How many times have you felt your brain just shut off? And why does it usually happen just before a memo is due to the boss and you're staring at a blank piece of paper? According to James Thorton, author of The Brain Yields Its Secrets and Chore Wars: How Households Can Share the Work and Keep the Peace, it isn't that we lose intelligence as we age. It's just that we need to improve our cognitive performance. So take a breather, and check out Thornton's 15 suggestions for thinking better and stirring up our creative juices:

1. Time it right. Most older people think more clearly in the morning; most younger people, in the afternoon. Figure out your own best "thinking time" and reserve it for your most challenging brain work.

2. Get a good education -- but don't overdo it. Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton says schooling has a positive impact on creativity up through the final year of college. Then the progressively narrow focus of graduate school actually detracts from creativity. "You don't become a great novelist by getting a Ph.D. in creative writing."

3. Listen to Confucius. The number one "memory aid" used by memory researchers themselves: Write it down. As the Chinese proverb puts it, the weakest ink lasts longer than the strongest memory.

4. Go for the high octane. Research shows that the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee actually can help you concentrate. But if you're prone to anxiety, you're probably better off not jazzing up your brain with a jolt of java.

5. Anchor new memories to established ones. "Think of your existing memory as a scaffold upon which to fit new information," says University of Michigan cognitive researcher Denise Park, Ph.D. "Don't isolate new information out in left field. Always relate it to something."