Improve memory and attention: exercises that you can do on the way to work

On average, people spend on the Internet about 7 hours a day. Such conclusions were made by the We Are Social organization in its Digital 2020* report. 89% of users constantly use social networks and instant messengers, 49% play mobile games. This statistic is no longer surprising. It is worth going into the subway car, and you will see completely different people who spend their time on the way to work in exactly the same way.

We suggest reconsidering priorities and devoting time on the road to self-development and intellectual activity. In just 30 minutes a day, you will need to learn how to focus and improve your memory, “disperse” your brain before a working day, and cheer up without the help of coffee. Unfortunately, the exercises are not suitable for those who travel to the office by car. But if you use public transport, feel free to try these techniques.

Train your memory

1. Schulte tables: improve peripheral vision and attention. The Schulte table, which can be downloaded to a smartphone as an application, is a 5 × 5 field, where each cell contains a number from 1 to 25. Your task is to find these numbers in order as quickly as possible. The less time spent, the better you were able to concentrate.

If you want to train peripheral vision as well, complicate the task. It is necessary not only to find all the numbers in order, but also not to take your eyes off the middle of the table.

The advantage of exercises with the Schulte table is that you can try a large number of options and difficulty levels. If everything turns out easily and quickly, change the settings: choose the option with colored numbers or the ability to shuffle them after each move.

2. “Camera”: train attention and visual memory. When you go to work by subway or bus, you willy-nilly pay attention to signs, advertisements, pictures, people. You can benefit from this habit by turning it into an exercise:

• look carefully at the object, trying to remember it (first pay attention to the largest elements, then to the details);
• look away;
• try to mentally reproduce what you saw;
• return with your eyes to the object for comparison and evaluate whether you managed to remember the colors, shape, sizes correctly;
• work on the mistakes by repeating the entire algorithm from the beginning;
• repeat the exercise until you represent the object clearly and correctly.

Gradually, you will learn to memorize the object in all its details the first time.

3. “Recapitulation”: learn to concentrate and activate the power of memory. It is better to do this exercise on the way home. The exercise is quite simple: with your eyes open, remember the events of the day in chronological order, as if you were watching a movie to yourself. Restore in detail each action up to the present moment: you opened your eyes, got out of bed, then put on slippers and went to prepare breakfast.

It is recommended to remember the events of the outgoing day at a fast pace, while not missing details. When you manage to “drive” the day in detail in one direction, go to the “rewind” – remember the events from the end of the day to its beginning. If you do the exercise daily, you will notice the effect in a few days: it will become easier for you to concentrate, and you will be able to recall conversations and events much faster and more accurately.

Learn and repeat foreign words

If you have been wanting to improve your English for a long time, but there is not enough time, the road to work is a great chance to spend your time usefully. I suggest using the following algorithm:

1. Find on the Internet a ready-made list of words on topics that interest you (for example: garden, professions, animals).
2. Choose the word you need to learn: let it be “elephant” (in English – elephant [elifent]).
3. Pick up a Russian word phonetically similar to elephant. Since the word is long, you will have to pick up two at once, for example, “elf” and “fanta”.
4. To remember that an elephant is an elephant [elifent], combine 3 images in your head in one picture. Imagine an ordinary elephant, but with ears like an elf, he holds a bottle of fanta in his trunk and sprays soda in all directions.
5. Hold this cheerful image in your head and repeat three times: elephant – elephant, elephant – elephant, elephant – elephant.

Simpler words require only two images to be combined. For example, the word “tiger” is translated as tiger [taige], which is similar to the Russian word “taiga”. To remember, you need to link the images of the tiger and the taiga. Imagine a huge tiger roaming the taiga.

Keep in mind that the images you choose should be large and bright. Do not be embarrassed if they seem absurd: our brain remembers such images faster.

You can really enrich your vocabulary by taking time every day to repeat and check the words you have already learned. Learn 5-7 words and repeat, then move on to the next portion, and then run the entire list in your head.

Involve children in intellectual exercises

If you are taking your child to a kindergarten or school, take him to a useful and interesting activity. You will see: time will fly by unnoticed. What can be done:

• organize competitions on Schulte tables;
• remember the events of the day together;
• select an object (for example, yellow cars) and look for them together on the street – whoever saw more wins;
• learn foreign words and solve math examples orally;
• look for differences between pictures and exits from labyrinths;
• do finger exercises to synchronize the hemispheres of the brain;
• choose letter combinations (for example: “do”, “boo”, “vo”) and try to come up with as many words as possible that begin with them.

Travel time is ideal for training intellectual endurance. Free mini-simulators and applications for the development of memory, logic, attention in the public domain are more than enough. By allocating just 30 minutes a day, you will not only upgrade your cognitive abilities, but also tune in to a working mood. Also, you will complete tasks much faster than usual, stop getting tired and procrastinate.

^* https://wearesocial.com/digital-2020