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Did you know that brain development never stops? That’s how it is. As long as we keep learning, and taking good care of it, our brain has infinite potential.
The brain is a sophisticated information processing system. Like all systems, this must receive adequate maintenance to take better care of it. Based on the New York Times best seller, «Brain Rules – 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School» by John Medina, here are six strategies to help you increase your ability to process your brain.
1. Your brain reacts to the most important stimulus
It is important to understand that your brain is programmed to react and prioritize what it considers most important. However, sometimes it seems that what we consider most important and what our brain prioritizes, do not see eye to eye.
Imagine that you are working on some important project. You have been focused for more than an hour and your energy levels are starting to drop. For your brain, this type of activity generates stress since it demands a lot of mental energy. Suddenly, you are distracted by the sound of your phone. Deep down you know that this is a distraction and that you should ignore it and focus on what you are doing.
That’s when our brain stops playing on our side and sends out thoughts like: what if it’s something important? So you stop resisting and pick up the phone and what could be a quick one minute response turns into a social media post, checking emails and more.
This is why keeping all potential distractors away is the key to staying productive. If you leave your phone or other distractors in sight, your brain will soon place them as the most important activity.
The selective focus ability of the brain is not a bad thing. If it did not, we would all be randomly overwhelmed with hundreds of thoughts in unexpected ways. It would be impossible to focus on something.
To take full advantage of the brain’s selective focus ability, we recommend creating a distraction-free environment that helps you focus on what is most important to you.
2. Our brain is constantly evolving and developing
At birth our brain is still in formation. The major developmental processes continue until we reach the early twenties. It is at this point that development begins to slow down. However, contrary to popular belief. It doesn’t stop. As long as we keep learning new things and stimulating, the brain continues to develop.
People can continue to learn in their 60’s, 70’s and beyond. An example is Warren Buffet, who at 89, reads 5 hours a day.
Making learning a daily habit will help you continue your brain development process and avoid some neural diseases.
3. How we store and remember things
In the 19th century, the German philosopher and psychologist Hermann Ebbinghouse wrote about the forgetting curve, which among other things, indicates that in a classroom, students will forget up to 90% of what they have learned in a period of no more than 30 days. However, it also showed that students were much more likely to remember when they repeated the information over and over at regular intervals.
The spaced intervals make your brain think that the information you are repeating is important and therefore it will remember it.
Another strategy you can use to better remember information is to associate a meaning or group what you need to remember.
Sometimes your brain does it unconsciously and other times we must infuse meaning to help us remember better. An example would be going to the gym. We already know that we must bring our towel, our membership and a bottle of water. In this case your brain will not make a list to remember each object individually. Instead, you will think: «what do I need to train in the gym?»
4. Exercise to increase the power of your brain
Movement was the key to the evolution of our species.
Exercise allows your body to obtain more energy and take better advantage of the nutrients in our food. By speeding up your heart rate and increasing blood flow, the blood flow through your brain increases as well. The brain is exposed to greater oxygenation and receives more nutrients.
Exercise also stimulates the release of different neurotransmitters and proteins that are beneficial to the brain. They help keep your cells healthy and promote the growth of new neurons.
Ideally, exercise or be physically active every day. For a period of at least 30 minutes and ideally 1 hour. As well as standing up once every 20 minutes, when sitting at work.
5. The benefits of sleep
Sleep is incredibly necessary for our brain. Sleep serves to recharge the cells of the body, eliminate waste in the brain and support learning and memory formation.
It is proven that just one sleepless night results in a decrease of up to 30% of our cognitive abilities and two nights go up to 60%. In addition, it has been studied that if people spend five days or more with less than six hours of effective sleep, their cognitive performance decreases by up to 60%.
So even if you feel like answering a few more emails before bed is important, getting a good night’s sleep is way more important.
6. Stress
Stress is the secret killer when it comes to being productive. This is because most of the time we do not feel its presence until it is too late. Stress can come from a variety of sources, not just health, financial, or relationship issues.
As far as the brain concerns, stress is stress.
Stress is so harmful that it not only kills brain cells, but it has been shown that it can even decrease the size of the brain.
A little stress can help us motivate ourselves and take action, however if it becomes too much it will damage your brain and your health in general.
To learn more about these and other strategies to take better care of your brain, we recommend reading the books: “Brain Rules – 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School and “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain”
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