Stop the brain rot! 12 ways to stay sharp in a mind-frazzling world

Ever had one of those days when you get nothing done but still somehow feel exhausted? Of course you have: brain rot, the Oxford word of the year for 2024, isn’t yet in any medical dictionaries, but it’s probably best understood as the decline in cognitive abilities that comes from endless exposure to easily digestible information. And, thanks to the ubiquity of short‑form video and social media, it’s almost certainly on the rise.

“When we’re engaging with this sort of media, our brains are both underworked – because the information is easy to understand – and overworked because there is so much information to absorb,” says Dr Wendy Ross, a senior lecturer in psychology at London Metropolitan University. “That’s why you end up tired even if you’re just scrolling on your couch.” Want to throw the process into reverse and recover your attention? Here’s how.

Learn to do cryptic crosswords

“Don’t be afraid that you find some things hard,” says Ross. “Things that require considerable mental effort, such as cryptic crosswords, can reset the balance between effort and reward, and evidence shows that being stuck and working through it leads to feelings of mastery and success that last and increase over time. Putting moments of cognitive friction in your life rather than finding the information instantly is a good protection.”

Good places to start are Minute Cryptic – it will take you through the fundamentals of crossword solving, with just a single clue (plus hints!) every day – and the Guardian’s quick cryptic crossword page.

Stop using AI for easy answers

“In the age of AI, the biggest cognitive trap is outsourcing your thinking before your brain even gets a chance to start on the work. Many people have heard the phrase ‘use it or lose it’ when it comes to the brain, but if you don’t practise a skill, or challenge your brain to begin with, you won’t build those pathways at all,” says Dr Lila Landowski, a neuroscientist and senior lecturer in biomedical sciences at the University of Tasmania. “Relying on AI excessively is like having a personal trainer lift weights for you – it might get the work done, but you get none of the benefits. Resist the temptation to use it, especially as a first step. Generate drafts and ideas yourself. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Coming up with your own answers (even if they’re wrong), and then checking to see if they’re correct, enhances learning. Through education, complex work, socialising and variety – essentially anything that challenges you in a productive way – you build cognitive reserve. And the more cognitive reserve you build, the longer you can delay cognitive decline.”

Exercise at different intensities

Almost any sort of physical exercise can improve mood, learning and memory, and even increase brain volume – but you’ll get most benefit if you mix it up, says Landowski. “Aerobic exercise supports the formation of new brain cells in the hippocampus, the memory centre of the brain, by increasing the production of proteins like brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. At the same time, resistance exercise promotes the production of hormones like osteocalcin, a crucial endocrine regulator of brain development and function. Together, these factors act a bit like a brain fertiliser, helping brain cells grow and connect.”

Ideally, you should do a bit of low-intensity cardiovascular exercise every week – think walking, slow running or cycling – paired with some weight training or press-ups and squats. But if you’re up to it, the most anti-brain-rot workout might also be the most intense. “Practising high-intensity interval training (Hiit) three times a week is one of the only forms of exercise shown not just to delay cognitive decline, but to actually improve cognition,” says Landowski. “And there’s a bonus: people who did Hiit for six months and then stopped still showed cognitive benefits five years later.” Don’t jump into it too quickly: a “reverse Tabata” – 10 seconds of maximum effort and 20 seconds of rest, repeated eight times – is a decent starting point.

‘Wash’ your brain with sleep

Nobody feels great after a disrupted night’s sleep, but proper rest is also essential over the long term: it’s during deep-sleep stages that the brain’s glymphatic system kicks into gear, acting like a soft reset. “Over the course of the day, metabolic waste accumulates in the brain, and it is only removed when the glymphatic system is active,” says Landowski. “Sleep, and especially non-rapid eye movement sleep, doubles the clearance of waste through the glymphatic system.” Your body position might make a difference – studies in mice suggest that sleeping on your side improves clearance the most. But the best intervention is to set a consistent sleep schedule and stick to it.

Schedule screen breaks

It’s fine to tell yourself you’ll spend less time on your devices, but without a plan it’s unlikely to happen. “Treat screen-free breaks as non-negotiable commitments, as you would a work meeting or a family obligation,” says Alison Campbell, a wellness coach and founder of the corporate wellbeing company unBurnt. “Leave your phone in a different room so you’re not distracted by notifications, and try to commit to 30 minutes of digital detoxing per day to give yourself space to cognitively reset from all the noise.” The real trick is to make off-screen time a treat, rather than an obligation. “Pick a few things to have in your go-to toolkit that you enjoy,” suggests Campbell. “That could be reading a physical book, gardening – indoor potted plants count! – or creative expression like journalling, painting or sketching. Even short windows help break the cycle of mental fatigue that leads to brain rot.”

Read (slightly) faster

Struggling to concentrate on your book? One explanation might be that you’re not finding it challenging enough. “Estimates vary slightly, but it’s believed our brains process information at a rate of about 1,400 words per minute,” says Oscar de Bos, the author of Focus On-Off. “The average reading rate, for example, is about 250 words per minute, which is significantly slower – so it’s perhaps no wonder that our brains start thinking about other things when texts are a bit dry. My fix for this is when I find my mind starting to wander, I move my eyes across the lines a bit faster. By increasing my reading rate, the task becomes more challenging. This draws me deeper into stories while boosting my focus, which makes it much easier to absorb and remember information. This method works equally well for people with dyslexia as it does for anyone else struggling with common tasks we encounter at work. It’s a principle I call ‘filling the void’.”

Stop task-switching

“Every time we switch, part of our brains clings to what we were doing before, making it more difficult to continue working,” says De Bos. “Professor of management Sophie Leroy calls this attention residue: part of our attention lingers with the previous activity, which slows us down and causes us to make more mistakes. This phenomenon occurs after even the most subtle attention switches – after a quick peek at your inbox or phone, your brain takes a while to return to the previous task.” One practical way to avoid this, suggests De Bos, is to switch off all your “non-human” notifications – whether it’s from a social media app or pizza delivery company. Another is to schedule your most important jobs earlier in the day, so there’s no lingering attention residue from other tasks distracting you while you tackle them.

Train your awareness

If things feel chaotic, listen to what’s going on around you, then pick out a particular sound – birdsong, a ticking clock, distant traffic – and focus on it briefly. “This awareness enhancement training is derived from a technique for the treatment of anxiety and depression,” says clinical hypnotherapist Paul Levrant. “It naturally develops the ‘attention muscle’. It can be best to start with an artificial soundtrack – there are plenty on YouTube – but the more you practise, the better you get. Taking things further, employ the same approach to utilising your other senses – for instance, concentrating on how your clothes feel on your skin or the places your body is in contact with your chair – can accelerate progress greatly.”

Do a ‘stress scan’

“Take 10 minutes to pause and think about the things that are making you nervous or feel the heaviest,” suggests Campbell. “When we name our stressors, it helps to restore cognitive executive functioning and lessens the intensity of the emotional response. We can more easily get back to rational thinking and create a plan for how we’ll deal with the circumstances, rather than seeking an escape like binge-watching or doomscrolling.”

Walk mindfully

Out for a lunchtime stroll? If you don’t need to go any further than Pret, you might as well slow it down. “Become aware of every movement the body makes as it walks: feeling your feet on the ground, the shifting of weight, the employment of individual muscles and tendons, and so on,” says Levrant. “Once the habit of focusing in this way becomes more natural, it’s no great shift to enjoy enhanced attention in all other areas.”

Revisit an old hobby

“There’s strong evidence that rekindling old hobbies, such as continuing to learn that language you always wanted to master, learning a musical instrument, or singing, dancing or photography, are all stimulating multiple areas of the brain at once while also building new circuits,” says Roxi Carare, a professor of clinical neuroanatomy at the University of Southampton. “This helps very much in slowing down or preventing cognitive decline.”

Make sure your health checks are up to date

If you’re in midlife or older, staying on top of your health is a key concern. “High blood pressure or abnormal cholesterol are very strong risk factors for dementia,” says Carare. “A combination of a healthy diet, some physical exercise and some socialising will all help, but if you’re in a high-risk group, you should find that out first.”