Kim’s Game is a method of training situational awareness and improving the eye’s ability to “grab” information that has been around for centuries. Most know it from the classic Kipling novel Kim.

The game has existed for centuries, but the name of it that I am using is taken from the famous Rudyard Kipling novel Kim, in which the game is referred to as the “Jewel Game.” Set in the time of the “Great Game” (that game being imperialism around the Subcontinent and Central Asia) between Great Britain and Tsarist Russia, young Kimball O’Hara is drafted into being a spy for the British Empire by a Sahib who puts up a front of being a jeweler.

Early on in his spy training, Kim and the Sahib’s Indian servant are called into play what the spymaster refers to as the “Jewel Game”: the sahib takes 15-20 jewels and lays them out on a towel, has the two young men look at the jewels for exactly one minute, and then covers them up. He then challenges them to name how many stones there were, their locations, and give any further description they could be capable of giving.

The Indian servant is capable of naming all of the stones under the towel, and name the locations of all of the stones, while the eponymous character struggles and is incapable of accurately naming the locations or colors of any of the gems in questions. Protesting that the servant would be more familiar with the objects than him, Kim demands that the game be replayed, using a randomly chosen assortment of objects rather than gems. To nobody’s surprise—certainly not the reader’s—he loses this one as well.

Having been humbled, the young bravo decides to undergo tutelage in the arts of espionage with the Sahib, vigorously practicing over the course of two weeks to develop his powers of observation and situational awareness.

Just 20-30 minutes of practice a day can greatly improve your alertness, and you can learn about doing so here