Improving Brain Fitness 🧠
Unlock the incredible potential of your brain
“…the real secret of world-class performers is not the daily routines that they develop, but that they stick to them. That they show up, even when they don’t feel like it. Call it drive, call it passion, or call it grit; whatever you call it, it must come from deep within,” - Brad Stulberg, from the book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success
Hey folks,
Today we are learning about the most complex organ in the human body; our brain. And how we can hack it for everyday peak performance.
It was traditionally thought that our brains were fully formed by adulthood, but a revolutionary discovery in modern neuroscience, Brain Plasticity proves otherwise. This means our life experiences continually shape and mold our brains in fascinating ways.
After reading this, I decided to learn about this complex thing in our head and find ways to master my performance.
Today’s Skill: Brain Plasticity, Controlling Our Attention, and Brain Hacks
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes 40 seconds Take care of your brain and it will take care of you
🔻 Let’s Dive In
-How can I keep my brain fit?
-How can we survive the attention economy?
-I want to have more crazy ideas!
-What exercises can help maintain peak brain performance and avoid lethargy?
At the start of the pandemic, I was very confident in my ability to learn new skills and start lots of new projects. But as months rolled by, and the number of things that wanted my attention increased, I struggled with focused work, and my ability to concentrate dwindled.
It’s funny to compare my life in high school with now. I was at my peak in 12th grade, playing 3 hours of basketball and studying 6-8 hours on average daily, not feeling tired at all.
And now, I felt low on energy just after lunch, not able to focus more than 30 minutes, and struggling from zoom fatigue (I spent 30 hours on Zoom last week).
With a 24/7 news cycle, attention-seeking apps, and managing our work and personal lives as we work from home, we forget to take care of our brain and give it space to reset.
I deleted Instagram to free up time and attention but realized soon that deleting apps is not a sustainable strategy.
To take things in control, I decided to learn about my brain and what daily hacks can I employ to be in the flow zone for the majority of the day.
You don’t have to make radical changes in your lifestyle. Even a simple power nap at the right time and 5 minutes of mindfulness exercise can do wonders. I watch an episode of Seinfield every afternoon because it makes me laugh and relaxed and I can go back to work in a good mood.
It’s different for everybody, so check out the resources below and find what works for you!
🤯 Why learn? (Learning Objectives)
Build the brain you want to live with for the rest of your life
Understand the concept of Brain Plasticity
Optimize your attention span
Find tools to hack your brain to perform at its full potential
Note: You could spend hours reading and watching videos to understand different aspects of how our brain works. I have selected neuroplasticity, dealing with attention economy, and useful brain hacks for this week to get started and make immediate changes.
Some fun brain exercises by Dr. Richard Restak:
📋 Resources
Brain Plasticity / Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a “series of miracles happening in your own cranium” which means we can be better salespeople and better athletes, and learn to love the taste of broccoli.
Attention Economy
The tech giants are competing for your attention:
Highly recommend the below video, watch till the end:
Check out the Center for Humane Technology, an organization dedicated to taking back our attention and creating technology that is actually optimized to support human values. They offer a great list of tips for reclaiming your attention here.
Brain Hacks
Check out this 2-hour course on Neuroscience Brain Training
Go Deeper
Read the book Your Brain at Work
Read How To Do Nothing or watch this 1-hour talk by the author
Read the summary of the book Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot by Richard Restak - here or here
“To get smarter, we need to exercise our cognitive powers – in the same way, that we strengthen our bodies by exercising our muscles. To do this, we need to put ourselves in rich and varied environments, learn new things, and strengthen our memory.” - Richard Restak
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🔖 Something to Read
Why the Simple Life Is Not Just Beautiful, It’s Necessary
The good life is the simple life. Among philosophical ideas about how we should live, this one is a hardy perennial; from Socrates to Thoreau, from the Buddha to Wendell Berry, thinkers have been peddling it for more than two millennia. And it still has plenty of adherents.
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See you next week!
I think this piece has some fantastic material to train from. Loved how authentic the walk with me video was. Very relatable. :) Thanks for sharing this Ayush. Keep up the design learning topics