Why Puzzles
In the current media environment, puzzles have a higher profile than ever before. With many people focusing on self-improvement, a healthy body and a healthy mind are both being emphasised.When it comes to the mind side of the equation, puzzles and 'brain training' are to the fore - hence the name of this website, after the umbrella phrase that is used to describe any sort of puzzle that can help exercise your brain.
But why should puzzles be effective? They are an interesting academic exercise, but isn't that as far as it goes? Well actually the answer is a resounding 'no'!
You may not think about it in these terms, but your entire life is like one very big, very complicated puzzle. When you make any journey, you are solving a puzzle about how to get from A to B. It may be auto-pilot after a while, but each time you make a journey for the first time you need to plan the best route - and take into account whether 'best' is the quickest in terms of time, or reliability, or the easiest journey, or perhaps the most environmentally friendly - and also have a couple of alternatives up your sleeve in case of problems.
At school or at work, depending on your age, there are countless problems to tackle that are all little puzzles. Simply writing a list of what you need to do in a day and then working out the most efficient way in which to perform those activities to get them all done is a puzzle. If you are tasked with creating a presentation then you must work out what you want to say, how you want to say it, how to present it, and then practice and remember the key points so you can give the presentation assuredly.
When you listen to someone arguing their viewpoint, or a politician making a speech, it can be a real puzzle to understand what they are saying, pick apart the logic of their argument, and then see if they are actually making logical sense or if there arguments are not actually sound.
And so the fact that pretty much everything we do can be couched in the language of problems and solutions - puzzles - we can see why doing puzzles can be particularly effective in our lives. It's because the specific puzzles on a brain training site can be written so as to test, flex and improve the skills you will need in your daily life.
Many experts recommend that you look to 'brain train' everyday, with perhaps ten to fifteen minutes per day. The key seems to be little and often for the best results. If you find the brain training exercises on this site have helped you, or indeed would like to suggest something you find particularly effective, then we would love to hear from you, so please do get in touch.
