Sharpen your brain

Improve your memory
Learn by heart a "to do" list of ten or more jobs for the day that incorporates a route-it could be your stroll to work, say, or the walk to the gym- and try to mentally link each jon with one location: buying a newspaper at the shops, dropping off dry-cleaning in the high street, calling home outside th cafe, etc.Then ask yourself the following question:
-What task follows buying the newspaper?
-What job precedes phoning home?
-The second job on the list is?
-Where on the list is the dry-cleaner's?
The next day, come up with new list and increase the number of items to 20.

Boost your spatial awareness
Navigate you way round the house blindfold (best not done alone!) Then sit in a chair and mentally walk round your house, visualizing your every move. Or put 12 object on a tray memories their location, then get someone to move a few about. Guess which have moved.

Crunch more numbers
Do these exercise everyday: add up your shopping in the queue before you pay:devide up bills when they come in: estimate quantities of thing you pass, such as people in a group or trees in a garden. Keeping your mind nimble and always on the move with numerical teasers will improve your mathematical acuity.

Widen you word power
Go for as many of these as possible: watch and play along with countdown; learn a new word every day and use it often; make up anagrams of words; spend a day playing devil's advocate in every situation you come across. These will improve your understanding of the true meaning of words.