100 Terrific Mindhacks to Make the Most of Your Brain

Posted by Site Administrator in Learning Dec 16th, 2008

Your mind is a powerful thing, but it’s often limited by things like fear, habit, and poor health. There are a number of ways to improve the way you use your mind whether you are a student, professional or devoted lifelong learner. Read on to discover 100 mindhacks that will help you make the most out of the most powerful tool you have at your disposal.

General

Follow these general mind hacks to give your brain some power.

1. Use the Internet: Studies have found that using the Internet is good for your brain, as it keeps your mind fit and sharp.
2. Practice streamwriting: Find answers and solve problems by writing out your conscious until your superconscious comes out.
3. Power idea generation: Practice quiet solitude in which you list out problems and ideas, whether useful or not, to make your brain better at generating ideas.
4. Take on a creative hobby: Make your brain work harder with a creative hobby that requires thinking.
5. Read quality magazines, books, and blogs: Make sure that the sources that influence your thinking are top notch, so you’ll have a good reference to call on.
6. Stay active: Be sure to stay connected with your friends, family, and network so that you can be mentally stimulated through relationships.
7. Engage in meaningful activities: Join a spiritual group or participate in community service to improve your psyche.
8. Use Oblique Strategies: Use these cards to help you make decisions in hard situations.
9. Use weighted pros and cons: Assign weights and importance to different pros and cons of a situation to make your decision.
10. Set goals: Creating goals helps you actively think of ways to be better.
11. Write things down: Your goal can stare back at you once you’ve written it down.
12. Take a nap: By napping, you’ll be more likely to remember things that you’ve memorized earlier.
13. Drink something warm: The warm sensation from a hot drink can make you feel more emotionally warm and content.
14. Visit museums and performances: Engage your mind’s interest and expand your view of the world with artistic expression.
15. Use focused solitude: Find a place where you won’t be disturbed, then sit still and think quietly to yourself.
16. Be determined: Tell yourself to never give up and you’ll be in the right mindset to take on difficult tasks.
17. Believe in your abilities: Don’t worry too much about your ability to use your brain properly-by being confident in your abilities, you’ll do better.
18. Give yourself structure: You need deadlines and limitations to accomplish more, and do things more efficiently.

Habits

These daily habits will give your brain the shakeup it needs to do well.

19. Shower blind: Wake up your brain by relying on your tactile senses to clean yourself.
20. Wear textured clothing: Improve your mind’s sense of touch by wearing clothing that you can really feel.
21. Don’t do things on auto pilot: Think carefully about all of the decisions you make to increase your brain activity.
22. Sleep on it: Sleeping on ideas will help you make tough decisions and solve problems.
23. Always carry a notebook: You never know when a great thought will strike you, so always keep something to record your thoughts and ideas with.
24. Wake up to a new smell: Change the smell that you associate with waking, and you’ll create new neural pathways.
25. Relax at the end of the day: Use sensory stimuli like an aromatherapy bath to help you wind down and create a new path to relaxing at a smell.
26. Write instead of typing: Writing by hand is great for stimulating ideas and exercising your creativity.
27. Wear earplugs: Restrict your sense of hearing, and you’ll make your brain work harder.
28. Brush with your non-dominant hand: By using your non-dominant hand, you’ll make your brain use the side of itself that it normally doesn’t use.
29. Make use of dead time: Listen to books on tape while in traffic, or brainstorm ideas while raking your yard to give your brain constant healthy stimulation.
30. Sit up straight: Your posture can affect your thinking process in a positive way.
31. Read aloud with a partner: Reading aloud uses different brain circuits, so you’ll improve your brain power by doing so.
32. Write before bed: Before going to bed, write in a journal or notepad to offload the day.
33. Mix up your routine: Eat a different breakfast, take a new way to work, or watch a different TV program to throw some curveballs at your brain.

Learning

Make use of these mindhacks when learning.

34. Learn things in order: Always start with the basics first, and you’ll find learning easier.
35. Share your knowledge with others: Teaching others information will increase your own understanding, so be sure to teach and share whenever possible.
36. Associate boring subjects with fun: You remember the things you enjoy, so make a game out of learning or create a fun story out of it.
37. Interlink thoughts with others: Learn holistically and improve your recall by associating everything you learn with things you already know.

Communication

These communication hacks can help you influence your mind and the minds of others.

38. Use framing: When creating a persuasive argument, frame it in a way that gives it positive or negative connotations.
39. Use fluid speech: Avoid words such as "um" or "like" to make your speech more confident and persuasive.
40. Mirror your subject: Mimic the body language of the people you’re trying to persuade, and they’ll feel a sense of empathy.
41. Repeat what others are saying: By repeating what others say, you’ll help yourself remember better, as well as appear more sincere and interested.
42. Use touch: Bond with others using subtle, polite touches.

Energy

Your brain can get tired, so give it some refreshment with these mind hacks.

43. Listen to classical music: Listen to relaxing, classical music to stimulate your brain.
44. Do the opposite of what you’re doing: If you’ve just drained your brain with intense work, give yourself a period of relaxation to restart things.
45. Take a deep breath: Beathing well and deeply will move more oxygen and blood into your brain.
46. Meditate: Close your eyes and observe the thoughts that come through your mind for about 20 minutes to refresh your brain’s energy.
47. Take a 1 second nap: Go from daydreaming to 1 second twilight dreaming and wake up ready for action.
48. Have sex: Sex will help you shift your focus and give you more energy to take on the next task.
49. Play a sport: Playing a competitive sport will wake you up mentally.
50. Shake your leg: If you’ve been sitting for a while, stand up and shake one or both legs to get your circulation moving and improve blood flow to your brain.
51. Take a walk: Take your mind off of things and get some fresh air by taking a walk.
52. Go to a movie: Immerse yourself in another world by going to watch a movie at a movie theater.
53. Create digestable tasks: Break large projects down into smaller tasks, and create reasonable goals or completion.
54. Take a caffeine nap: Drink a cup of coffee, and then take a 10-15 minute nap for a quick energy boost.
55. Catch up on interesting reading: Reading a book or magazine that you like will help relax your brain while still keeping it active.
56. Play a game: Playing a board game, video game, or brain game will help you give your brain both rest and stimulation.
57. Listen to motivational CDs: Relax by listening and stimulate your brain at the same time with motivational CDs.

Dreams

Make the most of your dreams with these mind hacks.

58. Drink ice water: By drinking ice water just before bed, and right after waking up, you should have instant recall of the dreams in your sleep.
59. Suppress REM: For one night, suppress REM with alcohol or antidepressants, and you should get a double dose the next night, along with vivid dreams.
60. Talk about your dreams: If you discuss your dreams with others, you’ll reinforce your awareness of them and make it easier to recall them in the future.
61. Take 5-HTP: This precursor to serotonin will help you promote deep sleep and have lucid dreams.
62. Don’t sit up or stand up: Remain in bed to remember your dreams, as sitting up or standing up can erase them.
63. Write down your dreams: Your dreams will fall out of your memory quickly, so write them down or record them as soon as you wake.
64. Take galantamine: Taking galantamine can help promote memorable, colorful dreams.
65. Verbally remind yourself to remember: Just before sleep, talk to yourself about remembering to pay careful attention to your dreams and recall them in the morning.
66. Take more naps: Naps tend to have better REM, and will give you more vivid and lucid dreams.

Finance

These mind hacks will help you hack your brain for better finance.

67. Match frivilous spending with savings: Each time you spend money in an irresponsible way, put the same amount into savings.
68. Write down goals: Make your financial goals more concrete by putting them in writing.
69. Tell other people your financial goals: By telling others your plans, you’ll be accountable and more likely to stick to them.
70. Create a habit: If you want to save, make it a habit to place at least $1 into your savings stash every day.
71. Create visual imagery of your goal: With a picture of your financial goal in sight, you will be more motivated to stick to your guns.

Productivity & Time Saving

With these mind hacks, you can be more productive and save time while working or studying.

72. Use proper timing: Don’t wait until the end of the day to remind yourself to take care of something. Time activities for when they are most likely to be completed.
73. Clean out your inbox: Keep your inbox, desk, and thinking area clean to free up space and stress in your mind.
74. Mind Map: Use Mind Maps to keep your important items together.
75. Give yourself less time: If you give yourself less time in which to complete a task, you’re likely to just finish it within that time.
76. Spreed: Use this tool to train your mind to quickly read through pieces of text.
77. Scarcity: Remind yourself that an image, product, or idea is scarce, and you’ll be subconsciously drawn to take care of it.

Brain Games

Play these brain games to build up your mind’s muscle.

78. Short Term Memory Test: Take this test to assess and improve your levels of short term memory.
79. Guess the Colors: Figure out the layout of the colors in this game.
80. Animated Memory Game: Use these memory games to give your brain some work.
81. Simon Says: Follow Simon’s movies and copy them to give your memory a boost.
82. Crime Scene: Watch this video and pick a criminal from a list of suspects.
83. Fun Match Game: This matching memory game offers a variety of themes and varying difficulty.
84. Face Memory Test: Find out how good your facial memory is with this test.
85. Guess the Flag: Improve your visual memory and build your knowledge of world flags with this game.
86. Memory Solitaire: Play this memory game by yourself to improve your brain’s memory skills.

Food & Health

Follow these tips to eat, drink and exercise your way to a better mind.

87. Drink a glass of water: Give your brain the fuel it needs to stay lubricated and working well by keeping up with your water intake.
88. Good fats: Omega-3 fatty acids can help your brain’s intellectual performance.
89. Vegetables: Vegetables offer your brain a steady stream of energy.
90. Eat more choline: Choline is a fat-like B vitamin found in eggs that can help with your memory and reaction time.
91. Exercise: Exercising is good for concentration and can improve your overall health, which supports a smarter and more efficient brain.
92. Control your cholesterol: Healthy cholesterol levels are good for mental sharpness and efficiency in blood flow to your brain.
93. Fish: Many fish are found to be good sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
94. Yogurt: Eating yogurt will help produce neurotransmitters and improve neuron signals.
95. Apples: Apples and apple juice are great for their antioxidants and acetylchiline, which helps preserve memory.
96. Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates can be mentally soothing at the right time and in the right amount.
97. Alcohol: Moderate alcohol consumption can improve blood and oxygen flow to your brain.
98. Use a smaller plate: Make yourself feel more full by simply eating off of a plate that is smaller.
99. Fruit: Fruit will break down slowly, giving your brain a steady stream of energy.
100. Non-caffeinated tea: Teas such as green tea will help to relax the brain and create mental alertness.

 

Did you enjoy this article?