The brain is just like the body and can benefit from regular "exercise". It is this exercise that allows for the growth and solid connections between neurons.
Improving memory really involves some very simple concepts but may take effort and time to develop. Things to remember to improve memory:
- REPETITION
The father of taxonomy maybe Carolus Linnaeus but the mother of learning is repetition! Hands down, not getting around this one! Want to learn something and put it in a solid place in the brain … repeat the activity over and over and over again … is it a new dance move?
Squeeze it in and do that “Funky Cold Medeena” every time you step out of the shower! (Watch out for those slippery tiles!!) Is it a new concept in Math? Get busy and say the steps in your head every time you jump into the car! Hey, and don’t forget that repetition includes practice … do questions repeatedly that tackle that concept you just need to master!
- SPACE IT OUT
You know, and it has been said a hundred million times (ok, way more than that … more like forty-nine hundred million times), cramming does not improve memory! Say it with me … DOES NOT!!! So, pulling out the dance moves only once or twice after that shower and doing practice questions just this afternoon will make very little concrete! So, repeat, repeat, repeat but be sure to be strategic about it! Spacing out the repetition is the real key to making sure that your dance career will not go belly up and that math test will be easy peasy japaneasy. So, think about dedication time to this concept. It doesn’t have to be all-nighters or hours upon hours of work … in fact, what it does have to be is often and regular! What does that mean my fine students? It means reviewing material for about 10/15 minutes every day … need something to do while you take down that ham and cheese breakie – make it a review session! (Plus, the news is so overrated these days!!)
- FOCUS
It makes zero sense to study and do something else! ZERO, I said! So, bye-bye Insta and FB – you need to sit and really put 100% of that attention on what it is that you need to master! I know, I know … you heard about multi-tasking! What a bunch of hog wash! (Yup, I said it! And, there is science to prove it!) What is really happening is that the brain is very, very, very (Did I say very??) quickly moving from one focal point to another. That fine specimen of neutral tissue is NOT, and I mean it, not focusing on two or more things at once! It. Just. Isn’t. The brain can only focus on one thing at a time. Stop dividing that time into doing more than one thing at a time. Wanna improve that dance step? Know how to factor quadratics? Get those integer rules down pact at last? Then focus on that and that alone. Set a timer. Mind your business. Get down to work. Place all our attention on that ONE thing!!
- PROVE IT TO YOURSELF
So, you have regarded your study habits – you do it OFTEN, you have SPACED IT OUT, you let NOTHING get between you and that book … now set yourself some mini-tests! Go ahead - be the teacher (create or find some questions), be the student you were born to be (do those questions unaided) and then assess yourself (teacher again)! Giving yourself some incentives like tests will help you to feel accomplished and let you know exactly what you do remember! Plus, feelings of accomplishment will release some good old-fashioned dopamine (a hormone) in the brain which will boost your mood and make you way more likely to continue this technique of revision!
