Sahar Yousef
Cognitive Neuroscientist, Faculty at UC Berkeley
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Sahar Yousef
Biography
Dr. Sahar Yousef is a cognitive neuroscientist and faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. After spending 15 years doing research on neuroplasticity and how to improve memory, focus, and overall human performance in as little as 7 weeks, she is considered one of the world’s leading experts on cognitive training and the science of productivity.
Dr. Sahar runs the Becoming Superhuman Lab and her work and ideas have been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNBC, and The New York Times. She also teaches one of Berkeley’s most popular MBA courses called “Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance”, which trains busy professionals who think for a living how to get their most important work done, in less time, and with less stress.
In 2024, she was recognized as one of the top 30 management thinkers by Thinkers50—in collaboration with Deloitte—which recognizes those who are making an impact with their ideas, research, and commitment to making the world a better place.
As part of her mission to make neuroscience accessible and actionable to millions of humans, Dr. Sahar has:
Given over 750 talks and keynotes to knowledge workers in over 50 countries
Advised executive teams at Fortune 100 companies like Google, Visa, and NVIDIA
Been invited to speak to the US Congress and the Saudi Arabian government
Been a featured scientist in the Headspace wellbeing app, which has been seen by over 100 million people globally
Produced a multi-part video series with John Legend on the science of music and its impact on our focus, sleep, and emotions
Taught one of the most highly rated online courses on Scott Galloway’s education platform Section, which is an intensive version of her Becoming Superhuman MBA course.
Dr. Sahar earned her Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from UC Berkeley, where she studied and developed cognitive training protocols to improve executive function in both healthy high-performers and traumatically brain-injured individuals. Sahar’s research areas and background include the neuroscience of focus, meditation, executive function, prioritization, procrastination, and goal management, digital dependence / smartphone addiction, psychophysics, energy management and biological chronotypes, psychopharmacology, clinical burnout risk and prevention.
Sahar Yousef
Featured Videos
Current: Becoming Superhuman - Keynote
Time 05:15
Sahar Yousef
Featured Keynote Programs
Becoming Superhuman
The Science of Optimizing Productivity and Performance
Key Learnings:
Leading research on the three biggest mistakes of productivity and performance and the scientific reasons WHY people commonly make these mistakes
Unnecessary daily drains on our cognitive capacity and how to optimize your digital hygiene
How to prioritize your most important and valuable tasks, even in the face of urgent demands, by using “Daily MIT Setting”
Training on Focus Sprints®, a research-backed way of working that helps individuals get more done, in less time, with less energy expended
The Science of Burnout Prevention and Maintaining Mental Wellbeing
Key Learnings:
Why burnout became officially classified as an occupational syndrome in 2019 by the World Health Organization
Leading indicators and what distinguishes burnout clinically from excess stress and exhaustion
How to reverse the slow damage burnout does to the brain and body
An opportunity to take a 3-minute assessment (The Burnout Risk Index, BRI®) to determine your individual or team’s burnout risk
Practical frameworks for psychologically detaching from work and life stressors (including the 3M Framework for preventing burnout)
The Science of Energy Management
Understand Your Biological Chronotype and Increase Your Daily Stamina
Key Learnings:
New research on the four primary causes of “video fatigue” and their simple fixes
Discover your biological chronotype and how to optimally schedule your day for peak productivity and creativity
The most effective “brain breaks” according to science and strategies for avoiding the afternoon dip
How you can use light, temperature, or short breathing exercises to quickly increase your energy levels
Caffeine myths and practical strategies to optimize caffeine’s effects
Training the Brain for Innovation
The Neuroscience of Creativity and Accelerated Insight
Key Learnings:
Busting the myth of “left-brained” vs. “right-brained” and the real neurological underpinnings of creativity
How to reliably get into a creative brain state to increase the likelihood of new insights
Acquire the tools and principles to consistently generate, prioritize, and implement new ideas
How to create and nurture a culture of risk-tasking/experimentation to make a more innovative business
Research-based best practices for effective individual and team brainstorming
Sahar Yousef
Featured Articles & Resources
How Leaders Can Combat Burnout on Their Teams This Winter
The employees are not alright. Two and a half years after burnout reached new heights during the pandemic, the feeling has still not entirely subsided. And burnout, which is...
People spend more than half their day doing busy work, according to survey of 10,000-plus workers
Office workers are spending more than half of their day doing busy work instead of the job they were actually hired for, according to a new survey of more than 10,600 global...
How Slack ruined work
IF YOU HAVE a suspicious feeling that Slack is slowly taking over your time at work, you are not alone.
More businesses than ever have turned to the workplace instant...
How This Cognitive Neuroscientist Uses Science To Increase Work Efficiency
Dr. Sahar Yousef, a cognitive neuroscientist at UC Berkeley, conducts research on cognitive enhancement which involves the human brain and human consciousness. The training...
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