"It is by the Juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by my will alone I set my mind in motion." -Piter De Cries, Dune (1984) the movie.
For those brain nerds out there, the following is a list of resources I've found particularly interesting/helpful while developing neuroplasticity and other skills.
Trachtenberg System of Mathematics: if you've ever wanted to be able to do mental math at seemingly mind blowing speeds/accuracy, I highly recommend learning this system. While the English is a little funky the system is elegant and the story which drove Dr. Trachtenberg to creating it is absolutely inspiring (and a good reminder that though times may appear tough and hopeless, you can be inventing something amazing).
Evelyn Wood 7 Day Speed Reading: if you've ever wanted to speed read, this book offers a decent foundation for building your skills, as well as offering some helpful nuggets for efficient studying and organizing. That said, there are large sections of it which amount to the author extemporizing upon the system's effectiveness and the ways in which it will benefit you; if you cut these sections out, you'll get a much more productive read and save yourself a bit of time.
Gregg's Shorthand: while its uncommon to see stenography used, much less even taught, in modern society, its proven to be one of the most useful skills I've ever spent the time to develop. In essence, it is a system for quick and efficient note taking, and when mastered allows you to easily write with the same speed that someone can talk. There are a number of different systems for stenography, each with their own rules, but the following link is where I originally learned from and I would highly recommend:
gregg.angelfishy.net/analphbt.shtml
As an aside, it is also very useful if you do not want nosy people reading your writing (I had an undergraduate in my lab that was notorious for taking people's stuff and reading it without their permission and suffice to say, it was very gratifying to see his face when he attempted to read my lab notes).
Lastly the following link is an assortment of material which you may or may not find helpful. While I can't recommend anything specific in it, because I have as of yet to explore it in full, a number of the concepts and systems it references are well documented and have a history of being highly effective (ex: Loci, Major and SemCube systems of memory).
www.ludism.org/mentat/HomePage
All in all, none of these systems are easy to master on their own, but if you're willing to invest the time and effort, it is remarkable how much they can improve your day to day cognitive function and the speed/accuracy with which you do certain tasks.
Keep learning, folks, and rock on!
