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Think about how much time you'd save if you could judge which traffic toll lines move quickest, just by looking at them. According to new research, having that skill doesn't only subtract a few minutes from your road trip--it also makes your life a whole lot easier.
Some of us are born with a better "number sense" -- the math whizzes are likely the ones breezing through the tolls because they're better at judging numbers. Turns out, these people find daily tasks easier than those of us who struggle, say researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
The good news: You're not doomed if numbers aren't your strong suit. "The precision of people's gut sense of numbers seems to improve all the way up into their 30s," says lead study author Justin Halberda, Ph.D., an associate professor at Johns Hopkins.
Cool, right? Now use these tips to see how your number sense stacks up--and work to improve it. (And for more secrets to sharpening memory, boosting creativity, and slaying stress, discover 27 Ways to Power Up Your Brain.)
Improve your intuition
Everyday activities that stimulate your brain's ability to estimate can improve your number sense. When you're outside a bar, ask yourself: How many people are in line? Or at home: How many railings are on your porch? You don't even need to figure out the right answer, Halberda says. The process of asking your brain to calculate the estimations is enough exercise.
Be a better gamer
Preliminary research out of the University of Rochester shows the tasks and rapid decision-making that videogamers face might improve their numeric intuition. "People who play action video games may actually have a more precise number sense than people who don't," Halberda says. Your move: Stick with 3D action video games on your favorite system that have you in the driver's seat, scoring the goal, or climbing the mountain. (Looks like all those hours on your X-Box pay off on the court, too: Learn How Video Games Help You at Sports.)
More from Men's Health:
- 10 Everyday Tips to Sharpen Your Mind
- How to Speed Up Time!
- 5 Crazy Things That Boost Productivity
- Boost Your IQ in 20 Minutes
- Sign up for the Men's Health Daily Dose newsletter for must-have tips in your inbox every single day!
More from The Body Odd:
- Bad at math -- or is it dyscalculia?
- Math anxiety: Study examines nerves by the numbers
- Want to be a math whiz? Try a touch of electrical shock
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
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Excellent answer G! I was so busy calculating how many 'railings' I had I forgotten to fall asleep. I seriously doubt the writer knows one part of a railing from another. How many could you possibly have? I think they meant spindles. If there is a railing that goes completely around your house.....it is 1 railing. If you want to figure out how many sections of that railing there may be due to pillars, columns or whatever then this is different. Spindles yet again...different....and many of those.
How do you edit? Said I could but couldn't find any way to do so.
Wish they could come up with some ideas of how to choose which supermarket line will get me out of the store and heading home before the ice cream melts....
But I'll help out on this and give them a head start on that idea: 1. don't get behind people that bring every member of their extended family supermarket shopping with them, and 2. don't get behind elderly people who have never used a debit card machine and decided THAT DAY to learn.
People who are by themselves, or only with other adults.... are not elderly... and have a very large number of items... are actually the best people to get behind in line, because nobody else wants to. And cashiers these days (excepting very new ones) are usually very fast, so even with a lot of items, the long part of a purchase is usually the payment process. So two people with half a cart takes longer than one full cart.
Especially if you've been to the store enough before that you recognize the cashier.
If you pick the line with the prettiest cashier you won't mind so much if you aren't in the shortest line.
Yeah, that might work for you, but I don't like girls. I like guys.
and we like you too
When I am in the 20 items or less line and the person in front of me has 21 or more items, I am that guy that points it out to them. It's funny how upset people get when you point it out too. But come on people, 33 items in a 20 or less line calls for an EFF YOU!
Having worked as a cashier on the express lanes, I can tell you I've never had a problem taking a customer having 1 or 2 items over the limit.
However, I've also had to deal with far too many indignant idiots who would try to justify bringing a full basket into the "8 items or less" lane. And then there were the "clever" ones who would try to split their orders into 3 or 4 sets of 8 items each, as a means of getting around the item limit.
Expressholes. I love the ones with 30 items that duck in front of you, then write a check or try to pay with traveler's checks or pennies.
We are living in an ADD world where everyone and anyone can reach out and find you anytime anywhere. We have to get more done in less time. So it's no wonder we're all stressed about the lines we have to wait in. "I don't have time for this!"
I remember a time not so long ago (20 years?) when I did not have anything electronic in my pocket and no one knew where I was. It was kind of nice. How did I survive without a cell phone?
Well, I got less done I think. But I was a lot more relaxed. Maybe I will slow down a little this week. Maybe I will set some boundaries on my phone and computer usage and block out some electron-free time slots in my next few days. I think I like that idea...
Maybe you got less done without all the electronic devices, but I'll bet what you did get done was done well. More and more studies are showing that multi-tasking isn't a good thing and doesn't give good results. And other studies show that addiction to our "always connected" culture is creating structural changes in the brain so that it's built for speed, not concentration. ADD/ADHD rates are rising, and not necessarily because of better diagnostic methods, but because being constantly connected is changing how your brain processes input. This is evolution at work.
I'm with you - I'm slowing down by choice. I've ditched the cell phone, cut down on the number of times I'll check emails and online headlines and twitter posts. If someone needs me while I'm at the store (and probably in the slowest moving line), they can wait until I get home to my landline - no one will die in the meantime. I've been working a few more hours to get everything done at the job, but what I do is done more thoroughly and with better accuracy since I'm concentrating on one thing at a time. So re-work is cut out and that balances off the hours.
Most importantly, I'm relaxed. My relationships are better because I'm relaxed and I'm paying attention to my family and friends - in person, not online. That makes me happier. So I don't give a $h!t that my line is the slowest.
I don't care so much if someone in front of me has 11 items in a 10 item or less supermarket lane - maybe they accidentally miscounted - but I've seen it where they have like 30 or more items. That's just plain wrong.
Or - worse - simply inconsiderate.
Maybe I missed it, but there didn't seem to be any actual Useful Advice in this article. So what if you count balusters on the porch. Where is the connection between that and getting out of Costco faster? There's more and better advice in the comments than in the article itself.
If so then I missed it too. I was expecting something about number or chaos theory, but the article had no substance or information.
That's what I was wondering too. How does counting and math help when I ALWAYS get behind the person who forgets his PIN number, wants to pay with pennies or has to hold up the line when he's charged 94 cents for an item he insists is 93 cents?
I'm with y'all. So - the core of the story is to count how many people are in each line and pick the one with the fewest people. Genius! The next story will be how to pick a bag of sand or how to walk on a sidewalk and avoid the cracks.
The simple solution is the clearly marked common feeder line. If it's not clearly marked, people try to skirt it and piss other people off.
Speaking of common feeder lines, has anyone else noticed that you can predict which cashier/teller you're going to get with surprising accuracy? It's not difficult; usually there will be 1 cashier/teller, or maybe 2, moving people through. You can practically bet that the other cashiers/tellers will still be dealing with the same person when you leave as they were when you got there - and that's always the guy who "didn't get his gas bill" or whatever.
Yep, and the "27 Ways ..." bit leads you to another fact desert, asking to input your e-mail address for access to the article (or whatever it is -- probably a "buy this ..." commercial/scheme). Talk about a waste of time.
Sadly, I'm usually the one who gets stuck behind someone with their WIC checks. You just KNOW that has to be a separate order. But by the time I've figured out what they're doing, it's too late-I've already dumped all my stuff out of the cart. Maybe if stores just had "WIC only" lines, that would make my life (and probably everyone else too) so much better.
Yeah there is ZERO valuable information here. My 4 yr old niece could have told you to try to pick the line with the least people in it but that doesn't always work. I've seen the short lines take just as long, or longer, than a longer line. Some cashiers are slow, some customers are slow, some customers are distracted, some customers are fumbling with change or something, some customers use a check which takes longer, sometimes you have to wait for a price check or replacement item....the list goes on. smh
That reminds me of the story about why a formation of flying geese always has one leg longer than the other leg of the formation. I think the answer is there are more geese in the longer line. Glad to be of help. :-)
@Dasvet - thanks for the geese answer. That has been keeping me up at night.
I do two things, the customer count and a quick estimate of the number of items they are buying. But yeah, check writers bite the blue-veined bag.
Anybody remember the Simpson's episode where Apu went shopping with Marge? Marge wanted to get into the short line, but Apu recognized that the longest line was full of "pathetic single men, 1 or 2 items each, all cash and no chit-chat", and he was right.
This article was crap.
1. Choose the line with the least people. 2. Pick a cashier that is in her late 30s, early 40s. 3. Select a line that has a majority of well dressed people. 4. Never get in a line with senior citizens, woman with multiple children, teenagers, or male cashiers! This works!
I like it when a little old lady keeps digging for a penny deep in her purse.
I like this scenario:
Cashier: your total is blah blah blah
Shopper: Um, oh, hang on. Uh. What? Oh. Just a sec. Do you take Diner's Club? No? Uh, where's my wallet? Shoot. Uh, wait. Oh crap that's my library card. Tee Hee! Oh there it is. Huh, what? Debit or credit? What do you mean? Oh, I can? Oh okay. Oh wait, I swiped it wrong... Where, here? Press what button? Cancel? Ok. Oh wait, it's asking for my card again.
Me: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. BOOM!
I have one of those brains that does this. It's pattern recognition and a sum of the parts and if you have a brain like this you just instantly see it, traffic patterns, lines in stores, everything. I kind of feel bad for everybody else. I agree about avoiding the teenage male cashiers if you're looking for speed. However, if you want your expired or not-quite-right coupons to be honored, make a beeline for the teenage male cashier with a hot female bag girl. They are not paying attention to your crappy coupons. The middle aged female cashiers are on to you and will call you out on everything......
Now I wish there was a way to tell me which articles are going to be informative and which ones are going to be utterly useless before I waste my time reading them...
LMFAO. Start by avoiding NBCNews 'how to' articles. :)
I want my money back.
This article promised to tell me how to pick the shortest line every time.
False advertising!
What a waste of time and space, not the lines, but , THIS ARTICLE !
People tend to pick a checkout line with 3-4 people with 6 or so items in the little carry baskets over one customer with a full basket of groceries. But, especially if the checker really knows how to move customers through the checkout, the line with one customer with the full basket of groceries will typically move faster than the 3-4 customers with a few items.
Also, if there are no express checkout lanes, people tend to gravitate towards the center checkout lanes. As a result, the checkout lanes furthest away from the center usually have shorter lines. And, that's so true about trying to stay away with a parent with multiple kids with them; especially if there are three or more children and one of them is an infant.
Oddly enough, these tactics tend to be less successful at Costco, where frequently an entire extended family of 15 will make the same Costco run together. It's like Costco is an amusement park or something, rather than a warehouse store. You literally don't stand a chance when the kids are running around like lunatics, the grandparents are strolling along like they're taking a relaxing country stroll and the parents are blocking the aisle with a cart so loaded down, it's like they're giving the stuff away.
It's never wise to be running short on time when you make a Costco run.
Couple tips with Costco. The more items in the cart, the better, cause the cashiers are just that good... but other people will avoid them and get behind people with less. As long as it's not a whole family outing, you see an overloaded cart with one or two adults only, THAT is the cart to get behind. Also, if you have a second person with you, send them ahead to scout for you. The cashier's nametags say how long they have worked there, so you can make sure you're getting someone experienced. Also, because of the store layout, the "center checkout lines" thing is reversed at costco... usually the center lines are shorter. And a shortcut through the pharmacy area might be to your advantage too.
Oh - and this is how PhDs at Johns Hopkins are spending their grant money? A conclusion like 'knowing which line is shorter also makes your life easier' barely requires a Kindergarten completion certificate drawn in crayon.
Oi.
I fly a lot, and security lines are aggravating, so I always manage to pick the "shortest line" by striking conversations up with people while waiting. Sure doesn't seem so long if I can carry on with people.
Yeah, right, I should waste more time playing video games so I can pick shorter lines. This is actually one of the funniest stories I've seen on this site. No good advice about lines. No good advice about sharpening the mine. Here's mine. Avoid TV, video games, fooling with your smartphone all the time. Pay attention! To life, to being present, to understanding how lines work. To finding a way to have fun or think pleasant thoughts wherever you go. I am a good line picker. For example, when there is a choice, generally go left because people tend to go right (but evaluate first). My husband is extremely smart, but he says he should never change lines because it just gets worse, and when I am with him, it is true. Don't know why. Karma. Maybe they will do an article on karma. We might learn more.
Agreed that the article has no useful info, but here are my tips totally based on experience: (1) avoid any line where there is someone holding a checkbook or fishing through a coupon organizer; (2) any line with elderly folk that requires them to input anything; (3) any line in store like Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc., where anyone has any glassware, frames, or anything delicate requiring wrapping. I like to look for someone with a completely full cart, but it's completely full of 5 or fewer really large items (e.g., cases of h20 or soda, a giant toy box, etc -- no bagging, likely cashier will only have to reach over & scan. I also try to pick a register nearest the "start" pattern in a supermarket vs the "end" pattern. And I try to shop after 7pm at night, never ever on Sat or Sun mornings.
As far as being on the roads, for some reason I've found that no matter the make and model, white cars are often the slowest, whether driving or in a toll lane...most of the time it seems elderly drivers & wimpy older middle aged folks seem to like white cars, and mostly they are the oblivious drivers determinedly driving 50 mph in the middle lane, or on the phone and totally unaware of the line behind them, etc. I also look for certain car models that such folks tend to drive regardless of color, like big Mercury Marquis types of vehicles.
Never on Sunday mornings? Really? I've found that's the best time to go to my local Walmart - as long as I get there early enough to beat the after-church crowd.
I agree Sunday mornings might be OK in Walmart, but if you went to my local supermarket (Market Basket in Reading MA) you'd be stunned at the crowds...notorious for 30 plus minute waits on the deli line alone (can do your entire shopping trip 1st) -- they would be serving #11 or so and I'd pull a # and it would be like #65.
Ivana Ernmore? Groan.