Eat well and hydrate
Once you’re getting more sleep, eating well and staying hydrated works wonders for your ability to focus. Our brain makes up 2% of our body weight, but it uses 20% of our energy reserves. We all accept that nutrition and hydration have a considerable impact on physical fitness, but we overlook the significance of their contribution to our cognitive abilities. What we eat plays a central role in both providing nutrients for our brain and enabling our brains to maximize the benefit of those nutrients.
Eating well isn’t always easy, but you don’t have to eat perfectly to benefit. Even minor adjustments pay off significantly over time and act as stepping stones to better habits. And much of eating well and staying hydrated can be rolled into other habits and rituals to improve your ability to focus.
The first rule of eating for focus is not letting yourself get hungry. Your brain runs on glucose, and when it comes to focus, a slow, steady stream of it is much better than a short-lived burst. If your glucose levels are gyrating between too much and too little all day long, you’ll struggle to maintain your focus. Hunger has also been shown to reduce our ability to pay attention and absorb information. Moreover, if you’re hungry, you’ll be more tempted to eat a large meal which can make you drowsy.
The best way to start strong and reduce the chances of hunger or over-eating at lunch is to make time to eat breakfast. This has the added benefit of helping maintain more steady glucose levels early in the day and reducing the temptation to grab a less-than-healthy snack to get you through to lunch. Tony Schwartz mentions this in “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working”:
The best studies of the consequences of skipping breakfast have been conducted among children , but the same principles apply to all of us. Hunger at any time has been shown to reduce a child’s ability to pay attention, absorb information, and respond appropriately to the environment.
Speaking of those snacks, they’re worth talking about specifically. Things like candy and salty foods provide quick glucose bursts that feel good quickly and seem like they’re helping. Unfortunately, those effects are short-lived and fall off quickly—usually within fifteen minutes. Also, the saturated fats in many of those foods have shown to have detrimental side effects for the welfare of your brain as well.
Instead of those salty or sweet snacks, try to turn to things like nuts and fruit when you need a boost. Specifically, walnuts and blueberries have shown to have long-term positive impacts on brain function. And nuts are a convenient and easy snack to keep handy. In addition to blueberries and nuts, avocado and salmon have been shown to be great brain foods as well. These are good to work into lighter lunches that don’t leave you feeling as drowsy.
Staying hydrated is arguably the easiest change to make and see meaningful impacts. A 2015 study found that hypohydration has been shown to be similar to alcohol intoxication in terms of impairment. Now, you’d have to be pretty dehydrated for it to have huge effects, but there’s still value in avoiding dehydration at all. Drinking more water also helps mitigate hunger and temptation to overeat. So, instead of grabbing a soda or other beverage, get in the habit of keeping water at your desk at all times. I’ve found the best way to do this is to get an easily-refillable cup or jug in the 32-64 ounce range so you aren’t constantly fetching refills.
It’s not always easy to eat well, but the more you plan ahead to keep the right snacks around with readily accessible water, the more you’ll be setting your brain up for success. And, in exchange, the more likely you’ll be able to stay focused and engaged with your most important work.
Your next steps
- Make time for a light breakfast with foods like fruit or oatmeal.
- Eat small snacks regularly instead of a big coma-inducing lunch.
- Keep nuts and fresh fruit readily available for snacks in place of chips and candy.
- Get a good water bottle and aim to drink 64 ounces (about 2 liters) of water every day.
- Eat more “brainfoods” like walnuts, almonds, blueberries, avocados, salmon, etc.