Have you been training?
You use your memory the way you always have. Pore over information. Hope it sticks. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Wonder why it doesn’t work that well. Repeat.
How much time have you devoted to training yourself about memory?
Are you using the same techniques now that you used in 5th grade? If you don’t remember something, do you just grind harder? Does that work?
How many books on memory have you read? How many books on studying?
Do you consider yourself an expert in these areas with nothing more to learn?
Taking time to train your memory and advance your learning skills is probably the best possible use of your time. Think about the compounding effect if you spent an hour a day training your memory and learning good study habits for 1 month while you were a freshman in high school. It would be amazing! Such a short period of time and such huge payoffs.
They don’t teach you in any school how to think or study. I’ve never seen it. We don’t learn how to use our brains. We just try to jam them full of information.
Learning to use your memory or any other skill takes time. It isn’t something you do in one day. It takes work, but they pay off will be huge.
I just finished the book Unlimited Memory by Grand Master Kevin Horsely.
Two main keys I pulled out of the book are focus (something I’ve talked a lot about) and imagination (something I’m just getting started with)
Focus
Without focus and interest, you won’t remember. Plain and simple. If you’re distracted and disinterested, there is no way you will retain anything. It takes time to move information to long-term memory. If it rolls off like water off a duck’s back, it’s gone forever.
Quick example. My wedding band never goes to work with me. The danger of it winding up in the laundry is just too great. It sits in a specific spot at home during the week. But this week on Monday morning I was running late. I hoped in my car and saw that I still had my ring on.
I ran back in the house and set it on the kitchen windowsill. This is not where I normally keep it. How do I make sure I remember where I put it?
Because it is so important I focused hard when I set it down. I also hit the wood with the metal ring so it would make a sound. (That’s an added bit about using multiple senses).
Imagination
Imagination is a probably the best tool for memory. You don’t remember words. Words have no meaning. As you read the words you create pictures in your mind and you remember the pictures and then translate them back out into words. You should practice this every chance you get.
I met a sibling of one of the kids on my son’s baseball team. He played with my youngest all day during a tournament we had this past weekend. His name is Robert. I remember that 3 days later because I used my imagination when I met him.
He showed up on his bicycle. I took a second and pictured him sneaking away at night on his bike from a house he just robbed. That picture is now associated with him, and I’ll likely remember his name forever.
The specific picture is helpful, but even the act of using the name, playing with it a little. Even that little bit of focus will create a much longer lasting memory than just saying hi and moving on.
The Final Step is designed using the concept of spaced repetition and unprompted recall. I love hard work and hustle, but it isn’t all about grinding it out and working harder.
Maximize Your Time and Efficiency is all about working smarter. Getting less done because you’re using better tools to study. Remember more….work less. Yup, it isn’t even that hard if you know what you’re doing. It’s like painting an entire room with brush versus using a roller. Night and day and so simple, but if you don’t know, you don’t know.
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Maximize Your Time and Efficiency
Brian Wallace