Learn to memorize information better and faster

Attention and the ability to focus and memorize information give you a huge advantage when it comes to career and business. It’s those soft skills you are not likely to mention in your resume. But you’ll definitely put them to good use as soon as you start a new job.

Below you’ll find 9 memorization strategies and techniques. They’ll help you process information, avoid forgetting things and memorize stuff immediately and forever. You can program your mind. That’s a fact.

1. Storytelling

Stories have everything you need to memorize information. Bright imagery, characters, plotlines, to name a few. Think of various images that include things you need to memorize. Combine them into a sequence of events and create a coherent story your mind can follow.

Practice it: attach images of your favorite pet to things you need to memorize. Or imagine your favorite actor do what you need to do.

2. Breakdown and systematization

Something that has a clear structure is easier to memorize than random numbers, ideas, and words. Search for patterns is part of our experience and it’s what our brain is tuned to.

Practice it: combine concepts based on semantic coding. Group various separate concepts based on context and templates.

3. Association and conglomeration

Things you understand well are more likely to stick to your memory. Make it all make sense by connecting facts and concepts to something you already know. It’s easy to memorize something that’s related to the information that already lives in your head.

Practice it: associate new information with the knowledge you have. If new ideas fall under a certain context that already exists in your mind, they are likely to stay.

4. Expression and artistry

Express the things you are trying to memorize with the help of motions and gestures. Add emotions to dry facts. Present information as if you are performing on a scene. Say it out loud clearly and loudly.

Practice it: if you have to memorize a large chunk of text, try to yell it out loud. To learn certain words and statements, pronounce them loudly.

5. Change of scene

The human brain tends to connect places to living memories. Memory stocks to space, context, sounds. Use this when you need to memorize a large piece of information.

Practice it: separate the material into logical conceptual blocks and try to memorize each one in a new environment. Memorize which places are connected to certain parts of the material. Let your memory travel through all those places to weave the chunks of information together.

6. The Feynman technique

It’s a complex approach to memorizing information. It combines visual, associative, intervallic, and logical techniques. It works best when you need to memorize complex materials heavy with specialized terminology.

Practice it: write down the key theses of the material and try to explain them using simple language. Turn the entire piece of information into a fully-fledged story, say it out loud, record it and pay special attention to the hardest pieces.

7. The Roman Room technique

Also known as Cicero’s method. This is a technique for building a material structure. It implies arranging objects in a familiar room and in a certain order. You only have to picture the space in your mind to remember the information you need.

Practice it: walk around your place and mentally place the key points of information in a certain order. Use any space that’s very familiar to you.

8. The Edge Effect

Psychologists have long discovered that we remember the beginning and the end of a performance, a lecture, or a play the best. Try to trick your brain into memorizing the hardest pieces of information.

Practice it: structure the information so that the hardest part is in the beginning.

9. Visualization and contextual imagery

Activate your visual memory and turn words and concepts into images. Even if you are not a visual learner by nature, people, in general, memorize visual information faster. Besides, when you use all your senses to help information stick to your memory your brain will easily remember it when you need it. Make these images bright and emotionally charged and your brain will never forget them.

Practice it: create a visual skeleton for the piece of information you need to memorize with the help of associative symbols and images that relate to certain words and concepts.

Find explanations for things, ask questions, check yourself, and keep your mind in order. More importantly, believe in the power of your mind. Your memory matters a great deal.