Your Brain Needs Trees, Not More Productivity Hacks

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​Your Brain Needs Trees, Not More Productivity Hacks

How to restore the cognitive capacity that makes your professional experience available when you need it.

When 2 Million Years of Evolution Collides With Your Productivity System

Oliver Burkeman calculated we get about 4,000 weeks in a lifetime. Most of us respond by trying to accomplish more—optimising schedules, implementing productivity systems, telling ourselves we just need better hacks. But what if the solution isn’t doing more efficiently? What if your brain is desperately telling you it needs something entirely different?

In episode 78 of the Wisepreneurs Podcast, Mayumi Kataoka—a Sydney based, certified forest therapy guide who guides professionals on three-hour walks that cover barely 1.2 kilometres—reveals why our constant productivity obsession is fighting against 2 million years of human evolution.

The Science Behind Why Your Brain Cannot Think in Information Overload

She explains the science behind Shinrin-yoku (Japanese forest bathing), backed by 40 years of research showing measurable effects:

• reduced cortisol,
• improved immune function,
• restored cognitive capacity

More significantly, she helps us understand why the thinking, creativity, and judgment we need as experienced professionals requires something we’ve systematically eliminated from our lives—reliable, truthful environments where our brains can finally stop verifying information and actually think.

How A Diverse Professional Experience Synthesises Into Unique Expertise After 60

Mayumi’s own journey from IT professional to martial arts instructor to nature photographer to forest therapy guide demonstrates how a diverse professional experience can synthesise into unique expertise after 60.

If you’re feeling burned out, overwhelmed by information overload, or wondering whether there’s an alternative to simply trying harder, this conversation offers both scientific validation and practical wisdom for why slowing down might be the most strategic thing you can do.

Listen to the podcast here: https://www.wisepreneurs.au/mayumi-kataoka-brain-needs-trees-not-productivity-hacks/

While Mayumi’s work addresses the environmental conditions your brain needs for strategic thinking, our feature article this week examines the biological foundation that makes that thinking possible.

The Hidden Hoodwink: Why Wisepreneurs Must Take Agency Over Health

Why Medical Education Lags Decades Behind Metabolic Health Research

Your cognitive performance after 60 isn’t predetermined by genetics or inevitable decline. It depends on systematic interventions that most doctors aren't always aware of. Why? Because medical education often lags decades behind current research.

This article, in progress, reveals why professionals over 60 might want to be wary of outsourcing health decisions to institutional medicine and provides a framework for taking agency over the biological foundation that makes your accumulated wisdom available when you need it most.

Three Critical Knowledge Gaps Undermining Your Cognitive Vitality After 60

Drawing on conversations with health coach Krisna Hanks, investigative science writer Amy Alkon, pioneering physician Dr Michael Best, and the writings of nutritional researcher Nina Teicholz, this article exposes three critical knowledge gaps systematically undermining your cognitive vitality:

• the suppression of metabolic health research,
• the industrial capture of nutritional guidelines promoting inflammatory seed oils, and
• the complete omission of movement science showing that prolonged sitting damages metabolic function independently of exercise

The Biological Foundation That Makes Your Professional Wisdom Accessible

You’ll discover why only 12% of adults achieve metabolic fitness. You’ll learn how insulin resistance manifests as cognitive decline years before diabetes diagnosis. You’ll understand why protein requirements after 60 exceed what most women consume by 50-100%.

Most significantly, you’ll receive the comprehensive Cognitive Vitality Checklist with actionable protocols for maintaining the cognitive capabilities that justify your professional positioning into your seventies and beyond.
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Keep an eye out on the Wisepreneurs website, or my social media profiles for the link when published https://wisepreneurs.com.au/​
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Cheers

Nigel Rawlins | Wisepreneurs
​Strategic Guide for Experience-Based Professionals​
​Host: Wisepreneurs Podcast (78 interesting conversations)