When you actively participate in ways to facilitate the memory of information, your brain becomes better at it. This means that nobody is forgetful by nature.
It is a skill that can be learned, and it is not space science.
An important thing to understand when choosing memorization techniques is how our brain processes and stores memory.
Our brains favor live, active, colorful, vivid and attractive information. It means that we need to make the information we want to remember interesting for our brains. The key to improving any memory technique is to find one that works in particular for you and set goals for your training.
These are some of the most used techniques that can do exactly that, and help you with everything from memorizing a speech to remembering names of new people you know.
There is something about entering another room or going through a door that restores our short-term memory and makes us forget what we went there. If you visualize your purpose before leaving the current room, you will increase your chances of remembering what you want. It also applies to the digital world: before opening a new browser tab and forget why you opened it, imagine its purpose. Since I can't find my stuff before, I have been using a similar technique with success: when I lowered my glasses, I now focus clearly on the look of the table and things on it, so I will remember where to put it. We often have to be proactive when it comes to remembering things.
Our brains love stories.
So much so that a good character-based narrative can cause the release of oxytocin, a hormone that increases empathy in people.
The stories cover all the qualities of the information that makes our brain love and remember it: vivid and colorful images and interesting arguments about other living beings.
The advertising industry has realized this fact some time ago, but you as an individual can also benefit from this aspect of your brain to remember the things you need.
This memory strategy is quite easy.
By creating different images that include elements that you need to memorize and connect them in a sequence, you create a story that your brain can follow.
The exact narrative is of little importance. As with the loci method, it is beneficial to create a story with elements that interest you.
Other than that, it can be anything from your cat sitting on top of the things you are trying to remember or James Bond picking up items on your shopping list while escaping from villains.
We can only store a limited number of things in our short-term memory, from four to seven different elements, according to most estimates. The fragmentation technique can help us overcome this limitation: grouping several elements into a larger whole. This is one of the techniques I learned while training for the US Memory Championship. UU. To try to remember long sequences of numbers and pages of poems in a few minutes.
You might find it silly that we put this one on the list but, even though most people know that “repetition is key”, few actually practice it.
Ed Cooke, a memory tournament champion and co-founder of the language app Memrise, launched an online experiment that challenged many experts in the memory field to come up with the best ways to memorize things faster. Repetition came out as number 2 on the list.
With simple concepts and words, you might have to repeat them up to 30 times before they stick for good. Bigger things, such as speeches or job presentations, might require more repetitions.
Unless you are trying to memorize specific facts or words, try to understand the essence of what you are trying to memorize in order to avoid mistakes and hiccups if you forget a word or mix up the order of your points.
This is another technique used by the champions of memory: build a memory palace where you visualize the things you want to remember and associate them with a place that you remember vividly. If your house is your mental palace, for example, you can remember the order of your shopping list by imagining a giant jug of milk that greets you at the front door, slices of bread that line the aisle, etc., while walking through it.
Of all the techniques on how to remember things, this could be the most effective.
MIT researchers have identified a neuronal circuit in the human brain that helps form long-term memories. This circuit works best when your mind pays close attention to the task at hand. Essentially, a higher concentration automatically leads to better absorption in the brain and helps convert short-term memories into long-term memories.
Unfortunately, concentration is becoming an increasingly rare feature in a world where people are bombarded with an infinite number of distractions from multiple digital devices, and multitasking is the norm. However, there are two simple steps that will help improve your concentration and, therefore, increase your memory.
First, gradually reducing the use of digital devices will improve your attention span and free you from digital amnesia. Then, try to do one thing at a time and avoid changing tasks every few minutes.
Simply building these two habits will help you remember things more easily.
It is always easier to remember things that interest us. For example, you may find it much easier to remember personal details of your favorite celebrity, but you tend to forget historical facts or the names of your political friends!
But how does this technique of memory improvement apply to areas in which you are not so interested?
Trying actively to find reasons to be interested. Remember regularly why it is important to remember: how will it contribute to your personal or professional life? That will indicate to your brain the importance of the topic and devote more resources to strengthen the neurons that reinforce those memories.
We have covered a wide range of methods that will help you remember. You don't need to practice them all. Simply learning some of these techniques will make a substantial difference in your memory.
What if you wanted to learn a single method that will make a big difference in your memory? I recommend the Palace of Memory. Click here for more information on how to effectively create and use one, quickly.
Then create and use more memory palaces. It is good for the health and longevity of your brain!
It is a skill that can be learned, and it is not space science.
An important thing to understand when choosing memorization techniques is how our brain processes and stores memory.
Our brains favor live, active, colorful, vivid and attractive information. It means that we need to make the information we want to remember interesting for our brains. The key to improving any memory technique is to find one that works in particular for you and set goals for your training.
These are some of the most used techniques that can do exactly that, and help you with everything from memorizing a speech to remembering names of new people you know.
1. Visualize what you want to take from a room before going to look for it
There is something about entering another room or going through a door that restores our short-term memory and makes us forget what we went there. If you visualize your purpose before leaving the current room, you will increase your chances of remembering what you want. It also applies to the digital world: before opening a new browser tab and forget why you opened it, imagine its purpose. Since I can't find my stuff before, I have been using a similar technique with success: when I lowered my glasses, I now focus clearly on the look of the table and things on it, so I will remember where to put it. We often have to be proactive when it comes to remembering things.
2. The technique of telling stories
Our brains love stories.
So much so that a good character-based narrative can cause the release of oxytocin, a hormone that increases empathy in people.
The stories cover all the qualities of the information that makes our brain love and remember it: vivid and colorful images and interesting arguments about other living beings.
The advertising industry has realized this fact some time ago, but you as an individual can also benefit from this aspect of your brain to remember the things you need.
This memory strategy is quite easy.
By creating different images that include elements that you need to memorize and connect them in a sequence, you create a story that your brain can follow.
The exact narrative is of little importance. As with the loci method, it is beneficial to create a story with elements that interest you.
Other than that, it can be anything from your cat sitting on top of the things you are trying to remember or James Bond picking up items on your shopping list while escaping from villains.
3. Learn the fragmentation technique
We can only store a limited number of things in our short-term memory, from four to seven different elements, according to most estimates. The fragmentation technique can help us overcome this limitation: grouping several elements into a larger whole. This is one of the techniques I learned while training for the US Memory Championship. UU. To try to remember long sequences of numbers and pages of poems in a few minutes.
4. Repetition
You might find it silly that we put this one on the list but, even though most people know that “repetition is key”, few actually practice it.
Ed Cooke, a memory tournament champion and co-founder of the language app Memrise, launched an online experiment that challenged many experts in the memory field to come up with the best ways to memorize things faster. Repetition came out as number 2 on the list.
With simple concepts and words, you might have to repeat them up to 30 times before they stick for good. Bigger things, such as speeches or job presentations, might require more repetitions.
Unless you are trying to memorize specific facts or words, try to understand the essence of what you are trying to memorize in order to avoid mistakes and hiccups if you forget a word or mix up the order of your points.
This is another technique used by the champions of memory: build a memory palace where you visualize the things you want to remember and associate them with a place that you remember vividly. If your house is your mental palace, for example, you can remember the order of your shopping list by imagining a giant jug of milk that greets you at the front door, slices of bread that line the aisle, etc., while walking through it.
6. Pay more attention
Of all the techniques on how to remember things, this could be the most effective.
MIT researchers have identified a neuronal circuit in the human brain that helps form long-term memories. This circuit works best when your mind pays close attention to the task at hand. Essentially, a higher concentration automatically leads to better absorption in the brain and helps convert short-term memories into long-term memories.
Unfortunately, concentration is becoming an increasingly rare feature in a world where people are bombarded with an infinite number of distractions from multiple digital devices, and multitasking is the norm. However, there are two simple steps that will help improve your concentration and, therefore, increase your memory.
First, gradually reducing the use of digital devices will improve your attention span and free you from digital amnesia. Then, try to do one thing at a time and avoid changing tasks every few minutes.
Simply building these two habits will help you remember things more easily.
7. Be more interested
It is always easier to remember things that interest us. For example, you may find it much easier to remember personal details of your favorite celebrity, but you tend to forget historical facts or the names of your political friends!
But how does this technique of memory improvement apply to areas in which you are not so interested?
Trying actively to find reasons to be interested. Remember regularly why it is important to remember: how will it contribute to your personal or professional life? That will indicate to your brain the importance of the topic and devote more resources to strengthen the neurons that reinforce those memories.
8. Remembering things is not difficult!
We have covered a wide range of methods that will help you remember. You don't need to practice them all. Simply learning some of these techniques will make a substantial difference in your memory.
What if you wanted to learn a single method that will make a big difference in your memory? I recommend the Palace of Memory. Click here for more information on how to effectively create and use one, quickly.
Then create and use more memory palaces. It is good for the health and longevity of your brain!
0 Comments