Pick one hard skill, not five easy ones

The best test of "do hard new things" put adults aged sixty to ninety into groups for three months. Some learned digital photography or quilting, about fifteen hours a week, from scratch. Others did social activities, or easy familiar tasks like crosswords. Only the people learning a demanding new skill improved their memory: clearly for photography, nearly for quilting alone. Evidence: decent Whether it lasts is less clear; a scan a year on found some of the brain changes still there. Evidence: worth trying

Hard and new is the combination. Social alone didn't do it. Familiar alone didn't do it. Dabbling in five things gives you the hard part of each without the payoff, because the payoff comes after the part where you're bad at it.

Fifteen hours a week is what was tested. Five is a guess at the least that might count; nobody has checked. Evidence: worth trying