Ways to improve logical thinking skill

Humans were earlier thought to be either left-brain or right brain creatures, where each side of brain contributes to different aspects of thinking process.

The left-brain one were thought to be more logical, analytical and objective whilst the right-brain ones more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective.

?In more simplified terms, the left-brain ones try to break down things into simpler easy to understand stuff whereby understanding with logic and reasoning, like you break down a murder mystery plot and solve the pieces until you solve the full case.

The right-brains ones don't break things down but try to look at the whole picture. They tend to look at things from 10000 ft level and want to see the whole picture in understanding stuff.

But scientist now, have confirmed that such theories do not hold for people in general, but it might be true for some of the ways in which the brain functions.

The fact is that the person uses both parts of the brain equally and hence can see the whole picture as well as break it down and analyse the details.

However some of us may still find logical reasoning intimidating. We are intimidated not because we don't have the capacity to think like that but because we have not forced our brain to utilize that capacity to an extent that is required.

Here are some of the steps that one can take to build on to the skill.

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Thank you?...The core activities

Focus and attention: When you face a problem, give it your full focus. Think only about the problem and forget everything else.

Suspect your memory: While memory may be good for various tasks but when it comes to logic, memory is a bad master. Scrutinize your memory and don't trust it completely.

Avoid multitasking: You cannot do two logical thinking activities at once.

Diagrams are your savior: Always use paper and pencil, draw flowcharts, boxes, circles, to represent logic. Since you have not used your left-brain that much, you will use your right-brain to wake up your left-brain. After you have developed sufficient skills you will be able to do much of this stuff mentally.

Read good books: Find books on logical reasoning, which promises to build the skills from ground up. Never try to master too much at once, take is slow and steady.

Take online tests: Find some good online tests.

The fun activities

Solve puzzles: Games like Sudoku, crosswords, and other online puzzles help a lot in building up logical skills.

Play chess: If you don't know the game, learn it and try and play a little bit every day. It will work wonders to your ability.

The base activities

Eat a healthy diet: Eating healthy food is a pre-requisite for smooth and robust functioning of the mind. Avoid junk food, sodas, colas, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine etc. Eating green vegetables, dry fruits like almonds, blueberries etc will boost the brain functions.

Sleep well: Sleep for 7-8 hrs a day at a stretch and sleep on time and wake up on time regularly.

Practice Breathing and Meditation: Breathing exercise and meditation will enhance your brain function manifold.

Exercise: A healthy body has a healthy mind. There is no denying the fact.

Do you want to add a word or two?....?

Being completely honest with yourself!

If you are then you know from your own experience that you suffer the same negatives that all other humans have implanted in them by our shared human nature!

That way is the only way to have a much better understanding of human nature and motivations and to be able to operate more logically and rationally, rather than just deny it in yourself and your chosen few.

Only by understanding human nature can you more accurately recognise and predict the behavior of others. Some people are controlled to varying degrees by their emotional feelings rather than taking the time to think more logically and rationally before you act or react.

Your comments ….

And some people are overcome by their own self-righteousness to believe that they are more special than others and don’t share the same negative tendencies found in all others.

The problem with most thinking, I think, is that it comes in too large of chunks.

Think about this question, "How do we solve global warming." Hard. But, what about...

"How do we reduce global carbon emissions by 2% every 6 months?" Ok, better.

Now what about, "What are the top three biggest contributors to global warming?

?Even more specific, because it's a smaller chunk. You can just keep going and going until you get to a bunch of chunks that you can manage.

So instead of thinking, "how can I solve this intractable problem," try instead asking, how many things cause this intractable problem. Then ask, how many things cause those problems. Eventually you will get to units small enough for you to make sense of them.

Then, tackle the ones first that are the easiest, but that also have the largest impact. If you do that enough times, well, sure enough, you might just reach your desired outcome.

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