4 Stupid Habits That Wreck Your Brain
Your lifestyle is the main culprit for a distracted brain. Save your brain before it's too late.
One of the main goals of this newsletter has always been to be a poignant reminder of the state of our society today. Powered by consumerism, we are running on a hedonic treadmill, from which we can’t get off no matter what we do or don’t.
And here's the harsh reality—this treadmill of consumerism is not just running; it’s sprinting. With every passing minute, it picks up pace, making it even harder for us to step off.
We find ourselves in a perpetual cycle each day, striving to satisfy our insatiable desires only to find our well-being diminishing with each passing day. This pathetic, fast-paced lifestyle damages our brain health.
In this week’s edition of Hustle Heads, we're exploring the societal norms that silently damage brain health. We'll discuss the top four deadly habits that we, as a society, have come to accept as part of our everyday lives.
🔑 Key Takeaways
4 Brain-damaging habits you need to be self aware about.
4 ways to overcome your brain-damaging habits.
Appendix post containing Must-Reads, listenables, videos, games on Brain Health exclusively for paid readers.
Before we begin, wishing a belated Happy Father's Day to all the incredible dads reading this! Whether you're a new dad experiencing this journey for the first time or a seasoned pro who has navigated the ups and downs of parenthood, your dedication does not go unnoticed. Thank you for the sacrifices you make, the lessons you teach, and the memories you create.
✈️ You’re living your life on autopilot
Researchers at the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital have created a brain care scorecard to judge your brain health based on lifestyle factors and social habits that we can train to improve.
The core reason you live, or the purpose / meaning of your life, should be one of the integral factors affecting the health of your brain. For most of us, our 9-5s is an integral part of our day. Our life revolves around our work morning till evening, we schedule chores in our life around our day job, as well as our free time. But sadly, most of us hate our day jobs. We just do it to survive, rather than out of our passion.
The core purpose / meaning of life should be identifiable in your day job. Why you do what you do is a question you should always be able to answer. I do what I love to do should ideally be your answer. Your work should challenge and excite you, it tickle excite your creative muscles. Only then it’ll be the core purpose of your life, satiate your passion. Otherwise it will just be another boring chore you have to live with.
What can you do?
Finding one’s passion and having a day job centered around your passion is not an easy feat. A few people figure out their passion early on in life, but for most of us, it takes a lifetime.
My first piece of advice to you is to dabble in your hobbies. I’ve always loved writing, and that’s the reason why I started exploring blogging and newsletter writing. The more you enjoy your hobbies, the more you invest your time and energy into it, the more passion you build for it and eventually it becomes your true purpose of life. That’s how I started blogging and eventually starting Hustle Heads.
Try out hobbies you’ve always wanted to explore, be consistent in your efforts and maybe one day you might find your life’s purpose.
📺 You’re even failing at escapism
In today’s day and age, where you’ve got endless streaming options at a nominal cost, binge-watching is the most preferred form of escapism with the highest return on investment. It’s easy, cheap and fun, the perfect combination for everyday escapism. But did you know we’re even failing at this?
“Second Screening” is the new prevailing practice that is killing your focus. It makes binge-watching even more lethal for your focus and attention span. I’m damn sure we’re all guilty of it, including myself.
Present day generation suffers from the shortest attention span in the history of mankind. When we get bored with an episode, we immediately turn to our phones, scrolling through feeds of endless attention grabbing ultra-short content. This has been a long running practice for television watchers now. It’s so common that script writers are told to write content that’s second screen friendly these days.
Second screening has become a norm today. This pathetic brain damaging habit has been weakening and destroying our focus and attention span for so long, due to which digital multi-taskers are found to have less gray matter (responsible for controlling thoughts and emotions) in their brains. Our generation is so lost, that we need an escape from our escapism.
What can you do?
Second screening is a more common problem than we care to admit. But with a few protocols to follow, you can easily control this nasty brain damaging behaviour:
One screen at a time. If what’s playing on your television gets boring, pause it before using the phone. If you’re spending more than 10 minutes on the phone, then turn off the television.
If you’re re-watching something, avoid binge-watching it. They are the perfect candidate for becoming the background noise and second screens.
When working, follow the one window rule. You can have multiple tabs open, but only for the same piece of work.
If you’re working or relaxing, be more self-aware by focussing on only one task.
☀️ Your morning is wrecked
Life is hard. Work is hard. Hard work is essential to live a fulfilling life, but it takes more than just work to make you truly happy. When you’re buried under a pile of spreadsheets, you live this truth everyday. When life gets hard, your bed routines, sleep cycle and morning routines are on autopilot.
When things are on autopilot, the first thing you do when you wake up is to take out your phone and start scrolling even before we get out of our bed. It’s not even a habit, it has become a reflex.
This silly yet deadly habit can ruin your brain health. When the brain is just booting up from sleep, you dump it with heaps of information before it can even comprehend anything. It affects your cognitive functioning and leads to brain fog, which affects your quality of life and productivity. Your brain gets distracted and halts you from your mindful morning routine.
Soon you eat your morning away before you even realise by endlessly scrolling on your phone. A start to an unproductive day.
What can you do?
Mindful morning habits are hard to form and even harder to follow, but there’s an easy one you can do daily to have a better brain health.
Morning light can be a game changer. It is proven that morning light is essential for a well-synced circadian rhythm that ensures a good night’s sleep. Here’s how to fix your mornings:
Don’t keep your phones by your bedside table. Keep them away from you, preferrably outside your bedroom. If you need an alarm clock to wake up, use a dumb alarm clock.
When you wake up in the morning, take a quick bathroom break if you need to.
Head outside to bask in the morning light for about 10-15 minutes before doing anything else.
Continue with the rest of your morning.
This simple habit can enhance your sleep quality, mood and productivity for the rest of your day. It releases norepinephrine and epinephrine, the hormones that boost motivation, drive and attention, all the secret sauces you need to have a highly productive day at work.
🥱 Your boredom is stolen
For most of us, our days are packed and filled to the brim with tasks, to-dos and shallow work. We cannot escape this cycle no matter how hard we try. Even if we manage to find some time in between tasks, we end up consuming freely available attention seeking content. Your brain is now overloaded with information, mostly unwanted information.
Ideal time filled with boredom is a daily requirement for daydreaming, but these days most of us replace daydreaming with doom scrolling. Social media is designed to steal our boredom. Daydreaming is an essential factor for optimal brain function. It’s Einstein’s secret weapon for creativity and productivity.
I am a daydreamer now, and I consciously practise daydreaming every day. I can attest to its benefits. I get better ideas and creative thoughts when I give myself time and space to think.
What can you do?
Don’t follow a tight schedule when planning for a day, as it leaves very little room for imagination when you’ve got things planned end to end. Have a loose schedule for the day and leave plenty of room for imagination.
The best way to do this is to have a to-do list for the day. Having a high level idea of the things to be done for the day leaves you with the flexibility to do things at your own pace and time. It gives you the freedom to think in peace throughout the day. You can daydream your way out of stressful situations and recharge your mental batteries.
🌯 Wrapping up
Your health is affected severely by your lifestyle, more than you realise. Little bad habits add up over time and wreck your brain health, focus and attention span. These easy bad habits, if followed, makes you more likely to be distracted.
But just by being aware of them can help you reclaim your focus and attention span, and you can live a better life.
Thank you for reading!
Sanjay.
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💎 Appendix Post
This appendix post is a gold mine, exclusive for our paid readers. If you’re a paid reader, continue reading to get access to curated books on brain health leading psychiatrists and doctors, videos from Huberman Lab and The Diary of a CEO and podcasts from Dr. Dean and Dr. Ayesha Sherzai on brain health, board games and more. If you’re not a paid reader yet, consider upgrading your membership to paid and 🔓 unlock the exclusive curations below 👇.