Memorize what you saw in college, learn a new skill for work, understand how a new program works or learn about the new crypto that was recently launched.
It seems that there is no end to what we need to learn but this dilemma has been old and important since always.
In our ancestors, those who did not learn how to hunt, those who did not memorize how far the river water rose in the flood or which plant was safe to eat and which was not, did not leave descendants to tell the story. and taking into account how learning was important for our evolution can lead you to learn more.
Everyone has tried to remember a name, formula or date in a test and has failed.
This can make you feel like you forgot what you had learned, but it is normal that this effect is called forgetfulness curve, and it may seem like the worst thing, but it is not, you just could not recover that memory at the right time.
You have already watched several films that you would not be able to retell the story in detail in case I ask you, but if you start watching the film again it is very likely that you will remember the next scenes.
It means that this memory was saved, it just wasn't redeemable, but watching the movie again made the memory come back.
forgetting is part of what helps to put aside what doesn’t matter anymore and to remember more easily than we really need.
as important as memorizing is to be able to rescue when you need to!
learning something new is more or less like stacking one more note on your brain table, as space is limited even if you don't lose anything, no information sheet of what you've memorized, as you learn more and have new experiences more paper is being piled on top of what you kept, and what you learned before is buried under what you learned afterwards.
So one of the things that most helps us to learn and remember is to study again, remember something and study again is like pulling the paper back to the top of the pile where it will be easier to find, so we are left with what is more important is more available, after all the information that we pull up is more important than the information that we use only once.
Remembering something you just learned the same afternoon helps a lot less than if it is the next day or the next week, and the bigger the space that you can still remember when you go back to the effect the better.
Even better if you can sleep between these intervals, studying for a test the day before and sleeping well helps more than studying the next morning if the test is in the afternoon.
Sleeping is a great way to consolidate what we learn and make connections between concepts.
Sleeping well helps to learn physical skills, while sleeping we work up to our motor activities.
Another thing that makes a difference to memorize and especially to help rescue what we have learned is the context, watching a movie again puts us back in that story.
looking for a quieter place to study helps but the ideal is to vary where you study and have at least a little noise, because we don't just keep pure memories, our memories are multisensory, sometimes listening to music or smelling a smell reminds us of that trip the same goes for when we study.
Studying without any stimulus is giving less context to remember what we study.
Spacing what we study also helps.
And as counterintuitive as it seems to mix what we learn, it also helps, if you focus on a single content continuously for a long time it can generate stress that makes it difficult to memorize, so alternating between materials and content can help to have better results, because more than you remember everything the next day it is very likely that in time you will forget everything.
so in summary to learn better we need:
Varying the environment
vary what we study
repeat the study
and rest
And the most important thing is to put into practice what you have studied, and you don't need to set everything right, make mistakes and then immediately correct what you have wrong, further enhancing what you have learned.
This is my reflection today, this text was a lot of work, but I hope it can help you in something, a big hug and see you tomorrow with a new reflection.
