Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate. Here are 10 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.

1. Minimize Television Watching

This is a hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television, myself included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of exercise.

Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes are sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long. You don’t even have the energy to read a book.

When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your friends or family, leave the tube off and have a conversation. All of these things use your mind more than television and allow you to relax.

2. Exercise

I used to think that I’d learn more by not exercising and using the time to read a book instead. But I realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater learning because it improves productivity during the time afterwards. Using your body clears your head and creates a wave of energy. Afterwards, you feel invigorated and can concentrate more easily.

3. Read Challenging Books

Many people like to read popular suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t mentally stimulating. If you want to improve your thinking and writing ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a classic novel can change your view of the world and will make you think in more precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to look up a word if you don’t know it, and don’t be afraid of dense passages. Take your time, re-read when necessary, and you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.

Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The challenge of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any tacky suspense-thriller.

4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Nothing makes it harder to concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most rejuvenated if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If you stay up late and compensate by sleeping late, you’ll wake up lethargic and have trouble focusing. In my experience the early morning hours are the most tranquil and productive. Waking up early gives you more productive hours and maximizes your mental acuity all day.

If you have the opportunity, take 10-20 minute naps when you are hit with a wave of drowsiness. Anything longer will make you lethargic, but a short nap will refresh you.

5. Take Time to Reflect

Often our lives get so hectic that we become overwhelmed without even realizing it. It becomes difficult to concentrate because nagging thoughts keep interrupting. Spending some time alone in reflection gives you a chance organize your thoughts and prioritize your responsibilities. Afterwards, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s important and what isn’t. The unimportant stuff won’t bother you anymore and your mind will feel less encumbered.

I’m not saying you need to sit on the floor cross-legged and chant ‘ommm’. Anything that allows a bit of prolonged solitude will do. One of my personal favorites is taking a solitary walk. Someone famous said, “All the best ideas occur while walking.” I think he was on to something. Experiment to find the activity that works best for you.

6. Cultivate friendships with people who think differently

I enjoy talking to people who really challenge my conception of the world. Artists (I’m not one), medical staff (I’m not one), construction workers (I’m not one) and so on.

7. Get outside your own culture through travel, social gatherings

Travel is great (but the hit on the environment is large, so…. do a few long trips rather than many short ones perhaps?) especially if you immerse locally. Going to Cuba and staying in a western hotel is not travel. Going backpacking in Nepal is. Doing voluntravel (going somewhere to help, e.g. Medicins Sans Frontiers) is ideal. But in any event the challenge to your sense of normalcy is fabulous. I spent a month in western China with my kids. Watching them take in the local environment and adapt was a real eye opener to how stuck-in-my-own-ways I’d become.

8. Learn that it is okay to turn off your cell phone and email

Reflective thought and deep reading take time. Oh excuse me, just got an email, be right back. Nope, that doesn’t work. Its okay to be unreachable for hours a day. I aim to answer email for an hour at the end of the day, at most. For many hours I’m unreachable except by family. Since I started that my time for thinking and reading has risen dramatically.

9. Do less better

There’s always another project that we rush to, never finishing the one we were doing. Sorry, great works of science and art take great dedication, polish, and repolish! Sure, we’re not all Darwin or Monet, but we should ASPIRE to be. Just say no to some projects. Focus on a few (make your family a project… for extra points!).

10. In all things seek balance

I agree that exercise is good. So is reading. So is relaxation – and if a bit of TV is what works, great. I for one watch old romantic comedy movies when I’m brain dead (well, okay, when I’m especially brain dead). I also enjoy blending my activities – go for a long walk that ends up at a coffee shop where I read a paper or book and stare out the window.

Conclusion

I hope you aren’t disappointed that none of the techniques I’ve proposed are revolutionary. But simple, unexciting answers are often the most valid. The challenge is having the will to adhere to them. If you succeed in following these 5 tips, you’ll be rewarded with increased mental acuity and retention of knowledge.

What are your favorite ways to make the most of your intelligence? Share them in the comments.

Being a geek myself, I think this is a subject I think needs to penetrate all levels of management in every company that values their geeks. By no means is this a rant, but for the last 10 years I’ve seen what motivates us and what doesn’t. I’ve seen the managers that just don’t get it. I’ve seen those that understand completely and react accordingly. So, I thought I’d share my observations and see what everyone has to add as well.

1. Geeks are curious. Let them feed their desire to learn things

I don’t know how much emphasis I can place on this point. You can take the ultimate geek…give them a rocking’ compensation package…and give them “rubber-stamped” projects (same tasks over and over) for two years and they’ll probably quit anyway. This point is based on the notion that if a geek feels his ability to gain knowledge is hindered he’ll try to find it somewhere else. Let them satisfy their curiosities with the task of picking up the latest technologies and applying them as they see fit. (Even if it’s just for a prototype.)

2. Geeks like to be self-sustaining. Let them figure things out on their own

I haven’t met a true geek yet that wants you to hold their hand through every step of an implementation. In fact I’ve seen quite the opposite. They want to do things their way. If you suggest something, odds are the solution is wrong in their mind because it’s not what they would have come up with first. There’s many ways to complete a task in the technical arena, why cram your solution down their throats? Don’t hinder their creativity, just let them figure it out. The exception to this is probably in design. You obviously have to define your interfaces between components and have your requirements for the implementation. Let the details get figured out by whoever’s doing the dirty work. You can optimize things later if they aren’t up to par.

3. Geeks are creative even if they don’t know it. Give them a chance

One thing I’ve seen is that most geeks don’t see themselves as very creative. Give them the task of creating a GUI tool of some sort and they’ll butcher it up and say “get someone with art talent on the job; I just know how to make it work”. Now this may be true as far as what’s appealing to the eye, but geeks have creativity inside them somewhere.

When you give them a requirement for a component that’s just out of reach with the normal cookie-cutter solutions, who’s jumping at the chance to dig on the web for solutions that could work? Who’s rattling off a dozen ideas for things to try that might work with the newfound constraints? That’s right, it’s management.(Just kidding, though everyone has their moment…who knows? Some managers are geeks too.)

Even if none of the solutions the geeks come up with will work, it’s a vast pool of creative ideas to feed from. Though they see themselves as equation-solvers with little creativity, I see it as opportunity. Let them apply their creativity. They love to be in the brainstorm process instead of pushed to the wayside as a later-used resource.

4. Geeks need tools, good ones. Give them more than they need

I’ve seen way too many people get frustrated over their hardware’s inability to keep up with them. There’s nothing worse than having a machine that you have to wait on. Bill Gates based his entire company idea on the fact that hardware was going to be unlimited and it allowed him to grow an empire. Had the PC not been able to gain ground as fast as it did in the marketplace Microsoft may have had a different story.

With geeks it’s not much different. Give them unlimited hardware (hell, just give them just a little more than they think they need) and their productivity and creativity will definitely increase. Best of all, it’ll motivate them. Geeks can’t wait to see what they can do with the ultimate environment. Give a geek the latest-released workstation with maxed hardware and you’ll most likely get a little more than you bargained for from them just because they’re motivated enough to push the system to its limits.

5. Private, yet collaborative. Geeks need to be left alone, but not too alone

I’m really on the fence with this one depending on the project. I’ve seen the case for both putting geeks in offices with doors, and I’ve seen the case for putting everyone in a big non-walled room with the extreme environment at its best. Personally, I like a combination of both. Geeks want to be left alone when they know what their assignment is. Give geeks a problem to solve, and first thing they’ll want to do is run off and come back with something that fits.

Isolation is great for getting things done when you know what’s there, but collaboration is ideal for environments where people can feed off of each other. I think geeks are motivated by the idea of a collaborative environment with their team where they can retreat to a hole-in-the-wall somewhere and not be disturbed while they get into “the zone” and crunch out their tasks.

6. Free stuff. T-shirts, food, desktop widgets, whatever

It amazes me to no end how free stuff can motivate someone. Geeks could care less about the free company logo pens you hand out. I’m talking real free stuff here. I was on a project once where for two solid months dinner was ordered every night for anyone working late to meet the deadline. I couldn’t believe how many people stayed just because it was easy to do it. Not only that, they were happy to do it!

The power of free things is that it’s generally more motivating when it’s a surprise. If everyone expects it all the time, it’s not really as cool. In my opinion, even if a geek expects free food every Friday afternoon it’s not going to motivate him any less than if you do it every random(6) Fridays.

I’ve seen geeks go out of their way doing some pretty silly things just to get free t-shirts at conferences. The vendors caught onto something right away and have been milking it for everything it’s worth. They know geeks love free stuff, even if it’s crap.

7. Control

This particular point amuses me somewhat actually. I’ve never really met a true geek that didn’t love power. Not the kind of power that an executive has in a company. I’m talking about the power of knowing the inner workings of a complex system that the company benefits from. The power of being able to hop onto a server and manage to be in the top three frag-count players on every map…while everyone else just watches in amazement. The power of knowing that no matter what comes along as a surprise you can figure something out that will work no matter what.

More to the point, geeks like to control their lives. Most of them (well, us) are control freaks that like to do things their own way. Be it control over how to implement their component, design their circuit board, cross out mundane sections of documentation that make no sense except to the business user until it’s re-written, see where they’re headed after the current project…whatever. If a geek doesn’t feel in control, the anxiety will kick in and chip away until greener grass starts to grow on another company’s lawn. Lay out the plans, stick to the plans, and give a comfortable level of control to the geeks and their motivation will feed itself.

8. Geeks need recognition

Having a purpose plays a big role in geek motivation. If geeks don’t feel like they’re needed or appreciated, they’ll begin to wonder if they belong. If someone pulls off some completely unexpected progress by using their creative genius mind, by all means give them some public praise. Feed their desire to do more by giving them the reputation they deserve. The first couple times I was put in front of a VP that really liked what I’d done for their bottom line with my applications, I had such an adrenaline rush that I couldn’t wait to get out there and kick some more ass.

Some may claim to just do it for the general cause of figuring things out and being just another team member, but deep down inside it still has to feel great to know that others are motivated by your accomplishments. Taking credit for a project at a high level in front of management w/o praising the hands-on folks is never the way to go. Giving proper recognition to the true hands-on geeks that are doing most of the grunt-work really motivates them to do more.

9. Freedom

Now, I don’t mean for everyone to get some picture in their mind of geeks lining up to see the last scene of Braveheart, but sometimes I just want to lean back and re-enact that scene in front of everyone I know. Hindering geeks’ ability to use the applications they want or being able to configure their machines they way they like is not the way to go. Give them the tools, but then motivate them by allowing them to really use them the way they can by giving them the free reign to set things up however they want. Companies try to hinder their employees so much by limiting access to things when it really just doesn’t matter. If the geek can’t get his job done with all the freedom given to him, then you don’t want that geek working for you anyway.

This probably lines up with the control point quite a bit, but I think it’s a bit separate in what’s being controlled. Keep the freedom for the geek as much as possible, and they’ll hesitate to look elsewhere since most places don’t do this.

10. Compensation – Saved this for last, but geeks gotta live too

This one goes without saying in my opinion. It’s an implied motivator. Not everyone is as motivated by money as managers think, but most of them are from what I’ve seen. All the other stuff definitely adds up, but compensation is generally the first and primary motivator for most. This applies less for people starting out I think. Geeks just at the beginning of their career are more interested in what they can learn and create. Later on it’s more about compensation and perks. This point could probably be an entire post in itself, so maybe I’ll save that for later. For now, just know that proper compensation and benefits are a very key to motivating geeks.

That’s the set of motivators I think are key to really pumping up your geeks to perform. I’ve seen them work, and I’ve seen the absence of these motivators crush morale and productivity. Please feel free to add motivators that have worked for you and your geeks. What doesn’t work for you? I’m interested in hearing what others see on this subject.

If you have nothing to add, please make an exception to the corporate rule, and go forth motivating your geeks!