Mental Exercises Can Help Trick Your Tired Brain Awake

We’ve previously provided tips for getting started in the morning, sans coffee and short breathing exercises you can do to re-energise at other times, but sometimes you just need a little more help. Here are a few ideas you can put to work when your concentration starts to drift.

As Wanda Thibodeaux over at Inc. explains, we have a tendency to slow down mentally when the afternoon hits and while a nap might be the best option, it’s not always appropriate.

Fortunately, Thibodeaux has some suggestions for mental exercises you can do to get your mind running again:

It probably doesn’t take you much mental energy to count to 100. But what about backward? Can you do it in x seconds? How about backward by 7s, 5s or 3s? Can you go through the alphabet while finding a noun for every letter? What about creating a numbered list of objects that fit a specific category? These list exercises all force your brain to use multiple types of data (e.g., language, color, shape) at once, thereby getting more regions of the brain working together.

She also recommends “adorable” distractions, which according to research can “[up] performance on concentration tasks”, as well as the old favourite of putting on music.

I’m sure not all of Thibodeaux’ ideas will do the the trick, but then, all you need is for one to work.

6 Unconventional Brain Exercises to Get You Over a Mid-Afternoon Slump [Inc.]