Jan 06, 2017 12:50 AM EST By Beth Golden, UniversityHerald Reporter

Being smarter and more productive is possible especially if you have clear goals and plans in place. Further, understanding how our brains work and how we can work with it improves our chances of succeeding even more.

According to Georgetown University, neuroscience, also known as neural science, refers to the study of how the nervous system develops, its structure and function. It focuses on the brain and its impact on behavior and cognitive functions.

Fast Company interviewed authors Judah Pollack and Olivia Fox Cabane to find out how we can learn more. The 2 reminded that we should watch our thoughts closely since the more we think about certain things, the more we reinforce the connections we have with them.

Sleep is also associated to learning and they emphasized its importance. While some people may not think they need as much as 8 hours of sleep nightly, a study found that having 6 hours of sleep per night can affect a person's cognitive abilities. The study had 2 sets of subjects. One group who got 6 hours of sleep every night for 2 weeks did not think of their sleepiness as bad but they functioned as poorly as the other group that was forced to sat awake for 2 days straight.

To improve sleeping pattern, it is suggested to turn in the same time each night, keep the room cool and dimly lit, turn off gadgets or keep them on silent mode and put them far enough not to bother you and limit alcohol consumption.

In order to learn faster, try teaching what you want to learn to someone else. The process will not only make things clearer but it will also build your confidence in those concepts and principles.

Finally, learning and mastery requires that you focus on the task at hand. The best way to prevent the brain from wandering around is to quit multitasking. While most people would think that they are good at multitasking and don't need to focus on just one thing at a time, science says otherwise.

Earl Miller, professor of neuroscience at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT says multitasking is an illusion and that the human brain can only hold so much simultaneous thoughts. Toggling between tasks require small shifts in thought that we actually pay attention to, as Fortune reported.

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