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Ways to Boost Your Mental Acuity At Work
Ways to Boost Your Mental Acuity At Work Whether you’re having trouble concentrating at work or you just need an extra mental kick to make it through your finals, there are some easy tricks that can improve your memory, concentration and focus.
It doesn’t matter how brainy you are or how much education you’ve had, if you combine some of these “brain fixes” you’ll have boosted your brainpower in no time.
So, here are six ways to flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells:
1. You are what you eat, and that includes your brain.
Studies from Switzerland, Hawaii and Boston, Massachusetts, support the memory and cognitive benefits of a diet rich in antioxidants (vitamins C, E and beta carotene) and B vitamins.
If you have an important morning meeting, Douglas Kalman, director of clinical research at Peak Wellness, suggests eating a high protein breakfast to help raise your serotonin levels, which produces hormones that make you feel alert.
If you’re feeling sluggish midday, boost your serotonin with a small dose of carbohydrates, such as fruit or an energy bar. Also, drink lots of water. A craving for sugar can be the initial stages of dehydration.
2. Think positive, loving thoughts; it is easier than you might imagine.
A decade of research at the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior led by neuroscientist Richard Davidson found that choosing specific thoughts and emotions can permanently change the working of the brain.
When participants practiced feeling love and compassion, their brains went into action - connecting and building new circuitry at high speed.
Davidson has concluded that emotions play a strong role in mental acuity and that spending just 10 minutes a day focusing on feeling loving and kind can make you smarter - and happier.
3. Don’t be a slave to technology.
In more than 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, found that workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than if they’d smoked marijuana.
The IQ of those juggling messages and work fell by an average of 10 points - equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep and more than double the four-point fall seen after smoking pot. The drop in IQ was even more significant in men.
To keep sharp, resist the urge to check messages continually. Instead, schedule blocks of time throughout the day to retrieve and respond to them.
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