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August 1 - August 10, 2020
“BDNF” is really short for “brain-derived neurotrophic factor.”
BDNF makes your new neurons strong and healthy.3 It protects them from injury and makes them more likely to connect to other neurons. It also acts like a food for synapses and dendritic spines, making them grow larger.
when you exercise, you’re looking after your brain, and obviously your body, too!
In fact, if you exercise and have a healthy diet, it has a big impact on your ability to learn and remember. Bigger than either exercise or healthy eating alone.
Exercise is really good for your neurons, especially the new ones.
Exercise helps create a chemical (BDNF) that is like food for your brain.
Exercise releases chemicals that generate new ideas.
Exercise is a great diffuse activity!
Every time you create a solid set of brain-links, it’s like connecting some pieces of a puzzle.
Working memory is your brain’s temporary storage space.
it’s good to change the place where you study.
away. You start the day groggy, blocked, and unable to think clearly. Your neurons can’t grow new synapses, either. There’s been no time for your mental mouse to run along the pathways and make new connections. Fail! When you go to sleep, your neurons shrink, which allows the toxins to be washed away.
Sleep is the best thing you can do to retune yourself each day and keep yourself healthy.
Everybody’s different. That’s why it’s important to become your own personal learning scientist.
Action video games are great for focusing.
Action video games can improve your ability to focus. They can also improve your vision. They can be especially useful for older people, to help keep their focus strong.
Spatial video games can improve your ability to rotate objects mentally—an important skill in math and science.
“Slow” thinkers can understand a subject or problem just as well as “fast” thinkers.
Slow thinkers may need more time, but they can sometimes actually understand the subject better than fast thinkers.
Doing the “hard-start” technique allows you to use your brain as a sort of double processor. Your diffuse mode can take over on the hard problem as soon as you drop your focus on it. While the focused mode is tackling the easier problem, the diffuse mode works in the background on the other, harder problem. If you wait until the end of your test session to focus on the hardest problems, your focus prevents the diffuse mode from going to work.
recall is one of the best ways to learn.
Use the Pomodoro Technique to build your ability to focus and relax. Just turn off all distractions, set the timer to 25 minutes, focus, and then reward yourself.
Eat your frogs first. Start your most difficult work first. That way you can either finish it or take a break to let your diffuse mode help you.
To be in focused mode means you are paying close attention to something.
The diffuse mode is when your mind is wandering freely, not focusing on anything in particular. Your favorite diffuse mode activities are up to you!
On Google Maps: Zooming in is like focused mode. Zooming out is like diffuse mode.
Procrastination means delaying or postponing something that you should be doing.
The reward is the most important part of the Pomodoro process.
During the break between Pomodoros, try to do something that uses a different part of your brain. If you’ve just been writing a report, don’t write a post on social media. The best breaks involve getting up and moving around.
Sleep is important when it comes to learning because that’s when new dendritic spines and their synapse links really “pop” and grow larger. Sleep is also when the mind rehearses the information you’ve been learning. The electrical signals that arise while rehearsing during sleep are part of why the dendritic spines and their synapse links grow so rapidly.
When you practice a new idea, the synapse involved becomes stronger.
Your working memory is like a school bag because it’s close at hand but can hold only a limited amount of information.
Your attentional octopus (your working memory) “lives” in your prefrontal cortex.
People’s working memory can usually hold about four items of information.
Your long-term memory is scattered around in different areas of your brain.
To improve your long-term memory, you can use Nelson Dellis’s five memory tips (focus, practice, picture, store, and recall).
You can also use the memory palace technique, songs, metaphors, note taking, teaching others, or putting yourself in the shoes of something you’re trying to remember or understand.
The memory palace technique means imagining a place you know well, like your home, your route to school, or a map of your town, state, or country. Then you make memorable images involving the facts you are trying to remember. Next, deposit them at familiar places in your memor...
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We store information in two ways in long-term memory. Facts are hard to store. Pi...
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Brain-links are important because they allow you to process information more quickly.
The hippocampus is especially important in helping you remember facts and events.
Loud music with words is likely to be a distraction in your studies. But some people find that quiet music without words can help. Different people like different kinds of music when they are studying, and some people don’t like music at all. It depends on you.
When you go to sleep, your brain cells shrink. This allows cerebral fluids to wash away toxins in the brain.
“Eat your frogs first” means trying to do the most difficult things first. This gives you the time to switch to other subjects temporarily if you get stuck and need a creative boost from the diffuse mode.
Action and spatial video games help improve your thinking.
The bad aspect of video games is that they can be addictive. So they should be used in moderation.
Transfer is the ability to take an idea you’ve learned in one subject and use it to help you learn another subject. Metaphors can help with this process.
Khan Academy. This is a terrific resource. The more active practice you do after watching each video, the better!
Smartick. This program provides a solid foundation in mathematics built on sound practice. If you are struggling with mathematics, this is a great resource. If you are doing well in math, this resource will help you do even better. https://www.smartickmethod.com
BrainHQ. One of the few “cognitive improvement” programs that has good science to back up their claims—particularly good for aging adults to help improve their concentration and focus. If your grandma or grandpa is complaining that they aren’t as sharp as they used to be, this program’s for them! https://www.brainhq.com/
