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Have you been wanting to find a way to beneficially spend your time while you've been quarantined to your house? Take a look at these brainpower boosting tricks that you can do even under a global lockdown!
Learn One New Word Every Day
Yes, we're back in kindergarten again. Learning one singular new word every day is a great way to expand your vocabulary without overwhelming yourself. Try to use your new word in conversations throughout the day, or don't and just pocket it for another time, you'll thank yourself later.
Change Your Environment
Creating new pathways in your home will also create new pathways in your brain. Re-orient your house to get yourself out of a creative rut. Never hesitate to donate/throw away things you no longer need. Getting rid of possessions will clear your head.
Meditate
Meditating is one of the best things you can do for your brain. By simply clearing your mind and calming your body, you can effectively cleanse your head of all the unwanted and negative stimulus that gets stuck up there. Meditating will make you sharper and help you maintain focus throughout the day.
Practice Ambidexterity
You can start doing this right now actually. The next time you brush your teeth, open a door or even take a sip of coffee, try doing it with your non-dominant hand. Creating these associations will build more neural pathways and help you become statistically more intelligent with barely any work.
Keep Track of Time Mentally
Good thinkers keep track of time, great thinkers know what time it is without having to look at a clock. Obviously, it's extremely difficult to guess the exact minute, but maintaining an awareness of the general time throughout your day can help you stay present and focused. Smart people typically operate on predetermined schedules. If you are operating according to schedule, you should theoretically be able to accurately guess what time it is.
Stay Curious
Keeping a childlike sense of wonder and intrigue will keep you going strong in life. Constantly ask yourself and the world challenging questions. Never be afraid to try something new, to fail, or to just do nothing and think for a bit.
Mix It Up
It's good to follow a healthy routine, but keeping your mind and body guessing is better for your brain functionality in the long run. If you usually go for runs in the afternoon, try taking a dance class at the same time instead. Pushing your limits and determining what you do and don't like to do is just as important as maintaining a routine.
Play Chess
Playing chess literally makes you smarter, plain, and simple. This game forces the player to think ahead and visualize all possible outcomes of scenarios before you even get into them. That is if you're playing the game correctly.
Never Stop Learning
Giving up your quest for knowledge is one of the worst traps that a person could fall into. Truly intelligent people stay humble, open-minded, and they hunger for more information. It doesn't matter what you're learning about as long as you're learning something new.
Think Creatively
When presented with a problem, try and think through all the possible ways you can navigate that problem. Seriously, think through absolutely every option and start making hypotheses on your own. By creating your own personal pathway to solve problems, you will ultimately become more intelligent and open-minded.
Think Critically
To counter our creative thinking argument, it's extremely important to criticize your thoughts based on your own criteria. Part of the creative process is acknowledging and researching all of the options from every side of an argument. If you can balance creativity and criticism, you will become an ace problem solver in no time.
Visualize Your Thoughts
Visualizing everything is a great tool for some creative thinkers. Mathematicians and artists use this concept frequently. By visualizing a physical representation of a thought, it's significantly easier to simplify and work out concepts.
Listen to Smart People Talk
TED and A-fest talks are an enormously beneficial source of information for those who want to pave their own way in life. Plus, they're entertaining and cool. You might learn something applicable from the most abstract TED talk, so never filter your options and go in with an open mind.
Listen to Classical Music
If you thought classical music was just made babies smarter, you were dead wrong. A study conducted by the University of California-Irvine discovered that students experienced a temporary spike in IQ while listening to Mozart. Listening to classical is also a great way to stay relaxed and focused.
Take a Nap
Taking a brief power nap is honestly one of the best ways to boost brainpower and productivity. If you can manage a quick 10-30 minute nap before you need to do something important, you'll likely be more focused and alert when you do have to perform. Don't nap too long though, the benefits of a power nap tend to fall off the longer you snooze.
Learn to Spell Things Backwards
This falls under the same category of "reading upside down." This practice forces your brain to view recognizable stimuli differently. First, try to learn the alphabet backward, then try to write sentences backward.
Try Different Learning Styles
How do you learn best? Do you usually stick to traditional methods of learning? Well, that might be holding you back. Mix it up and try to learn in a few different ways. If you like to read textbooks, try listening to an audiobook, or attend an online seminar.
Stop Procrastinating
Sigh, they finally had to say it. Believe it or not, you won't get any work done if you never do it. People who work ahead are typically more thorough and give themselves time to edit/revisit their work. That, and you might find yourself enjoying the work you do if you start to prioritize it.
Laugh More
Laughing stimulates your endorphins and it sends a rush of dopamine into your brain. When you have more dopamine in your brain, you'll be better at focusing on and learning new things. Letting yourself genuinely feel happiness and laughter is one of life's greatest feelings.
Play Brain Games
If solving visual riddles is like doing mental pushups, playing brain games is like going for a jog. Doing crossword puzzles and playing games like sudoku and poker will keep your brain sharp for prolonged periods of time. These games will also help you focus better.
Take a Walk
Stepping away from life and going for a walk (without added stimulus) helps your brain engage topics more effectively. Removing yourself from a situation and thinking about it from another angle helps you change your perspective. Thinking around a problem instead of trying to think through it will make you better equipped to solve problems in the long run.
Visit a Museum
Museums are still extremely popular for a good reason! Visiting a museum doesn't make you inherently more intelligent, but if you go into the museum with a clear goal in mind, you're likely going to walk away with some beneficial information. Even if you just want to go to a museum to learn about something new or find inspiration in what you've been doing, you're still gaining knowledge that you didn't have before.
Exercise Every Day
Exercising daily will help you build a balance between your brain and your body. Plus, exercise can be meditative for some, so this gives individuals plenty of time to space out and think about the work that they're doing. Now that you're not procrastinating anymore, you've got no excuse to not exercise.
Read a Thought-Provoking Book
Trying to read one book a month is the ideal scenario for expanding your knowledge about a topic. Even if you read something strictly entertaining, you're still learning about different literary styles. Learning from literature may seem archaic, but once you get in the habit of reading other people's work, you'll find that reading in someone else's voice can help you learn topics differently.
Eat Healthily
If your body is an engine, your brain is the circuit board that keeps everything running smoothly. If you don't put the right fuel in the engine, it's not going to work properly. This same philosophy can be applied to boosting brainpower. Eating veggies, avoiding sugar, and stacking omega-3 fatty acids will boost your brain functionality.
Learn the Five-Whys
The Five-Whys is a common problem-solving tool that will help you more than you'd think. When presented with an issue, phrase it as a question and come up with a solution. Then, ask yourself why you came up with that conclusion. Then, ask yourself why four more times. This process will help you boil down problems to their very root. You can use this technique in virtually every situation you run into, seriously.
Surround Yourself With Intelligent People
It is true that smart people tend to gravitate towards other smart people. When you're surrounded by intelligent, driven, positive folks at all times, you are going to pick up some good habits whether you know it or not. Chances are, your friends are pretty intelligent to begin with, so start observing what they do and try to mimic their positive habits.
Memorize People's Names
One of the most difficult parts of being a social creature is establishing new relationships with other social creatures. As a person, you have a responsibility to learn the names of the people around you. Tragic, we know. However, if you create pneumonic devices and draw outside associations with individuals to remember their name, you'll become better at remembering names by proxy. This takes a little practice to get used to, but when you establish this habit, you'll use it for the rest of your life.
Avoid Using a Calculator
Mental math is something that we all generally have to do daily. However, the fact that everyone carries calculators with them at all times has begun to degrade people's ability to do math in our heads. Ditch your calculator and you'll enhance your cognitive ability in no time.
Remain Calm
It is not uncommon for a person to panic when confronted by a challenging scenario. However, panicking will not help you at all, ever. If you can, remain calm and try to think your way through a problem. If you have the ability to remove yourself for a minute and think things through, do that. Breathing exercises and creating a mental firewall for panicked thoughts will help you immensely in life.
Memorize Phone Numbers
Just like doing mental math, memorizing numbers in succession and building associations with people will boost your mental ability. Although smart phones are extremely helpful, doing simple calculations and remembering phone numbers were two essential brain exercises that we have lost in modern times. Fear not, you can fix this for yourself whenever you want.
Think Abstractly
Thinking abstractly can manifest in numerous different ways. By textbook definition, abstract thinking is trying to find connections between unrelated items, topics, or people. However, in order to better yourself by thinking this way, make sure you filter the unrealistic aspects of your ideas when you draw conclusions from your ideas.
Take Notes
You've definitely seen someone walking around with a notepad in their pocket and thought "huh, maybe I should do that" at least once before. Turns out, taking notes and recording daily activities can boost your memory and enhance your recall. The notes don't even have to be written, you can doodle and sketch as long as you can associate your ideas with those sketches.
Write Your Ideas Down Immediately
Getting your ideas down on paper is a useful way to keep track of your thinking. If you're a creative person, this will help tremendously. You should carry a notepad and a pen with you at all times.
Go Minimalist
Environmental clutter can hinder thinking and creativity. Even if you're surrounded by things you love, having spacial distractions will inhibit your ability to focus. Narrowing down the things you have will help you better yourself intellectually.
Chew Gum
Believe it or not, chewing gum has been proven to boost brain power. According to a 2011 study conducteed at St. Lawrence University, scientists were able to determined that individuals who chewed gum while intaking information recieved a burst in short-term recall. The next time you're studying for a test, break out some gum!
Read Upside Down
We mean reading while holding the book upside down, not flipping yourself upside down. By reading upside down, you challenge your brain to perceive familiar information differently. This inherently makes new neural pathways and strengthens old ones, and its a pretty cool party trick.
Keep A Journal
Journaling every day is an extremely beneficial tool that more people should do. Setting goals for yourself, in writing, in the morning helps you be more productive throughout the day. The more you do, the more you learn. Plus, journaling helps with your short and long term memory.
Learn Memory Boosting Techniques
Smart people are able to remember tons of things about their lives at the drop of a hat. Nobody is born with a superior level of intelligence, but some people are born with a heightened ability to recall information. That being said, there is a multitude of shortcuts to get better at pulling accurate memories. You just need to practice them regularly.
Create Lists
Goal-oriented people tend to be more driven, more confident, and smarter. You can become goal-oriented without even knowing it! Start making lists of things you want to do, watch, accomplish, or see, and try to accomplish at least one task a day.
Practice Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is a practice where you both alter your diet and the timeframe in which you consume foods. The idea is that your body can allocate more energy to thinking and acting when it's not digesting food. Typically, intermittent fasting occurs between 8 pm and 12 pm. Eating protein and fiber-rich foods (avoiding non-complex carbs) keeps your brain and body working efficiently.
Slow Down Once in a While
As you may know, the brain is a muscle. When you work out your other muscles, it's important to give yourself off days to recover and rebuild tissue. Much like your body, your brain needs a break sometimes too.
Learn a Musical Instrument
Learning how to play an instrument (like, actually learning, not just playing hot cross buns and calling it a day) will enhance your brain functionality massively. Learning music theory is like learning a mathematical language. Once you are proficient in theory, and you can read/follow sheet music, the possibilities are endless for you.
Solve Optical Illusions
Puzzle illusions (or visual riddles) are both fun to solve and engaging for your brain. Think of this as doing mental pushups. If you can squeeze in as many illusions to solve throughout the day, you're essentially building an exercise routine for your brain.
Learn How to Exist
This seems pretty convoluted, but we swear it isn't. If you haven't tried meditation before, we suggest you do to bring yourself closer to purely existing. Taking time to clear your head and focus on your breathing will bring you closer to your body, which will bring you closer to your surroundings, which will help you think through your problems more clearly.
Share Something New
If you're trying to learn something new, sharing your first attempts with other people will help you make better attempts in the future. Taking input and encouragement from friends/experienced individuals will give you a clearer path to success in the future. Whether it's watercolor painting or bread making, getting a couple of new perspectives will help you grow and learn faster.
Solve Problems Like You're Someone Else
The next time you're presented with a problem to work through (this could be any critical thinking exercise, really), try to walk through it like you're someone else. As we mentioned before, thinking through your problems like you're someone else is enormously beneficial to developing more mindful thought processes. Consider all angles of an argument before you dive in, but for fun, try and solve the problem through someone else's eyes.
Think Positively
If you want to change something about yourself, it all begins with self assurance. If you believe in yourself and think positively in the face of adversity or insecurity, you're going to get a lot more out of life. Give yourself positive affirmation, reassure yourself, and you'll be healthier and smarter because of it.
Manage Your Emotions
Some of the smartest people on Earth can seem like robots from an outside perspective. Although, you don't have to think like a robot to become more intelligent. Rationalizing your emotions before you express them is a healthy tool that everyone can and should be using. Obviously this isn't always applicable, but this can save you from some regrettable decisions in the future.
Eat Less Overall
As we mentioned earlier, the brain functions better when you eat wholesome food on a regular schedule. However, one of the major problems that hold individuals back is overeating. When you overeat, your body has to send a ton of energy to your stomach to digest the food you've consumed. This can lead to lethargy, tiredness, and a general feeling of "brain fog."
Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated isn't just good for your body, it's great for your mind too. Having enough water in your system can help you boost and stabilize your brain's electrochemical activity. Dehydration, on the other hand, can lead to irritability, cloudy thoughts, and an inability to maintain focus.
Change Your Perspective
You might have been able to infer this from earlier claims, but changing your spacial and emotional perspective can make you immediately more intelligent. Rearrange your furniture, move your plants around, shift your couch to the other side of the room. All of these new visuals and sensations will stimulate thought and boost your creativity.
Travel to Different Countries
Observing other lifestyles and cultures is a fantastic way to become more intelligent. If you have the cash and time to do it, you should absolutely travel to places where people act vastly different than you. Just don't take these experiences for granted, and please don't let these trips abroad inflate your ego.
Quit Multitasking
According to a study that was conducted at the University of Kansas, only 2.5% of 1,800 individuals were successfully able to do two things at once to the best of their ability. Statistically speaking, you're not someone who can reliably multitask. Focus at one thing at a time, complete it to the best of your ability, and then move onto something else.
Spend Time in Nature
It is true, fresh air does actually refresh the brain. Removing yourself from your daily routine and cutting back on regular stimulus helps your brain reset itself. When you spend more time in nature, you're undoubtedly going to return to your old life with new ideas and a different mindset.
Try to Understand Great Thinkers
You may believe that old philosophers were full of hot gas. However, smart people never write legendary thinkers off because of their use of metaphors in their writings. The greatest thinkers of humankind write in metaphors for their work to be interpreted by a multitude of audiences. Take the time and try to decipher their quotes on your own. Maybe, you'll learn a thing or two about the way you think and view yourself along the way.
Keep a Dream Journal
Despite the multitude of theories about the significance of imagery in dreams, unless they are recurrent, your dreams are likely just random conjurings from your subconscious. However, keeping a dream journal will help you dream more frequently and efficiently, in addition to helping you remember your dreams better. Plus, your brain needs the REM sleep cycle that causes dreams to keep you alert and cognisant. Trying to maintain a dream schedule is great for your brain and body.
Vocalize Your Thoughts
Learning to vocalize your thoughts helps you to remove yourself from your brain emotionally and rationalize your thoughts from an outside perspective. Seriously, when you say your thoughts out loud, your brain processes them as if someone else said them to you. This will help you filter your thoughts and determine which ones are rational and which ones are rooted in emotions as opposed to logic.
Learn to Lucid Dream
This one is a bit lofty, but if you have ever discovered that you have the ability to control your vivid dreams, you probably understand what we're getting at. Lucid dreaming is a great tactic to learn how to understand your dreams, thus learning to understand your subconscious. The deeper you dig into your own brain, the more you will learn about yourself.
Pick Up a New Hobby
Being bad at something is the quickest way to learn how to be good at something. When you pick up a new hobby, you're bound to be bad at it until you practice enough to learn how to be better. You can apply this method of thinking to everything in life. Plus, keeping your brain busy, and having fun doing tasks is awesome.
Enjoy Yourself
Even though you're probably an adult, you're never too old to play. Seriously, don't be afraid to embarrass yourself and shut your brain off for a couple of hours. Go splash around in the ocean or run around the woods. Getting physical and allowing yourself simple "forbidden" pleasures that we're not "allowed" to indulge in as grown-ups will genuinely make you happier. As we know, a happy brain is a healthy brain.
Practice Yoga or Tai chi
Exercises that stress the importance of deliberate breathing and mindfulness boost brainpower massively. A large portion of yoga and other meditative exercises is centered around focusing on the body and clearing your mind. If you can focus your brain on the tiny muscular sensations that you're inducing, you will leave your practice feeling more centered and energized.
Get Enough Sleep
Your body has a pretty good way of telling you that you need to get some sleep. However, people who suffer from anxiety or are in stressful points of their life tend to never get enough sleep. If you can't find enough peace to pass out, try meditating!
Word Things Properly
Whether you're writing or speaking, it is important to convey your thoughts with as many descriptors as possible. We're not asking you to write The Old Man and the Sea, but we are recommending that you put a little more effort into your use of adjectives. Describing things properly will help your audience follow along. However, it is important to note that simplicity is the key to maintaining someone's attention, so choose your descriptors wisely.
Learn a New Language
People that speak more than one language legitimately have a larger capacity to learn than those who only speak one. By learning a new language, you reopen neural pathways that have likely been dormant since you were a child. Additionally, this will open up a new world of cultural communication that you would never be able to engage in otherwise.