Habits that have made me sharper

In today’s fast-paced world it’s important to be sharp and mentally acute. Sometimes it seems like it gets harder every day to be this way.

Over the years, I’ve formed some habits that help me stay sharp and get brighter. Following these is the reason why I truly believe every day I am a better version of myself than I was the day before.

Here are 10 habits guaranteed to sharpen you up:

1 Read daily.

It’s been said that a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Reading gives you this ability: to learn from the mistakes of others. This puts you one step ahead.

Besides that, there are innumerable benefits to reading daily, including increasing your vocabulary, increasing your comprehension, learning about subjects you don’t have the ability to study directly, etc.

The shortest shortcut to knowledge there is, is reading.

2. Stop watching TV.

TV is mostly an in-flow activity—there’s no create involved on your part. The whole picture is put there for you. Watching tons of TV gets you in the habit of in-flowing when you should be out-flowing. You should be creating things, building things, communicating things—out-flow activities.

It might seem like reading is an in-flow, and in some ways it is, but you are also made responsible for creating the picture, for making sense of the sentence structure, etc. It’s a more engaged, involved activity.

This doesn’t mean that it’s terrible to watch TV, or that you should never ever look at a TV again. It just means you should spend less time being entertained, and more time being productive. If you are like most Americans, chances are you watch many more hours of TV a week than you should. Break that habit, start a new one.

3. Skip the calculator.

The next time you need to make a calculation, do it in your head or use a good ol’ pen and paper to solve it. Don’t just whip out your phone and use the calculator app. By doing these simple (or sometimes more complex) calculations using pen and paper or in our head we stretch our “mental muscles”. By becoming less reliant on something else doing the thinking for you, you’ll start restoring your own ability.

4. Get enough sleep.

Yeah, it’s been scientifically proven that people who get enough sleep are sharper than people who don’t. This doesn’t mean people who sleep for more hours, mind you. I said people who get enough. Everyone is different and everyone needs a different amount. Find out what amount is best for you, and get that.

Having enough sleep improves mental clarity and sharpness. How well do you react to things when you’re tired? How easy is it for you to make good decisions when you can’t really keep your eyes open?

I don’t think I need to elaborate further.

5. Eat well.

Eating well will help you have more energy. Having more energy improves focus. I’m not a nutritionist, I’m not going to tell you what to eat, but most of us already know what foods we should probably cut out, i.e., donuts, and what foods we should probably eat more of.

6. Wake up early.

For some people waking up early is tough. For others it comes naturally. Generally speaking, it’s best to wake up early and go to bed early. Our bodies are human, and humans are not nocturnal. Evolutions and biology have demonstrated that.

Giving your body optimum working conditions, such as daylight hours, will improve your chances of being most productive and getting things done.

7. Challenge yourself regularly.

Put yourself to the test. Continually giving yourself challenges will increase your ability to overcome them.

Practice doing things you didn’t think you could do. The only way to improve how well you can do something is by trying to do it better.

If you keep doing the same things, with the same level of effort and dedication, how can you hope to improve?

Challenge yourself.

8. Quit drinking (alcohol).

It should go without saying that drinking regularly isn’t great for your mental acuity. Just don’t do it.

If you want to have a drink every now and then, I’m not going to say you shouldn’t.

But, if you drink every night before you go to sleep, or every day at lunch, or in any other regular or excessive fashion, stop. Substitute water for alcohol for the next several weeks and see what happens.

9. Exercise.

It’s interesting how a number of the points in this list on how to sharpen up (mentally) have to do with taking care of your body, isn’t it?

Exercising regularly has been scientifically proven to improve your health, mental clarity and even your mood.

You don’t have to become a world-class athlete or spend hundreds of dollars on a personal trainer. All it takes is setting aside some time each day to be active. Run around the block, take the dog on a long walk, do 25 pushups, etc. Start somewhere and increase it over time.

10. Stop putting yourself down.

No amount of self-abasement has ever helped anyone.

You are the only person who can determine your intelligence and your capabilities. You are also the only person who can reduce them. When you put yourself down, you make less of your abilities. That’s not okay.

Be good to yourself. Give yourself encouragement and acknowledgement. Reinforce your strengths by recognizing them and validating them. That is how you’re going to increase them.

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This isn’t everything you could ever do in order to sharpen up. But I guarantee you if you follow them, you will see immediate improvements, and much more over time.