12 Brain Warm Up Exercises That Actually Work

06/02/22 • 29 min

If you're looking for simply the best brain warm up routines, check these out. Learn creative warm ups and morning brain exercises that work.

If you're looking for simply the best brain warm up routines, check these out. Learn creative warm ups and morning brain exercises that work.

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12 Brain Warm Up Exercises That Actually Work

Good brain warm up exercises are hard to find, but you’ve just discovered an in-depth list of the best.

What makes a mental warm up routine good?

For one thing, it has to challenge your mind.

In order to create an effect, each warm up routine needs to produce at least a bit of friction.

By taking on the quick and creative challenges I’ve gathered for you on this page, you’ll experience exactly that:

Positive friction that produces mental dexterity, new ideas and personal growth.

Sound good?

Great! Let’s dive in!

12 Brain Warm Up Exercises That Wake Your Brain Up

This list of warm ups for your brain is a cornucopia of ideas.

They’re all good, so don’t feel that the numbers are an indicator of value.

But if you want my personal opinion?

I saved the best and most scientifically-tested exercises to wake up your brain for the end of the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re81N5KlouY

One: List 10 Alternative Uses For An Object

You’ve probably heard of the one where you list 10 alternative uses for an object before.

Like if I show you a paperclip, you might suggest stringing enough of them together to create a ladder from here to the moon as your first alternative use.

It’s a great exercise that creates rapid benefits, and it works with any object.

But I’d suggest you go a step further. For example, if you’re going to create a ladder to the moon using paperclips, why not also imagine a version of the moon composed entirely of paperclips.

This is the alternative substance exercise that in some sense already exists. For years people have been saying the moon is made of cheese, but paperclips... how about socks? Or arts? Or noodles?

Then go a step further yet.

What possible things could you use a moon made out of noodles for? Would you campaign the rich to donate spaceships and space suits so they could bring those noodles back to earth to feed the poor?

Whatever use you find your random objects, figure out what links you’ve made between things, then change the substance of the thing being linked to into the original object and find at least a few alternative uses for that.

If you can’t think of ten, don’t sweat it. But keep coming back to it throughout the day for some mini-creative exercise.

It’s a great exercise that creates rapid benefits, and it works with any object.

So grab an eraser, sock, book or any object you can find and jot down at least ten alternative ways it could be used.

If you can’t think of ten, don’t sweat it. But keep coming back to it throughout the day for some mini-creative exercise.

Two: Question Your Dreams

I don’t know about you, but I dream often.

But instead of letting them drift away, I use my dreams to engage in one of the strongest morning brain exercises I know.

Here are the steps:

Write down the dream or dream fragment you remember
Ask what it reminds you of (situation, person or place)
Journal briefly on any emotions or concepts that arise

You can also do exercises throughout the day with your daydreams. This is an activity Robert Langs discusses in full in his excellent Daydream Workbook.

In brief, when you notice yourself daydreaming, make a note of the nature of the dream. And ask yourself similar questions about what memories come to mind surrounding it? What emotions, longings or fulfillments does the dray dream suggest?

There doesn’t have to be any particular outcome from this exercise. You’re just going for the brain warm up and using your dreams and day dreams to do it.

Three: Give Emotions to Colors

Take ROY G BIV, the acronym for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Then list as quickly as you can the first emotion that comes to mind for each color. For example:

Red = anger
Orange = shame
Yellow = happy

To take the exercise to the next level, find 3-5 alternative words for each emotion. In other words, mentally transform happiness into contentedness, comfort, mirth, cheer, elatedness, etc.

Try and do it on your own before reaching for a thesaurus.

Four: Play the Alphabet Game

Either in your mind or using paper and pen, think of a name for each letter.

For example:

A = Anthony
B = Bonnie
C = Connie etc.

Now, they don’t have to rhyme, as I’ve done, but that in itself provides interesting exercise that will stretch your mind even further.

You can also go through the alphabet and name only objects:

A ...

Next Episode

Mnemonic Images: What They Are & How They Help

Mnemonic images are powerful tools learners use to speed up the remembering process.

You can use mnemonic pictures for nearly everything:

Language learning
Info from textbooks
Chemistry
Math
Names
Facts
Historical dates
Lists
Verbatim tasks like quotes and speeches

The trick is to assign your mnemonic images correctly.

Miss just one step, and the process can be slow, boring and not worth the time.

But learn to use mnemonic images well, and you’ll learn at a much faster pace.

Ready for the real deal when it comes to this powerful learning strategy?

Let’s dive in!

What Are Mnemonic Images?

Mnemonic images are associations.

For example, if I want to remember a name like “Bruce,” I might think of Bruce Wayne from Batman lore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM1sQJshXE4

You attach a simple image like this to information you want to learn.

They can be simple and direct like Bruce Wayne, or more complex as needed. For larger learning projects, we typically place our associations in a Memory Palace.

You can also draw them out, which I often do to speed up the learning process. Here’s an example from one of my language learning missions:

This kind of visual mnemonic works because the answer isn’t on the card.

I’ve also left a blank area with no mnemonic image at all to tickle my memory and imagination in a growth-oriented way.

That way, the entire mnemonic image presents a puzzle to be solved.

And solving it makes memories form faster.

The Truth About Mnemonics

Frankly, there’s a bit of a problem in how we use this term “mnemonic image.”

You see, the idea of an image mnemonic makes it seem like the associations have to be visual.

But visual mnemonics are actually just one category of associations you can assign.

In the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass, I teach you all the major categories of association through KAVE COGS:

Kinaesthetic mnemonics
Auditory mnemonics
Visual mnemonics
Emotional mnemonics
Conceptual mnemonics
Olfactory mnemonics
Gustatory mnemonics
Spatial mnemonics

Those are the major eight categories most of us draw upon the most often. But there are twenty more that I teach, and knowledge of these can be useful from time to time.

The point is this:

True Mnemonic Images Are Multisensory

Good mnemonic images are always multisensory. They don’t just rely on the visual mode.

So if you want to learn faster and remember more, visual mnemonics are okay. But you’ll do a lot better if you add in more mental imagery based on other sensations. In the Magnetic Memory Method world, we call the range of sensations we use the “Magnetic Modes.”

Why?

Because we know from personal experience and a variety of sources that multisensory association is the key to associative learning.

First, we have thirty years of memory competition records, and I’ve interviewed dozens of memory athletes like Nelson Dellis, Braden Adams, Lynne Kelly, Katie Kermode and John Graham to name just a few. I’ve also interviewed the creator of the World Memory Championships, Tony Buzan.

We know from studies that mnemonic processing works a lot better when it is multisensory. Studies have shown that multi sensory mnemonics can beat flash cards, for example. (I’ll show you a way you can combine mnemonic images with flash cards in a moment, however.)

Overall, multisensory association is a kind of “guided learning,” and this has been shown to be very healthy for adults. And you don’t have to be a memory competitor to benefit. People like myself, Scott Gosnell and John Michael Greer all produce materials for adult learners to help teach themselves this “m...