How to Use Neuroproductivity to Boost Your Potential
By: Cheshire Chaton
Tags: Neuroscience, Brain, Productivity, Self Improvement, Achievement

This article is not going to be an article that tells you to get up at 6 AM every morning. I won’t tell you at what time you should be checking your e-mails or how to get organized. You will not come out of it with the perfect planning to organize your busy day. You will learn the neuroscience behind your brain productivity and some little tricks to tap into it.

Your brain is always working. It is a powerful machine that allows you to breathe, swallow, pump your heart, see or hear without having to make much of a conscious effort. Your brain is always working in the background, and when you try to focus on a difficult task, your brain is either going to be with you or against you. Even though you’re not actively aware of your neural activity, it is the key to whether or not you will accomplish a flow-like state that will allow you to crunch all of your objectives. Let’s dig into what your brain needs to be productive!

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This incredible machine that is your brain

Your brain’s way of communicating is called a neurotransmitter. These little guys are chemicals created by the nervous system to communicate across your body. To help your brain achieve productivity, you’ll need the help of four of these little guys :

Serotonin: This one makes you feel calm

Dopamine: This one makes you feel happy

Neuroadrenaline (or Neuropinephrine): This one makes you feel alert

Acetylcholine: This one helps you focus

We’re going to dig a little bit into each of them to see how they affect your productivity.

Serotonin: That little confidence boost you need to achieve your task.

Serotonin, like dopamine, is part of the neurotransmitters that are often called “happiness hormones.” It triggers a sense of security and pride. It helps you keep a stable mood when you work and keeps you awake. Serotonin is linked to your circadian rhythm and is the hormone that allows you to wake up in the morning. While the lack of serotonin is not always a cause for depression, serotonin intake can help people get out of depression. You can boost your serotonin levels by taking a deep breath, exercising, or finding someone kind enough to give you a massage. But we’ll dig more into the practical framework later in this article.

Dopamine: The sense of reward you get from your work

Dopamine is a bit trickier than it’s friend serotonin. It is one of the neurotransmitters that have the biggest role in the reward system. This system tells your brain that something is good, and it should repeat it or, on the opposite, avoid it at all costs. For this reason, dopamine has a key effect on the formation of habits. You can see how this sense of reward can motivate you in your work. If you find some accomplishment in what you are doing, you will physiologically want to do more. However, the other side of the dopamine coin is that you can get dopamine from other sources, distracting you from your work. For instance, an e-mail notification can get you away from your work and break your flow. You need to be mindful of your reward system to take advantage of it.

Neuroadrenaline: This stress that is good for you

Neuroadrenaline is the neurotransmitter that triggers a state of fight or flight in your body. It keeps you on high alert. While chronic stress is obviously harmful to you, you can create positive stress that allows you to stay alert and focused on the task. For instance, it is because of neuroadrenaline that people who tend to procrastinate manage to work more efficiently as their deadline approaches. The state of alertness allowed by neuroadrenaline also allows you to retrieve the data you need to perform your task easily. Let’s say, for example, if a bear chased you, you would instinctively find appropriate solutions in a record time to try to get out of it alive. The same can happen during your task. If you feel this positive stress, you will handle all the different concepts needed to perform your task easily.

Acetylcholine: The focus and memory maker

Acetylcholine is the most obvious neurotransmitter when you see what it does, but surprisingly, it is less known than the ones mentioned above. The main role of acetylcholine is that it is involved in your autonomic nervous system. It is the system that handles all your basic functions, like breathing or managing your heart rate, without you having to worry about it. It is also involved in learning and memory. It has been found that damage to the cholinergic system (the acetylcholine factory)is linked to degenerative memory diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Increases of it, on the other hand, allow for better cognitive functions and better memory. The neurotransmitter also helps you stay focus.

Key Takeaways :

There are four neurotransmitters at play for your brain productivity: serotonin, dopamine, neuroadrenaline, and acetylcholine.

Serotonin and dopamine are part of the “happiness hormones”. Serotonin helps you wake up in the morning and stabilizes your mood, and dopamine makes you feel rewarded.

Neuroadrenaline is a “stress hormone” that, unlike cortisol, can positively affect you if it happens in small doses. It makes you feel focus and alert.

Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter involved in all of your body’s background tasks such as breathing and can also increase your focus, memory, and learning abilities.

Art by the author

How to use this knowledge to boost your productivity

To increase your productivity, you will need to boost each of these neurotransmitters. Here is a list of actions you can take :

1. Know your reward system. Create a new one if you need it.

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You need to find a sense of reward in doing your work. It is going to help your dopamine levels up and will help you stay in your flow. Sometimes, we do tasks that we have to do but don’t find as rewarding. In this case, why not try to give yourself external rewards that you truly care about. You can allow yourself a treat, for instance.

2 . Create positive pressure

You don’t have to wait for an external source of pressure for your work before creating positive pressure to keep you on track. One trick can be to create a To-Do list of what you want to accomplish in the day and a bigger To-Do list of what you want to accomplish in the week. These lists will help you stay on track and create deadlines that trigger this positive stress. And nothing prevents you from creating rewards for the good accomplishment of your To-Dos, that’ll give you an extra dopamine boost! If you don’t feel like self-discipline is doing it for you, you can also commit publicly to be done with your task for a due date. You can tell your colleagues that you will do a quick presentation of your current research project next week.

3. Create an environment that helps you stay focus

That advice is fairly common, I’ll admit it. It has to do with acetylcholine. If you turn off your notifications and prevent distractions, you’ll help yourself stay focused. Focusing has to do with will power and the better your working environment is, the less will power you have to use to stay focused.

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4. Breathe and meditate

Slow breathing exercises and mindfulness help you raise your serotonin levels. You need to feel safe and clear before you start your task. You can always incorporate 5 minutes breathing exercises during your breaks, for instance.

5. Mind what you eat

To boost your acetylcholine levels, you can eat foods rich in choline. Those include mostly :

Beef liver

Chicken liver

Salmon

Cod

Eggs

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Why not start your day with a boiled egg or a plate of broccoli? Eating foods rich in choline not only benefit your productivity but a lot of other bodily functions. If you wonder what food to eat best to help your cognitive activity, you can also check these recommendations from Harvard Health.

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6. Exercise

This piece of advice is also fairly common, but the reason behind the need for exercise for productivity are manifolds :

It helps you decrease your cortisol levels and feel more at peace.

It triggers endorphins, another happiness hormone that makes it easier to endure difficult tasks.

It helps you regulate your blood pressure and your health, and you need to be healthy to feel productive.

However, light exercise is more recommended than strenuous exercise, like running a marathon. This type of exercise can actually lower your acetylcholine levels. Try to take a walk in the morning or during your lunch break. It can help you gain some perspective on your day of work.

7. Sleep, sleep, sleep

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With this last one, I will clearly go against the “Wake Up at 6 AM to have more time” paradigm. Some people don’t need a lot of sleep to be fully restored. That much is true. It might, however, NOT be your case. You need to know about your circadian rhythm, know what is best for you, and try to do everything you can to have a good quality sleep. Here are some advice to achieve high-quality sleep :

Sleep and Wake up at a regular time

Avoid screens at least 30 minutes before sleeping

Try to unwind at least 40 minutes before sleeping through meditation or light reading.

Sleep in a calm environment.

Everybody knows by now that sleep is essential. For productivity, it is essential for several reasons; first, it allows you to keep stable serotonin levels that will help you have a stable enough mood to put in some work. It will also keep your levels of acetylcholine high. Finally, a rested body is a healthy body. You might avoid being distracted by sleepiness and dozing off during your work sessions, which will make you more productive.

Key Takeaways :

To boost your productivity, you can boost the fabrication of the four neurotransmitters presented in the article.

You can act on your living hygiene by getting enough good quality sleep, minding what you eat to maximize your choline intake, and do regular light exercise.

You can act on your working environment to prevent most distractions, to help you stay on track.

You can create a reward system that works for you and that helps you perform your tasks. On top of that, you can bring positive pressure in your environment to help you have this little positive stress that allows you to be more productive.

Take a deep breath, center yourself, and apprehend your tasks with clarity, and everything will feel better!

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I hope this article helped you understand more about your brain and ways to stimulate it to improve your productivity. If you have anything to add on tricks to improve productivity, I’ll be happy to see you in the comment section!

I wish you a happy journey toward self-improvement!