Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0295: Reprise: How do you memorize important things that aren’t really interesting?

Episode Date: April 24, 2015

Today Timothy revisits the question on how to memorize important things that aren’t really interesting, with some extra comments on how he would change his answer today. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Today we're doing a reprise episode. So basically we're representing an old Master of Memory episode that I think is worth a refresher, but also with some new commentary from me based on my more experienced perspective now. Today we're doing episode 13 about memorizing things that aren't very interesting. Some things I like about the way that I delivered this episode is I talked about always having a specific outcome in mind and working fastest to get results. Almost anything can be made more exciting by the fact that you're working toward very specific results and you have, you know, you're trying to get them

done as fast as possible to work toward that result. So that makes things a little more interesting. And then I also talked about some things about energy and so on. But some things I would change is I would put more emphasis from the very beginning on the importance of making things interesting to learn. I did cover that in this episode, but I would put more emphasis on that from the very beginning because interesting things are the things that are the most memorable to us. And then I would also add the mere excitement of learning and of exploring a project in and of itself. I think that I'm at a point where you can give me pretty much any topic, and it'll fascinate me just from the perspective of trying to figure out how I would organize the information

in a memory palace, and so on. So I think the process of learning can be exciting in and of itself. But here's the episode as it was originally presented last March. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Darlene asked on Facebook, as smart as I am, why do I find it difficult to memorize something I'm not really interested in, even when it's deemed necessary? Well, Darlene, I think there are really two issues here whenever we have to memorize things that we don't find interesting. First of all, there's just a matter of motivation.

Even if we know what we have to do and we come to it, sometimes it's harder to memorize just because we don't feel like it. And then second, there's the difficulty of remembering things that our minds don't find memorable. So to address the first one first, with motivation, the trick is to bring your best focus and set short-term goals. So make sure that your energy is at a peak, you are completely focused on what you're doing, and you have really, you are completely focused on what you're doing, and you have really specific short-term goals for what you're doing, even if you don't particularly enjoy the subject. So always make sure that you don't try to study something you're not interested in when you don't have your best energy. Never try to study something uninteresting when you're tired or when you're hungry or anything like that.

Always come at it, even if you're not particularly excited about it, come at it with good energy, good mental alertness. And then always approach any memorization project, when you sit down to do some memory, always make sure that you have a specific outcome in mind for what you're doing at that moment. So let's say you had to memorize a hundred vocabulary words or a speech or something like that. If you give yourself just a small goal to do when you sit down, let's say you just have to memorize 10 words or you have to memorize two sentences of the speech, that's going to help you a lot because you'll see the end of what you're sitting down and doing. And, you know, it'll help you focus and it'll help you have better results.

And then always try to do it as fast as possible to get the best results possible. So for example, you could take those 10 words that you have to memorize in this sitting and restrict yourself to two minutes. So tell yourself you have to memorize those 10 words in two minutes, or at least try to do that. Those are some things just to help motivation. Now as far as remembering things that we don't really find interesting, the key to remembering things is to make them memorable. And that's the essence of mnemonics. So even if it's something really dull, like regulatory code, or a bunch of numbers, or something like that,

there are ways to make them interesting enough that our minds will take them as memorable and we'll remember them because we associate them with something beyond themselves. So for an intro to mnemonics, go to masterofmemory.com slash mnemonics. And I kind of give a general idea of how mnemonics work, how you associate uninteresting things with interesting things so that your mind finds them memorable. And then another idea is while you're doing this, choose mnemonics that you're particularly interested in. Let's say you had to memorize

the U.S. Constitution, and for some reason you aren't really finding it all that thrilling. Well, as you choose the mnemonics while you're doing the constitution, instead of just finding mnemonics that work really well for the text, suppose you tried to make all of your mnemonics somehow relate to food or somehow relate to music or to some subject that you find really interesting. Then, while you're learning to memorize the Constitution, the whole time you're actually thinking about music or the whole time you're actually thinking about food. So find some area that you do like, something you do enjoy,

and relate that to what it is that you're learning. This all may sound kind of vague, but I hope that gives you a starting point, Darlene. And if you want some help approaching how to learn any topic in particular, don't hesitate to ask me another question and I'll be happy to get back to you. All right, I hope you've enjoyed this reprise episode. For anyone who has any questions about learning or memorizing anything faster than ever, feel free still to leave a message at masterofmemory.com slash question,

and I'll be able to respond quickly to your message from wherever I am. I just won't be able to record an episode on that topic until I'm back in the States in May. Meanwhile, if you want to support the show, please check out our Spanish course at masterofmemory.com slash Spanish. Or if you want to follow my adventures in Argentina or wherever else I might happen to be, you can do that at timothymoser.com.