Performance Enhancing Methods

Boost #1: Food.

You would be surprised how much the food you eat affects your concentration. Every time I eat junk food I feel tired/sleepy and generally not motivated. If you eat clean food, your body will instantly reward you.

How I do it is by eliminating sauces and unhealthy spices. Try it! You would be surprised how fast you get used to eating without ketchup, caesar sauce or salt. At first it will taste bland, but that will stop pretty quickly. There are of course numerous other factors to improving your diet, but I believe this is the easiest first step because it requires the minimal amount of effort.

Boost #2: Power Naps.

I can't live without them anymore. Set your alarm for 20 minutes exactly. It will take you a few times, but eventually you will be falling into light sleep within a few minutes. Do not go for longer, or you will wake up groggy. I honestly think this deserves its own post. A 20 minute nap will rejuvenate you and help your ability to memorize.

WebMD for reference, but I will definitely provide much better sources when I write an article solely concentrating on power napping.

Boost #3: Plan.

I am not talking about hard deadlines and making an impossible to-do list. You should however have a general idea of what has to get done and in what order. Are you cramming for finals? Which courses and which chapters do you need to tackle? Are you dealing with clients? Which clients need the most urgent attention?

Having an idea of what has to be done and in what order make sure you don't have down time where you are simply trying to identify your task. A mistake I believe people make is spending more time thinking about what needs to be done then doing it.

Boost #4: Placebo Motivation.

This is a cool trick that I picked up. Sometimes I just don't feel like studying. I say to myself, "I'll start later", or something along those lines. There is a way to trick yourself out of procrastination.

Here is the trick. Tell yourself you are going to work for 5 minutes, and then you can stop. Start working. If you absolutely don't want to do anymore after 5 minutes, that's fine. You will be surprised by the fact that most of the time, this will turn into a solid hour of efficiency.

As always, thanks for reading! Follow @unprovoked if you liked this!

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