These 30 strategies that are genuinely proven by science will make you smart, more intelligent and keep you mentally fit for life

People who learn how to smart succeed by doing two things very well:

First, they use research and science to discover the techniques that will make them smarter, guaranteed.

Second, they use these techniques on a regular basis.

But you’re probably wondering:

“How do I find genuinely science-backed strategies to make me smarter?”

Today I’m going to make it easy for you because I’ve read the latest science and tested it out so you don’t have to.

Really smart people are efficient with their time. Why go wading through the research when what you really want to do is use the evidence to start making you smart.

 

All you have to do is take a few moments from every day to use the techniques below and you’ll be more intelligent and have a better memory within a few weeks.

 

1. Can I really become smart or is that just a myth?

Yes you can become smarter. Your intelligence is not fixed at birth.

It’s scientifically proven that education, motivation and thinking about problems and solutions make you smarter.

The latest neuroscience shows that the brain can learn and grow new neuro connections as we get older. The idea that our brains can’t learn, improve and get bigger and better is a myth.

The new science focuses on the neuroplasticity of the brain, which shows that the brain, like plastic, can change and be reshaped.

If you want to reshape your brain you can.

You are the only barrier.

The only act is you need to do is act.

 

2. So it’s not a myth, okay, but can I really become smarter, seriously?

Asking questions and challenging assumptions is a good way to improve your intelligence because you thinking about and questioning the evidence you have been presented with.

Yes you can become smarter and here’s a quick lesson about how to use information to assess an assumption. The particular assumption we are assessing here is: does brain training make you smarter?

The main issue about brain training is whether the skills you learn and the activities you practice actually improve your short term memory and your fluid thinking skills or just make you good at the one activity you are undertaking.

Are you making yourself brighter by practising crosswords daily or are you just learning how to do crosswords better?

Thinking about that little conundrum is already increasing your brain cells and grey matter.

Research shows that it is our working memory, which is central to reasoning and decision making, and our fluid intelligence, which is our ability to solve novel problems, generate ideas and identify patterns that makes us really smart.

What we have to do is break down what we are trying to achieve. Being smart involves a variety of skills and aptitudes.

So practising and becoming smarter at crosswords is improving your ability to retrieve words from your long-term memory, which means you’ll remember more words in your every day conversation. Crosswords can also form the scaffold for learning new words.

But crosswords may not be that good at, say, improving your reasoning skills. But they can help – reasoning involves memory and if your recall is better and as a result you feel smarter, then your reasoning can improve. You’re spending less worrying you aren’t smart and more time being smart!

The point here is that we need to stop worrying so much about individual games and techniques and view our intelligence holistically.

 

3. Have a growth mindset

Carol S. Dweck, professor at Stanford University, has researched intelligence for decades and has found that mindset is the key to making your smarter.

Many peope believe that talent and intelligence is fixed at birth. This can lead to a closed and fixed mindset where a person believes they have fixed abilities, intelligence and talents.  It can lead you to have an negative internal voice: “I’m just never going to get smarter because I’m just not intelligent enough,” or “I’m not good at languages, so I’ll never learn a foreign language.”

 

Dweck evidence has found that the growth mindset “understands that  talents and ability can be developed through effort, training, learning and persistence.”

 

They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.
Professor Dweck, Stanford University

“In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence.

Dweck gives how we speak to children as a powerful example of how a closed mindset is developed:

children given praise such as “good job, you’re very smart” are much more likely to develop a fixed mindset, whereas if given compliments like “good job, you worked very hard” they are likely to develop a growth mindset.

The ideal learning mind believes that they can become smarter through effort and learning.

You can test your mindset and find out more information.

4. Start discounting

One way to be smart is about how you feel about other people who seem smarter than you is to use the technique called ‘discounting’.

Being smart is more than just remembering words, it’s about thinking rationally and using logic to draw conclusions which help protect how we feel about ourselves. This is key to having a ‘growth and learning mindset’.

If you compare yourself with someone appears to know more than you do, better at chess or crosswords puzzles, you might feel pathetic in comparison. Yet by ‘discounting’ – rationalising that they are good because they are practise all the time and you haven’t played in years, helps you deal with you inadequacy.

5. Push yourself and tough it out

Research has found that the brain improves by learning and being challenged. If you want to keep improving you need to undertake activities that test and challenge yourself.

That doesn’t mean they have to be unpleasant.

I get a lot of pleasure out of reading science books that challenge my mind, but sometimes I feel too tired or lazy, but I don’t let that stop me:

I push myself to start reading because I know that when I start I will enjoy the pleasure of being challenged to think a afresh about the world.

Or if you start crossword puzzles and you start to get better at them, then you need to try harder puzzles.

Keep pushing yourself:

Learning and being smart is a process not an end.

 

6. Read critically

Evidence shows that reading, unlike watching TV, is an active process that improves the mind.

Reading a work of a book gives your brain a work out and improves concentration levels.

However, a study at Stanford University found that reading fiction for pleasure improved brain function. Yet the study also found that the brain improved significantly more when people were asked to read the same book critically and analytically.

Reading a book critically involves asking questions of what you are reading and challenging its assumptions. You can also set yourself some goals before you start reading. If you are reading fiction, ask yourself about whether the characters are reliable in what they say, do they represent a certain viewpoint, and how does the author use language, techniques such as comedy or suspense  and style to get across their story.

Think about mixing up the kind of books and articles you read. Find blogs about science, history, or essays about literature online.

Also try an article or a book about an issue you interested in – psychology, politics or society, or even brain function – as reading smart helps if you are interested in what you read.

 

7. Use the Internet wisely

The Internet is the hand that feeds us, but the mouth that bites us.

It can both help make us smarter, while at the same time eliminates many cognitive tasks.

The Internet has stopped us from navigating, using our memories and, to a degree, socializing – all important activities for keeping our brains in good condition.

Yet we can use the Internet to gain access to articles about challenging subject matter, Ted lectures and brain training puzzles.

One major problem with the Internet is that made us addicted to searching for novel and bite-sized chunks of information,.

But what we need to do, as Ian Leslie in his book Curious argues, that we need to develop “epistemic curiosity” – which is a focused, disciplined commitment to mastering new disciplines and information.

In other words, try to use the Internet for research about single topics and read long-form articles rather than clicking for new information all the time.

 

8. Online brain training – do they work?

Many brain training computer games claim they are backed by science. Is this true:

While you may become better at the computer game do they increase your fluid and working memories? Are you to become smarter at everything rather than just at the brain trainer you are playing.

The most effective online brain tool tool is the free Soak Your Head brain training game based on the Dual N-Back Task.

In a research paper called “Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory” by Susanne M. Jaeggi and her colleagues showed that participants increased their fluid and working memories signficnatly if they played the game 20 minutes every day for 19 days.

But that’s not the reason why I like Soak Your Head. That’s something way more interesting on the website that will help make you smarter:

Unlike most websites and serious news publications that have written about Jaeggi’s research, Soak Your Head do the insanely clever thing and offer reasons why the reason could be flawed.

That’s smart.

They didn’t just lap up the results and like every other brain training website on the planet,  which offer debatable scientific evidence in order to get you to buy their product.
Soak You Heat while pointing out the research results were astonishing, also pointed out they was preliminary. They said the research needed to be repeated to ensure they were reliable because the results could have been influenced by three potential variables:

The effect duration

The nature of intelligence

And the nature of intelligence tests – check out their full criticism here.

But it is the only brain trainer that has been shown to improve fluid intelligence and working memory.  So at only 20 minutes a day you could make a smart calculation to spending the time doing it as the research could be sound.

“Many of these improvements remain over the course of several months, suggesting that the benefits of the training are long lasting.”

Another interested brain trainer is Elevate  which again does something different to many other brain triaining online tools.

The brain trainer focuses on improving your reading comprehension, vocabulary and analytical skills.

Instead of focusing on shapes and patterns, the goal is to refine your communication skills and help you focus. While competitors focus on shapes, patterns and colors, Elevate focuses on the spoken and written word for its games.

But it does seem that brain trainers are getting better. The first randomized control trial for brain training tests in improving the brain functioning of older people has found that after six months they had better reasoning and verbal learning.

This website has over 100 original mind games, puzzles and other brain exercises. Spend some time surfing here to find games that appeal to you and to see the full range of ways to exercise your brain.

 

9. Practice logical reasoning tests

Many employers test for the logical reasoning powers of their potential employers. These are some of the hardest tests, requiring you to think mathematically, verbally and logically.

A way to become smarter at key skills that you’ll use at work is to take the practice test papers. They require a lot of concentration but you really do feel that you’ve given your mind a work out.

You can find them at Longevity, Assessment Day and Practice Aptitude Tests, while Think Logically will help you think logically, of course.

 

10. Do an online university course

Structured learning at an online university allows you to focus on in-depth learning which improves your knowledge and concentration.

They can help you sharpen your knowledge, memory and critical thinking skills.

You’ll also learn something new which will make you smarter not only because you know something new but it will grow new brain cells.

A number of popular online institutions which are run by academic include Udacity and the Khan Academy.

Coursera works with leading universities around the world to provide their courses to anyone who wants to learn them. There are 800 courses and you get a qualification at the end of each one.

 Future Learn is a site that offers free courses, in categories such as Law, Psychology, Teaching and many more. Partnered with some of the finest universities that the UK has to offer, you can be guaranteed that the content of the course will always be high quality.

 

11. Go back to school

Having access to the Internet helps you to learn, but going out to an actual class accessing parts of your mind that the Internet can’t reach.

In a classroom environment you will be actively listening for a long period of time, unlie the internet when you can start and top when you want to.

You will contribute you own ideas and undertake assignments. And you’ll discuss ideas with other class mates – socliasing and discussing ideas is a proven way to improve you mind.

12. Write an essay for fun

If you really want to challenge yourself, pick a topic you are interested in, research it and find an online syllabus and chose an essay question to write about.

This will take your critically reading of a text to a new level.

You can find sample essay questions for most topics here at Your Essay.

 

13. Use mnonics for a better memory

 

 

 

14. Write a review of a book

 

Another way to engage with a book that you have read is to write a review about it and crtically engage with some of the issues that you have been reading about.

Don’t just write whether you like the book but critically engage with.

 

 

 

15. Read an article or book taking the opposite view

In many subjects there will be differing view points with different evidence and conclusions.

Try to read an article or book taking opposing views or even another book about the same topic that may engage with it in a more critically way.

 

16. Join a debating society or argue with friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening to a lecture can challenge the way you think and full your head with new information.

But if you want to the lecture to make you smart you need to go one step further.

You need to argue or debate the issues with someone else.

Carl Wieman, the Nobel-Prize winning physicist, found that his students were learning that much from his brilliant lectures. Only ten percent remember any information from them. So he got them to explain, argue and debate the issues in his lecture. Understanding went up 50 to 100 percent.

 

17. Exercise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you know, exercise is good for you. It increases oxygen to the brain, but it also does something else.

It is possibly the most important activity you can do to ward of dementia.

Exercise actually build grey matters and protects you from age-related memory and cognitive function loss.

Exercise isn’t just about looking great, losing the belly, but is about making your smarter, much, much smarter.

But again you have to push yourself.

Don’t just jogging at a relaxing pace won’t do it. You need to push yourself a little each time.

Researchers at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School have honed in on a specific molecule released during endurance exercise that improves cognition and protects the brain against degeneration.

In a breakthrough discovery, scientists have now honed in on a specific molecule called irisin that is produced in the brain during endurance exercise through a chain reaction. Irisin is believed to have neuroprotective effects.

 

18. Learn a musical instrument

Learning to read music and play a musical instrument makes you smarter because you progress – pushing yourself and getting better each time, and it require juggling information and analysis.

Learning to play an instrument is like giving your mind a full body workout.

Takes lesson and practice as often as you can.

 

19. Do a crossword, but make it a hard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crosswords are good for improving your ability to retrieve words and remember vocabulary.

Anecdotally this to me seems pretty important given the amount of times I’ve been out with friends who can’t remember names and words.

Start off with a quick crossword but ensure that you are pushing yourself. As soon as you get good as doing a quick crossword, move up to an easy cryptic crossword.

 

20. Space your learning

If part of your strategy for becoming smarter is learning new information or undertaking a course, then you also need how to study smart (link here to revision or how to study).

The most in-depth study of 10 learning techniques by published in the Journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest found that space or distributed learning was by far the effective strategy to learn a new subject.

This means don’t cram any new learning over a short space of time, but learn it over a longer period with a max 40 minutes sessions followed by a ten minute break.

If you cram new information then you’re likely to remember afterwards for about an hour or even day, but then try to remember it a month later and you won’t.

 

21. Revise what you have learnt

The second most important strategy for learning that the research above found was to regularly recall and test yourself on knowledge or the information you are trying to learn.

Students who can test themselves or try to retrieve material from their memory are going to learn that material better in the long run…A century of research has shown that repeated testing works.
Professor John Dunlovsky, State Kent University

 22. Take up meditation

Meditation makes you smarter in two ways:

It helps you to increase your ability to focus and turn off the world outside, which includes the Internet, the patron saint of distraction.

You are more likely to concentrate, think clever unique thoughts while you are not being distracted.

Research at Harvard University found that mindfulness mediation was found to increased the cortical thickness in the hippocampus, which controls learning and memory.

Another study found that just a few weeks of meditation helped improve concentration, focus and memory.

All you do is sit quietly and focus on your breath. When your thoughts begin to wander, you gently pull them back. When that work meeting pops in your head, come back to your breath. When you start mentally adding to your grocery list, come back to your breath. Doing this for even 20 minutes a day can have dramatic results, especially, Hurley says, if you’re one of those “office workers who are checking Facebook every 20 minutes.”

23. Mistakes make you smarter
 

But only if you respond to your mistakes in the right way. You should learn to enjoy your mistakes.

Humans have developed and grown more intelligent over the course of history because we learn from their mistakes.

But, of course, there are lots of examples where we’ve acted pretty dump, making the same mistake and never seeming to learn any lessons. The reason for this is straightforward:

When we make a mistake our ego’s step in causing us to be defensive, chase our losses do anything we can to save face, pretend the mistakes doesn’t matter, and maybe keep making the same mistake.

Success and being smart is about learning from mistakes, but making mistakes is central to what we do.

The smart mind will see a mistake as a wake up call and as a problem to be solved, increasing attention and focus. A bad response would be to shut down and get anxious about any negative feedback or mistakes you’ve mad.

Try looking at the problem in a new way and learning more information.

 

24. Listen to stimulating podcasts

Use your smartphone for something other than social media and download an intellectual postcast.

You can listen to Ted talks as audio and there are range of podcasts from philosophy to history and science.

You can find the top science podcasts here  and here.

Educational pod casts.

25. Sleep well or nap

 

Napping helps your mind refresh.

It’s been shown that napping during learning increases learning speed.

Your mind has a rhythm that determines when it gets sleepy and when it needs sleep: As you can see on average people feel more sleepy than usual between noon and 4 PM. This is a perfect time to have a nap, and will increase your alertness and productivity for the rest of the day.

26. Carry a notepad

Great minds like Leonardo Da Vinci always carries a notepad. They used it to jot down ideas, sketches and questions they had for later review. Having a little book on you and writing down interesting things can greatly help you train your curiosity and logical thinking.

 

27. Learn a new language

Arguably one of the most well-known and most supported platforms for learning a foreign language. With simple step-by-step interactive guides on learning another language, you’ll be speaking a new language in absolutely no time!

memrise. Flash cards, mixed with the addictive nature of gaming. This one is great for those looking to improve their overall general knowledge, while having fun. It’s available in a multitude of languages!

Learning a new language may not always be an easy task but it definitely has numerous advantages-making you smarter, being one of them.

The process of learning a new language involves tasks such as analyzing grammatical structures and learning new words, which enhances your intelligence and brain health.

It has also been proven through various experiments that people with high levels of verbal-linguistic intelligence are great at planning, decision-making and problem-solving.

 

28. Drink water

Drinking water and staying hydrated can reduce anxiety, improve brain function and concentration.

There’s little point trying to get smart if you’re neglecting the one organ that will make you smarter.

You feed yourself when you’re hungry, so water your brain and see it grow and flourish.

29. eat well and drink different meal

 

Many of us feel that cooking is a mere waste of time and it’s something we very much want to avoid.

But instead of whining, you should feel happy when you have the opportunity to cook. Regular cooks, particularly the ones who try out a variety of meals, have high levels of creativity. They are committed to quality, aren’t afraid to try things out and they pay great attention to details.

Whenever you cook something, you are learning to multitask, measure with precision and make quick decisions. With all of these skills you’re acquiring, you’re becoming smarter too.

 

30. Stop worrying, start thinking

You might lie awake at night worrying that you aren’t smart enough, or dwell on the fact that you forgot a word or the name of a book during a conversation at dinner.

Maybe you read a book and can’t remember the names of characters or a new word you tried to remember.

Perhaps you’ve had a conversation with someone who just brims with intelligence and can remember every fact, name and erudite argument on the planet.

While being concerned about your performance can give you the motivation to improve, over worrying will rob you of energy and the time when you could be doing something to make you the smartest person in the room.

This guide will make you smarter, more intelligent and give you the ability to think more critically, but you have to do yourself a favour.

 

 

 

 

The post Become smarter and more intelligent every day with these proven 30 science-backed tips appeared first on .