Are you ready to become a hacker?

Probably the first thought that comes to most people's minds when they hear the term “hacker”, is of someone who seeks and exploits flaws in a computer system or network.

In a way, that's what this book aims to help you to do. It's just that the network you're trying to find a flaw in, is your own brain.

Amazingly 95% of your brain's day-to-day activity is unconscious. One hundred billion neurons, one hundred trillion connections and we're only in control of a tiny 5% of it.

The forty-five brainhacks in this book aren't going to suddenly give you control over huge swathes of your unconscious. That would be a nightmare. It's unconscious for a reason; the last thing you want, is to constantly have to think about putting one foot in front of the other every time you go for a walk.

But what these brainhacks will do, is open a window onto some of the activities we do unconsciously and reveal some of the biases our conscious mind has. The aim of this is to help you become more productive, more creative and help you see more clearly why you do what you do.

The purpose of the book is not to give you deep insights into how the brain works, but to give you practical tips and techniques that you can actually benefit from.

All the brainhacks in this book can be read independently, so if you do want to dip in and out, that's fine. However, I have tried to give them an order, so they work better if you read them chronologically.

The first two sections cover general ways to make your brain work better for you, as well as how to use your time more wisely and be more productive. The last three are about how to be more focused in your thinking, how to solve problems better and create more innovative ideas.

One of the most important things to remember is how flexible the brain is. You really can change how you think and act. There aren't analytic people, creative people, focused thinkers and dreamers. These are qualities a person might have, but they're not set in stone.

Our brains actually physically change shape depending on how we use them. It's called neuroplasticity.

The most famous example of this is with London taxi drivers. They have to spend years learning the streets of London before they get their badge. The effect of this is that the area in the brain that deals with spatial awareness, the hippocampus, is larger in London taxi drivers. However, once they retire, their hippocampus returns to its normal size.

Now think of people with dyslexia. They might have learning difficulties, but they certainly don't have achieving difficulties.

Einstein, Beethoven, Steve Jobs, J.F. Kennedy, Leonardo Da Vinci, Agatha Christie, Walt Disney, Picasso, Mozart, Jamie Oliver, Cath Kidston, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Richard Branson and Winston Churchill are/were all dyslexics. Also people with dyslexia are also four times more likely than the rest of the population to become self-made millionaires.

Dyslexics' minds have to adapt to get over their difficulties with language, by learning to become more adept at thinking visually and seeing the bigger picture.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, one of the founders of neuroscience said, “Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.”

And that's what I aim to do with these brainhacks. Give you the tools to sculpt your brain, to help you to unleash its full potential.

And it really is about sculpting. At two years of age, we have the most synapses (the connectors between neurons) that we'll ever have. By the time we've reached seventy, that number is likely to have halved. In between then, in the same way a gardener prunes a shrub, our brains are shaped by how we use them.

I really hope you find these brainhacks interesting and useful, and hopefully they'll lead to you doing some neural topiary of your own.