Roundup No. 6: What about a productivity diet?

Your Brain Has a "Delete" Button—Here's How to Use It

It turns out, there’s scientific proof behind the saying “practice makes perfect.”

Your ability to learn something new depends on strengthening neural connections. For example, the more you practice speaking a foreign language, the stronger the circuits get, and the more fluent you become in that language.

Judah Pollack, co-author of The Chaos Imperative, and Olivia Fox Cabane, author of The Charisma Myth, compare this process with a garden. “Imagine your brain is a garden, except instead of growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables, you grow synaptic connections between neurons.”

The opposite happens when you stop practicing a skill or thinking about something – glial and microglial cells prune inefficient neural connections to make way for new paths. “Your brain cleans itself out when you sleep—your brain cells shrinking by up to 60% to create space for your glial gardeners to come in take away the waste and prune the synapses,” say Pollack and Cabane.

Practice and think about the things that are significant to you, and your brain gardeners will strengthen those connections and prune the ones you don’t use. Read more on how to make your brain garden bloom on Fast Company.

The Productivity Diet: 10 Foods That Boost Brainpower

Eating nutritious meals isn’t just good for your health, but it’s also one of the easiest ways to boost your productivity. Brain-boosting foods affect both the brainpower and success of a company. According to an analysis of 20,000 employees, those who ate five or more servings of fruits and vegetables were 20% more likely to have higher productivity.

Take a look at this list of foods, collected by Anthony Karge on Knote, that can boost your brain health. Learn how they impact your productivity and consider including them in your daily menu! 😉

Why Summer Flex Hours Make You More Productive

When summer knocks on your door, you happily let it in, open your mind, and let the warm breeze boost your mood. An overall happiness takes over your body and mind. With all the beautiful senses that come with the summer, there’s another one that isn’t so delightful – absent-mindedness. This makes it hard to concentrate and directly affects your productivity.

“Companies that adopt shorter hours at work during the summer have largely found that productivity isn’t affected […] People are also a lot more focused at work since they have less time to get everything done. So there’s more motivation to work hard while they are at work, knowing they get extra free time later,” says Inveiss.

How to Work Better and More Efficiently as a Team

Not everyone can lead a team – supervisors require special skills. But it’s not just the person in charge who has to be educated about teamwork. Each group member’s perception of this concept can make things happen more efficiently.

“A team can be successful only when it can achieve a bigger goal and function more effectively while the individual team members work together rather than working individually,” says Sravani on the WiseStep blog. To set and achieve common goals, there should be effective communication and coordination between each team player.

If you’re interested in creating a successful team, you should read 14 useful tips and methods. Make each member of the team happy! Cheerful people are more dedicated and this characteristic can create an outstanding ability to find the best solution quicker than working individually.