Improve Your Focus With Quick Mental And Physical Warm-Ups

Stanford university student Julia Davids shares an interesting technique professors use to get students in the zone: physical warm-ups such as partner and self massages. Awkwardness aside, both physical and mental warm-ups can jump-start any work activity.

Photo by Bright Meadow

In her Crane for Creativity ebook, Davids writes:

Supposedly, when you engage in a physical warm-up before engaging in work activity, something amazing happens. You start to move, and lo and behold, your engagement in the present increases; your body and mind stand at attention; you gear up to your top performance with record-breaking speed, 0-160 IQ and CQ (Creativity Quotient) in just minutes; and your team wins the World Series. (I do not follow baseball; this just seemed like an appropriate reference).

[…]Most of the time, I simply default to doodling; starting with a blank page and filling it with nonsense gives me pleasure. The frenetic energy of the lines created by my felt tip pen often exceeds the energy I might gain from jumping 10 times.

If you’re feeling slow to get into your work, try one of the suggested warm-ups, such as drawing circles on paper and turning them into objects or “educational massage” (may not be appropriate in all work situations!).

Just What Do They Teach You at Stanford, Anyway? Exclusive Excerpt of ‘Crane for Creativity,’ Julia Davids’ E-Book on Her d.school Education [Core77]