Have you ever heard of the term to be in the ‘flow’?
Meaning, to be so absorbed in the activity with a laser like focus, that time passes by like nothing?
The same guy who came up with this term (Mihaly C.), also discovered that the creative geniuses and the brightest minds of this world, spend time either intensely immersing in the work they do, or spending time doing the opposite: relaxing, recovering, or basically doing nothing.
Why is this important?
Because to perform well, just like any other muscle in the body, the brain needs to rest.
If you ever pushed yourself to the point of exhaustion by either pulling an all nighter, or by working on a demanding task for weeks on end without a proper sleep, diet or exercise, then you know how it feels to burn out.
Perhaps not to the extreme point of needing to retire, but to the point of being unable to function well, and fight with your will power to get through another demanding day.
The mind can’t go on without experiencing fatigue at some point and can’t attend to the bigger tasks without first being able to deal with the smaller ones.
And stress is stress. Overdoing it in one area of your work or life, will have spillover effects on all the others.
The good news is, that stressing your mind – thinking deeply and intently, while also allowing it to recover, builds a stronger mind.
But instead of ‘just working’ and testing how long you can last, organise yourself in a way that allows you to perform well, without feeling depleted.
Here are five proven ways to build a stronger mind and live a more fulfilling life along the way:
- Do one thing at a time. Try sitting down and attending fully to the task at hand. Assign time to it, and cut out all the distractions. Do your most important work when you feel the freshest.
2. Include regular, short breaks into your daily activities.
3. Notice when you start pushing yourself and the quality of your work begins to decline. That’s the moment to pull the brake, and recover.
4. Strategically plan your longer breaks or holidays, especially during a stressful period.
5. Think of your best performance as cycles of work and rest, and not just cognitive tasks.
In addition, always have something to look forward to on a daily, weekly and a monthly basis.
A phone call with a good friend after a long day.
Your favourite game of sports, every X day.
A drink on a terrace, overlooking an ocean (anyone?).
A dinner on a Friday night with people you care about, to celebrate your accomplishments.
Give yourself a break, and you will perform better.
Image: Alamy, Simon Baker before Margin Call – in Book of Love (2004).