Wrap-up: Seven essential tips to optimize your mental energy

Over the last months, I have shared short, practical and science-based productivity tips to help you thrive as a knowledge worker.

As some of you might have noticed, these largely revolved around one topic: how to optimize your mental energy throughout the day. 

Yet, mental energy is just one of three major elements of the productivity framework I have devised over the last years. Next week, I will move on to its second element: mental focus.

Today, I offer a wrap-up of my seven essential tips on mental energy. For those of you interested, I’ve also included scientific references for each tip at the end of the post.

Now, feel free to experiment, energize and enjoy!

1) Start your day with a perfect morning
Have a glass of water right after getting up. Avoid caffeine earlier than 60 to 90 minutes after waking up. Get 2 to 10 minutes of sunlight in your eyes before 10 am.

2) Determine your chronotype
Determine whether you are a morning (lark), intermediate (third bird) or evening (owl) chronotype. Do so by completing the Automated Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, which takes 5-10 minutes.

3) Do focused, “deep” work during your most alert time of the day
If you’re a morning lark or intermediate third bird, schedule at least one bout (60-90 minutes) of focused work early in the day – before engaging in collaborative work. If you’re an evening owl, block some hours for focused work later in the workday.

4) When stressed out, take a walk
Whenever you feel stressed, take a walk outside to get calm again. Leave your smartphone at your office or home. Walks are especially beneficial in the evening, as their calming effect helps us fall asleep at night.

5) For maximum productivity, consider fasting in the morning
Skipping breakfast is great for productivity – and allows you to burn fat while working. To fast properly before noon, make sure to drink plenty of water, add half a teaspoon of salt, and have a cup of black coffee if you get hungry.

6) Eat for alertness during the day and calmness during the evening
During the day, eat things that promote alertness, such as healthy protein (e.g. vegetables, chicken or fish) and fat (e.g. nuts). Save foods that promote calmness, notably starchy carbohydrates (e.g. rice or pasta), for the evening.

7) Time exercise during your least alert time of the day
Exercise strategically. Do your workouts at times during the day when we’re not alert at all. If you’re an evening owl, the sluggish morning is ideal for exercise – which will also make you wake up earlier naturally. If you’re a morning lark or intermediate third bird that wears out by the afternoon, do your exercise later in the day. 

Finally, don’t be afraid to exercise in a fasted state: Researchers tell us that doing so increases the amount of body fat burned, positively impacts our glucose levels, and improves our cellular and organ health.

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Sources

1) Start your day with a perfect morning
Watso, J.C. & Farquhar, W.B. (2019): Hydration Status and Cardiovascular Function, Nutrients, Vol. 11 (8). doi: 10.3390/nu11081866Davis, J.M., Zhao, Z., Stock, H.S., Mehl, K.A., Buggy, J. & Hand, G.A. (2003): Central nervous system effects of caffeine and adenosine on fatigue, American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol. 284 (2). doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00386.2002

Van der Rhee, H.J., de Vries, E. & Coebergh, J.W. (2016): Regular sun exposure benefits health, Medical Hypotheses, Vol. 97. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2016.10.011

Mead, M.N. (2008): Benefits of Sunlight: A Bright Spot for Human Health, Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 116 (4). doi: 10.1289/ehp.116-a160

Fernandez, D.C., Fogerson, P.M., Lazzerini Ospri, L., Thomsen, M.B., Layne, R.M., Severin, D., Zhan, J., Singer, J.H., Kirkwood, A., Zhao, H., Berson, D.M. & Hattar, S. (2018): Light Affects Mood and Learning through Distinct Retina-Brain Pathways, Cell, Vol. 175 (1). doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.004

Rivera, A.M. & Huberman, A.D. (2020): Neuroscience: A Chromatic Retinal Circuit Encodes Sunrise and Sunset for the Brain, Current Biology, Vol. 30 (7). doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.02.090

Patterson, S.S., Kuchenbecker, J.A., Anderson, J.R., Neitz, M. & Neitz, J. (2020): A Color Vision Circuit for Non-Image-Forming Vision in the Primate Retina, Current Biology, Vol.30 (7). doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.040

2) Determine your chronotype
Terman, M., Rifkin, J.B., Jacobs, J. & White, T.M. (2001): Automated Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (AutoMEQ),URL: https://chronotype-self-test.info/ (Accessed 14 July 2021)

Horne, J.A. & Östberg, O. (1976): A self-assessment questionnaire to determine morningness-eveningness in human circadian rhythms, International Journal of Chronobiology, Vol. 4 (2)

3) Do focused, “deep” work during your most alert time of the day
Klarsfeld, A., Birman, S. & Rouyer, F. (2018): Nobel time for the circadian clock – Nobel Prize in Medicine 2017: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young, Médicine Sciences, Vol. 34 (5). doi: 10.1051/medsci/20183405023

Adan, A., Archer, S.N., Hidalgo, M.P., Milia, L.D., Natale, V. & Randler, C. (2012): Circadian typology: a comprehensive review, Chronobiology International, Vol. 29 (9). doi: 10.3109/07420528.2012.719971

Roenneberg, T., Kuehnle, T., Juda, M., Kantermann, T., Allebrandt, K., Gordijn, M. & Merrow, M. (2007): Epidemiology of the human circadian clock, Sleep Medicine Reviews, Vol. 11 (6). doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2007.07.005

Vetter, C., Fischer, D., Matera, J.L. & Roenneberg, T. (2015): Aligning work and circadian time in shift workers improves sleep and reduces circadian disruption, Current Biology, Vol. 25 (7). doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.01.064

4) When stressed out, take a walk
Macé, É., Montaldo, G., Trenholm, S., Cowan, C., Brignall, A., Urban, A. & Roska, B. (2018): Whole-Brain Functional Ultrasound Imaging Reveals Brain Modules for Visuomotor Integration, Neuron, Vol. 100 (5). doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.11.031

De Voogd, L.D., Kanen, J.W., Neville, D.A. Roelofs, K., Fernández, G. & Hermans, E.J. (2018): Eye-Movement Intervention Enhances Extinction via Amygdala Deactivation, Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 38 (40). doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0703-18.2018

5) For maximum productivity, consider fasting in the morning
Karimi, R., Cleven, A., Elbarbry, F. & Hoang, H. (2021): The Impact of Fasting on Major Metabolic Pathways of Macronutrients and Pharmacokinetics Steps of Drugs, European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Vol. 46 (1). doi: 10.1007/s13318-020-00656-y

Carroll, H.A., Templeman, I., Chen, Y.-C., Edinburgh, R., Burch, E.K., Jewitt, J.T., Povey, G., Robinson, T.D., Dooley, W.L. Buckley, C., Rogers, P.J., Gallo, W., Melander, O., Thompson, D., James, L.J., Johnson, L. & Betts, J.A. (2019): Hydration status affects thirst and salt preference but not energy intake or postprandial ghrelin in healthy adults: A randomised crossover trial, Physiology & Behavior, Vol. 212. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112725

Greenberg, J.A. & Geliebter, A. (2012): Coffee, hunger, and peptide YY, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 31 (3). doi: 10.1080/07315724.2012.10720023

6) Eat for alertness during the day and calmness during the evening
Wurtman, R.J. & Wurtman, J.J. (1995): Brain serotonin, carbohydrate-craving, obesity and depression, Obesity Research, Vol. 3. doi: 10.1002/j.1550-8528.1995.tb00215.x

Jones, E.K., Sünram-Lea, S.I. & Wesnes, K.A. (2012): Acute ingestion of different macronutrients differentially enhances aspects of memory and attention in healthy young adults, Biological Psychology, Vol. 89 (2). doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.12.017

7) Time exercise during your least alert time of the day
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Warburton, D.E.R. & Bredin, S.S.D. (2017): Health benefits of physical activity: a systematic review of current systematic reviews, Current Opinion in Cardiology, Vol. 32 (5). doi: 10.1097/HCO.0000000000000437

Panda, S. (2018): The Circadian Code: Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Transform Your Health from Morning to Midnight; Rodale Books