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

• “Guesstimate”. Are there more leaves in the Amazon rainforest or neuron connections in your brain? (answer).
• Act in a stageplay.
• Adopt a genius. (Leonardo is excellent company!)
• Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
• Allocate time for brain development.
• Be around people that are smarter than you.
• Be aware of cognitive biases.
• Be childish!
• Be curious!
• Be humorous! Write or create a joke.
• Be slightly hungry.
• Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
• become a self-directed learner
• Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, shower with your eyes closed.
• brain storming or developing creative skills
• Brainstorm!
• Build a Memory Palace.
• Buy a piece of art that disturbs you. Stimulate your senses in thought-provoking ways.
• Capture every idea. Keep an idea bank.
• Challenge yourself.
• Change clothes. Go barefoot.
• Change the media you’re working on. Use paper instead of the computer; voice recording instead of writing.
• Change the speed of certain activities. Go either super-slow or super-fast deliberately.
• Change your environment. Change the placement of objects or furniture — or go somewhere else.
• Change your perspective. Short/long-term, individual/collective.
• Collect quotes.
• Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
• Conquer procrastination.
• cooking & discovering the chemistry behind that
• Crawl backwards, walk up steps backwards.
• Create a List of 100.
• 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.
• Dance!
• Debate! Defend an argument. Try taking the opposite side, too.
• Deep-breathe.
• Deliver more than what’s expected.
• Describe one experience in painstaking detail.
• Develop comparative tasting. Learn to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese or anything else.
• Develop self-awareness.
• Develop your reading skill. Reading effectively is a skill. Master it.
• Develop your visualization skills. Use it at least 5 minutes a day.
• Discuss religion and politics, even with friends.
• Do It Yourself: Create or repair things without the aid of paid professionals. Repair, sew, cook, build, weave, paint, etc.
• Do mental math.
• Do one thing at a time.
• Don’t stick with only like-minded people. Have people around that disagree with you.
• Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be an artist.
• Drink lots of water.
• Dump the calendar!
• Eat ‘brain foods’.
• Eat at different restaurants – ethnic restaurants specially.
• Eat raw foods.
• Eat with chopsticks.
• Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
• 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.
• Engage in arts — sculpt, paint, play music — or any other artistic endeavor.
• Exercise!
• Face your fears!
• Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
• Find metaphors. Connect abstract and specific concepts.
• Find novel uses for common objects. How many different uses can you find for a nail? 10? 100?
• Find out your learning style.
• Get competitive.
• Get familiar with the scientific method.
• Get in touch with nature.
• Get random input. Write about a random word in a magazine. Read random sites using StumbleUpon or Wikipedia.
• Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
• Go technology-less.
• Go to the root of the problems.
• Have a half-speed day.
• Have a network of supportive friends.
• Have an Idea Quota.
• Have sex! (sorry, no links for this one! )
• Have your own mental sanctuary.
• Help a child with their homework.
• Help an immigrant learn your language
• history of food culture
• Imagine how would you survice in a different epoch (say, 5000 years go).
• Improve your concentration.
• Improve your vocabulary.
• Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate. Return to them at regular intervals.
• Install a different operating system on your computer.
• Keep a journal.
• Keep a lexicon of interesting words. Invent your own words.
• Laugh!
• Learn a foreign language.
• Learn a musical instrument.
• Learn a peg system for memory.
• Learn Braille. You can start learning the floor numbers while going up or down the elevator.
• Learn creativity techniques.
• Learn how to program a computer.
• Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
• Learn martial arts.
• Learn mind mapping.
• Learn sign language.
• Learn to juggle.
• Learn to knit or crochet.
• Learn to lucid dream.
• Learn to speed-read.
• Learn to use different keyboard layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full mind twist!
• Listen to music.
• Look for brain resources in the web.
• Make friends with math. Fight ‘innumeracy’.
• Make mistakes!
• Manage stress.
• Master self-talk.
• Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and an empty mind.
• Memorize people’s names.
• Mix your senses. How much does the color pink weigh? How does lavender scent sound?
• multitask: Think about two different things at once
• physical exercises on a regular basis
• Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.
• Play bridge (or other card games).
• Play chess or other board games. Play via Internet (particularly interesting is to play an ongoing game by e-mail).
• play Go
• Play role-playing games (RPG)
• Play video games.
• Power nap.
• Practice ‘environmental creativity’. Keep asking yourself questions like “What does this mean?” and “How can I use this?”.
• Practice echolocation (sense objects by hearing echoes from those objects)
• Practice Yoga.
• Provide thoughtful comments on blogs and websites.
• Pun! Play with words.
• Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How would different people think or solve your problems? How would a fool tackle it?
• Read text upside down
• Read the classics.
• Remember childhood and imagine living it with your current experience.
• Reverse your assumptions.
• Say your problems out loud.
• SCAMPER!
• Shop at a market different from the usual.
• Simplify!
• Sit up straight.
• sleep
• Sleep well.
• Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
• Spell long words backwards. !gnignellahC
• Study how the brain works.
• Study Philoshophy and the writings of great thinkers.
• Study the concepts of Relativity (both General and Special).
• Summarize books.
• Take an improvisation class.
• Take different routes each day. Change the streets you follow to work, jog or go back home.
• 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.
• Take time for solitude and relaxation.
• Taking a course of study throughout your life
• Teach someone something you know.
• Teach yourself origami.
• Think of something you fear. Work to conquer it.
• Think positive.
• Translate articles
• Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
• Travel abroad. Learn about different lifestyles.
• Treat life’s challenges as social experiments
• Try different perfumes and scents.
• Try to mentally estimate the passage of time.
• Turn off the TV.
• Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
• Use ‘brain fitness’ software.
• Use a reverse clock. You can buy one or make your own.
• Use time boxing.
• Vary activities. Get a hobby.
• Visit a museum.
• Watch movies from different genres.
• Write a story, poetry, start a blog.
• Write success journal scrapbook everyday