How to Orchestrate 5 Mental Functions to Attain Peak Cognitive Performance

Mental strategies for excelling in diverse endeavors with intention and concerted effort

The brain is a busy organ orchestrating countless activities, overseeing bodily functions, processing sensory information, supporting cognition and behavior, and maintaining overall homeostasis. But it is a marvel, full of complexity and untapped potential.

Despite intense scientific and technological advancements in neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, psychiatry, and other disciplines, we have only scratched the surface of its mysteries.

It is inspiring to see many people developing super brains with intention and conscious effort. During my cognitive science research, I met numerous people labeled as having low IQs and learning disabilities in their childhood who achieved remarkable results.

The neocortex (the cognitive part of the brain) works in harmony with other brain regions, like the limbic system managing our emotions and bodily processes. Effective use of these brain regions determines our IQ and EQ.

While working with other brain regions, the prefrontal cortex orchestrates vital cognitive functions like perception, thoughts, attention, memory, language, intelligence, creativity, and intuition. Awareness of these systems and functions can empower us.

These interconnected abilities work harmoniously to shape our memories, emotions, moods, knowledge, experiences, habits, and competencies, influencing our understanding and interaction with the world.

The brain constantly receives and monitors signals from the body and the environment through a complex network of feedback loops. Its ability to adapt, learn, and respond to changing demands is fundamental to our survival and well-being.

In addition, the brain regulates vital functions like heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion for survival. It controls voluntary movements, enables complex cognitive functions, and regulates emotions and behaviors.

Cognition, in simple terms, refers to the mental processes involved in gathering, processing, storing, using, and disseminating information. It encompasses the ability to adapt to internal and external changes and find ways to approach problems and tasks.

While consciousness, our subjective awareness of self and the world around us, remains a subject of ongoing scientific exploration and debate, it is something we intimately understand through our cognitive abilities and physical experiences.

Cognitive performance refers to improving mental functions with healthy lifestyle choices and creating cognitive reserves to reduce decline and impairment effects as we age. Unless we train our brains, we can’t structure the body. We can’t hack the mind without hacking the body.

While improving our cognitive performance is necessary to survive and thrive, it can also build necessary cognitive reserves to protect and make us mentally capable when we age or face mental health disturbances and neurodegenerative disorders.

The purpose of this story is to create awareness of the brain’s cognitive abilities and provide guidance on effectively orchestrating their fundamental functions to achieve our goals.

It will be helpful to understand metacognition (thinking how to think and knowing how to know), executive functions, and decision-making — vital tools for steering daily tasks, achieving goals, and making informed choices for life satisfaction.

My goal is to encourage readers to train the brain by stimulating and relaxing it to optimize biochemicals like neurotransmitters, endorphins, and hormones for creativity, productivity, better health, happiness, and graceful aging.

By distilling scientific and technical details, I offer a high-level overview of five cognitive functions to inspire you to exercise your metaphorical mental muscles appropriately, intentionally, and diligently to benefit its functions instantly and create cognitive reserves for the future.

An Overview of Mental Capabilities and Practical Tips to Orchestrate Them with Awareness

1 —Beware of the subconscious mind and use it intentionally.

The cognitive brain is critical, but it can handle only a small chunk of information. The solution to our problems is tapping into the vast ocean of the subconscious mind.

Thus, before we understand the cognitive part of the brain, we should be aware of this vast ocean of knowledge hidden in each of us. It starts with our birth and holds every perception and experience we gain.

The subconscious mind regulates bodily functions. It processes information that is not currently in our conscious thoughts. It holds our hidden memories, stored emotions, and the root of our habits formed by thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

It is possible to tap into the subconscious mind using various techniques. Commonly used strategies are meditation, introspections, visualization, chanting, affirmations, lucid dreams, journaling, working in a flow state, listening to Baroque music, expressive writing, or self-hypnosis.

By using these techniques, we can calm down the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) can establish a bridge between the conscious and subconscious mind. It can work better when PNS is active, and SNS is silenced.

RAS can filter excessive and unnecessary information based on fixed parameters. These parameters are our safety and survival mechanisms coded in the old brain that the cognitive system can perceive and process with our intention.

If we imagine the failure and focus on it, the RAS will bring evidence of such situations. Likewise, focusing on success can initiate it. This might be one of the reasons optimists are happier and live longer.

2— Pay intense attention with a sharp focus on tasks, objects, or events.

The most efficient way to store our memories in the subconscious mind is to use intense attention with a sharp focus on an object, event, or task at hand.

Every task requires internal or external information. With focus and attention, we can get needed information from the subconscious mind or the environment to complete our tasks.

The brain, hosting the mind and coordinating bodily functions, needs energy from food or fat stores to orchestrate our focus and attention. It uses neurochemicals to process information.

Even though focus and attention may appear to be psychological entities, they have solid biological connections within the body.

Without sufficient energy, fat molecules, amino acids, and micronutrients, it is impossible to focus and pay attention. Lack of one or more of those biological resources can lead to lethargy and brain fog.

The dose and intensity of focus and attention matter. For example, focusing too much or handling multiple tasks might also lead to “paralysis of analysis” and deplete neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, and acetylcholine reserves.

This depletion might lead to feeling overwhelmed, increased stress, and decreased productivity. Finding the right balance is crucial.

To improve focus and attention, we can use various tools like mindfulness practices and meditation. Practice of physical activities like exercise, speaking, writing, and reading might contribute to the improvement of our focus and attention.

3 —Understand the role of working and procedural memory and improve them with practice.

Compared to previous items, we recently learned the mechanisms and significance of working memory. Without it, we cannot effectively use focus, attention, and task switching, which I will cover in the next section.

As part of our cognitive system, working memory creates visual maps of objects and events. It allows us temporarily manipulate and store information while performing tasks that require mental effort.

We need working memory for thinking, learning, solving problems, and making decisions. It is possible to measure working memory by combining the memory span with the concurrent processing tasks at hand.

The more mental undertakings we can perform at a specific time, the better our working memory can be. Typical working memory can usually handle seven to nine chunks of the digit at a given time. However, some people exceptionally and practice can handle more.

It is possible to improve working memory with some practice, as I explained in an article titled 12 Steps to Skyrocket Working Memory.

To survive and achieve our goals, we also need to use our long-term memories. It is a complex topic in cognitive science and neuroscience. However, there is sufficient literature about procedural memory which is considered long-term memory.

Procedural memory is implicit and responsible for the retention and recall of our skills and habits. Implicit refers to performing tasks automatically without conscious thought.

We are unaware of the specific memories formed by our perceptions and experiences that guide our actions, but the actions naturally occur. Examples of procedural memory include touch typing, speed reading, riding a bike, and cooking a meal.

It is also possible to consciously improve procedural memory, which I explained in a previous article. Those who spend thousands of hours on a specific experience significantly develop procedural memory, and their skills become second nature to them.

4 — Perform elegant and agile task switching by doing one thing at a time.

To effectively task switch, we must focus, pay attention, use working memory, and leverage the power of our procedural memory by tapping into our subconscious minds.

Task-switching involves shifting our focus and attention from one task to another swiftly to use internal resources and external information. Walking, reading, writing, speaking, driving, cooking, and eating are further examples of task-switching.

For example, when reading, we need to understand words, phrases, and sentences to make sense of a piece of content. For writing, we must continuously switch our focus from one word to the next to compose sentences and paragraphs to complete an essay or book.

If task-switching is not orchestrated effectively, it can lead to cognitive overload. It is because the brain has a limited amount of energy and might slow down or totally shut down when faced with too many demanding tasks.

One solution to this issue is to start with easy and simple tasks, taking small steps. Attempting to complete too many tasks or an extensive activity at once can overwhelm cognitive resources.

So, for successful task switching, instead of attempting to complete too many activities in one go, we can partition them, complete a few small tasks, and take a break before continuing.

By consciously and mindfully implementing this practical approach, we can proceed fast and achieve more in a shorter amount of time. Small tasks can have a snowball effect and aid in completing more complex tasks as the brain releases a bit of dopamine to motivate us after completing each small task.

Based on my experience and observations, single-tasking can be more productive, effortless, and enjoyable than multitasking, as I explained in an article titled My Three Reasons for Not Multitasking Anymore.

5 — Plan mentally to solve complex problems and complete tasks efficiently.

The goal of planning is to mitigate the effects of chance and distractions in daily life. By having a plan, we can minimize the possibility of being sidetracked or hindered by unexpected events or circumstances. Thus we can achieve our goals more efficiently.

Planning is mentally organizing and arranging the steps needed to reach a specific objective. The goal is to facilitate the transition from a starting point to a desired outcome with a clear intention and direction.

Intentional and effective planning can enhance cognitive flexibility by breaking down complex tasks, proactively managing potential obstacles, lowering risks, providing a sense of control, facilitating the development of mental models, and reducing the mental effort required to switch between tasks.

The previously mentioned cognitive abilities, like focus, attention, task switching, and memory, allow us to plan and solve complex problems. Without planning, we cannot manifest anything properly. Thus, planning is an essential cognitive function for our survival and well-being.

The critical aspect of planning is to map out the tasks and link them logically to produce new meanings and desired results. Overplanning can be a problem delaying execution. So we must refrain from perfection.

Cognition (thinking, reasoning, and remembering) is crucial for effective problem-solving. In broader terms, problem-solving involves addressing a challenge or obstacle.

Problem-solving requires systematically using thinking, creativity, perceptions, sensations, emotions, intuition, strategies, and tools.

We can start solving our problems by identifying and defining the problem first. A plan is devised to address the issue with the right mindset, structure, and questioning to execute it.

The process might involve multiple revisions and alternative solutions, from which the best course of action is chosen. This process can strengthen our mental flexibility resembling a physical workout making our muscles stronger.

Problem-solving requires mental planning, research, creativity, communication, analysis, risk assessment, and integration. All of these are mental tasks that are part of our cognitive system.

Conclusions

The brain can use multiple cognitive functions to complete tasks I briefly introduced in this article. Metaphorically, it requires physical and mental muscles.

By flexing these muscles with intentional effort, we can enhance our cognitive skills. Our metacognition, as part of the higher brain (thinking how to think and knowing how to know), can orchestrate these functions.

Effective use of cognitive functions and processes determines our success. When we use them properly, we survive and thrive. Avoiding or misusing them might lead to failure. If we miss one or more components of cognitive functions and processes, we struggle in life.

To keep our mental muscles healthy and flexible, we need to remove distractions. An effective way of managing distractions is by creating our own rules for planning, attention, focus, and mindful task switching.

As an adult, we must take ownership of our cognitive processes intentionally. We must resist the temptation to relinquish control of our cognition to external influences.

Our mission, strategy, and goals must uniquely belong to us. Our responsibility is to set our own agenda in life, meaning we must establish our rules and adhere to them purposefully. Collaboration with others does not negate personal responsibility.

One key aspect of this process is learning to view failure as a valuable learning experience. Our cognitive processes are constantly evolving, and it is through making mistakes that we truly learn and grow.

Another essential component to flex our mind is mastering the art of entering and working in the flow state. This state of effortless productivity can be achieved by learning to release our worries and anxieties about outcomes and focus on the process with focus, attention, and graceful task switching.

Orchestrating our mental faculties requires a harmonious balance of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energies. Without a conscious effort to orchestrate our cognitive functions, we may struggle to achieve our goals and enjoy a fulfilling life.

With self-awareness, self-discipline, self-confidence, self-respect, and self-compassion, we can remain grounded in reality and optimize our potential for creativity, productivity, health, well-being, joy, and life satisfaction.

Additionally, nurturing meaningful connections with others without co-dependency can contribute to a fulfilling and balanced life.

Summary of Takeaways

Beware of the power of subconcious mind and use it effectively. Active parasympathetic nervous system and use reticular activating system to access the depths of the subconscious mind.

Have a sharp focus and pay full attention to tasks at hand. Develop the ability to shift focus and attention deliberately and with intention, effectively switching between small tasks.

Expand working memory capacity and function with practice. Feed procedural memory with practice of your newly acquired skills.

Adopt a proactive and mindful approach to pragmatic planning to manifest desired outcomes. Refrain from overanalysis and overplanning.

Slow down, prioritize sleep, take regular breaks, and get mental downtime to recharge cognitive abilities. Brain needs three types of rest.

Continuously improve cognitive abilities using the body and mind in balance. Brain needs four types of workouts.

Eliminate cognitive rigidity and cognitive distortions and enhance cognitive flexibility to build mental reserves to function at older ages.

Practice self-care, self-compassion and self-love with the self-awareness to understand and improve cognitive processes and functions. Have empathy and compassion for others to build meaningful relationships.

Seek new learning experiences, have fun, enhance social connections, and participate in charitable activities.

Besides the mental approaches mentioned in this post, there are other ways of enhancing cognitive performance, like exercise, sleep, rest, timely recovery, meditation, neurobics, fasting, ketosis, autophagy, thermogenesis, fun, social connections, nutrition, and supplements.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters.

Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, Neuromuscular Dysfunctions, and urinary track disorders.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, Cod Liver Oil, and other nutrients.

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