How neural hacks can improve your productivity
2023-11-10
This article is a bit of an odd one, because I normally only write about things that I have personally tried and that work well for me. This time however it is the other way around - I want myself to get started with something and therefore write this post, so that I have to deal with the topic and get going. I'm talking about science-based neural hacks that can improve your productivity. So, if you are interested in their potential or just curious what I'm even talking about, stick around...
Almost everyone knows that the environment you work in has an an enormous influence on your performance and that we should therefore try to optimize it. This is a field where "simpler is better" really applies, which means that you should clean up the mess that accumulated over the past weeks, move distractions like your smartphone out of direct reach and try to still make it a comfortable setting by means of incorporating plants and maybe some photographs. An aspect that is often overlook however, is your posture while working. Sitting on it's own isn't great for the body, but a bad posture can even cause major injuries and should therefore be prevented. But the most important factor is the psychological aspect, with a proven causality between a straight posture and focus. Sitting like the people in the chair advertisemets really makes your more productive, because this posture turns our brain into an weak kind of alarm mode and therefore emphasizes the importance of a task at hand.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg and my next two hacks are really wild. The first one is called visualisation and tries to utilize the immense influence of our vision on our overall cognitive abilities. By removing all distractions from the scenery we see, we also try to remove all distractions from our mind. A common version of this is to hold a pen one arm length away from you and focus on this single object for one to five minutes. I know it sounds crazy, but give a try. It also fits perfectly with the second major hack called binaural beats, which revolve around a 40 Hz tone that is played slightly out of phase and with slight frequency deviations between your ears to stimulate the brain into a natural focus mode. The neuroscience behind this is really complex, but there are plenty of playlists and videos available you can just listen to for a few minutes before working and - at least in theory - this should help you focus better for longer.
Although these are known to be very effective methodes, not everything has to be this strange to have a positive effect on our productivity. A very simple thing to do for example is creating a mild version of stress by time boxing your tasks and creating clear deadlines, therefore limiting the time you allow yourself to spent on them. This forces you to stay on track, think about effective approaches and try to not miss the goal. A clear differentiation between work time and free time can also be very effective, to get into the right mood. Some people like to have two different chairs - one for work, one for play - while others always listen to the same playlist when working. Regarding this trick there really are now rules, just try to create a clear border between the two settings.
Last but certainly not least, I highly recommend you to follow the ultradian rhythms of your body, which split up the day into 90 minute phases of concentration and followed by 20 minutes of rest - basically the exact time schedule used in schools here in Germany. This is obviously not possible in all situations, but very effective for staying focused for extended periods of time without feeling overwhelmingly stressed or exhausted. Another approach to get rid of internal stress is a technique called doodling, where you basically just draw repetitive patterns like circles or waves with one hand while working - certainly also not something for everyone, but interesting nonetheless.
Hopefully, you now have at least a roughly understanding of the wild neural hacks some people use to improve their productivity and might even consider incorporating some of them into your everyday life. I will try them out over the next couple of weeks and am very curious who they'll work out for me. If you have personal experience with one them or want to share some thoughts of yours, feel free to use the comments down below. As always, have a great day....