My mind isn’t what it used to be. It’s a weird thing for a 29-year-old to have to say, but unfortunately it’s true. There was a time when productivity was a part of me and I didn’t have to make difficult decisions on how to spend my energy.

But no longer. A chronic illness called Meniere’s disease changed all the rules. And Meniere's, like so many other health conditions, causes a kind of cognitive impairment known as brain fog.

In a lot of ways, brain fog is hard to describe, and experiences vary from person to person. But for me, it's a clouding of consciousness that can be frustrating beyond words.

It makes it hard to focus and concentrate, and as a result, my work and productivity suffer. It also affects my memory. I sometimes forget why I walk into rooms and frequently have words stuck on the tip of my tongue.

But it's also an incredibly pervasive problem. It can simply be the result of a poor diet or a consequence of a more complicated issue. The number of health conditions that cause brain fog is simply staggering.

From autoimmune disorders, Fibromyalgia, Diabetes, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Chronic Pain to Vestibular Disorders, Chronic Migraine, Crohn’s Disease, and Depression, just to name a few. It’s a problem that affects literally hundreds of millions of people around the world.

If you are used to be being a productive person, brain fog will take the wind from your sails. The fuzzy feeling of fatigue and lack of motivation that many people experience can make it nearly impossible to accomplish anything.

The good news is that over the years, I've discovered a lot of helpful hacks that have allowed me to reclaim my productivity and finally get back to work.

1) Write it all down:

The first rule of brain fog is to write everything down. 

I keep stacks of index cards, pads of Post-it notes, and small notepads all over my house. It can be hard to organize all of the scraps of paper, but at least I don’t have to worry about forgetting an idea, an appointment, or meeting my responsibilities.

For random ideas, and general note taking, I use 3”x5” index cards. I find that the small size keeps my notes concise and to the point. It also makes it easy to carry around.

For keeping lists, I use small notepads. My favorite of which is the “Dotpad” made by the French stationary company, Rhodia. They're fantastic.

I also use Post-It notes, though primarily for reminders. If there is something I need to remember, I write it down on a 3”x3” post it note and stick it to the place where I will need to remember something specific.

My final note taking hack is to stick important Post-It reminders to the back of my cellphone. I do this before I goto bed or any other time I need a constant reminder.

The various Post-Its, index cards, and notepads on my desk as I wrote this post.

2) Keep a fixed routine:

One of the most powerful productivity hacks I’ve found is to keep a routine.

When a routine becomes a habit through repetition, the brain uses less energy to accomplish a task. Through a process known as “chunking”, our brain's turn complex routines into a single chunks of information, allowing us to execute a complicated set of actions on auto pilot. It’s a way for our brains to conserve energy, and by some estimates, up to 40% of our daily actions are not actually conscious decisions, but automatically executed habits.

You can use this to your advantage. Over time, if you follow a fixed daily routine, you will have more and more mental energy available to put toward the work you need to do. It will allow you to be more productive.

I try to go to sleep, wake up, exercise, meditate, and eat, at the same times every day. I also have a fixed morning routine. By the time I need to get to work and be productive, I haven’t wasted energy or had to make important decisions.

3) Manage priorities and keep an I-did-it list instead of a to-do list:

I sometimes use to-do lists, but on a daily basis, I try to focus on priority management. On most days I tend to have a lot of relatively unimportant tasks to accomplish, and one or two that are priorities. But because I almost never have the energy to finish everything on my to-do lists, it’s incredibly important for me to know which tasks to focus on first. As long as I can address one priority, I can feel like I’ve accomplished something important for the day.

Also, it’s far more rewarding to keep an I-did-it list than a To-Do list. I've found that a list of my accomplishments is a far greater motivator then an unfinished to-do list. The latter causes anxiety while the former inspires hope and momentum.

4) Find your most productive time of day:

Everyone has a time of day when they're the most productive.

For me, it’s after I finish my morning routine, roughly an hour after I wake up. If I have something important to do, I make sure to work on it during this time. 

Even on my most challenging days, when my brain fog and fatigue are at their worst, I can usually get at least something simple done during this time. My energy has no guarantees, but I am able to get the most important things done by leveraging my most productive time of day.

Think about your work day, when are you typically the most productive? Make sure to never waste that chunk of time.

5) Get rid of distractions:

This is actually quite hard to put into practice. With the rise of social media, mobile devices, and web based entertainment, we face more distractions than ever before. For someone with brain fog, these distractions can rob us of the little bit of productivity we have left.

When you need to be productive, it takes time and energy to get into the mental space needed to complete a task. Every time you get distracted, you have to start over and re-engage with whatever you’re working on. It’s not always obvious though, and until I started writing, I didn’t realize how much time I was wasting.

While writing this post, I’ve received four emails, two text messages, two phone calls, and four Facebook notifications. And every single one has disrupted my mental flow. Each time, it takes while to get back into the zone and sometimes, I never do.

When I need to be productive I force myself to turn off my phone. I close my web browser and listen to ambient music to drown out any distracting background noise. It makes a huge difference.

I also try to keep an organized workspace. It may not be as problematic as my phone, but a cluttered working environment can be a distraction and a source of stress. When my office clean and organized, I'm far more productive.

6) Stop working and go for a walk:

Sometimes the best way to be productive is to just stop working and go for a walk.

I get easily overwhelmed when I have a lot of work to do if I’m feeling brain fogged or fatigued. Sometimes I try to just push through it, but that usually makes everything worse.

When the frustration starts to build, I always go for a walk. There’s something about walking that just seems to stimulate the mind. I find it boosts my creativity, and works incredibly well to reduce brain fog.

Walking is also all that’s needed for your brain to start releasing endorphins, your body’s “feel good” neurochemicals. Ever hear someone refer to a “runner’s high”? They’re talking about endorphins. The release of endorphins causes your stress levels to go down and your feeling of satisfaction to go up. When you're feeling brain fogged, the endorphins released after a nice long walk will help you feel better.

Conclusion:

I still have not been able to completely eliminate brain fog from my life, but I am now usually able to mitigate it in the moment. And if I can be productive, get my work done, and meet my responsibilities when it matters most, then the end result is ultimately the same.

No matter how bad your brain fog might be, you can learn take back your productivity, one minute of focus at a time.