Here are 150 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 brush your teeth,
comb your hair or use the mouse. Write
with both hands simultaneously. Switch
hands for knife and fork.
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, shower with
your eyes closed.
6. Develop comparative tasting. Learn to
properly taste wine, chocolate,
beer,cheese or anything else.
7. Find intersections between seemingly
unrelated topics.
8. Learn to use different keyboard
layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full
mind twist!
9. Find novel uses for common objects.
How many different uses can you find for
a nail? 10? 100?
10. Reverse your assumptions.
11. Learn creativity techniques.
12. Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
13. Transpose reality. Ask “What if?”
questions.
14. SCAMPER!
15. Turn pictures or the desktop
wallpaper upside down.
16. Become a critical thinker. Learn to
spot common fallacies.
17. Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
18. Get familiar with the scientific
method.
19. Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be
an artist.
20. Think positive.
21. Engage in arts — sculpt, paint, play
music — or any other artistic endeavor.
22. Learn to juggle.
23. Eat ‘brain foods’.
24. Be slightly hungry.
25. Exercise!
26. Sit up straight.
27. Drink lots of water.
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. Play
via Internet (particularly interesting is
toplay an ongoing game by e-mail).
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. Have an Idea Quota.
47. Capture every idea. Keep an idea
bank.
48. Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate.
Return to them at regular intervals.
49. Engage in ‘theme observation’. Try to
spot the color red as many times as
possible in a day. Find cars of a particular
make. Invent a theme and focus on it.
50. Keep a journal.
51. Learn a foreign language.
52. Eat at different restaurants – ethnic
restaurants specially.
53. Learn how to program a computer.
54. Spell long words backwards. !
gnignellahC
55. Change your environment. Change the
placement of objects or furniture — or go
somewhere else.
56. Write! Write a story, poetry, start a
blog.
57. Learn sign language.
58. Learn a musical instrument.
59. Visit a museum.
60. Study how the brain works.
61. Learn to speed-read.
62. Find out your learning style.
63. Dump the calendar!
64. Try to mentally estimate the passage
of time.
65. “Guesstimate”. Are there more leaves
in the Amazon rainforest or neuron
connections in your brain? (answer).
66. Make friends with math. Fight
‘innumeracy’.
67. Build a Memory Palace.
68. Learn a peg system for memory.
69. Have sex! (sorry, no links for this
one! )
70. Memorize people’s names.
71. Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and
an empty mind.
72. Watch movies from different genres.
73. Turn off the TV.
74. Improve your concentration.
75. Get in touch with nature.
76. Do mental math.
77. Have a half-speed day.
78. Change the speed of certain activities.
Go either super-slow or super-fast
deliberately.
79. Do one thing at a time.
80. Be aware of cognitive biases.
81. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
How would different people think or solve
your problems? How would a fool tackle
it?
82. Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
83. Take time for solitude and relaxation.
84. Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
85. Travel abroad. Learn about different
lifestyles.
86. Adopt a genius. (Leonardo is excellent
company!)
87. Have a network of supportive friends.
88. Get competitive.
89. Don’t stick with only like-minded
people. Have people around that disagree
with you.
90. Brainstorm!
91. Change your perspective. Short/long-
term, individual/collective.
92. Go to the root of the problems.
93. Collect quotes.
94. Change the media you’re working on.
Use paper instead of the computer; voice
recording instead of writing.
95. Read the classics.
96. Develop your reading skill. Reading
effectively is a skill. Master it.
97. Summarize books.
98. Develop self-awareness.
99. Say your problems out loud.
100. Describe one experience in
painstaking detail.
101. Learn Braille. You can start learning
the floor numbers while going up or
down the elevator.
102. Buy a piece of art that disturbs you.
Stimulate your senses in thought-provoki
ng ways.
103. Try different perfumes and scents.
104. Mix your senses. How much does
the color pink weigh? How does lavender
scent sound?
105. Debate! Defend an argument. Try
taking the opposite side, too.
106. Use time boxing.
107. Allocate time for brain development.
108. Have your own mental sanctuary.
109. Be curious!
110. Challenge yourself.
111. Develop your visualization skills. Use
it at least 5 minutes a day.
112. Take notes of your dreams. Keep a
notebook by your bedside and record
your dreams first thing in the morning or
as you wake up from them.
113. Learn to lucid dream.
114. Keep a lexicon of interesting words.
Invent your own words.
115. Find metaphors. Connect abstract
and specific concepts.
116. Manage stress.
117. Get random input. Write about a
random word in a magazine. Read
random sites using Stumble Upon or
Wikipedia.
118. Take different routes each day.
Change the streets you follow to work, jog
or go back home.
119. Install a different operating system
on your computer.
120. Improve your vocabulary.
121. Deliver more than what’s expected.
122. Dance!
123. Study Philoshophy and the writings
of great thinkers.
124. Be around people that are smarter
than you.
125. Use ‘brain fitness’ software.
126. Read text upside down (the text, not
you… well, you can try that, too).
127. Act in a stageplay.
128. Practice ‘environmental creativity’.
Keep asking yourself questions like “What
does this mean?” and “How can I use
this?”.
129. Use a reverse clock. You can buy
one or make your own.
130. Take an improvisation class.
131. Pun! Play with words.
132. Do It Yourself: Create or repair
things without the aid of paid
professionals. Repair, sew, cook, build,
weave, paint, etc.
133. Teach someone something you
know.
134. Help a child with their homework.
135. Provide thoughtful comments on
blogs and websites.
136. Discuss religion and politics, even
with friends.
137. Teach yourself origami.
138. Learn to knit or crochet.
139. Shop at a market different from the
usual.
140. Think of something you fear. Work
to conquer it.
141. Play bridge (or other card games).
142. Practice Yoga.
143. Learn martial arts.
144. Help and immigrant learn your
language.
145. Eat raw foods.
146. Remember childhood and imagine
living it with your current experience.
147. Play role-playing games (RPG)
148. Treat life’s challenges as social
experiments
149. Crawl backwards, walk up steps
backwards.
150. Make mistakes!
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