1. Take classes to learn something you've always wanted to understand.
Take time to try new classes which you wouldn't have known.
Learn to play bridge, study Spanish or take a photoshop seminar. It's up to you! Try something new and crazy, just to say you've done it!
2. Do games and puzzles such as crossword puzzles, Sudoku and Scrabble
3. Read often, with a lot of different types of books.
Take a magazine and dedicate specific time to it. Read the newspaper. Set your computer homepage to bring up news items of particular interest to you. Read them each time you open the computer.
4. Remember and repeat groups of words.
Memorize your grocery list or friends' phone numbers.
5. Play computer brain games, such as Brain Age for Nintendo DS.
6. Meditate often.
Take calm, deep breaths out your nose only. Your brain (and entire body) needs lots of fresh air, so breathe deeply.
7. Eat foods containing omega fatty acids (known to boost intellectual stamina) such as flax and hemp seeds, and fish.
8. Perform math functions regularly.
9. Learn new words from a word-a-day calendar or dictionary.
10. Use your left hand if you are right handed, and reverse, to exercise the opposite side of the brain.
11. Mess around with a twisty puzzle.
12. Learn to read and play music.
(Classical music is known to have the best effects.)
13. Consider the different possibilities of how something could've gone, and explore these consequences.
This improves creativity.
14. When trying to learn something or review for a quiz, listen to your favorite song and repeat. This is an association technique where your brain connects what you learned to what you heard. Plus, after a half hour of one song on repeat, you should know the lyrics!
15. Try commuting with varied routes.
It prevents the brain from becoming monotonous.
16. Avoid watching TV for hours; solve puzzles while watching TV to increase multitasking.