/posts/ Recent content in Posts on Your Awesome Memory Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us 2010-2019 Bill Powell Sat, 02 Dec 2017 15:40:14 +0000 /rewrite-your-past-with-a-memory-palace-quick-start/ Sat, 02 Dec 2017 15:40:14 +0000 /rewrite-your-past-with-a-memory-palace-quick-start/ By Christmas, you'll have a new memory palace stocked with the best of your past. And feeling great about your past is critical to an amazing present and future... QUICK START: You can start any time. Now, in fact.  If you haven't already, read the quick intro on why this memory palace will be a huge boost to your happiness. Make sure you know how to make a "memory palace" /rewrite-your-past-with-a-memory-palace-intro/ Sat, 02 Dec 2017 15:23:15 +0000 /rewrite-your-past-with-a-memory-palace-intro/ Hey! So I've got this memory idea that could change our lives. Mine too, I’m not kidding. Also, it’s tied to Advent calendars, and since it's already December, it’s good you’re reading this now. This idea’s been lurking in my mind for years, ever since I heard of a study where researchers had depressed people stock a simple memory palace with good memories. Isn’t that brilliant? Depression, they explained, makes it harder to remember “self-affirming autobiographical memories. /how-flashcards-succeed-solutions-on-using-anki-for-serious-study/ Sat, 06 Aug 2016 18:17:03 +0000 /how-flashcards-succeed-solutions-on-using-anki-for-serious-study/ Awhile back, I wrote an epic post called How Flashcards Fail: Confessions of a Tired Memory Guy. I had to get pretty frustrated and discouraged to write that post, and when I did, I went all in. I dove deep into all the ways that Anki can backfire when you're using it for thousands of flashcards. Then something awesome happened. People commented. With solutions. Seriously, I got some of the most amazing comments on this post I've ever seen. /how-to-craft-memories-you-cant-forget/ Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:59:21 +0000 /how-to-craft-memories-you-cant-forget/ Here’s the third installment of my series of Toastmaster speeches on memory. Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen – Have you ever noticed how much we talk about making memories? Your Memory Is Not a VCR You may think of your memory as this kind of mysterious VCR that you’re powerless to control. It’s always on, always recording, and spitting out unlabeled tapes into a gigantic, disorganized pile, where you can never find anything. /how-to-remember-names/ Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:19:51 +0000 /how-to-remember-names/ Here’s the second installment of my series of Toastmaster speeches on memory. Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen: How many times do you meet someone, and it goes great, you make a splendid impression. And then, five minutes later, you have no idea what her name is. You know her face. You could probably recognize her in twenty years. But if you suddenly had to introduce her, it would be one of those horrible, “Hey! /you-can-remember-anything-you-want/ Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:34:19 +0000 /you-can-remember-anything-you-want/ I’ve recently joined my local Toastmasters club, and for my first series of speeches, I want to focus on – what else? – memory! I thought you might enjoy reading these as I go. (If I get a decent portable recorder, who knows, this could turn into a podcast. Of course, a memory guy can’t bring up notes, and it’s not worth memorizing word-for-word, so what I actually say tends to turn out rather different. /jungian-personality-types-and-how-you-remember/ Sat, 16 Feb 2013 04:01:56 +0000 /jungian-personality-types-and-how-you-remember/ Ready for a terrifying, exhilarating, mind-blowing revelation? Not everyone else thinks like you do. You think you know that. But have you ever truly explored the alien terrain of a foreign personality type? What’s normal to you is crazy to them, and vice versa. The word “different” bleats far too tamely here. “Different” personality types can have opposite reactions to the same situation, and both will feel perfectly sane. /the-secret-of-remembering-what-you-read/ Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:56:52 +0000 /the-secret-of-remembering-what-you-read/ As you may have noticed, I’ve taken a quiet break from blogging over the last few weeks. Between the normal Christmas rush and the added excitement of promoting my Christmas-themed memory book, I decided I needed some time to think. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about. I Used to Focus on Techniques When I started this website years ago, I was excited about memory techniques. I’d discovered all these amazing mental gymnastics. /how-to-remember-verses-for-the-rest-of-your-life/ Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:31:17 +0000 /how-to-remember-verses-for-the-rest-of-your-life/ So – you’ve done it. You’ve memorized more than you ever thought possible. Verse by verse, you’ve laid up texts like treasures. Congratulations. One task remains. Keep these treasures from slipping away. Repeat Every Day for Two Weeks When you learn the last verse of a story, you’re almost ready to stop saying the whole story every day. But to make sure you’ve learned the last few verses well, keep saying the whole story every day for about another two weeks. /how-to-pray-the-bible-like-the-ancient-christians-with-lectio-divina/ Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:50:13 +0000 /how-to-pray-the-bible-like-the-ancient-christians-with-lectio-divina/ Lectio divina is one of those phrases you can toss around for decades without ever realizing that you don’t actually know what it means. For years, I only knew that lectio divina was how monks and nuns used to pray the Scriptures. They would “ruminate” on the same text, like a cow (i.e., a ruminant) chewing a cud. Somehow, this appetizing metaphor failed to inspire further research. Plus, I’ve had some bad experiences with the “professional” approach to spiritual growth. /remember-what-you-love-share-it/ Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:22:42 +0000 /remember-what-you-love-share-it/ When I try to convince doubters that ordinary memories are actually amazing, I use examples like: baseball nuts who can remember hundreds of games movie buffs who can quote way too many scenes manic fans who know the words to every song But you can also detect an underlying irony. Though I celebrate these feats, I also imply that they suggest a certain mental imbalance. I distance myself. /a-beautiful-old-oral-translation/ Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:22:49 +0000 /a-beautiful-old-oral-translation/ Why Use an Old Translation? In case you haven’t noticed, the translation you’re memorizing is … old. “Thees” and “thous” are liberally sprinkled throughout sentences that feel rather Shakespearean. The language seems strange to our ears. The rhythms are different. Occasionally, a word is completely foreign. The reasons are simple. This is the Douay-Rheims Challoner translation, and it was originally composed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, then heavily revised in the eighteenth century. /think-dont-memorize/ Sun, 16 Dec 2012 18:30:56 +0000 /think-dont-memorize/ Don’t Waste Time “Memorizing” I wasted a lot of time … a lot … trying to memorize Bible verses as “efficiently” as I could. I assumed that I wouldn’t really think about the verses until after I’d memorized them. This is precisely backwards. You start thinking about the verses right away, as soon as you read them. That’s why we have books, to help us think. And you wean yourself off the training wheels of the book by thinking, by using these methods to help you think. /renewing-your-memories-is-its-own-reward/ Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:21:19 +0000 /renewing-your-memories-is-its-own-reward/ As you learn verses by heart, it’s extremely tempting to rush through recitations. But when we rush, we defeat the whole purpose of learning verses in the first place. Think about it. Why did you decide to learn the stories of Christmas? It’s not a rhetorical question. Only you can say. I do know that your goal includes knowing these verses by heart. But here’s the interesting part. You want to know these verses so you can think with them, right? /different-ways-to-recite-bible-verses/ Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:36:03 +0000 /different-ways-to-recite-bible-verses/ By now, you’ve recited these verses in several ways. You’ve read them slowly, learning them for the first time, and using all the methods for speaking out, taking in, and imagining. You’ve reread them over the first few days, as you filled in the gaps of your memory. You’ve gradually tried to say them without looking. When you’ve come to a tough patch, you’ve checked the words, to solidify your memory. /learn-bible-verses-as-stories/ Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:51:24 +0000 /learn-bible-verses-as-stories/ Solitary verses are disconnected. A story connects several verses into a single, memorable unit. Gospels as Stories We’re used to dividing the Bible into chapters and verses. But nobody applied this system to the Gospels until centuries after they were written. When people first heard the Gospels, they heard a series of stories. Today, biblical storytellers have brought back this focus on the Gospels as stories. Scholars such as David Rhoads and Tom Boomershine have written books with titles like Mark As Story and Story Journey. /how-to-craft-a-daily-memory-routine/ Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:57:32 +0000 /how-to-craft-a-daily-memory-routine/ When you set up a daily verse routine, you face two obstacles: Finding time to say the verses Making it a habit (actually saying them) Finding Time to Recite Can you say these verses while you’re doing something else? That’s the first place to look, because you won’t even have to change your schedule. Do you already take a walk every day? Or have a time when you read and relax? /your-new-daily-verse-routine/ Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:44:59 +0000 /your-new-daily-verse-routine/ Spaced Repetition and “Smart” Intervals If we were going to memorize a longer text, such as an entire Gospel, I would teach you about “spaced repetition” and “smart intervals”. In spaced repetition, you take advantage of how the brain works to time your reviews as efficiently as possible. The basic idea is simple. You repeat material many times at the beginning. Then, you slowly leave more and more space between your repetitions. /imagining-brings-delight/ Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:45:07 +0000 /imagining-brings-delight/ Learning is ultimately about connecting. When you learn new verses, you’ll get the most out of them if you connect them to what you already know. Not just “book learning,” but your actual life experiences. Your own experiences are incredibly vivid. The word vivid comes from the Latin word for “life”. Your experiences are your life. The more you connect the verses you learn to your own experience, the more you literally make them come to life. /imagining-is-a-new-skill/ Sun, 09 Dec 2012 23:34:06 +0000 /imagining-is-a-new-skill/ Our default response to reading is the easy route — identification. This is why we forget most of what we read. Identification is the great hazard of memorizing. For instance, we read the first verse of the Christmas story in Luke: And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. And we think, “Oh, right, the decree. /5-ways-to-experience-verses-you-learn/ Sun, 09 Dec 2012 01:30:17 +0000 /5-ways-to-experience-verses-you-learn/ So far, in this series of articles on learning verses by heart, you’ve learned how to speak the verses out: Speak loudly and slowly With rhythm and expression And also how to take the verses in: See the words and phrases Hear the words and phrases Feel the rhythms Feel the shapes of the words on your tongue Today, you’ll learn five ways to experience the verses in your thoughts and imagination. /hear-and-feel-the-words-you-learn/ Fri, 07 Dec 2012 23:24:56 +0000 /hear-and-feel-the-words-you-learn/ Hear the Words You should physically **hear yourself** saying these verses. When you say verses out loud, you’re literally talking to yourself. We “talk to ourselves” all the time, but most of this conversation happens inside our heads. For memorizing, that silent monologue isn’t enough. You want to actually hear your own voice. Hearing activates more parts of your mind and memory than the usual mental self-talk. Remember, the more ways you connect to these verses, the better you’ll remember them. /see-the-verse-clearly/ Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:28:37 +0000 /see-the-verse-clearly/ So far, in this Books by Heart series on how to remember verses, you’ve learned how to speak the verses out: loudly and slowly with rhythm and expression Today, you’ll begin to learn how to take the verses in as you speak them. When you **take verses in**, you: - **See** the words and phrases - **Hear** the words and phrases - **Feel** the **rhythms** - **Feel** the **shapes** of the words on your **tongue** Let’s start with seeing. /ditch-the-reverential-monotone/ Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:51:19 +0000 /ditch-the-reverential-monotone/ A major secret to learning the Bible by heart is to unlock the rhythms of the text. But at first, speaking the Bible with rhythm may seem unnatural. Even disrespectful. Why? Because we in the English-speaking world have this bizarre tradition of the reverential monotone. Ditch the “Reverential Monotone” Think about church. Unless you’re very lucky, your lector “proclaims” the readings with less expression than your GPS. You’d get more drama from R2D2. /speak-the-text-with-rhythm/ Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:21:11 +0000 /speak-the-text-with-rhythm/ Most Bibles typeset the verses as interminable columns of prose. But if you want to remember these verses, you need to unlock the hidden rhythms. Break the paragraphs into poetry. In the original languages, these texts are more like poetry than prose. We can’t recapture all that poetry in English, but we can capture more than you think. Rhythmic lines are so much easier to remember. Not only do you speak these rhythms, you also see them. /speak-the-text-out-loud/ Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:53:15 +0000 /speak-the-text-out-loud/ The first step in learning a text is to read it out loud. This sounds obvious, but we’ve been reading silently for our entire lives. That’s a lot of habit to overcome. These tips will help you avoid sliding back into silence. Read the verses out loud: loudly and slowly with rhythm and expression Loudly How loud? Loud enough to hear yourself. Don’t mumble. When you mumble, the words only happen inside your head. /learn-luke-this-advent-overview/ Sat, 01 Dec 2012 22:08:05 +0000 /learn-luke-this-advent-overview/ Welcome to “Learn Luke this Advent”! This Advent, I’d like to help you learn the entire Christmas story from Luke, one verse at a time. You can see the first verse, Luke 2:1, in the block above this article. Each day, you’ll also get a short memory lesson, adapted from my book, Christmas by Heart. If you’re a regular reader of this memory blog, but you’re not doing this project, don’t worry. /einstein-moonwalker-discovers-spaced-repetition/ Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:13:25 +0000 /einstein-moonwalker-discovers-spaced-repetition/ You’ve probably already heard of Joshua Foer and his excellent 2011 bestseller, Moonwalking With Einstein. Foer chronicles his ascent (or descent) into the magical world of memory, a trip that takes him all the way from ancient Simonides to contemporary experts like Tony Buzan, and ends with winning the U.S. Memory Championship. But there’s one aspect of memory work he seemed to miss entirely – spaced repetition. Until now. /thinking-every-day-is-hard/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:46:50 +0000 /thinking-every-day-is-hard/ Last month, I decided to set aside a daily half hour to think every day. Here’s an update: thinking is great. Starting is hard. Whenever I actually open my “thinking” file and start writing, I feel wonderful. I realize that I needed to take this time. My mind has been straining in the background to hold onto all these disparate strands of thought before they disintegrate. Now I can weave these strands into permanent memories. /learn-luke-this-advent-start-here/ Fri, 23 Nov 2012 11:00:57 +0000 /learn-luke-this-advent-start-here/ This Advent, learn the Christmas Story! Luke 2:1-20. One verse a day. This slideshow explains how to learn these verses easily. Download slideshow as PDF. Get a Free, Daily Update to Help You Learn Luke Every day during Advent, you get: Today’s new verse The verses you’ve learned so far At the beginning, you’ll also get a short memory lesson Choose Your Update Method Facebook Like Books by Heart to get your daily update on Facebook. /professional-biblical-storyteller-dennis-dewey-shares-his-secrets/ Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:28:50 +0000 /professional-biblical-storyteller-dennis-dewey-shares-his-secrets/ Dennis Dewey has been learning and telling huge chunks of the Bible for decades. How has he learned entire books of the Bible, plus large parts of many more? Now you can find out. He explains his entire method in an excellent, lengthy article. Read the full article: “Tools for Telling the Stories of Scripture by Heart” (PDF) Learning From Storytellers As you read, you’ll find that his approach has much in common with the methods I share in my book, Christmas by Heart. /memorizing-a-book-opens-a-new-world-of-detail/ Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:57:05 +0000 /memorizing-a-book-opens-a-new-world-of-detail/ Have you ever walked down a street that you’ve always driven? It barely feels like the same place. The usual blur transforms into a detailed world of buildings, trees, faces, flowers. Memorizing a book feels the same way. The usual blur becomes an intricate world. For the first time, you notice the individual phrases, moments, even words. Discover the Details of God’s Christmas Invasion In my new book, Christmas By Heart, I show how you can easily memorize the Christmas stories from Matthew and Luke, throughout the seasons of Advent and Christmas. /gotell-org-a-biblical-storyteller-treasure-trove/ Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:19:34 +0000 /gotell-org-a-biblical-storyteller-treasure-trove/ Memorizing an entire text, like a book of the Bible, is a big deal. For me, a few key insights have made this feat possible. One is finding the rhythms in the text. Another is finding the stories in the text. Stories are a much more natural division than the chapters. Stories are short, chapters are long. Stories are meaningful, while chapters are often fairly arbitrary chunks. Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. /does-reading-too-fast-make-you-forget-part-2/ Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:21:39 +0000 /does-reading-too-fast-make-you-forget-part-2/ In part 1, we heard our friend Reuben Halleck blast the “rapid devouring of novels” as “fatal to thought”. (This was 1895, remember.) Now, in part 2, we hear his solution. How do you read novels without frying your brain? Choose your own adventure. Why is this relevant? Well, I don’t know about you, but when I try to remember the last few novels I read … yeah. Let’s see what he proposes. /does-reading-too-fast-make-you-forget-part-1/ Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:08:13 +0000 /does-reading-too-fast-make-you-forget-part-1/ I’m on a mission to figure out how to remember what I read. Could one problem be that I read too much? Too fast? In part 1 of this week’s “Saturday Selection”, author Reuben Post Halleck inveighs against the “rapid devouring of novels” as “fatal to thought”. I’ll stand back while you gag. Done? It’s amazing how a 19th century dude can alienate you from beyond the grave in a mere seven words. /advent-daily-bible-verse-memory-review-a-real-season/ Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:27:22 +0000 /advent-daily-bible-verse-memory-review-a-real-season/ If you don’t renew your memories, you lose them. I’ve often had trouble making time for reviews, because I’ve seen them as gruntwork, not opportunities for thinking. But now I’ve found a new approach – make reviews part of a season. Like Advent. Advent starts in a couple weeks. If you celebrate Advent, and you’re also interested in memorizing parts of the Bible, why not combine these two projects? /jesus-used-rhythm-and-rhyme-the-our-father-in-syriac/ Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:29:55 +0000 /jesus-used-rhythm-and-rhyme-the-our-father-in-syriac/ The Bible has rhythm. Find this rhythm, and you can learn the verses much more easily. But I’d go further. With rhythm, you can learn these words closer to the way they were meant to be heard. I’ve found a stunning example of these Bible rhythms: a recording of the “Our Father” in Syriac. Not only do the lines have rhythm. Some of the lines seem to rhyme. Now, I don’t speak Syriac (I’m still struggling to learn Spanish). /my-new-book-christmas-by-heart/ Sat, 10 Nov 2012 15:48:25 +0000 /my-new-book-christmas-by-heart/ [][buy-christmas-by-heart-cover] I’m thrilled to announce that my new book, Christmas by Heart, is now available on Amazon! As you can see from the cover, the title says it all: Christmas by Heart How to Memorize the Christmas Stories from Matthew and Luke: Learn One Verse Each Day Through Advent & Christmas 2012 Today is Saturday, and I usually feature a selection from a memory book. So I invite you to go over to ChristmasByHeart. /learn-spanish-by-memorizing-simple-bible-stories/ Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:56:37 +0000 /learn-spanish-by-memorizing-simple-bible-stories/ Learning Spanish? Try memorizing simple Bible stories. How simple? How about a version that uses only 850 vocabulary words (plus proper names) for the entire New Testament? It’s the Nueva Vida Biblia Bilingüe (New Life™ Bilingual Bible). And it seriously does seem to use only 850 different words. As a translation, sure, it’s not the most accurate. Instead of “priest”, you get “religious leader”. Instead of “Levite”, you get “man of the family of Levi”. /why-to-learn-verses-perfectly/ Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:19:54 +0000 /why-to-learn-verses-perfectly/ It’s easier to learn a verse perfectly than to almost learn it. Paradoxical, I know. But it’s true. I know from experience. I myself have “almost” memorized hundreds of verses. I’ve memorized the entire Gospel of Mark. But with the techniques I used at the time, I didn’t learn them all to perfection. Today, I can say many of these verses perfectly. But many other verses, I’ll say with a slight paraphrase, or the occasional missed word or phrase. /how-to-remember-passwords-that-are-easy-and-secure/ Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:55:53 +0000 /how-to-remember-passwords-that-are-easy-and-secure/ Forget everything you ever learned about choosing a password. From now on, you’ll choose passwords that are easy to remember, but hard to crack. You won’t even need mnemonics. Just common sense. You might think that a “strong” password needs to look like gobbledygook. Actually, the opposite is true. You can choose very strong passwords, really “passphrases”, by using several common words. (Bonus at the end: an xkcd comic that explains this perfectly. /review-the-shoddy-lands-by-c-s-lewis/ Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:16:20 +0000 /review-the-shoddy-lands-by-c-s-lewis/ In today’s Tuesday Review, I give you one of my favorite short stories by C. S. Lewis: “The Shoddy Lands”. It’s so short that you can read the whole thing in ten minutes or so. And I’ll keep this review even shorter, so you can read the story right after. “The Shoddy Lands” originally appeared in the February 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The narrator, a huffy, very 1950s-era scholar, mysteriously gets stuck in the mind of his complete opposite: a boring young woman named Peggy. /how-to-remember-poems-and-books-of-the-bible-with-the-cumulative-method/ Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:50:18 +0000 /how-to-remember-poems-and-books-of-the-bible-with-the-cumulative-method/ Ever wanted to memorize an epic poem or a book of the Bible? You can, and it’s much simpler than you think. I’ve been working on this project for years. I’ve tried various combinations of mnemonics, the loci method, and spaced repetition. But after all my experimentation, the best method may be the one you’re about to learn: the cumulative method. In today’s Saturday selection, author William Walker Atkinson explains how to learn a long text – one verse a day. /why-the-memory-bee-for-howtoremember-biz/ Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:07:13 +0000 /why-the-memory-bee-for-howtoremember-biz/ Have you noticed the buzzing bee on my logo for “HowToRemember.biz”? If not, I’m not surprised. You see hundreds, maybe thousands, of logos per day. “Logo exhaustion” will eventually be a recognized psychiatric condition (hopefully untreatable). On the other hand, if you did notice, the bee may have bothered you. Random? What does a bee have to do with learning how to remember? The Bee as a Metaphor for Memory Actually, plenty. /memory-palaces-can-boost-your-observation-skills/ Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:37:07 +0000 /memory-palaces-can-boost-your-observation-skills/ Lately I’ve been writing a lot about how mnemonics are usually a distraction from serious learning. I spent a lot of time filling “memory palaces” with mnemonics that I ultimately didn’t need. But there’s a silver lining. Memory palaces taught me how to look at an ordinary landscape. (Side note: Sorry this site’s been offline a bit during the hurricane. It’s hosted in New York City.) Normally, the average room or place is nearly invisible. /review-the-memory-book-by-harry-lorayne-and-jerry-lucas-1974/ Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:22:39 +0000 /review-the-memory-book-by-harry-lorayne-and-jerry-lucas-1974/ Welcome to the new Tuesday Review! Every Tuesday, I want to review a book or website that offers major insights about remembering and thinking. Today’s review: The Memory Book, by Harry Lorayne & Jerry Lucas. An oldie, a goodie, and possibly, a gigantic mistake. I picked up my copy at a library book sale back in 2006. I’d been meaning to improve my memory for awhile, but this is the book that changed everything. /how-to-remember-like-a-firefighter/ Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:23:55 +0000 /how-to-remember-like-a-firefighter/ Firefighters rely on their memories to save lives. How do I know? From this article: “Memory and Observation for Firefighter Exam Study Guide”. Turns out that firefighters get tested on their short-term memory in the entrance exam. They need to be able to memorize a floor plan before they rush into a burning building. Since it’s a study guide, the article includes tips for how to memorize – or at least, how to pass the memory questions on the test. /how-and-why-to-start-the-half-hour-thinking-habit/ Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:35:48 +0000 /how-and-why-to-start-the-half-hour-thinking-habit/ Yesterday I talked about setting aside a half hour each day to think. But starting a new habit, however splendid, takes work. Since I got this idea from an old book called Thinking As a Science, I’d like to let that author, Henry Hazlitt, give a few further tips on thinking every day. Introducing the “Saturday Selection” This also kicks off a new tradition I’ll call the “Saturday Selection.” In my memory research, I’m constantly finding interesting texts. /think-every-day-and-remember/ Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:28:35 +0000 /think-every-day-and-remember/ A few days ago, I mentioned that I want to start taking one half hour a day to just think. No new information. Instead, I reflect on what I’ve recently learned. I stay focused by typing my thoughts. My goal is to weave my scattered, shiny new info bits into sparkling tapestries of knowledge. Instead of using flashcard prompts to trigger atomized memories, I skip right to the good stuff: actual thinking. /how-to-remember-in-4-basic-steps/ Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:35:03 +0000 /how-to-remember-in-4-basic-steps/ Welcome to HowToRemember.biz! Let’s look at the four basic steps to remembering. Pay attention Get interested Make connections Practice and renew Pay Attention You can’t remember what you haven’t seen. Or heard. Or somehow sensed. This seems obvious. But how often do you give something your full attention? I know that I often read, listen, and look with a divided mind. A huge percentage of my mental energy is sucked into a neverending internal monologue. /keepwhatyoulearn-com-will-soon-become-howtoremember-biz/ Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:44:25 +0000 /keepwhatyoulearn-com-will-soon-become-howtoremember-biz/ I’m making a few changes here at KeepWhatYouLearn.com. Within the week, the domain for this site will be HowToRemember.biz. (Don’t worry, all the old “KeepWhatYouLearn.com” links will redirect properly.) Also, the site will have a new, simpler theme. Also, with this relaunch, I’m kicking this blog into high gear! I’ll be posting at least once a day (except maybe Sunday). Why all these exciting changes? Because over the last few months, I’ve found a new, exciting focus for my memory research. /why-remember-with-wikipedia-on-your-phone/ Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:45:55 +0000 /why-remember-with-wikipedia-on-your-phone/ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has come true. With a free program called Aarddict and a big enough SD card, you can keep a copy of Wikipedia on your phone. (Actually, the images aren’t included yet, but that’s purely a function of bandwidth and space. In a few years, you’ll have the images too.) You might be immune to such wonders by now. Maybe you’ve had the entire Internet on your phone for years. /how-to-remember-names-collect-them-part-2/ Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0000 /how-to-remember-names-collect-them-part-2/ In part 1, we discovered a new approach to remembering names: collect them. Taking a selection from an old memory book, we follow “Mr. X” as he grows more and more interested in the world of names. We last left him thumbing through a phone book, eagerly snapping up new names. What does he do with them? What any collector does. Organize. Organizing Names He found that some names were derived from animals, and put these into a class by themselves – the Lyons, Wolfs, Foxes, Lambs, Hares, etc. /how-to-remember-names-collect-them/ Fri, 19 Oct 2012 23:07:13 +0000 /how-to-remember-names-collect-them/ How do you remember names? The usual memory advice focuses on mnemonics. For instance, if you met a Mrs. Stampson, you could imagine a big stamper (as in “Fragile”). Then you would pick a notable facial feature (usually unflattering), and visualize that stamper stamping away. This method seems to work for some people. In The Memory Book, Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas brag about memorizing hundreds of names from an audience in a single performance. /spanish-update-stalled-on-vocabulary-memorizing-poetry/ Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:23:29 +0000 /spanish-update-stalled-on-vocabulary-memorizing-poetry/ So here it is October, and I’d planned to learn Spanish by Christmas. My original, rosy visions of success certainly haven’t come to fruition. On the other hand, I have gotten farther along into a foreign language than ever before. Challenges of Spanish Vocabulary Card I can’t quantify “how much” Spanish I’ve learned so far. I definitely can’t understand ordinary conversations. I catch words here and there, especially towards the end of those impossibly long and syncopated sentences, when the rolling waves of words slow and break. /the-dark-side-of-mnemonics/ Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:22:59 +0000 /the-dark-side-of-mnemonics/ For years, I’ve been using and talking about mnemonics, those magical little memory prompts that seem capable of locking anything into your mind. But I’ve slowly begun to wonder whether mnemonics are the wrong approach altogether. Mnemonics rely on taking something “boring” (the thing you want to learn) and attaching it to something “interesting” (a crazy, bright, colorful, loud mnemonic). You remember the interesting mnemonic, which leads you to the more elusive (boring) fact. /spanish-update-renaming-the-world/ Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:40:32 +0000 /spanish-update-renaming-the-world/ A few months back, I decided to learn Spanish by Christmas. Sometimes it feels like I’ve hardly learned anything. Other times, I feel immersed in a new world. An Axe For the Frozen Sea I’ve read that a new language opens a new world. But this means more than the distant worlds, the strange fairylands of Spain or Mexico. The new world already opens around me. Warm shafts of light are illuminating and changing the things I thought I knew. /review-bible-chapters-with-a-review-chart/ Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:53:20 +0000 /review-bible-chapters-with-a-review-chart/ I love smart flashcards with Anki, but as you may know from previous posts, my early enthusiasm led to flashcard burnout. Over the last few months, I’ve experimented with new ways to reclaim the material I learned. Long Texts: Renew Whole Chapters Long texts, like the Gospel of Mark or the Glugs of Gosh, bring special problems for review. When I learn a long text, I start with small clusters of verses, then slowly connect the clusters to make stories, and then connect stories to make chapters. /memorize-mark-book-will-teach-memorizing-by-doing/ Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:28:39 +0000 /memorize-mark-book-will-teach-memorizing-by-doing/ My first major memory project was to memorize the entire Gospel of Mark. For years, I’ve been testing different combinations of memory techniques. I want to learn texts by heart as efficiently as possible. But I also want to go beyond mere memorizing, so that the texts move me to deep thought and imagination. Now I’m working on a book to share what I’ve learned: Memorize Mark. This book will teach you how to learn the entire Gospel of Mark by heart. /do-flashcards-work-for-languages/ Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:16:33 +0000 /do-flashcards-work-for-languages/ Recently, I’ve been rethinking how I work with flashcards. Over my years of using Anki, my flashcard work, which started out with amazing results, gradually turned into a monotonous computer game. I began to focus on the cards, and getting them right as fast as possible. These days, I’m trying to approach my reviews as quality time where I actually think. It’s a slow transition. I’m still figuring out where flashcards and the amazing power of spaced repetition fit in. /the-wrong-way-to-memorize-a-long-list/ Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:53:37 +0000 /the-wrong-way-to-memorize-a-long-list/ My Long List to Memorize: 253 “Patterns” of Architecture A few years ago, I decided to memorize a long list of 253 “patterns” of architecture from the famous book, A Pattern Language. For instance, here are the patterns that “knit the inside of the building to the outside”: 159 LIGHT ON TWO SIDES OF EVERY ROOM 160 BUILDING EDGE 161 SUNNY PLACE 162 NORTH FACE 163 OUTDOOR ROOM 164 STREET WINDOWS 165 OPENING TO THE STREET 166 GALLERY SURROUND 167 SIX-FOOT BALCONY 168 CONNECTION TO THE EARTH My plan was to learn these 253 patterns by heart. /spanish-by-christmas-learn-the-ipa-for-english-and-spanish-with-anki-flashcard-decks/ Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:58:56 +0000 /spanish-by-christmas-learn-the-ipa-for-english-and-spanish-with-anki-flashcard-decks/ English IPA with Wyner’s Deck But before you download any decks, make sure you watch Wyner’s free videos on the IPA. If you skip these short videos, the decks won’t make any sense. After watching the videos a couple times, I bought Wyner’s IPA Anki deck, and started working through it right away. Before this, I’d taken a long break from Anki reviews, so I was happy to find that coming back to the daily memory work felt really good. /spanish-by-christmas-gathering-books-and-audio/ Sun, 10 Jun 2012 01:34:02 +0000 /spanish-by-christmas-gathering-books-and-audio/ Promises come easily. But after the thrill of telling the world you’re going to do the impossible (or at least, the moderately challenging), there comes the grim reality. I love to find adventurous blog posts. But often there are either no updates, ever (especially if the bold announcement also began the blog), or else you don’t hear from them again until they come up for air long enough to gasp, “I did it! /recite-while-you-jog-move-while-you-memorize/ Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:32:43 +0000 /recite-while-you-jog-move-while-you-memorize/ Move While You Memorize When I first started studying “Bible rhythms”, this image jumped out at me: Middle Eastern children would study their sacred texts by moving around. Western teachers spend their energy trying to force kids to sit still. But these kids had to move while they recited. They had to act the rhythms which they spoke. The book where I read this, The Oral Style, was written in 1925. /your-mouth-is-a-precision-instrument-learning-the-ipa/ Thu, 31 May 2012 21:51:49 +0000 /your-mouth-is-a-precision-instrument-learning-the-ipa/ Pronunciation, Or, the Fascinating Study of How Your Mouth Constructs Sounds I’m going to learn basic Spanish in the next six months, and I’m following opera singer Gabriel Wyner’s method for learning languages fast and well. Unlike anyone else I’ve ever heard of, Wyner insists that you learn pronunciation first. Not just the particular pronunciation of the new language, but how your mouth actually constructs sounds. Every language only uses a particular set of sounds. /im-learning-spanish-by-christmas/ Thu, 24 May 2012 14:46:01 +0000 /im-learning-spanish-by-christmas/ Goal: I attend the Spanish Mass on the First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2012, and I understand everything. It’s nearly June now, so that gives me six months. I don’t expect to read Don Quixote by then. But I do expect to make the trans-dimensional leap into a world where my brain can think in another language. Why Spanish? When I think about learning a language, I often gravitate towards books, especially ancient texts and poetry. /setting-goals-like-seinfeld-dont-break-the-chain/ Wed, 23 May 2012 12:53:44 +0000 /setting-goals-like-seinfeld-dont-break-the-chain/ If you want to keep what you learn, you need to get good at setting goals. I used to think of goals as big, vague things. “Remember what I read.” “Get in shape.” “Learn Spanish.” We need those big goals, but, like many other skills, memory work hinges on daily practice. Sporadic effort quickly peters out. To reach your big goal, you need a small goal: do a little memory work every day. /review-your-way-to-sleep/ Mon, 21 May 2012 21:39:01 +0000 /review-your-way-to-sleep/ For the last few nights, I’ve tried an experiment. I have two apparently unrelated problems, and they just might solve each other. Problem 1: To-Do Insomnia As soon as my head hits the pillow, my Internal Secretary pounces. “You’re a hard man to get a hold of, sir – if we could just go over a few things …” I politely decline. I tell him to shut up. I scream that I need to sleep. /learn-languages-like-an-opera-singer-with-anki-and-more/ Sat, 12 May 2012 12:44:47 +0000 /learn-languages-like-an-opera-singer-with-anki-and-more/ For years, I’ve been tinkering with using Anki to learn languages. I haven’t gotten very far, but I’ve still felt in my gut that there has to be some way to learn languages much faster than we do now. And it has to involve spaced repetition for all that vocabulary. Enter Gabriel Wyner. He’s an opera singer, and he’s crafted a four-part method for achieving basic fluency in less than a year. /reviewing-as-thinking/ Fri, 11 May 2012 07:43:03 +0000 /reviewing-as-thinking/ I love efficiency. I hate waste. Most people do. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out the most efficient way to memorize large amounts of information. When I discovered reviewing flashcards using spaced repetition, I thought I’d found my prize. This flashcard system worked incredibly well … at first. Then, slowly, it began to fail. Reviews became onerous. I wanted to get them over with as fast as possible. /how-flashcards-fail-confessions-of-a-tired-memory-guy/ Sat, 05 May 2012 19:39:40 +0000 /how-flashcards-fail-confessions-of-a-tired-memory-guy/ [UPDATE: You all left so many amazing comments on this article with awesome solutions! So I’ve compiled my favorite solutions into a whole separate article, “How Flashcards Succeed.” I’ll link to it at the end – don’t miss it!] In my last post, I shared how spaced repetition flashcards made my memory feel like a superpower. I learned to remember thousands of things that would otherwise have misted away. /what-flashcards-have-done-for-me-so-far/ Fri, 04 May 2012 21:35:08 +0000 /what-flashcards-have-done-for-me-so-far/ Yesterday, I confessed that my current memory system – thousands of Anki flashcards – isn’t working. I want to figure out why. But first, I want to look at how Anki flashcards have worked for me. My Memory Goals Are A Bit Unusual I have two major memory goals: to remember long texts, like a Gospel or an epic poem to remember the important points of what I read /new-memory-research-blog-format-come-help-me-learn/ Thu, 03 May 2012 19:45:24 +0000 /new-memory-research-blog-format-come-help-me-learn/ Confession time. I’m hiding from my Anki flashcards. I have been for months. I’m guessing that this isn’t what you expect to read on a memory site. But you know what? I’m excited. When the old ways aren’t working, you know it’s time to try something new. We’re going to take this site to a whole new level. These Memory Methods Do Work … For Tests So far, you’ve only seen my successes. /are-bible-rhythms-like-poetry/ Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:34:38 +0000 /are-bible-rhythms-like-poetry/ I got a great email question asking me to clarify what I mean by “rhythm” in the Bible. (You may want to start with that earlier article if you haven’t seen it yet.) Bible rhythms aren’t as regular as English poetry, but they’re still real. English Poetry Rhythms In English poetry, rhythm usually means exact patterns: bah-BOOM bah-BOOM bah-BOOM bah, bah-BOOM bah-BOOM bah-BOOM. That kind of thing. It’s all very regular and precise. /how-to-cram-for-a-test-with-a-free-memory-program/ Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:23:29 +0000 /how-to-cram-for-a-test-with-a-free-memory-program/ Okay, so it’s time to cram. Meaning, time to hack your memory. An Emergency Guide to Cramming Ideally, we’d have time for me to explain why all this works. But you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t in a hurry. So here’s how to cram these facts into your brain, and keep them from falling out before the test: 1. Download Anki Download Anki, a free flashcard program. Here’s a quick introduction to Anki. /learn-morse-code-with-a-free-anki-deck-and-mnemonics/ Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:13:43 +0000 /learn-morse-code-with-a-free-anki-deck-and-mnemonics/ Download the Morse Code Deck Open Anki, and on the menu, do File -> Download -> Shared Deck... In the Search bar, type Morse. Download the Morse Code Sound and Lights deck. Morse code is a series of long and short beeps, so you’ll need speakers or a headphone to use this deck. If you want to import this deck into one of your existing decks, I suggest keeping a separate deck for cards that have sound. /ankidroid-0-7-deck-sorting-and-night-mode/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:45:11 +0000 /ankidroid-0-7-deck-sorting-and-night-mode/ If you have an Android phone or tablet, you should try AnkiDroid. AnkiDroid is under active development, and the latest release, AnkiDroid 0.7, offers two new features that I enjoyed right away. Sort Your Decks You can finally sort your decks! Until now, whenever you finished reviewing one deck for the day, the main list of decks would reshuffle. I never tried to figure out the rationale for the shuffling, so it seemed fairly random. /ankidroid-anki-on-android/ Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:51:53 +0000 /ankidroid-anki-on-android/ AnkiDroid is a free, open source app that lets you review your Anki decks on any Android device. If your device is big enough, you can add cards right there. On a phone or other small device, you’ll make your decks with Anki, then sync them over to AnkiDroid for study. AnkiDroid has changed the way I review. Instead of being tied to my main computer for my reviews, I can study while I’m riding in the car, taking a walk, or relaxing in my living room. /kids-get-as-on-your-tests-with-anki/ Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:59:02 +0000 /kids-get-as-on-your-tests-with-anki/ Download Anki now. Anki is much easier and works much better than ordinary studying. Study with Special Flashcards After you download Anki, add the facts you need to know. Each fact goes on its own “flashcard.” Anki shows you the question, and you try to give the answer. Then Anki shows you the answer. It’s like a test. But there’s a big difference. If you get the answer wrong, you mark the card as “Soon. /anki-make-your-own-deck-the-basics/ Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:34:55 +0000 /anki-make-your-own-deck-the-basics/ In Anki, each fact goes on its own “flashcard.” Flashcards are saved into files called “decks.” It’s very easy to make your own deck. Step 1: On the Menu, Choose File -> New to Start a New Deck You may be asked to give your deck a name. Step 2: Click the Big Green Plus Sign to Add Cards The big green plus sign is also on the menu, if you need it later. /free-anki-flashcards-how-to-download-shared-decks-in-5-easy-steps/ Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:27:04 +0000 /free-anki-flashcards-how-to-download-shared-decks-in-5-easy-steps/ If you’re studying a common topic with Anki, you should always check the list of shared decks. If you can download someone else’s free flashcard deck, you’ll save yourself hours of typing. Downloading a shared deck is easy. Instead of searching on the Anki website, you download decks from within Anki itself. Here are the steps. How to Download a Shared Deck Step 1. Start Anki. On the menu, do: File -> Download -> Shared Deck . /make-loci-on-a-car-trip/ Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:18:58 +0000 /make-loci-on-a-car-trip/ Unlikely loci: transforming the humble pit stop On a recent car trip, I was reviewing a long poem that I’d hoped I’d mastered months ago. Turns out I hadn’t. Deep down, I’d always known that certain passages were just too repetitive. But when those passages came up for review after a long interval, I was even shakier than I expected. So I finally decided to add some visual mnemonics. /glugs-of-gosh-epic-poem/ Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:06:20 +0000 /glugs-of-gosh-epic-poem/ On the surface, this bizarre Australian poem from 1917 is a light satire about a society of “Glugs” who are basically insufferable Edwardians. So the Glugs continued, with greed and glee, To buy cheap clothing, pills, and tea; Till every Glug in the land of Gosh Had three clean shirts and a fourth in the wash. And they all grew idle, and fond of ease, And easy to swindle, and hard to please /glugs-update-a-few-more-loci-for-a-long-poem/ Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:06:20 +0000 /glugs-update-a-few-more-loci-for-a-long-poem/ In a previous post, I explained how I’ve memorized the epic poem, The Glugs of Gosh, without using many loci and visual mnemonics. “Mainstream” memory advice often suggests visual mnemonics for everything, but for poetry, that’s a mistake. You’ll get much farther, much faster, if you focus on your oral memory. You need to listen to the rhythms and the rhymes. Think of all the songs you know by heart without even trying. /ace-every-test-from-now-on-seriously/ Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:24:44 +0000 /ace-every-test-from-now-on-seriously/ Okay, fine, that’s a slight exaggeration. You can’t memorize your way into a perfect essay. (Though memorizing the key facts can make a huge improvement). But aside from essays, what are your tests? Spitting back facts. Vocabulary, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, multiple choice. Facts are perfect for memorizing! You can start pulling 99s and 100s. Seriously. This isn’t rocket science. What do you need to get A’s on every test? Not much, really. /memorize-an-entire-book-make-the-good-parts-into-flashcards/ Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:04:19 +0000 /memorize-an-entire-book-make-the-good-parts-into-flashcards/ While you were reading the book, you marked important passages. Now turn back to page 1, and work your way through the book again. Look at all the great bits you marked! You’ll probably be surprised at both how little and how much you remember. On the one hand, it may seem like you’ve already forgotten the whole thing. If you shut the book and try to summarize every chapter (or even list them), you draw a blank. /memorize-an-entire-book-collecting-the-important-parts/ Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:41:59 +0000 /memorize-an-entire-book-collecting-the-important-parts/ Occasionally, thinking people pause to ask themselves why they forget almost everything they read. The answer is simple. Personal reading is 95% relaxation. You find a quiet spot, you open the book, and you’re gone, safe in a sanctuary. The river of time eddies around you, barely rocking the boat. Bliss. Now perhaps you’ve decided that, nice as that is, it might be also nice to hold on to a few of those life-changing facts once in awhile. /memorize-an-entire-book-choose-the-good-parts/ Wed, 15 Jun 2011 03:02:52 +0000 /memorize-an-entire-book-choose-the-good-parts/ You could memorize any book if you really wanted to. Word for word. But unless you’re learning a text, like the Bible or poetry, you don’t need every word. You just need all the important parts. That’s much easier. Like, months of your life easier. The tough part isn’t even the memorizing. It’s choosing which parts to learn. I’ll say that again. The hard part of memorizing an “entire” book isn’t the memorizing. /teachers-get-free-custom-memory-materials-for-your-class-fall-2011/ Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:33:33 +0000 /teachers-get-free-custom-memory-materials-for-your-class-fall-2011/ You don’t have to change how you teach. Simply look over your class materials and decide on the specific things you want your students to memorize: facts, concepts, quotations, whatever. It could be as easy as marking up your syllabus, or collecting several old tests. Or you might photocopy your lecture notes, and go through them with a highlighter. Once I get your list, I’ll transform it into custom-made memory materials. /case-study-how-to-not-memorize-the-entire-gospel-of-mark/ Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:19:20 +0000 /case-study-how-to-not-memorize-the-entire-gospel-of-mark/ This was a huge, life-changing project, and expanded my vision of what was humanly possible. I could hand someone a Bible and they could ask me any one of almost SEVEN HUNDRED verses. I had complete, random access to every single one. And I’d get the words perfect, or pretty darn close. But I also discovered that maintaining all those verses was a lot of work. (Especially getting those words perfect. /visual-mnemonics-six-keys-to-a-good-visual-prompt/ Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:03:37 +0000 /visual-mnemonics-six-keys-to-a-good-visual-prompt/ When you first start imagining memory prompts, you may find that they start to fade. Why? Imagination is like any other skill: you need to get certain things right, and you probably need to practice. Take a look at this six-point checklist. A visual mnemonic should be: Unique Shape The key to the rest. We remember unique shapes, like faces. Every mnemonic you imagine should have a unique shape. /syllabus-for-memory-class-at-aac-spring-2010/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:01:44 +0000 /syllabus-for-memory-class-at-aac-spring-2010/ Syllabus: Keep What You Learn 2010 Spring, Tues. and Thu. 12:50 – 1:40. Aquinas Academic Center, Front Royal, Va. Summary: Learn to memorize, improve your other classes Welcome! In this class, you’ll learn how to memorize 50, 100, 500 or even thousands of facts. With special memory techniques, you’ll begin to keep what you learn. For instance: history facts vocabulary meanings definitions literature facts science facts math formulas Instead of hoping you’ll remember such things, you’ll know that you will. /how-to-make-a-memory-palace-an-overview-of-the-loci-method/ Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:46:53 +0000 /how-to-make-a-memory-palace-an-overview-of-the-loci-method/ Forgetting is often misplacing, so storing your mnemonics helps you find them again. An ancient method for storing mnemonics uses places you already know, like your bedroom or kitchen. We call these places “loci”, because that’s the Latin for “places”. The fascinating thing about loci is that how well you remember them. Even if you think you have a bad memory, you can probably imagine exactly where hundreds of items are in your house! /memorize-the-books-of-the-bible/ Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:15:21 +0000 /memorize-the-books-of-the-bible/ On this page, you’ll find a list of visual mnemonics for all 73 books of the Bible. All these mnemonics are visual. They’re pictures you can see in your imagination. And they’re mnemonics, because they’re easy to remember, and they’ll remind you of the names of the books. You might not be able to imagine “Haggai” very easily, but you can imagine an old hag. Scroll past the list for a longer explanation. /spaced-repetition-overview/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:01:23 +0000 /spaced-repetition-overview/ If you don’t have a review program, you will forget almost everything you learn. For most of human history, people have used various ways to cycle through and renew their knowledge. Think of seasonal festivals or liturgical prayer. Spaced repetition is an exciting new way to review that may be the most efficient method yet. Normally, when you use a deck of flashcards, you have no idea how often you should look at each card again. /remember-numbers/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:22:44 +0000 /remember-numbers/ Each number can be spelled with a consonant. Here is the basic code: Basic Code for Numbers Number Consonant Sounds Why This Makes Sense (Maybe) 1 t or d Both letters have one vertical stroke 2 n Two vertical strokes 3 m Three vertical strokes 4 r Last letter of “four” 5 l Your fingers and thumb make an L together. /remember-years/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:10:18 +0000 /remember-years/ Try a flashcard first The first option for finding a year mnemonic is: don’t. Make a flashcard, and see if the year sticks in your mind. Often, it will snap into place after a few reviews. You should only use a year mnemonic after you’ve tried to remember it with flashcards, and the year keeps slipping your mind. Learn 3-digit prompts as you need them Before you keep reading, make sure you know the basic number code. /rhyme-and-rhythm-overview/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:30:03 +0000 /rhyme-and-rhythm-overview/ Rhyme and rhythm are amazing. A simple rhyme can condense lots of information. You probably already know and use a few mnemonic rhymes. For instance, which months have 30 days? Here’s an old mnemonic rhyme you may already know. Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. Consider a chart of the same data: Month Days Jan 31 Feb 28⁄29 March 31 April 30 May 31 Jun 30 Jul 31 Aug 31 Sep 30 Oct 31 Nov 30 Dec 31 Which would you rather memorize? /verbal-mnemonics-overview/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:10:45 +0000 /verbal-mnemonics-overview/ Use Each First Letter from a List of Words Often, you have to memorize a list of words or phrases. You can take the first letter of each one, and make those first letters into something else. A Phrase or Sentence Perhaps the easiest verbal mnemonic to make is a phrase or sentence. Take the first letter of each word you want to remember, and make those letters into a sentence. /three-study-habits-for-memorizing/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:49:28 +0000 /three-study-habits-for-memorizing/ Basically, with memorizing, you don’t want to study too much, or too little. That sounds obvious, but in real life, it takes discipline. Review in short sessions. Your brain tires easily. Many short study sessions are better than a marathon cramming session. If you have a lot to review today, do more than one session. (And if you’re already tired, get some rest and review later. You need to be alert. /beginner-pains-in-memorizing-and-how-to-cope/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:38:02 +0000 /beginner-pains-in-memorizing-and-how-to-cope/ Test hangups Tests are probably your least favorite part of school (and maybe life). But with spaced repetition, you have to test yourself on your memory cards almost every day. Is this a recipe for self-torture? Not at all. Reviewing cards is quite different from taking a test. When you miss a question on a test, bad things happen. You get a bad grade. You never get another chance to get the question right, except maybe on a final. /remember-months-and-letters-of-the-alphabet/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:51:31 +0000 /remember-months-and-letters-of-the-alphabet/ Mnemonics for months Many memory books have lists of mnemonics for months; you may recognize a few here. Month Mnemonic January New Year’s Hat February valentine March March hare April sprinkler (April Showers) May spring blossom June summer sandal July firecracker August hay bale September binder (back to school) October Jack O’Lantern November turkey December Christmas tree Mnemonics for the letters of the alphabet Here is a series using animals. /amazing-ancient-and-modern-memories/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:38:51 +0000 /amazing-ancient-and-modern-memories/ It’s tempting to conclude that memorizing, say, a Gospel, is simply impossible. The human brain is great at Thanksgiving etiquette, lousy at Gospels. And that’s that. But the evidence says otherwise. In medieval times, many monasteries and convents wouldn’t let you take your vows until you’d learned the entire Psalter, all 153 Psalms. In English, that’s over 2400 verses–about 47,000 words. Some scholars (not only the superstars) knew the entire New Testament. /anki-quickstart-guide/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:05:13 +0000 /anki-quickstart-guide/ Anki is a free program you can use to keep track of your flashcards. Anki uses spaced repetition to make sure you wait the right amount of time between reviews. Each card is scheduled separately. If a card is hard for you, you’ll see it more often. If it’s easy, you’ll wait longer between reviews. You can tell Anki how many new cards you want to add each day, how long you want to study each day, and more. /paper-flashcards-overview/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:39:18 +0000 /paper-flashcards-overview/ If you really want to keep what you learn, you need to commit to a daily program of spaced repetition. But if you’re not excited about all that extra time in front of a computer, take heart. Research on spaced repetition began in the 19th century, so obviously, it’s possible to do this with paper flashcards. Personally, I used paper flashcards for many months. It wasn’t so bad, but since I use computers for so many other things, I eventually gravitated towards a flashcard program. /computer-flashcards-overview/ Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:44:38 +0000 /computer-flashcards-overview/ A computer is amazing, but it’s also a highly specialized tool. Before you start storing weeks, months and years of memory work on a computer, make sure you consider how to avoid potential problems. First, use computers responsibly. Unfortunately, there are severe problems with the computer industry, such as sweatshops, poisons, and pollution. Since you’re probably reading this on a computer, you may already be familiar with these issues. Personally, I used computers for many years without even thinking about how they were made, and what happened to them after they became “trash”. /learn-the-two-basics-of-memorizing-in-five-minutes/ Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:28:35 +0000 /learn-the-two-basics-of-memorizing-in-five-minutes/ Do you keep forgetting what you try to learn? Great–I’ve got good news for you. You do not have a “bad memory.” You’re memory’s perfectly fine, even amazing, or else you would’t understand these little squiggles called letters. So why do you forget the things you want to know? Because you haven’t heard of these two simple methods. First, Talk to Your Memory in Its Own Language If this post was in ancient Sanskrit, you wouldn’t understand it. /bible-rhythms-verses-as-real-verses/ Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:17:20 +0000 /bible-rhythms-verses-as-real-verses/ When I began memorizing Mark, I broke the text into verses. As a side benefit, I noticed that each verse had its own shape, instead of the usual solid Bible column. But some verses were still too long. I’d get rolling on a long stretch, and get lost. Or skip chunks. Then I found The Oral Style by Marcel Jousse. This French priest eagerly explained how the best human learning happens with rhythm and gesture. /your-memorys-amazing-already/ Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:36:06 +0000 /your-memorys-amazing-already/ Your memory is amazing. Right now. It’s amazing. Even if you’ve lost the keys twelve times this week, missed your spouse’s birthday five years running, and haven’t remembered someone’s name the first time around since freshman Orientation. How do I know your memory is amazing? Because you’re reading this. You Remember How to Talk No, strike that, even if you can’t read and someone’s reading this to you, it’s still true. /test-do-you-remember-your-house/ Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:33:37 +0000 /test-do-you-remember-your-house/ Take this extremely short test for your “bad” memory, and find out you remember plenty of things. All over your house. How bad is your memory? I guarantee that if you’re reading this, your memory is astounding, but let’s take a simple example. Imagine your bedroom. What does your bed look like? You may not remember whether you made it or not, or even the color sheets right now. /your-memory-listens-to-its-own-language/ Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:25:18 +0000 /your-memory-listens-to-its-own-language/ Your memory is amazing, but it’s possible you often tell it stuff in the wrong language. How would you like it if your best friend started e-mailing you in ancient Celtic runes? And then got upset when you didn’t write back? But we expect to remember things like: Take I-95N to exit 91 (595W), then take exit 179 and bear left onto Route 126. The American economy suffered major recessions beginning in 1797, 1807, 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, and 1893. /store-memories-where-you-can-find-them-the-loci-method/ Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:56:00 +0000 /store-memories-where-you-can-find-them-the-loci-method/ Why did ancient educated Greeks and Romans have such amazing memories? They translated information into images their mind could remember. Then they stored these mnemonic images in mental “places” so they could find them again. The Latin word for places is loci, so we call this the loci method. So what is a “memory place”? A memory place is … well … a place you remember. Like your house. Have you ever tried thinking about walking around your house? /forget-everyday-junk-remember-the-good-stuff/ Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:39:58 +0000 /forget-everyday-junk-remember-the-good-stuff/ I use a paper calendar. For a guy who writes about memorizing entire Gospels, that might sound like a confession. Hypocrisy, even. How can all this stuff work, you might think, if this guy can’t even memorize when his library books are due? Well, I didn’t say I can’t. Sure, I could set up 12 loci, one for each month, and populate them with enough locus objects and parts for each day of each month.