How to teach the brain to learn, memorize and forget? Effective techniques from a neurocoach

“As soon as we give freedom to the brain, it starts to get lazy, turn on automatisms, freeze, replay unpleasant events of the past, become anxious, creating an unpleasant state. However, if we take the control process into our own hands, teach it to learn, it will begin to analyze information in a new way and give us new ideas. It’s all about systematicity and the focus of our attention”.

General rules for organizing the learning process

Take a break every 20-40 minutes, as the brain needs rest. It is not for nothing that lessons at school last 40 minutes. It helps to be in optimal concentration. If you overdo it with the time, there will be no great benefit from the learning process. The brain will start to freeze, as it needs time to process information.

Do not get distracted by extraneous matters

Many people combine online learning with parallel activities: cooking, cleaning, scrolling through social networks or answering messages. However, this worsens the very process of learning and memorization. Even tea with cookies distracts the brain, as it begins to analyze tastes and new processes are triggered in the body. In the break it is quite possible to drink tea, go for a walk or listen to uplifting music.

Time for learning

The brain is most active in the morning between 8 and 10am and in the evening between 8 and 11pm. During sleep, the synthesis of information is also active. Therefore, if you repeat the material before going to bed, it will be remembered better.

Fyzická aktivita

The more you sit and move less, the worse the brain begins to work. Walk, dance, make improvised movements during breaks. This will enrich the brain with oxygen and positively affect the process of memorization.

General physical condition

If you have a headache, you are very tired or have not had enough sleep, then the learning process will be meaningless. Coffee, tea and other energy drinks will not help. It is better to take a headache pill, take a walk or go to bed.

Make it a habit to study

If you make learning a daily process, preferably at a certain time, then the brain will get used to learning and it will like it. The main thing is not to overload it with information, competently distribute the load, give the opportunity to rest.

Smells and sounds

Extraneous sounds and smells can distract from the learning process. The brain will analyze whether it is dangerous or not. If it is food smells, it will start automatically analyzing what it smells like, whether it is tasty or not.

However, if you add essential oils to the learning process and use them every time in an aroma lamp or drip them on an aroma stone, their influence will have a positive effect on the memorization process. Especially good to use essential oils of rosemary, lemon, petitgrain.

Techniques of memorization

There are special techniques for memorizing information that make the learning process more productive.

Main idea

Memorization of material leads to the fact that after an hour you will remember only 60% of the new information, and after six days in your memory will remain 20% of the learned material. Meaningful information is memorized nine times faster and is stored in long-term memory for longer periods of time.

The sandwich effect

Information located at the beginning and end of a text is best remembered. You can use this to help you memorize text. To do this, select the most difficult parts of the material and memorize them first or last.

Repetition

The more often we reproduce learned material, the longer it is stored in our memory. It is not for nothing that after school vacations everything started with repetition. There is a method of interval repetition, which helps to memorize information of any volume.

If you need to memorize something short and it is important to do it very quickly, the algorithm of repetition is as follows:

• the first repetition – 20 minutes after memorization;

• the second repetition – in six to eight hours;

• the third repetition – in twenty-four hours.

If you need to memorize a large amount of information for a week, the principle is as follows:

• the first repetition – on the day of memorization (all the material);

• the second repetition – in three days (key points);

• the third repetition – in six days (all the material, but in a different order).

Outlines

Numerous studies have shown that when we write down, rather than just listen to new information, we remember it better. Use, lists, numbering, pictures, symbols, colored markers. This will incorporate the creative process into memorization and enhance the effect.

Change locations

New information overlapping with similar type of data that is already in your memory makes it harder to memorize. A large amount of unfamiliar information also complicates the memorization process. In this case, you can divide the information into logical blocks and study each block in different rooms: kitchen, hall, hallway, bathroom, toilet, balcony, street, cafe, transportation, park and so on. A change of scenery will help to avoid mixing up information.

Mnemotechniques

Mnemotechnics are based on associative connections.

Come up with a mini-narrative. It can be special phrases that you come up with: for example, the arrangement of the colors of the rainbow we remember thanks to the expression “Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits” (red/orange/yellow/green/blue/blue/purple).

Singing the information. Sing, make up a tune, or overlay information on information you already know. Many people learned the English alphabet through the ABC song. If you find it easier to memorize information by ear, find it in audiobook format or record it yourself on a tape recorder.

Visualization. Charts, graphs, memes, emoticons, signs, symbols – create your own pictures from the information. The main thing is that you yourself remember what it’s about.

How to train your brain to forget

Most of the information received without constant use begins to be forgotten. The brain considers it unnecessary, and it is stored in the deep layers of the unconscious. This applies not only to foreign language, numbers, poems, rules, but to all other data.

The more often you use data, the harder it is to forget it. The more emotional and painful the information is, the harder it is to forget it. The brain stores all unpleasant events as a defense against repetition. It is important for it to remember it to protect you.

There are techniques to reduce the emotional reaction to a past event. In “forgetting”, the brain does not erase the memory per se, but a combination of sensory perceptions. In this case, common scenes and situations are forgotten more easily than people’s actions. Since personal contact adds a strong emotional component. And such a vast layer of information, consisting of sensations and memories, is much more difficult to remove.

In order to forget something, you need to remember it very well and mentally transfer it to a TV set with a huge screen. View on this screen in the smallest detail all the unpleasant history. You can press “pause” while watching and see the individual details. Listen several times to the unpleasant phrases that hurt you. And then mentally turn off the sound.

Once again, watch your movie like a silent movie. Go back to the beginning again. And now take out the sound and the color. Change the ending of the movie, add a new storyline in there. And then put the whole movie on an imaginary little TV screen. Again, mentally watch the entire movie in black and white on the small TV screen. Do this exercise until the story loses its meaning.