productivity. It works! Less can be
more.
TAKE REGULAR BRAIN BREAKS
DURING THE DAY.
restore, refresh and rejuvenate for best
mental performance. A rested brain
is a safe brain and safe brains make
better decisions, make fewer mistakes,
learn more effectively and remember
more. Rested brains are also more
creative – so if you’re struggling to
come up with new ideas, one way to
start is to sleep on it.
We are not designed for long-term
focus. Pushing ourselves to working
hard all day long without adequate
breaks is exhausting and leads to ‘busy
USE YOUR TECHNOLOGY
brain syndrome.’
WISELY.
Instilling regular brain breaks of
10-15 minutes every 60-90 minutes
across our working day, gives our brain
the time it needs to defrag and restore.
Too busy brains find it harder to get
to sleep and stay asleep.
Our love affair with our technology
knows no bounds, as we tweet, text
and update our status throughout
our days. That constant interaction
can lead to an unhealthy addictive
relationship, as each ping and ring
conditions our brain to anticipate the
SET CLEAR BOUNDARIES
reward of a new message. This leads
AROUND EXPECTED WORK
to increased dopamine being released,
AND NON-WORK TIMES.
which makes us feel good. Basking in
When it’s time to work, great, do that. that dopamine rush makes us seek it
When it’s time to make dinner, make again and again and again resulting in
an overstimulated brain and making
dinner. When it’s time to play, just
us feel ‘wired’.
play and when it’s time to sleep, you
guessed it; it’s time for sleep
Plus the blue light emitted by the
screens impacts the brain’s pineal
PLAY HARDBALL AND NEVER
gland, fooling it into believing it is
NEGOTIATE WITH SLEEP.
always daytime and hence not time
to sleep. Research has shown we need
Sleep rules and there is no room for
to switch off from our technology 2-3
compromise on how much sleep we
hours before we want to go to sleep.
get except for an extreme emergency. The current recommendation is to
That’s because our cognition depends switch off your smart phone by 9 pm
on the brain getting adequate sleep to at the latest.
70
GLOSS JULY 2015