How to become SMARTer — Improving mental skills
This article is a summary for the 3 part documentary “Redesign My Brain” in which “Todd Sampson” engaged in a 3 month scientific journey to improve his mental skills (brain plasticity), I strongly recommend watching all episodes
General Takeaways
- You need to assess you current status before trying to improve
- You brain efficiency can improve at any age
- The brain needs training as muscles do to stay fit
- Creativity can be taught
- Negative mood, Analysis and relying on your existing Mindsets blocks Creativity
Improvement Areas
Thinking Speed
- Learn juggling ( I tried that personally and felt the difference )
- Train your brain by games such as lumosity and elevate
Attention
- Attention is about suppressing distractions so your brain can focus
- Improve your peripheral vision and attention using brain games such as lumosity and elevate
Memory
Associate what you like to remember with visual object or a scene
Creativity
Divergent Thinking
Train yourself using the following exercises to overcome functional fixedness mindset
- What if questions: ask yourself what if questions such as “what if gravity is half as strong as it is now ”
- Alternate usage: ask yourself what is the alternate usage of any object around you (ex: a plastic cup)
- Shapes: create new shapes from a set of limited shapes (not practical enough i think)
- Functional descriptions game: think of a any object, define its function, then think of 4 other objects which does the same job, example: 1- A cup , 2- Holds liquid 3- Pot, Bottle, Jar and Bucket
- Everyday try something new, change the way you do things, learn new language, use different hand to brush your teeth .. etc
Innovation
just do something creative regularly
Lateral thinking
lateral thinking is about shifting perceptions, looking to the problem from different perspectives for example applying the six thinking hats technique
Body intelligence
Body intelligence is about consciously controlling all aspects of your body, an example training would be to relax yourself by controlling your heartbeat and breathing rates
Visualization
Just thinking and visualizing any physical action can make you better in doing it
Emotional Intelligence
Get yourself to control & manage emotions by training to shift from a specific emotion such as fear to calmness
From my personal experience I would add physical exercise and healthy eating habits
Finally don’t miss this valuable article
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/you-these-20-things-every-day-youll-become-smarter.html
