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10 Enjoyable Ways To Improve Your Mind

1. Try something new.

Take up a hobby or interest you've never tried before.

Latin dancing, Chinese cooking, Pottery.

Anything. It doesn't matter as long as it's new to you.

Learning a new skill drags you out of a mental rut. You're forced to use your brain to meet new challenges, awakening your innate problem-solving ability in the process.

 

2. Do puzzles.

Word games, crosswords and Sudoku all make great mental workouts.

Many newspapers feature a daily chess position or logic puzzle.

Don't read the newspapers? Then make up your own daily quiz:

Take a word and see how many other words you can make from it. Start with a smallish word, say 5 letters long, and progress to longer words as your skill increases.

Whatever your puzzle of choice, try fitting one a day into your busy life. Like any muscle, your brain benefits from a regular workout
3. Memorize something daily.

Take one item you usually need to look up. It could be a friend's telephone number, a reference code at work, or the date of a special anniversary.

Memorize it by repeating it to yourself 7 times. Then recall it several times throughout day and the next day too. Periodic recall fixes the item in your longer-term memory.

4. Drink more water

Make sure you drink the recommended 8 glasses of water per day.

It helps the flow of nutrients and oxygen travel throughout your body including, of course, to the brain.

(Did you know your brain is actually 85% water? It's true.)

5. Take a different route to work.

You'd be surprised how often you take exactly the same route. (And I do mean ‘exactly'.) This can lead to living your life on autopilot and seriously limiting your mental potential.

You need to break out of the rut!

Even a slight change to your normal route can help your brain make new mental connections. This is turn will do wonders for your creativity.

6. Exercise in the fresh air.

Your brain needs oxygen. Make sure you get some by allocating time every day for some healthy walking in the clean fresh air.

Stop along the way and try some gentle deep breathing, driving more oxygen into your lungs and onwards to your brain.

7. Read a book on a topic you'd never choose.

Read (or at least scan through) one book a month on a topic that has never interested you. You'll be amazed what you can learn when you step outside your familiarity zone.

8. Join a foreign language class.

Foreign languages offer excellent practice to both sides of the brain. You get to exercise your memory, your imagination and improve your language skills too.

9. See things from other people's point of view.

Emphasize with other people. When you're listening to somebody, try to mentally step outside of yourself and truly see the topic from that person's perspective.

10. Visualize something for 3 minutes.

Don't think you can visualize? Then try a little experiment by answering the following questions:

(a) What color is the front door of your home?

(b) Is the handle on the left or right-hand side of the door?

(c) When you open the door, what do you see inside your home?

You can visualize. To answer the above questions, you had to.

So practice a little visualization every day, using a different object each time.

Think of something familiar like your home, car, office building, gym or whatever.

Use your imagination to picture it from all angles, inside and outside. Imagine yourself walking around it, moving through it. Really notice all the details. Try to ‘feel' the surfaces as you move around, and hear any sounds in the place too.

You know what they say: "All great things begin in the mind." Improve your mind and who knows what you'll achieve.

 

 

Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Williams is author of 'Fun With Figures' at Fun With Figures

Seven Secrets for Maximizing Your Concentration Skills

Most of us struggle to stay focused. We live in a world of constant distractions – where emails ping up on our cell phones, where entertainment is always just a click away.

The problem is, a lack of concentration can destroy your ability to work effectively. If you're not concentrating:

• You'll make silly mistakes. How many times have you sent an email without its attachment? How many times have you forgotten a call that you meant to make?

You'll lose your thread. Ever got distracted half way through writing a sentence – only to completely forget what you were going to type?

You'll produce shoddy work. If you can't concentrate easily, you'll end up rushing your work to meet deadlines – or you'll end up missing those deadlines altogether.
It's no surprise that people who can concentrate and focus will do better in education, work, and life. You might think they're just the lucky ones. The truth is, we can all learn to concentrate.

Chances are, you can think of plenty of times when you were totally focused on whatever you were doing. Maybe you were playing a video game, and time just slipped by. Perhaps you were deep into a book, and background noises – even loud ones – didn't distract you at all.

You can access that same concentration in your work (or your studying), too. Here's how: 

Find the Purpose in Your Work
It's hard to stay focused when you simply don't care. If you're doing a boring or frustrating task, look for the reason why.

Perhaps you're writing a grant application to win your organization much-needed funds. Sure, that application form might be tedious – but you're doing it for a great reason.

Or maybe you're studying for a particular qualification. You're not exactly gripped by the material, but you know that if you pass your exam, you'll be a step closer to your dream job.

When you've got a purpose in mind, you'll be motivated to do the work. And when you're motivated, it's much easier to concentrate.

Plan Before You Sta
 Have you ever started on a particular task, only to end up feeling overwhelmed or bewildered? Sometimes, it's a mistake to jump straight into a particular piece of work – you'll soon end up stuck.So, any time you're tackling something big or something new, take a few minutes to plan out how it's going to work. What will you need to do first? Are you missing any pieces of information? Who can help show you what to do?
If you have a plan, it's easy to keep moving forwards. You won't suddenly stop and wonder what to do next (which kills concentration – it's all too easy to open up your email, or start browsing the net).



Take Regular Breaks
You might think that the best way to concentrate is to sit at your desk, stare grimly at the computer screen, and try to force yourself to work for hours at a time.

It's actually much more effective to work for short periods and then take breaks. If you're really focusing, you can't easily concentrate for more than about 45 minutes at a time. After that, you need to take a break to let your brain recharge.

Plus, if you know that you've got a scheduled break coming up, it's easier to stay on task. Instead of trying to work for three hours and getting distracted every ten minutes, you can tell yourself "I just need to concentrate for half an hour".

Shut Your Office Door
This one's deceptively simple – but are you doing it?

Sure, we don't all have offices with doors to shut. But wherever you're working, find a way to let people know that you're trying to concentrate.

That might mean telling your spouse and kids that you're going to be reading for an hour, and you'd appreciate it if they don't interrupt you. It might mean putting on headphones in an open-plan office, so that colleagues are less likely to interrupt you for a chat.

Eat Enough – But Not Too Much
If you're distracted by a growling stomach, you'll struggle to focus. Your attention levels drop when your blood sugar is low – and you'll probably find yourself in a bad mood, too.

Don't compensate by scoffing a huge lunch. Eating a big meal mid-day will make you sleepy and lethargic in the afternoon – killing your concentration. If you have a regular afternoon slump, try spacing out your food more evenly: instead of eating a huge lunch, have a sandwich and salad at noon and a granola bar or piece of fruit at 3pm, for instance.

Turn Off Your Internet Connection
Again, this is a really simple trick – but do you ever do it?

It's so easy to jump on Twitter or Facebook, click on a link, and end up spending ten minutes totally off-task. This might not be a big deal in itself, but every time you switch away from your work, you take time to get back into it again. You might lose the thread of your thoughts, or start to lose interest.

By turning off your internet connection, you remove a load of potential distractions. Just one hour each day without being plugged in can make a huge difference to your work. Unitasking is so much more efficient than multitasking.

Slow Down
The final secret to great concentration is to slow down.
If you live life in a rush, dashing from one thing to the next, it's no surprise that you find yourself frazzled and unable to focus. When you're in a hurry, you make mistakes much more easily – which results in wasted time while you put things right.
If you've ever accidentally deleted a piece of work, sent an embarrassing text or email to the wrong person, or forgotten some vital errand, you'll know that one tiny mistake can turn your entire day into a total disaster.
Slowing down lets you become more efficient. You'll be able to focus – instead of rushing forwards manically – and you'll find that you actually get more done.

Do you have any secrets to add? Share them with us in the comments!






Written on 2/05/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life . As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

How To clean your computer Keyboard

7 Secrets of the Super Organized

A few years ago, my life was a mess. So was my house,my desk, my mind. Then I learned, one by one, a few habits that got me completely organized.


Am I perfect? Of course not, and I don't aim to be. But I know where everything is, I know what I need to do today, I don't forget things most of the time, and my house is uncluttered and relatively clean (well, as clean as you can get when you have toddlers and big kids running around).

So what's the secret? In truth, there aren't any secrets. There are simple habits that you can develop over time that will get you to where you want to be. These are habits that you can apply to your work, your home, your kids, your hobbies, your life. Instead of giving you specifics for how to organize something specific, like your desk or your closet, I provide principles that you can use over and over in every situation.

Are these obvious principles? Sure, if you stop to think about them. You've read them in various other places. But you might not be applying them to your daily life, and that's where the problem lies. I'm just providing you with a step-by-step guide to what actually works, based on my experience and that of others.

If your life is a mess, like mine was, I don't recommend trying to get organized all in one shot. It's overwhelming. Instead, start with the first habit, and work your way down. Do it a little at a time, one area of your life at a time, one area of your home or office at a time. Work on a habit for a month or so, then move on to the next one. Or adopt two or three if you think you can handle it, but don't do them all at once. I also recommend you set aside some time each day (30 or 60 minutes) for organizing, at least in the beginning, until you are fairly organized and have your system down. Then, you might need 10 minutes a day, just to keep things running smoothly, and every now and then you might need to have a purge session (every 6 months or so) to get rid of accumulated buildup.

So here are the 7 habits:

Reduce before organizing.
The mistake most people make when trying to organize their stuff or their tasks or their projects is that they have a whole mess of things to organize, and it's too complicated. If you have a closet crammed full of stuff, sure, you can buy a bunch of closet organizers, but in the end, you'll still have a closet crammed full of stuff. Same thing with time management: you can organize a packed schedule, but it'll still be crammed full of tasks. The solution: reduce, eliminate, simplify.

If you take your closet full of 100 things and throw out all but the 10 things you love and use, now you don't need a fancy closet organizer. Same thing with time management: if you have 20 things to do today, and reduce it to just the three most important tasks, you don't need a schedule anymore.

How to reduce: take everything out of a closet or drawer or other container (including your schedule), clean it out, and only put back those items you truly love and really use on a regular basis. This will leave you with a pile of other stuff -- get rid of it by tossing it, donating it, selling it or giving it to somebody who will love it. If you can't bear to part with some of the stuff, put it in a "maybe" box and store it in your attic or basement or other storage space. Label it with a description and date, and six months later, when you haven't needed any of it, toss it.

• Write it down now, always.

Our minds are wonderful things, but they leak like a sieve. We don't remember things when we need to remember them, and they continually come up when we don't need them. Instead of using your mind as storage for things you need to remember, write it down. I carry a small pocket notebook wherever I go, and write things down immediately. Then I process the ideas and tasks later into my calendar or to-do list, so I don't forget.

• Have one inbox & process.

Well, actually you need two inboxes - one for home and one for work. But many people have many more than that -- paper comes to their desk and lands in a number of places. Phone messages get placed everywhere. Notes to self are posted all over the place. Instead, have one inbox, and put all incoming stuff in there. Then, once a day (or once a week at home if that works better for you), process the inbox to empty. Take an item out of the inbox and decide what to do with it, right away: toss it, delegate it, file it, put it on your to-do list, or do it now. Do the same thing to the next item, until your inbox is empty. Don't defer these decisions for later.

• A place for everything.

Related to the above tip is to have a place for each item in your life. Where do your car keys go? You should have one place for them (next to the door is best) and you'll never lose them again. Where do your pens go? How about your magazines? I teach my kids to find a "home" for every toy or other item in their rooms (even still, their toys are mostly homeless wanderers, but they're kids) and that's a concept that works for us grown-ups too: each item should have a home, and if it doesn't, we need to designate one. Labels can help you remember where those homes are. Now, if you find something on your table or counter top or on you bed or on your desk, you know that it doesn't belong there. Find its home -- don't just toss something anywhere. The same concept applies to information: do you have one place where you put all your information? If not, try a personal wiki -- it's accessible from work and home, and you can create pages for each type of information in your life -- schedules, goals, to-dos, movies to watch, books to read, notes on projects, etc.

• Put it away now.

Most people have a habit of putting something on a table or counter top or on their desk with the intention of "putting it away later". Well, this is how things get messy and disorganized. Instead, put it away now -- in its home. It only takes a few seconds, and this one habit will save you a lot of cleaning and sorting and organizing later. When you find yourself putting something down, catch yourself, and force yourself to put it away now. After a little while, it will become second nature.

• Clean as you go.

Closely related to Habit 5, this habit is effective because it's much easier to clean things as you work or as you move through your day than to let them pile up and do a big cleaning session later. So if you're cooking, try to wash your dishes as you use them, and wipe the counter, instead of leaving a huge mess. Same principle applies to everything we do. If it's easier to do it in smaller increments, we are more likely to do it. If there is a huge mess to clean, we are more likely to be intimidated or overwhelmed by it and leave it for later.

• Develop routines & systems.

If you've gotten everything uncluttered and organized, you might sit back and enjoy the pleasantness of it. Being organized and having a simplified working environment or home is tremendously satisfying. But the problem is that after a little while, things tend to start to get disorganized and cluttered again. Things tend to gravitate towards chaos. The solution: you need to develop systems to keep your organization in place. For example, the inbox processing mentioned above is a system: you have specific procedures for processing all incoming papers, and you have a routine for doing it (once a day). All systems follow the same guidelines -- specific procedures and a routine that is done at a set interval (three times a day, once a day, once a week, once a month, etc.). It's important that you identify the systems you have in your life (and they exist, even if you don't know they do -- but they may be complicated and chaotic) and write them out so that you can make them efficient, simple, and organized. Develop systems for dealing with paperwork and mail, with kids schedules, with errands and laundry and chores and exercise and everything else. Once those systems are in place, you need to be vigilant about keeping them going, and then things will stay organized.

Written for Dumblittleman.com on 06/07/2007 by Leo Babauta and republished on 12/31/10. Leo offers advice on living life productively simple at his famous Zen Habits blog.

How to Study Effectively (Not Just for Students!)

Most of us don't stop learning after school's out. We may study for a professional qualification, in the hopes of a promotion, to make our working lives easier, or simply for the joy of learning.

If you didn't learn how to study effectively when you were young, though, you're probably wasting a lot of time.

Here's how to make the most of your studying time, so that you remember and understand what you're trying to learn – rather than just staring at the book in front of you.
Don't Just Read
The biggest mistake people make when studying is to read the textbook, or their notes, over and over again. Sure, some of it will eventually stick – but this really isn't an effective way to learn.

If you've ever "read" a whole page only to realize you didn't take in a word of it, you'll know how easy it is for your eyes to keep moving when your brain's switched off. And if you've ever nodded along, feeling like you've "got it" – only to fail a test – then you know that simply reading isn't enough to lodge information in your head.

Engage With the Material
When you're studying, you need to engage with whatever it is that you're learning. Ideally, you want to do that in some practical way. So:

• Instead of reading a manual about PHP code, try using what you've learned as part of a website.
• Instead of studying the science of cooking, bake something – and experiment with different additions.
• Instead of reciting capital cities, get a blank map and plot them onto it.
• Instead of listening to or reading French, try writing or speaking.

The way in which you engage will depend on what you're learning and on your own learning styles. You might prefer to write about what you've learned, draw a diagram, or do something practical.

Memorize Thoroughly
When you're trying to memorize something – perhaps a scientific formula, or a quotation from literature – it's often helpful to write it out. The more times you do this, the more likely it is to stick! To ensure that you're not just getting it into your short term memory, try writing it out at different times during the day, without looking it up beforehand.

There are plenty of tricks you can use to help you remember things. You might try mnemonics (here in the UK, schoolchildren are taught "Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain" for the colors of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). You could make up a poem or even set words to music – it's often easier to remember something which rhymes (like "Thirty days hath September...").

Take a Quiz
Until you test yourself, you won't know whether you've done enough studying. If you're working towards a particular qualification which has exams, get a hold of copies of previous test papers and try them out.

If you aren't going to be sitting an exam, look for a quiz on your subject, or ask a friend or family member to test you using your notes.

If you're studying for your own purposes – perhaps to learn a language – then you could test yourself out by attempting to write something in that language without referring to your books or notes.

When you're studying, it's easy to unconsciously skip over tricky bits – a quiz helps highlight these! Plus, you'll often find that material which you could only just remember gets more firmly lodged in your mind.

Do you have any great studying tips to add? Share them with us in the comments!


Written on 1/27/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.