How to learn something new right now?

Learning can be broken down into short-term and long-term learning.  If you don’t necessarily want to embark on a big endeavor (such as learning to play an instrument), your brain can still benefit from learning smaller bits of information on a daily basis.  Here are some ways to do that.

1. Watch Ted ED

Ted Talks are famous for bringing a huge amount of topics by innovative thinkers.  Ted Ed takes learning a step further with engaging video lessons.  Topics range from “the scientific way to cut a cake” to “how money laundering works.”

2. Play GeoGuessr

Americans are notoriously bad at geography, but the rest of the world probably isn’t too much better.  The game GeoGuessr takes a unique approach to learning geography.   You are shown a Google Maps photo and have to guess where it is.  You might just find yourself saying things like, “Huh, I didn’t know that Afghanistan has such green forests!”  It’s free to play.

3. Train Your Brain at Lumosity

Brought to you by scientists and game developers, Lumosity has a great collection of cognitive games you can play. You might not learn a concrete fact, but your brain will be challenged and grow!

4. Follow Curiosity

Curiosity is a website which inspires people to get smarter.  They do it by finding the most interesting news on a variety of topics.  Just click what topic you are interested in learning about and you’ll find fascinating articles and videos.

5. Build Your Vocabulary

A large vocabulary is not only impressive, but it allows you to express yourself better.  Remember the book 1984 and how they started cutting words from the language as a form of mind control?  Well, that’s the power of vocab!  The website Vocabulary.com has come up with an adaptive learning game to help you learn more words easily.

6. Follow Daily Infographic

No brainer right? Humans process visuals quickly: It takes less than 1/10 of a second for your brain to get a sense of a visual.  Absorbing new information using infographics is a quick and easy way to learn.  Visual learning not only decreases comprehension time, but sticks around longer in our memories.   On Daily Infographic you can spend 15 minutes per day perusing an infographic on a topic of your choice.