The Absolute way to Optimize Your Brain to be More Productive
Focus on alertness and energy.
Do you ever feel like you had worked the whole day but in the end, you have nothing to show for??
Do you ever feel like you have done so much but that doesn’t add much value to your daily goals?
Stanford professor and neuroscientist, Andrew Huberman explains how you can optimize your brain to be more productive and effective to learn and accomplish more with simple techniques.
Schedule your task around energy level
Our brain is the most complex thing in the universe. It doesn’t want to do the hard work however it can give you astounding results, once you know it works.
So rather than keep grinding the whole day and feel miserable when you are not able to finish up your tasks. Delicate your tasks around your energy levels. Your brain is not designed in such a way that it can focus all day. As per the research all you can focus for 50 minutes on your optimum level. After that, you need a break so your brain can relax and prepares you to focus on your next big task.
Find when your energy levels are maximum
We all have different work schedules and body routines some of us are morning persons and some are night owls. We should divide and plan our daily activities on the level of alertness and energy levels. It can be morning/evening/night.
Work Schedule
When you are high on energy and alert level you should put your all attention to the deep work. Solve some mathematical puzzles, crunch some numbers or write some articles, or solve a programming problem you have been stuck on for ages.
- Do boring work or repetitive work when alertness level is low ex replying to your email for follow-up some emails.
- Creative work when the energy level is low. This would lead your brain to dream and imagine things with more openness that would solve your most creative work and help you to generate new ideas.
Here is my typical schedule. I do most of my deep work in the morning between 7- 9 am before my office starts. I put my noise-canceling headphones on, and just dive into the deep mode to focus on the most important work. This is when my alertness and energy are balanced. I’m able to achieve far more in just 2 hours rather than keep grinding myself for the whole day.
Around 1 pm my energy tends to go down so put my efforts towards replying email,s following up on some mundane repetitive task that doesn’t require too much of my focus.
However, we always get sleepy after having our lunch. The reason for that our blood rushes to the stomach to help digest the food. we tend to feel sleepy and lazy.
This is the right time to recharge your brain with 15–20 minutes of a power nap. As I am working from home since last year this gives me the option to take the benefit of a power nap.
No sleep deep rest(NSDR)
- To relax your body get a deep sleep
- Sleep 20–30 minutes once a day after lunch
In my case, I quickly take a power nap for 20 minutes after lunch. It helps to boost my mood and keep my head clear. After a nap, I just dive right into some important stuff that needs to be done, I do that in the next 90 minutes.
I use this time to learn a new skill or practice on some problems I’ve been working on. This 90-minute session helps me a lot to improve my skills.
Get some sun
We should get early morning sun to get photons, look at the sky but don’t stare at the sun.
- Melanopsin cells and circadian rhythm’s connections get stronger
- You will more likely to sleep and wake up at the right time whenever your body feels to so do.
- You will maintain steadiness in your alertness and energy levels.
Conclusion
Productivity is all about how you manage your alertness and energy level you have. As we all have different peak alertness at different times of the day. Usually, the best time to focus is 2–3 hours after you wake up. Save your task that needs deep work over that time. but It all depends on individuals when is their peak focus and alert time. The best way to become productive is to schedule your day as per your energy and alertness level.
