The good news is that it relatively simple to exercise those little grey cells – phew.

Here are some tips:-

Reading – This is the best “mind sport” for cognitive training. If it were in the Olympics it would be the 100m. If it were Tennis it’d be Wimbledon. If it were cheesy TV presenting – it’d be Noel Edmonds! Clearly the levels of difficulty vary significantly, but challenging reading material can extend our vocabulary and help form new neural pathways as we explore new concepts.

Using your creativity: be it a piece of design, a DIY project, a spot of gardening or creating an art piece, exercising your imagination and creativity, and drawing upon your short term “working memory” to work towards an envisaged goal, is shown to physically change the brain. (To be specific, Olesen et al showed it to increase dopamine receptor binding potential. After publishing his findings Dr Olesen went on to put up some shelving and painted a nice picture for Mrs Olesen)

Eating wisely- a diet rich in antioxidants- will help protect your brain cells. Physical activities maintain a good blood flow to the brain, along with oxygen and water molecules.

The social dimension is also important. Throughout our evolution, intelligence has been shown to be linked to the quality and quantity of human interactions. Consequently, relations with other people are helping you to maintain healthy connections among brain cells! – How poetic.

Cheerio.

Here are some simple but efficient how-to-focus recommendations.

• Start with a good night’s sleep (at least 8 hours every night). If you don’t rest enough your mind can’t concentrate enough.

• Food is also important to help you stay focused. A healthy breakfast (two simple slices of toast, fresh orange juice with pulp and a nice serving of hard boiled egg, for instance) gives you a fresh start.

What can you do to train your mind?

• Set your goals. If you write down the subject of the class from the beginning, you can also set goals for yourself, identify the area of knowledge you’ll learn about and find ways to stay focused as long as possible.

• Concentrating on a subject is aided by note taking. You need to listen carefully, then identify key points in your teacher’s discourse and “pin” them on a piece of paper. Search for key phrases such as, “This is important,” “This is the main idea,” “This will be on the test,” etc.

• Even if friends may not feel the same, gently but firmly avoid chit chats and similar distractions. As long as you are in class, concentration is your priority.

• Become more focused by getting involved in class discussions. Answer teacher’s questions intently and share your opinions, when solicited. You can simultaneously show your knowledge and increase your attention to the subject.

• If you don’t understand something, ask a question. Everyone may face a difficulty from time to time, but not everyone will have the courage to admit it.  You can find a solution and also increase motivation.

• Attitude is the key to staying focused: believe that you can do it and you will. Try visualize yourself in the future, especially when achieving your dreams and be that person you see in your future.

Sudoku Rules

Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3×3 square.

Sudoku Tips

* Start with number one and pencil in all options around the grid before moving on to number 2. When worked your way up to number nine, simply go back to the beginning and start with number one again

* Concentrate on the 3×3 mini grids, rather than rows and columns. They give up a lot of clues.

* If you’ve completed seven numbers in a row or column, then obviously the two boxes that are left must be one of the two remaining numbers left over. That row or column often passes through a mini-grid where you also have two options. Frequently, you can deduct exactly where the two leftover numbers go.

Whether we are in class or at home, alone or in a group, we often need to pay attention to tasks. If you have difficulties in focusing, we have some suggestions on how to maintain attention.

Athletes keep pushing their limits constantly, especially when loosing focus. When you feel like giving up the task, choose a number, like five, and stimulate yourself to read five more sentences or listen five more minutes and so on, depending on the area you meet your focus obstacle.

Don’t let concerns take over your mind, keep focus on one task at a time. That means prioritize and voluntarily dealing with problems instead of letting exhaustion take over your brain. Write down these pressuring tasks and keeping in mind only the most important at the moment.

If you think it would be easier to start or to continue a task LATER, be aware! It’s just procrastination fooling you to lose focus and once you do that things will actually prove to be harder to complete.

Old-school methods are still working for modern brains. If you feel like really loosing it, simply use your hands to bring attention back. Cup your hands around the eyes to block the sight of distracting surroundings or stimuli.

And sometimes do just the opposite: look at things you usually ignore as if it was for the first time. It’s incredible how the attention concentrates, so try this as a daily exercise: choose something familiar and watch it with new eyes.

Everyone wants to know the right thing at the right time, to find ingenious solutions to puzzling problems, in a word, to act smarter. This goal is not so far as we may imagine, even if we are not born with an extensive database of “how-to’s”. Instead we have the entire life to practice our natural ability to solve problems that psychologist have baptized “intelligence”.

Modern people believe in multitasking, but the old-fashioned focus on what you’re doing still works best. Concentrating our attention on the main things helps us learn and adapt quicker to the situation.

We should use those methods of learning we are keen to. Put into good practice the inborn abilities, whether they are mostly intellectual or practical. If we have them, there’s no point in pretending we are good at something totally opposite.

A book a day keeps your intelligence awake. Ok, likely not an entire book, but a daily reading routine is what teaches us something new, like new ways of dealing with common tasks. Try about an hour /40 pages of literature, non-fiction, scientific books, whatever makes your day and try the real thing instead of e-books.

Seems like a luxury, but creative activities are accessible for the artist in every one of us. The hobbies you enjoy are the seeds of creativity – don’t waste anything!  You will see things from new angles, change perspectives and eventually come up with out-of-box solutions!

Answer to the riddle last week: ‘Are the spots in the centre the same size?‘: They are the same size!

Which superfoods help our brain function at optimum level? Would it be walnuts, sage or turmeric, or all of these? Actually, there are many natural ingredients doing a great job for our brain, but here we present you a list of five, based on researches and consumer’s reports:

Green tea- that’s too easy! Not if you’re looking for the real deal: stone-ground Japanese Matcha is not the regular green tea bag, but the green tea leaf itself, whole, the powder being mixed with hot water. Very rich in chlorophyll, calms the nervous system and reputedly has anti-cancer and anti-aging benefits.

Fresh berries- especially Acai and blueberries-have the highest content of antioxidants and vitamins. Brain benefits rise and disease risks lower.

Cacao beans (don’t jump on your chocolate!)- enhances cognitive functions and positive moods, because of its rich content of flavonoids and antioxidants. Either chose organic high-quality cocoa powder or dark chocolate bars (at least 75% cacao content or higher).

Do you like fish? If not, you should. Wild salmon is one of the best sources of essential fatty acids and high-quality non-land animal protein. It was proven to improve brain matter, synaptic connections and even mood, reducing the risk of Dementia, Alzheimer’s and stroke.

Controversial coffee beans are also rich with antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Fresh-ground gently roasted coffee bean powder reduces the risk of mental decline and diseases. Just keep your coffee simple, without artificial cream and sweeteners.

And don’t forget overall moderation IS the mother of health.

Super!

Um, what was i saying ..?

The average concentration span of a goldfish is about 1 second – after that, they just forget everything. Most goldfish spend all their time swimming around their bowl, being pleasantly surprised by all the new scenery.

Fortunately, we humans can concentrate for a little bit longer.

Clever fellas with big beards, worked out that your concentration span can be roughly worked out in minutes by adding one minute to the number of years old you are. This means that to get the most out of your brain, you need to work on one thing for a short burst, then have a break (and maybe a biscuit), and then ideally change some aspect of what you’re doing.

Drinking water

As we mentioned, fish aren’t too bright. You never see them talking with the Prime Minister, or trying to calculate how much a black hole weighs. But this is a little bit strange because they are always surrounded by water – and water is fantastically good at helping you to concentrate.

A bunch of Swiss boffins at the World Health Organsation, worked out that if we are 2% dehydrated, our ability to concentrate will fall by 20%. They reckon you should drink about two litres of water a day.

What all this means is that it is terrifically important to keep drinking lots of water if you want to be able to think clearly, or are about to try some quantum physics.

Try our Bottlecoolerpenholder to help you with this

ANSWER to last weeks’ Sudoku riddle:

Sudoku Rules

Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3×3 square.

Sudoku Tips

* Start with number one and pencil in all options around the grid before moving on to number 2. When worked your way up to number nine, simply go back to the beginning and start with number one again

* Concentrate on the 3×3 mini grids, rather than rows and columns. They give up a lot of clues.

* If you’ve completed seven numbers in a row or column, then obviously the two boxes that are left must be one of the two remaining numbers left over. That row or column often passes through a mini-grid where you also have two options. Frequently, you can deduct exactly where the two leftover numbers go.