How to increase mental sharpness/clarity in and out of work
I took pride in this a couple years ago but honestly the office environment has made me a shell of my former self; I in many ways just do as I am told now. I've picked up a bit of reading again daily but the repetitive work environment plus consumption of short form content (reels, etc) has really started frying my brain. I want to maybe venture outside of finance to small business, and prior to doing this really want to be back on my A-game. Would love to hear what tips you all have. I also workout regularly / eat overall decently which helps a little
Bump
gotta cut down on short form content like reels. that genuinely alters your brain. read instead and you'll be sharp.
Do you just delete the apps or what? I like long form content on youtube and keeping up with my friends on IG but I just get sucked in to the reels. Guess I just need to exercise some self control...
I have the same too. Honestly I feel shocked how I addicted I am to short form content. Its like "soothing the pain" when I dodge a difficult task/analysis. Some days I feel absoutely cooked. Like I sacrificed ~40-50% of my potential daily output by just being constantly scattered between my phone/work.
I am trying to revamp my focus slowly but it is not easy.
There’s a good podcast on doing exactly this called “Progression to Analog”. Getting “phone brain”, the impact of screen time on general productivity, memory retention, and emotional health was the subject of this researcher’s senior honors thesis at Harvard.
Also, ditch e-books entirely. You need to hold a book in your hand, page turn, and annotate your books with highlighters and pens. Elevate your sharpness by starting to write your reactions, extended thoughts on themes from the physical books you read and some aspect of your own lived experiences. Every day start with reading (can be as little as 2 pages or sometimes I do for about an hour) before even thinking about touching your phone. I promise by day 5 you’ll realize you’ll reach for your phone less and less overtime.
Non-Interval treadmill running for extended durations. I typically do 45+ minutes at 8.5mph 4x per week. This keeps me extremely sharp, well spoken, and calm.
The key is to keep the pace the exact same (no speeding up or slowing down allowed). The pace should be just fast enough that it feels just before what you can reasonably sustain for a long time without failure.
The runners high you get when you are in good enough shape to push past 40 mins, 50 mins, or 1 hour + will unlock a whole new level of psychological clarity you never knew existed
This is good. Also doesn't have to be so rigorous at the beginning. I picked up running again and started off slowly as a "micro" habit. So at the beginning, while I was building up my cardiovascular capacities again, I would make sure to even go out for super short distances (e.g., 2-3km --> ~1.85 miles) just to get some mental break from working. Went back and took a cold shower ==> it feels like resetting your complete mental state. The inner serenity/calm I don't get from anything else.
Would also taper it up to longer runs on the weekend, but quiet frankly, ~80% of the "good" feel post run is already there on short ~15min runs + cold shower vs. 50-60min 10k's.
I've been finding some success in stair climbing in the gym (20-30 mins at high intensity) and running outdoors on the weekends. Also using steam room / sauna + cold shower is nice
The original solution was cocaine , now I’m pretty sure it’s to stop doom scrolling
Try ACD-856.
saw nootropics post on that too, have you personally tested?
For me its all about sleeping well, which is a product of meditation mostly but also sleep supplements.
I do a simple meditation session every morning, only 5 minutes required but I'll go up to 20 when I have time. The key is doing it every day, which is why I only require 5 minutes. I actually haven't tried much later-in-the-day meditation, the morning one helps a lot with feeling relaxed later in the day which helps me sleep. Maybe adding a 2nd session would help, I dunno.
Then at bedtime I take glycine and some kind of magnesium (sometimes glycinate, sometimes threonate, because the research varies on which is better for sleep quality). This helps with sleep quality, not really with falling asleep. Unfortunately the research shows that almost anything the helps you fall asleep (whether drug or supplement) hurts your sleep architecture long term. And that's putting it mildly . . the sleep drugs are horrible for you in all other kinds of ways. Worse than smoking. So if you ingest anything for sleep, make sure it's about improving quality not zonking you out. Also supplements rank behind meditation in importance IMHO.
After hopefully getting deep sleep, I always attack my messiest project in the morning. Not the intellectually stimulating stuff . . the annoying shit that you hate doing.
When I follow these rules I do well.
Also helps to have relaxing hobbies. Golf, long walks or whatever. Outdoor shooting ranges are very underrated for this. Staring at a target down range while trying to relax your body and get the perfect shot, its almost another meditation session.
Creatine
Turn your phone display settings to black and white. The lack of colors makes all the apps way less addicting and you can still stay connected socially.
I do this personally.
I have an iPhone automation to turn on greyscale M-Th from 8am to 8pm and also delete any social media on Sunday and down redownload til Friday
do you feel fomo from not having socials
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