Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0368: How does ADHD affect accelerated learning?

Episode Date: August 5, 2015

Gwendolyn asks about the effects of ADHD on the way that accelerated learning techniques are applied. BONUS: Here’s a quizzing set you can use to memorize the key words of this poem: Memorize strange meeting 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.

Master of Memory 368. 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. Gwendolyn submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question about using accelerated learning techniques when you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now, of course, as a mnemonist and accelerated learning expert and not as any kind of doctor, I'm not going to talk from a medical perspective, just from a practical perspective for anyone who

has trouble focusing or is easily distracted. Whether you're talking about ADHD or really any type of focus or distraction problem, it's shown that people who are trying to focus on something they're not interested in are more easily distracted, but it is more interesting to stay focused on something that I've read about ADHD, but also just in general for anyone, if you have trouble focusing on something, you know that it's more interesting to focus on something that you're interested in. It's easier to focus on, for example, a video game or something that's high action and high interest, something that's attractive and entertaining. Now, for those who have listened to the show for a while, you might be expecting that I'll tie this into mnemonics, which is exactly where I'm going. Mnemonics are taking learning from something that the brain

doesn't want to do, like trying to drill in numbers or abstract concepts, and turning them into things that your brain does like to think about, like funny images and interesting stories and things like that. Anything where your brain doesn't want to do it, but you're turning it into something that is interesting, that's mnemonics, and that will help you focus and be more entertaining and more engaging. So diagnostically speaking, if you're having trouble focusing on something, really ask yourself, can I solve this problem by actually making this into something that I'm interested in? Would I be able to focus if this was something that really excites

me? What is it that I'm wanting to focus on right now, and how can I relate that to what I'm doing right now? Another tactic that you might experiment with, it could help or it could actually hinder you, it depends on your personality and things like that, is to experiment with frequent activity changing. So for example, you might spend 20 minutes working on one project and being really focused in that one project, but then working on another project afterwards. And I personally would actually use timing techniques. So you turn on a timer, you force yourself to focus for only a specific amount of time on a particular subject,

and see if you can hit certain goals during that time. But when the time's up, either you say, oh well, and you try to finish it, or you say, oh well,, and you try to finish it, or you say, oh, well, and move on to the next project. But ideally, it'll be just enough, you know, the time restriction that we're applying here is just tight enough that it's difficult to meet it, but not impossible. So that'll keep you excited and help to keep you focused because it forces you sort of to compete with yourself. You're gamifying the system. You're taking the things that you need to do and the things that you need to focus on

and you're turning it into a game by making it exciting. You're racing against the clock in doing it. So Gwendolyn, I hope that gives you some good tips and I hope you can apply them. I'd love to hear another question from you. And for anyone listening, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question,

and I'll talk to you again soon.