How To Improve Your Memory And Concentration

Your brain is like a muscle. Without going to the gym and feeding your muscles with the right food, they simply won’t grow. The same applies to your brain. Without giving it any care and attention, it will be just like any other body part, continuing to serve you with a series of mundane tasks that it’s used to doing every other day.

What if there was an easy method to improve on your brain power which would improve memory and concentration tremendously? Would you try it? Of course you would. But would you take that method and convert it into a good habit? You probably would not. Why? Because we are creatures of habit — and, sadly, they’re mostly bad habits.

So, having said that, we urge you to read on, as there are things you might not know about your body which you can use to your advantage and turn into habits to improve memory and concentration.

1. Be The Master Of Your Own Sleep

We all know that getting the suggested 8 hours of sleep a night can be tough, especially in today’s fast-paced world. Instead of chasing the norms, why not take power naps during the day? According to the National Sleep Foundation, 85% of the mammal species are polyphasic sleepers, meaning they take naps — we humans are also in this category. A short nap of 20-30 minutes can have a great impact on your concentration and memory.

2. Understand Your Periods Of Wakefulness And Sleepiness

Understanding when you are most awake and alert helps increase productivity. Studies have shown that people feel most alert at 10 in the morning and items on the top of the to-do list should be done during this time.

However, alertness varies between different people and understanding when you are most awake is important. Why not keep track of your productivity levels by penning down the times when you have accomplished the most? By doing this, you will be able to know your best times of alertness.

3. Develop A Ritual To Kickstart Your Engine

There’s a lot of research that looks into how CEOs are so productive. One method used by CEOs is the 3 wins for the day technique. By setting out 3 big tasks you want to accomplish before your day starts, you position your mind to complete these 3 big tasks in order for the day to be a success.

4. Understand Focus And Losing Concentration

Breaking focus is an innate involuntary reaction to keep us safe. While selective focus is about top-down attention, breaking focus is a bottom-up reaction. For example, a loud voice or a very bright light breaks our focus most of the time. Once our focus is broken, it takes us approximately 25 minutes to refocus again. With this knowledge, you can focus for long periods of time provided that there are no distractions around.

5. Exercise To Improve Memory And Concentration

When we exercise, our nerve cells produce proteins called neurotrophic factors which trigger other chemicals that help in learning. A study in 2010 on monkeys published by Neuroscience has proven that regular exercise helps monkeys learn new tasks twice as fast compared to non-exercising monkeys, and it is one benefit scientists think would apply to humans as well.

6. Play Brain Games

“If you don’t use it, you lose it,” and this applies aptly to the brain. Research into brain plasticity tells us that by providing your brain with brain exercises, you can stop this degeneration.

A program called Brain HQ is designed to provide our brain with different stimuli to improve different areas, from reading and comprehension to memory improvement. Just by checking out smartphone app stores, you can find many various brain games. However, it’s advisable to only invest 20 minutes a day on brain games, as these will become just like any other mundane task if performed for longer on a daily basis.

7. Practice Visualisation And Association

Images are easier remember than facts, and scientists have uncovered that we actually never forget anything. The reason why we cannot remember things is the lack of “mental hooks” that help us retrieve the information from our brain.

To use the V&A method of remembering things, you associate things that are memorable. For example, to remember a grocery list can be quite daunting. With an item such as blueberries, you can associate it with something memorable, such as a blue bear. Blueberries are not memorable, but riding a blue bear sure is!

8. Hang Out With Friends Often

A study done by the Harvard School of Public Health found that people with active social lives show lesser mental decline. Humans are, after all, social animals, and being around friends often not only is a benefit to our emotional health but also to our brain health.

You can take advantage of the memory-boosting benefits of socializing by reaching out over the phone, volunteering, or even joining a club. And if everyone’s just busy doing their thing, you can turn to a pet — especially a highly sociable dog.

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Less Eating Out Challenge Day 5: Get A Good Sleep

Day 5 challenge is to get a good sleep.

How to do it?

• Stay away from your gadgets before you sleep. You’ll not be disturbed by pop-ups from your smartphones.
• Listen to soft music. It helps relax your mind and induce sleepiness.
• Dim the light in your bedroom. Light can be a disturbance when you’re trying to fall asleep.

Why it matters?

• A good sleep reduces your fatigue at day time and you’ll be less tempted to have junk food in restaurants. 

Remember…

• Don’t forget to prepare a quick and delicious dinner to treat yourself for the hard work of the whole week!
• In the weekend, you can still have one or two meals out as a treat. But don’t forget to make this challenge a habit for the coming days. 

Featured photo credit: flickr via flickr.com

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Less Eating Out Challenge Day 4: Prepare A Quick Dinner

Day 4 challenge is to prepare a quick dinner.

How to do it?

• Cook with a large pot. It’ll save your time from washing afterwards.
• Stock pasta and rice in your kitchen. It goes well with many ingredients such as various veggies, meat and seafood. You can have different matches for the whole week.

Quick Dinner Suggestion

• Combine and mix ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion, egg, salt and pepper in a big bowl to make the meatball mixture.
  * Beef can be replaced by many ingredients to make a mixture. For example, you can have fish balls, pork balls, and even tofu balls for vegans! 
• Roll the mixture into balls and cook it for 1 minute in the pot.
• Flip the meatballs and add the beef broth, milk, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.
• Cook the pasta and serve it with parmesan and parsley!

Why it matters?

• Dinner is the most tempting time for you to eat out after a busy working day.
• Quick steps make cooking after work not suffering. You’ll be more motivated.

Remember…

• Don’t forget to stretch your tired muscles during work. It keeps you energetic!

Featured photo credit: picjumbo via picjumbo.com

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Research Finds That Gap Year Is Beneficial For Long-Term

What Is A Gap Year?

In college terms, a gap year is a length of time (usually a year) away from schooling after high school to find purpose, work, or even volunteer, instead of pursuing college immediately. Many students have even traveled for their gap year, allowing them to experience more of the world before being confined to the endless pages of school textbooks. More and more research is conducted relating to the idea behind the gap year to see how it is helping soon to be college bound students develop.

Based on the research found from the American Gap Association, a non-profit organization in charge of handling the data for gap year students, students who had pursued the gap year in 2012 and 2013 were more likely to graduate with a higher grade point average than traditional students. This research was done in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It also suggested that even students who were not very academic in high school would go on to be some of these students who held higher grade point averages upon completion of college. From 2012-2013, gap year students rose 27%.

Now Gap Year Students Are Being Noticed

A handful of universities have taken notice to the recent increasing amount of students participating in gap years and offering a portion of their financial aid to help still be admitted into college after a year with schooling. Usually, a student would take the proper tests and be a part of the proper process to go accept a college’s offer as they leave high school, but a few colleges are more than willing to work with students who found their purpose through the beneficial gap year.

The University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the colleges participating in helping gap year students. The school has developed the Global Gap Year Fellowship to grant $7,500 dollars for a student to develop their own beneficial way to spend their gap year instead of school.

How Gap Years Help Students

Besides helping to relieve the burnout feeling that many students have upon exiting high school, a gap year also offers more than that for students. It offers an individual a year to hone in on what really interests them, instead of being shackled and restrained by lesson plans and lectures.

The American Gap Association validates that many students who take gap years do so to fix the issue of academic burnout and have a desire for increased self-awareness. Harvard University — one of the top universities in the nation — fully supports the idea of a gap year, concluding that there is a lot of pressure placed on students in the middle/high school fast track. Harvard’s academic admission officers are “concerned that the pressures on today’s students seem far more intense than those placed on previous generations.” Thus they make sure to note that Harvard has been advising for students to potentially have a gap year for 40 years, and that about 80 out of 110 students will defer college for another year. Students at Harvard in 2000 that took advantage of the gap year would advise every student to do it.

Studies in both Finland and Australia have noted that students don’t perform any worse for taking a year off or going immediately to college. Not that they were outperforming each other, but it’s humble research like this that shows that students will do just fine in taking a year to find themselves before college.

Conclusion

It should not be taken lightly that universities around the nation are beginning to look at ways to make gap years affordable for their prospective students. From talking with students who have had the opportunity, they absolutely agree it was necessary to finding their own balance in school and achieving what they wanted. Even Malia Obama is deciding to take a year off of school before attending Harvard in 2017.

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Less Eating Out Challenge Day 3: Stretch Tight Muscles To Relieve Fatigue

Day 3 challenge is to stretch tight muscles to relieve fatigue.

How to do it?

• Start watching the following video from 1:11.
• Among all, there’re 3 exercises I specifically recommend you:

1. Upper strap stretch (starting from 1:11)

• Bring your right ear to your right shoulder.
• Bring your hand to the opposite side and gently pull your head to the right.
• Repeat for the left shoulder.

2. Shoulder blade pinch (starting from 3:35)

• Squeeze your shoulder back until you feel your shoulder blades meet.

3. Stretch of the lower leg (starting from 7:20)

• Put hands on the desk.
• Bring one of the legs behind you.
• Keep it straight and your heel down on the ground.
• Gently shift your way forward.
• Feel the stretch and hold 30 seconds.

Why it matters?

• Fatigue at work makes you more tempted by an indulgence of food.
• Stretching muscles helps you relax and prevents you from grabbing junk food.

Remember…

• Thinking about what to have for lunch? Let’s take a look at what you’ve prepared!

Featured photo credit: Flickr via flickr.com

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Less Eating Out Challenge Day 2: Pack Your Lunch To Work

Day 2 challenge is to pack your lunch to work.

How to do it?

• Choose dishes you can grab and go. Dry dishes such as fruit salad and fried rice instead of soup noddles will be good enough.
• Cook a larger portion for dinner to save part of it for the next day’s lunch.
• Use pre-made ingredients such as bread, smoke salmon and turkey cold cuts.

Here are some ideas for you to prepare your lunch.

Why it matters?

• Packing lunch prevents you from eating out because of hunger after working in the morning.
• You can have full control over portion, ingredients and, of course, taste! It keeps you healthy and motivated for the rest of the day.

Remember…

• Feeling hungry? Grab the healthy snacks on your desk!

Featured photo credit: Stokpic via stokpic.com

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Less Eating Out Challenge Day 1: Put Healthy Snacks Around Your Work Desk

Day 1 challenge is to put healthy snacks around your work desk.

How to do it?

• Put a small snack box within your arm reach. For example, you can buy a square plastic box and put it beside your keyboard.
• Put unsalted and sugar-free nuts into the snack box. Nuts are rich in protein which can combat your hunger when you want to eat out. 
• Make fruit your snacks. It’s a healthy alternative to candies. 
• Stick memos around your desk to remind yourself to have healthy snacks between meals. You’ll be less tempted by calorie-dense items in restaurants.

Why it matters?

• Having healthy snacks prevents you from starving between meals. Your chance of eating out is lowered by not being so desperate for junk food.
• It’s an easy and quick step to lower temptation of eating out and kickstart your challenge.

Remember…

• This 5-day challenge is to help you start building a habit of eating out less but not immediately stop eating out at all times.
• You’ll get more used to eating at home and preparing healthy food.

Featured photo credit: picjumbo via picjumbo.com

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Science Explains How Writing Down Tiny Achievements Every Day Changes Our Brains

Most of us have a tendency to go through life noticing our mistakes. They often stand out to us like sore thumbs and they can be a cause for regret and gloom. What we are likely not to pay too much attention to are the small goals that we accomplish. When we do achieve successes we tend to gloss over them and not give ourselves time to feel good about them.

What would happen, however, if you were to write down these tiny achievements every day for a week?

In a recent study Teresa Amabile, from the Harvard Business School, and Steven Kramer looked at nearly 12,000 diary entries from 238 employees in seven companies and found what she refers to as “The progress principle”.

The study

For approximately 15 years Amabile and Kramer have looks at the psychological experiences and their performance in organizations. They found that a person’s inner work life was a crucial determiner of an individual’s emotions, motivations and perceptions.

To better understand the inner work life of individuals they asked members of project teams to respond to an e-mail survey at the end of each day, for a four-month period. The survey asked participants about their: “emotions and moods, motivation levels, and perceptions of the work environment that day, as well as what work they did and what events stood out in  their minds.”

Twenty-six project teams from seven companies participated. Overall there were 238 individuals who formed the study and they created nearly 12,000 diary entries.

As Amabile and Kramer write:

“…we do know, from reading thousands of diary entries, that more-positive perceptions, a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, happiness, and even elation often followed progress. Here’s a typical post-progress entry, from a programmer: “I smashed that bug that’s been frustrating me for almost a calendar week. That may not be an event to you, but I live a very drab life,  so I’m all hyped”.”

The progress principle described

“Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. And the more frequently people experience that sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run. … everyday progress—even a small win—can make all the difference in how [people] feel and perform.”

Amabile and Kramer stress that progress is not only about long-term goals and major breakthroughs. Although these events can be very positive they tend to happen only occasionally. The small things we achieve on a daily basis can also provide us with a sense of progress.

As they write: “even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously. Many of the progress events our research participants reported represented only minor steps forward.  Yet they often evoked outsize positive reactions.”

What Recording Small Wins Does To Our Brains

Amabile and Kramer explain how the practice of recording our progress helps us appreciate our small wins, which, in turn, can boost our sense of confidence. This confidence can then be leveraged to help us become more competent and achieve future, larger successes.

Any accomplishment, no matter how small, activates the reward circuitry of our brains. When this pathway is opened some key chemicals are released that give us a feeling of achievement and pride. In particular, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released which energizes us and gives us a feel-good aura. This chemical enables us not only to get that sweet feeling of reward but also motivates us to take action and repeat what we did to trigger its release in the first place.

Summation

By writing down you daily wins you can become more aware of your progress. A better experience of your progress may increase your: motivation; perception; sense of accomplishment; and feeling of happiness. So why not start today? Buy yourself a dairy or downloading some apps and start making notes of your small achievements!

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