Sept. 3rd, 2025 - Cognitive Mastery for Professionals in High-Stress Roles

You have risen to your position in life, and your position in your work world because you
are able to address and manage those high stress situations. The assessing of a
situation and then moving to a solution or resolution is what sets you apart.
Let’s raise a high-stress scenario for you: you lose the distinct edge of cognitive
strength.

Have you thought about this scene and how it could impact you? Most people are in the
“well, let’s just wait and see” frame of mind. You didn’t get to your position with that
sentence in your repertoire.

Taking a page out of Elon Musk’s playbook, he looks at those things that are
‘reasonable, effective, and cost effective’ to do.
I LOVE that and have used that phrase in my business as I run opportunities through
that lens.
Here are three VERY simple steps to take to help improve your cognitive abilities and
decrease cognitive decline.

1. Don’t Barter Sleep. We have all heard the phrase “I will rest when I am dead”. I
lived like that in my early years in practice until I realized that denying sleep may
just push me to see how quickly I could make that statement come true. An easy
step is to be consistent with your sleep times. Don’t give sleep away. We can’t
make it up on weekends when we stay up too late during the week. So we get
regimented about our sleep. I am adamant about a daily ritual of marketing in my
practice, and I am adamant about my sleep times. People are strict about
sleeping times for newborns and babies, but not so much when we are adults.
TIP: set your ‘wake time’ and then move back 7-8 hours and set your ‘sleep
time’, which means you will need to set your ‘in-bed’ time also.

2. Move More. Our brains learn better when we are moving. You activate more of
your brain when you are moving, and exercising. So, move more. When
exercising, do not rely on the same motion or activities every time in the gym as
your brain gets used to that activity. When I have an upcoming paper, project, or
talk coming up, I prepare by exercising hard for 45 minutes and then busting into
my project in a 90-minute sprint. You will be better holistically. TIP: Get more
done by exercising more. The magic number is 150 minutes per week of
moderate exercise, and to decrease that time amount you will need to increase
the effort amount.

3. Comfort Foods are a Lie. Be smarter about the food you eat. We are often told
of ‘comfort foods,’ but can we actually put any of those foods into the ‘healthy’
category? Easy answer: no. Those foods are typically high in sugar &/or highly
processed. They may alter the way you FEEL now, but they decrease the way
brain WORKS now. And for some of you, your digestion too! TIP: Make a plan of
what to eat, and then a plan of what to shop for. This decreases the mindless
grocery store shopping. If it adds to your unhealthy body, it adds to your
unhealthy brain also.

These are just some of the very reasonable, effective, and cost-effective things you can
to help promote your cognitive health. There are more, of course, but start here.
Need more insight or inspiration, follow me: drottojanke.com.

-Dr. Otto Janke,
Empire Longevity