How to Fly like a Comet According to Neuroscience
Activate your alertness engine right now.
Another day full of responsibilities and plans that this mission is impossible. Your to-do list grows exponentially, while stress levels peak without asking you for permission.
But, if you know the basic neuroscience of your behaviour, you may alter your comet’s speed and reach your goals.
Go and No-Go pathways
When you are driving a car and suddenly see an obstacle on the road, you stop.
You make this decision in milliseconds without questioning others or your inner self.
You just stop.
You know it is the right thing to do and your action should be suppressed.
Similarly, our brain is fully aware of when to inhibit an action — stop the engine — and when to continue driving the motorway.
There are two pathways in the brain that control this: basal ganglia and the well-known dopamine molecule, which may decide which receptors bind to. Exactly this will determine whether you jump into the go or no-go pathway.
Therefore, with better awareness of these systems, you may find out when you are on “go” mode and what you can do to switch on this mode.
Productivity killer — switching to “go” mode
Today when I woke up I knew I have to complete 3 projects, which required maximum concentration and vigilance. As I tend to take too many projects and plan my free time, I had just 3 hours for work.
Other time was already blocked by the pitfalls of London, such as transport and constantly changing art exhibitions I just can’t miss.
Thus, I increased my alertness by exercising for 1 h after I woke up. It elevated my dopamine, endorphins and BDNF, which ease action-driven behaviour.
Secondly, I block all the stimuli. Because I am aware that during the next 3 h when I am highly alert, my attention may easily get defocused by the triggers.
So I work in silence after leaving my phone on the balcony (same as A. Huberman) and work on silence.
While some people need background music, I know that during my morning any noise will be counterproductive. As I’m already in the “go” mode, I won’t be able to inhibit new ideas I get.
Have you noticed that this might be difficult?
While hyper-alertness allows you to complete the tasks in the linear mode, your brain doesn’t know when to stop.
Comet is flying and you tick the next task from the to-do list.
If you want to boost your alertness, you may try mushroom coffee and fasting state, which also leads to higher alertness and goal-oriented behaviour.
Voilá!
Your list is finished and it’s only 12 o’clock!
However, what you can do to engage your creative side and projects that include creative writing or innovative thinking?
Firstly, you need to be in a deep rest state.
For some people it is mid-afternoon, for others, it is evening right before falling asleep.
Personally, when I swim in the morning I can think about nothing, which means that my brain works even more — I’m activating my DMN (default mode network).
In contrast, when I come home after a run I know I won’t be able to think about the research topic and suppress my energy. I will just go!
Thus, learning new information requires you to switch off and on certain circuits. If you are aware of it, you can plan your day and tasks accordingly.
Here I will share with you my strategy.
- Write a list of tasks for a day in numerical order.
- Divide a blank sheet into two parts: creative and logical.
- Divide your tasks into two columns.
Now you will know when you do each of them. Eg. when I started learning to program I couldn’t stop thinking about new ideas for articles or conversations with the clients.
I moved this task to my morning “logical” bin.
This helped me to create the right space for my ”comet” ready to press a new command.
Also, if you feel you don’t want to separate your days into creative and logical blocks or you may choose which days you are creative vs logical. For example, I learned to have my weekends for creative thought-provoking processes.
Random exploration.
Joined old information with the new via surprising links.
And that’s exactly what is creativity.
Many artists or writers who have an idea for a novel may stay most of their time in this exploring state but do not reach the second form of creativity called linear implementation. Similarly, as with “go” and “no-go” circuits, you need two of them working together throughout the day.
Summary
Learning is a two-sided process, that can be facilitated by basal ganglia and the dopamine circuit. When you know how to adjust your day according to your autonomic arousal state, you may discover your productivity engine.
By eliminating triggers, finding a decluttered space and focusing on logical tasks, you may complete all your goals for the day quicker.
As a result, you will improve your work-life balance. Now, as I’m finishing this article in my late morning, I am ready to switch on into my “no go” mode and dive deep into brainstorming.
I hope this article will bring you new insights that you can implement today!
