Don’t forget to pick the kids up after soccer practice?
‘Can you pick up milk, bread, and a lasagna on your way home form work?’
‘Mom, you said you’d make two dozen cupcakes for my class tomorrow!’
Sound familiar?
Wouldn’t it be great if your brain were quicker at processing information, memorizing information, and being able to recall it when necessary?
It seems like a dream world, but the smartest, most brilliant people don’t have any more brainpower than you do. The difference between them and you is that they use their brain efficiently. The health of your brain is a product of your habits.
If you start the day with three cups of coffee, skip breakfast in lieu of a cigarette, and don’t stop until you hunch over your desk to eat a sandwich, then you’re not doing yourself any favors. Your routine can help you optimize your brain.
That’s what I am challenging you to do over the next 30 days. I want you to use this as an opportunity to adopt new habits that will help you grow smarter, increase your memory, and challenge you.
Day 1 – Exhaust Yourself
When you exercise you are exhausting your body to build it back up again. You grow stronger when you physically exhaust yourself. Your brain is no different, it needs a bit of exhaustion to grow.
Today, your challenge is to try an activity that demands cognitive function.
It’s even better if it’s something you have never done or tried before, whether it’s dancing, learning a new language, or sitting down with an instrument. All of these increase your brain’s processing speed, expand functional networks, and strengthen synapses.
As you learn new things, your brain starts to feel as though it needs a nap. That’s when you know you’re getting it right. Improving your memory is growing neurologically as opposed to maintaining it.
You create new connections when you learn something and the more you create the more you can maintain and the easier it will be for you to retain information going forward.
Day 2 – Jump Out
If there is one thing that provides mental security it’s comfort. When life is good and you feel nice and comfortable your brain releases serotonin and dopamine. It leaves you feeling happy, but this level of comfort doesn’t help your brain.
It needs the mental stimulation and without it, your neural connections shrink (or even disappear). These connections are dendrites and when you lead an active life it increases the networks of dendrites in your brain.
Today, your challenge is to take the plunge and jump out of your comfort zone. You have to seek out new experiences, learn new skills, and introduce the idea that new information can inspire and educate you in a way that provides you with mental clarity. The truth is that if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy levels of comfort, then it’s probably not great for your brain. Think of your comfort zone as adjacent but not touching the enhancement zone. Give your brain novelty, give it a stretch, and exercise it.
I’m not going to leave this challenge as vague as I did the last – I want you to seek out opposing views today. Look for scholars or professional people who share completely different views than you and read up on their opinions and why they think the way they do.
The point of this isn’t to change your mind, rather, it’s to force you to step into their shoes and look at the world from their perspective (even if they’re wrong).
Day 3 – Mindfulness
Meditation can make help your brain grow so today’s challenge is to embark on a meditation journey. It’s known to increase your brain’s grey matter and can also stimulate the areas of your brain in charge of attention, memory, and sensory signals.
Find a free meditation app and try it for yourself.
While this is today’s challenge, I would encourage you to continue this habit throughout the rest of this challenge. At the end of the challenge, you can decide whether to continue with it or not. At least give it a shot.
Day 4 – The Reading Room
If you want to heighten brain connectivity, then reading is the way forward. While it’s your challenge for the day, I highly recommend that you make reading a daily habit, even if it’s just a chapter.
Your brain can develop and change in incredible ways as you read. As you consume the words from the page, your brain is busy decoding these abstract symbols and analyzing the information to draw meaning.
There’s a collaborative effort going on in your brain as you read, like an orchestra at play. Think about the work your brain does as you read. When you pick up a fiction book, it’s busy taking in the information in front of it, while also painting visuals of the characters and scenarios at play.
Reading is a magical experience. It’s helping you fight cognitive decline, keeping your brain healthy, and improving your memory, too.
This is your excuse to catch up on your reading pile. Grab a book before bed and give it a whirl.
Day 5 – Get Journaling
There are certain things we just accept are great for cognitive function, from a healthy diet to regular exercise, a good night’s sleep, and a healthy social life. Well, guess what, journaling is one of those things, too.
Journaling helps you gain clarity about your thoughts, it helps you prioritize and accomplish the most important tasks rather than simply keeping you busy with nonsense.
Writing about your day can help you cope with stress and manage anxiety. It improves your brain’s ability to intake, process, retain, and recall information.
Today, I encourage you to purchase a journal and make it a nightly habit.
Day 6 – Stay Active
This is particularly true if you work a job that requires sitting. There is nothing more dangerous for your brain that sitting down all day long. Your brain needs you to get up and moving.
So, if you can’t work standing up and moving around, then your challenge today is to get up and move around once an hour. If you can’t get away with wandering away from your desk for five minutes every hour, then try jumping jacks or running in place at your desk.
Today, make a fitness plan and add it to your routine.
Day 7 – Sleep Routine
I encourage you to create a healthy sleep routine. Getting a good night’s sleep nightly is one of the most important things you can do for your brain. It helps you manage stress and improves your cognitive function.
You will sleep better if you unwind and relax before bed. Some of the challenges from days gone by will help you manage the stress that prevents you from sleeping. This will take it a step further.
It’s up to you how you manage your routine. However, a few helpful suggestions include a bubble bath, reading time, meditation, journaling, yoga, or quiet time with an herbal tea. You should absolutely avoid screens for at least one hour before bed.
Day 8 – Brain Training
Lumosity, Brain Metrix, Free Rice, Brain HQ, and AARP are great examples of websites or apps that offer brain training. While some require a subscription, many offer free vocabulary, mathematics, attention, and memory exercises.
Today, I want you to seek out brain training and get stuck into some great puzzles and challenges.
Day 9 – Gaming
You might think of video games as fodder for children and lazy adults, but that is false. 3D style games (like Super Mario) are great for people of all ages, especially if you want to boost your brainpower.
The likes of Super Mario requires forward planning, a quick response time, and memory is required to know which keys to use.
Any video or computer game that requires you to learn new skills will be a valuable tool to improve your cognitive health.
I want you to go play video games today, whether that means commandeering your child’s console or downloading an app.
Day 10 – Volunteer
It doesn’t matter how old (or young) you are, volunteering your time is good for the soul. As it turns out, it’s also great for your brain.
Socialization is an excellent tool to improve your memory, so by putting yourself in a position of volunteering you are supporting your brain and recall while getting out to help others.
You might choose to help out at a local community center, a homeless shelter, animal shelter, or even reading to local children at the library. Every little helps.
Day 11 – Game Time
Just to mix things up, I’m giving you your challenge in puzzle form that you can complete right here. That’s right, you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything beyond this little challenge here.
The purpose of this exercise is to stimulate the connections between your temporal lobe and words. Below, you will find two words side by side, it’s up to you to choose a third word, one which is associated or connected to both of the preceding words.
For example, if the first two words and lock and piano, then the third word would be key. A lock requires a key and a piano has 88 keys.
| 1. | Car | Tree | |
| 2. | Court | Pillow | |
| 3. | Card | Ship | |
| 4. | Money | River | |
| 5. | Eye | School | |
| 6. | Paper | Bed | |
| 7. | Noise | Tennis | |
| 8. | Water | Army | |
| 9. | Mother | Egyptian | |
| 10. | Smoking | Plumbing |
Answers:
1. Trunk
2. Case
3. Deck
4. Bank or Flow
5. Pupil or Exam
6. Sheet
7. Racket
8. Tank
9. Mummy
10. Pipes
Day 12 – Crossword Puzzles
If you’re looking for a tried and true cognitive exercise, then it’s a crossword puzzle. That’s your challenge today – invest in an app, book, or website that offers crossword puzzles. It’s always a good idea to mix things up so if you do enjoy crosswords don’t make that your daily task.
Do a crossword every other or every couple of days and trade-off with other puzzles and activities to keep things fresh for your brain. It’s all about keeping your brain engaged.
Day 13 – Shopping Is A Game
Shopping is an excellent opportunity to play games and work at boosting your memory. You can improve your ability to memorize your grocery list by rhyming. For example, one rhymes with run, two rhymes with flew.
So, if you need eggs and chicken then assigning them to the numbers one and two can help you remember it because chickens live in a run and they fly. You don’t have to settle on those rhymes, it’s just a tool to help you remember.
Start with just a few items at a time and increase it each time you shop. If you shop as a family, get everyone in on the act with their own batches of items to memorize and make a game of it.
Day 14 – Jigsaw Puzzles
Puzzles engage your short-term memory as your brain attempts to sort through the shapes, colors, and images necessary to assemble the full picture. The more pieces involved in the puzzle the harder your brain will have to work.
Today, go buy a puzzle and get started on it right away.
If you already enjoy puzzles, then let’s kick it up a notch. Flip the pieces over so you are completing the puzzle based on shape alone. Good luck and Godspeed.
Day 15 – Multitasking
Okay, you already had a video game challenge, but this is a different type of video game challenge.
Today’s challenge is embracing a video game that will force you to multitask. A game that will force you to react to new stimuli, like a changing environment or signs that pop up with new information.
Play can help you boost your memory if you are forced to recall information while in the middle of another aspect of the game. Essentially, any video game that interferes or distracts you from what you’re doing – so games like Mario Kart, LA Noire, or first-person shooter games.
Day 16 – Pack A Bag
…because today’s challenge is to play the suitcase game. You’ll need a playmate for this (even better if you’re in a group).
You start by declaring what you plan to pack in your suitcase and the next person has to repeat what you’re packing and add an item of their own.
Then, it’s up to you to name your original item, their item, and another item. It goes on until someone forgets an item.
You can make things a bit more fun by choosing a destination and time of year. For example, you’re packing for a winter ski trip to Andorra or a summer holiday in Malaga, Spain.
Day 17 – Concentration
Children start playing games like concentration when they’re quite young. Adults tend to get frustrated when they get sucked into the game with a child because the child normally wins. The beauty of concentration is you can play with any old deck of cards. Simply lay a bunch of cards face down and when it’s your turn you can flip two over to match a set.
The point of this is to memorize where the cards are so that when you get the match you need you can go back to its twin.
To use a generic set of cards, call an 8 of spades and an 8 of clubs the match and do the same for diamonds and hearts.
Day 18 – The Tray
Use any old tray (or plate) and fill it with random items (ideally, someone else in your home can do this for you). You should allow yourself to take a peek at the trap before you cover it with a cloth.
Grab a pen and paper and write down all the items you can remember seeing on the plate. Then, grade your work.
You can also find a picture on the internet and minimize your browser for this game.
Day 19 – Sudoku
While you complete the grid, you are relying on your working memory to keep track of a series of numbers.
Today, I want you to seek out and do a little sudoku.
As with any challenge, if it becomes easy, you should either try something new or opt for a more complicated puzzle.
Day 20 – Chess
If you’re looking for a game that challenges you, chess is that game. If you don’t have a board, you can challenge the computer. New players rely on their short-term memory as they ease into the game, they analyze the board to plot the next move.
Experienced players, however, engage long-term memory, planning the next several moves as they plot their strategy.
So, whether you’re brand new to the game or have experience under your belt, your memory is getting a good workout.
Day 21 – A Type of Brain Yoga
Extend your hands in front of you, making a fist with your left hand, and extend your thumb outward.
Now make a fist with your right hand and extend your pinky finger. That’s kind of challenging, isn’t it?
Now pull your left thumb in and extend your left pinky while extending the thumb of your right hand and pulling the pinky in.
It isn’t easy, but it isn’t particularly difficult either. It just requires coordination and this level of coordination helps strengthen your brain’s neural connections, a win for grey matter and memory!
Day 22 – Rebus
A rebus puzzle involves pictures, numbers, letters, and symbols that hint at the answer. For example, a phrase may read bad bad and that’s another way of saying too bad.
To solve rebus puzzles, you will need a strong handle on expressions and cliches. It isn’t like conventional word games where context clues give it all away.
Your challenge is to complete the free rebus puzzles Stetson University offers here.
Day 23 – Gardening
Zen gardens have long been a punchline in Hollywood, but there is a lot to love about the process of gardening. The garden offers a stress-free zone that helps put space between you and mental discomfort.
There’s the added benefit of exercise as a lot of gardening can be strenuous. Gardening can be a retreat, but more beneficial.
I encourage you to do a bit of gardening today. An herb garden is relatively easy to manage and you can do it in the kitchen window if you don’t have garden space.
Day 24 – Cooking
You can boost your memory and brain function in the kitchen, from the actions you take to create meals to the ingredients you use.
You exercise your memory recalling your ingredients and you can improve your brainpower by embracing oily fish and fresh vegetables.
Day 25 – Work Backward
It isn’t easy to mess with your routine, but by doing so you are forcing your brain to learn.
Today, I encourage you to work backward. Do your tasks in reverse or opposite of normal.
You can do this by brushing your teeth, eating, and operating your mouse with your non-dominant hand, or wearing your watch on the other wrist. Take a different route to work, take your daily walk in reverse, or flip your morning routine backward.
Day 26 – Cards
A familiar game can stimulate your brain if it’s one you haven’t visited in a while. Why not revert to your childhood to play Go Fish.
It will force your brain to think back to the rules of the game while also engaging your memory to remember what cards are in play and where they are.
Day 27 – Socialize
There is power in socialization because humans are social creatures. While we all differ on exactly how much time we need to spend with others, it can be uplifting when we do so.
If socializing is something you struggle with, for whatever reason, I encourage you to go out of your way to socialize today.
It might be as simple as calling an old friend, video chatting with family you haven’t seen in a while, or even joining a class to force yourself to experience new things and meet new people. Socializing doesn’t just help you maintain relationships it also improves your ability to forge new friendships.
Day 28 – Embrace Music
Music is powerful, from its ability to serves as therapy to how it triggers memories (good and bad) from the past.
You can use music to spark memories from your past and create stronger bonds with those memories.
Think about what music was playing at your prom. Or a song that takes you back to the happiest moments of an old relationship.
There is another side to music and memory. Music can help you remain engaged while you undertake certain tasks. So, if you plan the same songs throughout the day while doing different activities it can help you correlate those tasks with each song.
Day 29 – The Challenge
I encourage you to continue challenging yourself daily, in any and every way possible. You have experienced a variety of challenges and activities to encourage your brain and improve your memory, and that’s something I’d like you to commit to every day going forward.
Day 30 – A Day In Review
This is your day to review the last month of challenges. I want you to think about the activities you have enjoyed, the ones you planned yesterday, and how your brain has responded.
Of the activities you have undertaken in the last 30 days, which of them do you think best boost your memory and brainpower?
