Excercise and Cognitive Performance

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Most of us have gone for a walk to clear our heads at one time or another. Most often, we tend to take this form of exercise while working on very mind-intensive problems, such as studying or reading a hard-to-understand piece of material. According to some researchers, there may be a connection between exercise and clear thinking. According to this article, your daily run may not only keep you in good health physically, but may also help "clear the cobwebs" from your mind. One of the more widely publicized benefits of exercise is its positive effects on stress levels. As our society moves toward technical jobs rather than those involving physical labor, the number of people living a … [Read more...]

Laptop for taking Notes

Unclutter posted an article about using a laptop to take notes at college.  I tend to disagree.  It is hard to beat a pen and paper for taking notes.  One thing that is commonly overlooked is how different tools exercise your mind.  When you work on the computer it uses substantially different parts of your brain than when you write with pen and paper. (I don't know what happens if you use a typewriter.)  Since so much research and writing papers is done on the computer, taking notes by hand allow you to interact with the content in as many different parts of the brain as possible.  What do you think?  Is a laptop an effective way to take notes in a classroom? … [Read more...]

The Zone

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There are two things that will impact how much you get done.  First, there is the amount of time you spend.  Obviously, you can get more done in 20 minutes than in 2.  The second is how focused you are.  This factor is referred to as, being in "the zone". When it comes to your personal productivity, the second factor is usually more important than the first.  How many times have you spent 30 minutes working on a task that you didn't really want to do and made very little progress, but when you truly decide you want to complete that task it only takes 15 minutes? This a common occurrence for most people. Often the biggest differentiator between highly productive and less productive … [Read more...]

Take a Nap for Memory

Studies suggest that your memories are solidified while you sleep.  Your brain does a lot of work during your rest--almost like it is busy filing and making sense of everything you've discovered while you were awake.  When you've learned a new concept or information that you want to retain, consider taking a nap or reviewing it right before going to bed.  This will give your brain the best chance to assimilate the new information. … [Read more...]

How to Memorize Verbatim Text

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If you are visiting from StumbleUpon and like this article and tool, please consider giving it a thumbs up. Thanks! Memorizing does not have to be as hard as most people make it. The problem is that most people only know how to memorize by reading the same thing over and over again. You have to learn to memorize. In this post we are going to look at how the brain remembers and then show how to use that knowledge to come up with a method for memorizing verbatim text.  Any tip or trick that will improve your memory even slightly is well worth the effort. In this article we are going to focus on a technique that will let you easily: Memorize a speech Memorize the … [Read more...]