Find the content from your study year already receding? Learn a few memory tools from neuroscientist Lisa Genova. Watch time 10 minutes.
Big Think is a website/YouTube channel that I’ve started consuming a little more these days. I find they have interesting people featured who try to break down difficult concepts into everyday language. Not all, but some of their content is mental health/psychological health focused which obviously interests me.
At this time of the year, you might be busily trying to forget everything you learned in 2022, so a post on memory tips is probably badly timed. Regardless, in the interest of trying to share more of the content that I consume, I thought I’d share this 10-minute video of Lisa Genova (neuroscientist) explaining ways to enhance your memory.
As a bit of a heads-up for what she’ll cover:
- Pay attention – the better attention you pay to something you are doing, the more likely it will be remembered
- Lower stress levels – cortisol and adrenaline, in too high doses, or over long periods of time impair memory – build activities into your day that lower stress levels like yoga, meditation, exercise, slow breathing
- Focus on getting good sleep – sleep is when our brains consolidate the lessons from the day, so engage in good sleep hygiene to improve your slumber
- Use caffeine sensibly – in the right doses at the right times, caffeine will increase attention hence improve memory
- Create associations – new memories stick better if attached to existing ones, so look for ways to connect new information you are learning to stuff you already know
- Repetition, repetition, repetition
- Write stuff down – it isn’t cheating to use lists to enhance your memory – the process of writing helps you focus on the thing you are trying to remember
- Test yourself – memory isn’t just putting stuff IN our heads, it is getting it OUT of our heads – practice recalling important content on a regular basis (this is a central study technique)
- Use Google – especially when the answer is on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite nab it – support retrieval of information with Google and then utilise techniques above to store that memory more effectively