How to Memorize Anything (30 page)

A
MOUNT OF SLEEP NEEDED

Everyone’s individual sleep needs vary as each one of us have different routine, eating habits, work pattern etc. In general, most healthy adults are built for 16 hours of wakefulness and need an average of 8 hours of sleep a night. Contrary to common myth, the need for sleep doesn’t decline with age, but the ability to sleep for 6–8 hours at one time may be reduced.

Younger people seem to need more sleep than older people and the former (particularly babies, who sleep for about 12 hours a day) have more information to lay down into memories.

H
OW TO GET A GOOD NIGHT
’
S SLEEP

Sleep problems are usually caused by lifestyle rather than a sleep disorder. If you are sleep deprived, you are at a risk of developing a number of serious health problems and your ability to learn and retain new information may be impaired. Sleep is essential for effective memory storage and retrieval.

According to leading sleep researchers, there are techniques to combat common sleep problems:

• Keep a regular sleep/wake schedule
  
• Comfortable pillows and mattresses are also important
  
• Don’t drink or eat caffeine 2–3 hours before bed and minimize daytime use
  
• Don’t smoke, especially near bedtime or if you get upin the night
  
• Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before sleep
  
• Get regular exercise
  
• Before going to bed, avoid activities that stimulate your mind like watching TV/movie or working in computer or laptop, etc.
  
• Minimize noise, light, and excessive hot and cold temperatures where you sleep
  
• Develop a regular bed time and go to bed at the same time each night
  
• Try taking a hot bath or drinking a hot (non-caffeinated) drink, before going to bed.
  
• Do something quiet like listening soothing music
  
• You can also try some relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, visualization, muscle relaxation etc.
  

AVOID MULTITASKING

Multitasking: an unavoidable feature of our 24/7 lifestyle.
Multi-tasking is probably productivity’s biggest enemy. Handling too many things at one time generally leads to forgetfulness. Unfortunately this has become a way of life of each individual be it a working woman or a housewife. A man also deals with a lot many things at the job front as well as at home. Even children handle studies, tuitions, sports, and art or dance classes simultaneously. All this result in a less effective memory. Doing less and doing it without interruptions can be the key to being more productive.

In a University of Michigan study, participants who were asked to write a report and check email at the same time took one-and-a-half times longer than those who handled each task separately.

 Stanford University psychology professor Clifford Nass provided research showing that chronic multi-taskers are even worse at multitasking than those who work on one task at a time.

Here are some tips to get rid of the effect of multitasking:

1. Making a to-do list:
   Not many people have a habit of making a list of task to be done during the day whereas it is the first step towards effective time management. Once your list is ready, you can plan your day accordingly which reduces stress. At the end of day when you see all the task done it gives you satisfaction.
   
2. Prioritization:
   Once your to-do list is ready, you have to prioritize your work according to their importance and urgency. You will realize that by doing just 20% of your tasks most of your urgent work is done. The rest 80% can be handled according to the time available or can be addressed at a later stage.
   
3. Avoid distractions:
   This means that you should concentrate only on the task at hand and avoid unnecessary distractions which may hamper your work. Like, turning off all phone and email notifications. Check your email at certain times, resisting the temptation to switch windows as soon as you receive a new one.
   
4. Seek a quiet place to work:
   This will result in finishing your task quickly as you will be able to concentrate better in a quiet environment.
   
5. Organize your work place, reduce clutter:
   It’s hard to focus on a task when the other things are scattered across your home or workplace. If you are working on one subject or a project or even a recipe, keep only those things around which are related to it. Stack unnecessary things away.
   
6. Schedule time for individual tasks:
   Assign a particular time for each task and try to finish that task in the given time.
   
7. Group similar tasks:
   Similar kind of work should be done together. For example, shopping for grocery should be combined with shopping for stationary or getting some photocopies of documents etc. so that you don’t have to go out again and again. Some task can be delayed, if possible, to accomplish similar tasks at one go.
   

SETTING CLEAR GOALS

The level of our concentration is in direct proportion to the intensity of our desire to remember. If we read something merely for the sake of reading it or to merely pass time, we may not remember it. But if we have a clear goal to remember something, we will always be able to do so.

Even if you have a clear set goal in your mind, concentration can sometimes become difficult if achieving that goal seems very difficult or an assignment appears overwhelming. In that case, try breaking down the big goal into smaller easily achievable goals, i.e., break down an assignment into more ‘doable’ tasks. For example, if you have to research a report, write it up, and present it; make researching a goal in itself. Once, this is done, the second step, outlining it, becomes easier. Writing it up become your third goal; and then finally, focus on the final step: presenting your findings. Broken down into four manageable chunks, it becomes easier for each one to be pursued with effortless concentration.

FORGETTING UNWANTED MEMORIES

One of the chief things causing interference with concentration is internal pollutants like anger, fear, doubts, jealousy, and bad memories, which cloud our mind most of the time. These can replace concentration with restless preoccupation and mental turmoil. To concentrate on a thing we need to clear these clouds.
For instance,
let’s say you want to write on a slate or a paper. If something already written on it is not properly erased, then even if something good is later written on it, it will not be legible. So whatever is written on the slate or paper of mind must be thoroughly cleaned before you can write something on it again.

But the mind is such a wonderful slate or paper that whatever is written on it sinks so deeply within that to remove it is not so easier task. It is not easy to forget things. To erase what efforts do we have to do? How is erasing possible?

FORGIVE AND HAVE MERCY

To forget the mistakes of someone, you have to forgive and shower mercy on that person. Suppose a person behaves with you in a wrong manner, this act of his is pinching you frequently, the way the dust particle irritates you when it enters the eye. The influence of this has been engraved deep within you, layers upon layers. But if you inculcate the feeling of forgiveness and mercy, then you can forget it easily.

Another method to put an end to an issue or dispute physically or mentally in your mind is to fold two hands and beg for forgiveness by saying sorry.

If one person forgets the mistakes of others from his mind, it does not mean that he doesn’t know what mistake the other person has done. It does not also mean that he is made of stone, i.e. he is insensitive. Rather he has acquired the strength to not be affected by an insult. It is also not the case that he is losing his dignity. Rather, the style and the technique of his life is that of letting things go, of forgiving. Meditation helps to get this power to forgive and remain calm.
So the technique to forget is to forgive.

DIVERT YOUR MIND TOWARDS SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Another method is to divert the mind towards some other direction, or to busy the mind with something else. Mostly people use the opposite technique when they get distressed: they pay more and more attention to the person who has behaved in a bad manner. They will keep thinking,
I will not leave this person; he has harassed and disturbed me a lot throughout my life
. So this negative memory then become more firm. How it can then be forgotten?

If you want to remember something or somebody, you have to recall it repeatedly. When children are being taught at school, they are asked to revise what they have learned again and again; only then are they able to remember it. It becomes firm in their memory. That is why, if you remember or pay attention to somebody’s mistakes again and again, you will not be able to forget the mistake of that person; it firmly takes root in your memory; you will get sorrow and the duration of the pain will keep increasing. So what do you do? Divert your mind and attention from that issue to something else. You would have experienced in life that when your attention andtime are used in some specific task, old issues are be forgotten. So, when time has passed by, when something is not being repeatedly used, or when one’s attention is engaged in something else, all old issuesare forgotten.

Meditation is the ultimate process to clean up your mind and enjoy your work.

MEDITATION

Meditation in other words means ‘Attention Training’. Studies have shown that meditation helps improve attention thus helping people lead a more peaceful, content, and happy lives. It helps people to focus their attention on the present which in turn reduces their stress and worries.

HOW MEDITATION IMPROVES CONCENTRATION

‘Thalamus’ is known as the gatekeeper of senses. It funnels the sensory information
(smell, touch, sound etc.)
deeper in to the brain. If sensory information reaches the brain, only then do we become ‘aware’ of it and that information or the agent generating that information
disturbs
us. Meditation has been found to reduce the incoming information to a trickle. This means, we are able to
focus
on what we are doing i.e., concentrate unhindered. This is way meditation improves concentration.

MEDITATION IMPROVES CORTICAL THICKNESS

Scientists have found meditation is associated with a thicker cerebral cortex and more grey matter—i.e., the parts of the brain linked to memory, attention span, decision-making and learning. But it’s not necessary to meditate silently for a year or so. One study found people who meditated at least once a week for four years showed increased cortical gyrification, the folding of the cerebral cortex that helps people process information.

WHAT IS MEDITATION?

Meditation is the process of empowering and recharging the mind by channelizing our thoughts in right direction while being in right consciousness of the self.

Meditation is not just focusing on a point or stopping all thoughts. The nature of the mind is to create thoughts. But many a times, while in stress or handling too many things, the number of thoughts coming to our mind increase so much that we find it difficult to think clearly and concentrate on one task at hand.

The process of mediation not only helps mind to relax by reducing the number of thoughts but also leads to attitudinal change by cleansing all negative and wasteful thoughts and consciously creating positive thoughts about the self and others. In simple words, meditation can be described as a three-step process:

1. Reflecting the self
   
2. Relaxing the mind
   
3. Recharging the mind
   

REFLECTING THE SELF

We spend most of our time observing others and thinking about them. We even judge ourselves on the basis of what others think about us. Meditation is an inner journey. In meditation, we sit comfortably, stop thinking about others, and start observing our-selves, who I am, what is my role in a particular relationship or a situation, how I am behaving, what kind of thoughts I am creating in response to the stimulus? So it’s a step of self observation and introspection.

RELAXING THE MIND

After observing the thoughts, now channelize the flow of thoughts on the basis of right knowledge. Like a detached observer, check the thoughts you are creating and match them with the ones you should be creating in that particular time. Choose and discard the disturbing and negative/waste thoughts about yourself and others, thereby relaxing your mind by reducing their burden and choose what thoughts you should create.

RECHARGING THE MIND

With the right consciousness about yourself and your inner powers and strengths, now consciously make an effort to create right and positive thoughts and try to be in that consciousness. As you choose and create powerful and positive thoughts about yourself and others around you, you start feeling good and empowered, as if you are being recharged.