Sudoku Benefits Mind Three Ways

While sitting in a waiting room for about an hour today, I went through a flurry of Sudoku puzzles, all of medium difficulty.  I've discovered that I can derive enjoyment from even the easier puzzles by setting rules about solving them.  For example, with the moderately difficult ones I don't put those little intermediary numbers in the boxes that show the "possible" solutions, instead only writing in final numbers.  This helps me develop my short term memory.  Also, I am still employing logical problem-solving skills.  There is one other skill I've been developing with these Sudoku puzzles as well...

Toward the end of solving a Sudoku puzzle, when momentum builds up and the task of filling in the remaining few boxes becomes more mechanical and obvious, it can get to be a little tedious and boring.  I deal with this by quickly visually scanning rows, columns, and 3X3 squares, letting the appropriate solution for each box pop into my head without going through any calculation or logical inference.  It works, and almost feels like magic of a sort.  Of course, when I do this my mind is working overtime behind the scenes quickly processing the scanned material.  It makes fun out of a game while developing a part of my thinking process...