Summary - Persuade your mind to want to remember
A few days back, one reader by the nick SilentReader had asked me one question to be discussed here - How to improve long term memory. Shall we?
First of all, allow me to interest you with some articles I’ve actually written on the subject.
To tell you the truth, I actually did quite a lot of thinking on the matter. And at the end of the day, I’ve concluded that there is only one way to be able to memorize something and remember it for the rest of your life.
You must want to remember.
Seriously, I can list down every technique known to mankind - Chinese One Syllable Technique, Association, Repetition, Funny Images, House Mapping etc. But they will prove ineffective if you just don’t want to remember.
However trying to make yourself want something is not an easy thing to do. Why? It’s because the mind is always behaving like a child.
What will happen if you ask a child to work instead of playing? He will first disapprove and will try to wiggle his way out of the task. If that didn’t work, he will do the job lazily, hoping that you will give up impatiently. What would you do?
The same goes to the mind. It will goes exactly through the same phase as the child, disapprove, wiggle and lastly do the job lazily.
How to negotiate with the mind? Well treat it like a child of course.
1) Always slow talk
Never raise your voice to your mind. The more you force yourself, the more reluctant the mind will work for you.
2) Visualize what will be achieved.
Just like a child, you must describe how they will benefit visually. Maybe draw a car that they will be able to buy if the child gets good grade and be successful. For the child, the word successful doesn’t mean much.. but if he knows that with good grade, he will get to be a pilot and buy a car. That will push him in the right direction.
Research where your graduated seniors are working now. And how much are their salary. Imagine your dream laptop that can be bought easily with your one month salary should you follow their foot steps. In short, motivate yourself (visually)
3) Join in to do the hard work.
If you put a child to work under the hot sun while you sip cold drink under the shade, the child will immediately realize he is being bullied and may stop working altogether. If you work with him under the hot sun, he will do the work more willingly.
Work together with your mind. How? for a start, when you read, you read. Don’t read with your mouth while you are thinking about how hot your girlfriend is. 
4) Reward
Every child demand some reward if they do a good job. They may not say it out loud, but they really want it. Some would settle with a pat on the back, some may want cash.
Figure out the reward for your mind. It can be as simple as a 30 minutes nap or $50 to be spent on anything.
5) Make it fun
Cleaning up the house is never fun for children. But if you assigned each child to a room and whoever can clean up the fastest will win one week of no work, I’m sure the work will be done in no time.
In the case of your mind, make it fun by maybe substituting the character described in the history book with your real life friends and family. Of course don’t let yourself be the hero. Hero always get killed in history books
6) Don’t plan too far ahead.
Children hate it when you gave them 20 things to do. Most probably they will just drag the first task to avoid doing the other 19.
For your mind, try to implement this trick. Only plan to do two things at any time. It is a great Getting Things Done (GTD) tools.
- I wonder -
Any other resemblance between a child and the mind?
———- Personal Note ———– I guess one of the price we have to pay growing up, is losing that sense of having fun. What do you think?
I just love children. Just watching them play can make me smile. They have no idea what they’re playing, what’s the rule or the goal but they can still make the game looks insanely fun
Photo Credit - Hamed Masoumi
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