I don't know about you but my brain hurts. In three days last week I wrote 16,800 words, that's about 430 words an hour in case you're interested.
But we've still got a month until Christmas and as everyone knows the last mile is the hardest. So here's an early Christmas present in the form of some brain-boosting tips from Dr Jenny Brockis, the author of Future Brain, a guide on how to boost brain fitness to increase productivity.
![Jenny Brockis is a brain specialist.](/web/20161125093835im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/u/z/d/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsuzvq.png/1479792887838.jpg)
1. Use your brain the way it is designed
Brockis says her first tip is to give your brain a break.
"Apply attention in the way it was designed, as a series of short, sharp sprints and then give your brain a break. Take a couple of 20-minute brain breaks across the day to spend on unfocused thinking. Get up for a stretch, grab a glass of water, or get outside for a few minutes," she says.
This gives the brain time to reboot and re-energise ready for the next chunk of focused work. "It helps maintain cognitive stamina across the day and improves our ability to get to and stay asleep at night."
2. Reduce your cognitive load
Another tip, says Brockis, is to avoid juggling too much information.
"Our fear of missing something important merely adds to our stress levels and reduces accessibility to the prefrontal cortex that we use to apply our logic, analysis and reasoning," she says.
So manage your head space by finding out what you really need to know and put in place some boundaries to minimise distractions that lead to interesting but irrelevant information.
Says Brockis: "This can be as simple as turning off email alerts, switching off the mobile phone or putting up a do not disturb sign to using sophisticated technology that can help reduce some of the complexity of the data being examined."
3. Get the hardware right
Finally, says Brockis, whether driving a Formula One race car or training next year's Melbourne Cup winner, our best performance always requires attention to our physiology.
"Using the best fuel to keep our neurons in tiptop order includes cognitive boosters from a wide variety of foods that are mostly plant based, fresh and unprocessed," she says.
According to Brockis, increasing your level of physical activity across your day boosts cerebral blood flow, supplying your brain with the extra oxygen and nutrients required for best thinking.
"It stimulates the release of growth factors that not only maintain neuronal health but also the process of neurogenesis, which is the limited production of new neurons, and reduces brain shrinkage. Exercise is neuroprotective and maintains our cognitive reserve as we get older."
She says the gold standard is to do 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week to get your heart rate and breathing up. "But all physical activity counts so stand up for your brain to boost attention, memory and mood."
She says it's about looking for the opportunity to simply move. Walking meetings, standing meetings, variable height desks, standing to speak on the phone or when on a conference call are all opportunities to move around.
Good brain functioning requires a combination of factors to come together. We all have the opportunity to improve our brain power and now's a great time to get started.
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