Hot Mind Hacks Posts

How To: Access Someone's Thoughts Using Only Their Eye Movements

Look away from this screen and try to remember the sound of your childhood hero's voice. Did you do it? Do it again, and this time pay attention to your eyes.

How To: Hate Math? These Mental Tricks Will Have You Multiplying Faster Than Einstein Ever Could!

2 + 2 = 4. That's about as much math as I can handle without a calculator on a daily basis. I literally hate doing math more than anything in life, mostly because I'm not good at it—and I hate doing things I'm not good at.

How To: Woke Up Before Your Alarm? Stay Awake, Don't Go Back to Sleep

There's nothing more jarring than the sound of your morning alarm. Even hearing it on others' phones, hours after your own abrupt wakeup, can cause you to flinch in fear. Though we depend on that shrill sound to get up each morning, it's actually better to wake up naturally—so don't even think about hitting that snooze button.

How To: Calm Your Fear of Public Speaking for Better Presentations

Sweaty palms, stuttered speech, and terror blackouts: if you're someone who absolutely despises speaking before audiences, you've probably experienced side effects like these. No matter how well prepared we are, or how familiar our audience is, giving a presentation can be an experience more terrifying than death, according to psychologists. Unfortunately, it's impossible to avoid public speeches, but you can make these events less frightening with a few simple hacks.

How To: 10 Reasons Why It's Better to Be a Jerk

Nice people finish first—or is it last? Though you may have been told throughout your life that being kind pays off, there are some obvious advantages to getting mean. So whether you're driving towards a goal at work, or need to attack a task in your personal life, acting like a jerk just might help you get what you want.

How To: Speed Read Your Way Through Anything with the Right Font

Hate slogging through pages and pages of weighty books and lengthy work documents? You may not be able to depend on speed-reading apps, but with the right font, you can increase the number of words you scan each second, speeding up your reading pace exponentially.

How To: Fake Smiles Are Bad for You & Here’s Why

Can you tell when someone is shooting you a fake smile? Even though fake smiles are easy enough to see through, we all still do it, attempting to show others just how happy we are when we're really feeling less than fantastic. Unfortunately, every smile we fake makes us a tiny bit more miserable.

How To: Blowing on Your Thumb Can Calm Down Stress on the Spot

If you're feeling stressed, there are many home remedies you could use for relief. Meditation, yoga, acupressure, an ear massage, more sleep, shower soothers, playing video games… the list is endless. But a lot of these methods require a significant amount of time, so what do you do when you need immediate stress relief?

How To: Turn Your Gag Reflex Off with Pressure Points

The gag reflex: it can interfere while in the dentist's chair, upon seeing another person throw up, or even just getting a whiff of a disgusting, stomach-twisting scent. Every time this reflex kicks in, it stops us immediately, inducing a choking, gagging, coughing fit.

How To: Prevent the Harmful Effects of Working in a Windowless Cubicle

Sitting in a cubicle and never seeing sunlight during the workday is unpleasant to even think about—and sitting in a flourescent-light cube can have terrible effects on both our work performance and overall attitude. Yet there are ways to counteract the effects of cubicle sitting, even if you can't sit in a sunny office or work from home.

How To: Trick Your Brain into Not Feeling Any Pain

Pain is, for the most part, unavoidable when you stub your toe, break your arm, or cut your finger open. It's instantaneous and, in some cases, long-lasting, but it only feels as bad as you want it to. Yes, that's right—that pain is all in your head.

How To: Disarm a Manipulative Sociopath

There are a lot of manipulative people out there, but you don't have to let all of them push you around. It's time for the tables to turn.

Gaslighting 101: How to Turn People's Own Thoughts Against Them

This is evil and it destroys people. Let's just get that out of the way. Nonetheless, suppose you need to make someone distrust their own memory and perception of reality. Suppose you want someone to believe in you more than they believe in themselves.

How To: Fall in Love by Looking a Stranger in the Eyes

Eye contact is key in conversations, job interviews, and honesty, and it can help you access others' thoughts and spot heavy drinkers. Locking eyes with someone can even help you fall in love, whether you know them or not.

Silence Is Golden: Why Keeping Quiet at Work Is Actually a Good Thing

Unless you're someone who's terrified of social situations, chances are you love to talk. But no matter how much you want to share you life story or take over the conversation, you shouldn't. Your socially awkward coworkers that keep their mouth shut might actually have a leg up on you at work, and here's why.

How To: Eat Like a Martial Arts Master and Increase Your Willpower

Deep in the crevasses of the Songshan mountain range, an Indian dhyana master established the first Shaolin Monastery in 477 AD, seeking to spread the relatively new teachings of Buddha at the time. This monastery then bred the Shaolin monks, who are now popular for their incredible feats with Chinese martial arts, particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu.

Sleep Hacks: 10 Ways to Take Back Control Over Your Sleeping Habits

Climbing into bed and shutting your eyes each night is heavenly—but waking up the next morning isn't. We all hate dragging ourselves out of the comfort of sleep and into the groggy, exhausting work day. Yet starting your day doesn't have to be awful if you know how to hack your sleep cycles and get the most out of your shut-eye.

How To: Implant False Memories into Other People's Heads (& Why You Should)

Your brain holds a lot of precious information and is capable of great feats. However, there's one quality that doesn't lie among its strengths—memory security. Yes, that's right, your brain can be hacked, and it doesn't take a psychologist to do it. Anyone with the right know-how can change your memories for their own personal benefit, and you can do so to others, too.

How To: Get Along with Coworkers Without Saying a Word

Sooner or later, you're going to come across a person at work that you don't like—or someone that doesn't like you. This can result in uncomfortable tension, insulting gossip, and a disrespectful attitude, to name just a few of the negatives. But it doesn't have to be that way. The next time you're having a workplace conflict with a particularly challenging coworker, the best thing you can do is keep your mouth shut, and here's how to do it.

Productivity Tips: 10 Mind Hacks for Getting Things Done Better & Faster at Work

It may sound irrational, but I bet a lot of you actually avoid doing any work at work—but not on purpose. You might be simply struggling with motivation, or you might just be overdosing on the caffeine. Whatever the issue, getting focused takes lots of time and effort.

How To: Win Over Your Coworkers During Meetings with These Mind Hacks

Instead of suffering through long, dull meetings with your supervisors and coworkers, you can turn those office table sessions into your very own psychological experiment.

How To: 5 Things Cold Baths & Showers Can Do for You That Hot Ones Can’t

If you're anything like me, your day doesn't start until you've sloughed away your grogginess with a scalding hot shower. That perfectly-heated water can clear stuffed sinuses, relax the muscles, and make pretty much anyone feel squeaky clean. However, a cold shower can do even more for you if you can stand the low temperatures.

How to Beat a Telemarketer: 8 Surefire Ways to Keep Them from Calling You Back

Telemarketers can be as terrifying as a villain from a horror film. Your phone rings with an unknown 800 number, and you immediately fill with a sense of dread. There's no way to get them to stop calling; you imagine the number appearing on your phone at all hours of the day and night, haunting you.

How To: 8 Terrible Consequences of Suppressing Your Thoughts & How to Avoid Them

Suppressing your thoughts and feelings might unintentionally be your go-to coping mechanism, but as it turns out, suppressive behavior may have some tragically ironic consequences. Numerous psychological studies have shown the dangers of thought suppression, and in this guide, I'll show you a more healthy alternative for dealing with your demons.

How To: 10 Resolution Ruiners & How to Avoid Them

The start of a new year is generally thought of as a chance to start over, a time to improve or "fix" things in your life. Yet most people who set stringent New Year's resolutions find themselves failing within weeks—or even days—of setting their lofty goals.

How To: Spot a Heavy Drinker with Eye Contact

Did you know that your face shows others how much alcohol you drink? Whether you've never had a sip of booze with those around you or you're known as the party animal of the group, the genes that shape your appearance also show others just how much you enjoy liquor. Pinpointing the big drinker in any setting is easy to determine: you just need to make eye contact.

Feet Don't Lie: Look Down to Tell What Others Are Really Thinking

The importance of body language is stressed from an early age: watch those around you, and you'll know what they're thinking. While you might be skilled at deciphering the messages of crossed arms, slouched sitting, eye movements, and hand gestures, the key to understanding those around you is a little less obvious.

Expert Advice: Four Ways Doctors Keep Themselves Healthy

Staying healthy is a progressive challenge we all face throughout our lives, and figuring out just how to do that can be a challenge when it's not your job. For doctors, however, it is. Here's how they keep themselves healthy day to day.

Forget Advil: Cold, Hard Cash Is the Best Pain Relief

You know you've had a long day when you head home with a headache, back pain, and eyes so sore they feel like they might roll out of your head. Turns out your medicine cabinet isn't the only place you can find help—instead of popping painkillers, just open up your wallet for instant pain relief.

How To: 5 Ways You're Making Yourself Dumber

No one wants to appear stupid. Whether you rely on lengthy, complicated vocabulary to show your smarts, or enjoy highlighting your speedy mental math skills, everyone prefers emphasizing intelligence over hiding it.

Hack Your Brain: Improving Memory with Dirty Pictures

If you're interested in nabbing superhero memory strength, the secret behind training your brain is not necessarily what you might expect. Your standard G-rated brain strengthening exercises range from crossword puzzles to Sudoku to calculating fairly simple math problems to improve short term memory, but the real clincher used by some of the pros is essentially... porn. Yep, you read right.

How To: 10 Surefire Ways to Spot a Liar (And Tell Better Lies Yourself)

Seeing that you probably can't go ten minutes without lying (according to this study), you're probably interested in becoming a better liar. The best way to do so is to learn what makes a bad liar, and then do the opposite.

How To: 10 Ways to Manipulate Irrational People & Get Your Way

It may seem impossible to win an argument against an irrational person, but it turns out the tried-and-true techniques that hostage negotiators use against hostage-takers work surprisingly well in everyday situations. You may not ever deal with a real hostage situation personally, but life is full of negotiations with unreasonable people, and those conversations don't always have to end in rage or disappointment. The mental techniques that professional hostage negotiators use can help both pa...

How To: Spot a Liar Through Text Messages

While text messaging has become one of the most frequent ways we communicate with our friends, the missing body language, tone of voice, and eye contact can make it difficult to tell when someone is being dishonest. That said, it's not impossible. There are a number of subtle hints you can train yourself to recognize that will to help you detect written lies hiding in your SMS and iMessages. Here's what you should look out for.

How To: Fall Asleep in Less Than 1 Minute

It can be pretty tough to fall asleep when your brain is thinking nonstop or anxiety has gotten the best of you, and it seems to only get harder when you're lying in bed listening to yourself breathe. Yet paying attention to that breathing may be exactly what you need in order to find a calm, easy entry into a good night's rest.

DIY Pain Relief: 7 Weird Ways to Reduce Aches & Soothe Burns

No one ever wants to experience pain, whether it's as small as a stubbed toe or as great as recovering from surgery. Yet so much of our lives causes pain, lasting or brief in its form. With a few mental tricks and unusual home remedies, you can relieve some of the most common aches and ailments that arise painlessly.

How To: Make Your Lies Undetectable in Email & Text Messages

Developing an imperceptible lie is difficult, especially when you're lying right to someone's face. Thanks to smartphones, getting people to trust you is now easier than ever. You can craft a lie in seconds and hit send, all without ever seeing their untrusting faces.

How To: Pet Peeves Have Benefits? 5 Annoying Things That Are Actually Good to Hate

What's your top pet peeve? Open-mouthed chewing? Nail biting and knuckle cracking? The sound of silverware scraping? Or perhaps it's a bigger behavior, like leaving the toilet seat up?

How To: 5 Reasons You Shouldn't Trust TV Doctors

With the countless daytime talk shows starring and featuring doctors, nurses, and other medical specialists, discovering new ways to live a healthy life is just a remote click away. Although their shows might draw you in with incredible facts and mind-blowing secrets to weight loss success, it's important to take each televised recommendation with a bit of suspicion—most of these familiar faces aren't exactly telling the truth.

How To: The 15-Minute Trick to Boosting Your Memory & Being More Productive

From day to day, it can be difficult to remember everything that's required of you. I tend to forget exactly where it is I'm supposed to be during my busiest moments, and it's even easier to delete each day's events out of your brain when there's so much else that dominates your mind. Yet taking the time to remember exactly what it is that happens during each of our days can be a vital part of our memory—and with nothing more than 15 minutes, we can strengthen our brains and remember more tha...