Tricks to become smarter

(your boss will be happy about this)

Sometimes I look at May as if my entire brain has just evaporated. Oh, certainly I wanted to ask an intelligent question or notice something particularly developed, but definitely not that it will come out of my mouth within the next ten seconds. Blank, nothing, no idea what I wanted to say.

Now you already knew that smart people forget a lot and that they also like to sip wine, but there are tricks, bridges, and techniques to bypass that brain. By the way, this is how you get smarter without studying, also handy. But back to the tricks, because it may not affect your IQ, but you do come across as smarter. That's worth something.

1. What’s in a name

I have a photographic memory for faces, but unfortunately not for names. I know exactly whether I've seen that one man by the vegetable shelf or the fresh section, although that doesn't help you at all. What I conveniently forget? The name of that one tall guy or what her new lover is called again. It's inconvenient, leads to awkward situations. Therefore the trick: don't think about what the person's name is, but about what you think of the person. Our mind remembers what it sees.

2. Same time, same place

Monday was memorable, because what turned out? I had a date correctly noted in my calendar and not our phenomenally good intern Selina. Ha. Normally I get that wrong. There’s a trick for that too. Visualize what you are going to do, where it is, with whom, what you are going to talk about, what you are wearing (not unimportant) and how you are going to get there. The appointment anchors itself in your memory, making it less likely that you will forget it.

3. The evaporated brain

In a situation where the big nothing pops up in your brain, there are also solutions. My problem is permanent, sorry May, because this is purely how you can later recite a speech, for example. Connect objects to the sentence you want to say. Your brain associates them with each other when you see them, making it easier to find back what you wanted to say. What I would do if I were you? Just practice every evening in the middle of the living room, it works like a charm.

4. Completely forgot email

Another thing in my life, my email. I neatly flag what I still need to respond to, but now I don't dare to look in my flagged inbox anymore. But if I were you, I would read this piece, there you will find everything about the two-minute rule.

Source: Fastcompany.com