I start a contest. My mind feels great, it feels sharp and quick (for my sharpness and quickness standards), after the contest I feel excelent about my performance and feel I did as well as I could.
Next contest, my mind... well... I might be drunk as well, I can't even read the statements, feel like I can't do easy stuff, think too many things that later find out to be obviously wrong...
Can you relate to this?
My point is that some days I just simply can not wake up my mind and it's really frustrating, even for days I just want to study or train.
So I'd like to know, do you have some warm-up exercises for your mind that you would like to share? Exercises or routines you do before training/studying/competing? Saying the alphabet backwards, trying to calculate Fibonacci mentally up to fib(100), I don't know, what do you do? :)
I think meditating or doing a proper breathing exercise should be fine for refreshing the mind.
sometimes stress can be really annoying try to relax in the contest's day don't solve problems until the contest start just do your thing and don't worry about the contest.
I once almost had a nervous breakdown after contest Codeforces Round #362 (Div. 2) because I didn't solve anything and my rating dropped over a 100 points and I was upset the day after too.
soon after that I realized that I was too tense and I should take things a little bit easier and that's what I've been doing ever since and it has been great no more getting worked up because of a contest and now my rating is in its highest since months.
btw music can help a lot (at least for me it does).
:)
A proper diet, Sleep, Caffeine
I'll add good hydration to this. Some days ago I realized I wasn't drinking enough water, I think since then I've been feeling more lucid.
Music, cappuccino, calm sleep, and simple math exercises.
I don't know, it helps me a lot.
Solving some Div 2 A/B (maybe C?) in 15 minutes before a contest?