What 10 things should I do every day to become smarter?

1. If you come across an unfamiliar word, stop. Look up its meaning in the dictionary. (Google “define: <new word>”)
2. Ask questions. Lots of them. Don’t be afraid to look dumb. It’s better to look dumb than to be dumb.
3. Sit in the front row. Learning = acquiring information. The closer you are to its source, the better the acquisition rate will be.
4. Get good night’s sleep. It’s hard to learn anything when your brain is like fuzzy slippers. Seriously. Exercise if you must. It seems to really help my sleeping patterns.
5. Eat more veggies and less meat. Now, I love meat. But it makes you sleepy and see the point above about slippers. Veggies will keep you alert. Also, be hydrated. By water.
6. Do stuff. Don’t just sit there. Any knowledge acquired from screwing around with a screwdriver, clicking on new stuff that you come across online (yes, it’s worth the virus infection!), not being worried about breaking stuff. Breaking is the cost of learning.
7. Don’t label yourself. If you say “I’m bad at math” - you just turn off any possibility of you becoming good at it. And it was a good possibility too. You just threw it away for no reason.
8. Curate carefully what you put in your brain. Exclude trash information - it will take up the space made for good stuff. Listen to intelligent podcasts, read talented authors and journalists, skip all the nonsense and punditry.
9. Take notes. Somehow, committing things to writing really improves retention. And also ensures that you understood the material. Because it’s hard to write something down if you don’t understand it.
10. Have fun. Learning is not supposed to be about suffering. The best way to learn something well is to enjoy it. Watch a documentary. Visit a museum. Talk to other people. Do whatever you can to bring the subject of your learning alive.

cr:-Elena Ledoux