How To Make Every Day A 'Good Brain Day'

Power-up your brain for inspiration every day

Greg Rakozy/ Stocksnap

Ever wonder why some days you have bags of energy and feel super-productive, making decisions with ease and brimming over with creative ideas? And on others, you struggle to think with clarity and feel mentally and physically sluggish? Sometimes, you might be aware there’s an obvious reason: a bad cold or a hangover. But at other times, the explanation may be far less obvious. It’s not uncommon for business leaders to be so work-focused that everything else is done on autopilot. Bad habits slip under the radar, and even if they have only a small impact, this has a cumulative negative effect on energy levels and brainpower. Often, these habits may be sabotaging the quality of your work and hampering your cognitive resource.

I’m a big believer in the importance of marginal gains – making small daily tweaks to behavior and habits that add up, over time, to boost energy and foster the internal conditions for optimal brain function. To illustrate what I mean, I’ve set up a series of good day vs. bad day scenarios, to demonstrate the impact that all those small decisions have on your brain:

Good Day: You wake up refreshed after a deep seven to eight hours of sleep.

Bad Day: You wake up tired after a fitful night, having gone to bed later than intended.

Research shows that getting between seven and eight hours of sleep is optimal for adults. Each hour of sleep lost will deplete your cognitive resource the following day. Long-term sleep deficit builds up into a "sleep debt" over time. But you can have too much of a good thing. Oversleeping (more than nine hours) can make you lethargic and increases a tendency to obesity and other cardiac risk factors. Keep a sleep diary for a week to see if you are getting the balance right.

Good Day: You climb out of bed and do some yoga stretches.

Bad Day: You stumble out of bed after pressing snooze for 40 minutes, with no time to stretch.

Stretching boosts blood flow to your muscles and your brain. Even five minutes of sun salutations (flowing yoga sequence) will increase your energy and concentration, and if you have more time, so much the better. In a study, subjects who did 20 minutes of yoga per day saw dramatic improvements in both working memory and inhibitory control, two measures of brain function that relate to our ability to assimilate and retain new information and maintain focus.

Good Day: You make yourself a green tea, turmeric latte or mug of warm water with lemon or apple cider vinegar (ACV).

Bad Day: You reach for a double espresso.

Green tea and turmeric have proven brain health benefits – improving memory and brain cell growth (neurogenesis), whilst hot water with lemon or ACV will kick-start your digestion (it’s pre-biotic). Strong coffee will act as a diuretic (which makes it doubly bad news if you are already dehydrated or slightly hungover). Coffee will give you a temporary kick, but little else.

Good Day: You do 12 minutes of mindfulness meditation.

Bad Day: You listen to the news.

Most successful business leaders have a mindfulness practice. As little as 12 minutes will improve focus and improve mood. In contrast, listening to a roll-call of negative news is bad for your brain. Nearly all of the neuroscientists I know avoid repeatedly listening to or watching bad news. Bad news triggers the limbic system of your brain, increasing amygdala activity, and therefore anxiety, and yet checking it can become an addiction. It is profoundly distracting and consuming it in large doses depletes brain energy.

Good Day: You eat a balanced breakfast containing a mixture of lean protein and good fats.

Bad Day: You skip breakfast or grab a bagel or pastry.

Sustained energy and a good balance of nutrients will feed your brain as well as your body. Energy dips that inevitably result from refined carbohydrates lead to crashes in brain function as well as physical energy, and the more refined carbs you eat, the more likely you are to be depressed. Skipping meals is bad for your body clock too: aim to eat a similar breakfast such as eggs or avocado, spinach, nuts and seeds, at the same time every day to ensure sustained energy.

Good Day: You put on the outfit you have laid out the night before.

Bad Day: You change a few times and go out of the house feeling out of sorts.

There’s a reason why many successful leaders cultivate a "uniform" and stick to it. Even small problems like deciding what to wear impact on your cognitive resource. Deciding what to wear in advance reduces wasted brain energy and helps you minimize unnecessary choice.

Good Day: You cycle or walk to work, or at least part of the way.

Bad Day: You cram onto a packed train, or sit in heavily polluted traffic.

You are more likely to arrive at work feeling energized and calm if you have walked or cycled all or some of the way. Traditional commuting has been shown to be the most stressful part of many people’s day, with a corresponding spike in stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Add in lungfuls of dirty air if you’re sitting in city center traffic, and it is really bad news for your brain as pollution reduced the levels of beneficial growth factors such as BDNF in the brain. Gentle exercise such as walking or cycling will lift your mood, particularly if you are able to opt for a park or riverside route for part of the way. This will also minimize pollution. Exposure to pollution has been shown to possibly increase the risk of Alzheimer’s later in life, and the impact on respiratory health is well cataloged. The short-term effects on the brain are still being studied.

I am a neuroscientist, medical doctor, best-selling author, leadership adviser and Faculty at MIT Sloan. I work with leaders worldwide to help them achieve mental resil...