How to Care for Your Brain to Be More Productive
by Cleveland Clinic Wellness Editors

http://www.clevelandclinicwellness.com/DailyDose/archive/2013/09/25/How-to-Care-for-Your-Brain-to-Be-More-Productive.aspx?utm_source=EmailMarketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=09_27_13Brains&CS_003=6521138

Want to be more productive? Then get to know your brain. It’s doing all the work, after all. Learn how it works best — its processes and natural rhythms, what to feed it, and how to let it rest — and you’ll get more done. “The brain has only so many resources,” says Stephen M. Rao, PhD, director of the Schey Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging and a professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. We put so many obstacles in its path, he says, that we make it hard to “concentrate on one single activity in a relatively relaxed and focused way.”

It all starts with healthy lifestyle habits. Like any organ, your brain needs good nutrition, exercise, stress relief and sleep. “Real foods help brains work better,” says Roxanne B. Sukol, MD, medical director of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Enterprise. That means eating vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as wild salmon. “Our brains are largely composed of omega-3 fatty acids,” she says. “When we don’t have these building blocks, we can’t build a brain that works right.” In addition to a nutrient-rich diet, your brain needs exercise, which reduces anxiety and improves your ability to focus on tasks. You also need a good night’s sleep, which is essential for alertness, focus and cognitive performance.

Those are the basics. They support brain health and function. But you’ll also want to manage your brain’s daily productivity. Here’s how:

Your Circadian Brain

When Dr. Sukol was in medical school, with two children and a third on the way, she’d get up at 4 a.m. and study for three hours. “I got more accomplished in those three hours than any other time of the day.” Dr. Rao is an early bird, too: “I do my best writing in the morning, and my worst right before I go to bed,” he says.

That doesn’t mean you need to be an early bird to be more productive. But you do need to know how your own biological clock works best. Everyone has one. As the day progresses, your cognitive function rises and falls. That means your circadian rhythm can affect the following cognitive abilities:

• Attention. Your ability to stay alert and focused.
• Working memory. Your capacity to juggle a certain amount of critical information in your mind at the same time.
• Executive function. Your power to plan, as well as to regulate your behavior to achieve your goals. This is key for self-control, long-term planning and problem solving.

All three cognitive abilities follow your body’s temperature. When your core is hot, you’re more alert and productive; when you’re cool, your cognitive performance declines. Consider a healthy adult woman who goes to sleep at 11 p.m. and wakes up at 7 a.m. Perhaps this is her daily pattern:

• 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. Cognitive function: at its lowest point. (Fortunately, she’s sleeping.)
• 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Her brain is waking up; cognitive function is still relatively slow. It’s easier to get distracted now than it will be later. It’s time to get up and start her morning routine, including eating breakfast, which boosts cognitive performance.
• 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is her brain’s sweet spot. Her core body temperature is at its highest. It’s time to tackle the hard stuff, the complex tasks.
• 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Brain slump! It’s a natural biological rhythm, independent of whether or not you eat lunch, or what you eat. However, skipping lunch, eating too much or eating highly processed foods lacking in nutrients may make it worse. A 20-minute power nap, if possible, can restore productivity later. Or she might want to consider a 15-minute walk. It’s not the best time to tackle that big project or make important decisions. Do routine tasks like returning calls, paying bills, etc.
• 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Her brain is back on track! Cognitive performance improves as the afternoon progresses. If she needs to get something important done, it may make more sense for her to stay a bit later at the office, rather than trying to get it done at home later.
• 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Winding down and powering off. Some cognitive functions actually get better in the evening, such as the ability to estimate time and notice changes in light and sounds. But attention, working memory and executive function wane as the body cools. Finally, she gets tired, gets in bed, and goes to sleep.

What if you’re a lark or a night owl? Your rhythm shifts, but the pattern stays the same. Pay attention to your circadian pattern. That way you can tailor your tasks to your brain: big stuff when you’re most alert, more routine tasks when you’re flagging.

Distraction-Free Zones 

Let’s say you live a life of wellness. You tailor your tasks to your circadian rhythms. And now it’s time to get things done. Here’s how to make it easy on your noggin:

• Minimize distractions. “If you’re trying to write or read and you’re hearing dialogue in the background, both are competing for the language areas in your brain,” says Dr. Rao. “Your attention resources are working in overdrive.” Excessive noise, either sustained or intermittent (e.g., cars honking), is particularly disruptive.
• Declutter. Too many objects in your visual field can also interfere with mental focus, research finds. It really does help to clear your desk before you start a new project.
• Do one thing. You may feel more productive toggling between tasks, but the truth is, you’re not. “The research is clear that even if we think we are productive at multitasking, our overall work quality suffers,” says Dr. Sukol.
• Manage interruptions. What’s open on your computer? Work email, home email, Facebook, a news site? Then there’s your smartphone. Everything pings. Dr. Sukol’s tip: Turn them off. Disable alerts. “Make a commitment to check your mail, say, once in the morning, at lunch, and at 4 o’clock,” she suggests. “Make a plan for how much information you will let in and for how long. That’s a healthier strategy.”
• Manage moods. Feeling a little stressed? Good! It helps you focus, stimulating the parietal cortex in the brain, which allocates resources to problem-solving tasks, says Dr. Rao. But when stress becomes excessive, he says, “attentional systems go out of whack.” If anxiety is rising, you can handle it externally (talk with your supervisor, for example) or internally (exercise and meditate) — or both.
• Take productive breaks. Hit a wall? Call a friend. Take a hike. Call it a night. Or see a funny movie. Ever wonder why creative solutions often present themselves when you’re taking a shower, or going for a jog, or waking up after a good night’s sleep? “By changing the setting, you are breaking a pattern of thought that has become repetitive and nonproductive,” says Dr. Rao. Dr. Sukol adds, “In Hebrew, there’s a saying, ‘Change your place, change your luck.’”
• Meditate. A 20-minute session can increase what psychologists call “cognitive flexibility” — the ability to imagine a different approach. Eliciting relaxation, rather than the fight-or-flight stress response, can lead to creative solutions.

Your brain is amazingly complex and capable. But it’s sensitive, too. Treat it right and it will help you do great work in less time. That way, you’ll have more time to exercise, socialize, eat right and sleep well: just what your brain needs.

Written by Robert Barnett — a health journalist who writes frequently about nutrition, psychology, fitness, and medicine.