Make Minor Unimportant Decisions Fast
The next time you go out to eat, challenge yourself to choose your meal in a minute or less.
Dont worry if you dont choose wisely since the consequences are small.
When you really want to make a decision fast, flip a coin.
You may find yourself inwardly hoping for one outcome over another which will help you know what you really want.
Hormonal Changes And Mental Fuzziness
Hormonal transitions are common throughout your life, whether during pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, or just unexpected changes in your environment and lifestyle. And oftentimes these periods leave your brain feeling fuzzy and confusedone study found that 60 percent of women have difficulty concentrating during menopause. In some cases, changing mood or sleeping habits could be contributing to your foggy head feelings, but it could also be due to the fluctuating hormone levels while your body tries to restore balance.
How Can I Become Mentally Fast
19 Simple Ways to Think Faster
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What Is Mental Exhaustion
You probably feel tired and drained after intense physical activity, right? Well, long periods of intense mental activity can wear you out, too.
To put it simply, mental exhaustion can happen when your brain receives too much stimulation or has to maintain an intense level of activity without rest.
You might notice mental exhaustion, sometimes called mental fatigue, if you:
- often work or study for long hours with few or no breaks
- spend a lot of time each day dealing with overwhelming responsibilities
- live with mental health symptoms
- devote a lot of mental energy each day to thinking through problems, worries, or other sources of stress
Its not uncommon to feel physically fatigued from time to time, and the same holds true for mental fatigue. Still, lingering mental fatigue can affect your ability to think, solve problems, or process and regulate emotions. Eventually, it can even lead to challenges in your daily life and in relationships.
Below, well explore mental exhaustion more in-depth, plus offer tips to help manage and prevent it.
You Can’t Remember The Names Of People You Just Met
Some people are bad with names, and that’s OK. But if you suddenly can’t remember anyone you just met, take it as a sign. “As we age, its very common to experience difficulty remembering names of people or places, but recalling them later,” says Howard Fillit, MD, founding executive director and chief science officer of the Alzheimers Drug Discovery Foundation . “But early signs of dementia may include subtle short-term memory problems, like forgetting names of people and misplacing familiar objects.”
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Put Your Phone On Timeout
My phone isnt the boss of me. I dont pick it up whenever it rings, because if I do I start to feel like a performing monkey.
I also resist the urge to pick it up to fiddle when Im bored. If Im waiting in line, at a red light, or riding on the train, I try to sit with the sensation of impatience and boredom rather than giving into it. This helps me build resistance to instant gratification.
If I dont have an actual reason to pick up my phone but I do it anyway, Im letting my impulses run the show. I show my phone whos boss by being intentional about what I use it for.
I remember its a tool, and Im using it. It isnt using me. When its pocketed, I connect more to the people around me.
Mental Vs Emotional Exhaustion
Generally speaking, mental tends to refer to cognitive skills, like thinking, memory, decision-making, and problem-solving. Emotional, on the other hand, has to do with feelings, including your ability to identify, process, and express them.
You might notice emotional exhaustion when navigating difficult, painful, or unwanted feelings, such as:
- a decline in motivation or productivity
- feeling lethargic or slowed down in movements or responses
- difficulty concentrating, remembering information, putting thoughts together, or completing work correctly
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Try To Get More Sleep
Quality sleep doesnt just promote good physical health. Its essential for overall health, which includes your mental and emotional well-being.
Aiming to get the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night can help relieve both mental and physical exhaustion.
One way to make sure you get a better nights sleep? Avoid spending too much time in bed throughout the day, which you might feel more inclined to do during periods of mental exhaustion.
A new bedtime routine can help you find relaxing ways to wind down, which can also improve your rest.
A few ideas:
- Take a hot bath an hour or so before bedtime.
- Try some yoga or gentle stretching before bed.
- Swap your phone or computer for a book, coloring book, or soothing music.
- Dim or turn off unnecessary lighting as youre getting ready for bed.
Let Someone Else Go First
Sometimes Ill let someone else go first just for the heck of it.
We both made it to the checkout line at the same time? You take this one.
Are we both heading for that freeway on-ramp? Have at it, stranger! You cant have road rage when youre choosing to yield.
Its not about virtue signaling and patting myself on the back. Its about training myself to be patient , letting go of being competitive , and keeping my blood pressure at healthy levels in the process.
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Brain Fog: Solutions To Help You Improve Concentration
5 minute read
Most people have experienced mental fog or brain fog. It is often described as a cloudy-headed feeling. Forgetfulness is a common complaint among older adults. As we grow older, we experience physiological changes that can cause glitches in brain functions we have always taken for granted. It takes longer to learn and recall information. We are not as quick as we used to be. Also, lack of sleep, overworking, and stress can cause brain fog. Brain fog can be frustrating, but relief is possible. Do not ignore your symptoms. If left untreated, brain fog can impact the quality of your life and lead to other conditions such as Parkinsons disease, memory loss, and Alzheimers disease.
Symptoms Of Psychomotor Retardation
People with psychomotor retardation move, speak, react, and often think more slowly than normal. This can manifest in a variety of ways, largely depending on the severity of the impairment.
Delayed responsiveness and difficulty following another person’s conversation are common. Complex mental processessuch as calculating a tip or mapping out directionstake longer to accomplish.
Common examples of physical impairment include:
- Sluggishnesswhen walking or changing positions, such as when getting up from a chair
- Impaired ability to perform tasks requiring eye-hand coordination, such as catching a ball, shaving, and applying makeup
- Reacting to situations slowly, such as when reaching for a falling object
- Diminished facility with fine motor tasks, such as writing, using scissors, and tying shoelaces
- Slumping when standing and having poor posture
- Speaking in a soft, monotonous voice
- Speaking noticeably more quietly, or speech that is punctuated by long pauses or lost trains of thought
- Staring into space and reduced eye contact
A person with severe psychomotor retardation may appear catatonic. In this state, the person does not respond normally to others or the environment. Catatonia is a medical emergency as it can become life-threatening.
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Fast Thinking Vs Efficient Accurate Thinking
Your ability to think fast depends on your brains processing speed.
Processing speed is defined as the time it takes the brain to take in new information, reach some judgment on it, and then formulate a response.
This input can be visual, auditory, or from any other senses.
For most people, the efficiency and accuracy of thought, rather than speed, are the limiting factors.
Gary L. Wenk, PhD, professor of psychology and neuroscience, is a leading authority on the consequences of chronic inflammation on the brain.
In Psychology Today, Dr. Wenk writes:
Your brain is probably already functioning almost as fast as is safe. Most of us can push the processing speed a little without risk. Unfortunately, the neural processing speed in our brains is already just a few extra action potentials per second away from a full-blown seizure.
So, perhaps the more important goal is to learn how to think more efficiently and accurately, rather than simply faster.
Theres always a push-pull between processing speed and accuracy that psychologists call the speed-accuracy trade-off.
Your thinking, which may feel slow, may be, in fact, more efficient or more accurate, which is often more important.
Thinking fast isnt very helpful if you arent thinking clearly, accurately, or logically.
Additionally, theres a potential downside to being a fast thinker.
Fast thinkers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors than those who think more deliberately and slowly.
How To Cope Being Physically Slow
wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 13 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time.There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 47,287 times.Learn more…
Being physically slow in a society that values speed, agility, and dexterity can make for a trying time. Whether you are slow as the result of a disability, an illness, weight, or simply because you are less inclined to move faster, it is important to sustain your self-confidence through acceptance and assertiveness techniques, so that you can enjoy being around the faster people in your life.
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Do You Have Adhd And Feel Like You Often Respond Too Slowly
May 19, 2017 by
A common challenge I hear from many Adults with ADHD I work with is,When Im in the middle of a conversation or meeting I just cant seem to put it all together and figure out how to contribute. Often I dont think of what I really want to say until after it is over I feel so stupid!
And, by any standard, these are bright people! But they sure dont feel very bright in these moments. And this hit to their self-esteem can prevent them from participating fully in their personal and professional lives.
What they may be experiencing is slow processing speed, either as a byproduct of their ADHD or as a separate diagnosis.
If you struggle with this too, you may also question your intelligence. So, before exploring the ins and outs of slow processing speed and possible workarounds, let me make one thing clear. If you process information slowly, that does not mean you are not intelligent.
Slow Processing Speed Not Intelligent
Ok, ready to move on and learn more?
Brain Fog Causes: Understanding How You Are Impacted
What causes brain fog? Brain fog can be a symptom of a nutrient deficiency, sleep disorder, bacterial overgrowth from overconsumption of sugar, depression, or even a thyroid condition. Other common brain fog causes include eating too much and too often, inactivity, not getting enough sleep, chronic stress, and a poor diet. These are some of the most common causes of brain fog that we see at Parsley Health.
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Get Support For Mental Health Symptoms
Stress, uncertainty, and low mood can alter your perception of day-to-day time. Yet, the sheer magnitude of new and difficult challenges might seem to affect your big-picture view.
In the middle of a crisis, the days might feel endless as you wait for news or changes for the better . When you look back on that period of difficulty, however, it seems much shorter than it felt in the moment.
Perhaps youve noticed this yourself when thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic. You feel astonished by how long its lasted, even though this presents a stark contrast to the crawling days.
Stress, anxiety, and feelings of depression have increased for many people over the past months, and though you may not realize it, these symptoms can factor into your perception of time.
- Anxiety can interrupt your focus, making it harder to pay attention to specific tasks. Even when you use the tips above to help the days pass quicker, you might have a hard time maintaining your concentration and end up back where you started trapped in a loop of boredom, racing thoughts, and worries about the future.
- People with depression may perceive time as moving slower, perhaps because of the way depression can affect energy levels and motivation. When you feel low, you might have a hard time trying to improve your mood if you cant seem to muster up the energy or strength to get going.
Youre A Good Listener
Or maybe youre not deep in thought. Maybe youre actually listening! Many people arent good listeners because theyre not giving their full attention to the person who is speaking theyre too busy formulating what they will say next. Good listeners still their minds and do not form a response until the other person is finished. These are the people that you really want to talk with because you know theyll hear everything you have to say.
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How To Get Rid Of The Slow Motion Feeling Anxiety Symptom
If your doctor has ruled out other causes for the slow motion feeling anxiety symptom, such as a side effect of medication, fatigue, low blood sugar, an adverse effect of recreational drugs, etc., the stress anxiety causes is a common cause of feeling like everything is in slow motion.
In this case, dealing with your anxiety issues and reducing your bodys stress will resolve this slow motion feeling anxiety symptom in time. When your body has fully recovered from the semi emergency readiness state, this symptom will completely subside. Therefore, the slow motion feeling anxiety symptom neednt be a cause for concern. Its generally not an indication of any other than a body thats become overly stressed.
You can speed up the recovery process by reducing your stress, practicing relaxed breathing, increasing your rest and relaxation, and not worrying about this feeling. Sure, it can be unsettling and even bothersome. But again, when your body has recovered from its overly stressed state, this slow motion feeling anxiety symptom will completely disappear.
If you are having difficulty containing your worry, you may want to connect with one of our recommended anxiety disorder therapists. Working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to overcome what seems like unmanageable worry.
Play the clip below for Jim Folk’s commentary about the slow motion feeling anxiety symptoms. Jim Folk is the president of anxietycentre.com.
Dont Allow Your Phone To Be A Distraction
Speaking of barrier to being present, lets talk about cell phones. Were addicted to our phonesaddicted to the temporary rush they bring. The noises, alerts, dings and little red dots keep us feeling hurried because theres always another notification to check.
Were on call every minute of every day. The entire world is competing for our attention via our cell phonesthrough news and social media and texts and emails and app notifications.
Dont let your phone run your life. Dont allow it to flood your body with stress hormones. Dont give it the power to steal your time, attention and peace of mind. Set boundaries around your phone. Put time limits on certain apps or keep your phone in a box when youre home and spending time with your family.
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Study Finding: Mental Speed Doesnt Decline Until After 60
In a recent study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, 1.2 million participants were analyzed to examine age differences in cognitive function, including so-called mental speed. Mental speed can be defined as the speed at which we can deal with issues requiring rapid decision-making.
The study showed that response speed in simple decision-making tasks began to decrease in early as well as middle adulthood. However, authors posit that response times are not pure measures of mental speed but instead represent the sum of multiple processes.
After all, our response time begins to slow as early as age 20! But this slowing of processing speed is due to increased decision caution and slower non-decisional processes rather than simple cognition issues. Decision caution sounds like wisdom, frankly, such as weighing the consequences of different answers you may give.
After the age of 60, some slowing of mental speed was observed. Regardless, this study challenged the common held belief that our mental acuity is a downward slope from an early middle age.
Practice Doing Things You Are Good At Faster
If you play music, learn songs with a faster tempo.
If you do puzzles or play games like chess, set a timer to force yourself to work faster.
See how fast you can do a simple chore like cleaning your desk or preparing a meal.
Dont try this with something you are just learning as youll only get frustrated.
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Your Mood Or Personality Has Drastically Changed
Mood changes happen to everyone every single day. But if it’s severe, it may be a sign of dementia. “Dementia is defined as a range of symptoms associated with mental decline that interfere with daily life,” Fillit says. “It is most commonly associated with memory loss, but can also include changes in mood and personality.”
