We are going to look at 3 brain and mind hacks to temporarily improve your memory and creativity. In short, your mind’s power would increase significantly for a short duration after using these psychological hacks.

Let us first define a mind/brain hack:

In the context of this article, a mind hack or a brain hack is any activity that you can do which will deliberately manipulate your brain’s functioning to give you some benefit.

Example: Do this to increase memory for 1 minute.

I call these brain hacks ‘hacks’ because these are not, in any way, naturally occurring phenomenon. We are going to SAFELY (no T&C) rig the system based on some research findings.

Let us now define ‘mind power’:

Everything associated with the mind’s ability to do something – thinking, reasoning, memory, creativity.





3 Mind/Brain hacks to increase your mind’s power

The first brain hack directly affects the brain at a biological level. The second one directly affects your mental components along with your memory system. The third trick affects the brain holistically.

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels





Brain Hacking Trick 1: Move eyes side to side and recall observations

Want to remember something really well or observe reliably? Move your eyes left to right or right to left (sideways) for about 30 seconds consistently. You will now have a heightened memory for what you just learned or read before making your eye movements. You will have better recall of details and you will be less confused.

How?: Moving eyes side to side engages a number of brain regions that are connected to cognitive skills in each of the 2 brain hemispheres (the left and right hemisphere). The corpus callusum plays a role here. It is the major highway that connects the left and right sides of the brain. Cross-communication between both sides creates more mental resources available at your disposal.

This way, the brain is ‘revved up’ by the eye movement for a short period so you can now utilize more mental resources. This may also help to remember information better after the eye movement but more research is needed to understand its scope.

Use: Improving observation on purpose for a small amount of time, improving your recalling (remembering) capacity for a short duration

T&C: Works best for right-handed people, not left-handed people. Here is the explanation why. Directly jump to point 2.





Mind H acking Trick 2: Recall at random & remember to remember

Can’t remember minute random details? Use a remember to remember trick at random times. You simply need to mentally mark some information that you come across as important. You are now attaching weight to this information (you can even imagine hanging an anchor on that information, get creative). Once you do that, you should recall that bit of information shortly after.

After that, mentally mark it as remembered and then schedule another moment in the future for remembering. But when you schedule, you are just reminding yourself to remember it. You should actively recall that detail there and then. This will become a neat habit once you learn how to quickly recall details after a while and mentally mark them as ‘recalled.’

How? Information carries some level of importance. We can call this the ‘weight’ of information. This is the same as you remembering an exam date easily whereas you struggle with remembering the date you last ate some Chinese food. This weight is crucial in remembering that detail. But memories that are not given much importance fade away fast. Once you remember to remember and recall it there and then, you reinforce that memory and delay the decay of it. After doing this a few times, that memory will be strong enough for you to rely on it. Perfect for trivia you learn in meetings and classrooms.

Use: Remembering phone numbers, names, information gathered through small talk or business meetings, bank details, vocabulary, etc.

T&C: Needs practice.





Mind & Brain Hacking Trick 3: Random music to help creativity

Have you reached a creative block? You can space out to actually let your brain figure out solutions automatically. Spacing out isn’t the hack. The hack is that you listen to random music when you space out and then get back to your work/problem. This will have stimulated many brain regions that may be unrelated to your problem but could help with creating a solution using the other stimulated regions of the brain. So you will have different brain areas working in concert to help tackle the problem.

This hack as a second implications. You can also listen to different types of music while working. Similar rules apply and the music could help you focus and let you intuitively think about new perspectives using the newly stimulated regions.

How? Music stimulates A LOT of the brain, more than anything else. It engages all sorts of brain regions that are seemingly not connected to sound. This simply provides more mental resources to address the problem at hand. And each of these regions is good at doing something that might be useful to you. Applying the processes of a certain brain region to information may create something creative.

In fact, according the construal level theory, it is possible that the distraction of music increases the processing load of your work allowing your brain to think in an abstract way. This promotes creative thinking.

Use: Getting over a creative block, looking for ideas, novel solutions, etc.

T&C: This mind hack depends heavily on your musical preference, the type of work you are doing, and your baseline attention. Here is more research on the topic.

Have fun hacking your mind/brain and enjoy the temporary boost in your mind’s power.









P.S. An amazing mind hack is to use something called biofeedback. This is just a postscript so I won’t get deep into it. Biofeedback is a way to manipulate your biological state by consciously trying to change it via visualizations. For example, if your biofeedback device captures brainwaves, you will see them on a computer and you can then try to change those brainwaves by wishing to change the visual details you see on a screen. You can try out a consumer-grade biofeedback device here. Click the link below.

Neurosky Mindwave Mobile 2 Brainwave Starter Kit

This is the product. You put it around your head and connect it to your computer. You can visualize your brainwaves and then control them to meditate or concentrate better.

Hey! Thank you for reading; hope you enjoyed the article. I run Cognition Today to paint a holistic picture of psychology. Each article is frequently updated with new research findings. I’m an applied psychologist from Pune, India. Love sci-fi, horror media; Love rock, metal, synthwave, and pop music; can’t whistle; can play the guitar.