What are the best ways to improve your intelligence?

Read a lot of books on one topic - I know bloggers are really trying now and some online courses are really superb but nothing comes close to a good book. When you read a book, you get hooked on someone else's life journey and research. If you read a lot of books, you will be packed full of smart people's ideas and experiences.

Talk to smart people - talking to smart people makes you open new pathways in your brain. You get new ideas and you are thrown out of your bubble as you get a new perspective on things.

Have a smart boyfriend or girlfriend - you will get intimidated a lot and nobody will teach you before you start reading.

Write a blog post on a random topic - my mentor taught me this and it's the fastest way to go about learning anything. Just choose to write a blog post about it, you don't have to publish it or anything like that, but by having this goal in mind, your study and research sticks better and you are able to remember a lot of what you learn. Thank you sir!

Sleep more - it's counter-intuitive you know. You would think studying more will make you more intelligent but that's wrong. Research shows our attention span is really short, so anything you read when you are stressed goes down the drain. But if you sleep more and you're relaxed, information tends to stick around.

Use the pomodoro technique while studying - do 25 minutes of intense focused work followed by 5-10 minutes of play and relaxation and then repeat. This is what I do when I have a lot to learn. If you do this for 4-6 sections, you would cover more than some people do in 2 days. Trust me. By the way, The pomodoro technique is a proven and popular time management life hack.

The main premise behind the technique is to work in blocks of time, typically 25 minutes long (called pomodoro sessions), followed by a 5 minute break. Each pomodoro session should demand your full attention on one task, every break requires you to step away from your work to rest.

Play chess - this game does only one thing. It gets into your head and it loosens those brain cells. Just be ready for some discomfort when starting out.

Take time out alone to think - I do this and I've got most of best blog post ideas doing this. Just take some time alone to think exclusively about something. You can hold a note to jot down your thoughts and you can think of anything - your life, quantum mechanics, Facebook, magic, love, money or whatever.

Write down 10 ideas everyday - I stole this from James Altucher. If you really want to let loose that intelligence, start writing down 10 ideas everyday. As you can see, I just wrote 10 ideas on increasing your intelligence. Your ideas can be about anything. You can combine this with 8 above. This is one of his books I've read using my phone.

Have smarter friends - if you ignore everything I just wrote, don't ignore this. You are the average of your 5 closest friends, so if you want to be more intelligent. Dump your dumb friend and start hanging out with intelligent folks.