7 COISAS QUE EU PAREI DE FAZER DEPOIS DE ESTUDAR NEUROCIÊNCIA

Key wellness, self-care, and productivity strategies

1. Stop making important decisions at night (reduce decision fatigue)

   • After a long day, your brain’s reasoning/emotional control gets overloaded (“decision fatigue”).
   • Prioritize “thinking-heavy” tasks earlier:
     • Move important decisions (gifts, urgent work replies, complex tasks) to the morning or afternoon, not at night.
   • At night, focus on disconnecting and allowing leisure time.

2. Study with Active Recall (don’t rely on rereading/rote familiarity)

   • Replace “reread and highlight” habits with active recall:
     • Read a topic
     • Close the material
     • Try to remember it
     • Explain it out loud (to yourself or someone else)
     • If you freeze, go back exactly where you got stuck
   • Why: tests soon may favor rereading, but long-term retention improves much more with active recall.

3. Reintroduce boredom on purpose (use it as mental health + creativity fuel)

   • Don’t instantly fill every empty moment with your phone.
   • Allow short periods of “doing nothing”:
     • Resist scrolling
     • Look out the window / notice life/nature
   • Why it helps:
     • Activates the default mode network
     • Supports daydreaming, creativity, and thought organization/recharging

4. Stop blindly trusting your thoughts (use CBT-style awareness + writing)

   • Recognize that thoughts can be distorted and don’t always reflect reality.
   • Check your current internal state:
     • Am I sad/anxious/nervous—or am I hungry / otherwise affected?
   • When emotions take over:
     • Write the problem clearly in a notebook
     • Focus on finding solutions more objectively (less emotional spiraling)

5. Face fear by anchoring to your values (don’t let fear paralyze you)

   • Fear can cause procrastination and avoidance (work, social situations, speaking up).
   • To overcome it:
     • Identify your personal values (what you truly care about)
     • When fear appears, ask how your actions align with those values
   • Use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles (values-based action + accepting emotions).

6. End multitasking; use “absolute focus” blocks (one task at a time)

   • Multitasking increases switching costs → more errors, lower quality, and more fatigue.
   • Instead:
     • Work in focused time blocks
     • Do one thing at a time
     • Prepare the environment:
       • Clear desk
       • Turn off notifications
       • Get water ready
     • Start immediately (e.g., begin writing “the page” without delay)

7. Stop postponing health until free time; make health the foundation

   • Most people wait for weekends to catch up on sleep/leisure, but health shouldn’t be treated as optional “later.”
   • “Healthy productivity” goal:
     • Build routines so you have more time and less burnout
   • Emphasis:
     • Health first—so you can work/study effectively and sustainably
     • Use science-validated methods integrated into daily life

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Presenters / sources

• Presenter: Lucas (referred to as “Lucas” in the subtitles)
• Named scientific/clinical sources referenced:
  • Aaron Beck (father of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; referenced from the 1960s)
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) (framework referenced)
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (framework referenced)
  • 2014 study on tedious tasks before brainstorming (referenced)
• Course/brand mentioned by presenter:
  • “Hello Healthy Productivity”
  • (and “Olá Ciência” as prior initiative)