Want to improve your work performance? Want to improve the performance of your brain?

Then exercise!

“Walking for 30 minutes per day can increase productivity by 30%, according to a study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham.”

Employees who exercise regularly are 13% more productive at work, according to a study by the University of Otago in New Zealand.

(Both quotes above are from the article Exercise And Work Productivity Statistics And Trends in 2023. NOTE - the Harvard Business Review also has a new article out titled, To Improve Your Work Performance, Get Some Exercise.

“Exercise might be the most potent ‘drug’ we have for extending the quality and perhaps quantity of our years of life.” - Peter Attia, MD

Most of us want to become better people and we also want to become more productive in our vocations and hobbies often looking to all kinds of productivity hacks, working insane hours, and etc. The challenge is that these seldom actually help us at a fundamental level and often actually result in diminishing productivity as well as taking a major toll on our health in its many domains. According to a large body of research, the single best way to improve our effectiveness is also probably the single best way to improve our physical, mental, and emotional health - that is simply regular exercise.

I was surprised at the impact it purportedly has on your cognitive functions. As one doctor pointed out, the brain is usually around 2% of our body weight, but it uses about 20 - 25% of the energy we produce - or as someone put it “the brain is an energy hog”.

The better your cardiovascular system, the better your brain operates. The more consistently you exercise, the healthier your cardiovascular and muscular systems. We are not talking about radical exercise such as running marathons or such, we are simply talking about regular 30-minute walks and low impact strength training.

So, want a low-cost and simple way to become healthier and more productive? Try consistent, low-impact exercise.