Creating cognitive skills

As humans, we constantly try to optimise our performance to improve our lives. One factor that plays a major role in making this possible is our cognitive skills.

Although they develop the most during our first two years of life, it is now widely known that cognitive skills get upgraded throughout our lives and can be strategically improved by making a few lifestyle changes.

“Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because it relies on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics.” – Steven Pinker.

What are cognitive skills?

Cognitive ability is how your brain processes new information and can retrieve and use that knowledge when necessary.

Cognitive skills refer to the group of core mental abilities that help you think more clearly, learn faster, retain more knowledge, make better decisions and solve problems more clearly.

So, developing your cognitive skills will help you enhance your cognitive abilities so that you can make important connections between old and new information and work more efficiently.

9 Characteristics Of Cognitive Skills

Generally, cognitive skills are divided into the nine following characteristics:

• Sustained attention – staying focused for a stipulated time.
• Selective attention – staying focused on a task despite distractions.
• Divided attention – remembering things while doing some other task.
• Long-term memory – remembering or recalling information from the past.
• Working memory – enables you to retain a piece of information while you use it.
• Logic and reasoning – help you to form ideas, solve problems, and reason.
• Auditory processing – helps you to understand, differentiate and blend songs.
• Visual processing – This helps you to think in visual images.
• Processing speed – Helps you to perform a specific action quickly and immediately.

7 Habits to help improve your cognitive functioning

Following is a list of habits that can help improve cognitive functioning in the young and prevent cognitive decline in adults:

Exercise

• Exercise improves blood circulation to the brain. This provides it with nourishing oxygen and flushes out the toxins released due to metabolism.
• 2013 research studies show that specific molecules released during endurance exercise help improve cognition and memory and protect brain neurons from degeneration.
• That molecule was later identified as Irsin. Irsin has a neuroprotective effect and activates genes involved in learning and memory.
• Exercise improves cardiovascular fitness, motor skills, and even brain functioning.

Willingness towards a new experience

• Learning new and mentally demanding skills is key to remaining sharp as we age.
• Just doing any random activity to stay engaged is not enough. You need to do something new that alerts your brain and encourages it to stay active.
• You need to go outside your comfort zone to provide the brain with enough stimulation.
• Try taking up hobbies such as gardening, art, chess, etc.

Sleep well

• Your brain also needs to rest after a long day, just like your body.
• Overworking destroys the grey matter of your brain, which over some time, leads to Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism.
• Sleep allows your brain to detox and reorganise information acquired throughout the day and repair itself in general.
• This helps to improve memory and enhances problem-solving ability, judgement, mood, and response to stress.
• Even short naps of 20 minutes during the afternoon improve memory retention dramatically.

Regular brain workout

• As we grow older, we become dependent on technology, stop asking questions and get into a repetitive schedule of eating, work, and sleep. Although we are exhausted by the end of the day, our brain has hardly exercised.
• Just like a muscle, our brain also improves with regular exercise.
• Try reading a book, solving puzzles, playing games such as Sudoku, etc., to improve brain functioning.
• You can take up a new skill, such as pottery, or try to learn to drive.
• Notice your surroundings while you go to work or visit the market. Notice people, their clothing, and their vehicles, and keep your brain active.
• This improves attention, memory, and reasoning skills.
• Try to learn a new language or how to play a musical instrument. Attempting something new and challenging is the best way to provide your brain with a workout.

Reduce chronic stress

• Stress as such is unavoidable sometimes, but you should stay away from chronic stress.
• Stress causes faster neural degeneration by releasing Cortisol.
• Reducing stress will improve attention, concentration, and memory.
• If it is impossible to avoid stress try stress-reducing activities (read a book, listen to music, take a walk, etc.) or take up meditation.
• Even 10 minutes of meditation a day can do wonders for your body. In the long run, it will improve cognitive longevity and problem-solving skills.

Eat healthily and stay hydrated

• What we put in our mouths eventually affects our brains.
• Eat food rich in antioxidants, vitamins e and d, omega-3 fatty acids, etc., to enhance cognitive functioning.
• Avoid fast food. They make the brain lethargic and slow down sensory reception. They also cause the production and accumulation of toxins.
• Do not avoid meals, and start the day with a healthy breakfast. This gives you sufficient energy to kick-start your day.
• Water is very important for proper body functioning, and you must drink at least 3L of water daily.
• Our brain is 75% water; even mild dehydration can cause a lapse of memory, fainting, nausea and vomiting.

Engage all your senses simultaneously

• This is one of the best methods to optimise brain stimulus. Engaging all your senses will make a tremendous improvement in brain functioning.
• Try driving, gardening, taking slightly crowded routes, etc.
• They improve sensory-motor coordination, response to stress and decision-making skills; they enhance problem-management skills and reasoning abilities.

Examples of cognitive skills

Cognitive skills are differentiated based on the pattern they follow in different situations. Each cognitive skill highlights a different method that the human brain processes to decipher information in its entirety.

• Sustained attention: This type of attention propels you to retain your focus on a single task throughout its completion. You will require sustained attention to keep your spirits high and your motivation intact at your workplace. It helps you avoid being impulsive or impetuous and encourages you to keep pursuing your goals uninterrupted.

For example, you use sustained attention when you have to work on a class project with a focus for many hours. It is very important to have sustained attention to accomplish any big goal.

• Long-term memory: It assists you in recalling distant memories that usually get fade away with time. It helps you retain vital points from your last meetings or important activities. Most importantly, it helps you to recall your colleague’s name, whom you met quite a few years ago.

For example, you can consider how you still remember the mathematical tables, all thanks to your long-term memory. It is greatly important to have a long-term memory as it helps get various tasks done quickly.

• Working memory: This memory helps you hold a firm grasp of the information you are currently processing. It is also known as short-term memory. For instance, if you are entrusted with a task, and you don’t have to keep looking at the instruction menu over and over again, then it signifies that you have a significantly strong working memory.

E.g. Short term memory is used when you are answering any question because only if you remember the question for a short time will you be able to answer it. This type of memory is particularly important to get through day-to-day life easily.

• Auditory processing: Our brain is equipped with an auditory processing mechanism designed by The Almighty that successfully processes information that seeps in through our ears. Cognitive skills such as this assist you in listening to your customers, friends, and leaders proactively and then subsequently using that piece of information to help you in your tasks.

Listening to the teacher’s command to stand straight in a line and acting on it is an example of auditory processing at work. It is very important as it helps in having effective communication.

Here are the examples of famous people who have become leaders after developing cognitive skills:

• Sir Richard Branson:
  • Habit: Exercise
  • Example: Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, emphasises the importance of regular exercise for maintaining his cognitive sharpness.
• Leonardo da Vinci:
  • Habit: Willingness towards new experiences
  • >Example: Leonardo da Vinci, renowned for his diverse talents, constantly sought out new experiences and challenges to stimulate his mind.
• Jeff Bezos:
  • Habit: Adequate sleep
  • Example: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has emphasised the importance of getting sufficient sleep for optimal cognitive function.
• Warren Buffett:
  • Habit: Regular brain workouts</i>
  • Example: Warren Buffett, known for his sharp analytical mind, is an avid reader and constantly seeks to expand his knowledge.
• Oprah Winfrey:
  • Habit: Stress reduction
  • Example: Oprah Winfrey, a highly successful media mogul, incorporates meditation and mindfulness practices into her daily routine.
• Elon Musk:
  • Habit: Healthy diet and hydration
  • Example: Elon Musk, known for his innovative thinking, emphasises a diet rich in nutrients to support his cognitive abilities.
• Stephen Hawking:
  • Habit: Engaging all senses
  • Example: Stephen Hawking, despite his physical limitations, engaged his senses to the fullest in his scientific pursuits, showcasing the power of multi-sensory engagement.

These examples illustrate how individuals from various fields have leveraged specific habits to enhance their cognitive skills, ultimately leading them to become influential leaders in their respective domains.

Although some cognitive skill development is linked to your genetic predisposition, most are learned throughout life. This means that the right training and practice can help you improve your thinking and learning skills.

Now, this takes time and persistent efforts to develop. Let’s start by incorporating one or two of the above-mentioned points into your routine and make them a habit before trying new ones.