15 SKILLS THAT CAN SHARPEN YOUR THINKING AND MAKE YOU SMARTER

As humans we have the desire to be knowledgeable, problem solvers and be able to bring up new incredible ideas. Being smart requires indulging and learning various skills that light up the pathway to wisdom. These 15 skills compounded every day will make you smarter. They’ll help you cultivate a knowledgeable attitude.

1. Reading Skills

You think of reading and different excuses flood your mind. Right. It takes so much time movies are better reading is hard i read in school, why should i read outside of school. It’s important to understand your environment the thoughts of others and ideas from all over the world. So as to make better decisions and be able to better relate with people.

Reading simplifies these things for you enabling evolution and development intellectually. It cultivates the imaginative nature of your mind words from fiction music lyrics poetry and even business books enhance your mind. Imagination knowledge as well as vocabulary so next time you see a book don’t walk past it pick it up read a few pages and start downloading some more knowledge.

2. Writing Skills

Venturing into writing or learning to write doesn’t require you to transform into Shakespeare or Charles Dickens. Writing is a part of our everyday life from putting down your signature and texting in a group chat to a sticky note you put on the refrigerator. They all have one thing in common, which is passing on a message. Writing is not necessarily about you becoming a professional it’s a subtle form of learning for you.

Think of writing this way you have a lot of emotions going on in your mind that you just don’t know how to let out. Writing it down will prove to be beneficial. Writing helps you to untangle your messy mind creating an opening for clearer thoughts. It helps you to learn about things simplify your thoughts and helps you to be more effective with your communication.

3. Gaming Skills

Gaming is a form of entertainment and a means to pass the time, from moving the pieces around on a chessboard to figuring out where puzzle pieces go to jumping over obstacles on your smartphone. Gaming whether through the screen or chessboard requires a vast amount of thinking trying to figure out your opponent’s next move, trying to dodge an attack, trying to win or at least come to a draw.

Playing games helps to strengthen your problem-solving skills improve your memory increase your focus as well as your concentration. Gaming improves your socialization skills, especially when teamwork is required. You play a game better than next time than you did the last. So, when figuring out your tactics in your game remember, you’re also getting smarter.

4. Emotional Intelligence

We’re not strictly logical beings. We’re also ruled by our emotions in more ways than others during arguments with family or friends on social media or disciplining our children, emotions can sometimes rule over logic. Intelligence as well as being smart shouldn’t be reduced down to plain knowledge. Living smart exceeds numbers calculations and words. It also includes your in-depth understanding of your emotions and the emotions of others.

The ability to regulate your own emotions and understand other people’s is important in all areas of life, especially in your relationships. It also helps you to diffuse conflicts more easily and assess your strengths and weaknesses in both yourself and others, and this skill is fundamental for overall smarts.

5. Time Management Skills

A lot of things to do with a little amount of time. Learning how to manage your time helps in solving these issues and evolving your mind into a smarter version of itself. Being able to properly allocate your time between various activities, thereby building up your focus and confidence. Reducing stress balancing your life and giving yourself more freedom. Always remember to plan your time right, eliminate procrastination and distractions and think clearly.

When you go out for a run listen to an audio book. When you’re driving in your car listen to motivational messages. Plan out your time you should engage in difficult activities first then utilize your remaining time with a few more productive activities. Learning to plan out your time aids in so many ways in your life and building your mental capacities. Next time you’ve got a lot to do don’t forget to plan out your strategy the day before.

6. Numeracy Skills

The need to deal with numbers comes up every day. Calculating the amount of money, you were given the teaspoon of salt to put in your meal or how many minutes you have left to get that task done. Most times we tend to lean toward forgetting the importance of numbers, but both words and numbers they work side by side.

Arithmetic formulas and mathematics help you in critical thinking and problem solving boosting your overall intellect. So task yourself solve a couple of problems and find x and maybe y along the way and in turn you’ll find your ability to recognize mistakes handle data and solve hard challenges is getting a lot easier to do. And, when you’re standing in line trying to calculate the sale price of something you won’t be cheated.

7. Memorization Skills

Memorizing information is infused into our daily life. Remembering details such as names faces and numbers help in moving your intelligence up a few steps. Engaging your brain in various activities, simplifies problem solving and aids your quick reasoning. It supports you in understanding what is being taught challenge yourself remember phone numbers remember names and addresses and remember that you’re getting smarter.

8. Communication Skills

Every relationship between family friends, lovers, workers, acquaintances, they all require communication. Tony A Gaskin Jr. Said communication in a relationship is as oxygen is to life. Communication it’s not just about you speaking it’s also about listening and understanding nonverbal language, emotional regulation and stress management among many other things.

It’s important to voice your thoughts out letting out your ideas as well as mixing them up with the thoughts of others. Understanding people is mandatory to breed respect trust the sharing of ideas, overcoming diversity and avoiding conflict. The next time you hold a conversation with someone try to notice how much thinking you do because it’s making you smarter.

9. SOCIALIZATION SKILLS

We’re gregarious beings, hanging out with friends, going out to eat or driving with our family and friends. It helps to bring us so much fun it makes life go more smoothly and socialization is vital. Studies have shown that people socially interacting for as little as 10 minutes get an increase in their cognitive function.

Socializing with friends helps you to develop good memory as well as suppress various forms of distractions. To get smarter you should make time to hang out with your friends and family. Discuss what’s happening rub your minds together and share ideas because these ideas will help you become smarter.

10. Meditation Skills

When time presents itself take a moment to meditate, breathe in and out and let your worries float away and create an opportunity for your brain function to increase. A Harvard study found that people who meditate have an increase of gray matter in the frontal cortex. This area is responsible for memories and increased decision-making. Meditation involves slowing down your brain function, so in this sense meditating frequently allows your mind and body to rest. This will help to improve your brain functions and relieve stress and fun fact meditating leads to a boost in your IQ by up to 23 percent.

11. Athletic Skills

Waking up every day to engage in a sport, seems a little bit tasking for you. It takes a lot of energy one you might not be willing to give away, but i assure you that engaging in physical activities begs a lot of advantages. Studies have shown that athletic activities are linked to higher IQ scores. Athletic journals of American college sports have shown, that engaging in athletic activities helps you to process information and make decisions even faster.

Exercising also releases dopamine and makes you concentrate better. It’s beneficial for you to engage in physical activities for so many reasons. On top of your physical health. It improves your mental clarity as well as your efficiency.

12. Teaching Skills

When we give instructions to our siblings on how to ride a bike and instruct our kids on how to flip a pancake, teaching is a part of our daily lives. Teaching helps you become smarter in a way called the protégé effect. To teach requires a concise knowledge of what’s being taught, so in that sense a thorough study is made. This leads to a deeper understanding accurate recollection and a high application of efforts. Teaching is quite rewarding too because for as much knowledge is given more is required.

Teaching is interactive in the process we learn and our ideas get mixed and this of course all works together in increasing one’s knowledge.

13. Dancing Skills

Dancing requires mastery of certain steps and it sometimes takes a long time to learn. Dancing might not seem like a likely way of gaining intelligence, but it’s actually one of the best ways. Dancing teaches you persistence. Consistently trying to master that step over and over again despite various falls. Dancing also teaches you amazing listening skills, getting cues on what to do next.

Dancing helps you to be a problem solver too, making you more creative in your search for an easy to learn dance step. These skills they’re not just isolated to your dancing either they also cross over into your life making you smarter. So maybe it’s not such a bad idea to get dressed up and sign up for dancing class.

14. Digital Skills

Technology has made our lives easier. We don’t have to do quite as much as we used to because our personal computers help us out in every part of life. A deep understanding of digital operation it goes a long way. We get smarter by looking at things online through our laptops and mobile phones. We begin to know more about ourselves our interests likes and history by monitoring our activities, we even do a lot of reading on our phones.

Being good with computers and tech is a key to opening up a door to vast knowledge and we in turn should walk through that door. The internet is a gold mine of information, so take up your phone and laptop learn a few things from them educate yourself and become smarter along the way.

15. Teamworking Skills

We all live in social environments, we are social beings and to go on with life without problems requires a good relationship with the people around us. Learning to deal with people makes you smarter, understanding them and how to work together with them also makes you smarter. Cognitive development is linked to teamwork sometimes, it’s important not to work alone.

Next time you’re thinking of venturing into a project by yourself maybe don’t and employ the help of others. Observe their views and learn to deal with them through conflict resolution and mutual understanding. You’ll be better off and smarter as a result.