Mimic Alertness to Enhance Productivity I read an interesting post on Open Loops about how to mimic the sympathetic nervous system.

"When the sympathetic is active, it dilates the pupils, increases the blood sugar, increases the heart rate, and increases the respiration. In short, it triggers the “fight or flight” response, enabling us to take action."

By doing things that cause those reactions, you can make yourself more alert and ready for action. When you're feeling sluggish, you can try "sitting up straight, standing, moving quickly, deeper breathing", to make yourself ready to work better.

This is interesting. I've come across the basic premise here in a few places lately. It seems that the body uses a two-way mechanism. When you're happy, you smile. But it seems to work the other way too. If you feel down and you make yourself smile, you'll feel happy. Malcolm Gladwell mentions this effect in his book: Blink.

And this is a basic idea in all kinds of self-development books.  ¶ 2:38 p.m.