30 days to a better brain How to rapidly improve how you think

30 days to a better brain How to rapidly improve how you think30 days to a better brain How to rapidly improve how you thinkEveryone wants a better, and smarter brain to process information faster and have better memory recall.The most brilliant minds dont have more brain power than the average person, they just use their brains more efficiently.Your brains health is a product of your daily habits.To optimize your brain, all you have to do is make slight adjustments to your routine.30 days offer just enough time to realistically adopt new habits that can help you get smarter and think better, yet long enough to be challenging.In 30 days or less, you can adopt some of these habits to boost your brain power, improve your mental clarity and build a better brain.Start mind focus exercisesEmbrace meditation.Theres plenty of research that shows meditation increases the grey matter in your brain.Meditation can increase the thickness of regions that control attention and process sensory sign als from the outside world.Yes, meditation makes your brain bigger (literally).Meditation is the art of silencing the mind.When the mind is silent, concentration is increased and we experience inner peace and more.But concentration requires a great amount of effort and time.In less time than it takes you to have lunch, you could be expanding your brain - literally.Just like building muscles, you can beneficially build the strength and even the size of your brain in the healthiest and most natural of ways.Meditation has been proven to benefit the brain.Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day, says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology.The problem is getting started.Its kind of like going to th e gym. We all know we should do it, but ..If you do decide to give it a try, you can use Headspace, an app that bills itself as a gym membership for your mind.Stop feeding your comfortComfort provides a state of mental security.When youre comfortable and life is good, your brain can release chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which lead to happy feelings.But in the long-term, comfort is bad for your brain.Without mental stimulation dendrites, connections between brain neurons that keep information flowing, shrink or disappear altogether.An active life increases dendrite networks and also increase the brains regenerating capacity, known as plasticity.Neglect of intense learning leads plasticity systems to waste away, says Norman Doidge in his book, The Brain That Changes Itself.Michael Merzenich, a pioneer of plasticity research, and author of Soft-wired How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life says that going beyond the familiar is essential to brain health.It s the willingness to leave the comfort zone that is the key to keeping the brain new, he says.Seeking new experiences, learning new skills, and opening the door to new ideas inspire us and educate us in a way improves mental clarity.Anything that makes you really comfortable is not really good for your brainWhen you are inside your comfort zone you may be outside of the enhancement zone.Your brain needs novelty to grow, says Jones. Stepping out of your comfort zone literally stretches your brain by allowing the dendrites to become like big trees with full branches rather than little shrubsYour brain needs you to read every dayReading heightens brain connectivityOur brains change and develop in some fascinating ways when we read.As you read these words, your brain is decoding a series of abstract symbols and synthesizing the results into complex ideas.Its an amazing process.The reading brain can be likened to the real-time collaborative effort of a symphony orchestra, with various pa rts of the brain working together, like sections of instruments, to maximize our ability to decode the written text in front of us.Reading rewires parts of your brain. Maryanne Wolf explains in her book, Proust and the Squid The Story and Science of the Reading BrainHuman beings invented reading only a few thousand years ago. And with this invention, we rearranged the very organization of our brain, which in turn expanded the ways we were able to think, which altered the intellectual evolution of our species. . . . Our ancestors invention could come about only because of the human brains extraordinary ability to make new connections among its existing structures, a process made possible by the brains ability to be reshaped by experience.Reading involves several brain functions, including visual and auditory processes, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and more.The same neurological regions of the brain are stimulated by reading about something as by experiencing it.Accordi ng to the ongoing research at Haskins Laboratories for the Science of the Spoken and Written Word, reading, unlike watching or listening to media, gives the brain more time to stop, think, process, and imagine the narrative in from of us.Reading every day can slow down late-life cognitive decline and keeps the brains healthier.Exhaust your brainChallenge yourself with a whole new experience.Do more of what exhausts your brain.Your brain needs exhaustion to grow.Take up new, cognitively demanding activity - something new youve never done before dancing, piano lessons, a foreign language - is more likely to boost brain processing speed, strengthen synapses, and expand or create functional networks.When youre learning something new, and your brain is feeling like it wants to take a nap, thats when you know youre doing things that are growing your brain neurologically, not just maintaining it, says Dr. Jennifer Jones, a psychologist, and expert in the science of success.Every time you learn something, you create new connections, and the more connections you can maintain, the easier it will be to retain new information in the future.Start a journaling habitGetting a full night of sleep, going for a run, maintaining a healthy diet, and keeping up with family and friends all have well-documented and significant impacts on overall cognitive function.Whats even more important for your total well-being is journaling.Journaling helps you prioritize, clarify thinking, and accomplish your most important tasks, over urgent busy work.Numerous studies (of the scientifically rigorous variety) have shown that personal writing can help people better cope with stressful events, relieve anxiety, boost immune cell activity.Judy Willis MD, a neurologist, and former classroom teacher explains, The practice of writing can enhance the brains intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information it promotes the brains attentive focus boosts long-term memory, illuminates patter ns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brains highest cognition.Dont sit stillSitting still all day, every day is dangerous.Love it or hate it, physical activity can have potent effects on your brain and mood.The brain is often described as being like a muscle. Its needs to be exercised for better performance.Research shows that moving your body can improve your cognitive function.What you do with your body impinges on your mental faculties.Find something you enjoy, then get up and do it. And most importantly, make it a habit.Build a better exercise routine, and maintain it.Simple aerobic exercise such as walking 3045 minutes of brisk walking, three times a week, can help fend off the mental wear and tear, and improve episodic memory and executive-control functions by about 20 percent, according to Art Kramer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Take a good and undisturbed sleepA good slee p reduces both physical and mental stress.The brain accomplishes reorganization of information during sleep.Importantly, a short afternoon nap (called the power nap) serves as an energy booster for the brainScientists have known for decades that the brain requires sleep to consolidate learning and memory.Far from being lazy, napping is scientifically proven to help improve concentration and boost productivity when you reach a brain power plateau.Studies on napping suggest that it increases reaction speed and helps with learning - provided naps are no longer than 20 minutes.Do nothing for a changeDoing nothing is a skill.Busyness can be counterproductive.Its hard, we know, but doing nothing is a good way to refocus your brain and help you pay attention to the present time.Spending time unplugged, disconnected, and in silence can improve your focus, productivity, and creativity. learning to do nothing will help you retake control of your attention at other times, too. One trick sche dule do nothing time, like youd schedule tasks. Just dont expect others to understand when you decline some social event on the grounds that youre busy not being busy, says Oliver Burkeman.Neuroscience also reveals that silence has nourishing benefits for your brain.The neuroscientist Marcus Raichle says his best thinking happens in quiet places. For Raichle, silence was shorthand for thoughtful solitude.The brain is actively internalizing and evaluating information during silence.A study by Duke University regenerative biologist, Imke Kirste, found that two hours of silence per day prompted cell development in the hippocampus, the brain region related to the formation of memory, involving the senses.Exceptional creativity often happens in solitude.Thisarticlefirst appeared on Medium.

Never forget your passwords again with these genius tips

Never forget your passwords again with these genius tipsNever forget your passwords again with these genius tipsLast weekend, I forgot four sets of passwords and usernames over a 48-hour period. Collectively, I wasted a miserable - anddeeply frustrating- hour failing to figure them out, getting locked out, and eventually resetting them. And the sad thing is they are all a variation of the same thing - a security no-no - meant tomake recall especially easy. My usual practice of jotting down my account credentials on a random piece of paper or in tiny notebooks that I idiotically think Ill magically rediscover when mymemoryfails me is no longer working. I decided it was time for an intervention and discovered two foolproof methods to help me - and you - stop squandering time, energy, and productivity on forgotten passwords.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreTake a high-tech app roachThe easiest - and best option as far as security goes - is to use an app likeKeeperorDashlane, which allow you to securely store super complex passwords all in one place across all your devices. The latter service is free for up to 50 passwords, but given that the average user in the United States has130 accounts, according to research conducted by Dashlane - and will have to reset a forgotten password at least37 times each year- the $4.99 option that provides space for unlimited passwords might be the better option.Go old-schoolWhile using the latest tech to improve our lives is a sensible move, theres a good case to be made for taking an old-fashioned approach to better remember and organize our credentials on our own.Research going as far back as the 60sshows that organization is crucial to recall andrecent studieseven suggest that our use of digital technology interferes with our capacity to form memories, so designing your own plan of recall is a good opportunity. Try this.Pick three unrelated words that matter to youWhile fruchtwein of us are inclined to use passwords tethered to our lives and histories, its critical theyre not obvious and that each one is distinct. Im a big fan of using three unrelated words, such as apple-staircase-mutton, Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Maryland and co-author ofADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. The three words, ideally, would be meaningful to the individual to make them super easy to recall.Jot them down in codeWhether its a spreadsheet or a notebook you keep under your mattress, be sure youve not written the actual password down. Write clues that will activate your memory. For example, if my password is downey-shirley-converse, Id write in my log book, hometown, best friend, favorite sneakers. An unusual but highly effective way to remember your password is to make a picture of it, according to Tracy Alloway, Ph.D., author of theThe Working Memory Advantage. Arecent studycame out th at when you draw, youre more likely to remember it because it engages multiple sources, she says, emphasizing that it doesnt matter whether youre a good artist or not. umgebung your password to the music of a favorite song is another handy way of reinforcing your memory, Alloway says. Dont pick an esoteric song. Choose one of your favorites, she cautions.Its not that any of us have a bad memory, Alloway adds, Its all about putting the information in properly by using adeeper encoding process to help you remember.This article originally appeared on Thrive Global.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

How to Pitch Yourself as an Expert to the Media

How to Pitch Yourself as an Expert to the MediaHow to Pitch Yourself as an Expert to the MediaA friend of mine recently called and said she was about to draft a pitch promoting herself as a food expert to several broadcast outlets. She asked if I would take a look once she was done. Several days later, her email popped up. The subject? This feels so weird.You dont need to be a PR expert to know that its much easier to tout a product than it is to tout yourself. But if youre just getting your company, business, or blog up and running, you likely dont have the resources to recruit a full-time PR person or agency support. Which leaves the PRing (along with fruchtwein other things) to you.As a PR professional who has happily pitched clients products and uncomfortably pitched my own brain, I can tell you It doesnt ever stop feeling weird. But it does get easier. If youre struggling with how to promote yourself, keep these tips in mind.1.Be ProfessionalPitching yourself will likely evoke a whole spectrum of emotions, but when it comes to the actual pitch, keep it business-appropriate. Most importantly Dont be overly casual (or no one will take you seriously), dont be too verbose (or no one will read your email), and dont be rude, arrogant, or obnoxiously self-promotional.This may sound obvious, but theres an important differentiation between pitching yourself and pitching a product When youre pitching yourself, the booking producer elend only needs to like what you have to say. He also needs to like you.2.Back it UpIf youre new on the speaking circuit or just looking to book your first interview, youre going to need to really convince the booking producer or journalist that youve got the smarts theyre looking for. So beyond introducing yourself and your expertise, include relevant stats, articles, and anecdotes to support your narrative. Explain what differentiates your expertise from other people talking about a similar subject- maybe its the research youve recently conducted or the access you have to key influencers in the industry- as well as why your expertise is especially relevant to the outlet youre pitching.Each pitch differs, but heres a general framework to consider In 2 -3 sentences, introduce who you are, your expertise and what youre pitching (e.g., to be considered for future food segments on the Today Show). Add 2-5 bullet points about why your narrative is relevant, compelling, and timely. Add 1-2 sentences about why youre perfectly positioned to be talking about this subject to this specific outlet. Add a brief bio with your high-level accomplishments, your availability, and ways for people to reach you.3.Be ConfidentNo matter what your expertise, there are likely topics or themes within that industry that youre not as well-versed on as others. If youre a food expert, like my friend, you may not be as knowledgeable about French cuisine as you are about Italian. Maybe your vegetarian recipes are lacking. But heres the deal No on e needs to know that but you.When pitching yourself as an expert, you need to convince whomever youre pitching that you are, actually, an expert. So tell your various and wide-ranging insecurities to shush, and put forward your smartest, most confident self.4.But Dont OversellRemember that confirming an interview is not the end game- successfully promoting your brand is. So while you want to come across as confident and knowledgeable, you dont want to B.S. your whole pitch. If you do, youre only going to end up hurting your reputation- and future opportunities- by sounding silly on-air or getting blacklisted by the booking department. Instead, give yourself a bit more time to get up to speed on your industry.5. Be PreparedOnce you send that pitch out, consider yourself on-call- especially when pitching yourself to broadcast outlets. One way to not make friends with the booking department? Pitch yourself as an expert on a story, like the government shutdown, and then not make yoursel f available for interviews while the government is actually shut down.Also, make aya youre 110% comfortable and ready to speak to whatever information you include in your pitch. If there are stats you cite, make sure theyre legitimate. If youre offering up exclusive information to one outlet, dont talk to any other reporters about it. You want people to be impressed by what youre offering, and then more impressed once they meet you- not less so.Promoting yourself as an expert is a really effective way to raise your own profile and that of your brand. But theres no getting around it Its tricky, awkward, and, as my friend pointed out, totally weird. But dont let the icky feelings deter you You are uniquely positioned to share what you know. As long as you dont creep people out in the process, well be seeing you on the Today Show (or in the New York Times) soon enough.Photo of woman on phone courtesy of Shutterstock.