How can you accelerate your thinking (whether that’s for the purpose of being coached or outside of coaching)?
There are five major accelerators. The idea for accelerators came from the work of my friends at Accenture, particularly Dana Koch, who talks about them as learning accelerators.
The five are: Sleep, exercise, attention restoration, nutrition, and reduced stress.
Sleep and smart napping
We all know that a better night’s sleep will mean better focus during the day. But what about napping? Smart napping that is. Smart napping renews our concentration levels.
There are good ways to nap and bad ways. The good ways to nap, according to Cara Moore of ProNappers include:
- Nap between 1 and 3pm
- Nap for 20 minutes only (to avoid that groggy feeling when you wake from a deeper sleep)
- Choose somewhere dimly lit rather than dark
- Choose somewhere quiet and cosy at your normal room temperature
- Rest semi-inclined
If you haven’t already tried this as part of your working-from-home routine, give it a go. It’ll set you up for better thinking and better decision-making.
Exercise
With reference to being in the best frame of mind to think, “aerobic exercise benefit[s] not only our cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems but our nervous system as well. We learn more effectively when we are physically active.” Dan Siegel. Exercise, along with “novelty, or exposing ourselves to new ideas and experiences, promotes the growth of new connections among existing neurons and…can even stimulate the growth of new neurons”.
Attention restoration
Getting away from our desks and walking outside gives us both exercise and attention restoration, both of which improve our ability to concentrate and think. We are often attention fatigued, especially if we are trying to push through and tick just one more thing off our list and just one more, driving to get through that to-do list without a break.
Cal Newport writes, “Directed attention is finite. If you exhaust it, you’ll struggle to concentrate…..Walking through nature (vs busy streets which still require directed attention) exposes you to what Marc Berman calls inherently fascinating stimuli. These stimuli invoke attention modestly, allowing focused-attention mechanisms a chance to replenish”.
Nutrition
Do you know which foods help you to think and which ones make you lose focus? See a nutritionist for expert advice on your lifestyle and switching up your current diet and be sure to have plenty of water for thinking power.
Reduce your stress levels
Where do your stressors come from? What is in your control when it comes to reducing those? Perhaps more than you think – or more than you have given yourself permission to change. So go ahead and look at your lifestyle, your work, your commitments and identify the main stressors. How might you reduce the stress, in service of better thinking? This one might take some coaching, to support you to figure it out and to draw on your internal and external resources to make changes.
Which of these might you tweak in service of deeper thinking?
