In an era of better technology, our modern lifestyle is making us slower, denser and less capable of original thought. Too much connectivity is increasingly taking its toll on our brains and in the end, we end up less productive and ineffective.
To be our most productive self, we need to do more of what improves our brain health, and less of what causes cognitive decline. Start by adjusting your daily habits and avoiding these common modern habits — your mind will thank you.
1. Sedentary is all that good
Physical inactivity has its price tags — It’s linked to the development of health problems e.g. heart disease, obesity, depression, dementia, and cancer (Yes Cancer). We need to make time for “basic movement activities”— walking, cycling, stretching, etc.
Being sedentary (seating) changes the shape of certain neurons in the brain, according to a new study in the Journal of Comparative Neurology that suggests a link between inactivity and mental decline.
Regular physical activity can benefit you cognitively — increase brain chemicals which promote better memory and learning, and medically. You know this though. Knowledge of the benefits of exercise is not a problem in the modern world, it’s the application of relevant information.
2. Bane Called multitasking
Our smartphones have become Swiss army knives. We use them all the time. We WhatsApp while we’re walking across the street, catch up on twitter trends, listen and binge on comedy while standing in a queue.
You’ve likely heard that multitasking is a females thingy but it also rewires the brain and makes you less effective.
Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and one of the world experts on divided attention, says that our brains are “not wired to multitask well… When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so” increases the stress hormone cortisol as well as the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline, which can overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking.
3. Kill Information Overload
The sheer volume of comedy skits, social updates, and notifications we receive can be overwhelming. The constant stream of content if not managed can cause stress and lead to decision overload.
“Too Much Information” that, “Information overload is one of the biggest irritations in modern life”, writes Schumpeter of The Economist.
We sometimes boast of how many things they can juggle in a single day.
To maximize your brain every day, use better tools and settings to filter information throughout the day. Prepare your brain to ignore unnecessary information. This will likely increase your brain’s efficiency significantly.
4. Sitting for too long is hurting you
Sitting is one of the worst things we can do for our health. A new UCLA study reports that people who are more sedentary have thinning in brain regions linked to memory.
You can reduce the amount of sitting you do by adopting interventions like moderate walking, standing while working, even for just 10 minutes at a time, standup meetings — it offers the opportunity to sit less, move more and conduct short meetings.
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