This question goes back to Governor Brian Kemp’s decision to appoint Kelly Loeffler

7 min readNov 27, 2020

Consistently doing something easy before starting work will give you a sense of accomplishment that can carry you through the day.

It’s why Admiral William McRaven, author of “Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe The World,” recommends making your bed every morning. Making your bed only takes a few minutes, but it will check off a simple task that can bring momentum and confidence into whatever comes next.

Personally, I have found list-making first thing in the morning to be highly beneficial. It’s an idea I stole from Tim Ferris who writes 5–6 big items on a notecard and then tears the card up when he is done.

I spend fifteen minutes handwriting a priorities list with my main goals for the day. Rather than wasting time on what is urgent, a priorities list helps me stay on track with what’s important. The day is a success when I can finish the few tasks I identified.

It’s a common practice for humans to create dozens of little tasks to fulfill a false sense of accomplishment. This can increase the likelihood of brain fog as you are overloading the mind with too much sensory information.

3. Keep a Small Journal to Write in Every Day

Staying with the importance of handwritten notes, I am also a firm believer in keeping a journal with me at all times.

A handwritten journal evokes mindfulness and helps us remain present. It offers an opportunity for emotional growth and allows you to retain a greater sense of self-identity — an important factor in cognitive health.

I find it works best if you use it as a tool for daily preparation and goal setting — you can reflect on how your day turned out and analyze the quality of your preparation. In making tiny adjustments through reflection, you can build the optimal lifestyle for productivity and overall happiness.

If you are diligent in noting your thoughts, feelings, and lessons, you can go back in time and re-immerse yourself in the good (and the bad times).

For example, when I am struggling to find consistent flow or notice dips in my motivation, I can re-read my notes from days with increased productivity and see what I was doing during creative high points.

Am I sleeping enough? Do I have a clear set of attainable goals? Are my relationships happy and healthy?

Usually, an important area of my life is lacking — and that missing link can be found in my journal.

“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.”
— Jack London

The key is physically writing things down.

Studies have show time and again that you are more likely to follow through with a goal that is written.

As Mark Murphy, a Forbes Senior Contributor wrote, “Vividly describing your goals in written form is strongly associated with goal success, and people who very vividly describe or picture their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully accomplish their goals than people who don’t.”

4. Embrace a Midday Break

I have recently begun a ritual of 2 PM workouts and it has done wonders for my mind.

Just like researchers recommend a cold shower to ignite your creativity, physical exercise or a long walk may improve thinking ability, concentration, and attention. By increasing endorphins and oxygen flowing to the brain, any form of sustained movement can offset brain fog and spark a burst of energy.

If you cannot squeeze in exercise, at least try to get up and do something unrelated to your job. Take thirty minutes of quiet time to read or throw on a pair of noise-canceling headphones and queue up a podcast.

A study in the journal Cognition shows “even brief diversions from a task can dramatically improve one’s ability to focus on that task for prolonged periods.” In giving your brain a break, you are actually better preparing yourself to remain productive for longer periods of time.

For many, blurred work-life boundaries have meant earlier starts and longer nights. We are eating lunch while working and lacking the social relief an office provides throughout the day.

This new daily grind can easily lead to burnout and mental fatigue, which is why blocking off time for yourself is critical. You want to disentangle yourself from the stressors and stimulations of the day.

5. Master the Delete Key for “Inbox Zero”

Our brains are hard-wired to monotask. But how often do you see someone texting while driving? Or scrolling through Facebook during a workout?

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.” — Josh Billings.

Being busy is not the same as being productive. And email is one of the biggest culprits to escape real work. We use email as an ego booster — the more emails in our inbox, the more important we feel.

So we constantly turn to email throughout the day, checking on mostly unimportant notifications.

I used to waste tons of time and energy scrolling through emails because I felt like I was doing something. I knew a majority of my emails were from people trying to make a sale or get free writing advice — but I still felt the urge to check.

Then, I got this piece of advice from Ramit Sethi: “You don’t have to answer every email you get. The delete key is a quick way to get to inbox zero.”

Anything resembling a sales pitch gets deleted. Insincere questions get deleted. Emails from brands get deleted.

After two minutes, I am left with a few necessary emails that need a response. Everything else is gone. You can also try using a tool like Sanebox, which uses AI to filter unimportant emails out of your Inbox.

Don’t feel guilted into reading and responding to every email. Ninety-nine percent of it is a terrible time suck that encourages multi-tasking with minimal return.

6. Optimize Your Smartphone by Setting Restrictions

There is no shortage of statistics that tell us we waste an enormous amount of time on our phones. One 2019 survey found the average internet user spent two hours and 22 minutes on social networking and messaging platforms.

The IOS screen time usage report has been a blessing and a curse.

On the one hand, it made me very aware of how much time I really waste on social media. But it is also offered a great starting point to reevaluate my time management.

As a sports fanatic, YouTube was taking up massive chunks of my afternoon. I realized that when brain fog began to settle in, I would rather watch the latest NBA trade rumors than continue working.

So, I decided to set app restrictions on my iPhone to keep doomscrolling habits in check.

To access it, go to Settings → Screen Time → App Limits. Then, simply decide how much time you want to allocate for unnecessary apps.

I also reorganized my home screen to keep time-wasting apps like Instagram and Twitter in their own section.

Unfortunately, the entire smartphone experience is rigged to be addictive. Between social media notifications and text messages, your phone is engineered to induce stress and anxiety, both of which are triggers for brain fog.

This can cause a range of challenges like slowed concentration and processing. As Emily Green, Psy.D., a psychologist based in Washington D.C., told SELF, “Brain fog may be a way for our brains to keep functioning…while sacrificing the sharpness needed for higher-level cognitive tasks.”

App limit restrictions serve as a mental cue to use my phone for essential functions only. This simple update has saved me dozens of hours while reducing minor phone anxiety.

7. Check Yourself with Deadlines

When you have more time to complete something, does it make the result better?

When left with an open-ended choice, people treat time as an infinite resource. But more time doesn’t mean better results.

Most of us will multi-task, chipping away at it until much closer to the deadline where we force ourselves to get into a flow and finish.

To be effective, you need to be diligent with your time by setting personal deadlines. A popular option is The Pomodoro Technique, which divides your days into 25-minute chunks. Other people work better with more of a 40-minute split.

You can install an app like Focus Booster or simply use your phone’s timer.

The strategy and minutes don’t really matter — the key is to create an audible reminder that it’s time to wrap things up and move on.