These 4 'harmless' habits are sapping your brain power

The news  can bring negativity: our impotence to do anything about most of what we hear can lead to a sense of hopelessness. It saps mental energy and focus.

Opting out of following the news won’t work for everyone, but try setting some clear boundaries around it. Consider deleting, even for a while, apps that you’re tempted to open all the time.

To break free from the temptation to compare, audit your social media feeds.

If you find yourself thinking about how your life matches up to a friend’s when you’re not on social media, try to shift your perspective. Think about their human traits, vulnerabilities, and things that you have in common. When you change your mindset, you can move from a place of jealousy to a place of empathy. 

• Downward comparison (comparing ourselves to those less fortunate): It activates the brain’s “lack” network, emphasizing our insecurity and focuses on safeguarding the status quo at the expense of risk and adventure.
• Upward comparison (comparing ourselves to those we envy): it can excite feelings of envy and low self-esteem.

Both of these types of comparison can be bad for the brain

The first trick is to notice you’re doing it: Is it out of boredom? A self-soothing activity? Or some type of mechanism for coping with stress and anxiety?

Try to keep a diary for a few days. Spot the patterns. When you notice your cues and responses, you’ll learn to pause before you eat, rather than doing it automatically.

Each time we try and batch unrelated tasks together, we tax our brain and use up energy in the transition. 

To stop making multitasking a habit, you need to set boundaries around what you will be working on when. Give yourself longer chunks of time to complete one thing at a time, and shut down other distractions such as email when you’re working on something.