Welcome to Science of Efficiency: A Traveler's Guide to Your Own Mind

We are drowning in efficiency. Everywhere you look, a new AI tool promises to boost your productivity. Our calendars are algorithmic masterpieces. Our notes are cross-referenced in a digital "second brain." We have apps to track our habits, our sleep, and the exact number of minutes we spend on a task. The goal now is to do more, more, better, faster, cheaper.

But is this actually helping? Or have we fallen into a trap where “getting more efficient” just means… more work?

This Blog Is Not Here to Make You Faster

I know, “efficiency” probably makes you think of color-coded calendars, time hacks, and inbox zero. But this isn't a blog about getting more done.

We have built elaborate, beautiful systems for everything in our lives, except for the one system that runs it all: our own mind.

Science of Efficiency is about understanding how we work on the inside, so we can stop wasting energy fighting ourselves.

Science of Efficiency isn’t about inbox zero. It’s about decoding behavior so we can show up, speak clearly, and grow smarter.

This blog is about the science of reducing that internal friction.

Because the ultimate inefficiency is working against your own brain.

Don't panic.

How I Understand "Efficiency"

When I talk about “efficiency,” I don’t mean hustle culture. I don’t mean squeezing more into your calendar, answering emails faster, or hitting inbox zero by 7 a.m.

To me, true efficiency is internal. It’s about understanding yourself well enough to stop working against your own mind.

It’s noticing the moment you self-sabotage.

It’s designing systems that fit your brain, not someone else’s idea of productivity.

It’s learning how to reset, reframe, and show up again.

This version of efficiency isn’t about speed.

Sometimes efficiency means working smarter.

Sometimes it means resting smarter.

Sometimes it means unlearning old rules you didn’t realize you were still following.

This blog is my way of exploring that version of efficiency. Not to do more. But to do what matters, better.

🧠 Cognitive Efficiency

You can’t change what you don’t see. And a lot of our internal friction lives right here, quietly hijacking our attention, confidence, and decision-making. It's the mental clutter: overthinking, self-doubt, invisible scripts, and biases that shape how we show up (or don’t). Cognitive efficiency is about noticing those patterns, so they stop running the show.

⚙️ Behavioral Efficiency

Forget willpower. Behavioral efficiency is about designing systems that make the right actions easier. It’s where psychology meets architecture, less grind, more frictionless follow-through. It’s how we turn intentions into consistent action, without burning out in the process.

💛 Emotional Efficiency

Emotional overload is one of the biggest hidden drains on energy and clarity. Regulating your emotions is a skill, and it’s wildly underrated. Emotional efficiency is about managing your internal state without bypassing it. It’s resilience, regulation, reframing, all the skills we should’ve learned in school.

📚 Learning Efficiency

We’re all learners now (or better be!), whether we’re studying psychology, using AI, or just trying to keep up. But learning without reflection is just information. Real growth needs a better process. Learning efficiency is about making your curiosity work for you. It’s how to actually absorb, retain, and use information in a fast, noisy world.

🤝 Relational Efficiency

Humans are funny. Add culture, emotion, and Zoom calls, and suddenly no one’s sure if “Sure, that works” means “Sure, that works” or “Absolutely not.” And most psychologists would agree that the quality of your relationships shapes the quality of your life, and your work. Relational efficiency is about becoming better at communication: what we say, how we say it, and how it’s received. It's reading the room. Navigating cultural nuance. Knowing when to speak up and how to create trust in the process.

A Bit About Me

Hi, I'm Paola.

For the past 15+ years, I’ve helped professionals from around the world communicate clearly and confidently at work. I now lead marketing at Talaera, where we train global teams to collaborate across cultures.

I studied translation and linguistics, got a master’s in work psychology, and I’m halfway through a second degree in psychology. I’ve lived in five countries, visited fifty, and speak three languages fluently.

All of that has shaped how I see the world. And how I see people, especially when we feel like we don’t quite fit in.

For me, internal friction hasn’t only shown up in unfamiliar situations –new countries, new roles, new teams, new languages. It started earlier, growing up as a shy kid, quietly watching from the sidelines. I sometimes struggled to decode the invisible rules everyone else seemed to know by heart, even in my own culture. The sense that everyone else had gotten the instructions and I was just… trying to guess.

So I learned to pay attention. I got comfortable with that feeling of being a bit of an outsider, even at home. It’s probably why I’ve always connected with stories about characters who are one step removed, trying to make sense of strange new worlds, like the cosmic tourist in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Alice, tumbling through a land that operates on a logic all its own. They were trying to decode the system. I get that.

Why I Started Science of Efficiency

This blog is my way of sharing the frameworks I've found for making sense of it all. It’s my field notebook as I continue to learn, halfway through a psychology degree. It’s where I get to be a translator for the weird, wonderful, and often illogical rules of our own minds.

I write about psychology, neuroscience, and cross-cultural weirdness.

About the hidden scripts that shape how we work and relate to others.

About how to stop overthinking everything, and start understanding what’s really going on.

It's not polished advice.

These are simply field notes from a fellow traveler.

It's my way of learning out loud.

If any of this resonates with you, then welcome.

You're my people.

Let's figure it out together.

–Paola