Brain Building

Here are 125 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential.

1. Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
2. Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to do everyday things.
3. Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
4. Learn mind mapping.
5. Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, close your eyes and shower.
6. Develop comparative tasting of wine, chocolate, cheese or anything else.
7. Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
8. Learn to use different keyboard layouts.
   
9. Find novel uses for common objects. How many uses can you find for a nail?
   
10. Reverse your assumptions.
11. Learn creativity techniques.
12. Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
13. Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
14. Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
15. Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
16. Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
17. Get familiar with the scientific method.
18. Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be an artist.
19. Think positive.
20. Engage in arts. Sculpt, paint, play music or any other artistic endeavor.
21. Learn to juggle.
22. Eat ‘brain foods’.
23. Be slightly hungry.
24. Exercise.
25. Sit up straight.
26. Drink lots of water.
27. Infuse your body with nutritional supplements to enrich your health.
    
28. Deep-breathe.
29. Laugh!
30. Vary activities. Get a hobby.
31. Sleep well.
32. Power nap.
33. Listen to music.
34. Conquer procrastination.
35. Go technology-less.
36. Look for brain resources in the web.
37. Change clothes. Go barefoot.
38. Master self-talk.
39. Simplify!
40. Play chess or other board games.
41. Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.
42. Be childish!
43. Play video games.
44. Be humorous! Write or create a joke.
45. Create a List of 100.
46. Make up a "Bucket List".
47. Have an Idea Quota.
48. Capture every idea. Keep an idea bank.
49. Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate. Return to them at regular intervals.
50. Engage in ‘theme observation’. Try to spot the color red everywhere all day.
    
51. Find cars of a particular make. Invent a theme and focus on it.
52. Keep a journal.
53. Learn a foreign language.
54. Eat at different restaurants – ethnic restaurants specially.
55. Learn how to program a computer.
56. Spell long words backwards. !gnignellahC
57. Change your environment and the placement of objects or furniture.
    
58. Write! Write a story, poetry, start a blog.
59. Learn sign language.
60. Learn a musical instrument.
61. Visit a museum.
62. Study how the brain works.
63. Learn to speed-read.
64. Find out your learning style.
65. Dump the calendar!
66. Try to mentally estimate the passage of time.
67. “Guesstimate”. How many cabs in NYC? How many skyscrapers?
    
68. Make friends with math. Fight ‘innumeracy’.
69. Build a Memory Palace.
70. Learn a peg system for memory.
71. Have sex! (sorry, no links for this one! )
72. Memorize people’s names.
73. Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and an empty mind.
74. Watch movies from different genres.
75. Turn off the TV.
76. Improve your concentration.
77. Get in touch with nature.
78. Do mental math.
79. Have a half-speed day.
80. Change the speed of certain activities. Go super-slow or super-fast deliberately.
81. Do one thing at a time.
82. Be aware of cognitive biases.
83. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How would others solve your problems?
84. How would a fool tackle it?
85. Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
86. Take time for solitude and relaxation.
87. Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
88. Travel abroad. Learn about different lifestyles.
89. Adopt a genius. Hang out with one!
90. Have a network of supportive friends.
91. Get competitive.
92. Don’t stick with only like-minded people.
    
93. Brainstorm!
94. Change your perspective. Short/long-term, individual/collective.
95. Go to the root of the problems.
96. Collect quotes.
97. Change your media. Use paper instead of the computer;
    
98. Read the classics.
99. Develop your effective reading skill. Master it.
100. Summarize books.
101. Develop self-awareness.
102. Say your problems out loud.
103. Describe one experience in painstaking detail.
104. Learn Braille.
     
105. Buy a piece of art that disturbs you. Rev up your senses in thought-provoking ways.
106. Try different perfumes and scents.
107. Mix your senses. How much does the color pink weigh?
     
108. Debate! Defend an argument. Try taking the opposite side, too.
109. Use time boxing.
110. Allocate time for brain development.
111. Have your own mental sanctuary.
112. Be curious!
113. Challenge yourself.
114. Develop your visualization skills. Use it at least 5 minutes a day.
115. Record your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bedside for when you wake up.
116. Learn to lucid dream.
117. Keep a lexicon of interesting words. Invent your own words.
118. Find metaphors. Connect abstract and specific concepts.
119. Manage stress.
120. Write about a random word. Read random sites using Wikipedia.
121. Take different routes each day. Change the streets you follow.
122. Install a different operating system on your computer.
123. Improve your vocabulary.
124. Deliver more than what’s expected and enjoy paying daily kindnesses forward.
125. Pray. The one who knows your mind best is the one who created it.