The best 24 hour investment that you can make
Ten ways to stay on track with your ENHANCE training
24 hours.
1440 minutes.
16 football matches.
24 episodes of Stranger Things.
One rotation of the Earth on its axis.
This is also the minimum programme length for ENHANCE. It is a minimum because many participants exceed the training threshold for greater and more sustained health and performance benefits.
24 hours is also the amount of time that we each have to invest, enjoy and experience each day. Even though we all have this same amount of time, some people have fewer commitments and obligations. This makes it easier for them to honour their ENHANCE programme commitment. Also, some people are very good at managing the available time they have and prioritising how they use it.
Whichever category you fall into, you might find one or more of the following pointers useful to help achieve your 24 hour programme target:
Know when you have completed a BrainHQ level. Every time you are awarded with stars after completing an exercise you have completed a level, most of which take around 3 minutes to complete.
Know your numbers. How many BrainHQ levels do you need to complete each day and week. And what your overall programme target is in terms of levels as well as hours and minutes.
Know how levels are calculated using the Personal Trainer. You may need to complete an exercise five times before you move onto the next one in your schedule, in which case you have achieved five levels.
Press this icon on the BrainHQ mobile app to check how many levels you have done each day and week
Remember your daily surplus or deficit. For example, if your daily target is 5 levels and you complete 3 levels on Sunday (-2) and 8 levels on Monday (+3), you know that you are +1 for the week going into Tuesday. This running total gives you more flexibility that having to achieve your training target every day, which is especially useful when deciding whether to start a new exercise from your Personal Trainer schedule.
Start your ENHANCE week on Sundays. This gives you momentum to start your working week that, for most people, begins on Mondays. BrainHQ data is based on Sunday to Saturday so syncing with this makes even more sense.
Plan to train early in the day. Not only does this mean that your brain and cognition is primed for the day ahead, it also gives you time later in the day to catch up if your session didn’t go according to plan.
Rest on Saturdays. Sunday is a day of rest for many people but do your ENHANCE work Sundays to Fridays to earn a day off on Saturdays. Taking this day off will mean that you return to training on Sundays with more energy and enthusiasm.
Keep Saturday in the bag, just in case. Don’t stress if you do fall behind during the week and haven’t hit your target by the close of play on Friday. You can always use your nominated rest day to plug any gaps but make this an exception rather than the rule.
Miss your daily targets! This sounds counterintuitive but the point here is not to be overzealous about the smaller targets. You may complete 4 levels from an exercise in your Personal Trainer and be one level away from your daily target of 5 levels. If you start a new exercise you may have to complete another 5 levels (= 15mins) to collect the 10 stars required. Instead, finish the day with 4 levels and pick up the -1 deficit later in the week.
Note that all of these tips focus on how you approach ENHANCE’s neurocognitive training element. How to create a daily habit and different time management techniques are included within the accompanying online learning course. These strategies are particularly useful for adult ENHANCERs who don’t have allocated time within a school curriculum that they can use to complete their daily training commitment.
We have crowd sourced these pointers from recent ENHANCE graduates so hopefully you can benefit from their experience before embarking on your programme.