1. Multitasking

Multitasking is a MYTH. It doesn’t exist. Why? What you are doing is merely switching from one task to another. Switching from one task to another affects productivity and brain health. The human brain is designed to focus on one thing at a time. Studies have shown that multitasking depletes the brain of productive energy and drains your dopamine store.

2. Morning Phone Check Routine

You prime your brain for distraction by checking your phone within your first 20 minutes of waking up, as the theta mode is the period of visualisation. Checking your phone also makes the brain release a lot of dopamine — a neurochemical that makes you feel rewarded. Since the brain intensely desires dopamine like children want sweets, it will arouse the repetition of this behaviour that led to the dopamine release in the first place. Are you hooked already?

3. Sleep Debt

Sleep debt is sleeping short of the required sleep ratio for your age. Studies have shown that lack of sleep is a number cause of death of under 40 ceos. For instance, an adult who sleeps just 5 hours instead of 8 hours a night owes sleep debt. When it comes to sleep debt, you pay sooner or later. Why? It significantly lowers productivity, evidenced in work-related errors, forgetting important details and facts, and impacts your creative abilities when they are highly needed. Sleep improves memory, focus and decisionmaking ability, boosts your mood but also infuses your body with extra energy. How much sleep debt do you owe?

4. Drinking More Coffee and Less Water

Drinking coffee, especially first thing in the morning, is good for your health. It stimulates the release of dopamine, a feel-good chemical in the brain, improving your mood and helping to stabilise your emotions, so you feel better throughout the work day. It also gives you better emotional stability, and less tiredness means you’ll get more done. However, caffeine means your body is pumped with adrenaline putting you in a fight and flight mode. The effect is tiredness, fatigue, anxiety, restlessness and sleep deprivation. Are you hooked?

5. Sitting More Than Two Hours At A Stretch

Sitting too long lowers our alertness and energy levels. Prolonged sitting is linked with cardiovascular, metabolic and mental health issues. It stimulates poor executive function, memory, attention and visuospatial skills, which are critical cognitive aspects of work performance. Breaking up prolonged sitting with standing or light-intensity exercises at the workplace is recognised as a potential measure of improving cognition. Start getting up and walking around to brainstorm to stay alert and increase your productivity. Make it a habit to stand to see your colleagues when you have a question.

6. Skipping Breakfast

One of the things breakfast does is to help you restore glycogen and ensure the level of insulin is stable. Skipping breakfast, thus, means you have failed to replenish your glucose which may thus lead to fatigue. According to findings, people who don’t skip breakfast have a higher level of rest metabolism than those who skip meals. Eating a healthy breakfast helps supply your brain with the necessary glucose to function optimally. Skipping breakfast may lead to sluggishness and loss of concentration. It may also affect your mental performance and your ability to pay attention.

I am The Oracle, I shape habits by shaping Hearts