Would you like to feel more focused, on track, and organized? Your lifestyle has a huge influence on your brain’s well-being and function, so make good nutrition, quality sleep, and plenty of exercise top priorities. In addition, you can sharpen your mental faculties with these techniques:

• Practice daily mindfulness meditation; it can promote physical changes in the brain that lead to less stress, more empathy, and better memory.
• Learn a foreign language or how to play a musical instrument.
• Take up dancing or another kind of choreographed activity such as martial arts.
• Turn off the TV and open a book. While research concludes that too much TV can fizzle brain power, an Emory University study found that reading a novel actually increases neural connectivity.
• Unplug from the barrage of electronics to give your cortex a chance to settle down. As with working out your muscles, your brain needs recovery time from sensory overload.
• Social connections can boost your cerebral function, too — so call a pal to join you for a workout.