Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0312: Reprise: How do I absorb an enormous amount of information thoroughly?

Episode Date: May 19, 2015

Today Timothy revisits the question on how to absorb an enormous amount of information thoroughly, 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 of episode 45 about memorizing a large amount of information thoroughly. In this episode, I talk about the importance of focusing on a small amount of information and experimenting with that to see what works, and then scaling what does work from there. Something I would change about this episode, though, is instead of using the word scatter about putting ideas throughout a room, like if you're in a particular topic, putting all of your topic, all your things within that topic throughout a room unsystematically. Instead, I would organize the memory palace by an important category of some kind, so that if you're at any term in there or any other fact that's within there, you also know based on where it is, what type of category it fits into with that.

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. Kristen asked in an email about absorbing a large amount of information from a textbook in the very first reading. I've spoken before, back in episode 16, about finding key points and concepts and focusing on those, but Kristen says she's in a situation where all the information in the book will be very important. How should she go about absorbing it all without having to read through the whole thing over and over? Well, Kristen, to get started, I would actually start small. You can work up from there, but first, start by taking a certain topic or subject,

or maybe a single chapter of a book, whatever works for you, and place certain concepts in different places using mnemonic stories. I talked about this a little back in episode 38, though you'll have to adapt it to your specific needs. Just make it small and see what works. So start with one small subject or even the preparation for one quiz or whatever it is that you're going to be doing next

and create mnemonics for every detail within that subject if you have to learn all those details. Put all the stuff related to that in various places in just one building or room. So scatter those ideas throughout that building or room by creating your mnemonic stories in those places. So if one of your mnemonics is, you know, a yo-yo jumping up and down, you would put that on a windowsill or something. So you can always find whatever that mnemonic is in that individual place. And that's going to give you some beginning experience with mnemonics

and memory palaces. And of course, you can learn from that what works and what doesn't. Once you thoroughly know all the details of that particular subject or that one quiz that you're preparing for, and all those are in one room, then you can place other topics in other rooms based on this experience. So it's all about starting with a quick win, really getting some experience with these mnemonics, and then applying the same tactics to the whole rest of your textbook as you go through it. And then, of course, revising your tactics based on what's working and what isn't. But you really have to experiment with yourself. If you're going to have to learn everything in this textbook thoroughly,

start by learning just one part as thoroughly as you can, and then work up from that experience. So I hope that helps you, Kristen. If you go ahead and choose a topic to work on, I'd be happy to brainstorm with you via email on how you can apply this in more detail. 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.