How smart are you? The average person has an IQ between 90 and 110, with some outliers at the top and bottom of that range. IQ isn’t everything, though; there are other skills that will make you smarter than your peers, particularly when it comes to getting along with others or succeeding in the workplace. Find out which five skills will make you smarter in this article!
1. Learn How to Read faster
Reading faster isn’t necessarily going to make you smarter, but it will help you process more information and synthesize it into a coherent argument or narrative.
Reading faster is also a great way to increase your memory capacity — after all, you are more likely to remember an idea if you can read it quickly. The goal is not to have record-breaking reading speeds; just aim for an average of 250 words per minute, which can be achieved with some practice.
No matter what, don’t read slower than that — you need all of your cognitive resources on deck if you want to truly understand what you’re reading. Plus, it will keep your eyes from glazing over and make sure your thoughts are as clear as possible.
Reading and learning are inextricably linked. Reading makes us more able to learn, which improves our reading comprehension, which then makes us better at learning, and so on.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t read as much as we’d like to. According to a 2013 study by Pew Research Center, only 20% of American adults (adults being defined as those between ages 18 and 65) read an e-book in 2012.
Reading faster is easy if you know a few techniques. Reading really quickly improves comprehension and can help you retain information. The key to reading fast is not to take in each word individually, but instead to see words as a whole idea or set of ideas.
A good way to read faster is by doing any of these five things: 1) skim it, 2) highlight it, 3) skip difficult sections, 4) condense it into an outline or fill-in-the-blank notes. It takes practice, but can be done! Some people say they can read 1000 words per minute or more!
2. Learn New Languages
If you’re like most people, reading — either fiction or nonfiction — is one of your favorite pastimes. But are you reading as fast as you could? Increasing your reading speed by just 10 percent can allow you to consume more information in less time.
That might not sound like a big deal, but let’s say an 80-year-old man reads 200 words per minute. If he increases his speed to 220 words per minute, he can read roughly 100 more pages in a year than before.
If he continues to read at that rate for another five years (or 60 more books), he will have read thousands of extra pages and dozens of extra books during his lifetime.
Learning new languages is a great skill to have because it gives you access to a whole new world of people, ideas, and opportunities. It’s also just an impressive skill to have on your resume or in your portfolio.
Thankfully, learning foreign languages has never been easier with all of these free apps available on your phone or computer. With these tools at your disposal, there’s no excuse not to be fluent in three (or more) different languages by 2020!
3. Improve Memory
Research shows that learning a new language increases your brainpower, which is one of many reasons why it’s so important for students to learn how to speak another language. However, recent studies suggest there are also advantages for adults in continuing their education:
A 2009 study published in Neuropsychology found that bilingual people have larger brains than those who only speak one language. In addition, researchers at a University in Sweden recently found that children.
Those who grow up learning two languages may be able to think more creatively. And show better mental flexibility than their monolingual peers. Whatever you do, don’t wait to start learning a new language if you want to keep your mind sharp.
4. Practice Being More Productive
Chances are you’re familiar with multitasking, which is oftentimes defined as doing several things at once. While multitasking is a great skill to have when you need to get certain tasks done quickly, it can also leave you feeling frazzled and overwhelmed.
And there’s some research that suggests multitasking may even slow your cognitive processing. To keep your productivity in check and your stress levels low, practice focusing on one task at a time instead of switching back and forth.
Between several tasks — even if that means finishing something later than you originally expected. Busyness is often just a justification for being lazy. And if you want to be smarter, you’ll need to do more than sleep and eat well;
You’ll need to master a number of habits that will boost your brainpower and make you more productive. By practicing these five skills, we can all become smarter, more effective workers in all areas of our lives.
5. Learn How to Meditate
Meditation is a great way to sharpen your mind, body, and spirit. Meditation can help improve your focus and clear your thoughts. A recent study showed that people who meditate are more focused and less stressed out than non-meditators.
It’s important to set aside some time each day (even if it’s just 10 minutes) to concentrate on how you’re feeling and what you want out of life. It’ll be hard at first, but once you get into a routine, meditation will become second nature. And before long, it’ll make you smarter and happier!
Meditation is a great skill for staying focused, but more importantly, it has been shown to increase attention spans and working memory. Start by taking ten minutes in your office.
During a normal workday, close your eyes and calm your mind. If you can’t do that yet, bring mindfulness into your everyday life by forcing yourself to be aware of what you are doing at any given moment.
Meditation is a powerful practice that isn’t just good for your mind and body, but it can also affect your DNA. Meditation calms you down, increases levels of feel-good hormones like serotonin and dopamine to reduce anxiety and stress, and helps to build self-confidence.
By increasing levels of self-esteem. It may even lengthen your telomeres — these are little structures at the end of our chromosomes that affect aging. Even 10 minutes a day will have a big impact on your health!
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