Counting Faster and More Efficiently

We are always counting. It happens without us even thinking consciously about it. "See those 3 cars? I have 7 fish." This is one of the most basic of activities. It's the simplest math you learn, but is used all the time. And it can be optimized to be more efficient.

Whenever you are bored sitting in the library or airport bathroom, try counting tiles. Practice your estimation also, and you'll get better. Guess how many pennies are in your jar. Then count and see how you accurate you were. One day you might win something for counting the number of M&Ms in a jar.

An easy way to count is to group together pieces. For example, counting by twos is faster than counting one-by-one. Why stop there, though? Become adept at counting by threes and then by fives. It helps to find the middle object for odd-numbered items, and count one side, then multiply by two and add one. Soon you'll be better at counting and quickly also.

Whenever you're bored and sitting in a restaurant, try to guess the number of letters in words around you. Or try guessing the number of french fries left, or maybe how many customers are in the aisle. Then check and if you're right maybe buy yourself some candy.

If you practice, you should become better at just counting silently with your eyes. You can mentally imagine the numbers being spoken as your eyes go from one object to another. Try it with tiles, then maybe try with pennies. Sometimes an estimate is all you need, and counting with a visual scan like this helps. Instead of looking at each object and saying "One...two...three...." look at groups that are manageable. You don't need to count when you see three people coming, you just know immediately that's three people. So if you see a group of three things here, five there, two there, then just add up.

When counting blocks or tiles, use multiplication to make it faster. Another shortcut for tiles or objects in a grid-like form is to count the squares across by looking at groups of three as follows: see them as "V" and " ^ " shapes - that is, a block, then the one that is diagonal from it, and then the block that is diagonal from the top(or lower) block. So you see them as chunks of three and it's easier to keep track. Use multiplication to guess the amount of items in large clumps also.

Memorize useful multiplications to make yourself even better at it. Every day for the next month memorize the squares of 10-40(you should know 1-9 by now, I hope so). This will help you to get a better estimation for counting big groups.

Whenever you're in line at a grocery store, try to visually count how many items you have. It will help you out when you need to double-check things and if you just want to be sure you weren't ripped off(sometimes the clerk might accidentally scan an item twice).

One somewhat advanced tip is to count with the alphabet. Once you get into "fifteen, sixteen, seventeen" you're using a lot more syllables than you really need. So it can become "O, P, Q" and you saved four syllables, right? You can have a mapping and go back and forth. Know the midpoint of the alphabet is M at 13, since Z is 26. It's not that hard to memorize the alphabetic positions.

It's great to sharpen the skills you learned so long ago when you were just a toddler or a pre-K student. Yeah, you can always count in the slow "one, two, three..uhh" way but if you can learn to count fast visually and without mistakes you'll find it handy one day.

Some examples of when counting is useful is when you're at the grocery store and want to keep track of how many items you have, or when you need a quick head count. It's the oldest form of math, but I see too many people counting like little kids - "one, two, three, four, five... wait, where was I?" when it's a lot faster to at least count by twos. But please don't start counting too much, because you might develop arithmomania(a sign of OCD) where you start counting everything, like The Count in Sesame Street. Unless you are counting your blessings, that is. Or counting sheep as you fall asleep.