How to Become Smarter Infographic details 12 practices and habits you can do starting today to become smarter. Includes scientific data on practices that have been shown to improve brain density and volume.

1. TO BECOME
PRACTICES AND HABITS
SMARTER
Your intelligence isn’t fixed; it’s fluid. A little bit of effort every day goes a long way. This
fluidity comes from all sorts of things: the way we think about ourselves, the expertise
we develop, the people we surround ourselves with.
Your mind-set makes you smarter. Carol Dweck, the Stanford
psychologist, has identified two mind-sets.
There is the fixed mind-set, in
which you think your thinking
abilities can’t change.
Then there’s the growth mind-set,
in which your thinking abilities can
be developed.
CHANGE YOUR MIND-SET
Adult education is one of the best investments of time, money,
and energy you can make.
CONTINUE YOUR EDUCATION
Voluntarily choosing to continue education provides a
perfect opportunity for your brain to create new connections
and build higher intelligence.
This is one activity that maintains the appearance of habit
while nurturing healthy brain waves. Setting aside half an
hour every morning or evening to read a newspaper or a book
will help your brain stay active.
READ AND READ MORE
Your brain is rewiring to understand
all the new information.
Don’t be insecure with how fast or slow you are learning compared to other
people. Everyone learns at different speeds, but with effort, everyone learns.
GO AT YOUR OWN PACE
You will get to where they are, and you may even surpass them if they are not
willing to be patient and go at their own pace like you are.
Errors are actually how the brain learns; when we make decisions, neurons are
activated, and if these decisions turn out to be wrong, the activated neurons are
subsequently suppressed.
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES
EAT A BALANCED DIET REDUCE STRESSEXERCISE MORE
Regardless of what type of job you might hold, everyone is at one
time or another presented with opportunities to think outside the
box, problem solve in a creative way.
Instead of stressing over each new
problem, it’s important to relax and
start imagining alternatives for
reaching an end goal.
APPROACH WORK IN NEW WAYS
Health plays a big part! Your brain is what helps you become smarter.
The more you move, the more
blood can flow to your brain and
help you focus and recall the
information you know.
If you lack certain nutrients,
then you are not giving your
brain the energy it needs to
work optimally.
Stress can have a negative
impact on your ability to learn
and recall information.
BE HEALTHIER
Like a weightlifter who develops muscles, one must exercise the brain on a
daily basis, pushing it just beyond its current capabilities.
When you begin believing in
your abilities, you may often
go beyond what you thought
was possible.
CHALLENGING YOURSELF
You can read faster (and thus consume more knowledge) by getting your speech
mechanism out of the equation.
Give your mouth something to
do, like eating, humming, or
chewing gum to get through
that stuff quickly.
Take some time to absorb
and reflect on what you read
to keep it in your memory.
READ FASTER AND BETTER
Smart people reflect on these
errors, and work to ensure that
they do not happen again.
Learning delays the onset of
Alzheimer’s by 4.5 years and
delays the progression in
those who already have it.
If you have something you can work on
every day, from knitting to fly fishing, you
can actively learn more just from doing.
It also decreases the amygdala,
known as our brain’s “fight or
flight” centre, which boosts
attention and concentration.
ADOPT A PRODUCTIVE HOBBY
STATISTICS
LEARN A NEW SKILL
Research has shown that meditation can increase grey
matter and cortical thinking. This leads to better
problem solving and improved learning and memory.
MEDITATE
A study of Swiss neuroscientist Lutz Jäncke studied
people who were learning to play a musical instrument.
After they had been practicing for five months, Jäncke
noted significant changes in the regions of the brain that
control hearing, memory, and hand movements, even in
participants who were 65 or older.
Sources:
https://www.neuronation.com/science/6-tips-intelligent-thinking
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613499592?papetoc=&
https://www.creditsesame.com/blog/stats/8-ways-to-get-smarter-with-only-5-minutes-every-day/
https://www.fastcompany.com/3020168/5-surprising-science-backed-ways-to-get-smarter-today
http://uk.businessinsider.com/daily-habits-to-be-smarter-2015-5
http://www.ilanelanzen.com/personaldevelopment/8-huge-tips-on-how-to-become-smarter-every-day/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/you-these-20-things-every-day-youll-become-smarter.html
http://www.neurology.org/content/73/5/356.short
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1064748113000651?via=sd&cc=y
http://www.alzheimers.net/2013-11-11/speaking-two-languages-delays-dementia/
http://www.livescience.com/12917-learning-language-bilingual-protects-alzheimers.html
http://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/learning/2013/11/the-surprising-way-adults-learn-90-of-
what-they-need-to-know/
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/HumanCapital/gx-cons-hc-learning-s
olutions-placemat.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC18253/
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0002669#s3
http://get.degreed.com/hubfs/Degreed_How_the_Workforce_Learns_in_2016.pdf p.4
http://www.onlinecoursereport.com/state-of-the-mooc-2016-a-year-of-massive-landscape-change-for-mas
sive-open-online-courses/
www.smartenings.com
90% of what we learn in adulthood comes from
informal learning (experiential, self-directed), while
only 10% comes from formal classroom formats.
When you learn in the workplace, studies show
70% of your learning comes from hands-on
experience, while only 30% is from training.
A study by Deloitte says that figure is 80%.
90%
10%
70%
30%
A study of taxi drivers showed a 4% in the volume of grey matter in the
hippocampal area of the brain which is associated with spatial memory
and navigational skills (volume went from 120 mm2
to 125 mm2
),
showing that learning increases brain volume.
61% of people say they would put
more effort into learning something
if they got some kind of reward or
professional credit for it.
Adults taking online courses (at MOOCs like
Udemy and Coursera) has skyrocketed. That’s
growth from roughly 160,000 learners at one
university in 2011 to 35,000,000 learners at 570
universities and twelve providers in 2015. That’s
a 21,775% growth rate, or 5445% per year.
A study testing people who learned juggling showed a
300% increase in brain density in the midtemporal area of
the brain after 7 days of training (from 0.005 a.u. to 0.015
a.u.) showing that learning increases brain density.
LH RH
125
115
105
95
85
75
65
55
135
125
115
105
95
85
75
65
55
45
Controls
Taxi Driver
Hippocampal Cross-sectional Area (mm2
)
anterior body posterior anterior body posterior
1
graymatterdensitya.u.
exercisebefore after
2 3 4 5 6
0.005 a.u. to 0.015 a.u.
2011
1
2015
570
160,000
35,000,000 21,775%
5445% per year
Midtemporal Area