I need to know the best interventions for improving cognitive performance.
I'll award based on:
How promising they seem (to me) to be
How novel they are (to me)
How fleshed out the comment is.
Eg " Meditate. " is bad, but a link to an article describing a specific type of meditation with specific effects might be good (even though meditation itself is not very novel to me either).
Things I've already heard of:
Meditation
Supplements
Creatine
Iodine
DHA
Choline
Nootropics
Stimulants
Caffeine
Nicotine
Modafinil
Adderall
Microdosing psychedelics
PRL8-53
Exercise
Intense cardio
Just generally increasing cardiovascular health
Active Recall
Spaced repetition learning
Brain training stuff
Dual N-back
Learning stuff like learning languages learning an instrument
Learning cognitively demanding stuff
Doing math
Doing puzzles
Programming
Learning about psychology memes
CFAR type stuff
Rationalism type stuff and learning about cognitive biases
Interpret "cognitive performance" very loosely. Anything that will help accomplishing general intellectual tasks more effectively. Whether that be through literally raising g/IQ, or through improving focus, or something else. As long as it is applicable to a broad array of intellectual tasks, and isn't just accumulating domain skills, it will count.
you've probably already heard of this, but do a couple hours of calibration training (e.g. on quantified intuitions) per year, and your overall calibration is likely to go up ~10%-20%. not a huge, wild boost, but significant!
If possible, engage both sides of your body while processing a challenging cognitive task, as simply walking increases brain activity. Or, take short breaks to walk frequently. (This might look like walking while on a work call, for instance.) More here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00100/full
This is a weird one, but use aromatherapy (I'm dead serious). Many studies have come out linking cog performance to increased use of olfactory senses: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7556469/
Get ahold of an Alpha-Stim, which is a device that sends a certain pattern of alpha wave through your brainstem. It's FDA-approved for insomnia but check out Reddit and you'll see people using it all-purpose for other things. I find it helps my ADHD and sleep efficiency most of all. You may or may not be able to find them on eBay if your doc won't give you one for "insomnia": https://alpha-stim.com/clinical-efficacy-of-assisted-cranial-electrotherapy-stimulation-treatment-on-depression/
Stop smoking weed, it literally makes your hippocampus smaller and drops your IQ https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/cognitive-effects-of-long-term-cannabis-use-in-midlife-202206142760
You may already know this but happiness and low stress levels increase cognitive performance. One of the best predictors of happiness is quality and quantity of relationships. In this digital age, it can be extremely hard to form and maintain new connections with people. I reccomend the book Platonic, it talks about making friends and cultivating relationships. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60916718
Having a good amount of sleep: A well-regulated sleep schedule can significantly enhance cognitive performance. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. In my experience, good sleep improves memory, problem-solving skills, and overall brain health. So, never stay up late before the exam if you want "high cognitive performance"
Structured Daily Routine: This helps your body to know when you taking a break and when you are working. This helped me enhance my focus during working hours and have good rest when I am not working.
Getting a good night's sleep is obviously extremely important for cognition. But wearing a sleep mask seems to be a surprisingly effective and low cost way of enhancing episodic learning and alertness:
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/46/3/zsac305/6912219?guestAccessKey=9744452e-69ce-454f-b027-8c2279b72ade&login=false&utm_source=authortollfreelink&utm_campaign=sleep&utm_medium=email
From what works for me, finding something you personally enjoy and finding different ways of exploring it is a great way to engage you mind and will alleviate some stress as well. Don't focus on perfect, just focus on having fun. Taking this sort of break will clear your mind from alot of brain fog, and may help you solve problems that otherwise would put a major headache into your skull.
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The key thing to understand is that most things that have a high impact are about removing something that is limiting you, rather than boosting you. Things like fixing your low iron are more specific to you than catch-all, but they will have a MUCH higher impact than any nootropic. Understand that you are looking to patch any holes before building up.
So you need to make sure that you get b12 vitamin if you are vegan, get d vitamin if you stay inside a lot, get more sleep if you stay up late and so on.
A few things that have already been mentioned here is drinking water and trying to ventilate better to avoid CO2, but other things to avoid are: Bad air pollution, Alcohol, sugar, anything that can mess up hormones (dairy, pfas).
You can build this list yourself, but the key insight is not to know which specific nootropic to get, but which common toxins/deficiencies to avoid.
Human bodies are either in a growth/consumption mode or in a repair/stress state. In my experience, when I stack activities to create a strong repair/stress state, my cognitive ability is through the roof.
Specifically, if I finish eating by 6pm the night before, get 7-8 hours of quality sleep (including 1.5-2 hours of measured deep sleep), wake up and do a hard cardiovascular workout in a fasted state, by 10-11a, I borderline levitate and have high mential acuity.
Give it a try! Free and impactful.