Techniques for improving focus, concentration, memory and general thinking ability.

For reasons that are boring to go into, I am trying to improve my ability to focus, concentrate and remember things. I tend to be a bit scattered and I suffer from what I call monkey-mind…a thousand monkeys chattering in my head at once. I multi-task because I don’t know hot to NOT, but I do it badly.

What I’m looking for are…drills? Practice? Activites? Something I can do like an athlete or student or combination of both, that will help improve these things. I’d like multiple things, if possible, so I can switch off.

One thing I already know is crossword puzzles, but that’s the only one that comes to mind.

Brain exercises, anyone?

I would really like to know this, too. So I’m just subscribing to this thread. Don’t know another way to do it.

You might try The Memory Book

I’ve read it, and the techniques do work. You might also try How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci.

Haven’t read it myself, so I can’t comment on it.

I don’t know of any techniques, but I certainly would love to learn of some. I have noticed from all the learning I need to do at school and work that the more one learns, the easier it is to learn. Instead of the brain filling up, it seems to get better at processing knowledge as you learn more. I suppose there are limits to this, many of which are developmental and heretiary.

However, my own personal experience tends to make me belive (or perhaps I just want to believe it), that the mind is analogous to a skeletal muscle in the body. If you just use it, nothing really happens to it. It maintains, but barely. Slowly but surely it atrophies. The less you use it, the faster it atrophies. Like a muscle, however, if one pushes it to its utmost limit, and consistantly does this for an extended period of time, it compensates. The muscle gets bigger due to hypertrophy, but the brain builds new neural connections and synapes. The brain grows as you push it to its limit.

Like a muscle the brain isn’t going to grow unless you are constantly pushing it to its utmost limit. Puzzles, learning new languages, learning so much that your brain feels like it cannot take it any longer- then rest. Then do it again.

I don’t know how accurate this analogy is, I am not a Neurologist or a Psychologist. I am just a passing spectator that likes to find patterns in life, and hopes that one day I can be better than I am now. And to be realistic, that means having a better brain- I.e Memory, concentration, focus and general thinking ability.

Ad astra per aspera.

I guess this is more of an IMHO since I lack credentials and cites.

Belw the last post on the thread page,you’ll see THREAD TOOLS.The third one down from that says SUBSCRIBE TO THIS THREAD.Punch that and it’ll take you to the wonderful land of subscription to this particular thread,and then you don’t have to post if you don’t wanna,but you’ll get mailed all subsequent posts.

PS: I love saying PussyCow out loud,although I haven’t tried it in public yet.

Um,I should have said that that only says that if you haven’t already posted to the thread,thereby already subscribing.If you’ve done that,the option reads UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS THREAD.

Red Bull works for me. Don’t ask why.

Also, if you are scatterbrained, like me, by a good notebook with hard covers and lined paper. Write down a problem, then your proposed solution, then change, add and cross over as necessary. I find that using a pen and a piece of paper really helps me structure my thoughts in a way that the computer can’t.

The computer distracts you. If you don’t want to do what you need to do - and who does? - it offers a billion possibilities of playing games, chatting with friends or posting at messageboards. On a piece of paper, you can draw little flowers and stick figures of your boss in indecent positions. The level of distraction doesn’t even begin to compare.

Yeah, and read stuff, and have intelligent and witty conversations. But you’re doing that already.

Do you have adult ADD? Do you finish the projects you start?
I know this sounds too simplistic, but try “turning off” periodicly. Meditate. Find a quiet (private) place you can go every day for 15 minutes, or so, where there are no distractions. No noise, not even “white” noise like a fan. Make the place comfortable to sit or lie down. The lighting should be dim. First, just breathe. Breathe normally, with one difference: conscentrate. Focus only on taking one breathe after another. Narrow your focus until there is only breath. Don’t try to block out other thought. You’ll find that happens all by itself. Some people incooperate Yoga or other relaxation tecniques, but at first just breath. You’ll find yourself calmer and more able to focus after. If you can make it a habit, you find you can’t get along without it.

I find the opposite, Red Bull or too much coffee and my brain races like it’s not in gear.

Something I have found useful as an aid to cogitation is/are Mind Maps. It’s a technique rather than a drill or exercise but I’ve found them useful for visualising problems.

I recommend the book The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz. Jim Loehr started out studying world class athletes, especially tennis players. He found that the absolute best tennis players had something in common. Between points, the best tennis players each used rituals to relax and refocus. From this initial research (for which my brief description hardly does justice) he went on to develop a theory of oscillation: that we achieve peak performance by oscillating between stress and recovery.

The book the Power of Full Engagement is about how to apply this general principle. Specifically, Loehr and Schwartz argue that “self discipline” is overrated, in the sense that using self discipline to force yourself to do something is not the most energy efficient means to the end. Instead, they focus on developing habits and rituals that help you overcome “performance barriers” such as lack of focus, etc.

The book may sound a little hokey from my brief description, but I have recently been starting to implement some of their suggestions, and I’ve found it pretty helpful so far.