Boost your productivity

Let’s start with the basics: this article is all about brain hacks that boost your productivity, and if you’re not giving your brain enough time to recover at the end of every day, you’re not going to get any added benefits of any of these hacks. Science says that you should still be aiming for as close to eight hours of sleep each night.

While we’re on the topic of sleep, it’s important to note just how important it is to avoid blue light – most commonly found being emitted by your phone, television and laptop screens – in the hour or so leading up to your bedtime. Why? Blue light – anything between 400-490nanometers – acts to stimulate your brain and breaks up that all-important circadian rhythm we just talked about. Avoiding screens before sleep can make a profound difference in your ability to both fall asleep quickly, as well as regulate the quality of your sleep. Resisting the urge to reach for your phone is also a useful skill in terms of reducing your reliance on a smartphone and can even relieve stress related to phantom notifications that cause people to instinctively reach for their device.

The ‘memory palace’ technique is one of the oldest, yet most effective means of spurring added activity in your brain, enabling you to remember small details with much more accuracy. The ‘Memory Palace’ technique is said to have been used by both the Ancient Greek and Romans, who attached imagery to certain important things to note. Nicole Rust, an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania says that “the memory palace technique takes advantage of this innate type of memory that we are so good at and uses it to form associations. My research looks at why we are so good at remembering images and why we are better at that than other things, for example, we are really good at remembering pictures but not lists of numbers.” 

Similar to ensuring that your brain is running on adequate levels of sleep, it’s imperative that you’re filling your body – and brain – with nutritious foods that it can metabolise and use for those all-important chemical reactions inside your skull. The Omega 3 fats from fish, coffee, blueberries, turmeric, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate, nuts, oranges, green tea and eggs are all said to be good sources of nutrition for your brain. 

The ultradian rhythm is said to be a huge determinant of how much productivity you’ll be able to squeeze out of your brain each day; it’s the cycle your brain moves through while you’re both asleep and awake, otherwise known as the basic rest activity cycle. Modern science has shown that it’s important to work with your ultradian rhythm, rather than constantly push your brain to produce results. The agreed-upon model shows that the brain struggles to maintain peak output for more than 90-minutes, where it then enters a healing response. This essentially means that your brain is designed to work at the highest possible level for 90-minutes at a time, before needing a chance to take a break and reset for the next uphill performance peak. 

It’s said that those that are able to structure their day around the ultradian rhythm are able to ‘hack’ their brains for increased productivity and output due to the way in which they work with their cycles, rather than against them. 

Best Practice