10 Ways Improve Your Memory & Boost Brainpower

Since you are going to be studying for the First Test in HIS 112, here are some hacks to improve memory.

Now that you have study guides, are you looking for a way to study and learn them? Try this free flashcard app:

http://quizlet.com/

Steve

10 Ways Improve Your Memory & Boost Brainpower: "

Have you ever noticed that some people are able to effortlessly remember even the most mundane details, and quickly comprehend new things, and wished that you too could be like that? Well, you can. To unlock the full potential of your brain, you need to keep it active and acute. Wasting away on your couch watching mindless television shows is not going to help. Besides getting out flashcards, what can you do to help remember things better and learn new things more quickly? Check out these tips:

1. Exercise & get your body moving – exercising doesn’t just exercise the body, it also helps to exercise your brain. Obesity and the myriad of diseases that eventually set in as a result of being overweight can cause serious harm to the brain. Furthermore, without regular exercise plaque starts to build up in your arteries and your blood vessels begin to lose the ability to effectively pump blood. Plaque buildup leads to heart attacks, but it also reduces the amount of oxygen and nutrients that your blood carries to your brain. When the nutrients don’t make it there, the brain’s ability to function is compromised. To prevent this from happening, make sure you get moving every day, even if its just a brisk walk, it’ll help you maintain and increase your mental accuity. Brisk walking , swimming and dancing are all excellent activities.


2. Eliminate stressors and seek help for depression (if you have it). Anything that causes you major stress, like anger or anxiety, will in time begin to eat away at the parts of your brain that are responsible for memory. Amongst the most brain-damaging stressors is depression, which is actually often misdiagnosed a a memory problem since one of its primary symptoms is the inability to concentrate. If you can’t concentrate, then you might feel like you are constantly forgetting things. Depression increases the levels of cortisol in your bloodstream, which elevates the cortisol levels in the brain. Doctors have found that increased cortisol diminishes certain areas of the brain, especially the hippocampus, which is where short-term memories are stored. Prolonged depression can thus destroy your brain’s ability to remember anything new. Seek professional help to combat your depression – your brain will thank you.


3. Get a good night’s sleep and take naps. Getting a consistent 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night will increase your memory. During sleep, the brain firms up memories of recently acquired information and getting enough sleep will help you get through the full spectrum of nocturnal cycles that are essential to optimal brain and body functioning during the waking hours. Taking a nap throughout the day, especially after learning something new, can also help you to retain those memories as well as recharge your brain and keep it sharper longer.


4. Write it down. If there’s something you want to remember, writing it down can help. Writing it down creates oxygenated blood flow to areas of your brain that a responsible for your memories and literally exercises those parts of it. You can start a journal, write yourself e-mails, or even start keeping a blog – all of these activities will help to improve your capacity to remember and memorize information.


5. Listen to music. Research shows that certain types of music are very helpful in recalling memories. Information that is learned while listening to a particular song or collection can often be recalled by thinking of the song or “playing” it mentally. Songs and music can serve as cues for pulling up particular memories.


6. Feed your brain. 50 to 60 percent of the brain’s overall weight is pure fat, which is used to insulate its billions of nerve cells. The better insulated a cell is, the faster it can send messages and the quicker you will be thinking. This is precisely why parents are advised to feed their young children whole milk and to restrict dieting – their brains’ need fat to grow and work properly. Skimping on fats can be devastating even to the adult brain. Thus, eating foods that contain a healthy mix of fats is vital for long-term memory. Some excellent food choices include fish (especially anchovies, mackerel and wild salmon) and dark leafy green vegetables. Deep-fried foods obviously contain fat, but their lack of nutritional value is going to help your brain or your body, so think healthy foods and fats.


7. Visual concepts. In order to remember things, many people need to visualize the information they are studying. Pay attention to photographers, charts and other graphics that might appear in your textbook, or if you’re not studying a book, try to pull up a mental image of what it is you are trying to remember. It might also help to draw your own charts or figures, or utilize colors and highlighters to group related ideas in your notes.


8. Teach someone else. Reading material out loud has been shown to significantly improve memory of the material. Expanding further upon this idea is the fact that psychologists and educators have found that by having students teach new concepts to others, it heps to enhance understanding and recall. Teach new concepts and information to a friend or study partner, and you’ll find you remember the information a lot better.


9. Do crossword puzzles, read, or play cards. Studies have shown that doing either of these activities on a daily basis not only keep your brain active, but also help to delay memory loss, especially in those who develop dementia. So pick up the daily newspaper and work on that crossword puzzle, read a book, or enjoy a game of solitaire.


10. Eat breakfast and make sure it includes an egg. Accrording to Larry McCleary, M.D., author of The Brain Trust Program, an egg is the ideal breakfast. Eggs contain B vitamins, which help nerve cells to burn glucose, antioxidants that protect neurons against damage, and omega-3 fatty acids that keep nerve cells firing at optimal speed. Other foods to add to your breakfast include fruits, veggies and lean proteins. Avoid trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. Trans fats diminish the brain cells’ ability to communicate with eachother, and HFCS can actually shrink the brain by damaging cells. Having a healthy breakfast in the morning has been shown to improve performance throughout the day.

What are some tips or tricks you have food to increase your memory and keep your brain sharp?

pts to others

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Use A Wiki To Ace Your Classes [Study]

Use A Wiki To Ace Your Classes [Study]: "

One of the tried and true best ways to study and retain information is to re-write the content - whether it be lecture notes, textbook facts and figures, or whatever - down again on paper. We can do one better than that, can't we?

A wiki is a great venue for bringing this idea into fruition without having to deal with all of that paper. Start with a blank wiki on a platform such as PBWorks or another lightweight cell-phone friendly version such as Wikka, and begin filling in your class knowledge.

Instead of cramming in study time at the last moment before midterms or finals, break it down into small chunks and when you have a spare moment, bring up your wiki on your phone for a short refresher. When you get larger amounts of time, fill out the wiki with class information - this method helps you retain facts much better than just reading.

How Ricardo Aced Computer Science Using His iPhone via Study Hacks

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Be the Most Prepared Member of a Meeting to Get Your Ideas Heard [Career]

Be the Most Prepared Member of a Meeting to Get Your Ideas Heard [Career]: "

Obviously we're all aware that being well-prepared is a virtue. Author Karl Fogel explains, however, that when it comes to preparing for meetings, coming more prepared than everyone else is the thing that will get your ideas heard.

Fogel explains how this works using the first meeting that founded the University of Virginia as an example. Thomas Jefferson, while he was not the only one with an agenda for the project, came far more prepared than everyone else:

When they gathered at that first meeting to hash things out, Jefferson made sure to show up with meticulously prepared architectural drawings, detailed budgets for construction and operation, a proposed curriculum, and the names of specific faculty he wanted to import from Europe. No one else in the room was even remotely as prepared; the group essentially had to capitulate to Jefferson's vision, and the University was eventually founded more or less in accordance with his plans.

The more you inundate the room with information (that others don't have), the more likely your dream is going to become the reality. This isn't necessarily about just coming prepared—that's just common sense—it's about being more prepared than everyone else. So know your audience and know your competitors, and as long as you can out-prepare them, you can probably get a pretty good foot in the door. Hit the links to read more. Photo by o5com.

Producing Open Source Software [via The Endeavour]

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You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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How Difficult Decisions Trick Your Brain Into Thinking They're Important [Mind Hacks]

I am fascinated with the many ways our brains fool themselves into doing much, much more work than is necessary. Is the following a fallacy in thinking? If so, how could a rhetor take advantage of the fallacy to better influence an audience?

Steve

How Difficult Decisions Trick Your Brain Into Thinking They're Important [Mind Hacks]: "

Have you ever stood in the supermarket, deciding between two different types of toothpaste, when suddenly you realize you've been there for ten minutes? Here's how you're being tricked into thinking small decisions are actually important.

Jonah Lehrer over at Wired describes this exact experience and seeks out an explanation. It turns out, when we have a lot of options put in front of us, decisions become more difficult—and we associate that difficulty with the importance of the decision. Scientists Aner Sela and Jonah Berger explain:

Our central premise is that people use subjective experiences of difficulty while making a decision as a cue to how much further time and effort to spend. People generally associate important decisions with difficulty. Consequently, if a decision feels unexpectedly difficult, due to even incidental reasons, people may draw the reverse inference that it is also important, and consequently increase the amount of time and effort they expend. Ironically, this process is particularly likely for decisions that initially seemed unimportant because people expect them to be easier.

Ed. note: This idea is very similar to the kind of cognitive dissonance you read about in your Intro to Psychology course: E.g., people rushing a fraternity or sorority often have to endure a miserable hazing process in order to join; if you willfully subjected yourself to pain or humiliation in order to join a group, you must love it. (Or that's how the logic goes.)

The two researchers demonstrated this idea through a study that showed harder-to-read fonts actually made people think a decision was more important—simply because it required more brainpower to make.

There's not much you can do to fix this, but it's something to keep in mind next time your'e at the supermarket. When you realize you've been standing there for over 30 seconds, think to yourself: 'is the decision between these two brands of deodorant really important?' The answer's probably no. Photo by {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}.

Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard? [Wired]

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You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

 

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How to create an active link using blogger.

1.  Begin by identifying the web page/blog post to which you wish to link.
2.  Open this link and copy (CNTL-C) the web address of the page or post for which you wish to create the link.
3.  Type in the material you want to use as the link of highlight it in your post.

Like this.

4.  This will open a dialogue which will ask for the web address.  Hit CNTL-V to paste in the web addresss and then hit "OK."

That's it you've created an active web link using blogger.

Steve 

5 Tips for Effective Digital Note Taking

5 Tips for Effective Digital Note Taking: "

Being a full time student, working two part time jobs, being married, and doing some writing and development on the side proves to be daunting. With my discovery of GTD a few years back I was like everyone else; enamored with the idea of getting things off their mind to then produce better and more effectively. I instantly grabbed onto the practice of “ubiquitous capture” by taking notes so I wouldn’t let as many things fall through the cracks.

At first I just used a junky old notebook and a crappy Bic pen. I slowly improved my tools as any good, geeky GTD student would. But it wasn’t until I switched over to a full digital work-flow that I started to see real benefits with the use of my system. I am in a very technical field at work and technical major at school; computers and devices are around me all day long. It only made sense to capture and process thoughts and actions digitally as it was faster and more “iron-clad” for me.

Here are 5 tips on on digital note taking as well some of the pitfalls to look out for.

Make sure to stay engaged

There is absolutely nothing more annoying that someone click-clacking their way away on a keyboard or iPhone when you are trying to have a conversation with them, regardless if they are actually taking notes or not.

If you are a very fast typer, maybe around 50+ WPM it is a good practice to listen to what someone is saying then jot down a sentence or two to summarize it. Or, if you are in a meeting you could always say, “one second while I get this down so I don’t forget.” The idea is to capture what you need without constantly looking at your screen or phone and not paying attention.

Edit and consolidate

One of the biggest things that I noticed from taking extensive school notes was that a lot of the stuff was pure garbage. I would say that out of typing through a whole 55 minute lecture, I had about a couple of pages of text that was extremely out of order and mostly indecipherable. After taking a look through each class’s notes I soon realized that I have about a half a page of bullet points that were really important and all the rest was considered details and reference.

Now, I wouldn’t say delete everything that isn’t the main points of what you captured, but I would say to consolidate your notes. One good way of doing this is to summarize your notes from a meeting and then take the original junk that you typed down and save it in a “repository” of some kind just in case there was a minor detail you actually did need later.

Make them available from anywhere

I am a very mobile person and because of that I need a way to input notes and access them from anywhere I have an Internet connection or device. My tools of choice that make this happen include Springpad, Evernote, and Simplenote. I won’t go into which one I think is better; the important thing is that you can reach them from anywhere and all of them are decently reliable and extremely useful.

Put a voice to your notes

Something that I have found to be game-changing when it comes to capturing information is recording a lecture or meeting while taking notes. There are several ways that you can do this, but what I have adopted is the Livescribe pen and paper so I can write naturally, record audio with my writing, and still have digital notes that can (somewhat) easily be transformed to text. You can of course use tools like OneNote for Windows and Circus Ponies NoteBook for Mac to record and type at the same time.

Have you ever had a note you took during a meeting that didn’t make a lick of sense? I know I have. Yet, when recording audio and locking it up to your notes you can refer back to what was being said around the moment you were capturing it. This helps clarify and make your notes come “alive”. Of course, you definitely want to tell your colleagues that you are recording them before hand, that is unless you are looking for someone to sue you.

Choose a tool and stick to it

The biggest tip, and this goes with everything that is related to personal productivity systems; find a tool you love, one that works well for you, and stick to it. I am Captain Fiddly when it comes to list making, project tracking, note-taking, and productivity software. About a year and a half ago I gave up on googling “best note-taking tools” and “best online GTD systems” and just stuck with what I had and what worked well enough for me.

If you have a productivity system itch like I do, pick something simple like Simplenote or if you want a little more power, Evernote or Springpad and devote 30 days to that tool. I guarantee after 30 days that “itch” will go away and you can concentrate more on getting things done rather than finding the best new note tool that doesn’t exist.

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How to Write Faster [Writing]

How to Write Faster [Writing]: "

Whether you're drafting an email or writing a research paper, getting your words onto the page more quickly can help you save hours of your working life. If you want to write more in less time—but without sacrificing quality—you can employ a few tricks to speed things up.

To be clear, we're not talking about the physical act of writing or typing. No matter how fast your typing skills are, the major bottleneck when it comes to writing is your head. If you can communicate more fluently on paper or monitor—overcoming common stumbling blocks—you may just find yourself a more prolific writer.

The prevailing literature about speed writing has turned up basically four things you can do to make your writing flow more easily and quickly:

Refine Your Main Idea

Like speed dating, speed writing requires you to communicate very quickly—in a short period of time—some essential ideas about yourself (or what you're writing about). The first step in speeding up your writing process, therefore, is to identify those main ideas.

Nothing slows writing down more than not knowing what it is you want to say or what you're writing about. Clarify and refine the main idea and major topics you have to cover beforehand, then identify and organize the research articles and materials that back up your story.

It doesn't matter what you're writing—an internal email, sales presentation, or personal blog post—before you actually start typing or penning your draft: do you know what it is that you need to say to your specific audience? For the greatest writing output, don't start writing until you've identified the major ideas and gathered all the materials you need for your writing. This way, you'll be able to hit the ground running.

Use Productivity Tools to Write More Efficiently

Another essential part of prep is setting up the tools and environment that facilitate faster writing. Arm yourself with tools that save your reference materials online, spellcheck your online writing, and limit distractions. We've already covered the usefulness of dual monitors and text expansion tools like Texter (and its Mac alternatives), but their productivity gains bear repeating. Text expansion tools can save you so much time, particularly if your writing involves templates or repetitive text.

If the physical keyboard is what's slowing you down, some people benefit from using speech-to-text software like Dragon Natural Speaking or alternative keyboard layouts like Dvorak (users claim to be much more productive when using the Dvorak system).

At the end of the day, all of these tools are designed to help you meet your objective: to write unimpeded, more efficiently. In other words, solid preparation and making the best use of available tools can really help your words flow. Just keep in mind: It's not about geeking out on writing tools. As soon as something isn't helping you, ditch it.

Speed Writing

Speed writing requires the preparation and setup above, and requires you to write nonstop until you've covered all the major ideas. Write your first draft very quickly—without stopping for errors in grammar or punctuation, looking up alternate words in the thesaurus, or doing any secondary research. Just write. Write your first draft nonstop and don't stop to re-read or edit each sentence or paragraph as you go along.

Often it helps to start with a warm-up writing session. Write a long email or begin your day tackling a less important writing task. Once you've gotten into the groove and if you've adequately prepared (as recommended above), you should be able to write more fluently.

After your first draft, you'll edit and proofread, but hopefully you'll find that the first speed-written draft (and its editing process) went much more more quickly than the times you fussed with the text while you were creating it.

Honing Your Craft

Getting to the Zen-like state where you're writing very efficiently nonstop and aren't even aware of the time passing will take practice. You can strengthen your writing abilities and speed by: reading everything you can get your hands on and writing every day. Studies have shown that the more frequently you write, the better and more quickly you do so later.

Also look for opportunities to simplify your writing, culling excess verbiage a la Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Try to use words more efficiently, eliminating unnecessary words like "personal" in phrases like "my personal favorite" (what other kind of favorite is there?). Typing unnecessary words wastes time, and because that's all we've really got, it pays to make as much of it as we can. Photo by laffy4k.

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Got a trick that helped you speed up your writing process? Let's hear it in the comments.

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