Memory Improvemen Podcast - The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

As a student, you want to unlock your potential.

Whether it’s for an upcoming exam or professional certification, you know that you have to be at your best.

Especially when you have so little time to devote to learning.

Enter William Wadsworth, the visionary founder of Exam Study Expert.

If you’ve been following the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast for any length of time, you know I’m not easily impressed.

But William’s commitment to empowering students to achieve academic excellence based on science-backed practices was not only refreshing.

It’s based on similar principles that I’ve studied for years myself. The memory science is very clear, so when listening to William, you can be sure that you’re getting the real deal when it comes to absorbing maximum information in minimum time.

Mastering Your Memory As A StudentIn this episode, William emphasizes the importance of understanding how the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information.

By leveraging how memory works, anyone can substantially boost their retention of even the most complicated information.

The way William focuses on equipping students with the most robust study skills is needed more than ever before. As we all know, we simply must go beyond rote memorization. That’s why I love the practical strategies William advocates to help students to approach their studies in science-backed ways.

As he makes clear, every technique and strategy he teaches is supported by both research and practical experience.

Make no mistake. You don’t have to be taking exams or certification tests to benefit. The same study techniques are useful for lifelong learning goals too.

For all the details on what William knows to work best for studying successfully, tune in to our full conversation by clicking play above or by running the episode through the YouTube upload below.

Who Is William Wadsworth?Long before founding Exam Study Expert, William had secured a highly coveted seat at Cambridge University.

However, his initial celebrations were short-lived because he soon found himself struggling at the bottom of his class.

The basic study techniques that had served him so well in high school were suddenly no longer effective. Not at all.

Feeling overwhelmed and desperate, William found his salvation by studying psychology.

After equipping himself with a deep understanding of how the brain works, William overhauled his entire approach to learning.

Listeners of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast will be familiar with the path William followed:

He adopted advanced memorization techniques.
He implemented efficient time management strategies.
He developed effective methods for tackling exams.
He improved his essay writing skills.

All in all, these simple activities led William to graduate in the top 10% of his class with a First Class degree.

The Founding of Exam Study ExpertAfter enjoying the fruits of his success, William drew upon his personal experiences, academic insights and understanding of memory to found Exam Study Expert. Along with his team, his company is dedicated to helping students achieve academic success.

Among other offerings, their basic services include:

Consulting on Curriculum: William advises educational institutions on creating effective curriculums that cater to different learning styles and maximize student engagement.
Parental Guidance: He helps parents understand their children’s academic needs and provides them with strategies to support their learning at home.
University Interview Preparation: William assists students in preparing for competitive university interviews, such as those for Oxbridge, ensuring they present their best selves and stand out in the selection process.
Through Exam Study Expert, William Wadsworth is committed to empowering students with the tools and techniques they need to excel academically and achieve their full potential.

Frankly, I wish I’d had William’s help when I was going through university! Enjoy this episode and all the wisdom William shares.

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could instantly access perfect calm?

Or even better, live in such a deep state of relaxation that you don’t need some special strategy to deal with anxiety?

That’s what 3x USA Memory Champion John Graham learned to do.

And it turns out that the core techniques are easy to practice.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, John shares his experiences with shocking levels of anxiety and how he learned to remove the underlying causes.

From there, things have just been getting better and better.

All thanks to the stress-busting tips you’re about to discover.

Who Is John Graham?If you’ve been following the memory improvement world for any amount of time, you’ll probably already know his name. If not, make sure to check out his YouTube channel.

In addition to many competition wins, he has demonstrated incredible feats of memory on a variety of television shows around the world.

That’s why when the topic of developing perfect calm out of life’s many stresses comes up, I pay special attention to what John has to say. Frankly, I don’t know any other competitor who has gone to such lengths. True, memory athletes like Alex Mullen and Johannes Mallow have also done high-stakes television spots…

But I think if you check them all out, there’s something especially nerve-wracking about the challenges John has taken on.

What Is Perfect Calm?At the end of the day, performance anxiety isn’t what John ultimately wants to help people with. He’s all about helping people establish perfect calm, which basically means feeling at ease and being able to maintain that sensation no matter what’s going on.

Realistically. Practically. Efficiently.

This mission is so important because there’s a deep anxiety that far too many people suffer. They unfortunately don’t know how simple the solutions can be. Nor do they have an idea of what calm can feel like in their lives.

This is a tragic outcome because the techniques for achieving a state that feels comfortable, relaxed and easy to return to if you come across some turbulence in life are so simple.

I know that I found it hard to imagine how my mind was going to turn from chaos to calm back when I needed to address anxiety issues. As a result, it made it nearly impossible for me to focus on what needed to be done to solve the problem.

That’s just one more reason I’m grateful to John for opening up and sharing his experiences. That can’t be easy, but transparency around these issues is the key to helping others.

For more discussions with John, please check out Beyond Mnemonics, Next Level Memory Training Secrets and Focus First.

No, there aren’t any brain games to play. You may need to spend some time with concentration meditations or other mental exercises.

But John’s the real deal and I hope you take more than inspiration from him. I hope you will take his advice.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it around, visit John’s Release Panic website and thank you for your kind attention.

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If you want to stop losing things, you’re probably tired of the standard advice.

Sure, tips like getting more organized, reducing clutter and always placing things in a designated spot make sense.

But everyday life does not make sense. Sometimes we put things down and can’t remember where we put them. That’s just the way it goes.

So when it comes to handling this problem in a mature manner, what really works?

Well, if you’re sick of constantly losing things, you’re in luck.

On this page, we’ll go through some proven memory techniques you can use. They’ll help you remember where you placed things even when you cannot follow the standard advice.

How to Stop Misplacing ThingsFirst, we need to start getting more specific.

Instead of “things,” we need to start using the actual names for what we want to stop losing.

As a simple exercise that will help give your memory a workout, jot down the kinds of things you lose. I suggest you use a journal and be as specific as possible. List:

The types of objects you misplace
What times of days you tend to lost things
Where you wind up finding them
Any other behavioral observations

This exercise may feel hard, but please give it a try. It will almost certainly give you a solid foundation for solving this problem.

Now let’s move on to our first major tip. Here are the steps I recommend any time you’ve lost something and need to find it as quickly as possible.

Then, once these steps have helped you locate the missing object, make sure to journal each of the points above. Doing so will help with some neurological rewiring that will then reduce the amount of times you lose your precious belongings.

One: Say Names And Locations AloudIf you have to set your keys down, say aloud, “keys on the counter.”

This will reinforce the action and help your brain label both the object and the location.

If you tend to forget whether or not you locked the door, saying aloud “locked” will help. It’s so much easier to remember what you’ve said aloud compared to what you’ve done physically.

Rest assured, there’s no shame in this. I’m a memory expert and I say “locked, locked, locked” in my mind almost every time I go out. It eliminates the worry that I might have forgotten to do so.

After I say “locked, locked, locked,” I usually make a point to replay the mental image of using my keys to secure the door. I also mentally repeat the phrase.

I know that forgetting if you locked the door seems like a different issue than misplacing your reading glasses. But leaving your home is a procedural memory and those too can get lost as easily as objects.

Two: Make A FistLet’s say you set your glasses down on a table.

Rather than simply walk away, close your fist as if you still have your glasses in your hand.

You can combine this technique with saying the object and the location as you walk away. For example, you can quietly or silently in your mind state, “I have left my glasses down on the table.”

This physical sensation of closing your fist while naming the action will help you carry the location-based memory with you. Later, you can think back to your fist and where you made this gesture. This action will help lead you back to the location where you left your glasses.

I suggest you squeeze vigorously. Don’t make this a passive action. Put some drive into it.

Also, if you’re leaving one room to go find scissors and don’t want to forget before you reach the kitchen, make a fist. By pretending you’ve got the scissors in your hand before leaving the room, you’ll remember what you were seeking.

When we leave one room and forget what we were heading out for, we are essentially losing what is called a prospective memory. But by simply saying the location and the object out loud while making a fist, it’s much easier to hold on to that memory.

Three: Make Multi Sensory AssociationsNext time you put your wallet down, imagine hearing a massive explosion – just as if you’d dropped a bomb.

Let your imagination soar by making it as loud as possible.

Include a visual flash of light. Feel the ground rumble. Think to yourself, my wallet just blew up the kitchen counter.

Add some emotions, like shock at the explosion.

Follow these simple steps and misplacing things will be difficult for you from now on.

Four: Use RhymesWe’ve already talked about using names. But there are more ways we can use language to help us remember objects and their locations.

Let’s say you have difficulties finding important books on your shelves.

Instead of arranging everything alphabetically (which is not a bad idea), you can remember where books are like this:

My important bookie-wookie is next to Stephen King-a-ling.

Silly, right?

That’s exactly the point. It makes it easier to remember where you stuck that book you always keep misplacing.

Five: Learn The Major System And Pegword MethodPeople ask me all the time, Why do I keep losing things? I even lose my car at the shopping mall!

I would too if I didn’t use memory techniques.

Two of the most powerful for finding your vehicle in parking lots are:

The Major System
The Pegword Method

Basically, they help you assign an image to each digit from 0-9 and to every letter of the alphabet.

Then, if you park in B4, you’ll be able to imagine a bee attacking a sailboat. Since “bee” starts with the letter ‘b’ and 4 looks a bit like a sailboat, remembering this location will be a breeze.

Just as imagining your wallet dropping like a bomb needs some multi sensory visualization, you want to enhance this kind of association.

When I use this technique, it’s not the bland idea of a bee attacking a sailboat. It’s a full-scale Hollywood movie with emotions, sounds, intensity and energy.

The trick is to spend a bit of time creating these systems and practicing them. Luckily, they’re easy, fun and provide incredible brain exercise. And when you add the multi sensory aspects, the location of your car leaps instantly to mind.

If you feel a little unusual doing this in the beginning, don’t stress about it. With a small amount of practice, creating associations like this will become second nature.

Six: Turn Your Home Into A Memory PalaceIf you can assign a memorable image to a parking spot, you can do the same thing in your home.

Let’s say you’ve developed your skills with the pegword method. You can then assign a letter and object to each room.

Let’s say you call your bedroom “A” and imagine a grouchy apple lives in it. If you take your watch off in your bedroom, you can think about the grouchy apple complaining about it.

By combining the alphabet with the Memory Palace technique, you will never forget where you placed your items again.

Because the apple is your image for the bedroom, you’ll remember the location. After all, it’s memorably absurd for an apple to be grouchy about you leaving your watch on the bedside table.

If you assign ‘b’ to your living room with Batman, there are all kinds of possible ways to have him interact with your glasses, keys, wallet or anything else you want to remember as you set it down.

If you want to learn more about the Memory Palace technique, check out this free course:

There are many more ways to use your home to remember where you put things. That’s why I hope you’ll check it the free course or even the full Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass.

These Tips Will Prevent You From Saying, “I Always Lose Things”You now know how to use associations to remember where you placed important objects. Simply by exploring these techniques consistently, you’ll develop the ability to remember where you put things.

The benefits of removing the problem of forgetting things from your life include:

Saved time
Reduced stress
Improved memory

The more you practice these techniques, the stronger your memory will become.

Of course, the standard advice about reducing clutter and creating reminders for yourself still has its place. I personally developed the habit of putting my keys in the same place years ago and have never regretted it.

But because life can get incredibly hectic, your best bet is to become what Tony Buzan called a “Warrior of the Mind,” and make using association a habit. That way, if anything upsets your regular pattern, you’ll have a stronger memory that helps you track your way back to the location of your belongings.

As always, the best app on the planet is the software you’re running in your head. Please use it, and explore related topics, such as how to stop losing your train of thought and techniques for remembering precious memories about your life that may have faded.

And if I can help you further in any way, just post below and I’ll get back to you a.s.a.p.

Don’t worry – I haven’t missed (or lost) a comment yet!

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Ben Cardall’s demonstrations of what Sherlock Holmes would do under real world conditions are legendary.

So too is his book on the key observation and memory techniques you need to pull it all off.

It’s called The Monographs.

To celebrate the upcoming new version of this essential text on deduction, Ben joins me for an expansive conversation. We cover his practice with the Memory Palace technique, critical thinking and other topics.

Then we focus on the most important topic of all: weighing the value of data and deciding what’s worth committing to memory.

Beyond that, we even get into the knotty territory of free will.

For the first time, someone finally gave me a new way to think about this essential philosophical puzzle!

Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Ben.

Click play on the video below or the audio player above to enjoy this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method and check out some of the links below for more on Ben and his work.

Who Is Ben Cardall?In addition to writing The Monographs, Ben’s YouTube channel, The Deductionist provides you with tremendous resources. On it, Ben covers everything from body language to topics of importance to mentalists and magicians.

Ben’s interest in everything from forensics and psychology to hypnosis and his passion for developing memory skills like Sherlock Holmes are infectious. Check out his website for multiple videos and more information.

In terms of his teaching, so many people are excited about his current Kickstarter for The Monographs V2 that it was fulfilled in less than one day. I’ve still only read the first version, but sight unseen am perfectly comfortable recommending it.

Frankly, I fully expect I’ll be adding this new book from Ben to my frequently updated post on the best Memory Palace books.

The Monographs: A Quick ReviewWhen preparing this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, I though I would call The Monographs an “underground classic.”

My research uncovered too many positive reviews to call it “underground,” however. So we’ll have to settle for it being a classic of memory, critical thinking and deduction.

I love how Ben weaves these skills together. Sure, you can focus purely on the Memory Palace technique. He gives you one of the most important tips you’ll ever read.

But it’s really the fusion of memory techniques with observation tactics and thinking strategies that you need in order to order see, hear, feel and think at the highest possible level.

When you can do that, you’ll be able to select the main points from the environment much better. Whether they’re in a book or lingering at the scene of a crime, there’s no point memorizing information if you haven’t prequalified it first.

So if you truly want to think like Sherlock Holmes, you absolutely need Ben’s training material. This book contains practical exercises, background info and the steps that will help you apply the techniques to real world environments.

Enjoy our conversation today and check out either version of The Monographs. You’ll be well rewarded!

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Finding a good prospective memory definition is hard. This post is packed with examples so you can understand it quickly.

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What are mnemonic devices, and how can you use them to improve memory? This post shows how, including helpful techniques and strategies.

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Want to achieve success in all you do? Learn how to visualize clearly and map out your vision in this post.

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Matt Barclay suffered memory issues following a cardiac arrest. Yet, using the Magnetic Memory Method, he recited almost an entire Psalm.

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Active recall works incredibly well. You just have to make sure you're using it correctly. Learn two rules that make it work flawlessly now.

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Spanish is a fantastic language. Use these memory techniques and you'll experience a massive boost in your fluency faster than you can say "pronto." ;)

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Magnetic Memory Method user Richard Gilzean takes you through how he memorized a new German phrase every day for an entire year.

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Ronald Johnson and Anthony Metivier discuss time, technology, and advanced Memory Palace tactics. Optimize your memory with these tips.

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If you want to know how to memorize vocabulary quickly and permanently, this step-by-step guide is your one-stop resource.

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Rose Szwed found parts of nursing hard. For phlebotomy she used the Magnetic Memory Method to turn a failed exam into A+ nursing knowledge. Here's how.

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It's easy to overcome learning plateaus when you have the right strategies. Read this masterclass on learning faster in fun ways now.

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Do you ever wonder, “what is mind mapping” exactly?

Well, imagine you’re listening to a history lecture. Instead of taking notes, your fingers itch to make a mindmap of World War I events as you hear them.

But how do you draw mind maps?

And, can mind maps alone boost your memory, learning power, and creativity?

In this article, you’ll explore a complete guide to mind mapping, how to draw one, including multiple examples of mind maps. We’ll also examine whether mind mapping alone can improve your brainpower and creativity, and what else you can do.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

- What is Mind Mapping?
- Benefits of Mind Mapping
- Who, When, and How to Make a Mind Map
- Tools You Can Use for Mind Mapping
- Can Mind Mapping Alone Improve Your Memory?
- How to Combine a Mind Map with the Major System

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.What is Mind Mapping?
Mind mapping is a simple, visual way to organize your ideas for better clarity and recall. Mind maps focus on only one central concept or idea and are based on radial hierarchies and tree structures.

What does all that mean? Let’s get into the details.

A Brief History and Definition of Mind Mapping MethodsThe practice of drawing radial maps to map information goes back several centuries.

Some people credit the first mind maps to the 3rd-century philosopher Porphyry of Tyros. Ramon Llull, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Isaac Newton also used mind mapping techniques. Much later, in the 1960s, scientists Allan Collins and Ross Quillian developed the semantic network into mind maps.

However, it was psychology consultant Tony Buzan who first popularized the term “mind map.” Buzan drew colorful, tree-like structures called radial trees where a central topic branched out to several sub-topics.

The Tony Buzan Learning Center defines their Mind Map® as “a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain. It harnesses the full range of cortical skills – word, image, number, logic, rhythm, color, and spatial awareness – in a single, uniquely powerful manner.”

These pictorial representations introduced by Buzan are now being used by students, teachers, engineers, psychologists, and others in many ways.

So, what does a mind map look like?

Examples of Mind MapsA mind-mapping exercise is colorful and engaging. And, the result looks analytical and artistic at the same time.

Here are some great examples of how fun and engaging mind maps can be. Some of them look messy — but look deeper and you’ll see they are examples of detailed trains of thought.

Source: Tony Buzan Learning Center

Source: MindMapArt

Source: BiggerPlate

These fascinating examples are colorful, though in some cases, also quite visually overwhelming.

That’s why I’ve pared down my own style, and am glad I got Tony Buzan’s seal of approval after doing so:

Anthony Metivier with a Buzan-style Mind Map

But you might be asking: aren’t these the same as spider maps, concept maps, and other such visualizations?

No. There are some key differences.

Why are Mind Maps Effective?Nobel prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry’s research proved that visual forms of note making are more effective than written methods.

He showed that the brain is divided into two hemispheres that perform cortical skills like logic, imagination, color recognition, and others. These functions work in sync when you mindmap your thoughts, creating a lasting impression in your brain.

Mind maps are effective because:

They nudge you to ditch the usual, bullet-point style of thinking, which pushes you to use your creativity.
They are presented in a brain-friendly format — and people can grasp the linkages quickly.
They let you see the bigger picture.
They keep you focused on key issues.
They give you time for “diffuse thinking” as you pause to change colors and reflect on keywords and images.
And, they help you retain and recall more information through patterns and associations.

Next, let’s look at why mind mapping can be beneficial.

Benefits of Using a Mind Mapping MethodYears of research have gone into testing the effectiveness of mind mapping.

In a 2005 study by G. Cunningham, 80% of the students agreed that mind mapping helped them understand science concepts better.

Paul Farrand proved the efficacy of mind mapping as a study technique and encouraged its use in medical curricula.

Mind maps are known to help you to improve your productivity at work, academic success, and even to manage your life.

Here’s how you could apply it in your day-to-day life:

Note Taking: You can map out notes from a podcast, a project discussion, or a seminar.
Brainstorming: Helps in real-time collaboration with your team members to make informed business decisions.
Studying: You can summarize books.
Presenting information to an audience: Use it to get your team’s buy-in for anything through clear narratives.
Problem-solving: Sometimes, it helps if you map out your current situation and your desired situation separately. This will help you come up with solutions easily.
Increasing creativity: The words, images, and colors you use let you see the information from a very different perspective.
Planning: Plan your holiday or your next sales strategy using mind maps.
Language learning: Use a simple, 12-point mind map to combine 12 vocabulary words with the Major System. Here’s how:

Who, When, and How to Make a Mind Map
Now that you have a fair idea of mind maps, let’s understand who should use it, as well as when and how.

Who Should Use Mind Maps?Mind maps are particularly helpful for those who:

Remember a visual image or a diagram better than written pieces.
- (Or need practice becoming more visual.
Deal with lots of information or a project that needs more clarity.
Need to brainstorm for ideas from others to build a bigger project or solution.

Mind mapping has also proven useful for dyslexic students and those with ADHD.

When Should You Use Mind Maps?Create mind maps when you need to achieve some goal — to understand your course material or project better, or to assess the ideas from brainstorming sessions.

Remember — mind mapping isn’t the end goal by itself.

And don’t spend too much time perfecting it. If it takes too long, it may hamper your creative thinking.

How to Make a Mind MapDrawing a mind map is pretty straightforward.

For example, if you want to prepare a meeting agenda take a blank page and follow these basic steps:

Draw a bubble in the middle of the page with the title of your meeting.
Branch out with new bubbles from the central theme, with each branch representing the topics you want to address.
Draw lines to connect each of them to the middle bubble.
Add new ideas starting from the general to the specific.
Repeat this for each subtopic branching out from the topics.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.What are the Rules for Mind Mapping?Mind maps are meant to be hierarchical and show relationships among pieces of the whole.

What are the guidelines you can use?

Tips for Drawing a Mind MapHere are some mind mapping rules to make your mind map project expressive and compelling.

Use colors, illustrations, and pictures: Some of the most effective mind maps have more doodles and symbols than words.
Keep the topics and sub-topics brief: Stick to a single word each, or just a picture instead of long phrases or sentences.
Keyword for branches: Name your branches or lines using a keyword each.
Use different text sizes and alignment: Provide as many visual cues as you can to emphasize important points.
Use symbols: Draw symbols like arrows and shapes to classify your thoughts.
Space it out: Leave enough negative space between your idea bubbles.
Highlight important stuff: Highlight important branches or bubbles with borders or colors.
Create linear lists: You can create linear hierarchies using bullet points and numbered lists.
Mix up word sizes and fonts: Add in hierarchies of words using different font sizes to highlight their importance.
Use varying cases: Use lower and upper cases to highlight the importance of ideas.

Every little effort you put into your mind map project will engage your brain. And, all these visual aids will make your mind map more memorable and easier to recall.

Now, do you draw mind maps on paper, or is there a diagramming tool to do it?

The answer is: both.

Tools You Can Use for Mind MappingYou can draw mind maps by hand, just like note-taking during a lecture.

Or you can use websites or mobile phone apps to do it.

Traditional Mind MapsNothing is as comforting as putting pen to paper when an idea strikes you. This is, in fact, the simplest way to map your ideas.

It is your personal project — your thoughts, handwriting, and your doodles. You can create it yourself or in groups on a whiteboard during a brainstorming session.

The pen-and-paper method works perfectly most of the time, but it does have limitations:

You may not have enough space on the paper to expand your thoughts.
You can’t make too many corrections.
And, it may not always be presentable enough to share in a formal meeting.

The other option is to use mind mapping software — websites and apps.

Mind Mapping SoftwareMind mapping apps and websites help you organize your ideas and store large amounts of data in a single location.

What makes for great mind mapping software?

The best mind mapping tools…

Allow you to create a wide network of ideas, facts, and connections.
Let you make quick changes through automatic spatial organization and hierarchical structuring (particularly useful while brainstorming).
Let you play with fonts and colors, and even drag and drop files into the mind mapping program.

Which are the Best Mind Mapping Software Tools?Here are three of the best online mind mapping tools available today:

1. MindManager by MindJet: This tool is for business users — a professional mind map maker with MS Office integration. You could even pick a mind map template in the tool to get started.

Source: MindManager

2. XMind: This mind mapping tool has a simple interface and is mainly for enterprise-level users. It lets you convert your mind maps to a Gantt chart that shows the start and end dates and progress of each task.

You can even use a countdown timer to time your sessions on this mind mapping software (this will keep you focused and will stop you from spending too much time mind mapping and brainstorming).

Source: XMind

3. Scapple: This mind mapping tool was built for writers by a writers group called “Literature and Latte.” It is easy to use and comes with great features (minus embedding audio and video).

With this mind mapping application, you’re not limited to starting with a central theme. You can begin with a small idea, then work backward to reach the main idea.

Source: Scapple

You could also experiment with an open-source free mind mapping tool like FreeMind or Coggle.

The point is this: there are a lot of options. For an example of one teacher who uses software and teaches with a specific focus on personal develop is Joseph Rodrigues. Here’s one of his best:

Mind Map + Memory Palace = Magnetic MemoryA mind map is an excellent non-linear visual representation of your ideas that mimics the way your brain thinks.

Once you master it (whether you use a notebook or a mind mapping software), you’ll never go back to linear note-taking ever again. But, mind mapping alone may not boost your brainpower as much as when combined with the Magnetic Memory Method. If you need more mind map examples, we have plenty.

Ready to use this combination to fire up your memory, creativity, and learning? Sign up for my free memory improvement kit today!

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Imagine memorizing seven decks of playing cards.

Now imagine knowing the location of each card in each deck by number. In other words, if someone names the 2 of clubs, you know how far down in the deck it is, such as the 27th card from the top.

Now, you might be thinking…

How the heck is that going to help me pass an exam, get a raise or learn a language?

Magnetic Friends, I believe that memorizing cards will help you in multiple ways that directly relates to each of these goals.

In fact, it’s one path towards what Richard Rubin calls the Massively Distributed Memory Palace.

And that’s exactly what we talk about in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, amongst other topics of interest:

Harry Lorayne
Bruno Furst
The implications of AI for mnemonists
Memory Palace books and linguistics books
Ancient memory techniques and more modern approaches
Mnemonic imagery in the context of phonics, reading and the implications for comprehending mnemonics
Memdeck considerations, including the Tamariz stack

And of course, Richard’s take on the Memory Palace technique.

Who is Richard Rubin?Richard is a memory athlete with impressive stats.

He also creates incredible and fun memory demonstrations, often based around magic and mentalism:

I think his ideas are fantastic and his insights into memory improvement profound, so I suggest following him on YouTube. And check back here for a link to his forthcoming website when it’s ready.

The Massively Distributed Memory PalaceI’m going to let Richard explain this himself, so please enjoy the conversation.

And the cool thing are the connections to other mnemonic strategies I’ve seen before. For example in Giordano Bruno’s writing and especially the mnemonic writings of Robert Fludd.

What I love so much about this conversation, is that Bruno himself once said that those who think enough about mnemonics will reach similar, if not the same conclusions. It’s a lot like how magicians independently arrive at various moves and wind up calling essentially the same thing a different name.

This point is important because the more teachers we have, the more people will discover the fundamental logic that supports all learning assisted by elaborative rehearsal, properly optimized spaced repetition and tactics like chunking.

My belief is that the Mnemonics Renaissance given full steam by Tony Buzan with the memory competitions and massively supported by books like Moonwalking with Einstein is only going to continue growing.

So my hat is off to Richard and I hope you’ll support him along with all the other great memory athletes and teachers who are out there doing great things to inspire and encourage others.

The post Secrets of the Massively Distributed Memory Palace with Richard Rubin appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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If you’re wondering how to read a book and remember everything like a professional scholar, this is one of the most helpful tips I can give:

Sit down, open a book and read.

Of course, I have more secrets to share than just that.

But isn’t common sense powerful?

It is.

And it’s getting even more powerful as modern life creates more and more distractions and demands on our attention.

Of course, we can (and will) talk about different types of reading, like elementary, inspectional, analytical, and syntopical reading.

These are terms introduced by Mortimer J. Adler in his famous guide, How to Read a Book.

But these terms are useless if you don’t:

Schedule time to read
Read according to demands of the genre
Read based on clearly established goals
Be prepared with the appropriate tools for interpretation and analysis

So if you want to know the best way to read, I encourage you to explore ways to read.

That’s because there are multiple kinds of books.

And when you have a toolbox of strategies at your fingertips, you’ll be able to read faster, remember more and even better:

You’ll understand what you’re reading and become a person of knowledge and wisdom.

You’ll make connections on the fly and experience multiple a-ha moments of revelation.

Sound good?

Let’s get started!

The 4 Main Types of Reading (And Which Is the Best Way to Read a Book)Before we get started, ask yourself a simple question:

What’s the point of reading?

A lot of people try to imitate how others read. But they wind copying strategies that do not align with their goals.

So reading more thoroughly and choosing a strategy always begins with thinking through your goals.

Some reading goals include:

Acing school assignments and exams
Filling in gaps left by traditional education
Developing personal wisdom
Solving problems
Expanding mental awareness
Substantial reflection
Identifying or creating opportunities for yourself
Research as a profession
Spiritual goals
Leisure

Each of these categories can involve multiple reading types.

Let’s start with the oft-cited types identified by Adler in How to Read a Book.

I’ll cover Adler’s main points, and after that, we’ll talk about how to read a book like a scholar so you can remember as much as you want.

Why should you care what I have to say about reading?

Well, I have a PhD, two MAs and am an author of many books. Most of those books involve tons of research.

I’ve also taught reading and writing at three universities around the world, including for Rutgers where the legendary Kurt Spellmeyer was my boss.

Oh, and I read every single day, completing 2-5 books a week on average. All kinds of books from fiction to philosophy, science and Zen.

You name the category, and I’ll probably have read something that belongs to it.

And if I haven’t, even if the category is crushingly complex, I’ll figure out a way to increase my IQ in that field to the best of my ability.

All right, enough about my street cred. Let’s get started with Adler’s four main types of reading.

One: Elementary ReadingAdler says that this reading type hardly goes past basic understanding.

You know what the words on a page say, and you can follow a basic plot.

However, I think we need to add a very important point.

Elementary reading is often directed reading.

You’re told to do it by a parent or teacher.

It’s the opposite of self-directed reading.

And that’s a big problem. As the authors of Balancing Principles for Teaching Elementary Reading argue, one core value matters above all.

Teachers and parents should strive to help kids want reading as part of their lives.

Why is a passion for reading so important?

Simple: true literacy demands are only going up as technology and automation increase.

Not only that, but critical thinking is so important to the success of all people.

In fact, there are 9 critical thinking strategies all people need, but if you only have elementary reading skills, you cannot develop them.

And no, you can’t expect so-called microlearning to help fill in the gaps if you’re an elementary reader.

Will inspectional reading get you there?

Let’s see.

Two: Inspectional ReadingFor Adler, inspectional reading is what most people now call skim reading.

Adler seems to confuse it with scanning, which is substantially different.

Don’t get me wrong.

There’s nothing wrong with inspectional reading. As the authors of Reading as a Perceptual Process have shown, words can be skipped while scanning a book without the reader necessarily losing comprehension.

However, the most interesting finding in the book is that how much you can still understand while inspecting a book may be linked to handwriting.

For example, they analyse “target scanning,” which is stronger in those with decent handwriting skills.

This means that if you never write by hand and are finding it difficult to grasp the meaning of books you’re skimming through using “speed reading” techniques, you might improve by practicing your longhand writing instead of typing.

Whether or not doing a lot of typing helps your “target scanning” for any kind of reading on screens is yet unknown.

But there are also aren’t a lot of people who have talked about inspectional reading from devices because digital books aren’t quite so easy to scan.

Either way you look at it, I’ve chosen to read from print instead of digital. The benefits are too profound, especially when you’re using memory techniques.

Three: Analytical ReadingA lot of people worry that reading without understanding wastes time.

I disagree.

Rather, I read so that I might understand.

After all, if I already know what a book is going to cover… why bother reading it?

Well, Adler had an answer for that. He called it “superficial reading.” It’s technically part of inspectional reading, and not exactly the opposite of analytical reading.

For example, you might be perfectly justified to read superficially if you’re just looking a book over to see if it covers anything new or surprising.

But if you really want to dig deep into a book, you need tools of analytical thinking. Even if you’re familiar with the topic and the book is repetitive, you still need to perform what can also be called a “close reading.”

What’s involved?

A lot, frankly.

Genre

First of all, you want to understand the book’s genre or category.

Why is this important?

Because it will help you connect the book to other texts that directly relate to it or hold an important connection. Knowing the various fields of knowledge speeds up your pattern recognition.

Classifying texts by their type is so important, I created an entire course about it called Genre Frameworks.

Composition

You also need to understand how the book is put together.

This is called the form/content paradigm.

In other words, how a book is written forms part of its ultimate meaning.

For example, Plato’s Republic is a dialog. This formal aspect influences the meaning of the philosophical ideas in the text. They are discursive and combine objective and subjective reasoning in ways that only the dialog form can.

Aristotle’s philosophy, on the other hand, is presented in direct prose. It is argumentative and designed to convince you that his points are valid.

Paraphrase and Summary

Analytical reading isn’t just about reading.

Adler wants you to be able to restate the points in a book in your own words.

Developing generally involves writing about what you’ve read.

This is critical because A+ students get those grades by producing variations of assigned readings.

Think of it like music. If you know a scale, you can play it forwards and backwards. But you can also perform the scale in your own style.

I use the music metaphor because writing about what you’ve read should be combined with talking about it too.

When you’ve properly analyzed a book, performing what you know is what you’ll be able to do. Whether it’s while sitting for an exam, giving a speech or just discussing between friends, your descriptions of how what you’re reading connects to the larger field and how its style impacts the meaning of the book will be a great achievement.

For help with writing summaries that boost your understanding, I recommend How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish.

Four: Syntopical ReadingThis term sounds fancier than it is.

Basically it means that you read a number of books on the same topic.

Then, ideally by paraphrasing and writing summaries, you can compare the output of those books.

Not only that, but you can abstract the core ideas through contrasting different approaches to them.

I do this frequently when I compare different Memory Palace books.

What exactly should you compare between books using this type of reading?

Publication dates
Author backgrounds
Why their books were written
Their research approaches and resources
Any ideological agendas or biases the authors hold
Key passages
Key vocabulary

You also want to use this face to distinguish fact from opinion. When comparing and contrasting different authors on the same topic, you’ll find that some stick to science and evidence from their research. Others waffle on about ideas without providing substantial references.

As the reader, you don’t necessarily want to discount opinion or even anecdotal experience. But you do need to place it in the context of other writers and how they approach the same topic. You could find that some anecdotal books that seem quite outlandish on the surface actually are backed up by science, even if the author of that book is unaware of it.

How to Read a Book Properly in 6 StepsThe points from Adler we’ve just gone through are solid.

But he lived in a different time. The very definition of what a book is has changed.

For example, when Adler wrote his book in the 40s and updated it in the 70s, contacting an author would involve writing to the publisher.

These days, you can follow authors on Twitter, watch countless interviews with them, and often even get an email response to your questions.

So with our era in mind, let’s talk about some other ways to read a book. I’m confident you’ll find them empowering.

Step One: Schedule ReadingI started this post with the notion that reading is as simple as sitting down with a book and starting to read.

This is true.

So rather than talk in greater detail about skimming, reducing subvocalization or all the other topics I’ve addressed in how to read faster, let’s focus on the importance of scheduling.

There are many ways to schedule, but the easiest I find is to set simple rules.

For example, when I’m not doing major research projects, I often use this rule:

One hour of reading in the morning
One hour of reading at night

If I can squeeze in more reading during the afternoon, I certainly will.

In the past, I have tracked my exact activities, which I find a lot more useful than writing to-do lists. I can memorize my schedule, after all.

But each person needs to explore many kinds of scheduling to find what works best. But if one thing is common to us all, it’s that having some kind of rule will set you free to follow it.

Without a rule, you are a prisoner of inconsistency.

Step Two: Pace Your ReadingFor my research and personal development reading, I like to work in 90-day blocks.

For example, when I first started studying Advaita Vedanta, I made it a rule to read only about this topic for ninety days.

I wound up reading about it for longer than that, but this only proves the power of setting rules. They are productive.

Plus, anything less than 90-days is unlikely to help your brain build enough connections to compare and contrast anything of substance.

This science-based principle is the origin of what is now called Metivier’s Razor:

Less than 90 days of study and practice of (almost any) accelerated learning technique does not deserve the phrase, “I tried.”

In sum, pick a topic, identify ten to fifteen books that deal with it, and then for the next 90-days, plow through those books.

For bonus points, follow-up with another 90-days on a related topic. For example, I followed my Advaita Vedanta research project with 90-days on hermeticism, then 90-days on Zen.

This allowed me to not only compare multiple books within each topic area. I was also able to compare and contrast the topic areas as a whole.

Give this style a try. You are effectively creating your own semesters that resemble what a course of graduate study at university would be like.

Step Three: Interleave ReadingRarely do I read books from beginning to end without pause. The only exception would be novels.

When it comes to reading non-fiction, there’s a very powerful strategy called interleaving. You will learn faster and remember more by reading 3-5 books at the same time.

To interleave, you keep shifting between them.

There’s no exact pattern you need to follow. Generally, I read between 1-3 chapters of a book before switching to the next.

The books that are being interleaved are read until they are done.

This is one of those rare speed reading techniques that actually works. Give it a try!

Step Four: Capture & Organize ReadingI don’t know about you, but when I come across ideas in books that resonate, I want to remember them.

We’ll talk about memorizing key points in a moment, but I personally prefer to separate the process.

One of the best ways to set the stage for memorizing information from textbooks is by taking notes on index cards.

That way, each note is mobile. You can arrange them in multiple ways, which increases your ability to compare and contrast ideas.

It also helps when you’re writing essays or books in the future.

Step Five: Memorize Your ReadingOnce you have the information extracted, knowing what you want to remember is important.

Generally, I suggest memorizing:

Author names
Historical dates
Key ideas
Key vocabulary
Verbatim passages

I’m very glad I did all these things, especially during my university years.

During my dissertation defense, to take one example, one of the examiners claimed that I had hardly written about Nietzsche. “Where’s the Nietzsche?” she demanded.

Calmly, I said “Page 72.” Without looking at the page myself, I recited Nietzsche from memory. In German.

Needless to say, I walked out of that room with my Ph.D. in hand.

How did I memorize both the page number and the quote in a foreign language?

I used a Memory Palace. Learn this technique yourself with this free course:

In the beginning, many people will still get stuck on exactly what to memorize from the books they read.

“Sure,” they’ll say, “remember key terms and historical dates. But how do I know which ones are important?”

There are two ways to think about this issue:

The more you read, the more you’ll develop an intuition for these things
Research

I think the point about reading more is clear. If you practice extracting information and performing it in your own words as we’ve been discussing, practice itself will hone your radar for the points that matter. It will also help ensure that you stop feeling like a lot of the material you’re tasked with is boring. Chances are, it isn’t.

When it comes to doing more research, a lot has to do with your context and deploying some admittedly unusual measures to expand your context.

For example, when I was a student, I used to visit the department secretary and ask for exams from the previous years. That’s the kind of research that can help you figure out what’s going to be important on a test. You can use that knowledge to read to identify those terms and ideas in the textbook.

You can also closely analyze the books themselves. Often there are feature boxes, summaries, introductions and conclusions that use bullets or other formatting to highlight key ideas.

Extract them from the book and memorize them.

And if you memorize something that turns out to not be important?

No big deal. You never know when it might be useful. And if it’s never useful, you’ve gotten in some valuable practice using memory techniques.

Step Six: Expand ReadingThe final step is to expand upon what you’ve read.

We already know that the fourth and most powerful kind of reading involves reading multiple books on the same topic. You can’t compare and contrast without doing so.

That’s an easy way to expand your reading. You simply visit Amazon or your local library and find more books on that topic by keyword.

But there’s another way to expand your reading that is a bit more subtle. It’s also more powerful.

I call this the 2-10% Rule. When I’m reading in one of my 90-day blocks, I build it out by trying to read 2-10% of the books mentioned in the core textbooks I’m reading.

Note: If a book is loaded with too many references for even 2% to make sense, I’ll pull that number down to just 2 other books.

Also, we don’t always have to apply this rule strictly to books. Your 2% can also include journal articles or even material from popular magazines. But ideally you want to draw from trusted sources.

That said, I’ve studied topics like the Mandela Effect. To understand this subject and the naive people who believe in it, I had to read many pseudo scientific articles. I point this out because depending on the topic, your exact reading strategy may take you into questionable realms.

So long as you’re a trained skeptic, that’s okay, and it’s important to have as many critical thinking benefits at your disposal as possible.

By reading in the strategic ways we’ve been talking about, you’ll come to learn more about the author’s context. And your mental web of connections grows.

Sometimes, you’ll find that the books you choose turn out to be quite incidental to the key point you’re studying.

That’s okay. Knowledge is not a puzzle that will ever turn into one complete picture. Not all the pieces have to fit.

The important thing is to have a strategy for expansion.

And another key strategy is to strategically reread a percentage of books you go through. I try to shoot for at least one a month.

This not only refreshes your memory about what you’ve read, but also lets you use the 2-10% rule again, this time with fresh eyes.

Of course, this next point should go without saying, but I’ll make it clear anyway.

After you’ve identified your 2-10% you’re going to read next, schedule that reading too. Then follow all the steps we’ve discussed before repeating them with the next round.

Reading A Book Like A ProAs you can see, it’s fun and easy to read a book in a sophisticated manner.

Sure, it might seem like there’s a lot of moving parts if you’re new to reading in this way.

But give it 90-days and I’m confident you’ll see the logic in it. We’re talking about being a reading pro so that you can reach expertise in multiple topics, after all.

Frankly, I cannot imagine how horrible my life would be now if I hadn’t started reading this way myself back when I was in high school.

I can’t stress the importance of reading highly enough.

With thanks for reading me today, let me know if I missed any steps in the comments. And tell me, what are you reading right now?

What would you like to read about over the next 90-days?

The post How to Read a Book and Remember Everything appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One

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Recently I walked out on the TEDx stage, opened my mouth, and for 13 minutes and 22 seconds, a bunch of words spilled out of my mouth.

The sentences and quotes flowed easily, without my having to think about a single one of them. At the end, a bunch of people clapped. I said goodbye to the people I’d met (by name, of course, because I’d memorized them), and then went home.

But wait. Isn’t this post about memory strategies? What does giving a speech have to do with strategies to improve memory?

That’s the beauty of what happened that day on stage. Because I have a number of memory strategies, it was easy for me to give that speech.

I can think back to a number of public speaking engagements that were stress-free, totally blissful, and perfectly wonderful — all because I have (and use) memory strategies.

This isn’t to say that stress-free means problem-free.

Far from it. As you can see in this video of the TEDx Talk, people laughed at something I wasn’t expecting…

…but thankfully, I was able to get back on track by simply falling back on the strategies you’re about to learn.

When I think back on all the times I’ve walked into a room and remembered the names of people and been able to speak to them without notes, I’m continually grateful for these strategies.

It makes me sad how many people suffer badly in life because they don’t have a strategy. That’s why today’s post will cover how to develop and cultivate a memory strategy that helps you with memory improvement.

Ready to bring memory strategies into your life?

Here’s what this post will cover:

Memory Strategies to Boost Retention and Recall
1. Pick a Long-Term Learning Project
2. Structure and Organize
3. Break It Down
4. Schedule Everything
5. Make Relationships
6. Make Mind Maps
7. Read Aloud
8. Use Priming to Form Mental Models
9. Seek Novel Experiences
10. Create a Memento Mori
11. Optimize Your Lifestyle

Before we dive into the strategies themselves, let’s look at what a memory strategy is, and why it’s so important to develop one.

Memory Strategies to Boost Long-Term Memory and RecallEach of the 12 strategies below can be used separately to aid in improving long-term memory and memory recall. But the strategies become even more powerful when implemented together.

Let’s look at each memory strategy in detail.

Pick a Long-Term Learning ProjectThis first strategy is deceptively simple: have a long-term learning project to help you focus your attention.

You might decide to have multiple projects, but I like the discipline involved in focusing on a singular project.

That being said, I currently have several long-term learning projects that are all intertwined. My current project is a very elaborate and deep project I’ve been working on for years, called The Art of Memory.

As another example, if you are a medical student you could turn your learning into a longer-term project than you originally anticipated. To become the best possible doctor, you could learn more about the history of medicine. You might choose to create a long-term learning project around medicine during the Italian Renaissance.

Every time you learn more, find the clues that lead you to your long-term learning project. Build out a concrete set of things to study – planned out over time – that will help you create a foundation for connections in your neuronal networks.

Each new book you explore or subtopic you examine will create more and more connections.

What this type of long-term learning helps you do is learn how to focus. You’ll extend your concentration on something called cognitive shifting.

Please note, we’re not talking about multitasking or task switching here. Instead, cognitive switching is the ability to very consciously switch gears in a way that doesn’t disrupt your focus. It doesn’t incur a mental cost; in fact, it creates more energy than it burns.

In order to be at the top of your memory game, you need to master cognitive switching. You need to be able to switch gears on a dime, all the while maintaining your focus on being the best possible learner.

Your long-term learning projects will teach you to master this type of focus, to juggle multiple threads of thoughts and ideas at a time. And over time, you’ll develop memory reserve (sometimes called cognitive reserve), which leads to long-term fortification of the brain against damage.

Exercise: Pick one life-long learning projectIt might feel too limiting to pick just one project, but trust me. You can start with just one, and if you spend a few months focused on the single project and feel like it’s too limiting, you can add more in.

If you have trouble with the idea of picking just one thing, I recommend watching (and taking action on) my Memory Training Vision Statement video.

My Art of Memory project leaves me swamped in variety. My head spins every day as I make my way through page after page, exercise after exercise. I just keep following the adventure and haven’t found an end yet!

Whatever you choose, be the brave warrior of the mind who is courageous enough to zero in on one thing and be satisfied with the totality of what you get. Instead of trying to “have it all” and ending up with nothing, see how it feels to commit to a singular path for a while.

Structure and OrganizeThe most helpful thing you can do to improve memory is to be a “self-organizing structurer” — become someone interested in structuring things. One of the top ways to do this is to learn about bibliography.

Just think: what if you could structure your mind to store information like a library?

Imagine if you committed the Dewey Decimal System to memory. You would have a never-ending Memory Palace where you could store every piece of information you wanted!

But for those who don’t want to put in the effort to memorize something as extensive as the Dewey Decimal System, you can still think bibliographically. It’s simply a major tool of structure and organization.

To understand how libraries came to be structured as they are just might influence you to begin structuring your mind in a similar way. If you’re already familiar with Memory Palaces, you’ll see they are structured both thematically and bibliographically.

To tackle this style of self-organization, have several styles of note-taking at your disposal. Two helpful resources here on Magnetic Memory Method are the note-taking YouTube video below and the post about How to Memorize a Textbook.

As I discuss in How to Memorize a Textbook, index cards can be a helpful tool. Rather than taking notes out of a book in a linear fashion, using index cards makes them moveable.

When you get ready to memorize the information on the cards, you can mix and match the cards, move them around, and memorize the information in the order it makes sense. Instead of being locked in the same linear mode of the book itself, you can be flexible in your learning and memorization.

As you structure and organize your thoughts and memorization, try to maintain what I call an “index flex” that allows you some kind of structure that you can also move around and restructure as needed.

When you have your structure and organization in place, you’re able to use your memory tools in a way that’s streamlined and strategic.

Exercise: Read a book using the How to Memorize a Textbook methodologyThis exercise is as simple as it sounds. Choose a book to read – any book – and apply the 10-step checklist in the How to Memorize a Textbook video (or blog post, linked above).

Break It DownAt some level, this means chunking — breaking information down into smaller more manageable chunks, or grouping information into units.

For example, instead of listing a phone number as 9872380341, it’s easier to read when written as 987-238-0341.

For those interested in taking this a step further, you can also add chunking to mnemonics using things like a PAO, 00 to 99, or Dominic System.

There are many different approaches to applying this chunking method. You could try dedicated practice (a musical concept applied to memorizing a phrase) and break down a larger phrase of a foreign language — maybe taking it a word or two at a time before bringing the entire phrase back together.

This is a very important strategy in and of itself, but when you add mnemonics inside of a memory strategy it takes on its own dimension:

First you divide and then you encode. Then you can break each part down, loop it over and over, and make the process incredibly simple.

Exercise: Use notes you’ve gathered and “chunk” themTake a section of notes you’ve written out for school or work and chunk them down. You can even use the notes you took when you followed the How to Memorize a Textbook method in the last section.

Take your index cards, recombine them, chunk them, make them meaningful and useful, put them into a Memory Palace, and then use the dedicated practice strategy above.

Timo Hahn, on our testimonials page, shows how he uses this approach in both learning and with his consulting clients. He uses this strategy with index cards (the index flex) and chunks it in different ways to improve how he serves his clients.

Schedule EverythingScheduling is the antidote to cramming.

When I was preparing to do my TEDx talk, I had to schedule very carefully. I had a ton of things going on at the same time, and it would have been a terrible idea to cram all my preparation into the night before.

I even scrapped my speech and did a completely different talk than the one I originally planned — the only way I could have accomplished that was to schedule ahead and have enough time to memorize not one, but two, speeches!

This comes down to an 80/20 rule. When you pick up the book you chose in the second section of this post, you’ll decide on a certain percentage of other books to read afterward. (The debt obviously grows over time, but you don’t have to read everything.)

Schedule carefully, and you’ll fit in much more learning and growth in the long-term. On the flip side, if you don’t schedule you’re not likely to get much done.

For example, to combine scheduling and chunking, go through the citations at the end of your book and choose three other books. Go to the library (or your library’s online book lending portal) and at least look at them. Skim them or use priming to go through them.

It’s a form of chunking, so to speak: “Out of this bibliography, three books. I’ve looked over these 3, perhaps held them in my hands, flipped through the pages, and understood that I want to read chapter 4 of one of them.” Then schedule when you’ll read chapter four.

If you try this without a long-term learning project in mind to guide and govern your exploration, you’ll end up with all these shiny new books and no plan to actually make use of them.

Remember, it’s not about having it all — instead, it’s about having clarity on specific goals, and in a way that honors the nature of how time works.

Next, divide planning and organizing from reading and remembering.

There’s the reading part, when you use some sort of device to capture what it is you want to memorize. And there’s the remembering process, when you’ll commit the things you captured to memory.

Also schedule self-testing. First ask, “what do I want out of life (or this learning project)?” Then make it happen, schedule self-testing, and schedule some journaling.

Why? To test that you really want the thing you think you do.

When self-testing, set time to:

Look through and ask questions about your notes,
Write a summary of what you’re doing, and
Make sure you really understand the topic.

If you self-test and realize you’re not quite ready, you can go and look at another book. The testing process will help you identify where your weak links are and how to fix them.

Exercise: Organize and schedule your reading listRemember, organization and scheduling go together! For this exercise, organize your reading list, and then schedule time for reading, reflecting, and self-testing.

If you follow this set of steps and turn it into a regular practice, you will have an amazing memory as you get older. Now is the time to get started, no matter what condition you’re in at the moment.

Start to read properly. Start to schedule time properly. Progress toward getting better and better at both. Practice the things you really want to get out of life. And you’ll be so amazed by how many incredible things start to happen.

Make RelationshipsMake relationships — both to people and to existing memories.

If you’re in a particular situation and you hear someone say something, what existing memory surfaces? If you think of an author or a book or an object, what comes up?

For example, if I think of Frances Yates, the memory that surfaces is the first time I read The Art of Memory. Reading Moonwalking with Einstein also comes up, as well as the magic shop in Toronto where I think I saw Jay Sankey one time.

These are all slightly random examples, but they demonstrate how to practice linking a thing to existing memories.

It’s the practice of being able to come up with a memory (or more) on demand and make a relationship to it, even if it’s a very loose relationship. It’s also the practice of fluid memory and free association. And the more you can do that while you’re reading and learning, the more you’ll remember.

Next, practice making analogies. Even if they’re incorrect, or terrible, they help you make mental relationships between two things.

It also helps to compare and contrast the two things. Contrasts are often more useful, simply because existing memories and analogies are more like comparisons. So balance out the focus by using more contrasts.

And finally, understand what facts really are. Don’t be lax and let yourself think they’re what you want them to be or what you were taught in school. Instead, seek the real truth about what facts are. They’re usually heavily contingent and testable.

Set yourself up to rock and roll on that higher factual basis, as opposed to getting stuck in the weeds or the gears of the machine — the things that lead to all sorts of nonsense on the internet and in journalism.

Exercise: Think of an analogy to memory strategyThink, “What is analogous to a memory strategy?” First, make an analogy, and then think about what the contrast would be to that memory strategy. Try to write down at least five analogies and their contrasts.

And then ask yourself, “What is the factuality of memory strategies?” Write down the answers you discover.

Make Mind MapsThis strategy is wonderful, extraordinary, and perhaps even unparalleled.

Mind mapping is about thinking and remembering. It also lets you make analogies and stress-test factuality, as well as do contrasting and comparison. It enables you to break things down and do chunking in a certain way.

But even better, you’re not beholden to all those things. It comes down to, “What is your strategy?”

When you take your long-term learning goal and think of your strategies within it, mind mapping will have a place. And how, specifically, you use mind mapping will also have a place.

There are many different styles of mind mapping.

One mind map style is how Ke Ko took what I said about sea-shelling in Memory Palaces and applied it to her mind map. This is like the Magnetic Memory Method in a nutshell. So beautiful.

Ke Ko’s Memory Palace / Mind Map of the Magnetic Memory Method

Mind mapping can also be useful for spaced repetition.

For example, let’s say you mind map something you want to memorize. You now have this wonderful visual display you can visit and revisit as often as you’d like — and I would recommend keeping track of how many times you revisit it by putting a small roman numeral in the bottom corner.

Aim for at least 10 reviews and you will see great benefit. This is a creative use of spaced repetition. It’s not mnemonics or a memory technique (at least in the sense of Memory Palaces), but it’s a great way to combine mind mapping and spaced repetition.

You can also use a mind map as a Memory Palace. To learn more about mind mapping, watch our YouTube playlist covering Mind Map Examples.

Exercise: Use 3 styles of mind mapping on your life-long learning projectTake your life-long learning project and mind map it using at least 3 different mind mapping techniques.

If you’re not familiar with all of the styles of mind mapping, I recommend Tony Buzan’s book Mind Map Mastery to help you choose. The book also has a delightful resources section that will help you expand your learning project.

Read AloudYou might think there’s only one way to read out loud, but it’s really very nuanced. I like to read aloud in many different ways.

For example, one of the ways I overcame a deep depression in grad school was by turning to memory techniques and recording my own audiobooks. And what I mean by that is I read books out loud and recorded myself reading them on a tiny cassette recorder.

I listened to those recordings at two-times speed — which sounded like listening to a chipmunk. But it worked. It was the focus and concentration that helped me remember more. The “levels of processing” effect guarantees that you’ll multi-channel things (speaking, reading, etc).

You don’t have to sit there and “try” to focus. Instead, you create focus and mechanically turn focus into a physical activity by reading aloud.

Another thing you can do is rhyme for memory. Rhyming is also a great trigger for coming up with images. You can then use the rhyme and image to launch yourself into higher levels of association.

You can also sing to improve memory and brain health. Memorizing songs is a powerful tool on the path to memory improvement.

Discussion groups can also be a great way to remember more. You hear yourself speak as well as hearing others, and then you can repeat directions, instructions, and content in your own words.

For example, let’s say you’re with a study group and you’re reviewing a skill. Someone might say, “well, first what you need to do is open this file in the library, extract the microfiche, and then put it in the machine.” You can mentally repeat those instructions in your own words as well as write them down.

Exercise: Narrate a page from a book that’s part of your life-long learning projectChoose one of the books from your life-long learning project and pick a page. Read the page out loud. Then take out your phone or another type of recorder and narrate the page, if you’d like. Listen to the recording once (or more). See how it feels.

Use Priming to Form Mental ModelsWhen you hear the word “priming” you might immediately think of the speed reading technique.

But that’s not the only thing we’re looking at in this context — there are also other types of priming. In the priming world, speed reading is essentially biography, but it’s also observing mental responses to difficulty and then strategizing based on your observations.

Here’s one approach to self-priming: instead of saying, “Oh, this is so difficult. Poor me!” you can say, “Yeah, this is difficult. But I can do it.”

For example, in the coaching world, there is research that indicates certain athletes have different motivational types than others. There are some who need to be told, “This is going to hurt.” Somehow, bracing for the inevitable pain improves their performance.

And I personally have a fighter pilot mentality: “Come on. Let’s go! This is a war, and we’re gonna win.” Maybe I played GI Joe too much when I was a kid.

Many of these mental models are formed in childhood, and a lot of it is positive. Much of it can be tapped to improve your performance.

So the key here is to understand what your motivational model is. Observe your own mental responses to difficulty, and then use that information to strategize and turn the wind in your favor.

If you want to learn more about mental models and how to apply them, I highly recommend Nir Eyal’s Indistractable.

In the book, he lays out why and how to explicitly and expressly put time aside to figure out your mental models and create some secular rituals around it. Then be prepared to explore, challenge, and change them as you learn what works for you.

One secular ritual you might choose to explore is memorizing playing cards. I personally like to memorize 13 cards at a time, but you can start with whatever number you like.

In creativity studies, there’s also a type of priming — and one priming creativity exercise is to do a small and quick creative burst of exercise to warm up your brain before you tackle the task at hand.

Or if you’re preparing to memorize something for a test at school or for your language learning, before you jump into the challenging goal, do a quick exercise to warm up (much like an athlete warms up their muscles). Then be sure to cool down and relax.

Exercise: Pick a mental modelFor this memory strategy, choose a mental model, build a secular ritual that works for you, and learn the best way to prime yourself.

Seek Novel ExperiencesWhen we’re in new situations, the brain creates more norepinephrine. And while norepinephrine is related to stress, it’s also related to memory.

This needs more research, but my personal experience is that I easily remember airports I’ve visited once and the drive into a city I had never visited.

I started to experiment with this by studying and doing memory practice in multiple locations, and it does seem to have an effect. It could be that I’m putting expectation-effect into things, but I believe it to make sense from a neurochemical basis.

I also believe novelty is related to a concept called inter-leaving. This means spending some time on studying one thing in depth, and then radically and quickly switching to another thing.

So imagine what would happen if you approached this with a bit of strategy and studied in multiple locations. Think about the archetype of a really smart librarian who knows the whole library and can speak very specifically, versus the cognitive shift over to a jack of all trades who can speak generally.

There is a catch to interleaving, though. You want to avoid the Zeigarnik Effect, which can happen when you give yourself a to-do list so overwhelming that it degrades your concentration. The more undone things you have on your list, the more your ability to focus is inhibited.

Exercise: Identify 3 new locations where you could studyFor this strategy, pick three locations where you’ve never studied, and then progressively plan and schedule how you’re going to get there.

It’s the opposite of always sitting in the same seat in a classroom or going to the same cafe every time. Instead, the effort necessary to identify the new setting and get yourself there creates positive stress that leads to new memory formation — which also leads to life-long robustness of your brain’s neural networks.

Create a Memento MoriA Memento Mori is something that reminds you that you are eventually going to die.

It may sound morbid, but we don’t get to choose when or where or how it’s going to happen. This is why now is the best time to try the things you’ve always wanted and to get involved in improving your memory.

For example, Mr. Death is always on my desk. When I was in my band I always had him on my bass strap, reminding me he would “catch me later.”

Mr. Death and the Amor Fati coin are my two main Memento Mori. The third pin is the Warrior of the Mind Emblem given to me for “Outstanding Contributions to Global Mental Literacy” by Tony Buzan.

This shouldn’t terrify you or haunt you. It should be a comfort because as I interpret the great Giordano Bruno, there is no death, and there never could or can be — but, nonetheless, that thing you think you are, that “I”, that ego, you think it’s going to die, and that causes so much pain.

Instead, use the reminder that life is short to do the things you’ve put off. Seize the day. Live the life you dream of.

Another Memento Mori is the amor fati coin, which says, “Not merely to bear what is necessary, but love it,” which is a quote from Nietzsche. His internal Memento Mori is known as the myth of the eternal return — imagine what it would be like to wake up and live the same day, every day, for all of eternity.

How would you live that day? What would you do to make sure it was not merely tolerable, but the most wonderful day possible?

Say yes to life. Instead of getting stuck in “poor me” mode, take the opportunity to make whatever changes are possible in your life.

Exercise: Create your Memento MoriChoose a symbol or reminder that life is short. Whatever you choose should motivate you to make the most of every given day.

If you’re having a hard time choosing, Richard Wiseman’s book 59 Seconds has a wonderful funeral exercise that can help.

Optimize Your LifestyleThis strategy is fairly simple, but it’s also a very important part of your overall strategy.

In a nutshell:

Get enough quality sleep
Exercise and move your body regularly
Eat a healthy diet and stay well hydrated
Have a plan to manage the daily stresses of life
Sit for daily memory-based meditation

If you’re not sleeping properly or working on optimizing and maximizing your sleep, you’re missing out. Your brain (and memory) are dependent on getting a good night’s sleep. The explosive, blissful feeling that comes from being reliably well-rested is some sweet stuff.

Exercise is also essential. Socrates even said, “it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.”

You owe it to yourself to be at the height of your athleticism and try to hold onto it for as long as you can.

Another life management tip that is great for your memory – but very rarely discussed – is to have an emergency plan for your family. Having this plan in place takes weight off your shoulders and frees up your mind to think about other things.

For your plan:

Create and sign a will
Designate an emergency meeting point
Have fire blankets and fire extinguishers handy
Store enough food and water for 2 weeks
Have a reasonable stock of toilet paper

In his book Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart, James Doty talks about many of these things. He also talks about the dark side of meditation and mindfulness — where you not only get distance and discernment, but you also get detachment and you’re not so concerned about things.

You’re able to let go of outcomes, and might even get to the point where you exploit people and situations because of it. So make sure you have a good moral compass as you make meditation part of your lifestyle.

Exercise: Audit your lifestyle categories and make a plan to improve themFor this strategy, audit every lifestyle category above. Make a plan for how you want to improve in each category, and then schedule the improvements in.

Do your research using all the tools we’ve talked about as part of your life-long learning project. And then remember every step you take helps to improve the health of both your body and your mind.

Exercise: Learn the Magnetic Memory MethodThere are a number of ways to learn the methods, strategies, and techniques in the Magnetic Memory Method. But the easiest way to get started is to sign up for the free memory improvement kit.

Memory Strategies for the Long and Short-Term MemoryYou now have 12 different strategies at hand you can use to improve memory and take on the world. You have your chosen mental model. And you know what kind of person you want your memory studies to help you become.

Now it’s time to take these strategies and start forming habits. Show up long enough and consistently enough. Do the work. Then come back tomorrow and do it again.

Remember, memory is the ability to recall things on demand because you’ve been able to store them — and strategy is the science and the art of accomplishing goals.

To help you accomplish your goals through memory strategy, sign up for your free memory improvement toolkit today. And remember the speed of implementation rule — don’t just sign up. Get started right away.

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Do you want to know how to improve your memory for studying?

Who doesn’t?

After all, it’s the 21st century and there’s so much to learn!

Seriously:

There’s too much to study in too little time – especially before an exam.

But it’s not just a time issue.

It’s not just an issue of volume when it comes to so many books and videos to consume.

The core of the problem isn’t any of those things.

The core of the problem is memory…

The things that your brain just can’t memorize no matter how many times you repeat them.

Why?

Because you don’t have a strategy for managing your learning and memory.

But don’t worry!

In this article, I will show you 7 powerful techniques to help you remember what you study. You’ll learn everything far more easily – facts, dates, formulae, equations, whatever.

These techniques will make it far easier for you to ace your next exam.

Let’s dive in.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.How to Improve Study Skills and Memory: 7 Powerful Tips1. The Memory Palace (The Top Recommendation)Want just one simple method that helps you study and memorize?

Look no further than the Memory Palace.

Memory champions and experts all agree that it’s the most effective method to remember anything at all. In fact, one expert used the technique to memorize the value of Pi till nearly 112,000 digits.

Our own student, Marno Hermann memorized Pi to 1200 digits and recites them all for you in just over 10 minutes (!) on the MMM Podcast.

This memory technique was developed in Ancient Greece. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘Method of Loci’ or ‘Cicero Method.’ You might also hear it called the ‘Roman Room’ or the ‘Journey Method’.

Although there are many variations, here’s the core of how it all works.

With the Memory Palace technique, you associate each piece of information you want to memorize with parts of a location that you are very familiar with – such as your house or your school campus.

2. Acronyms to Improve Memory for StudyingAcronyms are the most commonly used memory technique and are great for remembering short lists or sequences.

You have probably learned ‘PEMDAS’ in school – a sequence for solving equations. It stands for Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition and Subtraction.

Another common acronym to help you remember a geographical list of names is HOMES, which is used to remember the Great Lakes – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

Here’s a simple tip to create your own acronyms for remembering what you study.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, acronyms are constructed with the first letter of each constituent word and they actually sound like words. That’s what makes them easy to remember.

We also use acronyms in the Magnetic Memory Method training, such us:

D.O.C.

Doing is the Origin of Consistency

Doing is the Origin of Creativity

Doing is the Origin of Courage

Doing is the Origin of Clarity

Doing is the Origin of Control

To get into the “doing” of memory techniques that ultimately leads to control over your memory, all you have to do is S.I.P.:

Study memory techniques

Implement memory techniques

Practice memory techniques with information that improves your life

And as you saw in the infographic above, KAVE COG helps us remember all the Magnetic Modes:

Kinesthetic
Auditory
Visual
Emotional
Conceptual
Olfactory
Gustatory

And let’s not forget the Magnetic Mode of space. That’s the Memory Palace itself.

But moving from these examples of acronyms, let’s get back to the technique of using them.

You might be wondering…

What do you do if the first letters don’t form a ‘word,’ because of a lack of vowels in the middle or any other reason?

Forget the definition and get creative.

Try changing the word sequence or using the second or the last letter instead of the first. If there is no vowel, pick up a second letter from a word. A common example is AWOL (Absent Without Leave.)

If you like acronyms, try combining them with the Memory Palace technique – and consider these different navigation techniques too. Since each acronym is a word, it’s easy to associate them with a specific object or location in your house. That will make it even easier to remember.

3. Spaced Repetition for Memory ImprovementHere’s a well-known fact about memory – the more you reinforce something, the easier it becomes for your brain to recall it.

However, to improve memory for studying, when you reinforce something is far more important than how often you reinforce it. Sisti, Glass and Shors called this phenomenon the ‘spacing effect.’

In the spaced repetition method, you practice remembering at the right time. The simplest way to apply this memory method is to use flashcards when you study.

While going through your flashcards, divide them into three bundles. If you remember something clearly, those cards go into the ‘Easy’ pile. You don’t have to study those flashcards again for a week or two.

If you moderately remember something, keep it in the ‘Medium’ pile and revisit it after a few hours or a day. And if you cannot remember something at all, place it in ‘Hard’ and study it again within the next 10 minutes.

Simple, and yet effective! At least… lot more effective than spaced-repetition software.

And if you’re in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass, you’ll know how to combine the cards with the Memory Palace.

In brief: Anytime you have words that are ‘Medium’ or ‘Hard’, include them in a Memory Palace.

Then, use all of the Magnetic Modes to create Magnetic Imagery that helps you remember the target information. That will make the information on your cards far easier to recall.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.4. The Major Method for Memory ImprovementWant an effortless way to remember numbers for studying – in history, maths, physics, etc.?

Use the Major Method, also called the Major System or Harry Lorayne’s Number Mnemonics. Geeks also call it the phonetic mnemonic system and digit-consonant system.

Quite a mouthful! So, let’s just stick with the ‘ Major Method’!

Here’s how it works.

In the Major Method, you associate each number with a sound, typically, a consonant. Here’s the system most people follow:

0 = soft c, s or z

1 = d, t

2 = n

3 = m

4 = r

5 = l

6 = ch, j or sh

7 = k

8 = f or v

9 = b or p

The first step is to memorize these associations between numbers and letters. Then use these associations to form words from numbers.

For instance, 22 could be “nun” (n+n)

54 could be “liar” (l+r). Personally, I think of Jim Carrey in the movie “Liar Liar” with a lyre to help make it even more memorable.

To remember longer sequences of numbers, you need to combine the sounds you have made. If you want to remember the number 2254, you could visualize a nun punching Jim Carrey for lying!

Make the image as animated and ridiculous as possible, and it will stick in your mind!

If you can, create a fixed image for every number from 0 to 99. That will make it easier to combine them to remember longer sequences of numbers used in mathematics, physics, chemistry or engineering.

If that sounds like a lot to you, just associate a fixed object for each number from 0-9.

If you want to take the Major Method further, check out this article about how to combine it with the Memory Palace Technique.

5. Improve Your Focus to Improve your Memory StorageHow often do you get interrupted when you study?

Texts, app notifications, YouTube, Netflix or just a noisy room – students face dozens of distractions and interruptions every single hour.

These factors make it close to impossible for you to reach a high level of concentration – which is terrible news if you are trying to improve memory for studying.

Researchers from MIT have found that it’s easier to form a long-term memory when your mind pays close attention to a task. You will have to minimize distractions from devices or people around you if you wish to remember things better.

Here are a few ways:

Mute all notifications when you study. If you have an iPhone, just activating the ‘Do not disturb’ mode will do the trick.
Try to isolate yourself from people you know while studying. Go to a library or a café where you won’t be disturbed.
Practice meditation for just a few minutes a day. Research (Maclean et al. 2010) has indicated that just basic meditation helps us focus far better.
Use app blockers like Freedom.to to block YouTube and other distracting sites while studying.
Work on one topic at a time and avoid multitasking and switching tasks.

6. Lifestyle Changes to Improve Cognitive FunctionYour lifestyle – your food, sleep and activity levels have a significant impact on your memory.

Sleep

Most students try to gain more time to study by skipping out on adequate sleep. It just makes things worse because lack of sleep affects memory as well as several other cognitive abilities.

Several studies by Diekelmann and Born have shown that sleep helps in procedural memory formation, learning and creativity. In fact, sleep deprivation can even make you remember things incorrectly.

Eight hours is ideal, but at least make sure you get seven hours of sleep every night.

And don’t fall for the idea that binaural beats will help you improve your memory while sleeping. Chances are that will just make you tired and forgetful.

Video course and Ebook in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass

Food

Foods abundant in saturated fats and trans fats such as red meat, butter, etc. are quite damaging to learning and memory. Students also tend to eat a lot of junk food (especially during exam time) which are worse for your brain.

Numerous studies have shown that these foods can even lead to Alzheimer’s disease in the long-term and other conditions that damage brain health and cause memory loss.

Instead, to improve your memory power for learning, try to have more of fish, olive oil, whole grains, walnuts, blueberries. There are also other foods that fall in the ‘Mediterranean diet’ that are excellent for your brain.

Exercise

Exercise is well known to improve cognitive performance in several ways such as improved mood, better concentration, more alertness, etc.

So, it’s naturally very effective for improving memory. Exercise also causes the release of a protein called cathepsin B in the brain. This stimulates the growth of neurons (brain cells) and forms additional connections in the hippocampus – an area of the brain vital to learning and long-term memory.

7. Recall Before WritingTeachers encourage us to write things down to remember things better. Adding a couple of steps to this process can make a vast difference to your ability to learn and memorize things quickly – especially before an exam.

First, recall and mentally repeat what you have to write down rather than just copy it mechanically. You can even use movies and TV series as I discuss in how to improve memory using these tools

This process isn’t difficult to do because the information will stay in your short-term memory for around 10-20 seconds if you have paid attention. And mentally recalling it right then it an excellent way of transferring it from your working memory (short-term memory) to your long-term memory.

Next, take a few seconds to store that piece of information in your Memory Palace. That will consolidate that memory even further.

Are You Inspired To Try These Memory Techniques To Remember What You Study?Out of all these techniques, the Memory Palace happens to be the most effective and versatile method. You can easily combine it with other techniques to build an excellent memory. To learn the Magnetic Memory Method at no charge, get started by enrolling in “Memory Palace Mastery in 8 Steps”:

And let me know in the comments below:

Which of these ways to improve memory for studying are you going to try today?

The post How to Improve Memory for Studying (7 Powerful Tips) appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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Have you ever sat down to learn faster with some new accelerated learning technique and thrown your hands up in the air?

No, not to catch a balloon or give a salute.

But because you were furious and frustrated?

And have you felt that a learning process was so hard that you just wanted to give up?

I hear you!

After all, I’ve put some of the toughest learning challenges in front of myself all the time.

Languages like Biblical Hebrew, German, Chinese, over 100 verses of Sanskrit.

Then there are the musical instruments I’ve learned like trombone, sitar and bass.

Plus I’ve used my ability to learn new skills at laser-fast speeds to help me run the memory website you’re reading now:

Hands-on mechanical tasks like figuring out how to spread the good news about memory techniques with videos, blogs and podcasts.

And in all cases, it takes grit and mental strength.

It takes tenacity.

Above all, success with learning quickly takes these…

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.4 Secret Ways To Make It So Easy You Can Run Circles Around Everyone Else!If you’re interested, I’d like to share these 4 secrets with you, plus another 4 in this video:

All I ask is that you read everything carefully and give at least ONE of these insights from my experience a serious try.

But let’s be clear:

Trying just one would be good. But …

50% would be great.

100%? …

Why that would be downright Magnetic!

1. The Most Powerful Question Any Learner Can AskOne of the reasons some people find learning new skills so painful is that they don’t ask simple questions.

It’s a question that, when applied often, can unlock the nuclear power needed to drive you through some of the hardest missions in life.

It’s a question almost no learner asks.

Probably because it’s a bit tough for most people to wrap their heads around.

It sounds kind of selfish, after all.

The question is:

“What’s in it for me?”

But even if it has a selfish angle to it, this question is so important.

Why?

Because So Many Learners Are Trying To Accomplish Outcomes For Everyone But Themselves!Think about it:

You go to school and learn things to please the machine …

You get a medical degree to appease your family …

You study a language because it’s part of a degree …

Nothing wrong with any of that, unless …

None Of It Has To Do With WhatYou Authentically Want In Life!And so it’s little wonder learning feels hard. If you’re the last person who gets a kick-back for all that effort, it’s always going to feel like you’re trying to chew through a brick wall.

Make it easier on yourself by learning something that has a definite payoff for the number one person that matters: You.

Because here’s the plain truth:

You’re a good person.

You want to serve others.

And you can change the world.

But it will never happen if you secretly hate the learning process because it just doesn’t serve your needs first.

Want a fast and easy way live authentically? Practice gratitude:

2. Why Comatose Zombies CanOutlearn The Flash Any DayOkay, that sub-headline might be a bit misleading.

What I mean to say is that you need to relax to learn.

Because here’s a fundamental truth:

Information flees from tension. But it’s Magnetically attracted to relaxation.

Let me say that again:

Information flees from tension. But it’s Magnetically attracted to relaxation.Click To TweetAnd the more you know how to relax your brain, the more information will want to stick around. You’ll be able to slosh it around the mouth of your mind like fine wine and actually enjoy it for a change.

And what you enjoy… ?

Pleasure Is Instantly Easier To Remember!The trick you need to understand when it comes to relaxing your mind is this:

Your mind is produced by your brain.

Your brain is a physical entity.

And that’s what makes the Memory Palace technique so powerful:

It’s something physical out in the world being used physically inside your material brain.

Don’t know how to make a Memory Palace? No problem…

And to get the most of the training, relax your mind each time before you use your memory.

That said, never try to relax your mind without relaxing your body first.

In fact, it’s very likely that the only way to truly relax your mind is by relaxing the body first.

So the next time you sit down for a study session, stretch a little first.

One way I like to do that is by mind mapping. My friend Joseph Rodrigues is a great source for learning how to use the technique to get into a state of flow.

Meditate.Focus on your breathing. Just 5 minutes a day, 4 times a week is scientifically proven to create better memory.

Attention paid to breathing will lower most of your resistances to learning and make everything easier.

You can also use your meditation time to walk through the Memory Palace Networks you create. As memory expert Boris Konrad has explained, active recall is essential for memory formation. What better way to practice it than when you’re already using meditation to stack the chips in your favor?

3. Understand That The Map Is Never The Territory – But Maps Sure Do Help!When I created this Infographic and Podcast episode giving you a deeper understanding of how to realistically memorize a textbook, I had no idea people would find it so practical and useful.

After all, everybody asks me for “tips and tricks” that will let them memorize entire books.

But the truth is that this feat is rarely necessary. In fact, it’s probably never necessary.

But if you use the techniques I teach in that podcast to get a global overview of the book you need to read, you’ll have a map. This map will set the stage for your experience of the territory.

And that will give you laser-targeted tools for remembering the parts that matter. Proof:

When you can do that, you do better than just learn and remember. You also create new knowledge.

And when you create knowledge, the speed at which you can learn grows exponentially. It feels good, creates energy and encouragement and keeps you on the path of continual growth.

Nothing difficult or painful about that.

4. The Magnetic Magnifying Glass MethodHave you ever heard the phrase, “you don’t know what you don’t know”? Tony Buzan mentioned it during our conversation some time ago on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

If you want to make learning faster and easier, make sure to get yourself in orbit with that concept.

Why?

Because when you hold a magnifying glass to your own ignorance, you get real clear on what it is you need to learn. Without that clarity, it’s nearly impossible to make progress as a self-directed learner.

In other words, learning truly is hard and slow when you’re stumbling around blind in a cloud of unknowing.

But when you ask questions about what you know and don’t know about a topic, suddenly a lot of that fog is whisked away.

Want a simple exercise you can use for each and every learning project you ever undertake? I promise:

It’s easy, fun and speeds up everything.It’s called:

Writing summaries.

Every time you take a class, attend a study session, read a chapter, watch a video or even use an app, take a quick second to jot down everything you can remember.

Then beneath that, start asking questions about what it is you think was covered … but mysteriously can’t remember. This will help train your selective attention abilities.

Then make two plans:

One plan for how you’re going to continue to remember what you remembered.

Another plan for what you’re going to do to fill in the gaps so that you can remember the information you think flew over your head.

Simple. Elegant. Easy and effective.

Why Most People Prefer A Life Based On ExcusesA lot of people will go through a post like this, nod yes to each and every point and then carry on with their lives of learning desperation.

The reason why this happens, beyond just a bad way of drawing from their episodic memory, is simple:

It’s all contained in point number one.

If you missed it and care about the life of your memory and your mind, go over it again.

And if you feel like you’re resistant to any of the wisdom contained in this post, review the second point I’ve made.

If anything on the planet raises your hackles, a few simple brain exercises that take just a few minutes of your time could be a game changer for you.

And if you’d like a realistic way to remember everything of importance in any book or posts like these you encounter in the world, here are 7 more powerful tips that show you how to improve memory for studying.

For the true Magnetic Knight, point four will be the most precious of all. There’s a little comment section below where you can complete this part of the exercise. I’ll be around to help you fill in any gaps I may have missed.

I look forward to hearing from you, and until next time, keep learning and keep yourself Magnetic!

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.The post How to Learn Faster and Remember More: 4 Easy Techniques to Learn New Skills appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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Aphantasia.

Sounds like a magic word a magician would say before conjuring a rabbit from his hat, doesn’t it?

But let me ask you this:

Can you visualize the magician pulling out the rabbit by his ears?

For most of us, it will be easy to recall images inside our head, using our mind’s eye.

However, if you could NOT see any image in your mind’s eye – no colors, no sounds, no smells, no textures, no flavors, nothing at all – you may have a condition called aphantasia or a blind mental eye.

Don’t freak out, though. Many people have aphantasia, even magicians.

Familiar with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame)?

He is a famous magician and entertainer, and, he is an aphantasic(!). This was according to his own words on his Sunday School podcast, Episode 174.

By his own admission, Penn says he cannot conjure a mental image of a person or a place to save his life.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.What Is Aphantasia? A Detailed DefinitionThe term ‘aphantasia’ comes from the Greek words a, meaning “without”, and phantasia, meaning “a capacity to form mental images”.

The phenomenon was first described by the controversial psychologist Francis Galton – one of the pioneers of eugenics – in 1880.

The interest in the phenomenon was renewed after the publication of a study conducted by a team led by Dr. Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioral neurology, at the University of Exeter.

Zeman’s team published a paper in 2015 on what they termed “congenital aphantasia”, now known simply as aphantasia.

For Firefox co-creator Blake Ross it was a surprise revelation that other people could visualize things in the mind’s eye while he couldn’t. “I can’t ‘see’ my father’s face or a bouncing blue ball, my childhood bedroom or the run I went on ten minutes ago,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

According to Craig Venter, the biologist who created the first synthetic organism: “It’s like having a computer store the information, but you don’t have a screen attached to the computer.”

Can You Dream With Aphantasia?It depends on what you mean by “dreaming”.

For example, I just told you about Gerrard. He’s never seen Mt. Everest, and yet he’s climbed it. He had to have a dream to do it.

Some people with this condition do report that they dream. Others say they don’t. But even people without this condition also report they don’t recall their dreams.

The only way to really know is take it case by case and visit a dream lab.

Personally, I dream very vividly, but not particularly visually. I never see faces, for example. Strangely, I tend not to see technology either, such as cellphones or computers.

I know this because I have journaled by dreams for many years. I made them more “visual” over time by placing them in writing so I could cross-index the dreams, chart patterns and observe the workings of this mind at rest.

Some people with aphantasia also report that they can lucid dream. I’ve had similar experiences, and the sensations all culminate as physical, rarely visual. For example, I am often piloting a space craft, balancing on a tight wire or even levitating as I write in my dream journal.

And that’s a trick for you if lucid dreaming interests you: By keeping a journal consistently, you’re likely to start dreaming about it. When it appears in your dreams, you may become aware that you’re dreaming. It’s quite wild!

Also, you can think verbally throughout the day about your dreams. You don’t have to approach them from a visual angle at all in order to explore the wonderful world of dreaming as an aphantasic.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.How Common Is Aphantasia?How many people have aphantasia? While research on the subject is still in its nascent stages, neurologists believe approximately one in 50 people or 2-5% of the population are non-visual-imagers.

Sounds like a big number?

Don’t be surprised. Being an aphantasic is nearly as common as having a food allergy.

Neuroimaging has shown that mental imagery, although strongly associated with the left temporal lobe, requires the use of large networks of brain pathways. This means that aphantasia could potentially occur in different ways in different individuals.

The Two Likely Causes Of AphantasiaHowever, the exact cause of aphantasia is still unknown. According to Dr. Zeman heredity and environment both are likely to be relevant causes.

Interestingly, an aphantasic may have a visual memory which means they may be able to describe in detail about how things looked – the cat had blue eyes, the umbrella was pink and matched the skirt – even though they cannot see these visual images in their mind’s eye.

Moreover, many people who cannot form mental images can think in sounds, while others can remember physical sensations.

Penn says, when he dreams, he’s not sure if he sees visual images but has the sensation of knowing that “ideas wash over me”.

How Aphantasia Affects MemoryOur brain stores information in at least two different ways – verbally and visually.

Both these types of storage are independent of one another, and each can be used alone.

Therefore, even people with aphantasia can complete the “tests of visual imagery” without too much difficulty. They can also often (but not always) complete these non-visual sensory memory exercises.

Here’s a quick test:

Count the number of windows in your house.

Quick #memory improvement exercise: Mentally count all the windows in your home.Click To TweetEven if you can’t see a “mental” image of your house and locate each window in that image, you would have an awareness of being there and recall from factual information the number of windows in your house.

While aphantasics can remember things from their past, they experience these memories in a different way than someone with strong imagery. They often describe memories as a conceptual list of things that occurred rather than a video playing in their mind.

As Ross says, he can ruminate on the “concept” of a beach, but cannot flash to beaches he has visited.

“I know there’s sand. I know there’s water. I know there’s a sun, maybe a lifeguard. I know facts about beaches. I know a beach when I see it, and I can do verbal gymnastics with the word itself…But I have no visual, audio, emotional or otherwise sensory experience.”

The brain has many unique ways of storing visual information than just as a picture.

Multiple Ways To Create Visual Imagery In Your MindNeuroscientists believe that the brain constructs visual imagery in more than one way. There are separate circuits for things like shape, size, color and spatial relationships, and when these are accessed together, we form an image of a memory.

As AphantasiaMeow and I suggest in these videos, it might have to do with how the brains of some people develop:

There are still a lot of unknowns, that’s for sure. But it’s great that someone is doing such good work to help people create a mind’s eye.

Back to the source of the problem:

Experts think that aphantasics piggyback on neurons involved in controlling physical movements rather than using the visual brain circuitry to “visualize” or recall information.

For instance, you can trace the letter B of the alphabet in your brain to know it has curves or you can use your mind’s eye to see its image.

Does Aphantasia Hamper “Visualization” Memory Techniques?Not in the least.

Tansel Ali and I talked about your multiple options in a recent interview.

In sum:

Memory techniques involve more tools than just visualization. You have many options.

Memory techniques involve more tools than just visualization. You have many #mnemonic options.Click To TweetWhen you use a memory technique like the Memory Palace use all the Magnetic Modes, you can memorize a very large amount of information relatively quickly without necessarily seeing the Memory Palace in your mind.

Here’s an infographic that tells you all about the different ways that your brain perceives information:

Personally, I don’t have aphantasia.

However, I am low on the visual threshold.

As a result, it took me a long time to understand techniques like mind mapping, let alone developing mind map mastery (which is still a work in progress, to be honest).

Most of what I do in the world of memory techniques involves thinking about strange combinations of images in words and sounds, not high-definition imagery. I would call this being audio-conceptual.

So, if you are worried that the inability to see visual images in your mind will stop you from using the Memory Palace technique…

Don’t be.

Over the years, I’ve invested in myself so that I can “see” something like visuals in my mind.

But even to this day, the best results I get from memory techniques don’t require constant streaming of high-definition images in my head. I’m not trying to develop eidetic memory, after all. I just want to remember more.

Here’s my discussion on this issue:

In any case, if you want to visualize bright, vivid pictures in your mind’s eye, you can try image streaming.

Image Streaming Vs. Aphantasia?Image streaming is a simple process that enables you to open up your mind’s eye to visuals.

Here’s how it works:

Close your eyes and describe what you see.
If you don’t see anything (which would exactly be the case if you have aphantasia) help your brain start seeing visual images.
Start by gently rubbing your closed eyes like a sleepy child. Then describe the bright sparkly light that you see behind your closed retina.
Or look at a bright light like a candle for a half minute, or a window which has strong light/dark contrast. Then when you close your eyes, you should be able to see after-images, like a blob of light or color, at back of the eye. Describe that blob of light.
You can also describe a memory that you cannot “see” but remember from the past.
The important thing is to use all senses to describe your bob of light or memory: sight (vision), hearing (audition), taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), and touch (somatosensation).
While you are examining and describing your after-images or visual memory events, keep a look out for experiencing some other kinds of image. It could be a momentary face, landscape, or whatever. Notice when this happens, and switch to describing that new image.
Remember to describe all images to an external focus – quickly and loudly. The external focus can be a friend or a dictaphone (voice recorder), anything or anyone you can talk to.
Practice image streaming for only 10-20 minutes a day to enable your mind’s eye to see pictures. Then move on and try these multi-sensory brain exercises.

How to Use A Memory Palace With A Blind Mind’s Eye?Here’s the basic idea behind the Memory Palace Technique, something you can use without actually seeing anything in your mind:

You associate pieces of information with a location you are familiar with, like placing a new word in a house.

The technique does not require you to visualize your house. You can “know” factually where your bedroom is in your home or where to find the kitchen window or the attic. You then use this knowledge to imagine that a funny or interested association is located there, such as using a statue of the magician Penn Jillette weighed done with small silver trees. Thinking about this concept in this location of your home can help you remember that Pennsylvania means “Penn’s small forest.” (Silva means forest in Latin.)

Keeping the full range of your Magnetic Modes in mind, you can use any home or location with which you are familiar. You can also explore different ways of navigating your Memory Palaces with these 5 examples.

The effectiveness of the Memory Palace technique is based on the scientific fact that your brain and spatial memory perceive space as a kind of image.

Check out this lecture for more information about how that works:

If you’re interested in this “Magnetic” technique, click on the image below:

Memory Is More Than Just Visual MemoryMemory is many things. It includes facts, figures and figments of information stored in various regions of your brain.

But more than that, memory is the ability to communicate these kinds of information to others and recognize them when they are being communicated to you.

When it comes to how you get information to play with in the first place, there are many ways. Some are faster than others.

Using an effective, dedicated memory strategy system like Magnetic Memory Method you can easily retrieve those memories faster and with predictable and reliable permanence.

Add to it a balanced diet, meditation, and sleep and you will be able to enhance your memory, concentration and focus in a way that improves your entire life.

Doesn’t that make a pretty picture?

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You’ve got advanced Memory Palace problems and Don Michael Vickers has got solutions.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we’re diving deep into his impressive memory competition experience.

And together, we discuss the differences between using memory techniques for short-term memory and long-term memory outcomes.

But you might be wondering…

What Kind Of Advanced Memory Palace Problems?There are a few you might encounter as you use the Memory Palace technique.

These include:

Too much or too little space between your loci
Dropping off parts of words when memorizing vocabulary
Mishearing or misreading the target information
Not keeping a journal for this form of self improvement or memory athlete specific journaling
Not having a community with people who share your interest in memory

Suggestions From Don Michael VickersOne thing I love about how Don shares his approach to using memory techniques is that he documents the journey.

You can check out a lot of what he’s doing on his YouTube channel and other media.

But that’s just one level or layer of journaling.

He also journals privately so he can see what’s working and what isn’t.

This is a solid tactic for one big reason:

It’s only through what scientists sometimes call “metacognitive learning recognition” that we can learn as fast as possible. It’s been demonstrated to help us see variables and define new strategies.

Journaling also helps us because it enables deeper levels of reflection than if we were to merely think about our memory improvement activities without writing them down.

How Specifically Does This Help You Solve Advanced Memory Palace Problems?The answer is easy:

As your perspective widens, you’re able to run new “experiments.”

In other words, every time you use a Memory Palace to memorize anything, you’re experimenting.

If you take the time to observe your results, you can always ask:

What went right? And how can it go better?
What went wrong? And what needs to improve?

These are the kind of questions that only you can solve and you need to be the scientist in the laboratory of your own mind to do it.

But there’s one more ingredient that I think really shines in this conversation.

Let’s talk about that next:

The Power of CommunityYou can also see in how Don talks about his interactions with fellow memory competitors like Katie Kermode that hanging out with others who love mnemonic strategies is key.

Communication is yet another level of reflection.

But there’s also the competition aspect.

As Don puts it, memory competitors are a lot friendlier than hockey players. Yet, you still get the chance to really throw down the gloves and test your skills.

I hope you enjoy this discussion with Don and please do follow him on his YouTube channel and social media for more exciting demonstrations and news from his activities in the world of memory competition.

Don Michael Vickers’ YouTube Channel

Don Michael Vickers’ LinkedIn

Don Michael Vickers’ Twitter

Don Michael Vickers’ Tiktok

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John Graham surprised me twice on the same day!

And if you know me, you know I’m not easily surprised.

So, what exactly made my jaw hit the floor?

First, I found out that John had won the USA Memory Championship… again.

I mean… who has the time for all that memory practice? Especially during times like these?

Then John tells me that focus is so much more useful than memory… and more lucrative too.

And to make matters even more confusing… John keeps telling people not to meditate in the morning?

Huh?

As a practitioner of meditation for decades, I really had to get to the bottom of all these incredible (and sometimes shocking) things John was saying.

And so I did in this EPIC discussion of how John really succeeds.

Not only to win memory competitions, but to experience an abundance of time freedom supported by a fantastic business.

And you’ll be surprised to discover that memory improvement training doesn’t even get second fiddle. Not when it comes to the tactics you really need.

After hearing what he has to say and giving it some consideration, I think it all makes sense.

And I think it will help you too.

So dive in for an epic discussion packed with takeaways, and…

Don’t worry!

I ask John to share some feedback on a little memory issue with mnemonic images I was having. So there are some next level memory secrets in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast too.

Who Is John Graham?John Graham is an entrepreneur, memory expert, memory athlete and winner of both the 2018 and 2019 USA Memory Championship.

In case you’re not familiar with what an accomplishment that is, let me explain:

You have to accurately recall a lot of information from multiple categories of information.

These categories change from competition to competition, but often include:

Memorizing playing cards
Memorizing long strings of digits using something like the Major System, Dominic System or PAO System
Memorizing names
Poetry
Abstract images

The Memory-Focus ConnectionBut as John points out in today’s episode, memory isn’t so much the core of his success. It’s the ability to focus his mind that matters.

And the tactics and strategies that explain his ability to win also support his entrepreneurial success.

2x USA Memory Champion John Graham with competition founder Tony Dottino

If you’re an entrepreneur and would like to speak with John about your own focus, check out his Optimize My Mind page where you can book a time.

Obviously, John is very serious about helping entrepreneurs, and I know you’ll respect his wish to focus on your concentration, not your memory.

Because John’s right:

There’s an enormous amount of information about memory techniques out there. So if you still haven’t nailed memory techniques so you can use them in your business, it’s focus and concentration that are at stake.

Get that nailed, and so many other things will fall in place.

I second his argument completely because the same thing has been true for me.

And it always will be:

Focus first!

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Ever come across memory courses and schools that promise an instant memory boost?

Not so fast! Before you sign up, read on.

Quite frankly, you’ll be losing money if you go after (tempting) memory tricks like how to develop a “photographic” memory.

Truth is, you’ll end up not using your memory power to the fullest potential.

But, how do you tell the best memory training schools and courses apart from the rest?

In this article, I’ll reveal the world’s best schools and courses for memory training. This includes a powerful, magnetic way to supercharge your memory so you can learn everything important faster and recall it easily, anytime.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

Why Are Memory Courses Important?
Best Schools and Courses For Memory Training
- - Magnetic Memory Method
  - Mongolian Intellectual Academy
  - Durrington Research School
  - Brain Academy
  - Other Courses

Let’s get started.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.Why Are Memory Courses Beneficial?Memory courses are important because they can train you to remember and recall information, as well as keep your brain sharp.

Even a memory champion needs training to be in top form during a contest.

And anybody can learn memory strategies to remember and recall information like a champion. A 2017 study revealed that practicing mnemonic techniques can actually alter connections in your brain to make it resemble that of a memory champion.

Now, you may not want to become a memory champion. But, there are many other everyday benefits of memory or brain training.

Memory training helps you retain and store memories a lot quicker than you generally would. So, you’ll no longer face memory problems like forgetting your car keys, or the crucial formula for your maths exam.
It stimulates the neurons in your brain — making it much simpler for your brain to form connections when exposed to new information, say, in a dull history class.
It improves your problem-solving skill, making it easier for you to respond to situations aptly. For example, working memory training has been proven to help children who struggle with math problem solving.
Memory training helps filter out information selectively instead of memorizing everything you see, read, or hear.
It fires up your overall memory and intelligence. This includes your working memory skills, short- and long-term memory, executive function, fluid intelligence, and creativity.

Let’s take working memory as an example.

Poor working memory has been found to be a common feature of educational underachievement.

It is also one of the characteristics of people with Down Syndrome, those with dyslexia or learning disabilities, and those who’ve suffered a brain injury.

How does memory training improve your overall working memory performance?

Memory training improves both of the working memory subsystems — the “sketchpad” that stores visual and spatial information, and the phonological loop that is the verbal working memory. This means you won’t have to worry about losing focus on your studies or research due to distractions.

Consistent memorization training or memory training exercises will help you fight your fears of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. A 2010 study showed that it improves brain function in older adults who have started displaying signs of dementia.

What should you look for in a memory course or school?

Look for training that contains focused approaches, without the fluff that seems to fill many memory performance books and video courses.

At the bare minimum, they should offer you plenty of systematic worksheets, working memory tasks, visualization exercises, memory exercises, and detailed guides on each technique — all explained in simple terms you can understand.

Some of the best memory courses and schools inspire you by covering brain training techniques from around the world. You’ll come across exciting insights on:

How Chinese mnemonist Wang Feng memorizes a deck of cards
How Matteo Ricci’s memory palace helped him to pass China’s civil service exam
The Mnemonic Major System used by French scholar Aimé Paris
How Mongolia uses mental athletics as a nation-building exercise
And more

So, what memory courses and schools can you trust to give you the best results?

Best Schools and Memory Courses For Memory Training in 2023I’ve handpicked some of the best memory schools and courses that will sharpen your memory power. Let’s look at each of them in detail.

Magnetic Memory MethodThe Magnetic Memory Method was launched… by yours truly! I’ve taught thousands of students and worked as a memory coach and adviser to top ESL instructors and language school administrators worldwide.

The Magnetic Memory Method is an incredibly powerful technique that will help you improve your memory in as little as eight days.

It’s a practical and fun approach to using Memory Palaces, mnemonics, and other memorization techniques to store and retrieve all kinds of information you want to remember later.

It can help you easily learn a foreign language, memorize names and faces, speeches, and specialized terminology from professional fields like law.

How does a Memory Palace work?

Memory Palace is a powerful mnemonic technique that was used by the Greeks, and by geniuses like Hannibal Lecter and Sherlock Holmes.

It is based on associating information to real locations that are familiar to you — your home, school, office, a mall, etc. You walk through the place in your head, and associate memories with different parts of that location.

For example, if you were to associate the room you’re in with names of your neighbors, you’d store names starting with A on the drawer, those with B on the ceiling, and so on. You could associate vivid visual imagery with these names, helping aid your visual memory.

When you need to remember something, simply go back to your memory palace and look it up.

When you build memory palaces, you unlock your spatial memory and visual working memory. This provides a foundation for working with your semantic, episodic, autobiographical, procedural, and other types of memory.

Combined with Recall Rehearsal, this process lets you move information from short-term memory into long-term memory quicker, and with reliable permanence. The more you do retrieval practice (conscious recall), the more you reconstruct the memory and encode it deeper in your brain.

What’s more?

All other memory techniques can be used inside Memory Palaces (but not the other way around). This maximizes the power of the loci method and combines well with the pegword method.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.Mongolian Intellectual AcademyThe Mongolian Intellectual Academy was founded by Khandsuren Khatanbaatar, who came across competitive memorization while studying law in Turkey.

His interest soon turned into an obsession. Later, he got trained under Melik Duyar – the co-founder of the Memoriad games – who the Turkish media refers to as “the man who forgot to forget.”

Khatanbaatar returned to Mongolia to start the Mongolian Intellectual Academy. The institute is now known to test the limits of students with training and exercises like reading at 1,500 words per minute, memorizing a deck of cards in 20 seconds, or multiplying seven-digit numbers without a calculator.

The academy focuses on improving the overall brain function and memory of students. They rely on many exercises, including Rubik’s cube practice or a simple training task like speed stacking, to help students become memory experts.

In an interview, a student revealed they even have a kindergarten that teaches basic memory techniques and mental calculation.

Thanks to its unique approach to teaching, Mongolia reigns supreme in mental athletics competitions across the globe. There are as many as eight Mongolians in the list of top 10 junior competitors for mental athletics. In the Asia Championship 2019, Mongolia’s memory athlete team won 67 medals out of 90.

Durrington Research SchoolThe Durrington Research School in the UK is part of the Research Schools Network. Their cognitive training courses follow a holistic approach and cover everything about memorizing, retention, and teaching strategies.

Durrington’s program on improving memory and metacognition explores the research-based evidence behind memory training and how to make it useful in a classroom.

It covers:

Teaching methods that can improve memory recall
Strategies to enhance the depth and scope of student knowledge through better curriculum planning
Effective revision strategies
Techniques to prepare students for content-rich exams
Practical recommendations to make metacognition and self-regulated learning useful for teachers

It aims to design lessons, tasks, and policies to help students retain knowledge and develop their metacognitive processes. This is especially useful for primary and secondary teachers.

Brain AcademyThe Brain Academy by Gregory Caremans has several courses that are focused on developing memory and learning. You’ll also find plenty of videos, blog posts, and insights on how your brain works.

The Ultimate Guide To Memory And Learning Skill course dives into how your memory works and evolves over your lifetime. It also shows you how to stimulate your brain as you age — through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. The lectures include theories on memory, memory exercises, and plenty of tips.

There are other courses on:

A step-by-step guide to explore your brain
An introduction to cognitive neuroscience
Strategies to improve your focus and attention
Neuroplasticity and how to rewire your brain
How to stimulate your neurons
Neuroscience for parents

Finally, let’s look at a few other options.

Other CoursesHere are a few more that are definitely worth a mention:

Cogmed Working Memory TrainingThe Cogmed Working Memory Training was designed by cognitive neuroscience experts and psychologists from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.

This working memory training is a software-based intervention that uses visuospatial and verbal tasks to challenge your working memory capacity.

You get a training protocol specific to your requirements and tackle one training task at a time on a rotating schedule. The working memory task adapts to your capacity level in real-time, according to the working memory and neuroplastic changes that may occur over time.

The training that lasts 5-10 weeks also contains working memory exercises put together by leading neuroscientists and psychologists. You can view everything on this Cogmed training online, and it gets monitored and analyzed by a coach.

However, as Dr. Christine Till has advised, substantial results from this program comes only when you work with a coach. You can also wind up with state and context dependent effects if you’re training solely with software. In other words, your memory might be better inside the app environment. But that doesn’t mean it will be any better as you navigate the world.

PmemoryPmemory was an online course developed by Ruslan Mescerjakov that promised to help you memorize 60 times more and learn 10 times faster.

The course consisted of 60 lessons each with exercises that were broadly divided into:

Basic training on memory exercises with details on memory techniques
Learning how to memorize 25 types of information, including telephone numbers, names, and formulas, and how to retrieve them selectively from your memory
Memorization of foreign words and phrases
Memorizing books and complicated texts
Memorizing codes and passwords

Many people have asked me about why this course disappeared from the Internet. I don’t know, but I did take it many years ago. The training was robust, but I found that it included too many fixed rules that don’t reflect the mnemonic flexibility needed for big learning goals, like mastering a language.

Everest Memory MasterclassA relatively new entry is the Everest Memory Masterclass by USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis.

Since I have a guest session in this program, my memory biases naturally make me partial to it.

It’s definitely one of the better options out there because Nelson is not only a memory champion. He applies memory techniques to a variety of goals, such as language learning. Frankly, if the memory expert you’re choosing doesn’t have at least basic bilingualism in at least one other language, you might want to look further afield.

The good news is that Nelson does, and like myself, he’s a highly accomplished university professor too.

Do Memory Courses Work?The answer to this question depends on what you mean by “work.”

Technically, no. Memory courses education you.

In order to get results, you need to put the memory techniques they teach into action.

A lot of people struggle with this part and that can be for a lot of reasons. If that’s you, you may need to take a step back first and:

Explore memory friendly foods and herbs that can help restore basic memory function
Address certain issues, such as stroke recovery or Alzheimer’s
Learn to schedule your time, perhaps with some Atomic Habits
Complete the memory course you choose more strategically

At the end of the day, it’s either health, scheduling or incomplete understanding that prevents people from benefitting from memory courses.

That, or they might benefit more from memory improvement books. Some people learn better that way, but may still need to address underlying health and scheduling issues all the same.

Success with memory improvement courses isn’t really about the medium. It’s about what you do with the lessons.

Can Memory Skills Be Trained?Absolutely, yes.

We have countless scientific evidence that this is possible both for memory athletes and learners. To take one recent example, Dr. David Reser and Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta conducted a study with medical students. As the research revealed, students using the ancient art of memory learned faster and retained more than the control group.

Success with memory techniques comes from a combination of:

Learning the techniques
Practicing them
Having a learning goal for applying the techniques
Analysing your deliberate practice to look for areas to improve

It’s really that simple.

Power Up Your Brain the Magnetic Way!It’s essential to sharpen your memory and brainpower, especially as you age. Memory courses and schools are an excellent way to help you with that. But remember, stay clear from those who promise tricky 30-minute or 1-hour memory transformations!

For the most effective memory training that lead to an interesting life, try building Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method. It will help you remember and recall all that you need, when and where you need it.

Sign up for your free training today.

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If you want to know how to retain information quickly, we can boil the process down to one simple term:

Strategic repetition.

Now, I realize you’ve come to this blog about memory techniques to get rid of repetition.

I’m sorry. That’s not how it works.

We always need to repeat what we want to remember. In fact, why remember something at all if you don’t need to repeat it?

The key differences with strategic repetition vs. rote repetition are these. Strategic repetition is always:

Fun
Creative
Skills boosting
Scientifically proven

Even if some repetition will always be necessary for learning, it doesn’t have to be painful. And you often won’t have to repeat nearly as much if you get it right.

So if learning how to retain knowledge in ways that are engaging and stimulating strikes you as a good thing, stick around. On this page, we’re taking a deep dive into ways to retain information that you’re going to love.

Why Can’t I Retain Information? The Surprising TruthThe reason why most people can’t retain information is that they simply haven’t trained themselves to do it.

That means it’s not IQ.

It’s not genes.

It’s not laziness.

It’s simply learning how to use memory techniques and then practicing them consistently.

We can take it a step further:

People who can’t learn quickly and recall information on demand not only fail to use memory techniques. They haven’t trained their procedural memory so that they use them almost on autopilot.

You cannot “mind read” books. Use proper study and memory improvement techniques instead.

You see, anyone can learn about memory techniques. But without practicing them consistently enough so they become second nature, all that information is just data.

The science here is very simple. We’re basically looking at five kinds of brain processes that you just need to link together:

Encoding information strategically using elaborative encoding
Decoding information strategically using active recall
Serial positioning with the primacy effect and recency effects
Habit formation so that you start using the strategies automatically
Using scientifically valid chunking methods to group and review information

We’ll pick up each of these scientific matters in greater detail as we go along. With each tip I’ll share, you’ll discover simple ways to harness the power of each principle.

How to Retain Information Quickly: 11 Proven Tips1: Use Exaggerated AssociationsThe fancy, scientific term for using exaggerated association is “elaborative encoding.”

But you might be wondering… what is an association?

Good question. It’s one of the most powerful mnemonic devices you can use.

Basically, you’re going to look at the target information and find something you can connect to it.

For example, if you need to memorize someone’s name, you’ll look at the first couple of letters. When I met someone with the complex name Gangador Dianand, I just thought about a “gang” first.

Next, I associated that sound with a rap band known to dress as gang members. Then I had them bang on a door.

Using a rap band as a mnemonic device while studying helps you retain information in a fun and engaging way.

That’s the association part. The elaborative encoding part is when you imagine those gang members larger than life and hear the sound of that banging extremely loud. (In your imagination, of course.)

It’s this process of exaggerating the association that makes it so memorable. And that’s what helps with the next tip.

2: Use a Memory PalaceWhen you want to retain info, you need to revisit it. You can do that using flashcards or Anki, but typically the Memory Palace technique is preferable.

This special mnemonic device is just a mental recreation of a building you’re familiar with and can easily bring to mind. After elaborating information, you place it in this mental device and then revisit it strategically to usher the information into long-term memory efficiently.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you need to memorize some details on a map. If you use Natalie Portman and Art Spiegelman to memorize that Spain and Portugal share a border.

First, you exaggerate an interaction between them. Then you place that association in a room.

Later, to practice what memory neuroscientists like Boris Konrad call “active recall,” you revisit that area in the room and simply ask yourself:

What was happening there?

If you’ve made the association exaggerated enough, your two characters should come to mind and the letters in their names should trigger the target information.

And yes, this strategy is scientifically proven. Studies have shown that when you put down your textbook and practice recalling information you’ve elaborated, you will recall it better.

3: Test Yourself StrategicallyIn order to properly benefit from active recall, it’s important that you test yourself.

Unfortunately, a lot of people cheat. They try recalling the information for a second or two, and then give up, exposing themselves to the answer.

That’s called rote repetition. It’s painful, boring and rarely helps with retaining information. You want to use the best possible mnemonic strategies instead.

However, if you have a journal or piece of paper in front of you and the target information is nowhere in sight, cheating is impossible.

Then, when you write out what you memorized using exaggerated association, you get the benefits of active recall.

Even if you make mistakes, you’ll still train your memory to work better. Over time, you’ll get stronger and stronger.

4: InterleaveA lot of people “force” themselves to get through one book at a time.

I have a PhD, two MAs and a BA and I can tell you this:

I never do this.

Instead, I take many breaks while reading or taking courses and strategically “interleave” my study material.

This term means that you take breaks often and switch things up. By reading more than one book at a time, you switch from a focused state to the “diffuse mode,” which gives your brain space to remember more.

The research on this goes back at least as far as Karl Duncker who wrote a book about the psychology of productive thinking back in 1935.

More recently, Barbara Oakley has featured contemporary data that substantiates these findings in her famous course, Learning How to Learn.

(Dr. Oakley’s course is also a printed guide and one of the 3 best speed reading books in the world.)

5: Use Proper Reading TechniquesI just mentioned speed reading, but be careful. There’s a lot of garbage you’ll come across in that world.

For example, most of what you’ll read about reducing subvocalization is a farce. Worse, skimming vs scanning strategies are usually poorly understood.

The broad strokes of learning how to read faster boil down to this:

Have goals, missions and systems that help you frame and stick with a focused reading program
Learn to use “priming”
Extract information strategically (see How to Memorize a Textbook)
Use memory techniques to recall the information
Make sure you test yourself using the active recall strategy discussed above (without cheating)

6: Improve Your Reading Comprehension SkillsThe first way to understand better is to change your definition of comprehension.

Many people get frustrated and toss their hands up in the air the instant they don’t understand something.

This is an incorrect approach because we read challenging material so that we might understand better. Without challenge, there is no growth.

Instead, learn the best reading comprehension strategies and practice them consistently. For example, I used to look up on charts and grafts and give up on them completely.

By redrawing charts and graphs, you not only improve memory retention, but also comprehension.

Now, I draw them with my own hand to understand them better. This step is essential because not only do I understand them better. I also remember more.

7: Mind MapMind mapping helps you retain information, especially when you revisit your mind maps strategically.

For example, Phil Chambers has given the excellent suggestion that you revisit each mind map at least ten times. Leave a Roman Numeral each time you do so you can remember where you are at in the revisiting sequence.

But… what is mind mapping? Put simply, it’s a graphical means of simplifying key ideas using colors, images and keywords.

Let’s say you want to memorize words in a foreign language. A mind map is a great way to do it. I rapidly retained information about cooking in German, for example:

Here are more mind map examples you can model.

Mind mapping works as one of the best ways to retain information if you optimize it for that purpose. So I suggest using the Phil Chambers tip I just shared to make that happen.

Mind mapping is an incredible wait to retain more information quickly.

8: Write SummariesWe know that we need active recall to remember quicker and with greater longevity. But we also need to percolate information and make connections.

Writing summaries is one of the best ways to do that. And it doesn’t have to take long.

I suggest keeping a notebook just for summaries of your reading. Commit at least half a page for each book you read and pour out what you remembered in at least 2-5 sentences.

With a small amount of practice, this incredibly simple habit will be the portal to remembering a lot more, much faster. And the best part is that it helps with making connections between different books you read as well.

9: Discuss with othersAs with summarization, a great way to practice active recall is to speak with others about what you’re reading.

Frankly, I’m puzzled by why people would read anything they weren’t going to have conversations about. But it happens.

If you’re having trouble remembering what you read, join discussion forums. Go to meetup groups. Or just run past the ideas from what you’re reading with friends.

Frequent discussion is key if you want to absorb more information and maintain it in your memory.

If you really can’t find others to converse with, speak the key points out loud, either to a pet or to yourself in the shower. The point is to verbalize what you’ve read in your own words. This helps you remember much faster and without a ton of repetition.

10: Meditate Your Way To Better MemoryIt might seem like meditating is far flung from improving your memory.

However, many studies show just how profound meditation is for concentration and focus. Others show how people of many different ages experience improved recall from just four short meditation sessions per week.

Add yoga to the mix for more scientific proof that these traditions prove the best way to retain information without having to learn a bunch of memory techniques.

11: Study Your Personal Rhythms To Maximize ThemI know a guy who used to beat himself up for not being a morning person.

In When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Daniel Pink reveals the conclusions from over 700 studies.

It turns out that only 15% of the population performs well during the morning.

Finding your best time of day is highly personal. Explore with a spirit of experimentation.

This means that a huge percentage of people would learn better at different times of day, including later in the evening. In fact, some people remember far more when they study before bed.

How do you find out?

Experiment and track your results.

If you’re willing to keep a journal for a few weeks, you can work out your optimal times for learning and choose them.

Of course, there’s a catch. (Isn’t there always?)

Your best times of day can and probably will change as you age or as factors around you evolve.

This means you’ll want to keep testing and journaling while being willing to pivot throughout your life.

FAQ About Information RetentionLet’s have a look at some of the most common questions when it comes to retaining information:

Why do I struggle to retain information?

Most of the time, you struggle because:

You don’t have a learning plan
You don’t have a learning strategy that includes memory techniques
You don’t have a proper place to study
You don’t attend properly to your health or eat foods that improve memory
You don’t put tactics like the ones covered on this page into action

But now that you have them, you can.

What is the fastest way to retain large amounts of information?

By far the fastest method for learning a lot of information quickly comes down to:

Planning and organization
Mnemonic tools like the Memory Palace

Yes, it takes a bit of time to plan your time and organize the information you need to learn. And it can take about a weekend or so to learn proper memorization techniques.

But it’s worth it. When combined, you’ll be able to learn very quickly and retain more information than you ever dreamed possible for the long term.

What is the fastest way to grasp information?

Many memory experts mistakenly say that you should understand something before you memorize it.

But in my experience, this is patently false.

In many cases, you can better understand something as you memorize it and later consider it from within memory.

If you want to move quickly, it again comes down to planning your time, organizing the information and then committing it to memory.

Reflect on the information from within your memory
Write about it
Speak about it with others
Compound your knowledge by reading more about the topic

By going “beyond the call of duty,” you’ll understand faster. In 2019, researchers showed just how well using multiple resources instead of just one facilitated better understanding and conversation in the classroom. Students solved problems better and ultimately performed better on exams.

So read as widely as you can and make sure to discuss what you want to understand. Even if you are uncertain, probing a topic you don’t understand has been shown to be incredibly effective for developing stronger comprehension.

The Ultimate Tip For Retaining InformationAnother word for the willingness to pivot is “flexibility.”

Flexibility is the key to improving memory retention.

When you combine all the tips I’ve shared with you today, your memory is going to be incredibly flexible. And it will always trend towards higher and higher levels of improvement, even as you age.

Since most of us want to be lifelong learners, this should not be an issue.

Keep practicing the approaches I’ve shared on this page. The more you explore, the more you’ll discover even more interesting and powerful ways to make learning easier and fun.

After all, the more you can remember, the more interesting and fun things become. And the more you learn, the more you can learn. That’s thanks to the power of connection, which is truly the most rewarding memory technique we’ve got.

So what do you say? Are you excited to get out there and learn more using enhanced memory abilities?

If so, why not grab this free memory improvement course and learn more about how to improve your ability to recall information over the long term?

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When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

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Few things could be simpler to understand than the difference between short term and long term memory.

Check out this simple explanation:

Short term memory holds a small amount of information, often for as little as twenty seconds. That information either enters long term memory or it doesn’t.

Long term memory holds larger blocks of information indefinitely. And unlike short term memory, long term memory seems to have an unlimited capacity.

That’s the brief answer, and let me frame it for you a slightly different way with some quick examples:

Short term memory involves a very small amount of information remembered for a short period of time. Like when you remember a passcode only for as long as you need it.

Long term memory involves much larger sets of information for longer periods of time. Knowing the names of dozens of states in your country even if you haven’t thought about them for decades is a simple example.

Of course, there’s more to long term vs short term memory, so let’s dig in and discover more.

Short Term vs Long Term Memory: An OverviewBoth short term and long term memory are about relationships in your mind.

These relationships involve the intersection between:

The major memory types
Perception
Problem solving

Everything from pattern recognition to critical thinking emerge from those three characteristics of the mind.

Major scientists involved in short term memory research include George Miller who identified chunking and Alan Baddeley.

Endel Tulving discovered the main characteristics of long term memory, specifically episodic memory and semantic memory.

Larry Squire is also an important figure in long term memory research.

Overall, many scientists have contributed to our understanding of these two memory types. But because science is always changing, it’s best to combine a solid understanding of the history of memory science with the latest research articles.

Studies in Long Term Memory and New Research on Short-Term Memory are decent introductions on the fundamentals of these two types of memory. For the latest studies, setting up Google alerts for “memory science” has helped me keep abreast of the latest findings, along with continually talking to memory scientists on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

The Differences Between Long Term and Short Term MemoryMajor short term vs long term memory differences boil down to:

Time spent with the information
The amount of information
Duration in memory
The mental and physical condition of the individual

Let’s look at each of these in depth.

Time Spent With InformationIn short term memory formation, you will typically have only a few seconds to perceive the information.

Any time someone gives you their phone number or a passcode, your short term memory is engaged. A simple way to improve your working memory is to play games that require you to hold onto to small amounts of information for short periods of time. There are many memory games that help with this goal.

For long term memory, language learning is a key example of spending a lot of time with information. Bilingualism is known to provide many benefits because of how it exercises long term memory.

The Amount Of InformationShort term memory involves small amounts of information, typically about as long as a password or phone number.

However, memory athletes have pushed the limits. For example, three time world memory champion Alex Mullen has broken records by memorizing an entire deck of cards in under twenty seconds.

Memory athlete Alex Mullen

Long term memory involves much more information. If you’ve ever seen someone recite an entire story from memory, you’ve seen it at work. Likewise, people who memorize speeches are displaying how long term memory relates to large amounts of information.

Duration In MemorySometimes the clarity of your recall is astonishingly long. But even more surprising is when you remember selectively. In other words, you leave out certain parts only to have them suddenly flash into your mind after the fact.

For example, sometimes you tell someone a story and miss a few details. A few seconds later, you say, “Oh, I forgot to tell you this important part.”

The reason you suddenly remember those missing details has to do with context dependent memory. No one knows exactly why an entire memory doesn’t come back properly the first time, but context does trigger more of our memories once we start recalling them. It’s a way of experiencing memory durability from a different angle.

Mental And Physical ConditionSo much of what we know about memory comes not from studying healthy people. Often we learn about memory by studying the memory of people with a variety of issues.

Baddeley’s theories of amnesia, for example, reveal many interesting things about normal human memory.

As reported in Studies in Long Term Memory, he found that amnesiacs struggle in particular with new material related to verbal memory. This is because the entrance of information into long term memory suffers from more interference.

Incidents of interference possibly increases because the capacity of short-term memory is already limited in healthy individuals. No matter how mentally sharp you are, your short term memory is already easy to distract. When you get disrupted, the amount of time you spend with the information you want to remember is lessened and the quality of that time will not be as good.

This fact means that even though your long term memory seems limitless and is generally more stable and enduring, the benefit of spending time with information does not matter if you cannot get it into either your short or long term memory.

Another characteristic of long term memory we need to consider is repetition. Even the most robust information will require use in order to remain consolidated in your brain. So let’s look at the role of repetition next.

Short Term Vs Long Term Memory: The Ultimate TruthUltimately, short term memory lets you juggle small sets of information for a short period of time. You can hold a telephone number for a short while without having to repeat it over and over again.

In fact, if you use rote repetition with a phone number, you’ll probably wind up placing it in long term memory.

That’s really short term memory in a nutshell.

The problem with long term memory is that no one knows exactly how many times you have to repeat something in order to recall it over time. But we do know that we can avoid rote and repeat information in ways that are much more engaging.

For example, if you use memory techniques, you can reduce the amount of needed repetition. And the repetition you do perform will be much more interesting thanks to how the techniques work.

You can also increase your expertise by reading multiple books on a topic in depth. Simply reading more will increase the elaborative rehearsal needed for strong and enduring memories.

Using the information you’re reading will also strengthen its place in your long term information. You can do this through writing or discussing the information, which are natural forms of repetition that can be quite fun and engaging.

But the exact amount of time you need to repeat something is simply not known. We only know it goes down relative to the depth of your experience with a specific kind of information.

For this reason, learning experts never recommend cramming. They recommend legitimate memory hacks instead.

Is Working Memory Short Term Memory?In a word, no.

But even though they are distinct concepts, they are related.

Working memory is like your mental workspace – kind of like the desktop on your computer. It allows you to temporarily store and manipulate information.

Long term memory is like the folders you use to later clear up your desktop and access the information you decided to keep later on.

Ultimately, it’s easy to be confused by these different terms. But as a general rule of thumb, scientists use different terms to distinguish them. They’re not the same and these terms help us talk about the specific differences, even though they all ultimately fall under the rubric of “memory” at the end of the day.

For this reason, it doesn’t make sense to think of working memory vs short term memory. They work together.

How to Improve Your Short Term and Long Term Memory At The Same TimeThere are many ways to improve your memory.

The best ways always involve some kind of goal.

My recommendation is to learn a variety of memory techniques, including:

The Memory Palace technique
Number Rhymes
Linking and Story method
Major System
PAO System
Pegword method

These are all modern variations on ancient memory techniques. They exercise your short term and long term memory at the same time for all the reasons discussed above.

You get exercise with both small amounts of information in short periods of time and larger amounts of information over extended periods.

The simplest activity is to memorize names. When I give demonstrations in the community, I get the short term exercise. When I later run into those same people, I draw upon my long term memory.

As 2018 and 2022 USA Memory Champion John Graham has shown in his TV spots, it’s easy to add numbers to any name you’ve memorized as well.

And when you use mnemonic images in the ways I teach, you’ll draw upon your autobiographical memory in ways that are personally rewarding and fun.

You can also practice memorizing future events. This will exercise your prospective memory both immediately and over time. Because numbers like the exact day and hour on a calendar are involved, you have a small set of information that needs to be recalled in the future.

This kind of exercise provides the best of all possible worlds – and you’ll be on time too.

Beyond Short Term And Long Term MemoryNow that you’ve discovered the critical differences between these two forms of memory, you might be wondering what to do next.

How about becoming a memory master yourself?

I introduced you to a few people like Alex Mullen and John Graham. You can develop memory skills just as profound.

If you’d like that, please grab my FREE Memory Improvement Kit:

It will help you remember everything on this page, and much more.

Even better, it will exercise all the levels of your memory in ways that are easy, fun, effective and efficient.

The ultimate trick to memory improvement is to treat your practice sessions like going to the gym. The more you use your muscles, the stronger they’ll get and the longer they’ll last.

I don’t know about you, but I want both my short term and long term memory skills to be strong for the rest of my life.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to dig deeper into these topics and experience incredible short and long term memory skills yourself?

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The best memory hacks help you rapidly remember anything. This list gives you the best memory hack of them all, so read to the end.

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Mandarin Blueprint provides exceptional material for learning Chinese, including characters, pronunciation and the best memory techniques.

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A Magnetic Memory question about using video games as Memory Palaces

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Johannes Mallow shares details on how he used a Memory Journal to massively improve his skills. Listen to this exclusive interview now.

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In the past, having to memorize information was not optional because information wasn’t easily accessible. But just because we've got all the info we need at the touch of the button, that's no reason not to use a Memory Palace. Proof regarding why awaits!

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Wouldn’t it be great if there was an ultimate list of thought processes?

A definitive resource you could bookmark and refer to whenever you want to sharpen your thinking?

I thought so too, and that’s why I decided to create one.

Who am I to care so much about thought processes and talk about them in-depth?

Well, I taught an advanced critical thinking course for years at a university.

And I personally practice many types of thought as I continue to absorb many philosophical traditions from around the globe.

So if you want multiple thought process examples and sure fire ways to improve your thinking, let’s dig in.

What Are Thought Processes? According to researchers, a thought process can be both conscious and unconscious. In fact, your mind can be processing more than one thought at the same time.

For this reason, the exact definition of a thought process is simple:

It is being engaged with the stuff of thought.

The fact that many of your thoughts are outside of your awareness is cause for concern. Although many positive types of thought process stimulate our creativity and problem-solving capacities, Daniel Kahneman’s work has shown us to be at the mercy of many cognitive biases.

Cognitive bias is any of a wide number of thought processes that cause us to take shortcuts. We distort reality and make irrational decisions as a result.

For this reason, it’s a very good idea to become familiar with as many thought processes as possible.

Types of Thought Processes (with Examples) As an exercise, don’t just read the following list passively. Try to think of a time you’ve either thought these ways yourself, or observed others involved in these thinking processes.

For best results, write your personal examples and observations down.

Also, reflect on whether or not each thought process is positive, negative, neutral or more than one of these options at the same time.

One: Associative Thinking Being able to see how one thing connects to another is an important skill. In healthy children, the ability to think in terms of association begins early. Most of us get better at it as we age because more life experiences creates pattern recognition.

For example, we often relate things we see in life to mythological patterns. You might associate someone with King Midas if they’re greedy, or say that a Pandora’s box has been opened. These are kinds of associative thinking stimulated by pattern recognition.

It doesn’t have to be Greek myths either. Since 1999, it’s been very common for people to respond to certain events in the age of the Internet by saying, “It’s just like in The Matrix.”

Freud famously asked his patients to engaging in free association, leading to many new psychological therapies and procedures, such as the Rorshach test.

And association is widely used. Creative people frequently allow themselves to follow random trains of thought in order to come up with interesting and unique ideas. Students use mind mapping and association is a key mnemonic strategy.

Two: Abductive Thinking This form of thinking involves drawing conclusions based on observations. It is also called inferential reasoning and Sherlock Holmes provides the most well-known examples. Real life detectives use it as well.

A simple way to think about this thought process is that you’re arriving at a conclusion without having the full picture. If you arrive at a crime scene and find a knife covered in blood, you can reasonably conclude that it is the murder weapon. But you don’t actually know – you’re inducing the conclusion.

Note that many people mistake this kind of reasoning with deductive thinking. So let’s look at that next.

Three: Deductive Thinking Deductive thinking is often formulaic. It usually involves an “if this then that” structure. For example, you can deduce that if you don’t get on the freeway before rush hour, it will take you longer to get home.

Unlike induction where you are drawing a conclusion from an incomplete picture, you do have a complete picture of how traffic works on the highway.

Deductive reasoning is typically easier to test when there is an abundance of evidence. There are three main types to master:

Syllogisms
Modus ponens
Modus tollens

To help yourself further, check out these critical thinking book recommendations.

Combined, inductive and deductive thinking form what we tend to think of as logical or rational thinking.

Four: Social Thinking We tend to think of ourselves as individuals.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Humans share a variety of languages, and when you think about it, none of the words or phrases belong to any individual. Rather, we collaborate on the continuous evolution of this communication tool.

We’re increasingly using the Internet to communicate using our languages as well. Students use it to study together, which means thinking together to help one another achieve goals.

We can also think about transpersonal thinking in this regard. When we realize that the role of the individual isn’t all that it’s made out to be, we’re able to transcend the ego and resolve ourselves into the great river of life.

Sound abstract? Never fear. We’ll be tackling that kind of thinking next.

Five: Abstract Thinking To think abstractly is to literally pull away from an idea or concept.

We just did that by thinking about how language is not owned by any individual person, even if it is experienced in personal ways.

This is an “abstract” thought precisely because we’re pulling back from the individual and looking at the entire species.

This is a nuanced thought process, so you can read more about abstract thinking with other examples if you’re interested.

Six: Concrete Thinking Concrete thinking involves ideas that are directly related to material reality. For example, you might think about how things feel and make comparisons and contrasts in your mind.

An orange and an apple feel more similar to one another than an orange and the handle of a shovel, for example.

Talking about rain “pounding” is another example.

Seven: Analogical Thinking Analogical thinking involves making comparisons and assuming that when something is true for one thing, it is also true for the other.

We can use them well, such as when we say that an argument is going in circles. If the same points keep coming up again and again, they really do feel like they are on a loop.

But analogies often fall apart because things are rarely as similar as they seem. Watch out anytime you hear someone saying, “it’s like x.” Although the comparison they are about to make sense on the surface, all too often the connection winds up being facile.

Eight: Analytical Thinking Analysis literally involves taking things apart.

For example, when a Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass participant comes to me with a problem they’re trying to solve, I analyze what they’re saying by looking for the individual components.

That’s not to say I don’t also take the problem as a “whole.” Rather, analytical thinking takes as a basic premise that everything is built from parts.

In philosophy, the notion of deconstruction is an analytical process that reveals how many of our most cherished truths were built over time. It is an innovation on what Nietzsche called genealogical thinking.

A simple way to get better at this form of thinking is to practice observation and questioning literally everything.

Nine: Linear Thinking Linear thinking is all about structure and following a particular process.

But that doesn’t make it boring.

In fact, Triz is one of the most interesting collection of tools for linear thinking on the planet. It’s also incredibly inventive.

Nonlinear thinkers are sometimes thought to use fewer structures, or purposefully introduce randomness.

For example, the German band Einstürzende Neubauten create new songs by drawing ideas and roles from a hat. Although the singer might not be a world class drummer, if he selects a slip that requires him to play percussion while composing a new song, he will.

Although this form of creativity looks like it is nonlinear and “outside the box,” it’s also procedural and linear in its own way. If we “deconstruct” the notion of linear thinking by using analytical thinking, we might find that there really is no such thing as nonlinear thinking at the end of the day.

Ten: Reflective Thinking Making time to contemplate is incredibly important.

It’s simple and easy to practice and there are many powerful reflective thinkers you can draw inspiration from.

Simply put, find a place to sit, pour your thoughts out onto paper and use analytical thinking to sort, sift and screen through the material of your mind.

It’s perfect for helping yourself make better decisions and expand your mind.

Eleven: Counterfactual Thinking We often think of alternative histories as the stuff of fiction. Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle is a common example.

However, it’s very useful to think about what could have happened in our everyday lives.

For example, sometimes when I’m feeling down, I create a “counterfactual” image of what my life would be like if I’d never completed my Ph.d.

I happen to know a few people who didn’t finish. The thought of working at an ice cream parlor like one failed PhD I know makes me grateful for everything in my life – especially because the accomplishment led to me writing this blog.

Let’s look at the opposite of this kind of thinking next. It’s also very useful.

Twelve: Speculative Thinking If counterfactual thinking involves imagining alternative scenarios in the past, speculative thinking involves running through two or more possible future outcomes.

One simple exercise for thinking through your future is Dan Sullivan’s “dangers, opportunities, strengths” routine.

By asking yourself questions around these three core areas, you can imagine a practical path forward for your future.

You can also use the journaling exercise I share in this video about how to think correctly about the path to mastering your memory:

Thirteen: Decisive Thinking When it comes to the future, you’ll never get there without being able to make decisions.

One of my favorite problem solving models is found in Decisive by Dan and Chip Heath. It’s called the W.R.A.P. technique:

Widen your options
Reality test
Attain distance
Prepare to fail

Using step-by-step decision processes like this can always be considered “heuristic thinking,” because you’re making using the tool a rule of thumb.

I’ve connected this technique with a much older tool called ars combinatoria that you might want to become acquainted with on your quest to master multiple thought processes.

Fourteen: Metacognition Ever heard of Zen?

It’s a fairly radical philosophy that helps you realize that the present moment is all we really have – and since it’s slipping by so quickly, the notion that we have it at all is an illusion.

In order to realize this fact and hold onto the realization so that you can experience lasting mental peace, the great masters of meditation use metacognition.

To become a master yourself, you just need to cultivate an awareness of the operation of your own thoughts and a meta-level awareness of how the thoughts about your thoughts operate too.

I’m a big fan of this form of thinking and wrote about a powerful process in my book, The Victorious Mind.

You could also call this form of thinking, “mindfulness thinking.”

Fifteen: Skeptical Thinking I’ve saved the most important form of thinking for the end. And I want you to use it on everything I’ve just said.

Why?

Because one of the most powerful things you can do is to question the validity of the claims people make.

Think for yourself.

Do your own research.

Test.

If you don’t, you risk being naive.

Of course, you don’t want to go overboard. It’s also useful to be curious and allow certain things the benefit of the doubt from time to time.

This is where you want to use your discernment, which is where practicing all of the skills on this page will really come in handy over time.

How to Improve Your Thinking The best way to experience significant gains in your thinking abilities is to complete critical thinking exercises.

On top of that, you’ll want to improve your:

Reading strategies
Reading comprehension
Visualization skills
Memory Palace skills

But above all, you want to set aside time for studying great thinkers and time for practicing thinking.

It just takes commitment and consistency.

And the best part?

You now have new ways to think about how you might increase your commitment and consistency by using tools like analytical thinking and speculative thinking to become the architect of your future.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to enjoy multiple types of thought?

Dive in!

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The Victorious Mind: How to Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being

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People who use memory techniques enjoy a diversity of terms.

“Memory Palace” is my favorite, but more and more I’m leaning towards adapting Lynne Kelly’s use of the term “memory spaces.”

I like it because that’s essentially what a Memory Palace is: a space for storing information.

Of course, we’re usually using an imaginary version of that space.

However, there are times when we can use these memory storage areas in much more direct ways.

On this page, I share some of my favorite approaches.

Why should you care?

Because when you’re able to rapidly learn and remember information using these techniques, your quality of life goes way up. You can:

Pass any exam
Learn languages faster
Remember everyone’s name
Absorb entire books
Master mathematics

And that’s just for starters.

Ready to learn more?

Let’s dive in.

What Are Memory Spaces? A memory space is literally any location you use as a foundation, canvas or platform for encoding information with associations.

Let’s say you want to remember the name Luke. You can place Luke Skywalker on his shoulder.

His shoulder becomes a “memory space.”

In the method of loci, this specific spot would be called a “locus.”

Generally, though, I would just call this a station in a Memory Palace, particularly because I usually remember names at events. Luke would be just one of many I would memorize.

But these are all typical approaches. Let’s look at a few more.

The Lukasa Now, there’s a sneaky reason I used the name “Luke” in the example above. That’s because my first example of an alternative memory space was going to be the lukasa.

Also sometimes called a “memory board,” the word means “long hand” or “claw.”

Typically made of wood, they often come shaped in a way that might remind you of an hourglass.

People would cover them in colored beads to help them remember histories, plant locations and names of medicines. Folk wisdom, military matters and other information would also be encoded.

These devices also helped people remember how their societies were organized and give them a common point of focus for discussing the law.

As far as I understand, they would run their fingers along the surfaces. Each bead would help them recall a story or piece of information.

The relationship to how encoding in a Memory Palace is clear. It involves all of the principles related to the linking and story method.

Related to the lukasa are many other items. You can learn about them from Aboriginal and indigineous memory expert Tyson Yunkaporta.

The Guidonian Hand Can you imagine holding 75 hours of music in your mind?

Anna Berger suggests that people regularly memorized and retained this amount in her book, Medieval Music and the Art of Memory. She quotes Kenneth Levy who estimates that their knowledge “would correspond to the selection of Beethoven’s instrumental works plus the full Wagnerian canon.”

That’s a lot of information!

How did they do it?

Many scholars, including Berger, have shown that a lot of the memorization was done by the medieval monks using their hands.

Basically, they would turn their fingertips and the joints into memory spaces. Each spot would be marked with a name that corresponds to the musical staff they were using at the time. The approach gets its name from Guido of Arezzo.

In contemporary terms, you could use your hand to memorize the clef notes quite quickly. For example, if you take the notes of the bass clef that appear between the lines, you could align them like this on your pointer finger:

The hand doesn’t just have to be used for music, however. Tyson Yunkporta gives a great example of using your hand to remember knowledge in his book, Sand Talk.

I’ve also used my hands to remember and practice Sanskrit verses that I’ve memorized. The important thing is to figure out the grid you’re going to mentally layer onto your hand and then stick with that configuration. Otherwise, you risk confusing yourself.

Buttons I once read that Napoleon might have used the buttons on his shirt to help him remember simple things.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it totally makes sense. And when we think about military people, all of those medals, badges and other insignia are literally spaces we use to help us remember rank and other important information about people.

To use the buttons on your shirt as a kind of mini-Memory Palace, start by counting them up. Don’t forget to include the buttons on your cuffs.

Then, when you want to remember something, link it with the buttons. If you already have a PAO System, you can use those images as a pre-loaded hook on a button-by-button basis.

In case it isn’t obvious to you, by using buttons like this, you’re essentially turning any relevant item in your wardrobe into a kind of lukasa!

Coins Sure, they’re small. But that’s no reason why you can’t use the coins in your pocket in a pinch.

Before I started using shoulders as my memory spaces for names, I would meet one or two people and place their names on a coin. It was a reference that worked great.

All you do is divide the coin into two surfaces. Apply one name to the heads side and another to the tails.

How to Use Sites of Memory to Remember More I’ve mentioned the Memory Palace above, and I still believe it is the ultimate mnemonic device.

But when it comes to giving our memory spaces extra meaning, we can make some deliberate choices.

For example, if you’ve ever visited an old cathedral, even if you don’t practice any given faith, its atmosphere can give the things you choose to memorize using it an extra boost.

Likewise, you can choose locations like:

Museums
Libraries
Historical sites
University campuses

Or any personal option that has special meaning for you.

You can also transform places that don’t have positive memories into calm and soothing points of reference.

For example, I had a troubled youth. One home in particular used to be packed with disturbing memories.

One day, I decided I would stare this collection of bad memories in the face and encode it with positivity.

To do this, I started in the worst part of the home and started using it to memorize the Nirvana Shatakam.

A few days later, I had completely forgiven the past and now have an incredible meditation poem to reflect on, one that creates even more peace and love.

To get started with the Memory Palace technique yourself, give my FREE Memory Improvement Kit:

It will help ensure that you’re able to achieve any learning goal quickly and deepen your memory skills in meaningful ways that create lasting fulfillment.

Memory Sites Are Everywhere The important takeaway is that anything physical occupies space – and that means we can use those objects to help us remember information. We can use people, tables, memory boards of our own creation or even the coins in our pockets.

The trick for many people is to commit to working out the order of the individual memory spaces they’re going to use on their objects or landscapes.

Then, you need to develop your association skills. Typically this is done by working out a highly personalized pegword method. This should only take an hour or so, perhaps a bit more over a few afternoons if your imagination has gotten rusty.

It’s well worth the effort, though. Once you have the foundational techniques in place, you can apply them to learning just about anything better.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to start examining the objects in your life a bit differently?

The world is full of resources just waiting to help you experience rapid recall of the knowledge you need to succeed.

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It’s hard to find good info on long-term memory, isn’t it?

You get drowned in difficult terminology, when all you want is to understand what it is and learn how to improve it.

On this page, you’re going to discover the different types of long-term memory in plain English.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll be skimping on the science of this type of memory. You’ll understand why scientists distinguish long-term memory from short-term memory.

We’ll also look at the sub-systems of long-term memory before turning to the most important topics of all. These are how to:

Maintain your current long-term memory abilities
Improve your long-term memory
Protect all aspects of your memory for the rest of your life

So if you’re ready to increase your long-term memory capacity as you understand its many ins-and-outs, let’s dive in.

What Is Long Term Memory? Long-term memory is ultimately about stability.

Do you remember your first day at school? If you can get even just a small sense of where and when that event took place, that memory is relatively stable. If you can access visuals of the school, how you felt and the names of any teachers or friends you had at the time, this long-term memory is even more robust.

How about the meaning of a word like “justice”? If you can give a reasonable definition, then your memory of the term is a demonstration of persistence. As before, if you can give examples of when you learned the term and how your understanding of it has changed over time, the stability of this knowledge exists on a scale.

The Categorical Nature of Long-Term Memory But here’s what’s super-interesting about the duration of long-term memory:

It’s ultimately about categories.

For example, if you think about your visual memory (or iconic memory), you’d be tempted to think of visual memory as a whole.

But according to researchers, our long-term visual memory relies upon categories. Your brain seems to literally “tag” different visuals as if by name and then draw upon those tags later.

For example, researchers at MIT and Harvard found that the brain’s pattern recognition draws heavily upon categories like ocean, field and even more specific terms like golf course and amusement park.

When asked to remember images shown from over 160 image categories, people remembered scenes better than objects. They believe that the categorization itself explains these higher levels of recall because categories are more prominent in long-term memory.

What do these findings mean?

Well, it doesn’t mean that eidetic memory grants anyone superpowers or that photographic memory exists. (It doesn’t.)

It suggests that how memory works so fast relies upon how surfaces and icons are embedded in contexts.

The same thing is true when it comes to reading faster. Scientists have thoroughly debunked most claims about so-called “speed reading.”

But one thing the science agrees on is that you can read faster if you improve your vocabulary.

Just as people were better able to remember scenes that draw upon information in long-term memory, people with larger vocabularies read faster. Their brains draw upon long-term memory with greater efficiency because they have greater speed of pattern recognition.

Long-Term Memory Examples Since long-term memory involves everything that persists in a stable way that you can access on demand.

As mentioned, not all long-term memories will be equally robust. But as long as you can recall something about the information you’re looking for, the memory has indeed persisted in your long-term memory.

In terms of where these memories are “stored” in the brain, scientists still disagree. Whereas some believe long-term memory and short-term or working memory follow a “single store” model, other researchers think that the location of remembered information or “mental imagery” changes over time.

With those points in mind, let’s look at some examples of long-term memory.

Procedural Memory Probably the easiest type of long-term memory to understand is procedural memory.

Anytime you ride a bike, use chopsticks, type an email or play a musical instrument, you’re drawing upon skills that are deep in your long-term memory.

The visual pattern recognition we discussed above is highly-related here. When we look at a painting, we can determine practically on autopilot whether we’re looking at an object, portrait of a person or a landscape. There’s a procedural quality to how we understand the visual world around us.

Episodic Memory Episodic memory is all about time. It’s personal and related to you. Anything you remember about specific events and periods of your life belong to this category:

Getting married
Trips
Birthdays
Job interviews

Semantic Memory Everyone knows multiple facts about the world, and that’s thanks to semantic memory.

Whereas memories of different events in your life such as the recall of an anniversary belong to episodic memory, knowing the name of the country, city and street where the anniversary took place belongs to semantic memory. They are rigid facts, not episodes, which are much more fluid.

Other facts that exist in long-term memory include information like numbered addresses, years and months.

The 2 Types of Long-Term Memory The examples of long-term memory we’ve looked at are organized into different types and sub-systems.

There two major types are:

Explicit memory
Implicit memory

Briefly, explicit memory is information you have to work at remembering, such as a formula for solving an equation. Implicit memory comes back to you at random, such as suddenly thinking about a concert you attended with a friend.

Either of these types of memory can be long-term.

The sub-systems are everything we’ve just talked about: procedural memory, semantic memory and episodic memory.

There are a few other sub-systems to explore, such as:

Flashbulb memory
Prospective memory
Autobiographical memory

Ultimately, it’s important to understand that the science of memory is still emerging. More types of long-term memory emerge.

Or, as some scientists have proposed, the term “memory” may need to be updated, if not replaced. The larger context of cognitive ability is an important area of study to consider as you think through the definition of long-term memory.

How Long Does Long-Term Memory Last? All good things come to an end. This means that anything that enters memory will exit it.

At least insofar as human life has an expiration date.

However, let’s think about this question philosophically for a moment.

Homer’s Odyssey was written down circa 480 BCE. The stories that were originally held in long-term memory by ancient people have survived for thousands of years. They’ll likely go on to survive for many thousands of years more.

Plus, human knowledge involves many categories. Things fold together and repeat in many different ways, meaning that we can rapidly refresh knowledge and learn new things simply by improving our pattern recognition abilities.

My personal answer then? As long as humans are here to record and activate information by reading books, watching videos and holding discussions, our memories will last.

Practically speaking, however, information lasts for as long as you maintain the knowledge through use. You also have to think about what exactly you’re trying to remember.

If you stop riding bicycles, you might still remember how to do it decades later. But if you stop speaking a language, linguistic deskilling can take place very quickly. For example, when I lived in Germany, my English skills took a nose-dive. Now that I live in an English-speaking country again, it’s my German that I have to maintain.

So as they say, use it or lose it. Anything you want to remember long-term should be kept in circulation.

How to Improve Your Long-Term Memory (and Prevent Memory Loss) There are many ways to improve your long-term memory. These include:

Completing a memory improvement course
Using a Memory Palace
Learning and practicing a Major System

Make no mistake. These are by far the best ways to improve your memory. They will also teach you a great deal about the power of deliberate practice.

When it comes to preventing the loss of memory skills you already have, practice is the key, but also things like:

Eating memory friendly foods
Taking care of your sleep
Getting lots of time in with friends
Daily physical exercise (for example, yoga)
Daily brain exercise

Specific, Long-Term Memory Exercises Ultimately, to improve and maintain long-term memory, we should focus on exercises and tasks that exercise this specific skill.

It’s best to get started sooner than later. Don’t wait for signs of Alzheimer’s or other signs of memory loss to emerge, such as:

Confusing the names of loved ones
Forgetting aspects of your life
Losing track of objects
Struggling with terminology and even basic vocabulary
Getting lost

We know from many studies that bilingualism is one way to fend off such problems. But not everyone is going to invest the time into learning another language.

So let’s look at some activities you can do that will exercise your long-term memory, grow its strength where needed and keep it sharp for life.

One: Keep a Memory Journal It’s long been known that keeping a journal improves mental health. As Richard Wiseman reports in 59 Seconds, it can also help extend your experience of time.

When it comes to tracking your memory activities, it’s also an incredibly powerful activity.

You can keep your Memory Palaces gathered in one spot, set goals and reflect on your progress. And as you continue jotting down aspects of your life, you’ll get the benefits of remembering more of your life because you’ve increased your observation skills with daily practice.

The reason it works is probably because the more information you practice with that is inherently long-term in nature, the more your long-term memory gets exercise.

Two: Memorize Mantras Although this technique won’t be for everyone, it’s a great way to give your long-term memory a workout.

I’ll share my approach to this, a practice I started in 2017.

Using Memory Palaces, I started committing long form texts in Sanskrit to memory. Like beading a necklace, I keep adding line after line, after reciting the entirety of what I’ve memorized.

Because there’s an intellectual component to the material that involves understanding a fairly simple, yet robust philosophy, memory improves as critical thinking skills also enjoy a boost.

Three: Expand Your Thinking Skills A lot of people turn to games to give their memory a workout. The problem is that a lot of those games only make you better at playing the game. The skills don’t transfer to other aspects of life.

But when you complete critical thinking exercises regularly, you’re doing something similar to working with mantras. You’re rehearsing what you’ve placed in long-term memory while also adding new knowledge.

Four: Exercise Your Episodic & Semantic Memory Together Remember how I said that there’s a difference between remembering a birthday party and remembering the city and street name where the party took place?

Well, a great way to exercise your memory is to think about different episodes of your life, then write down as many semantic pieces of information as you can.

In your Memory Journal, write out a list of all the birthday parties you can remember – both your own and those of family and friends. Write out some of the details you remember in terms of what happened.

Next, give your semantic memory a workout. List the year, the location and any other facts that come to mind. What shows were on television at that time? Popular movies? Music that you liked?

As an example, I remember a birthday party where we stayed up all night and had ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. That’s the episodic part.

For the semantic part, I list out the names of the friends who attended and facts like the year being 1987 and that Kiss’ Crazy Nights came out.

Five: Live a good life This tip is easier said than done, but could anything be more true?

Lying, cheating, stealing and other crimes are destructive because they make remembering hard to bear.

But focusing on being a truthful person who contributes to your community produces countless rewards.

Note that it doesn’t have to be epic amounts of contribution. Just doing what you can to be a force of good promotes long-term memory benefits because you’re giving yourself plenty of material worth remembering.

Six: Take On Large Learning Projects Studying information in-depth helps your brain create more connections.

I suggest you pick a topic you’re passionate about and read 3-5 books on the topic. Even if some of the material might feel repetitive, you learn a lot by seeing how different people approach the same topics. Plus, you get some natural repetition that helps reinforce key ideas.

Also, spend some time reading topics that are outside of your comfort zone. For example, I was quite nervous about reading into computation. I didn’t think I’d be able to wrap my mind around it.

But I persisted by simply reading and letting understanding arrive gradually. Soon, my brain started making connections and now I have a new point of reference that will build even more connections as I continue to cross-reference new information with this growing knowledge-set.

When it comes to long-term memory, the more you know, the more you can know.

Seven: Learn Hands-Based Skills Like Arts & Music Our brains benefit so much by developing procedural memory skills. Drawing, painting and playing musical instruments are incredibly useful. It’s delightful to draw upon the skills you’ve developed over the long-term and you can always improve them. There is literally no ceiling.

The beautiful thing about these skills is that you can combine study and practice. For example, I’m taking a jazz bass course at the moment. In addition to getting the instrument in my hands and learning more about chord tones and arpeggios, I am also reading books about the history of the genre.

If you were learning to draw, it would be easy to also add on a few books about the lives of various artists to embed the procedural memory skill in knowledge that develops both your episodic and semantic memory.

Build Your Own Long-Term Memory Systems Now that you know what long-term memory is and how it works, take a hands-on approach to developing it.

One of the best things you can do is dedicate yourself to practicing the ancient art of memory. Developed when people needed to carry entire books in their minds because they couldn’t carry them on their backs, it is designed to address long-term memory development.

If you’re interested in learning how to use it, register for this FREE Memory Improvement Kit:

It will give you worksheets and four videos that give you a foundational course in these techniques.

And since the skills are so fun to use and instantly rewarding, you’ll wind up using them for life.

So what do you say? Are you ready to take the future of your memory into your own hands?

Enjoy the journey and just shout out if you have any questions along the way!

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The best way to study flashcards is not to study them at all.

Now, before you bounce away, hear me out.

There’s a small set of techniques that make learning with flashcards so fast, you really won’t feel like you’re studying at all.

Instead, you’ll feel like you’re creating the knowledge you want to learn.

Isn’t that exciting?

I’ve been using cards for decades and spent hundreds of hours experimenting to find out how to memorize flashcards effectively.

I’ve used them to help me learn languages and get my Ph.d.

And on this page, I’ll share with you the best tips I’ve discovered along the way.

Ready?

Let’s dive in.

How to Memorize Flashcards Effectively: 10 Proven Tips There are a small number of steps to follow.

They’re easy to learn, but let’s not beat around the bush.

What I’m going to share may feel counterintuitive at first.

You probably won’t be used to thinking or learning in these ways.

To get comfortable with the approach, you just need to practice. Seeing me talk about some of my own flashcards will also help.

Now here’s more information on how to set yourself up for success.

Step One: Identify The Main Points And Subpoints Before you start making flashcards or committing them to memory, it’s important to have a strategy for identifying the main points.

Often, your study material is loaded with clues. Knowing how to analyze your information sources is key, so be sure to learn how to memorize a textbook effectively.

Step Two: Use The Right Sized Flashcards Typically, 3×5 is a good size. It helps you focus on recording just the key points.

However, you may need to experiment first with a few different sizes. Use discernment and your own experiments to find out what sizes are best for you.

And don’t hesitate to use different sized flashcards for different kinds of learning projects.

Also, keep in mind that you can always photograph cards of any size and import them into a spaced-repetition software like Anki.

Step Three: Use Multiple Colors Nothing limits your imagination like using just one color.

I try to always use at least 3 colors in each of my cards, a tip I learned from memory expert Tony Buzan.

Making sure your flash cards have multiple colors is a key strategy for engaging your brain and amplifying the learning process.

Not only does using multiple colors make the card creation process more interesting. It also makes looking at your cards later much more engaging.

Step Four: Integrate Words And Drawings When learning how to study with flashcards, it’s easy to get stuck on using words.

However, even with limited artistic skills, it’s important to incorporate images as much as you.

Even the simplest of sketches will help you with the next tip.

Step Five: Create Puzzles For Your Brain To Solve The number one problem people face when using flashcards is rote repetition. This is when they use the cards to repeatedly expose themselves to the information.

That is no fun!

Instead, use keywords, images and even empty spaces to give your mind the opportunity to fill-in-the-blanks.

Let’s talk about the empty space principle in a bit more detail.

This simple flashcard creation strategy lets you harness the power of active recall.

For example, on this card for the Mandarin word Měishù guǎn or art gallery, there’s a line instead of an image for the guǎn sound.

Notice the three colors in this flashcard example and how the blank space stimulates the use of active recall for rapid memory formation.

When looking at the card, I know it’s my job to press my imagination for a solution. We’ll talk more in a minute about how we use our imagination, but for now, make use of this principle as often as you can. It’s powerful.

Step Six: Leave The Opposite Sides Blank As Often As Possible Many people will be reluctant to do this in the beginning, but it is a very strong learning strategy I recommend you experiment with as soon as you feel confident.

Including the answers on the back of your flashcards is problematic because it leads to cheating. When you know you can just glance at the answers, you’re tempted to simply look at it instead of trying to generate the answer from memory.

This is a huge problem because it leads you into the memory-destroying boredom of rote learning.

As you build up to using flashcards as puzzles your mind has to solve to reinforce what you’re learning, try using the principle of blank spaces.

For example, on this card for the word Kǎoshì or test/exam, multiple colors have been used (black, white and pink).

The front side of the card uses images alone to help the mind solve the puzzle.

On the backside of the card, notice how the blank space creates a puzzle to be solved, avoiding the horrible boredom of rote reptition:

The backside of the flashcard uses active recall to stimulate faster absorption of the target information into long term memory.

Although this procedure lessens the challenge of recalling the word from pure imagery, you may adding words with a fill-in-the-blanks approach useful in the beginning as you build your flashcard mastery.

Step Seven: Use Your Multisensory Imagination Although flashcards focus a lot on our hands and eyes, we don’t want to leave out our imagination.

As you create your cards and the associations that will help you remember definitions and key terms, include at least these sensations:

Kinesthetic
Auditory
Visual
Emotional
Conceptual
Olfactory
Gustatory
Spatial

Here’s an example of what I mean.

The Měishù guǎn example pictured above and discussed in the video included with this post is not just a picture of Aunt May, some shoes, a blank space and some art in a gallery.

In my mind, I am physically feeling Aunt May kick a boot at my image for guǎn, which is a musical group called Gwar.

I can hear the sound of the boot hitting them and see them getting angry. I experience their anger and conceptualize their plans for revenge. They are going to burn all the art in the art gallery, which allows me to imagine the smell of fire and the taste of soot in my mouth.

As you work with your flash cards, imagine each image larger than life. You can project them on the walls of a Memory Palace for even better and faster learning outcomes.

I also take a second to imagine how big everything is and exaggerate the sizes. Combined, all of this multi-sensory association and visualization exercise makes the learning process so much faster.

Step Eight: Use Questions As You Study Your Flashcards Rather than passively move through your cards, actively ask questions.

If you don’t, it’s easy to get frustrated.

My favorite question is, “What is this image trying to tell me?”

Then I focus on the clues and work it out verbally.

It’s important to get your mouth involved in order to help you harness the levels of processing effect.

In addition to speaking and answering your cards out loud, you can also keep a memory journal. Doing so will deepen your brain’s processing of the learning material even further.

Step Nine: Follow A Consistent Schedule To memorize flashcards effectively, you need to reduce repetition by following all of the steps outlined above.

But none of us can reduce repetition entirely.

For best results, go through your cards in small, reasonably sized sets. I prefer 10-20 sets at a time.

Then, craft a schedule based on a pattern like:

5x daily for the first 5 days
1x daily for the first 5 weeks
1x monthly for the first 5 months

But that time, you should have everything in long term memory that will in many cases last for life.

If you want to speed up the process, consider also using a Memory Palace.

Each card can be “cross-indexed” with a Memory Palace. I often number my flash cards to help keep track of where in a particular Memory Palace they have been encoded.

Step Ten: Experiment With Additional Techniques As powerful as flashcards can be, I don’t recommend using them in isolation.

Instead, consider combining them with the Memory Palace technique and mind mapping.

A powerful way to add your cards to a Memory Palace is to simply number them. Then, place a version of each association on your cards at a Magnetic Station in your Memory Palace for that number.

In other words, the fifth card’s information goes on the fifth station of its Memory Palace.

When it comes to mind mapping, I highly recommend reading Mind Map Mastery and checking out the work of Phil Chambers and Marek Kasperski.

Memorize Flashcards Fast Today’s suggestions will serve you well, so please explore them systematically.

But it’s also important to experiment.

When ideas come to mind, give them a try.

Seriously.

I’m aware of no “Flashcard Police” anywhere on the planet.

Also, put aside your fears of wasting time or failure.

Mistakes will be made, but experimenting with new learning techniques and your ideas cannot waste time.

You will only learn new things that help speed your progress. The only waste that happens is when people let the fear of trying new things stand in their way.

And if you like trying new things and learning to put fear aside, check out my FREE Memory Improvement Kit:

In it, you’ll learn to use even more memory techniques than we’ve discussed today. They are fast, fun, effective and always like a game.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to take your flashcard game to the next level?

Give it a go and enjoy the learning journey!

The post How to Memorize Flashcards Fast (From Someone with a Ph.D.) appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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Memory works like breathing and blinking:

You can control it to a certain extent and it operates entirely on autopilot, whether you’re paying attention to it or not.

How do we know?

Think about your home.

Did you have to work hard to learn the layout?

Probably not. You probably learned it automatically.

The alphabet, on the other hand, required exercises and repetition over weeks. Your teachers guided the process.

As an adult, you need to guide the memory process yourself when you want to learn new information.

Given that memory is both an automatic process and a tool we can use deliberately, how exactly does it work?

The answer is fascinating and comes with many clues that will help you improve it.

Let’s dig in.

How Does Human Memory Work? The 3 Main Processes Scientists think that memory is built from processes that work together. These processes are:

Encoding
Storing
Retrieving

Encoding Encoding takes place during and after information enters your brain through the senses.

Take the example of learning your home layout. In Human Spatial Memory: Remembering Where, the authors present a number of theories. One of them is that our brains remember spatial layouts by determining which objects are on top of other objects.

This approach suggests that you remember the location of the kitchen because the countertops and the stop stand on top of its floor. The tub is on top of the bathroom floor, etc. The brain then uses what is called its “coordinate system” to encode the information.

One theory of memory says that our brains track surfaces and what objects or on top of other objects in order to remember our environments.

When it comes to learning information like a language, we can deeply integrate with the process by using one of several forms of active recall.

How are Memories Stored In The Brain? In terms of storage, scientists think our spatial information may reside in the parietal lobe. They’ve reached this conclusion because damage to this area of the brain disturbs our spatial awareness.

Storage is a big topic because it’s not clear that information ever really stays put in the brain.

On the contrary, scientists have shown that information we’ve memorized moves around over time. Memory expert Dr. Gary Small likens this movement to how families might travel from homes around the world to gather at a Thanksgiving dinner.

Retrieval Dr. Small’s analogy suggests that our memories are actually split apart and keep moving around in the brain. Then, when we retrieve the memories, they move to a single location so we can perceive them as something that feels whole.

And when our recall does not feel whole and complete, that’s because some parts of the memories did not make it to the party.

Here’s more detail on recall and retrieval with more details on where memories are stored.

How Are Memories Formed? People tend to think that long term memories take time to form.

However, scientists know this not to be the case. Not only can certain protein synthesis formations rapidly form long term memories, we also experience flashbulb memory.

Either way, the direct answer to how memories form is neurochemical. It is literally the collaboration of existing brain structures working together to “connect.”

You can even see the process take place with your own eyes as neurons find one another and connect:

As memories connect, myelin wraps around the connections. The strength of any given memory appears related to the robustness of the connection itself, the strength of the myelin sheath and the length of the dendritic spines on the neurons.

Although the exact process of how memories are formed and stored is still not well-understood, scientist and memory expert David Eagleman claims in The Brain that every healthy brain has room for a zettabyte of information.

Where Are Memories Stored? As mentioned, memories are stored all over the brain. And the exact location changes.

This means that the most direct answer to the question is that our memories are stored in our synapses. They are literally stored in connections.

But there’s another way to think about the question.

Memories aren’t just stored in your brain.

They are stored in the brains of other people.

In books.

Movies.

Recorded music.

Library archives.

Our species has devised alphabets, words and grammars to help us encode knowledge in a variety of mediums. To focus only on the brain is missing the point.

But what remains the same is the focus on our memories being stored in the connections themselves.

As you read this post, you are connecting your brain to mine. My remembered knowledge about memory is flowing into your brain. And if you decide to engage with it deeply, this knowledge will become part of your knowledge-set.

If you don’t, the fact of your individual forgetting does not mean the information isn’t stored somewhere. It will still be right here on this page, located in the memory of multiple computers across the Internet.

We tend to think that memory is stored in our minds. In reality, it is stored in multiple locations and devices, if not in the connections between things themselves.

My suggestion is an example of abstract thinking about memory, and I’m confident that when you reflect on the point, you’ll agree that it’s true.

Ultimately, I think the most interesting type of memory involves new research suggesting that memories are not stored in synapses at all. Rather, they are stored in DNA and RNA.

This is new and emerging research that hasn’t been performed on humans yet, so has to be taken with a grain of salt. But it’s worth keeping an eye out for developments.

The Main Types of Memory Confused by all the types of memory you find people talking about?

I don’t blame you. There are a ton of them.

Luckily, we can break them down into the three main types of memory. Then there are all the rest.

The biggest three are:

Sensory memory
Short-term memory
Long term memory

After that, memory scientists break the categories down into:

Episodic memory
Autobiographical memory
Procedural memory
Working memory
Semantic memory
Iconic memory
Visual memory
Context-dependent memory
Prospective memory
Echoic memory
Implicit memory
Non-declarative memory
Explicit memory
Eidetic memory

In addition, you’ll find special topics like:

Focused attention
Crystal and fluid intelligence
Synesthesia
Hyperphantasia
Serotonin and memory
Amnesia
Long term memory loss
Stress and memory loss
Memory disorders
The myth of photographic memory

Conclusion: How to Improve Your Memory Luckily, you can easily improve your memory.

The first step is to pay attention as much as possible.

Then, you’ll want to learn various techniques. The most important are:

The Memory Palace technique
The Major Method
The Pegword Method
PAO System

To place the foundations of these memory improvement skills in your hands, grab this FREE Memory Improvement Kit:

The best part?

Once you have superior memory skills, it’s easy to remember all the different kinds of memory we discussed today.

It’s a real win-win for you and the world. The more we understand about how memory functions and what exactly it is, the more people can better navigate reality and lead more fulfilling lives.

So what do you say? Are you ready to live a life more connected to the information storage and retrieval device alive and well in your head?

The post How Memory Works: A Guide Anyone Can Understand appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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Podcast recording updated 04/01/22

Picture this:

Exams loom on the horizon and you’re staring at a stack of unread textbooks so large it would make any sane student shake in their boots.

Maybe you got behind in your reading over the course of the semester…

Or maybe your professor assigned additional reading you haven’t gotten around to yet…

Whatever the case, you have a ton of information to memorize before your exams roll around, and you’re feeling the pressure.

Well, guess what?

You are not alone! In fact, almost every student ends up feeling like this as the end of the semester approaches. And hardly a week goes by that I’m not asked about how to memorize a textbook and textbook memorization.

The good news is: memorizing a textbook is not as difficult as it may seem.

At the end of the day, it’s not just about memorizing — that would be an utter waste of time!

Instead, the real goal is to understand the books you read. And more than just understanding the content, you want to use the textbooks you place in memory to create new knowledge.

In this post, you’ll learn how to:

Correctly set your expectations of what the book will contain
Understand why you need to read the book (or if you actually need to!)
Quickly determine how much of the book you really need to read
Make a dedicated Memory Palace system to memorize the parts you really need
Learn how to take notes from a textbook onto index cards or flashcards, and
Determine how much time you’ll need to practice the information you’ve memorized

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer. If you want to jump to a particular section, you can do that here:

How to Memorize a Textbook vs a Book

Do You Really Need to Memorize a Book Verbatim?

Set Yourself Up For Success

How to Memorize a Textbook (Realistically)

Examine the book
Make an equation
Get index cards
Find the big points and jot them down
Make use of your Memory Palace
Create crazy imagery to help you recall the info
Stick each crazy image onto a Memory Palace station for recall
Test yourself before the teacher does
Let the info grow into knowledge
Bonus! Save your knowledge for later

Example: How to Memorize Verbatim

Bonus Example: How to Memorize a Formula

How to Study a Textbook for Maximum Retention

Want this post in infographic form?

You can download this infographic, just like Aldolfo:

Aldolfo Artigas printed AND laminated this “How to Memorize a Textbook” infographic and now his sons are using the technique too!

So are you ready to learn how to memorize a textbook, the right way?

Let’s get started.

The Question That Inspired This Post So you may be wondering: Hey Anthony, if people have been asking you about this topic for so long, what finally made you decide to write about it?

Well, the truth is, I’ve written about textbook (and book) memorization before, just never in the context of memorizing an entire textbook.

You can check out my post about how to memorize a chapter out of a textbook. And you might also be interested in another post I wrote, about how students with dyslexia can still ace their exams.

In the end, the reason is simple: I decided to write this post and record a podcast to help out one of my audience members.

Here’s what this struggling student wrote:

“Hi Anthony. I want to memorize some physics, chemistry, and math formulas, and also some texts that I have to memorize verbatim, but it needs a lot of Memory Palaces and too much time. Plus, I don’t know how to memorize formulas.

For instance, memorizing sin(A+B)=AcosB+cos.

Do I need just one Loci, and how do I memorize this? Of course, this is a very simple formula, but exams are coming! I need your help.”

Now that we know why this student needs help, let’s quickly talk about the differences between a textbook and other kinds of books.

How to Memorize a Textbook vs a Book For the purposes of this post, we’ll use the words “book” and “textbook” interchangeably.

When it comes right down to it, the only real difference is that someone has called a textbook a textbook. Other than that, they’re remarkably similar — pages stuck between two covers with a spine.

Very little else differentiates them, except for some signature that has been applied to them by the author or publisher. Mind you, textbooks often come out in multiple editions, and a quick win is to be aware of how recently the edition you’re reading appeared on the market. You can sometimes find a nearly identical (and much cheaper) version from the year before.

But overall, a book is a book, by any other name.

And whether it’s a book or a textbook (even boring books), the first question you should always ask is: do I actually have to memorize this entire textbook verbatim?

Do You Really Need to Memorize a Book Verbatim? One of the things I always ask people when they come to me with this question is: why?

Why do you need to memorize the textbook verbatim? Are you certain you need to memorize the whole thing – or even long passages – verbatim? What will memorizing the whole textbook get you?

If it’s just speed that you’re after, think again about how to study fast with this guide to high volume learning at speed.

There are certainly ways to memorize long passages of text word-for-word that are 100% effective. There are people who are known to have done it.

But, if you don’t absolutely have to put in the time and effort to memorize verbatim, why would you?

Instead, what if you could learn something deeply enough to be able to discuss it, to connect it, and to frame it in a certain context?

Chances are, memorizing in this way will not only be easier, but also more effective. Memorizing verbatim is rarely necessary and the mind will fill in the blanks if you structure your approach correctly.

So in this post, what I really want to teach you is the power of memorizing select material from a textbook.

Your first step, as with any task that’s worth doing, is to lay a strong foundation.

Set Yourself Up For Success Now, let’s be honest for a minute. If your exams are coming up tomorrow or the next day, this approach probably isn’t going to work for you.

In an ideal situation, you would take the time to dig your wells before you’re thirsty. What that means in this context is that you want to know what Memory Palaces are, and have yours set up and comfortable before you start to study for your exams.

You could build a ladder to the moon with all the different memorization techniques out there, but I teach a very particular approach called the Magnetic Memory Method. You may have heard of it, especially if you’re a regular reader.

And because I teach this specific approach, I would recommend that you get yourself set up before crunch time — before exams are staring you down, making your palms sweaty and giving you nightmares!

My approach uses location-based memorization strategies, all based around Memory Palaces. You’ll need more than one Memory Palace, and you’ll need to do some self-exploration. But the good news is… it’s super simple to do, and the process is a lot of fun!

The first step in the process is to have a carefully defined Memory Palace.

Before you ever pick up a book, even if it’s scriptural, you’ll determine how much material you want to memorize from it. And then you’ll create a Memory Palace in advance so you can recall that information with ease when you need it.

But what if you’re new here, and you’ve never created a Memory Palace before? I’ve got you covered — grab my free 4-video memory course below, and the series will get you up to speed.

We’ll talk more about how to use your Memory Palaces later in this post.

Second, you will get in the right mindset for studying.

Setting a good mental attitude is key, before you even pick up the book. This allows you to mentally take away the most essential information.

And part of getting into the proper mindset has to do with relaxation. Before diving into any memory technique, I always take a moment to chill out and relax. Chillax, if you prefer. I do this by using traditional meditation techniques.

Now, some people have a very specific vision of meditation and what it means, but for our purposes, it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Meditation, in my mind, is as simple as sitting with your back and neck straight, imagining there’s a hook in the top of your head attached to a string that’s pulling you straight up. Then, you just sit there and breathe.

Some people believe that meditation is about emptying your mind — here are two of my favorite metaphors:

You’re sitting on the bank of a river. Your thoughts are the river, and you just watch them go by. Then, any time you find yourself being sucked away by the river you just bring yourself back to the shore and watch the river again.
Imagine an elephant that’s tied to a chain on the ground. The elephant – your mind – is romping around like crazy. You tie it to the ground with a stake, and then a couple of seconds later, you have to go get it and tie it down again. And with enough training, you can get the elephant to sit down and go to sleep.

That second metaphor – the mind as an elephant – is a bit more appropriate for memory techniques.

Alan Watts said that meditation should have no goal whatsoever — it should be sitting just to sit. And in this Tim Ferriss podcast, Sam Harris says, “all you’re doing is paying exquisitely close and non-judgmental attention to whatever you’re experiencing.”

So even if you can’t get your metaphorical elephant to stop running off, still take a moment to sit and breathe. Take the time to chillax before you start memorizing.

This allows you to approach memorization with the right attitude: still, gentle, not fighting for or clamoring after anything. You’re just being… and absorbing information. You might even think about it like this: you are a being, and the information is also like a being. You get to absorb that other being into you, something you can bring into yourself!

And if meditation isn’t your thing, you can also do some progressive muscle relaxation exercises or pendulum breathing — this combines physical processes with a particular way of breathing. Or maybe you can listen to some music to get you ready to study.

Now that you’re relaxed and ready to become a metaphorical knowledge sponge, let’s break down the memorization process step by step.

How to Memorize a Textbook (Realistically) When I was studying for my doctoral exams – and later for my dissertation defense – I needed to read a total of 500 books to be able to sit for the exams and write my dissertation.

500 books. No exaggeration and I’m not kidding.

(In fact, if you read my post about how to memorize a chapter in a textbook, you’ll see photographic evidence of me carrying a stack of 20 or 30 of those books. I carried many, many piles like that from the library stacks to the private office I had access to in the Robarts Library in Toronto.)

The good news for you is that you get to learn from my extensive studying experience — how I operate when I’m conducting research or want to memorize the contents of a book. (You can also use this same method to memorize a novel, if you’re reading between the lines…)

Quick note: looking back at the question from our intrepid reader, you’ll notice that they use the word “loci”. I don’t use that word myself, because the Magnetic Memory Method is much more specific.

There are operational factors in the 10-step method I teach that may not seem to involve memorization. But trust me, each step is essential to the Magnetic Memory Method of textbook memorization.

Remember: before you do anything else, have a carefully defined Memory Palace that involves a location you’re intimately familiar with. I usually chart out at least 10 – but sometimes up to 50 – stations. Sometimes I even use an entire room or spots within a room.

Let’s call that step zero: create your Memory Palace.

A Memory Palace is a mental construct, based on a real location. You use different spots inside the Memory Palace to store information along a very well-constructed journey. Those spots are called “stations” — an entire room is a macro station, and a spot within that room is a micro station (like a bed, desk, or chair). You can leave associative imagery in those locations, so you can then go back along the journey in your mental construct, decode the images, and recall the information you left there.

Now that you have step “zero” behind you, let’s dive in to the 10 steps to help you memorize a textbook.

Examine the book Now we get to the good stuff! Take your textbook, and take a good look at it:
Look at the front cover.
Look at the back cover.
Look over the introduction.
Read the conclusion, and
Be sure to scan through the index, if your book has one.

And read the colophon page — that’s the place where they include information about the book’s publication, like the place of publication, the publisher, and the publication date. If you didn’t know what a colophon page is, look it up. It’s fascinating. I also find the table of contents of a book to be very interesting.

These parts of the book are what Gerard Genette called the “paratext.” This means the text beside the text. This step takes about five minutes and effectively trains your brain to understand the scope and the dimension of the book with respect to the topic.

Not included in that five-minute estimate is the time it takes to read the conclusion, which could be a much longer process. So why should you take the extra time to read the conclusion?

Partially, so you can judge whether or not the author’s conclusion about their subject was profound enough to warrant reading the book in the first place! Sometimes when you read a conclusion, you’ll realize that the author hasn’t arrived at any conclusion that makes it worth reading the process or the argument that substantiates what the author concluded.

Okay. So maybe that’s a little judgmental. It’s certainly not a foolproof way to decide what to read. But, when you have 500 books on your plate it’s worth taking the time to determine whether or not the book warrants all that reading. You only have so many hours before your exam, after all.

The conclusion (and introduction) will also give you clues as to where the information is in the book — or at least the important information. And this location data is often included in the context of the concluding remarks, which can be quite helpful.

For example, the author might say, “In chapter one I do this, in chapter two I talk about this, and in chapter three I cover that.”

Next, you’ll make some foundational decisions.

Make an equation When I take a look at a textbook, I decide in advance how many pieces of information I want to retain from it.

This is what the Magnetic Memory Method calls the “principle of predetermination.” It’s not an arbitrary or random decision. Instead, you will consider the length of the book and the purpose of your studying. Is this for an oral exam or an essay?

Using this method creates an understanding of what your goal is, and what the outcome would be. It creates a border or frame of sorts, to keep you focused.

Usually, 3 to 5 pieces of information per chapter is enough. And for today’s post, we’ll use 3 pieces of information per chapter as our number.

Before we move along to the next step, let’s examine two reasons why choosing a specific number is important.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

It might sound a bit cliché, but it’s true — especially when it comes to structured reading. When you’re reading for a particular purpose, then it’s vital to plan how you’re going to read. Books are filled with details, pages full of information, and you can easily become overwhelmed if you don’t plan appropriately.

You can avoid getting overwhelmed

When you predetermine how to approach a book and structure your reading process, you prevent overwhelm. You end up denying it from existing in the first place, because you know you are only going to memorize three pieces of information from each chapter.

Of course, you can always add information later if necessary, but containing and maintaining the information before you even get to it is a good strategy.

Plus, less is always more. Focusing on just a few key points will allow a lot of the surrounding information to stick to your specifically memorized points. Go ahead and try it!

Next, you’ll take out a stack of index cards and start organizing.

Get index cards For regular readers here at Magnetic Memory Method, you might want to sit down for what I’m about to say.

I know that I’m usually scowling and calling for the death of index cards… but in this case, they have a different value, other than rote learning. (As you may or may not know yet, rote learning is a no-no in the Magnetic Memory Method.)

However! When we’re talking about how to memorize a textbook, we do have a certain mania for index cards. In fact, it’s part of what I call “Magnetic Bibliomancy.”

To join in the fun, grab an index card and let’s get started.

First, write down the name of the author, the title of the book, and the bibliographic information.

Please note: there is certain bibliographical (or paratextual) information that doesn’t need to take up space in your Memory Palace. And if you regularly use memory techniques, you’ll find yourself absorbing that information anyway. But I don’t tend to offer Memory Palace space to it, since index cards are something you can hold onto.

Now you’ll have one index card that has all the bibliographic information of the book. Number this card in the top left corner — number 1. (I always label my index cards in the top left corner.)

Next, you’ll begin to fill out your other index cards.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer. 4. Find the big points and jot them down Now that you’re all organized and have your plan, it’s time to get down to business.

Because you read the introduction, paratextual materials, and the conclusion, you should already have an idea which chapters you want to read first. You don’t have to start with the first chapter! There’s a high likelihood that your mind already decided how to prioritize your reading efforts.

Remember, for the purposes of this blog post, we’re looking for three primary pieces of information out of each chapter. So, there are 3 pieces of information you’re going to walk away with from whichever chapter you read first.

You have your index cards ready to go, and you’re ready to start writing down the key pieces of information on each card, numbering them the same way (in the top left corner).

You will want to have some sort of indication on each card about where you are in the book. This has to do with what I call the “ownership mindset” for textbook memorization. You’ve already adopted the attitude that you’re going to succeed. You literally want to feel like you own the key information in your textbook.

One way you can take on this mindset is to pretend you’re a talk show host on a popular show or podcast, and later this evening you get to interview the author of the textbook. Millions of people will be watching or listening, so you really need to know your stuff. And you need to be able to read the book fast.

When you use this mindset, it allows you to ask questions while you’re reading. You get really curious about the topic, and instead of passively reading you end up engaging with the text. There’s pressure: time pressure, the fact that you’re going to interview the author. You could even imagine that the author is sitting there with you as you read, and pretend like you can read their mind about the answers to your questions.

Studying is a numbers game. I’ve touched on this, but I want you to categorize everything using a kind of numbers game. So when you come across a gem of a detail, write it down on your index card along with the page number where you found the information, and sometimes the chapter name or number.

This kind of information always goes in the bottom right corner. And if you have secondary ideas, you can use the back of the index card to jot them down. I always do this regardless of whether I’ve copied down a quote from a book or just a note or observation.

Here’s why I diligently complete this step: if I ever need the information again, I’ll know where to find it.

At this point, you’re not doing any kind of memorizing whatsoever. Instead, you’re:

Familiarizing yourself with the material,
Connecting details with already-known information,
Learning new information, and
Gathering new facts and details.

That’s it — but memorization is not ready yet. You aren’t memorizing the book as you go along, but rather focusing on the book and marinating yourself in it.

Next, you’ll take the information from your index cards and transfer it into your Memory Palace.

Make use of your Memory Palace Once you’ve finished reading the book and filling out your index cards, it’s time to place the information into the correct spot in your Memory Palace.

Let’s pretend for a moment that our example textbook had ten chapters. Since we wrote down three pieces of information per chapter, we now have 30 index cards. And because we prepared our Memory Palace ahead of time, we have 30 stations ready to go.

Now it’s time to memorize, magnetically.

In the next step, you’ll make your information visually appealing.

Create crazy imagery to help you recall the info Take each index card and think of an image that relates to the information on your card. Make the images bright, zany, and exploding with action.

I’ll walk you through a few examples so you can see this step in action.

Example 1: Imagery based on the author’s appearance

Let’s take Gerard Genette, the author of Paratext, as an example. If I wanted to memorize material from the book Paratext, I would use Gerard as a lexical bridge or Magnetic Bridging Figure, helping me move from station to station.

Genette reminds me of Gillette razor blades. Not exactly a one-to-one correlation, but I can nonetheless see him shaving in that first room, if I needed to memorize that he was the author of Paratext. He would be shaving away a beard with wild ends growing out of his face. For the context of “Paratext” I could picture a pear bouncing up and down on a textbook, or a can or Para Paint splashing over a book.

Example 2: Imagery based on concepts from the index card

In this example, index card 2 says, “A text does not exist outside of the text itself.”

It may sound pretty obvious, but we don’t often think about the fact that until someone comes along and reads the book, it essentially doesn’t do anything. There are millions of books standing unread on bookshelves around the world that only exist when someone is reading them or talking about them.

So our minds are kind of texts, and when we read, the two texts intermingle. The second station will feature the book Paratext itself, and words are trying to escape from the pages. And poor Genette is standing there, trying to beat the words back in — because according to him there is no text outside the text itself.

Example 3: Imagery of the author throughout the Memory Palace

To get some of the other concepts in Genette’s thinking, I might see him giving up the battle and then opening up a lid in his head, which is also filled with words. I could use Genette for each and every station, doing something related to the key phrase on the index card.

I’ve done this with Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. I’ve done it with Plato’s The Republic. I’ve done it with novels. Done it with all kinds of things. Once you get used to it, it’s very easy.

And when using this approach for Ulysses by James Joyce it’s very easy to see Joyce moving through my Memory Palace, not through Dublin, as he does in the novel.

If I knew Dublin, then I might be able to use Dublin, but I don’t. So I was able to use a Memory Palace based on a familiar location and I see Joyce going from place to place so I can remember the different things that are happening in the plot in order to recall them later.

Now you’ve seen three different examples of how you might use wildly exaggerated information to help you populate your Memory Palace stations. Remember, these images should always be big, bright, colorful, and filled with lots of action.

Next, you’ll assign each crazy image to its own station.

Stick each crazy image onto a Memory Palace station for recall This step is the most straightforward of the ten.

You will begin with card number 1, and memorize the biographical information at station number one in the Memory Palace. Then continue on with index card two and station two, index card three and station three… you get the idea.

If you already know the author and title by heart, you might not need to use that first station for biographical information. Use your judgment, so you don’t waste valuable memory real estate.

Since it only takes a second or two to create a really action-packed image for each station, be sure to take the time to really see them in your mind’s eye.

Next, you’ll test your recall.

Test yourself before the teacher does This is the step many people won’t take: practice recalling the info by going from station to station.

After you’ve gone through and used your Memory Palace to put every bit of information on those 30 cards into the proper station, you can make sure the information sticks. Pretend like you’re testing yourself in a real test situation.

Take the details, facts, concepts, and plot points that you memorized, and write a summary from memory. Your index cards should be somewhere else during this exercise — in a box, on a shelf, or somewhere else you can’t cheat. And you can’t look back and forth the whole time to make sure you get things right as you go along.

Then, check your summary against the index cards. Did you remember all the points from your cards? Did you remember things in the correct order?

Finally, it’s time to let the information grow into something bigger.

Let the info grow into knowledge One of the most important stages of this process is to turn the information you memorized into knowledge that you can use over and over — not just for this single test or exam.

This is one place where the related information that wasn’t on your index cards will come out to shine, as well. You get to see which pieces of information are “magnetic” and stick to your brain. And you can start to apply the things you learned in other situations, perhaps even bringing some of the information into everyday conversations.

Plus, once you make the switch from information and data points into knowledge, you’re much more likely to pass every exam with flying colors!

And speaking of transforming information into knowledge, you can also pull that knowledge out of your brain banks down the line. Let’s take a look at the 10th and final (bonus) step in your memorization process.

Bonus! Save your knowledge for later When you’re done with your index cards, don’t throw them away!

Once you don’t need the information for your exam anymore, you also don’t need to hold the information in your Memory Palace. You can empty out and reuse your Memory Palace for something else, and let the index cards hold the information for a rainy day.

For example, let’s say you memorized the James Joyce novel Ulysses for a literature class. Once you took your exam, you didn’t need the information rattling around in your brain, so you put the index cards in a box and shelved them away for later.

Five years later, you’re asked to give a talk about the novel. You can simply find the box with your index cards, reconstruct your Memory Palace, and save time in putting together and memorizing your talk.

There’s a high likelihood some of the information will still be in your brain, tucked away in a corner somewhere. And maybe it’s there in the form of paleness, or there are some ghosts or fossils of other information you’ve stored in the Memory Palace since then. But anything that’s still in your memory will become doubly magnetic after working with it again.

One of my university supervisors required me to submit summaries to prove I was reading the books on my reading list. This is what got me into the habit of writing out summaries, and I learned very quickly that writing summaries out of Memory Palaces was just golden. This is material that – if you use it – will change your ability to study and your understanding of how to take notes from a textbook.

You can also use your summaries again later. Save them, and you might find a way to use them for essays, pieces of a publication, or even a Ph.D. dissertation. By using your recall abilities, you’re becoming an expert on your subject matter.

You put stuff in your mind, filter it, and then reproduce it — all without the benefit of looking back and forth at your textbooks or index cards. And through the process, you become a master of information.

Now, I know I said you may not need to memorize your textbooks verbatim, but what about the situations where you do actually need to remember things word-for-word? Before we wrap up, let’s take a look at a couple of examples of how to do just that.

Example: How to Memorize Verbatim We’ll use the first line of Homer’s epic poem The Iliad for this example.

Now imagine this — I used to work (more like play) at Hadey Windey’s school in Burnaby, Vancouver. It was called ELIT or English Language Intensive Training.

She’s got a vibrant, brilliant set of students who come to this after-school program for extra training so they can be superstar students, and I was able to develop a lot of teaching around memory skills for them. I also taught the students other things like interpretative abilities and essay writing skills, all of which are connected to memory.

And I also was able to build, from this place, an amazing Memory Palace. I never really thought of using it as a Memory Palace until I was training Hadey in using mnemonic techniques and Memory Palaces, and she really didn’t believe it was possible.

I just happened to have an old translation of The Iliad in my iPhone as we were sitting in a park. And I was explaining Memory Palaces to her, and drawing a map of ELIT, showing her how she could use a Memory Palace based on the school.

I said, “Here’s the kitchen, and the office that I have, and here is classroom number 3, and the computer room,” and other things, and I showed how you could make a linear mental journey through this area. Starting in the kitchen, I said, “Imagine I’m limping, and I kick a pail from the kitchen to the door where the Statue of Liberty is standing. In response, she digs with her shovel into the ground and throws the dirt at my office door where I’m standing, writing numbers, and then rubbing the numbers away while I’m coughing.”

Well, the first thing I want to point out is that all of these images are laid out along a journey. It starts in the kitchen and then goes to the door of the kitchen. Then an action goes through the hallway to the door of my office. And other parts carry on through classroom number 3 and the computer lab and so forth. But I’m limping, which reminds me of Achilles, because of Achilles’ heel. I kick a pail. Moving on to the pail, Achilles’ father is Peleus. Now, I don’t need to have the whole Peleus, just pail is enough to remind me of Peleus.

So, “Of Peleus’ son, Achilles,” the pail is now kicked at the Statue of Liberty. “Sing, O Muse.” Now that’s personal to me. The Statue of Liberty means muse to me. It’s just because it’s a woman in a gown, I guess — it works for me.

The hardest thing to teach about Memory Palaces and associative imagery is that you need to use what works for you. You need to draw from your own personal pool of images based on other things that you know. You’re creating associations. So it might not make sense to you, but, to me, it makes a great deal of sense.

“Of Peleus’ son, Achilles, sing, O Muse.” Me, limping, kicking a pail at the Statue of Liberty, that brings back “Of Peleus’ son, Achilles, sing, O Muse. The vengeance, deep and deadly” which is the next line — so the Statue of Liberty is really angry about this, but instead of attacking back at me, she digs into the earth with vengeance — “The vengeance, deep and deadly; whence to Greece unnumbered ills arose.”

So she’s throwing this dirt at my office door, and I didn’t really need to think about the fact that it was taking place in Greece. Any time that you don’t need to memorize something, don’t worry about putting it in the verbatim, because verbatim is a weird thing. Basically, if you don’t need it and it comes back naturally, don’t create an image for it.

So, “Whence to Greece unnumbered ills arose,” well, what am I doing as this dirt comes at me? I’m writing numbers, and then I’m wiping them away. Unnumbered. And I’m coughing, I’m sick — ills. “Whence to Greece unnumbered ills arose.”

That’s a very simple example. I created a vignette since it’s not really a single image or a set of images. And I did this on and on and on for as much of The Iliad as I wanted to memorize to create this example for Hadey. And she was blown away.

After that, she came back two days later and had memorized 100 words of English vocabulary. (English is not her first language.) She was really skeptical at first, but that’s how I finally convinced her to give this a try. Now she’s part of Toastmasters, and she’s giving speeches left, right, and center, right from her mind, directly from using the Magnetic Memory Method.

Now, it’s important to remember that this example was how to memorize a poem verbatim, and you may not need to memorize your entire textbook word-for-word.

And in additional good news, you can use this method for anything you want to remember — it doesn’t matter whether it’s a formula, poetry, a quote, phrase in a foreign language, or a textbook.

Memorization is memorization, when you get right down to it.

The reality is that you can take a spoon or a bucket — the ocean of information doesn’t care. The memory techniques and your brain treat all information equally well. It’s only the ego that sees a difference, and lack of preparation with the memory tools makes it more difficult.

And finally, since our intrepid reader asked specifically about how to memorize a formula, I’m adding a bonus example to help anyone who needs to memorize them.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch. >>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer. Bonus Example: How to Memorize a Formula Let’s also break down an example of how verbatim memorization works when you need to remember a formula. We’ll use the example our reader asked about:

sin(A+B)=AcosB+cos

As always, we want to start with a well-formed Memory Palace first.

I think of my friend Shannon because her name starts with ‘S’. I was only in her apartment once to watch a James Bond movie, but that’s all I need to get a good Memory Palace rolling.

Next, I start creating Magnetic Imagery to encode the first part of the formula. Since the devil is the boss of “sin,” I put him on Shannon’s couch (a micro-station). To memorize the character “(“ I make it a bulldozer. It drives over an Apple computer, which draws upon another technique entirely, called the pegword method.

From this A for Apple computer, an arm emerges and tosses a crucifix at Batman. Why? Because a crucifix is a good memory tool for remember, and Batman helps me remember “b.”

Now all I have to do is have Batman raise his shield — thus closing this part of the formula with the “)” symbol. But this shield is special because it has two guns to represent the = sign. Then Al Pacino “accosts” Batman throwing a crucifix at Cookie monster wearing Batman “cosplay.”

I know that this process might sound like a lot if you’re a beginner, but you’ll pick it up quickly. And you should — it’s powerful!

So there you have it. Your 10-step cheat sheet for how to memorize a textbook or formula… or any other book you want to remember.

How to Study a Textbook for Maximum Retention Remember that scenario at the beginning of the post? The one where exams were on the horizon, and you were feeling woefully unprepared?

Now you know how to determine how much reading you actually need to do, how much memorization is on your plate, and the best way to memorize your textbooks so you retain as much information as possible.

Most importantly, you understand that memorizing a textbook isn’t as hard as it might seem!

You’re on the right track to ace your exams and create a whole new set of knowledge that you can use now and into the future.

And if you feel like you could use a little bit more of a memory boost before your exams, check out my free memory improvement kit.

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Do you want to know why questioning everything is the best policy in life?

It’s because humans are prone to error, including the smartest amongst us.

In fact, there’s a principle called “the curse of knowledge” that highlights this problem.

A popular example of how this plays out in life is in the exchanges between Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes often points out how Watson doesn’t see the simplest things simply because he doesn’t question the details enough.

It’s not that Watson isn’t a smart guy. He’s a doctor, after all. But because questioning things is such a small part of his mental activity, he misses both the big picture and the granular details.

As a result, Holmes shines as an incredibly bright individual and Watson seems rather dim, despite his credentials.

If you’d like to learn how to question things with greater frequency so you can observe the world in-depth, stick around.

In this post, we’re diving deep into why you should always question everything and different ways to do it well.

Why Questioning Everything Is Critical to Great Thinking The ancient Greeks knew that asking questions was their best bet when it came to critical thinking.

A lot of people associate questioning as a tool introduced by Plato through the Socratic dialogues.

Although it’s true that Plato used the character of Socrates to highlight the use of questions to sharpen our thoughts, inquiry is much older.

The Pre-Socratics, for example, devised what is called Eleatic Philosophy.

Parmenides of Elea, from which Eleatic Philosophy gets its name, is sometimes considered the first of the Greeks to use questions to explore the nature of reality itself.

How Questioning Removes Errors Quickly Here’s the most important point about these philosophers:

They preferred to use logic instead of their direct senses.

And this meant using language in particular ways.

In fact, a lot of their wording boils down to a kind of math though the use of syllogisms that help with thinking logically.

Here’s an example of a typical syllogism:

“All mammals are animals. All elephants are mammals. Therefore, all elephants are animals.”

To test the validity of this statement, the philosophers would use questions that remove their senses.

It might sound silly to us today, but put yourself in their shoes for a moment.

If you were to use purely your sense of touch to assess an elephant, you could conclude that this animal is a reptile based on its leathery skin.

So, before the Greeks developed classification systems, many of which we still use today, they needed to question everything in order to rule out errors that could mislead them.

Another way to look at the questioning process is to understand the difference between abstract thinking and concrete thinking. In each of these types of thinking, you use different kinds of questions to arrive at the truth.

The Dialectic Approach Sticking with the ancient Greeks, let’s look at Plato a little further.

One of Plato’s main contributions is called dialectical thinking.

Through the use of questions, it allows you to reason effectively by producing multiple ways of looking at just about any issue or problem.

It works because you use questions to examine your thoughts and the thoughts of others before, during and after arriving at conclusions.

In other words, the process of questioning never really ends.

This process is the core of the scientific method, in which nothing is ever “proved.” Instead, we use our scientific questions to help us produce evidence that either validates or invalidates our assumptions about the world and reality.

Without being able to ask and answer questions as an ongoing process, truth fizzles up quickly. And this is why Plato’s recording of the dialogues of Socrates is such an astonishing document.

Whether Socrates is right or wrong, what matters is the freedom to debate and keep questioning things.

Other Traditions Based on Questioning Everything Although the ancient Greek philosophers are very important, they weren’t alone in urging us to question.

The urge to question everything why as a repetitive practice is found in other ancient texts like the Upanishads.

These texts were influential in forming contemplative traditions like Advaita Vedanta.

In Advaita Vedanta, there is a process called “self enquiry” (Atma vichara).

In it, you use questions to explore reality as it appears to you.

For example, you can ask, “To whom is this experience happening?”

When you try to find the “inner I” or what some psychologists call the “ego” within the frame of your experience, you will probably struggle.

That’s because things like “I” and the notion of having an identity is fundamentally an illusion. It is one we maintain by failing to ask questions. Instead, we simply go with the flow.

Or we avoid questions out of fear, which is one of the messages you find in some religious traditions. For example, in the Book of Job, asking god to explain why suffering exists is strongly frowned upon.

The popularity of such restrictions is a bit puzzling, but a lot of psychoanalysis helps explain. And psychoanalysis itself uses a process of questioning to help people relieve the suffering that not asking questions creates.

How To Start Always Questioning Everything If you want to commit to a life of enquiry, bravo. I’m confident you’ll find it very rewarding.

In order to get started, consider the following steps:

One: Decide To Go All In And Plan One of the biggest problems people face when they take on a new goal is that they’re not fully committed.

That’s just not going to work when it comes to committing everything. And the reason why should be clear:

We’re talking about everything.

So if you want to question just some things, some of the time, reconsider whether or not dialectical thinking is really something for you. It’s not about dabbling.

And because it’s not about dabbling, you’ll want to plan.

For that, let’s move on to the next step.

Two: Study Inquisitive People And Their Traditions One of the best ways to learn how to enquire deeply is to study those who have gone before you.

And a reading plan of the classic texts that are based around questioning everything is key. I’ve already mentioned a bunch from the Greek tradition, but here are some other suggestions.

Merely by reading the books and resources on this list, you should find yourself starting to question everything almost on autopilot as your brain starts mimicking the process.

Plato’s Republic
Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics
Ramana Maharshi’s Be As You Are
Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology
List of unsolved problems in philosophy
Hoftstadter’s Gödel Escher Bach
Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta
Harris’ Free Will
Weber’s Evolving Beyond Thought
The Victorious Mind (my book, building on Dr. Weber’s work)

There are many other books to recommend, but these are some of the ones I’ve found most useful for training my mind to ask questions.

Not just any questions, but questions of the highest possible value.

You can apply the study of inquisitive people to any area, including finance. For example, studying the questions asked by investors like Warren Buffet can be incredibly rewarding.

Three: Put Your Questions In Writing We often resort to questioning things mentally.

However, getting our hands involved is a best practice due to the benefits of haptic memory. This form of memory involves physical touch and belongs broadly to sensory memory, which is readily exercised.

To practice questioning in writing, consider keeping a journal dedicated to this purpose.

Also, note that writing out answers to questions is part of the artistic process. In The Successful Novelist, David Morrell shares how he has used a process of questioning to help him derive the plots of very successful novels. He uses writing to flesh out answers to specific questions that draw out realistic plot points his readers love.

Four: Verbalize Your Questions With Others Just as we benefit from processing our ideas physically through writing with our hands, processing questions with our mouths is a godsend.

Think about it:

Speech science reveals that at least 100 muscles are involved in speaking aloud.

Now, not everyone has interested parties to speak with, so get this:

You can still exercise all those muscles by asking yourself questions out loud.

I do this often and feel no shame in it. It’s a purposeful verbalization of my questions that not only generates better answers, but sometimes helps me improve the questions themselves.

This happens because I hear how sometimes I limit my wording, or miss the point. I cannot imagine perceiving these deficiencies in any other way.

Five: Review Everything Re-reading books or re-taking courses is one of my favorite strategies for asking better questions.

In fact, at the time I’m writing this post, one of my projects involves trying to re-read as much of my university syllabi as possible from my first year to 2009 when I completed my Ph.d.

It’s a massive project, and I don’t pretend that I’ll be able to cover everything.

However, I’ve already noticed with the books that I’ve re-read so far that the quality of my questions have improved. They’ve done so by virtue of a kind of guiding meta-question:

Who was I when I first read these books?
What did I feel when I was reading them?
Where was I? (Both physically, emotionally and in terms of my street smarts?)
What did I conclude after reading them?

These questions now have a powerful pair:

Who am I now as I read them again?
What do I feel now?
Where am I?
What do I conclude now?
What are the notable differences between then and now?

Although you might not take your re-reading strategy to the same lengths I am, the benefits of comparing and contrasting your experiences based on these questions is huge. I personally feel that this is one of the most strategic ways to enquire into many aspects of reality at the same time, so hope you’ll give it a try.

Question Everything Within Reason Although I’ve presented questioning everything as a beneficial practice, moderation and discernment are required.

I imagine that you, like me, ultimately want freedom in life. This means that we can’t become a slave to needing to question everything all the time. Frankly, I doubt anyone could, even if they tried, certainly not without making themselves sick.

Rather, enquiry is best as a constant practice. This means that you work on it consistently, a mental strength initiative no different than the physical strength programs we apply to our bodies.

This means that some planning will be useful, and self-monitoring to make sure we aren’t going overboard.

And the best way to do that?

Using questions about how we’re going about questioning things, of course!

If you’d like a simple course that will help you remember to keep questioning yourself within reason, give this Free Memory Improvement Kit a try:

And let me know:

What questions are you going to ask yourself next?

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The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing

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The number one reason students struggle to find the main points in their reading is simple:

You are being tested on your ability to figure out what they are and why they’re important.

Teachers worth their salt won’t give you the answers because to do so violates your ability to learn this skill.

Why is this true?

Because all of human progress relies upon unique and innovative solutions to problems.

And knowing how to find the key points in an article is something that is learned by doing.

Plus, content is not king in this regard.

Instead, context is god.

So you not only need to practice identifying what the key points are.

You need to justify in your own words why those points are so important.

Don’t worry, however.

I have tips for you that will help you improve your skills in this area.

Even if giving main points examples is beside the point, I will share some from my own reading.

I’ll teach you how I as a person with two MAs and a PhD earned those degrees by finding what’s important in my topic and justifying my decisions.

Ready to see A+ written all over your report cards and university transcripts?

Let’s get started!

What Is A Main Point? A main point has several aspects to it. For starters, we have:

What the author meant
What the author actually said

Now, you might think that this is splitting hairs.

But as Stanley Fish put it, “the world is one thing, words another.”

Fish is the author of How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One. A huge part of his point is that there’s a difference between what a person actually means and how words can be interpreted in many different ways.

There’s a word for this problem: Polysemy. We face it when “a single word, phrase, or concept has more than one meaning or connotation.”

Because many sentences have this issue, the main idea of a passage almost always requires interpretation in your own words.

And if you want to interpret really well, you need to give evidence to demonstrate why your take on the meaning of the passage is valid.

So we might as well face an uncomfortable truth:

To a certain extent, a main point is what you say it is plus what you can validate through argumentation.

Main Points In The Classroom The definition I’ve just given applies to all aspects of life, but might not be what a teacher in a classroom is looking for from you.

It may be that you need to give a specific answer. This is why I say that “context is god.” In order to pass a test or get an A+ on a paper, the right answer might not be in your control no matter how much evidence you provide.

I’ve personally suffered situations several times where in multiple choice exams, the wording of the question made it impossible to give the best possible answer.

That’s why I’m glad that I used to follow a few simple steps:

Read the textbooks thoroughly and answer any section or chapter quizzes
Talk to my teachers to make sure I knew exactly what they were looking for
Go through sample exams from previous years
Attend study groups to discuss possible exam questions in advance

Once in the exam setting, if I could not figure out what answer the person grading the exam considered correct, I took a detour.

I would handwrite on the exam that I could not give an answer in good faith. Then I would write on the back of one of the pages a full explanation of why I thought the question was worded poorly. Finally, I gave the answer in prose that I felt was correct.

Although I cannot advise you to do the same, this strategy saved my skin in several exams. I always passed and did complete most of my degrees with honors, something that would have been impossible if I followed the “rules.”

In my case, my main idea paragraphs (or what I sometimes called “paragrowls”) saved my skin many times.

The Best Way To Identify A Main Point

At the end of the day, the best way to know the main point is to question everything.

Ask yourself:

What is the author trying to tell me?
What are the words the author uses?
How is the topic introduced and concluded?
What do any diagrams or illustrations tell me about the main points?
What references to other research does the author make?
What do commentators on the author say about the main points made by the author?
Can I find where in the book or article those commentators drew their conclusions?

By asking and answering questions like these, in combination with the strategies I’ve shared for how I used to pass exams, you should feel confident that you can find the main points much easier now.

What Are Subpoints? Subpoints are easier to define.

Remember how I said that we need to validate our opinion about what counts as a main point?

Authors of books and articles need to do this too. And subpoints is how they do it.

A subpoint typically involves:

Giving an example
Providing evidence in order to substantiate a claim
Paraphrasing another source
Quoting a source
Analyzing a secondary text
Providing a variation on a key point
Performing historical or theoretical analysis on a main point

For a quick example of a subpoint, just scroll up.

When I mentioned that I’ve passed all my exams so well that I’ve earned the highest degrees you can get at a university, that was a subpoint. It is providing evidence to support the claim that my strategy is valid.

I could actually make the claim even more valid by providing proof that I have a Ph.d., such as by giving you this link to the alumni page of York University’s graduate program in Humanities.

Are subpoints more important than the main points?

In many ways, yes. They are often the evidence that substantiates the main point. Or they provide the nuances or historical background that help explain what makes the main point important.

How to Find the Key Points in an Article in 3 Steps Now that we have defined main ideas and subpoints, let’s talk about some powerful ways to find them.

The following steps do not have to be followed in any particular order, though I do suggest always starting with the first one.

Step One: Know Your Goal As I mentioned, a teacher or examiner may have a definition of what counts as the main point. I’ve given you some strategies for figuring that out.

All you have to do after determining what counts as a main point in your particular context is to read the books with that definition in mind.

If you’re completing a doctoral dissertation or writing a book like I often do, the burden is a bit heavier. Your goal is to have a research question before you start reading.

Answering this question, and any sub-questions you may have, is your goal.

Step Two: Keep Detailed & Moveable Notes Because it’s not always possible to know the main idea of a story or scholarly book I’m reading, I take notes on cards.

I shared a detailed tutorial on how I do this in How to Memorize a Textbook.

As I discuss in that post, there are several benefits to taking notes on cards, but one of them is that you can constantly reshape your “deck of notes.”

The more you read, the more your idea of what counts as an important point might change, as will the subpoints you notice.

Keep in mind that subpoints don’t always have to come from the same source. As a former university professor myself, I can tell you that one way to make sure you get an A+ on your essays is to cross-reference several articles.

By doing this as much as possible in your writing and when answering exam questions, you’re demonstrating reflective thinking. This impresses your graders and will later impress hiring managers too.

Step Three: Test For Validity One of the best things you can do is test your assumption that a point is as important as it seems.

You can test the validity of what you’ve decided are the most important details in your reading by:

Checking introductions and conclusions again for confirmation
Looking through the index for the terms you’ve selected
Follow-up reading online and in other books
Asking your teacher or professor if you’ve understood the reading correctly
Talking with others to see if they’ve reached similar conclusions

Ultimately, having your test, submitted assignment or the things you write yourself graded or scored by others is the ultimate validation. You need either the feedback of your teacher or comments from the court of public opinion to know if you’ve hit paydirt.

And that’s a very good thing. External validation is a huge part of how we grow.

Yes, it takes some courage and sometimes you might get things wrong. Being willing to admit that and then commit to improving in the future is the best response. And so long as you commit to doing that, you cannot lose.

A Final, Powerful Way To Find Main Points There’s an ancient technique for finding out what really matters in any given text.

It involves using a Memory Palace.

Basically, you memorize a few details, or entire quotes. Then, you analyze them from within memory.

By doing this, you’re able to consider them in a way that is much deeper than if they are only partially absorbed in your mind.

If you’d like to learn more about this technique, consider going through my Free Memory Improvement Kit:

This approach has helped me many times throughout the years, not only for academic goals, but also personal progress in other areas of life. I’m talking about health, mindfulness and professional matters.

Give it a try, and let me know:

What questions do you still have about identifying the main points in the texts that you’re reading? I love updating posts and answering questions in the comments.

And that’s another strategy you might consider:

Online discussion. It’s a great way to figure out what matters most to yourself and others.

The post How to Find The Main Points in an Article: A Simple Guide appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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We are all naive sometimes.

And make no mistake:

That can be a very good thing in the right context.

Why?

Because the core of scientific, philosophical and personal progress requires the ability to see the world with fresh eyes.

By the same token, being naive can also be incredibly destructive.

It can force you to miss out on so many of life’s pleasures because it can make you:

Irrational when rationality is needed
Skeptical when active participation is required
Emotionally destructive when only reason can save the day

But here’s the very good news:

When it comes to learning how to be less naive, the improvement process could not be simpler.

And this post covers how to increase your wisdom in precise terms.

Ready?

Let’s get S.M.A.R.T.E.R together!

(I’ll tell you what the acronym means later. I promise!)

Am I Naive? The Top Seven Signs of a Naive Person Scientists have shown that being naive is essential to our cognitive development as kids. We literally cannot tell the differences between things without allowing curiosity to help us distinguish the difference between things.

For example, as kids we scientifically test the world. We learn to avoid hot surfaces by being naive about what they are and how they harm us.

This means that the number one way to know if someone is being naive is pretty simple.

One: Lack of Experience If you want to know how to stop being naive, ask this simple question every time an opinion floats to your mind:

Do I actually have the experience required to make my opinion valid?

Questioning everything in this way will instantly make you a smarter person. You’ll certainly stick your foot in your mouth much less often.

This is true because intelligent people ask questions – or at least acknowledge that a topic is in question – before making final statements about it.

But naive people?

Not so much. You can often tell by the speed of their answers that they simply lack the background knowledge required to give an intelligent response.

Two: Lack of Self-Awareness Some people suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

This takes place when a person is not smart enough to know that they aren’t educated in a particular topic area. It’s very destructive, and one need only look at the comments on various social media sites to see how rampant this problem is.

Three: Poor Vocabulary Did you know that scientists have warned that the vocabulary of our young people is rapidly shrinking?

This connects to our first point about how experience helps us differentiate different things in the world.

We rarely do this through experience alone. Our language helps us process the experience and deepen it through communication with others.

But if we don’t know the words for objects and experiences, our ability to understand and connect them with other aspects of reality shrinks.

Four: Gullibility Having a larger vocabulary has been shown to help you read faster, which helps you avoid being easily cheated or deceived. The more you know, the more you can know.

Yet, there are people out there who talk for hours about things like the Mandela Effect with zero evidence that it exists.

Watch out for people who misuse scientific-sounding terminology to take advantage of the gullible.

They don’t realize that other people exploit their lack of scientific literacy.

They do this by showing them ads to sell them products packed with other sensational material. Entire industries direct themselves at consumers with limited mental processing power.

Five: Lack of Critical Thinking Skills Now, I don’t mean to put only a few people on the spot. Incredibly smart people also display gullibility from time to time.

Desperate health situations, lack of time to think and other situations can cause even people with very high IQ scores to blunder.

However, people with critical thinking abilities often realize their mistakes much quicker. Often, they’re able to reverse course before any significant damage has been done.

They can do this because they’ve had some training in critical thinking, like the kind you can get on this blog. Here are some resources if you’d like to beef up your brain so you can think through important issues faster and make fewer mistakes:

9 Critical Thinking Strategies
Analytical Thinking
Abstract Thinking
Concrete Thinking
Logical vs. Rational Thinking
14 of the Best Critical Thinking Books

Six: Lack of Willingness To Change They say that the only constant is change. But one of the top signs of a naive person is inflexibility.

Nietzsche put it best when he said that asking someone else to change is like asking the entire universe to change. But isn’t that often what naive people do?

As I suggested in my TEDx Talk, which centered on a naive passage of my own life, we know that we can’t change others:

But we can change ourselves.

So if you want to stop being so naive, make sure to check out the various ways that you can change yourself in the section below.

Seven: You Do Not Put Time Aside For Thinking Believe it or not, thinking is not a natural activity. We descend from animals and our autopilot instincts are geared for survival.

This means that thinking not only has to be learned, but in order to keep it sharp, it also has to be practiced.

A sure sign of a person being naive is when they say that they made a “snap decision.” Some people will even brag that they are “impulsive” or like to “rely on intuition.”

True, life sometimes forces us to make choices on the fly. We may have to listen to our gut.

But it’s never ideal and it’s naive to think so. As Chip and Dan Heath point out in their book, Decisive, much research shows that not taking a time to think things through harms us much more than we think.

Yet, societies around the world are so collectively gullible that we valorize impulsive celebrities and spend hours following the trainwrecks of their lives.

Luckily, you can avoid belonging to the herd, so let’s turn our attention to simple ways to get more experience, become more intelligent and enjoy reality at an increasingly mature level.

How to Stop Being Naive in Eight Steps Fortunately, there are many ways to reduce gullibility and become an accurate thinker on a quest for constant improvement.

Let’s have a look at some of the best.

Step One: Take Time To Analyze Things Thoroughly Snap decisions are deadly. And once you’re in the habit of making them, it can be hard to change.

However, it actually doesn’t take that long to make intelligent decisions. But you do need to take the time it requires to think things through.

One model I love is the W.R.A.P. technique in Decisive. This approach applies to many situations where you will benefit from thinking things through. It works like this:

Widen your options
Reality test
Attain distance
Prepare to fail

To give you an example, let’s say you hear about repressing your subvocalization from a so-called speed-reading expert.

Before you take this expert at his or her word and plunk down your hard earned cash on their training, you can widen your options by looking up what credible scientists say about this issue.

Then, you can reality test the person’s claims by seeing what they’ve accomplished in life with their approach.

Finally, you can take a break to get some distance between yourself and the topic and let your brain ruminate on autopilot through a process called diffuse thinking.

If you decide to go ahead and invest in the idea after taking time to deliberate, be willing to fail.

By the same token, you should accept that in some areas of self-education, it pays to fail. If you don’t go through a course or two created by charlatans, you risk not sharpening your BS-detection skills, which also requires you to prepare for failure.

In sum, taking time to think in a structured manner is a great way to suffer less from being naive in life.

Step Two: Take Personal Responsibility Gullible people often avoid seeing how they steered themselves into harm’s way. But that’s an avoidance strategy and one that prevents you from growing.

Even worse, you can wind up trapped in learned helplessness. As researcher Martin Seligman has shown, it’s easy for humans to accept and even come to love the things that hold them back. But it’s also readily possible for anyone to learn to reject the limiting factors in our lives. Studies have shown that feel good dopamine increases when you take actions that increase your mental strength.

In order to become more resilient and learn from your naivety, you need to acknowledge its presence in your life, accept it and then plan to do better.

Getting some time on the calendar to study critical thinking or improve your memory through a program like the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass is a great way to do that.

Step Three: Reduce Screen Time & Mindless Consumption There was a time when people thought that intelligence was fixed. But research that identified what has come to be known as the Flynn Effect showed that in the 20th century, people were in fact getting smarter and smarter in each and every generation.

This trend continued until recently, but now some researchers think that intelligence may be spiralling downwards. They even call this a reversal of the Flynn Effect in some areas of human knowledge and skill.

One explanation for why this downward trend is taking place is digital amnesia. As the Internet moves closer and closer to creating zero latency online environments, people become increasingly hooked to their devices. Indeed, the CEO of Netflix once said that their only competitor is sleep.

By spending more time reading books, even if you’re a slow reader, you’ll give your mind for reflective thinking that fast-paced online environments usually train your brain to avoid. They are designed to keep you clicking without thinking, whereas reading offline is all about connecting with the thoughts of others in a sustained way.

Step Four: Improve Your Vocabulary In More Than One Language A lot of people will tell you to travel to give you more life experience. But let’s face it: the beaches and areas of historical interest around the world are packed with as many naive people as your hometown.

A better way to gain world perspective is through language learning. This is because working with languages is what James Hordern calls knowledgeable practice.

The best part is that memorizing vocabulary is fast, easy and fun. I regularly review my copy of Word Power Made Easy to keep my English sharp and read in other languages at least 3-5 times per week.

Step Five: Design Your Own Long Term Learning Projects A lot of people randomly pile books into their Amazon shopping cart, or collect suggestions on Goodreads.

But savvy lifelong learners are curators of their knowledge. They may read broadly, but usually within highly concentrated areas of interest for dedicated periods of time.

I took so many courses at university, my brain has been trained to think in terms of semesters.

To this day, I search the Internet not for lists of the best books on a certain topic, but for university syllabi put together by experts. I try to find the biggest and most authoritative textbook on a topic that I can, and then read at least 2-3 of the books it discusses within.

This style of learning allows me to lean on the curation process of experts as I develop my own expertise. Then, when I throw in wildcard discoveries along the way, I automatically read them at a higher level and avoid falling into gullibility because a critical foundation for understanding the topic has already been established.

For any topic I’m studying, I seek to include books from at least these categories:

History of the topic
Theory of the topic
Practical applications of the topic
Critical biographies related to the topic

If you seek the best possible books from each of these categories and spend 3-6 months focused on them and supplementary materials, you won’t be naive about that topic for long.

And stick with your reading plan. Remember: Variety definitely is the spice of life, but the truth in the cliche won’t help if you keep changing disciplines. You can dive deep into topics and connect them a lot better if you spend periods of focused time on fewer topics in more detailed ways.

The best part is that your focus will compound in value because you’ll have learned the meta skills of how to learn and see many more connections thanks to your depth of study.

Step Six: Carry A Notebook Everywhere I can think of few things that have helped me more than carrying a notebook 99.9% of the time.

Although it’s true I use memory techniques, there’s nothing better than working thoughts out on paper and planning with my hands. Plus, having a journal is very helpful for quickly creating Memory Palaces (a powerful tool for remembering things quickly).

Besides planning and keeping track of ideas that emerge, notebooks are great for self-assessment, gratitude journaling and generally expanding your mind.

Step Seven: Practice Objectivity One of the hardest things for chronically naive people is to realize that reality exists independent of their thoughts and opinions.

This mistake happens because they are primarily subjective when they would benefit from being objective thinkers.

No doubt about it, being objective is hard.

Fixing this issue starts by understanding that your brain practically forces you to be emotionally invested in everything you see and do. We are driven to navigate the world by the laws and forces of evolution in the same way that gravity holds us fast to the earth.

To become more objective despite having the chips stacked against you, you can make objectivity one of your first learning projects. Study the sciences of psychology, decision making and game theory. Make a concerted effort to become a philosopher.

As part of this project, build a network of people around you who can help stress test your ideas. I suggest joining paid groups rather than free ones. Whereas many of the free ones are filled with low quality posts that will trap you in naive thinking, a solid investment in a discussion group based around deep dives into challenging content will serve you very well.

If you’d like to be part of one of my upcoming groups, consider letting me know!

Step Eight: Know Your Personality Type One of my own experiences of being gullible revealed a lot to me about an area I’d never thought about in the context of investing.

For years, I’d been so focused on academic matters and later developing this blog, I had spent almost no time thinking about or studying the different ways I might retire one day.

Because I practice what I preach, I followed a lot of the steps I’ve discussed above. For example, I looked for the foundational books on investing and spent months focused on reading them thoroughly.

I also took courses and spent time with a topic expert to go over my plans.

He said something very interesting to me:

“If you invest in a way that goes against your personality type, you’ll always be miserable.”

I listened deeply to what this expert had to say about personality types when it comes to investing. I journaled about it in my notebook, talked with yet other people and these processes helped me make the right decisions. I know now that I avoided being gullible around a lot of decisions that so-called experts in the field call wise investing, but what actually amounts to uneducated greed.

This particular topic is not very interesting to me, but I’m glad I planned time for it and spoke directly with the experts themselves to help formulate my plans. To make sure you avoid the traps of naivety, I suggest you do the same.

You Don’t Have To Stop Being Naive 100% As I mentioned in the introduction, we benefit from keeping an open mind and cultivating curiosity.

By the same token, we don’t want to keep our minds so open that our brains fall out.

Instead, we want to strive to be what I call S.M.A.R.T.E.R or serious, mature and ready to embrace reality.

This is important because the wisest people amongst us know one thing to be true above all:

None of us know what we don’t know.

In fact, the most intelligent person alive is still shrouded by monumental ignorance. That person must be because the future is not and cannot be known. Plus, so much of the past was never recorded, and mountains of human knowledge that was preserved at one point has since been lost.

But we can learn to think logically and develop problem solving models. It just takes a willingness to get started and keep going.

And it helps to be able to remember the steps that we’ve discussed today. If you’d like help with that, please register for my FREE Memory Improvement Kit.

It will help you rapidly create and use the tools memory experts employ to help them learn faster and remember more.

And when you can do that, you can kiss being destructively naive goodbye. For good.

The post Am I Naive? How to Tell (And Fix It) appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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Are you confused by the amount of advice related to deliberate practice?

I don’t blame you. After all, there are lots of different kinds of skills that require different kinds of practice.

Not only that, but some people use a different term: dedicated practice. You might also see it called intentional practice. These variations on the term only add more confusion.

But there is an easy way to understand this concept and I’ll give you examples to make everything that goes into proper practice crystal clear.

And if you’re wondering if you need a coach or not in order for deliberate practice to work, we’ll discuss that too.

At the end of the day, deliberate practice will work for you. It’s just a matter of getting the facts straight and learning how to plan.

Since informing yourself correctly is key to practicing well, I’m glad you’re here. Let’s dive in!

What is Deliberate Practice? The term is used often in sports science and is often defined as practicing according to specific steps or instructions.

Dedicated practice is planned, based on small component parts and improvement is meticulously tracked by capturing data. This data is then used for the individual person engaged in the practice to help them further improve by dialing down even deeper on key areas that require improvement.

For example, I study music and take courses online from Scott’s bass lessons. In one of his programs, Scott identifies 9 key areas of deliberate learning for musicians:

Technique
Fingerboard knowledge
Accompaniment skills
Theory and harmony
Repertoire and performance
Rhythmic development
Chordal skills
Soloing and improv
Sight reading

Obviously, these areas don’t apply to all levels of skill, but the point is to break practice down into granular areas.

When it comes to how to memorize a song, for instance, you might dig even deeper into the theory component and study the modes.

You just have to self-identify where you need improvement the most and then make a plan to fill in the gaps. If you’re not able to spot these areas on your own, this is where a coach can be very impactful.

Deliberate Practice Examples We’ve just discussed how a musician might break their practice down into several key areas.

This principle applies across multiple disciplines, so let’s have a look at a few.

Deliberate Practice in Language Learning One of my favorite ways to apply this form of practice is learning new words and phrases in a foreign language. It works well at any stage, beginner, intermediate or advanced.

There are a few ways to apply deliberate practice theory to language learning.

First, you can make sure you hit the Big 5 skills in meticulously scheduled doses:

Committing new words and phrases to memory
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening

But another way you can apply this form of practice to language learning is in how you approach memorizing phrases and vocabulary.

For example, let’s say that you’re learning a sentence in German like “Das Blaue vom Himmel versprechen.” It literally means the blue promise from the sky to indicate a promise that cannot be fulfilled.

If you find you get stuck on such phrases, a simple way to practice it more efficiently and ease it into long term memory, involves breaking it into 2-3 parts.

Das blaue vom
Vom Himmel
Himmel versprechen

I tend to prefer starting in the middle and working on just two or three words in a loop. Then I add the end to create a longer loop before going back to include the beginning.

Incidentally, I adopted this approach from music, where it is very common for students to make the mistake of going back to the beginning of a song when they make a mistake. Instead, if you take a single bar and loop it in this exact same manner, you’ll help erase the mistake without having to replay the whole song.

This kind of laser-focused, purposeful practice helps make sure that you’re weeding out problem areas while allowing your brain time to process the whole.

Deliberate Practice in Painting And Art When I taught film studies, we talked a lot about the “deep narrative” of a story, which is why my ears picked up when I read the artist Tanya J. Behrisch on the principle of “deep time” in art.

In brief, time spent in nature or plein aire vastly improves your technique. This is quite different than deep narrative techniques where filmmakers use an economy of means to create sometimes vast universes in your mind in just 2-3 hours.

The theory makes a lot of sense. For example, the more time you spend studying exactly how the light of the sun illuminates a particular shade of green on a specific kind of tree, the more likely you’ll be able to express it in ways that create both recognition and unexpected emotional impact.

How exactly do you practice deep time as an artist?

By actually using your exposure to nature to mix your paints and get them on the canvas. The artist’s sketchbook and consistent studies over time help create an observation loop as they track their progress over time. Artists can also detail the exact nature of their experiments and innovations for future reference.

As the artist Behrisch puts it, deep time is needed to learn what the environment being painted has to say. There is a physical dimension, according to Behrisch, that amounts to allowing the senses to take on the life of the environment in a way that directs the artistic choices of color, stroke, shade, perspective and other aspects of image creation.

SFU Morning by Tanya Behrisch, 2008.

Deliberate Practice in Writing I’ll never forget when Professor Leps remarked about Roland Barthes that he was a remarkable writer precisely because he wrote masterfully in so many different genres. He wrote theory, philosophy, criticism and addressed multiple disciplines.

Leps said this to a class I took at York University back in 1998 and her observation influenced me to write in as many genres as possible myself. Doing so has helped me improve as a writer for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment.

But in order to gain any level of skill in writing, one needs to develop several levels of understanding. Each needs intentional practice in order to grow one’s skills as a writer. Here are four that have been particularly important to me:

Diction
Genre
Theory
Structure

Practicing diction comes down to style, the specific words you choose to use. This requires the practice of writing itself, but also observation of how you naturally write in comparison with your observation of others.

Genre, on the other hand, requires a study of situations and various kinds of plots. For example, there are at least two kinds of tragedy.

In one, the protagonist fails to recognize his or her errors. In another, the protagonist does have a moment of recognition, but only after it is too late for correction. It takes dedicated study and actual time spent writing within a genre to begin to spot these types. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to take a genre like tragedy for granted.

Theory will help you spot these structures with greater ease. But even understanding theory can take practice. But the more that you combine study with implementation, the deeper your understanding becomes and the better you’re able to practice the craft.

Writing is also a physical art. It requires consistency over long periods of time. The first draft of my latest book project took 44 days with a minimum or 2000 words per day. I did that while continuing to write for this blog, where each article averages out to between 1700 and 2000 words. Given that I’ve written over two dozen books and hundreds of articles, I can tell you that stamina is something you build through consistent practice. No one is gifted with it from on high.

As an example of how I trained my stamina, here’s a practice I still use to this day:

I have trained myself to write for as long as one of my favorite albums takes to play from beginning to end.

For years, most of the posts on this blog were written while listening to just one album. Because I find editing extraordinarily tedious, I typically will use a separate album. A book written while listening to Nevermore may be edited while listening to Lou Reed, for example.

“Entraining” your brain to write by listening to the same music during each session could be a powerful deliberate practice technique for you.

You don’t have to take my word for that training using intentional practice matters. Stephen King says as much in his own words in On Writing and also talks about writing to music. Likewise, I learned about the importance of writing consistently from Susan Swan, under whom I studied writing at York University.

But to be as clear as possible:

I treat writing an entire book very differently than I do writing for my blog. Whereas a blog post can be drafted in an afternoon, a book may take weeks, months or even years.

Furthermore, successful blogging has certain rules and principles in order to reach audiences who typically use search engines to find answers to questions.

Books, on the other hand, go much deeper and can use a variety of structures. For example, most of my books are like manuals. But when I wrote The Victorious Mind, I practiced combining the delivery of raw instruction with scientific journalism and autobiography. I took inspiration from books like Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer and Suzanne Segal’s Collision with the Infinite.

The point is that you need to practice the principles that are related to the genre and the structure you’re creating in while allowing theory to guide your diction.

Critical Thinking and Deliberate Practice As a final, briefer example, let’s look at critical thinking. This is an important skill that cannot develop without consistent practice.

As Becki Saltzman puts in in her LinkedIn Learning course, Developing a Critical Thinking Mindset, you need to create a practice routine that integrates this form of thinking into your daily life.

She shares that she poses one question to herself each day of the week. The question may cover:

Issues at work
Medical decisions
Societal debates
Trending ideas

She goes even deeper by dividing the kinds of questions she practices by day of the week:

Monday = a purpose question (is my purpose properly aligned?)
Tuesday = an information question (what are the best resources I need to look at?)
Wednesday = a question question (what am I failing to ask?)
Thursday = a perspective question (what perspectives am I leaving out?)
Friday = Assumption question (what assumptions have I left out?)
Saturday = Concept question (how can I better clarify one of my ideas?)
Sunday = Conclusion question (how can I find better evidence to support my ideas?)

But practicing critical thinking using this structure, Salztman promises outcomes that I believe are very true:

We will make fewer mistakes and achieve intellectual humility. In other words, this form of practice keeps us open to learning more because we acknowledge that we do not know what we do not know.

For more ways to practice in this area, check out these 9 critical thinking strategies.

Deliberate Practice in Meditation One of my favorite ways to apply deliberate practice is in mindfulness and a style of concentration meditation that is a bit more robust than other traditions.

In addition to daily sitting, this approach involves memorizing and reciting Sanskrit from a particular philosophical tradition.

Then, throughout the day, when unwanted thoughts arrive, specific statements “neutralize” them.

When pleasant mental experiences arise, deliberate practice is used to strengthen the positivity. The specific statement I make is “deepen, deepen” while focusing on the pleasant aspect.

According to renowned meditation expert Shinzen Young, this process creates a positive feedback loop. In other words, the more you label the pleasant experiences, the more pleasant experiences you have to label.

In this same discussion with Young, Leigh Brasington called the outcome of this process “Ecstatic Meditation.” He gives instructions on how to practice in his book, Right Concentration.

For more exercises that help you practice meditation intentionally, please also consider reading The Victorious Mind.

Why Deliberate Practice Works According to Campitelli and Gobet in Deliberate Practice: Necessary But Not Sufficient, the success of deliberate practice may not come down to the amount of hours you spend on a skill. At least not entirely.

Looking at chess, they found that other factors were involved, such as:

General cognitive ability
The age a person begins to practice
Handedness
The exact season of birth (due to exposure to viruses more or less prevalent during particular parts of the year)

Don’t let these findings discourage you. The researchers focused strictly on chess, after all.

But I mention the research because knowledge can give you mental strength that leads to identifying issues and helping you find solutions.

Ultimately, the real reason deliberate learning works comes down to the neurochemistry of habit formation.

Some of the best and most accessible resources on the science behind how the brain helps you form positive habits are found in books like:

Atomic Habits by James Clear
59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

I’ve already given an example of how I’ve put this science to work in my own life. Whereas I never used to believe that I could write for a living, by simply committing to write 2000 words a day each and everyday, I completely rewired my brain. It’s now very difficult for me not to write at least that much in the same way some people crave exercise… or junk food.

I think you get the picture:

Repetition is what forms habit, good or bad. The trick is to focus on repeating the good things enough times that your brain chemistry takes over and you crave the repetition of the steps that lead to positive outcomes. Even if effort is involved, you will ultimately not have a hard time showing up to do what works.

And on those days when you still struggle, you’ll have metacognitive tools provided by intentional practice itself that will help you “troubleshoot” the issues and neutralize them.

How to Use Deliberate Practice to Master Anything Now let’s get into the good stuff: Exactly how to apply deliberate learning to the skills you want to learn.

Although there’s no perfect way to order the exact steps involved, I’ve been practicing presenting information in logical order. But this is where learners sometimes get hung up:

You don’t necessarily have to execute anything in the exact order it’s presented. Once you have the bird’s eye overview, recreate the steps in the manner that makes the most sense for you. And if things don’t work out, come back to the training and start again. As you’re about to discover, reviewing your steps through critical observation is a huge component of your success.

Know the Key Components of the Skill Although a skill like archery might look like one swift moment when practiced by a pro, it’s actually the combination of multiple small moves.

In order to practice effectively, you need to identify those small moves and work out ways to practice them as independently as possible. In painting, it might be devising color mixing from outlining shapes. In music, it might be differentiating rhythm studies from learning the exact notes in a scale.

The more you can map the territory into its component parts, the easier it will be to navigate the whole.

To give you another example, in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass, I help people focus on the Memory Palace technique first. Then we move into visualization skills related to association before linking them back to the initial technique. In this way, we establish one foundation at a time and then go back and strengthen that initial foundation through a process of review.

Plan Based On the Components Once you’ve identified all the different parts that are involved in a skill, create a plan of attack. As we saw with the critical thinking example, Saltzman spreads her practice across the entire week.

You can also refer back to the method of splitting things up that I shared in the music and language learning examples. Instead of tackling a whole piece, you can look at just parts of things on specific days.

For example, I often teach my serious memory students to prepare what they want to memorize early in the week, practice encoding it during the middle of the week, and then practice decoding the information during the end of the week.

Obviously, this particular suggestion can be modified in different ways. If you don’t want to split the sessions across an entire week, you can split them into morning, afternoon and evening. Experimenting to see what works best for you is the fastest way to settle on a strategy that provides consistent and substantial results.

Embrace Discomfort There’s a reason many experts say that you have to get outside your comfort zone. Taking action not only requires energy and focus, but you also can never be sure that the expenditure will pay off.

That’s why it’s important to let go of the outcome. Perfectionists have an especially difficult time doing this, and they often benefit the most when they’re finally able to let go of control. The reality is that no one can actually control anything that’s going to happen in the future, so the sooner you accept this unsettling fact, the sooner you’ll benefit from practicing without concern for how the session will go.

That said, you still need to monitor your practice. As you do, simply observe any discomfort. Label it, but do not judge it.

If you need help with this step, here are two questions you can ask if and when negative thoughts about your practice results arise.

Capture and Analyze When I taught at Rutgers, my boss Dr. Spellmeyer gave me one of the most useful tips I’ve ever encountered. He said to never make more than three corrections on an essay I was marking.

The reason why is that too much feedback overwhelms students and prevents them from perceiving the value of what you’re offering.

Since that time, I myself have asked my own teachers to limit their feedback to just three corrections, especially in language learning. This area in particular requires a lot of courage, especially when it comes to speaking practice. If you’re interrupted constantly while trying to speak, it can shatter your confidence.

For this reason, I suggest you apply the three-corrections rule to yourself as well. The catch is that in order to find areas for correction, you need to actually capture your practice.

Fortunately, that’s easy these days. Back when I started magic, I used to record myself with a camcorder, which meant having to hook it up to a TV in order to watch the footage. But these days, it’s easy to use my desktop, laptop or phone to get instant feedback.

Likewise, anytime you meet a tutor on Zoom, there’s a one-click process to get the session recorded. It’s easy to review the material multiple times so you can analyze your own errors.

Just don’t overdo it. Try to focus on only three things at a time and you’ll give yourself space to work on the big issues. You’ll have great mental clarity for the granular details on your second pass.

Work in 90-day Blocks Although I’m sure it’s influenced by all the years I spent attending semester courses at university, I think there’s a lot to be gained by practicing in 90-day blocks on particular skills.

For one thing, a lot of the neuroscience resources I shared above show that 90-days is a kind of sweet-spot for habit formation.

To help portion out these blocks of time, I have found The Freedom Journal useful. The best part about a tool like this is that after using it once or twice, your brain is well-trained to repeat the process without relying on an external device.

Rest Like A Pro As the cliche goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

This phrase is instructive because not all of us feel rested by sitting around doing nothing. Some of us get our rest by engaging in alternative activities that help us express our skills in different ways.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang brings this point out in his book Rest. I took two of his suggestions to heart and combined them:

Take a sabbatical
Apply your skills to something else entirely

I mentioned earlier that my latest book project took 44 days. But I didn’t mention that it was not about memory – at least not directly. I wrote a novel instead.

Although it still took energy and focus, I felt remarkably refreshed at the end of each writing period for the reasons Pang uncovered in his research. The skill of writing is being exercised, but in a completely novel way. This makes the activity as restful, if not moreso, than if I’d done nothing at all.

But whatever you do, it’s important to know what counts as restful for you. And it would be remiss if I didn’t point out that rest itself must be studied and practiced with intention and structure.

Miss Out on Intentional Practice At Your Own Risk As I hope you can tell by now, you have every reason to practice with focused intention. There’s literally nothing to lose.

True, practicing in the ways we’ve discussed today requires setup and review. This process must also be repeated as you make your way on the path of mastery.

But isn’t this precisely what mastery is?

When I use the term “memory master” on this blog, what I mean is precisely that: the person who consistently practices their memory with no concern for the outcome.

Yes, there’s the paradox that we need to observe the outcome in order to improve over time. But life is full of contradictions, and learning to accept them is part of how we make progress. You can learn to let go of the outcome and analyze it all the same.

And if you’d like help with this process when it comes to memory improvement, give this FREE Memory Improvement Kit a try:

It will reveal the secrets of how everyone from ancient learners to contemporary memory athletes learn faster and remember more.

You’ll learn exactly what needs to be practiced and how to document your journey so you can improve your results over time.

And let me know in the comments:

What outcomes do you want and how willing are you to put the key characteristics of deliberate practice to work in your learning life on a scale of 1-10?

The post Deliberate Practice: How to Harness Its Power appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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David Perell is an author who helps people excel in what you might call the business of creativity.

And frankly, I think he’s a memory artist too.

For example, everything that has to do with writing winds up involving the most positive form of spaced repetition. It’s like the ultimate mnemonic device.

But it’s not traditional spaced repetition or rote learning.

It’s creative repetition.

But these matters aren’t the only reason I wanted to interview David.

I’m also interested in how he’s using technologies of today to educate people.

As the founder of Write of Passage, David helps people generate ideas systematically and transform them into living, breathing and published pieces.

He is doing this though cohort-based training programs online and has been generating incredible results for people who tired of ineffective writing methods.

If you’re interested in expressing yourself through writing and developing career-level chops, definitely check his program out.

As I often like to say, writing is the source of all wealth. I believe it is also a key source of memory too.

Enjoy this conversation and I hope to hear from you in writing soon!

David’s YouTube Channel

David’s website

David’s Twitter

The post David Perell On Writing, Learning In Public And Why Spaced Repetition Sucks appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Memory Improvemen Podcast - The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast: Recent Episodes

Memory Improvemen Podcast - The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast