Ask HN: Do you do any mental exercise before work?

It is well known that musicians or athletes do warm up exercises to prepare themselves for a performance. Is it common to perform any mental exercises to boost up your productivity? What's your routine to get into the best shape of mind possible?

No. But I'd love to hear ideas.

I sometimes struggle trying to get focused and get my productivity moving, once I do I am good, but on the days I struggle it would be awesome if I could find a way to get my focus faster. Right now, I will sometimes just walk away, go do something else and come back, other times I blow time reading hackernews etc. My wife keeps telling me to go for a bike ride or run and that will help, I should probably try those too.

I read the NYTimes over breakfast each morning. I'm a big believe in reading something else before your first actual reading task. Whether you are a student going in for the SATs or just someone going to work, if you make the first thing you read something for fun as a brain warmup, yes.

They go for a run around the factory, as if they were about to play a soccer match