Boost your brain power

Ever gone to a meeting only to find you can't for the life of youyour job faster and better. So how do you get them? Colette Harris has a brain work-out to keep you mentally fit and fast - and the competition furious. remember the name of the person you're about to shake hands with? Missed the deadline for your expenses? Come back to reality only to realise that someone's just asked you a question?

The more responsibility you get in the workplace, the more important it is to stay mentally alert. Your brain is like a muscle - the more you use it, the more powerful it becomes. You need to challenge yourself to think in different ways so your mind stays flexible and agile, and so do your ideas. If you want to impress your boss and outsmart the competition, sluggish grey matter just won't cut it. Luckily there are plenty of things you can do to achieve and maintain peak mental performance. Read on ...

The mind gym: exercise your brain all day

Use your journey to work to exercise your brain.

Recite your times tables to yourself as you go to work. Then up the ante by doing it backwards. Then up it again by moving into bizarre times tables for numbers such as 13 or 27.

Switch on the radio and see if you can guess the name of the artist and song that's playing. Or challenge yourself to remember the words for next time you hear it.

Use your teabreak to pump up your mind

Get into the habit of doing crosswords again. If you're already good at the quick ones, dive into a cryptic version. Or swallow your pride and buy a puzzle magazine so you can aim to complete one every day.

Pick a section of the paper that you never usually read, and get to grips with a different type of article or issue.

Keep a pack of cards at your desk and see how many you can remember in a row. Keep a score and see if you can beat it until you can memorise all 52 cards, one after the other, from only one look.

Go shopping - flex your little grey muscles

Try and keep a mental tally of the price of your supermarket shop as you drop things in and out of your trolley. See if the cashier agrees with you. Keep practising until you get it right.

Play around for the brain burn

Play mentally-taxing games such as chess, bridge, Trivial Pursuits, Tomb Raider or Scrabble. Make Triv harder by only allowing yourself to answer on your weakest topics, and get some new question cards so you can't cheat.

Or get someone to teach you a new game.

BRAIN FOOD: eat to beat the mental slump

Protein makes you feel alert, so if you've got an important meeting, eat eggs, meat, dairy products, tuna or hummus (made from chick peas which have high protein levels) before you go in.

Vitamin B1 (thiamin) raises the brain's acetylcholine levels, essential for sharp memory. So breakfast on cereals fortified with B1, eat pork, marmite, or take a vitamin B supplement or a multivitamin with thiamin included. Sage is also thought to improve memory by preventing the breakdown of acetylcholine, so eat sage and onion stuffing, use the herb to flavour your food or take it as a tincture, available from healthfood stores.

Zinc is essential for quick thinking, as it keeps your mind clear and helps brain cells transfer information from one cell to another. Cheese is a good source, especially if it's a hard cheese such as cheddar or Parmesan, as are pumpkin seeds, ideal for a snack, and fish. Stress, infections and drinking a lot of alcohol depletes your zinc supplies. If you work and play hard, it might be worth taking a supplement, available from chemists and healthfood shops.

If you skipped breakfast and your mind is sluggish late morning, try Lucozade or glucose tablets. In 20 minutes your memory should be normal.

If you can never remember who's who, try an interesting new supplement called Phosphatidyl Serine, a concentrated component of lecithin which itself comes from soya. It is said to boost concentration and help with the recall of names, faces, and fitting the two together.

Herbal remedy Ginkgo Biloba increases blood circulation to the brain and whole body. Research suggests it can improve memory, reaction times and concentration. It may also help to prevent brain degeneration. Four times winner of the world memory championships, Dominic O'Brien, takes it every day. Get it as a supplement available from Boots, independent chemists and healthfood stores.

Is your office a mental agility hotspot?

Use colour therapy, with coloured pictures, cushions, clocks and even hole punchers chosen to help you in times of need! If you need to come up with a hot new strategy, blue can help you think creatively and harness your imagination, so keep something blue on your desk or in your workspace. To focus your mind, when you need to concentrate in a more aggressive, speedy way, try looking at something red. If you just can't seem to wake up, yellow is a good colour to look at, as it can help to stimulate the mind.

Wood is useful for creating a stress-free environment, according to the Feng Shui Network International (07000 336 474). Avoid the very 1980s look of stark black and white geometric surroundings if you can, and opt for softer colours, shapes and lines. A plant or flowers can help to keep stress levels lower.

To think freely, and hit peak mental performance you need to be comfortable.

Get a decent chair, and ask the health and safety people to come and check that you're sitting properly, with your screen at the right height for your eyes and your chair at the right height for your desk. If you're not preoccupied with niggling aches and pains, you'll have a more productive mind.

Although it's second nature to you now, being surrounded by technology wasn't something our brains bargained for even 50 years ago and evolution hasn't had time to catch up. Radiation, chemicals, microwaves and electromagnetic fields from office equipment and mobile phones are currently under investigation as potential health hazards and brain fryers. Make sure your little grey cells and their electrical activity aren't being interfered with by getting lots of plants in the office (NASA research showed that they eat up lots of chemicals from office atmospheres, and absorb radiation from VDUs).

Get out of your chair for a walk outside every day if you can.

Use a mobile phone shielding device - there a few that protect your brain from potentially harmful microwaves. Try Microshield, a slim device that slots into your phone case. Independent tests by the British Approvals Board for Telecommunications have shown that Microshield can reduce radiation levels by up to 90 per cent and reduce battery charge times by around 10-15 per cent. Mail order on 0181 363 3333.

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