There are always a few important things that we need to remember for our daily survival, forcing us to recall by organizing and then filing these bits of information in our minds for instant retrieval.
When it comes to those data cramming occupations, such as, doctors, lawyers, or accountants, they all need an extremely organized and highly trained and efficient filing system for their brains.
Some liken the cognitive organization of memory recall that’s required by these occupations, to going into a department store and then needing to memorize all of the names of each and every product that’s in the store, with expectations of recall at will.
But they’re able to do so, they pack all of this information precisely in their craniums. Although it may be difficult to imagine, the transformation is complete once a professionally train individual is loaded with all of the information that’s required for them to perform their craft, their work, such as a surgeon or a prosecutor.
These gifted minds have an immense capacity to store and then recall information, which almost appears like an absolute miracle. Once broken down and dissected, however, there are techniques which can be learned and perfected, a science of memory recall that’s proven to work.
Proven Strategies For Better Memory Recall
• Developing Visual Memory – This is actually a well known method which enables you to remember and then recall better. Say that you’re at a business meeting and are introduced to six people in rapid succession.
There is a method that the professionals use to memorize all of their names. They do so by singling out an unique visual characteristic about each person, and will then connect it to their name visually, through an action of some sort.
For instance, you can remember Joe who may have big ears, by creating a mental image of a cup of coffee(“joe”) cleaning out wax from his ears with his fingers.
Doing so may require a bit of practice and mental effort to perfect this, but once you do, you’ll begin coming up with easy and creative ways of instantly imagining these types of images.
If you have a habit of constantly misplacing your car keys, wallet, or glasses, try taking a split second to “visualize” by taking a mental snapshot of where you’ve placed that item, and then blow it up and save it in your memory.
If you retrieve and then visualize the explosion in detail, you should then remember where you placed it.
• Writing Down What Needs To Be Memorized – This a well known tactic when learning medical terms, such as a certain illness, their cause, and their treatment.
Begin by writing out all the facts in a list which will improve the recall once you actively force yourself to learn that list, this rather than doing so passively. So instead of copying down facts, try to learn by recalling each item that you’re wanting to learn, and then write them down over and over again.
When doing this, what you’re doing is teaching yourself what you’re attempting to learn. This method also flushes out which of the facts haven’t made it into your long-term memory, making you focus more in learning them, rather than wasting your time attempting to reinforce facts which you already know.
• Have An Interest In Whatever You’re Learning – We all have better recall if we have interest in that item or person. For instance, most people will have an easier time remembering the name of those who they find attractive or are attracted to, such as a movie star.
If you’re not that interested in whatever you’re learning or attempting to remember, you’ll then need to find a way to do so. So if you’re heart really isn’t into medical school, then you’ll most likely have a difficult time remembering all of its terms.
• Create A Memory Tree – If you’re wanting to memorize an extensive number of facts, then you need a way of relating them in your mind visually by creating a memory tree.
Begin by building the larger branches first, then the leaves. The branches should display labels which are meaningful to you in one way or another.
The organization of all the facts, the leaves, should be as logical as possible. It’s well known that we’ll remember smaller bits of data better if we can place them in bigger groups or chunks.
For instance, it’s easier to remember 890467 as “890” and then “467,” rather than as 6 individual digits.
• Attempting To Remember What You’re Reading – Begin by summarizing each paragraph in the margin. What this requires is for you to think more about what you’re reading, so recycle it, and then teach it back to yourself again.
Take the concepts which you’re learning and then reason forward with them. Relate them to imagined novel situations, which should then create more neural connections which reinforces the memory.
• Connect What You’re Learning With What You Already Know – It appears that the more mental connections we’re able to make to retrieve a specific piece of information, the more successful that we’ll be when we need to remember it. This is the reason why using mnemonics can actually improve memory recall.
• Getting Adequate Sleep – Getting the prescribed amount of sleep consolidates while helping you retain better memory. This not only a night after you’ve crammed all of the information that you need to, but also the day before as well. This has proven to be far better than staying up late and absorbing all of the data.