[roughly]

Second and third all the advice to talk to a therapist and/or an MD.

Beyond that, though, three things that have been Big in helping me build my mental capacity (and they’re all deeply stereotypical, but):

1. Sleep - more than anything else, consistently getting 8+hrs of sleep improves my cognition and consequently my productivity and my mood. I spend a lot of effort on sleep hygiene (dim red light and no screens at night, bright light or sun in the morning), but a couple days of good sleep are irreplaceable.

2. Related to 1, cut booze. Mostly because it ruins effective sleep, but also because it’s a depressant and a stand-in for all the other stuff I’m trying to improve for myself. Less booze, better sleep, better mood, better health, repeat.

3. Exercise - I can’t do cardio for shit, but I started doing strength training a while back and love it. It’s a great mood booster - physiologically, you’re basically doing a nervous system reset when picking up a sufficiently heavy thing. It also helps me sleep better, reduces a bunch of weird aches and pains, and makes me feel like a badass.

Again, go see a professional - my therapist’s how I learned all the above - but in the meantime, those three things have been enormous to improving my mood, capacity, and productivity.

[nicoburns]

I would add:

4. Water. Make sure you're hydrated.

5. Diet. Ensure you have a sufficient intake of all important nutrients and try to eat a diet that isn't too carb/sugar heavy (this doesn't need to be taken to extremes).

[guiambros]

Love these 5 items.

Also worth mentioning how deeply they are all inter-related: diet will influence your glucose levels, metabolism and gut health. Metabolism and glucose is directly related to brain function. Exercise helps with sleep, reduce glucose levels, increases dopamine levels. Alcohol impacts REM and deep sleep, and your gut microbiome. The list of inter-relationships goes on and on.

[roughly]

Diet's super important, but I feel like it's such a giant friggin' thing in our society that it's hard to put that at the top of the list. I subscribe to the "make a change that feels tractable, live with it for a bit, do it again, repeat" method for personal improvement, and I feel like if I'd tried to tackle diet first, I would never have gotten started.

Agree with the water, though - I've always got a big water bottle next to my desk.

[guiambros]

Agree. A good first step is to learn about how food chemistry, and how your body processes it.

I lived my whole life with barely an understanding of the macronutrients, wrapped in popular wisdom: eat enough fiber, protein is good for you, be careful with carbs, sugar is bad (but you can't avoid it).

I also casually dabbled with some fashion diets, experimented with apps for counting calories, and grew up with plenty of wrong and harmful advice (fruit juice is healthy, honey & cereal as a healthy breakfast, etc). Nothing really stuck.

I never understood why sugar is bad, or what's the difference between fiber and carbs (aren't they both plants?), what happens in your body when you eat carbs, or what the heck are calories anyway?

It was only when I read more about how your body processes food and the impact on your glucose levels that things started to click for me. I also got a CGM, and started seeing the direct correlation of the spikes and crashes with mood, cravings, motivation, post-lunch slump, headaches, energy levels.

It has also completely changed my relationship with food. I started eating more, lost weight, and my glucose levels are significantly lower (and, more importantly, I know exactly how to control it). Also have a bit more energy, less cravings, no post-lunch slump.

There's plenty of resources out there, but the three that helped me were [1][2][3], and a Dexcom CGM (but that's totally optional).

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Glucose-Revolution-Life-Changing-Powe...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Glucose-Goddess-Method-Cutting-Cravin...

[3] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QUEHNU/

[seoulmetro]

Diet is the easiest thing on that list of 5 things in all first world countries.

It's just that people refuse to engage with a simple diet. All you have to do is start to cook for yourself and it's done, your diet is solved by the required meats, vegetables and carbs you get in a basic home cooked meal two times a day. Even if it's reheated.

[sourdoughness]

I know what you mean, but not strictly true. I cook everything from scratch - the most processed ingredient I use is probably a can of whole tomatoes or occasionally a pack of pasta. I’m a good cook, I think, and it’s easy for me to make our meals, but I do like things to taste good, and I no doubt add more butter, olive oil and cheese to things than is strictly healthy.

[seoulmetro]

No one is going to get fat from adding proper amounts of fats, sugars and salts to their home cooked meals provided they are average in the first place.

[seoulmetro]

Unfortunately I did all 5 of these and still felt severe brain fog and poor short term memory. I can think insanely quickly on things that don't matter or have logical cues. I can't think on things with a string of procedural cues. So even simpler things are harder than complex things if they take more than a few steps.

GYM body is so good and only takes a year in the gym, I love it and it does help get rid of aches and pains.

When you do all 5 well and still feel hindered in some spaces, it really sucks. I assume I'm just extremely lazy but with a huge willpower that turns on and off. I always experienced on/off stages with work, either creativity and leisure flows, or work and engineering flows.

[roughly]

So for sure talk to a professional at that point - if you’ve fixed all the sort of baseline health bullshit we all do to ourselves and still feel like you can’t do the things you want, talk to a doctor or a therapist or psychologist. Two notes - I had a friend with a thyroid issue that manifested in really pretty severe fatigue and brain fog that went undiagnosed because it mostly presented as a mental, not physical, problem. I’d also say what you’re describing sounds a bit like what I hear from friends with ADHD, so that might be another thread to pull.

[seoulmetro]

Everyone has ADHD these days, I don't believe it has any actual boundaries any more. I do get migraines as my only physical sickness, doctors suggest just taking pain killers and that's all. Will see a specialist though, but would rather be naturally not right than clinically unwell for a misdiagnosis.

[gtirloni]

It has boundaries and good psychiatrists will know what to look for.

Every comment here starts with "see a doctor". What do you lose by trying that since it seems you already tried everything else?

[seoulmetro]

Sure. Most will just diagnose ADHD and autism willy-nilly though, hence the realistic poor boundaries.

I have tried that. I will see a specialist with proper over-the-top tools when I can. But the people I see are renowned for over diagnosing too these days.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

Setting aside time to relax and read an actual book made me feel sharper.

[roughly]

Yeah, I had a ludicrous amount of free time during the pandemic and got to pay more attention to my attention span (heh) - I found when I sat down to read, I’d get about 3 minutes in and my attention span would wander; if I persisted, I’d make it another 15-20min before getting the phone itch again, and if I made it through that I’d get another hour or so of calm reading in.

It really does make a difference for me to read paper, though. It feels more tangible than reading on a device, and something about the feeling of actual progress (as opposed to infinite scrolling) seemed to both help me take in the material and also make the whole thing more satisfying.