This small infographic shows several daily activities that will make you smarter. Here you can find more smart activities. We will consider our own version of such activities. You can do them at home, at work, while communicating. There is simply no reason to procrastinate, so you can start right away.
- Write down a list of 10 ideas. The list does not have to be revolutionary, it can relate to your work, your hobbies, things you want to change around you, simply stuff that you wonder why nobody thought about. Simply looking for 10 new ideas will open you up to a wide range of new experiences. If you decide to take the ideas one step further and conduct a short research, you will learn a thing or two in no time.
- Follow up with hard questions. If someone asks your a question, or you have a question you cannot readily answer, do conduct your own research. Who knows what wealth of information you will discover!
- Write down a list of 3 things you accomplished today and 3 things you want to accomplish tomorrow. This list will build gratitude, sense of purpose and responsibility. Eventually you will ask yourself why you accomplish some goals and do not accomplish others, and this is a classical learning moment.
- Read your favorite blogs. Try to follow them daily. If your blog is good enough, you will get plenty of learning opportunities. If you do not learn, you should probably revise your favorite reading.
- Play devil’s advocate. It is very easy to trust figures of authority: mass media, scientists, friends, doctors and attorneys. Probably quite often you should trust them, but still ask yourself how they arrived to some decision rather than another, conduct independent research. I saved 5 lives this way, lives of people I care about. Maybe you can do this too…
- Have a “stop doing” list. Everybody has a “to do” list, yet we do not find time to complete it. If we stop destructive habits, we will have a lot of free energy to invest in things we really want to do.
- Hang out with smart people. Typically our intelligence is a median intelligence of 5 of our best friends. If you hang with smart people new doors will open for you.
- Set aside time to do nothing. Pomodoro breaks, meditations, jogging routines. When your minds goes blank all sorts of things will surface.
- Never waste a lunch. Use your kitchen time to socialize. If you have no friends around, concentrate on your food and see what ideas come up. Our memory depends on the activities we do, so the things we discussed while eating may surface when we eat alone.
- Focus on one task and one moment at a time. Then go to the next task and so on. When you need to multitask, do it very carefully and limit amount of tasks you batch together. If your mind starts jumping between tasks your productivity will suffer.
- Allow yourself to play and be silly. Open up to new experiences. Do not judge yourself too hard if you fail occasionally. Eventually you will succeed and surprise yourself in a good way.
- Teach. Write blogs. Allocate time to mentor others. Visualize how you would teach someone as a perspective. By teaching we learn.
- Recieve feedback gratefully. Actively look for constructive feedback. Feedback others in a thoughtful, well-formulated form that help them improve.
