Hack your brain to improve your performance

Sometimes we don't feel satisfied with our results at work, personal targets or life goals in general. We feel we are putting in a lot of effort but we are not happy with the results. We can't keep our concentration, we feel disorganised, we don’t find motivation or we just procrastinate doing something because we don't feel in the mood to do it. Neurocognitive Sciences provide us some valuable information to train our brain and enhance some chemical's release in order to act and use our mental energy more efficiently.

Here are some simple tips to put in practice:

Feed your brain

Prefer good quality food to enhance your brain connections. Carbs high in fibres such us whole grains and vegetables are good sources to give your brain the necessary glucose to work; Non-saturated fats like salmon, avocado, seeds and nuts contribute to make nervous impulses faster and continuous; Protein (beef, chicken, eggs and yoghourt) helps to tissues reparation after hard work. And…don’t forget to keep you hydrated: water is essential to body functioning and omit having undesirable headaches.

Set an agenda

Establishing a weekly organisation with all the activities, meetings and home duties you have within, frees mental resources and optimises their use in the current task. Establish priorities and assign them a day and limited time in order to avoid multitasking. Set reminders to prevent thinking in future tasks "you don't have to forget doing". Divide your day between productive time- relaxation breaks and add enjoyable activities in your weekly routines (e.x, go to tennis on Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m).

Clean your workspace from distractions

Leave your phone far away from your desk, turn the t.v off, don't play your playlist. Create a non-disturb and pleasant environment avoiding other stimuli that consume your "attention battery" and add motivational and pleasant elements: family pictures, relaxed colours, plants, positive self-notes, etc.

Avoid multitasking

One thing at a time is better than all at the same time. Being focused on only one task allows you to concentrate all your cognitive resources on that issue promoting better quality in the outcome instead of bad-done quantity. Divide your day with time-slots and complete them with time-fixed appointments, meetings or activities. Elaborate a to-do list with your daily tasks and order them in a priorities hierarchy.

Take breaks between tasks

To be able to keep your focus. Attention capacity is limited regarding time and amount of simultaneous elements. So, in order to maximise its use, concentrate yourself in one task at a time for limited periods of time, for instance 1 hour. Then change your focus to something non demanding and distractible: change your place and take a coffee, stretch your body, watch funny videos, play a game at the office, check your messages and talk with someone, etc.

Practice mindfulness

Train your attention ability. Practising being focused on the present moment, maintaining the attention despite other distractions teaches your brain the ability to deal with them and keep going on the focused object. The continued practice helps to spread the learned skill to other performance areas.

Look for the meaning of your behaviour

Ask yourself why you want to accomplish that; what is the meaning of these goals for you. Connect with your personal values related to the task or performance in a specific field, the meaning of your behaviour and long-term goals: why do I want to achieve this? What, accomplishing this, is going to mean to me? Give you time with yourself to make some meaningful questions and evaluate if your acts are being congruent with the life you want to live.

With those simple tips we are not only training our brain to be more productive but also optimising some neurotransmitters and hormones release involved in happiness and stress reduction. Some of them are: serotonin (e.x doing exercise, practising mindfulness) and dopamine increasing (e.x reward for getting better results, pleasant breaks or activities), as well as cortisol decreasing (e.x avoiding multitasking, eating good food to our gut like fibres).