13 Useful Habits That May Promote Neuroplasticity and Help Boost Productivity

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Can you really train your brain to perform better at home and work? You may well be able to.

How?

It’s all to do with something called neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to restructure itself as it processes new information, causes various neurons to fire, and creates new neural pathways. This happens as we continue to learn and respond to new stimuli.

The malleability of our brains is precisely why we may be able to train them to help us perform better and become more productive.

While many questions about neuroplasticity remain unanswered, there is a plentiful supply of case studies supporting the idea that engaging in some simple neuroplasticity exercises, brain training, and building habits may help improve our work performance and perhaps even boost our productivity.

Later, we’ll explore habits to promote neuroplasticity that may improve your productivity and work performance. First, let’s find out more about neuroplasticity itself.

What is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to grow, change, learn and adapt. Until relatively recently, experts believed that brains were fairly ‘plastic’ in childhood and that structural changes would continue until the end of adolescence when our brains would lose plasticity and become fixed.

This no longer appears to be true. Evidence now suggests that our brains can continue to change and adapt physically throughout adulthood. Theoretically, this means we can re-wire our brains, at least to some degree, as clinical psychotherapist, Dr. Marsha Chinichian, points out.

This could have exciting implications for the world of work if we can find ways to use the phenomenon of neuroplasticity to our advantage.

How Can Neuroplasticity Benefit Us?

To help answer this question conjure up a picture of the brain as a huge network of connected neural pathways. Every time we think, feel, or act these pathways fire and light up. If you train your brain in a particular way, you may be able to carve out new neural pathways and strengthen existing ones, while weakening pathways to bad habits you may have picked up.

By doing exercises to help create new neural pathways and treating the brain like a muscle,  you may be able:

• To process information more quickly.
•  Work for longer periods without experiencing mental fatigue.
• Make better decisions.
• Increase your creativity and become more innovative.

Now it’s time to discover some habits to develop to strengthen neural pathways and hopefully supercharge your productivity.

13 Ways to Promote Neuroplasticity and Supercharge Your Productivity

Here are the best tips we could come up with that might give you a head start when you start to train your brain and make the most of your neuroplasticity.

Eat the Right Foods

Your brain uses a quarter of your energy, despite it weighing only around 3 lbs.

To strengthen your neural pathways, you should snack on foods like blueberries, avocados, and walnuts to ensure you have enough Vitamin D and magnesium in your diet.

Take Short Naps

You should always aim to sleep between 7 to 9 hours a night if you want to be productive the following day. It’s not a bad idea to take a short afternoon nap of about 20 minutes though. Napping encourages dendritic spines to grow in the brain. These are vital if you want to form connections between neurons in your brain. Read ‘The Power Nap: The Perfect Way to Become More Productive’ for more on the benefits of taking a nap.

Don’t Work for Longer Than Planned

Just as with everything else in life, you need downtime to form new neural pathways. This means you shouldn’t extend the workday beyond your agreed-upon finishing time, other than when it’s absolutely necessary to do so. Stick to a well-established end-of-the-day routine to help you stay within the boundaries of your workday.

By putting the stressors of your day to bed, you can boost your endorphins and thereby create the ideal conditions for neuroplasticity to work its magic.

Develop Your Vocabulary

Aim to learn 1 to 2 new words each day. By expanding your vocabulary, you will cause a range of neurons to fire any may cause new visual and auditory neural pathways to form.

Do Exercises with Your Non-Dominant Hand

A fantastic way to build new neural pathways and connections is to do some exercises with your non-dominant hand. These exercises can be simple. For example, if you’re right-handed, why not try brushing your hair with your left hand in the morning? It might just give neuroplasticity a little bonus.

Get Juggling and Start Dancing

Learning to juggle is a fantastic way to improve the neuroplasticity of your brain. You can do this for a few minutes a day. As you become more skilled at it, you will derive more benefits from the activity.

Dancing can also increase neural connectivity, while at the same time reducing the risk that you’ll develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Go Travelling

When you travel, you’re exposed to novel environment and stimuli that sparks new activity in the brain which may open up new pathways.

Start Fasting

Engaging in intermittent fasting can increase neuron growth, facilitate synaptic adaptation and improve cognitive function.

Read Fiction

This one is good news for readers everywhere. Reading fiction may enhance connectivity in the brain.

Learn an Instrument

Try learning a musical instrument to promote neuroplasticity and help form new neural pathways in the brain. Check out our post on the benefits and drawbacks of learning musical instruments for more.

Practice Mnemonic Drills

Teaching yourself rhymes and formulas to make remembering things easier and strengthen the prefrontal parietal network and start building new neural networks in the brain.

One of our favourites is the mnemonic for recalling the colours of the rainbow.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.

So, the colours of the rainbow in order are:

• Red.
• Orange.
• Yellow.
• Green.
• Blue.
• Indigo.
• Violet.

Play Chess

This game has endless potential to promote neuroplasticity. People who play chess typically have more grey matter in their brains — specifically in the ACC — than those unfamiliar with the game. You know the best part? You don’t even need a physical chessboard to get the benefits. You can easily play chess on the web whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

Practice Mindfulness Meditation

There is evidence to suggest that practicing mindfulness meditation can promote neuroplasticity. Recent research indicates that engaging in mindfulness meditation can have a tangible impact on your brain. It produces changes in both the white and grey matter you have in your brain, which we can measure using fMRI. Studies have found that after an 8-week mindfulness meditation course, fMRIs showed that participants had an increased amount of grey matter in 4 regions of the brain associated with controlling emotion, learning, compassion, and memory. The white matter in participants’ brains also showed more connectivity than those who didn’t meditate. All this gives credence to the idea that meditating regularly can indeed promote neuroplasticity and increase neural connectivity in the brain.

You can imagine how having more grey matter in areas associated with compassion, emotional control, learning, and, memory may benefit you and help you become more productive because you could theoretically learn more effectively and retain more information.

Wrapping Up

Today we’ve discovered more about neuroplasticity and explored how improving and promoting it can benefit us. We hope you find the ways to promote neuroplasticity and help improve productivity useful. Why not choose your favourite tips and try to incorporate them into your daily routine?

You might just be able to train your brain and supercharge your productivity.

Interested in the tips like the ones shared here? Check out ’12 Marvellous Mind Hacks to Get Results Fast.’