Last week I watched as many TED talks as humanly possible (296, in my case), to explore the effects of overloading my mind with information while trying to learn as much as possible, and to see how things like meditation, taking breaks, and caffeine affect how much information I can retain.

If you’re uninitiated, TED talks are short, typically 18-minute talks given by leaders in the fields of Technology, Entertainment, and Design, which are then posted online at TED.com.

Below is everything I learned from this experiment, as well as everything I learned from the talks themselves. I broke what I learned down into five articles to make things easier to digest, and made them into lists to save you some time. My favorite articles are at the top. Enjoy!