The mind is mightier than the sword, but neither can function without sharpening.

头脑比剑强大，但任何一个都不能不加锐利地发挥作用。

Thankfully, most of the battles we fight today take place in our heads.

值得庆幸的是，我们今天所进行的大多数战斗都发生在我们的头脑中。

Sure, we might argue with people, try to convince others or get their attention, but whether it’s our mind against another or a struggle against the self, your ability to think is your most important tool in living a good life.

当然，我们可能会与人争吵，试图说服他人或引起他们的注意，但是无论是我们反对他人的思想还是与自我的斗争，您的思考能力是您过上美好生活的最重要工具。

The only way to maintain and improve this ability is to exercise it every day.

维持和提高这种能力的唯一方法是每天锻炼。

Here are 7 simple but efficient ways to do so.

这里有7种简单但有效的方法。

1.突出显示 (1. Highlighting)

When you read, you process. When you highlight, you filter. Without the filtering, the processing is only half as valuable — especially in today’s information-obese world.

阅读时，您进行处理。 突出显示时，进行过滤。 如果不进行过滤，则处理的价值仅是其一半，尤其是在当今信息肥胖的世界中。

It’s good to reflect on what you read, but if you don’t draw any conclusions, they might never come to you on their own. Highlighting means drawing conclusions, but you’re doing it in a subconscious, semi-automatic way — and that’s why it’s brilliant.

反思一下您所读的内容是很好的，但是如果您不得出任何结论，它们可能永远不会独立出现。 突出显示意味着得出结论，但是您正在以一种潜意识，半自动的方式进行操作-这就是为什么它很出色的原因。

When I read books, I go back through each chapter after I’m done to highlight lines that stood out to me. Sometimes, things jump at me right on the first pass, and I’ll highlight those too. I even highlight online. I use Super Simple Highlighter for Chrome — it allows you to mark text on any page in different colors.

当我阅读书籍时，我会在完成每一章后回顾所有突出显示给我看的台词。 有时候，事情会在第一遍突然出现在我身上，我也会着重强调这些。 我什至在网上突出显示。 我使用适用于Chrome的超级简单荧光笔 -它可以让您在任何页面上用不同的颜色标记文本。

A cool experiment you can run is to print an article twice, read and highlight once, and then do the same thing again 2–3 weeks later. You’ll see your mind filters differently each time, and it’s fun to compare what you thought was important two weeks ago to what you think is important now.

您可以运行的一个不错的实验是打印一篇文章两次，阅读并突出显示一次，然后在2-3周后再次执行相同的操作。 您每次都会看到不同的思维过滤器，将两个星期前您认为重要的事情与现在认为重要的事情进行比较很有趣。

Highlighting will supercharge your reading. Even if you only read for five minutes a day, intuitively marking what feels important will get you more out of those five minutes.

突出显示将增强您的阅读效果。 即使您每天只阅读五分钟，直观地标记出重要的内容也可以使您从这五分钟中受益匪浅。

2.把陈述变成问题 (2. Turning Statements Into Questions)

“This bagel is too hard” makes for a bad Monday morning. “This bagel is too hard?” That’s a prompt to come up with a new way to make bagels delicious.

“这个百吉饼太硬了”使星期一的早晨变得糟糕。 “这个百吉饼太硬了吗？” 这提示了想出一种使百吉饼美味的新方法。

The question mark turns the problem into a project. “What could I do to make this bagel softer?” You could dip it in your coffee, re-heat it in the microwave with some water, or make it part of a different, bigger dish. But you’ll never have any of those ideas if you stop at “This bagel is too hard.”

问号把问题变成一个项目 。 “我该怎么做才能使百吉饼变软？” 您可以将其浸入咖啡中，再在微波炉中加一些水重新加热，或将其放入另一个更大的盘子中。 但是，如果您停在“这个百吉饼太难了”，您将永远不会有这些想法。

In Choose Yourself, James Altucher wrote: “When you’re a kid, everything has a question mark at the end of it. Only later do they turn into periods. Or even exclamation points. ‘Will I get over this?’ becomes ‘It’s too late’ becomes ‘I can’t get over this!’”

詹姆斯·阿尔杜切(James Altucher)在《选择自己》 ( Choose Yourself )一文中写道：“小时候，一切都会在末尾带有问号。 直到后来它们才变成时期。 甚至是感叹号。 “我会克服这个吗？” 变成“为时已晚”变成“我无法克服！””

James says he tries to replace every period with a question mark, especially those attached to his own thoughts. Given we have about 30–50 thoughts per minute, you could come up with a lot of questions in just a few minutes per day. Most importantly, you’ll learn to think for yourself.

詹姆斯说，他试图用问号代替每个时期，尤其是那些附加于他自己思想的时期。 假设我们每分钟大约有30–50个想法 ，那么您每天只需几分钟就能提出很多问题。 最重要的是，您将学会自己思考。

3.解决填字游戏 (3. Solving Crossword Puzzles)

Whenever I’m home, I watch my dad solve the crossword in the newspaper every morning. He must have done that for almost ten years now. He’ll probably stay sharp as a knife for a long time. Since she effortlessly fills in whatever he doesn’t know, I guess so will my mom.

每当我在家时，我每天早上都会看着爸爸解决报纸上的填字游戏。 他肯定已经做了近十年了。 他可能会长时间保持锋利如刀。 由于她毫不费力地填写了他不知道的所有内容，我想我妈妈也是如此。

A 2014 study showed doing the crossword “delayed onset of accelerated memory decline by 2.54 years.” It was beneficial to both healthy people and Alzheimer patients.

2014年的一项研究显示填字游戏“将加速记忆衰退的发作延迟了2.54年。” 它对健康人和阿尔茨海默氏症患者均有益。

There might be something specific about words, their definitions, and how we connect them in our minds, but I can’t imagine other “brain games” like sudoku, kakuro, or solving anagrams will hurt your mental capacity.

关于单词，它们的定义以及我们在脑海中的联系方式，可能会有一些特定的东西，但是我无法想象数独，数乐之类的其他“脑游戏”或解决字谜会损害您的智力。

Plus, most of them don’t take long to solve. A crossword book costs $5-$10 and might last you a year if you solve one a day. Do more crossword puzzles.

此外，大多数解决方案都不会花费很长时间。 填字游戏的价格为5至10美元，如果您每天解决一本，则可能会持续一年。 做更多的填字游戏。

4.写作 (4. Writing)

Every item on this list so far relates to words in one way or another. That’s not a coincidence. Writing is the perfect combination of thinking, reflecting, creating, analyzing, theorizing, disproving, and synthesizing ideas, facts, and information.

到目前为止，此列表中的每个项目都以一种或另一种方式与单词相关。 这不是巧合。 写作是思想，反映，创造，分析，理论化，论证和综合思想，事实和信息的完美结合。

The only way to write is to curate what you think. Therefore, writing imposes discipline on your thoughts and emotions. I think everyone could use some of that discipline, and that’s why everyone should write.

写作的唯一方法就是整理您的想法。 因此，写作会对你的思想和情感施加约束。 我认为每个人都可以使用某些学科，这就是每个人都应该写作的原因。

You don’t have to write in public, and you don’t have to do a lot of it, but please, do more than just send texts and birthday cards. Write in a journal, write on a blog, or write for five minutes a day and then throw it away.

您不必在公共场合写书，也不必做很多事情，但是请做的不仅仅是发送文本和生日贺卡。 写日记，写博客，或每天写五分钟，然后扔掉。

Writing is thinking. The more you write, the faster you’ll think.

写作就是思考。 写的越多，思考的速度就越快。

5.为他人提供建议 (5. Advising Others)

I love when people ask me for advice not because it makes me feel smart or because I can tell them what to do (though we all do love both of those), but because I get to ask, “How would I approach this problem?”

我喜欢当人们问我的意见，不是因为它让我觉得自己聪明或者是因为我可以告诉他们做什么(虽然我们都做这两项的爱)，而是因为我可以问：“我怎么会解决这个问题？ ”

It’s easy for us to look at other people’s problems objectively and point to a reasonable solution because we’re not involved. The stakes aren’t as high, and we’re not as emotional. Doing so for your own problems is much harder, but it helps to practice with your friends.

我们很容易客观地看待他人的问题并指出合理的解决方案，因为我们不参与其中。 赌注没有那么高，我们也没有那么激动。 针对您自己的问题这样做要困难得多，但这有助于与您的朋友一起练习。

When a friend, a coworker, or a fan comes to you with a question, it’s usually also something unrelated to your everyday to-do list — a nice, creative break from your routine. Plus, it’s good to take your mind off your own problems from time to time, if only for a few minutes.

当朋友，同事或支持者向您提出问题时，这通常也与您的日常待办事项清单无关，这是您日常工作的一个很好的， 创造性的休息时间 。 另外，最好是不时地放松自己的想法，即使只是几分钟。

When you can’t do big things for yourself, do small things for others. It’ll keep your mind sharp and your perspective in check.

当你不能为自己做大事时，为他人做小事 。 它将使您头脑敏锐，并控制您的观点。

6.随机学习 (6. Learning Something Random)

When you use a scientifically correct fact to mislead someone, that’s called “a Zohnerism.” How’s that for “random things I learned today?”

当您使用科学上正确的事实来误导某人时，这就是“ 佐纳主义” 。 “我今天学到的随机知识”怎么样？

Learning is how we create new synapses, which connect neurons, the information highways in our brain. The more and stronger the connections, the faster information can travel. Synapses form clusters, and studying different topics will build new clusters in various parts of your brain.

学习是我们如何创建新的突触 ，这些突触连接神经元，大脑中的信息通道。 连接越多和越牢固，信息可以传播得越快。 突触形成簇，研究不同的主题将在大脑的各个部位建立新的簇。

Think of it like a web of dots: the more dots you add, the larger the web becomes overall, and the better intertwined it will be.

可以将其想象成点状网：您添加的点越多，则整个网的整体越大，交织的越好。

How you learn something random is up to you, and it only takes five minutes a day. You can jump on new Youtube recommendations, scroll through the Today I Learned subreddit, or read a random article, but fun facts are more than just fun — they help you become and stay mentally sharp.

您如何学习随机的东西取决于您，并且每天只需要五分钟。 您可以跳上YouTube的新建议，滚动浏览“我今天学习的内容”子目录 ，或阅读随机的文章，但有趣的事实不仅是有趣的-它们可以帮助您成为并保持头脑敏锐。

7.提供自己的反馈 (7. Giving Yourself Feedback)

Editing is to writing what highlighting is to reading, except better: Rather than just filtering what you’ve taken in, you assess and adjust something you’ve created.

编辑是要写突出显示的内容，而阅读要写的是突出的内容，但要更好：除了评估已录入的内容外，您还可以评估和调整已创建的内容。

You’re going through your work, line by line, and you tell yourself: “You did a good job here. This, you’ll need to rework.” It’s like being your own coach, and coaching is a crucial part of improving at any craft. Thinking is no different.

您正在逐行地进行工作，然后告诉自己：“您在这里做得很好。 这，您需要进行重做。” 这就像是您自己的教练，而教练是提高任何手艺的关键部分。 思考没有什么不同。

You don’t need tangible output to give yourself feedback. You can create a daily schedule and maintain an accountability chart. You can write down ten decisions you made each day and assess them.

您不需要实际的输出即可给自己反馈。 您可以创建每日计划并维护问责制图表 。 您可以写下每天做出的十个决定并进行评估。

Even if you just look at yourself in the mirror while brushing teeth at night and ask, “What’s one thing I’m proud of today?” that’s a good step towards making sure you monitor and improve your decision-making processes.

即使您只是在晚上刷牙时看着镜子里的自己，然后问：“我今天为自己感到骄傲的一件事是什么？” 这是确保您监视和改善决策过程的好一步。

所有你必须知道的 (All You Need to Know)

There are a million ways to sharpen your mind, and the truth is making an effort to do so is winning half the battle. As long as you keep asking, “How can I do this in my own, creative way?” you’ll skip no opportunity to improve.

有百万种方法可以使您的思维更加敏捷，而事实是，努力正在赢得一半的胜利。 只要您不断问：“我如何以自己的创造性方式做到这一点？” 您将没有机会进行改进。

But it’s also easy to let these opportunities slide, to repeat the same day a thousand times, and to let your mind become numb in the process.

但是，让这些机会滑动，在同一天重复一千次并让您的头脑在此过程中变得麻木也很容易。

Five minutes a day is all it takes to keep this from happening, and we just covered seven ways you could spend them:

每天只需要五分钟就可以避免这种情况的发生，我们只介绍了七种花销的方式：

1. Highlight when you read阅读时突出显示
2. Turn statements into questions将陈述变成问题
3. Solve the crossword each day每天解决填字游戏
4. Write写
5. Think about how to help your friends考虑如何帮助您的朋友
6. Learn something random随机学习
7. Give yourself feedback给自己反馈

The world may not yet be a place where all swords remain in their sheaths at all times. The outcome of your life, however, will definitely be determined by what’s in your head rather than what’s in your armory.

这个世界可能还不是一个时刻都长剑不散的地方。 你的生命的结果，但是，一定会通过什么在你的头上，而不是什么在你的军械库确定。

Make sure you sharpen the right tools, and all obstacles will become the way.

确保锐化正确的工具， 所有的障碍都将成为解决之道 。