7 Useful Habits That Will Help Your Brain Work Faster And Smarter
If you want to improve how effectively your brain functions, you can supplement your thinking with the following tips. Not only will they help you remember a given piece of information more effectively, but they'll also help improve your mind’s functioning more generally.
1- Rewrite and rephrase information you learn in your own words.
By doing this, you'll be committing it into your long-term memory. This works because—by engaging directly with the information—you'll be improving your mastery of it. Also, some research has shown that physically rewriting the information, on paper, is also further correlated with improving how well you know those pieces of info.
2- Watch videos and movies that will get your brain stimulated.
Documentaries are the obvious answer to this, but there are also a lot of incredibly helpful instructional videos on YouTube. If you take notes while you're watching, you can improve your comprehension, retention and understanding even more; taking notes is a form of rewriting and working with information, as discussed in tip #1.
3- Ask yourself questions about what you've read.
It's true that asking yourself questions about what you remember is a great way of achieving this—but it's not the only way. You can also ask yourself questions that go beyond the material. For example, “Why was this the case? Why did this happen?”
4- Compare the information you've just learned to what you already know.
To phrase it differently, draw comparisons and find patterns between different streams of knowledge. Doing so will strengthen the neural pathways that allow you to remember both the new and the old pieces of information.
5- Read often.
Reading is helpful because the mere act of moving your eyes over the pages, turning the words over in your mind, will help you improve your mental capability—and that's regardless of what content you're reading. As for content, however, there are plenty of fun and fascinating books you can read which will get your brain up and running—books like Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
6- Exercise several times a week.
Exercise is positively correlated with improving your body and your state of mind—but also with how well your brain functions. Once you get that blood flowing in your brains and your heart pumping, you'll find that your mind works more effectively when it's time to commit yourself to mind-based activities. You'll also be more alert and more aware, which will help you draw connections more effectively (as seen in tip #4).
7- Take the information you learn and pass it onto your friends and family.
Doing this involves two skills—rephrasing the information, and passing it on. Research has shown that both methods are quite effective when it comes to retaining the data, seeing as both components improve your memory skills. This is also a great way of making conversation with new acquaintances!
At the end of the day, if you apply these tips, you can improve how your brain functions for future usage. And what's not to love about that? It will help you get smarter and become more confident in your abilities—and, not to mention, be the smartest person in the room when Trivial Pursuit comes out of its box.