In our quest to live forever, most of us exercise. We run, swim, do yoga, ride the bike, and stay in shape. But while we work out our body, we often neglect our mind.

For most people, brain activity peaks in our late-20s and then slowly atrophies from there. We start to have memory loss, our recall goes … having more and more “senior moments.” and because people are living longer, Alzheimer’s is becoming a bigger threat. In fact, if we lived to be 300, we’d all likely get Alzheimer’s Disease. But generally, we die of something else before that.

The best way to slow our brain’s atrophies is to use it. And, like computers, there are two types of ways to use it. The first is inputs and outputs (read/writes). This is the act of storing, understanding, and using information. Of learning. Of remembering. This is useful and this is what most knowledge workers do every day.

But a far more important usage of the brain is processing … when you are actually computing things in your head. When people say “my brain hurts”, that usually means they are doing something right. One of the best ways to prevent mind decay is by using your brain’s processor. Great ways to do this are chess, scrabble, Go, Sudoku, crossword puzzles, and more. And since most of our jobs don’t require us to use our brain’s processor, and little in life requires usage, it is important we put ourselves on a brain exercise regiment.

This is important. While many of us go to the local gym to work out our bodies, few of us go to the local chess hall to work out our minds. But we should.