How to Recharge and Boost Productive Brain Power…While@ Remote Work
‘Sometimes we don’t have to travel thousands of miles to refresh ourselves’
Did you know that It takes only a couple of minutes to feel a rush of energy to the brain and body?
Yet often we manage work at suboptimal energy levels for hours on end, wondering why our brain and body are not supporting us to work better and faster.
While a routine is essential to improve the opportunities of success, sometimes excess attention on routine does the reverse. Overdependence on fixated routine can place us in a mind-numbing machine mode where we perform set tasks without much thought, intensity, or purpose.
State of Stagnant Cruise
This state of stagnant cruise can be a setback to progress in our life/ career/ relationship goals. When our mind is not ignited enough to try a different approach or even create new solutions to existing problems. It is akin to commitment to a routine job that pays enough money to settle bills, however we then cruise along with minimal strategy to enhance the scope of our potential.
A significant causative factor is that when we work, we do not give much thought to ways in which we can think quicker and sharper and arrive at better solutions.
So here are a few solutions to :
Potentially keep off stagnant cruise mode
Refresh mind power
Enhance productive thinking
Charge Performance
1) The Meditative Interlude
A sure way to increase mental strength and to steer away from occasional stupor is to take a short meditative break. Think about it, as your eyes get blurry, the mind gets fuzzy and you have unblinkingly stared at the screen for the last few hours, all you need to do is get up from the chair, shake yourself, do a brisk walk up and down the alley and then sit in a quiet corner of your room and retreat into your mind.
Give yourself 5–15 minutes of complete stillness and silence and you will notice that once you open your eyes again, you feel a fresh resurge of energy.
2) Viewing ‘Panoramic Vistas’
Another quick and easy activity is to close your day with a viewing of some eye-catching travel, landscape, expedition or food video documentaries.
Just yesterday as I completed a 45-minute documentary on extraordinary homes around the world, I was amazed at the rolling views, a confluence of land, water, forests and wood, magnificent artistry of construction, landscape, vistas and nature.
The effect of seeing those scenic and unique homes was almost like a mini journey, propelling mental diversion to new frontiers from the unchanging work-at-home-stay-at home-routine.
The colourful array of scenes and the sight of unique places invigorates the senses. Once we revitalize our senses with contrast of picture, colour, movement, our brain gets wired to think spatially, innovatively across different dimensions.
3) The Green Effect
I was visiting a friend the other day and little did I know that she was an avid gardener…with limited spaces in balconies, I wondered what I could do with gardening skills, turns out one can spend many hours gently tending to each plant, leaf by leaf. On a busy day, taking out even half an hour to care for quiet green foliage can bring immense calmness and freshness that comes only from Mother Nature. This calmness in turn helps refuel the brain with a fresh perspective.
4) The ‘Dance Mob’ Effect
Imagine as you sit and scroll at things still to finish, chores to close, deadlines to meet, instead of being enthused for the opportunities ahead, you become increasingly restless
At times like these, a quick and easy way out is to wear comfortable shoes, and just jump/ jog/ dance or move around in any fashion you like. Continue for 5–7 minutes, let the blood rush through each slow part of your body, reach the recesses of the brain, fingers, shoulders, and feet. This unique ‘Dance Mob’ is an instant way of getting energy back.
Energising by way of physical exercise can help you stay on the task better. “The longer you try to focus on something without moving around, your mind will start to tire”
5) Let the Fingers Draw
Also works for a lot of folks is drawing a visual map of their progress. It is as easy as picking different coloured pens on your desk, grabbing some loose sheets of paper and drawing out the plan of action.
The writing, hand movement and visual picturization of your goals gets one to focus. These visual cues help us plan our day and budget for all the time-sensitive urgent tasks, identify the red and green signals of the day and relieve the need to memorize everything since it is now depicted on a paper in front of you.
6) Brain Wave Effect: Relax for 10 minutes every 90 minutes.
The Powers of the mind are like rays of the Sun, when they are concentrated, they illumine..Swami Vivekananda
Ned Herrmann is an educator who has developed models of brain activity and integrated them into teaching and management training. Here are some principles from his work…
Electrical activity emanating from the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves. There are four categories of these brainwaves. When the brain is actively engaged in mental activities, it generates beta waves. These are the fastest of the four different brainwaves. Beta waves are present when one is mentally engaged, in active conversation, debates, etc. The next brainwave category in order of frequency is alpha. Alpha brain waves are slower, and higher in amplitude. A person who has completed a task and sits down to rest, relax and meditate is often in an alpha state.
The next state, theta brainwaves, is of even greater amplitude and slower frequency. Typically when we are driving in a repetitious cruise mode, we are in the theta state. The final brainwave state is delta. Here the brainwaves are of the greatest amplitude and slowest frequency, like a deep dreamless sleep.
‘Disconnect to Reconnect’
When awake, our brain cycles between higher alertness (busy beta waves) to lower alertness (alpha waves) every 90 minutes. At that low point, we become less able to focus, think clearly, or see the big picture. This could come in the form of feeling restless, hungry, and/ or sleepy.
It is recommended that you work to the point where it feels this way and then at that moment, disengage. Do a different activity, go for a brisk walk, brew some tea, listen to a song, pet your pet, or even look at paintings.
7) Discover your Flow State
The flow of ideas occurs best when we are in a state of mental absorption, for example when we run outdoors, or while, brushing or any other auto-mode activity that disengages our mind and it enters a positive relaxed state of a free flow of ideas.
Flow State as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, as complete immersion in the task at hand, and it is believed to contribute to effortless achievement and heightened performance.
Allow yourself to experience this flow state and reset your own inherent performance charts.
8) The Outdoorsy Effect…Get Out…of the enclosed places..
Take charge of your productivity and schedule time to leave the house/ workplace for walks, fresh air and change of scenery. Research proves that a change of scenery and doing nothing are critical for creative thinking.
To conclude..
Alternating between periods of intense mental work and bursts of time where we do nothing gives the rest, break and a spurt of fresh energy that we need to formulate, ideate and design better work.
Once we understand how to use our intermittent periods of rest to reinvigorate the brain, we become more mentally productive, boost our brainpower, produce better quality of work in lesser time and give ourselves more free time to do things that we really want to do!
#well-being at work # brain-power # enhance productivity # life goals # coaching for success
