Try this book: "59 seconds" - http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/59-seconds-think-a-littl... It presents practical advice based on research papers in the field.

A good book on brain hacks like the aforementioned spaced repetition is "Mind Performance Hacks": http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-Overclock...

And another good read is "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning": http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learni...

You can also try this site: http://lesswrong.com This is a good section to start from: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Winning_at_Lif... Be warned, though. The writing on this site is heavily influenced by AI research so it tends to be somewhat... Vulcan, which can can be good or bad depending on your preferences.