17 Small Things To Do Every Day To Be Much Smarter

Intelligence is flexible and there are a lot of things to give
it a daily boost. For smart thinking your mind needs 3
things:
1. To be trained in thinking processes
2. To have plenty of information
3. To focus on a problem or idea
For example, Thomas Edison was able to think of his light

bulb because:
1. He was a trained logical thinker
2. He knew a lot about electrical engineering
3. He focused on solving a problem

Here are a bunch of things to do every day to help your
mind to think smart.

1. Drink 2 glasses of water within 30 minutes
of waking up
Since you’ve been asleep for hours, your body has not
gotten water for 6-9 hours. Water is needed for the
filtration of waste products and fluid balance. Two big
glasses of water offset the fluid deficit you had from
sleeping. Studies on kids ( study 1, study 2) show that
drinking more water increases their ability to complete
mental tasks. Make sure your brain is not dehydrated at
the beginning of the day already.

2. Read a book summary during breakfast
Reading books is great, but breakfast is far more suitable
for something shorter. Instead of reading news articles
that have little impact on your life/intelligence, read best
selling book summaries. You can find summaries by:
Googling your book title + summary, for example “7
Habits of Highly Effective People summary”
Use a summary subscription like Blinkist
or getAbstract

3. Listen to stimulating podcasts audiobooks during
your commute
Even if you spend only 10 minutes on your bike like I do,
load your phone up with intellectually stimulating audio.
Good sources could be:
TED talks (their app lets you pre-download audio so
you don’t eat your mobile data)
Blinkist has some of their summaries in audio form
Audiobooksyou purchased
Podcast of your favorite authors

4. Drink green tea while working
Where caffeine makes many people anxious, green tea
(especially Matcha tea) contains l-theanine. This
aminoacid causes an increase in alpha brain waves in the
brain:

In practice this means that where coffee can induce
anxiety, high quality green teas cause a relaxed focus
without inducing sleepiness. This is also why l-theanine is
available as a supplement to aid in relaxation
and increasing cardiovascular health.

5. Take naps during the day
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. Personally I’ve has
good results with post-workday naps too (around 6 PM).

6. Don’t take sugar during the day
In fact, if you can cut it altogether. But if you can’t for
whatever reason, just make sure not to have it during
times where you need to focus. Sugar highs and the
following lows are not good to keep your brain functioning
smartly. What does work very well are fatty acids. Try
to switch any sweet stuff during lunch for something more
substantial like fish or eggs.

7. Do social media / meme websites only a couple
of times a day
The brain adapts to the information you throw at it. If you
bombard it work non-stimulating and fast switching
information your focus will get destroyed. Keep your brain
functioning on a higher level by throwing stimulating things
at it. If you feel the need to procrastinate, set a timer and
don’t get lost in mindlessly scrolling.

 8. Play games instead of watching series or movies
Watching TV that even a simple game like Super
Mario has visible impact on brain plasticity
(flexibility). Another piece of research covered by
Forbes shows the same. Actively engage your brain where
you can, instead of letting it slumber passively.

9. Read a book instead of watching
Similar to playing games instead of watching TV, reading a
book is an active exercise for the brain. Where watching
video entertainment is a passive consumption of
information, reading a book requires your brain to actively
construct mental images of what you are reading.

10. Do some programming
Programming is a great way to learn to think logically and
in patterns. Coding used to be hard to learn but with free
websites like Codeacademy and free/paid platforms like
Udemy it is easy and fun to learn. Consider it the next
level of puzzles. As an added advantage learning to code
in your free time increases your employ-ability in the job
market.

11. Watch TED talks while cooking
Preparing dinner is a great time to catch up on some
cutting edge developments in Technology, Education and
Design (ted.com ). It turns what would otherwise be
downtime into a fascinating and stimulating block of time.
It’s like watching the news, only you are watching the
world’s most inspiring individuals talk about their work.

12. Do some simple exercises during the day
The body and the mind are strongly connected. Physical
fitness helps the brain function well. You don’t however
have to go to the gym every day to benefit from this
(though you can of course). Doing some push-ups
throughout the day and walking or skipping up some stairs
has a great impact already. Try to do something physical
every hour or so, even if it’s just getting up, stretching a
little and tensing all your muscles as hard as you can for
5-10 seconds.

13. Spend time with someone smarter than you
Habits are socially contagious. It is a well known fact in
science that obesity for example spreads through social
networks (link to research). The habits and thinking
patterns of those you spend time with rub off on
you. Expose yourself to people who are smarter than you
in order to benefit from them.

14. Talk to people who disagree with you
Get into (friendly) discussions with people who disagree
with you on any topic. Arguing with them allows you to
either:
Sharpen your arguments
Be convinced that you are wrong
In both cases you win. In the first you convince the other
person by out reasoning them, and I the second false logic
you previously had is not eliminated.

15. Go for a walk in nature
Walking through nature has a number of benefits:
There is more oxygen since plants produce it
The human mind calms down when surrounded by
plants
Walking helps your blood circulation
Having a walk in a park at lunch time can greatly help you
work smartly for the rest of the day.

16. 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.

17. Take 10 minutes at the end of the day to plan
tomorrow
By planning tomorrow the day before you begin the day
with a plan. This allows you to work much more
productively. Many people are busy all day, but not
actually productive. A great part of being smart is knowing
that hard work is inferior to smart work. Pick your battles
in advance.