Pay Attention Better

Need to plow through a week's worth of work by the end of the day today? Fine-tune your focus by indulging in a potent compound in tea. (And make a deal with yourself to only check e-mail every hour. Okay, every 15 minutes.)

We're not talking about caffeine, although that can help increase your focus and your memory, too. This is an amino acid called theanine. When people in a study consumed it and then performed a challenging mental task that required looking and listening skills, their brains became quite active. Specifically, the right parietooccipital cortex lit up. That's a part of the brain's circuit system tied to attention span. So if you feel more alert and focused after a tea break and all of a sudden are getting more done, that could be why.

Theanine is a natural component of green, black, and oolong teas. It may act synergistically with caffeine to help you ignore productivity-wrecking distractions. While you're taking a tea break, increase your brainpower even more with a simple strategy: Think about what you're grateful for. Or just take a moment to meditate or breathe deeply. Consider this moment spent reflecting or meditating as a gift to yourself -- the 5 minutes you spend in silent contemplation actually work to build your brain to take on bigger and better things. Then, get to work and let your newfound focus flow.