How to remember everything you learn
Forgetting is a natural phenomenon that can become our enemy. How to do in fact not to forget what we learn as the program progresses?
When we read a book, watch a video, or listen to a podcast, we often feel inspired.
We see things through a fresh perspective, we seek to implement what we’ve learned, but we barely remember what we learned, and there’s a problem for most of us.
The vast majority of what we learn on a daily basis will only stay in our memory for a few hours. But we can do better, by some specific practices.
Gaining knowledge makes us feel educated, we spread the message of our recent discoveries.
But we quickly realize we can’t remember what we learned, this makes it impossible to effectively communicate lessons to others.
You might feel like retaining information is almost impossible, there’s an abundance of new and exciting opportunities being fed to us around the clock.
But, with a better understanding of the functions of your memory, you can easily overcome this feeling. So how we do practice our short and long term memory to remembering information that we could use it on our life in the best moment?
Let categorize memory into 2 parts:
- Working memory
- Long-term memory
Long-term memory
Is the basis of understanding. It’s what helps us remember facts, but also the more intricate components of understanding.
These complex networks are referred to as “schemas.”
Our understanding of the world increases dramatically with each schema we build into our long-term memory.
Think of it like investing, you might start with $1000, But in 30 years you have $1,000,000.
It compounds.
Long-term memory follows the same principle.
New information has to go through another place first:
Working memory.
This is where information goes when we first consume it, we can typically handle 2-4 pieces of new information at once.
Working memory makes the call on what gets stored in long-term memory.It filters out information that doesn't seem to need to be stored.
For example:
When you call a restaurant, you don’t need to remember the phone number in the future.
But, without spending time with your ideas, they won’t be committed to long-term memory, you’ll forget them.
In today’s society, our brains are constantly forgetting things. This is because our working memory gets overloaded. Our brain can’t decide what to commit.
How do we improve our memory?
By implementing these 4 proven steps:
One : Recall information
After finishing a chapter or episode from a:
- Book
- Show
- Podcast
Try to repeat specific ideas, words, or concepts, 30 seconds spent recalling information after 30 minutes of learning doubles the chance of you storing it in your long-term memory.
Two : Disable notifications
Notifications take attention away from the task at hand.
To help overcome this:
- Turn off all notifications
- Focus on one thing at a time
- Work without your phone nearby
Less screen time means higher focus, better learning, and stronger recall.
Three : Do reps, not sprints
Treat your brain like a muscle, it will atrophy if you don't use it. It will get injured if you push it too hard. Create a dedicated time block each day for learning new things.
This spaced learning technique will greatly improve your retention.
Four : The Feynman Technique
This was created by the physicist Richard Feynman.
- Take the topic you want to learn
- Write it down as if you were trying to teach someone
- When you find points you can't explain, go review the material
This quickly compounds your knowledge.