bike or whatever, that just didn't make it into what I am presenting you right now because I didn't need it anyway. This is all part of a belief of mine which is this. The best ideas are generated on the fly. And this goes for collaborations too. When I'M in meetings, I'll often say, you know, I'm just going to think out loud here. And then I'll just kind of workshop an idea in monologue or conversation. When I'm moving, when I'm going, I'm not focused on, like I have to come up with a great idea, and therefore I'm not as stressed about it. And it just kind of comes out of me. It just flows. All right, so that was strategy number two. Here's strategy number three. Don't micromanage the moment. I give a lot of keynote talks. I have never written down or memorized one. That's not to say that I wing it on stage. I create an outline, I rehearse, I refine, I. But I also structure my talks around familiar stories that I love telling and exercises that I've shared many times. That way, I intuitively just know this stuff. So when I'm on stage, I'm able to act on instinct. I sound fresh and I can react to the audience in real time because I'm not focused intently in a stressful way on the things that I'm saying. If you memorize something word for word, the opposite will happen. You will anchor yourself to your words, you will be stiff and you will lose your place. And once you lose your place, you will never find it again. I take a similar approach to interviews. Actually. I've interviewed a listers like the Rock, Jimmy Fallon, Michelle Pfeiffer. I never write out a list of questions because if I did, I'd be stuck thinking about the next question instead of listening and responding to them, instead of just being in the flow with them. So instead, here's how I prep. I learn a lot about them. I hypothesize a few directions the conversation could go in, and then I get there and I let it flow. The possibilities are endless. As you heard the examples above, you might have thought, ah, that won't work for me. That's totally fine, all good. What works for you might not work for me. And what works for me might not work for you. We have different instincts. The point here is not to be prescriptive. It's to focus less and feel more. You are at your best when you are you, not when you are trying to be you. So let go a little. Trust yourself. You've got this. And if you're ever in my basement playing basketball, sing as you shoot. All right? And that came from my newsletter. Maybe you know this if you are a longtime listener of Help Wanted. My newsletter is called One Thing better each week. One way to be more successful and satisfied at work and build a career or company you love. It's a companion to Help Wanted. I read it here on the show every week, but you can subscribe and get it in your inbox a few weeks early along with some other fun goodies that I drop in there. You can get it at One thing better email. That is a web address. Just plug it into a browser. One thing better email. And when you get it, just don't think too much about it. Just enjoy it. Just, you know, get into that flow. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason

[A]

Pfeiffer and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Do you want some help? Email our [e-mail] for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. And follow us on Instagramoneynews and TikTokoneyNewsNetwork for exclusive content and to see our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance?

[B]

Oh, I didn't sign up for that.

[A]

All right, well, talk to you soon.

[B]

Sam.