The Ultimate Guide to Improving Memory and Learning

Memorizing is one of the most important things when you want to reach a successful life. Without memorizing, you cannot acquire the necessary knowledge for your success. So it only makes sense to optimize this very act of learning and memorizing so you can learn more and quicker. Here is the ultimate guide to improving your memory to its optimum.

Memorizing

Firstly, you should always organize your learning material. If everything is chaos, you will be confused by the material, forget important things, or learn some things too often and others too little. Organizing and planning will greatly simplify the process of understanding what is required.

So make a plan of what you need to know and don’t forget a single thing. Write a checklist with all the things you need to learn. Then organize the material itself and, if needed, summarize it in easy words. This method will also help you learn complex topics that are harder to understand. Once you have summarized the material, you should have a basic understanding of it. Then you can learn these things through flashcards, and in the end, it will be the best if you explain the concept/ideas to someone else. Teaching someone else is the final step of learning.

To save time, you can also combine two concepts, which makes it easier to understand. Make sure to limit your learning time; I recommend a maximum of two hours, but you can adjust the duration to suit your needs. This could mean you take a break every 30 minutes, every hour, or every 4 hours. Only make sure that you take a break once you feel exhausted.

In the break, try to get some movements on. Engage in activities such as pushups or pullups during your break. Being active and moving will enhance your memory and learning abilities. This greatly aids in the process of learning. However, sleep, in addition to activity, can also aid in the process of learning information. During sleep, the brain will help you remember the learned material in your long-term memory.

However, instead of sleeping, you can also use non-sleep deep rest. This involves lying or sitting in a relaxed position with your eyes closed, focusing solely on relaxation. So no talk allowed. Engaging in a Yoga Nidra meditation is the most effective way to spend this time. You should dedicate 15 to 30 minutes to this practice, as you don’t want to dedicate the entire day to meditation. It will also help with your daily stress and emotions.

Finally, you have the option to use interleaving during your learning day, rather than focusing solely on one subject. For instance, if you are required to study three subjects, you could dedicate two hours each to studying Subject A, Subject B, and Subject C. This has proven to be more effective than learning Subject A on Day 1 for 6 hours, Subject B on Day 2 for 6 hours, and Subject C on Day 3 for 6 hours. It can help with your memory association and will definitely help you get less bored during learning sessions.

The Optimal Learning

When you strive for an optimal learning experience, there are certain things you should avoid and other things you should do. Otherwise, your experience may not be as efficient as you desire, leading to significantly less learning than necessary. These issues not only lead to poor outcomes, but they also have the potential to demotivate you. Especially when the results seem low, people would rather give up than keep going.

However, you don’t need to go that far. Instead, steer clear of any distractions or cultivate the ability to stay focused. Two different solutions for the problem. It’s challenging to train yourself to avoid distractions like noise, your phone, or anything else. It requires willpower to train this skill. Try to ignore signals that something will distract it. Either you extend your learning period until you become distracted, or you manage to forget the distraction while learning.

Alternatively, strive to avoid distractions from the start. Store all electronic devices away, unless they are essential for learning. Then you can use earplugs or headphones to block any unwanted noise that distracts you from learning; however, don’t listen to loud music, as it can distract you as well.

Instead, listen to 40 Hz binaural beats. These beats help stimulate your brain’s game waves, leading to an increase in neural activity and change in your brain. This should lead to an increase in focus and attention, enhancing your ability to work and learn more effectively. This is particularly crucial for individuals who struggle with concentration issues.

In addition to this, you have the option to train your concentration. To help with this, you can simply use a stopwatch on your device or a physical one. Once you started learning or working, start the stopwatch and focus on your work. Once you noticed that you lost concentration, stop the timer. What you then see is concentration time. As you continue to work on it, this number will increase over time. It serves as an ideal method for cultivating focus and preventing distractions.

Additionally, you could incorporate a timer into your practice. For each card you learn, take 5 to 10 minutes for repetition in your head. This can improve learning time management, but it’s not required.

Are mnemonics useful?

Mnemonics are a playful approach to learning. These are little tricks that help you remember vocabulary, concepts, or anything else you want to learn. Mnemonics use acronyms, acrostics, rhymes, visualization, or linking. Of course, there are other systems and tricks for memorizing information, but these are the fundamental ones.

In general, mnemonics are useful; using these tricks makes it easier to remember things. Faster than with flashcards. However, the primary issue with mnemonics is their difficulty in learning, as well as their time-consuming creation process. Even when you are learning a large amount of material, you still need to create multiple mnemonics for each concept or idea you need to remember. It’s crucial to remember that mnemonics teach you a shortcut rather than the actual concept or idea.

Learning with flashcards and spaced repetition, however, takes longer to remember certain words, but the knowledge will be directly remembered. It specifically enhances your long-term memory, enabling you to retain information for a longer duration. It works for every type of learning, even languages or very complex topics. Instead of creating complicated systems to remember each word, idea, or concept, you can make cards quickly and learn them over time. The beginning of the learning might be more time-consuming, but the further you go, the easier it will be.

In conclusion, mnemonics are not effective unless you are trying to remember things quickly or want to remember small things. So stick with Flashcard and spaced repetition. This way you easily learn everything you need.

Can you train your memory?

Brain training apps have been popular for decades now. You can find them in the App Store or Play Store, depending on your device. These apps are a big business; they make a lot of money through premium versions. Many people own these apps and dedicate 10 to 30 minutes a day to practicing on them. The idea is that with regular practice, your brain will improve over time.

To do this, the app presents you with several different mind games that supposedly are good for concentration and memory training. Over time you get better at these games, which gives the user an experience of improvement.

Unfortunately, these apps are, in a sense, scams. The topic of whether these apps have an effect or not has been widely discussed in science. Over the past ten years, researchers have conducted up to five studies on working memory training. Almost all of these studies found no evidence of neural or cognitive improvement as a result of working memory training. In certain instances, individuals underwent training for up to 8 weeks without observing any noticeable improvements or alterations in the integrity of white matter.

One study came to the conclusion that it would have no advantages for academic, reading, or arithmetic outcomes.  Training with these apps on a daily basis will not enhance your chances of success. At least one study, however, concluded that WMT will improve your control of positive and negative emotions. You could view it as a substitute for meditations or journaling to address emotional instability.

Overall, these apps are fraudulent and offer minimal benefits. You can simply view the improvement you achieve in the app as a training effect. This implies that while you may improve in a specific task, your brain does not experience long-term improvement. Even if you engage in games such as “Memory”, the results will remain unchanged. You can’t improve your cognitive functions, and the training effects won’t help you remember Example Vocabulary better.