Unleash your inner genius ... with a pen and a cuddly kitten

While researching my latest book Brainhack, I've poured through countless academic papers and scientific studies to find the simple tips and tricks we can all adopt to transform the way we think and make more of our brains. If you feel guilty for watching YouTube videos of cute kittens or adorable babies at your desk, don't. Too much whingeing is bad for the brain. Research shows moaning for more than 30 minutes leads to higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, hampering how brain cells communicate and speeding up cell death. Over time, repeated bouts of negativity shrink the hippocampus, the area of the brain that deals with long-term memories and spatial navigation.