Most of us try to cope with a significant number of personal and work challenges every day. The never-ending task of succeeding in all areas of our life can undermine our strength and optimism.
But luckily for us, there are a number of simple things we can do every day that improve our brainpower, our mental and physical performance, and in turn our quality of life. Here are five ideas for you to try before you go to work each morning.
Productivity Tips to Boost Your Brain Power
Read A Book
One of the best ways to stimulate your mind is to read: a chapter of a book, a newspaper, an article online. Enriching your brain with new information is vital to your physical and mental health and is encouraged by neurosurgeons.
Reading a little in the morning will also help you calm down and reset your priorities for the next day, focusing on something different from your daily routine. For the same reason, reading a book or newspaper can lead you to see a routine task in a different light.
Get Some Exercise
It is well known that exercise plays an important role in keeping us physically and psychologically healthy. But getting a quick workout before work is also a great way to stimulate your brain.
Exercise actually alters brain chemistry and has even been compared to the effect of taking antidepressants. It signals the release of several important neurotransmitters, many of which play a vital role in keeping our brains in shape as we age.
Most importantly, exercise helps pump blood and oxygen to the brain, allowing our gray matter to function at its best. This leads to better and more accurate decision-making, judgment, and memory.
Meditate
Increasingly, research shows that meditation can help improve attention, focus, reduce anxiety and depression, and improve our overall psychological makeup. Studies have found that the amygdala, the part of the brain that is the source of our emotions of fear and anxiety, decreases the volume of brain cells as a result of meditation.
Meditators can also recall information more quickly, suggesting that the ability to quickly “filter” mental noise allows working memory to search and find the information it needs more quickly and efficiently.
Play Classical Music
The soft and peaceful music of Mozart and Beethoven has long been considered beneficial for the brain and overall productivity. A famous study refers to the so-called ‘Mozart effect’, whereby listening to classical music can increase a person’s ability to think long-term and abstractly.
Listening to classical music while dressing in the morning or during exercise has been shown to significantly improve verbal fluency, cognitive functioning, and overall focus and concentration.
Play A Quick Logic-based Game
Constantly trying to learn something new and discover new knowledge promotes brain health and creates new neural connections. Tasks that are not only challenging but also varied and innovative, such as Sudoku or memory retrieval games, can really improve brain power and help develop cognitive reserves.
It is important to keep brain stimulation activities constantly changing as complexity increases and to experiment with those that use different parts of the brain. Many of these techniques can be done in just a few minutes every day, with different skills tested on different days.
