Lighting for performance:  how to manage stress and improve your score

What do Strictly Come Dancing and your brain have in common?

Proof that you can teach old dogs new tricks!

Your brain may be slower on its feet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn. In fact, mature students often get better results because they know how to focus and are clear about their ‘why’.

Learning to learn

These two books are top of my list for anyone who wants to boost their memory – or knows someone getting ready for an exam. It was a privilege to speak to Jim for his podcast, all about how the right light at the right time can give your memory muscle a helping hand –Improve Memory Using Light | Jim Kwik & Shelley James & Workbook for Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life

Stressing about a deadline?

The end of the week is just one big sleep away, and your ‘to-do ‘ list may feel like it’s gotten longer, not shorter, since Monday! A bit of pressure is vital to get you going, but at a certain point (different for everyone – Must we suffer to succeed? When anxiety boosts motivation and performance), that stress tips into anxiety, which diverts processing power, so you get even less done. Visual clutter drains even more processing power. This article explains how visual clutter affects your mood too– The Negative Impact of Clutter on Mental Health

This paper applies a similar approach to the office environment, finding that bright, even lighting is best for concentrated work while lower uniformity tended to support more creative function – Work performance in relation to lighting environment in office buildings

Bottom line (and you won’t be surprised to read this coming from me…)- if you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a look at the lights!

Want to boost your work-out?

And finally, one for all  of us trying to stay on track with those new years’ fitness goals. Working out in bright light – or better yet, outside and choosing your timing will help you beat your personal best. This paper found athletes performed better under bright (4,420 lux) or dim light (230 lux), and that timing the test to suit the athletes’ body clock made a difference too: later was best for people who prefer to get up later. To set the context, it’s around 10,000 lux outside on an overcast day and around 230 lux in the average living room.  The Stimulating Effect of Bright Light on Physical Performance Depends on Internal Time