Anthony Metivier's Blog, page 19

How to Concentrate on Studies: 11 Research-Backed Tips

Wouldn’t it be great if you could snap your fingers and instantly concentrate on studies?

The problem is… you know some people can. But no one has shown you how.

Today’s your lucky day because I once suffered from an attention span so frazzled, I nearly had to drop out of grad school. But I turned it all around and you can too.

Easily.

Why am I so convinced?

The reality is this: There are tons of science-backed techniques that help students of every age concentrate on studies.

It doesn’t have to do with your personality or your discipline. It has to do with how you design your learning life as a kind of game you can win.

So if you’re ready to start stacking the chips in your favor, let’s get started.

Here’s what this post will cover:

Why Can’t I Focus On Studying?

How to Focus on Studying: 11 Proven Strategies

1. Create Clear and Achievable Goals

2. Keep A Rigorous Study Schedule

3. Use Spatial Anchors

4. Block Out Distractions The Easy Way

5. Train Your Attention Span

6. Place Long-Term Outcomes First

7. Put Accountability On Autopilot

8. Track Your Progress

9. Use Tangible Study Tools

10. Keep Your Body Fit

11. Breathe and Meditate

How to Concentrate On Studies The Easy Way

Ready to learn how to concentrate on studies? Let’s go.

Why Can’t I Focus On Studying?

The main reason people can’t concentrate isn’t because they don’t know how to focus on studying.

It’s usually because they:

Lack clearly defined goals
Haven’t scheduled specific study times
Do not study in specially designated areas
Fail to strategically block out distractions
Have not trained their attention span
Focus on getting good grades instead of developing skills
Do not seek accountability from mentors, peers, or themselves
Have no tracking systems in place
Rely on smartphones and apps instead traditional and tangible study tools like physical notebooks and flashcards
Include no dietary and physical exercises regimes in their daily routines
Do not meditate or have knowledge of breathing exercises that can create a state of presence

To sum all of this up based on research, failing to attend to each of these points keeps you trapped in endless loops of mind wandering. According to scientists in the journal NeuroImage, too many learners have no strategies to help them focus on tasks.

It’s not just that people have multiple tabs open on their browsers and allow themselves to be endlessly distracted by notifications on their phones. They cannot enter what is commonly called “flow” (governed by the Task Positive Network of the brain) because of all the factors listed above.

The good news is that even the simple act of breathing strategically can calm your nerves so thoroughly within seconds that you can get through far worse than lack of concentration while studying. You can potentially even land a plane suffering mechanical failure!

How to Focus on Studying: 11 Proven Strategies

Let’s look at each of the eleven strategies in detail.

1. Create Clear and Achievable Goals

Have you ever caught yourself saying something like, “I’m going to read 11 articles by the end of the day and remember everything!”

If so, I’ve been there. And guess what? It never works.

Instead, I’ve learned to create goals I can actually achieve. Long before James Clear wrote his international hit Atomic Habits, I got so sick and frustrated with my fanciful overreaching that I knew I had to change.

I took a long hard look at how I was reading and using memory techniques and realized I was trying to have it all instead of focusing on only the most relevant information.

I started to think of it as the Faust Syndrome. (Faust is a fictional character who sold his soul to the devil in order to enjoy universal knowledge of everything. He ultimately realized knowing everything in exchange for eternal torment really wasn’t worth anything compared to the satisfaction of functional knowledge.)

Although it would be many years before I heard about the 80/20 principle, I was aware of something called “the rule of redundancy.”

Basically, it means most of the words in a book have nothing to do with its core points. Rather, they’re needed for context and innuendo.

So instead of trying to memorize the entire book, as I wanted to do (essentially selling my soul to the devil for nothing in return), I learned to set a simple goal: I would extract and memorize just 3 points from each chapter in a book and nothing more.

Here’s how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIQRi...

Over the years, some people have smirked at the system I came up with, but I just ignore their criticism.

And I’m glad I did because I wound up picking up a second MA in Media and Communications while completing my PhD! This was possible because I learned to set realistic goals and only extract the most important information from books.

And it all works very well because (so long as you’re using memory techniques correctly) your brain will fill in the gaps. You’ll remember far more than just three points per chapter, especially if you also use other accelerated learning techniques.

2. Keep A Rigorous Study Schedule

If you’re anything like me, you don’t always feel like studying.

But let’s face the facts:

Time is flowing by whether we like it or not. And exam dates aren’t going to be changed just because we don’t feel ready.

During my PhD, I sat for two field exams and a dissertation defense. Because I had to travel from either New York or Berlin to Toronto to attend them, not only could I not easily extend the dates — it would have incurred a great cost if I did.

That’s why I always scheduled time in the morning, afternoons, and evenings for reading. Three reading sessions a day still feels right for me years later, too. (I completed my doctorate in 2009.)

Three reading sessions a day might be too much or too little for you, but the exact amount is less important than the consistency.

As Graham Allcott points out in his excellent book How to be a Knowledge Ninja, “it’s only your routine that matters.” And he really means YOUR routine.

As Allcott explains, too many people are ruled by their “lizard brain.” They’re scanning the environment and comparing themselves to others. But he suggests you develop your own checklists and explore your own personality to help design it.

He’s right, and from my experience I can tell you this:

Expect your schedule preferences to change.

For example, for many years I used to love reading in the morning. Now I prefer the evening. But I still read in the morning anyway, even if it’s just a few sentences. Usually I find that once I get a couple of words down the hatch, the rest flows in a lot easier.

And if you make it an iron-clad rule with no exceptions that you’ll read at least once sentence at the scheduled time, I think you’ll be delighted by how easy it is to keep reading.

3. Use Spatial Anchors

Nearly every morning I study in one of three places. It’s really important I have variety, and I’ll explain why.

At the moment, I’m researching for a book that includes references to both Advaita Vedanta and the hermetic art of memory.

Frankly, some of the books are boring. But I can’t write a good book without references to them. I also won’t remember much if I don’t go through what is called “diffuse thinking” after taking notes from my reading.

Now, I just said that mind wandering is a bad thing and can be stopped by getting yourself in the zone. This remains true. However, there is a time when it works wonders. And that is before and after reading.

Learning expert Barbara Oakley explains this well in her popular Learning How to Learn course. Basically, your brain percolates the information at the neurochemical level while you’re taking a break — something walking between locations accelerates for reasons covered by Alex Pang in Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less.

In fact, Pang suggests that the effects of diffuse thinking are so profound, you’re best served by carrying a notebook with you. He points out that both Tchaikovsky and Beethoven walked with journals, not to mention the film directors Billy Wilder and David Lean.

Moreover:

“Thomas Hobbes walked with a cane that had an inkwell built into the handle and would write on a piece of paper attached to a board. The great German mathematician David Hilbert wrote down ideas as he walked… Walking doesn’t look like an intellectual activity, and there are plenty of times when it’s purely utilitarian or recreational, but we can learn to use it to help us think better.” (an excerpt from Pang’s Rest)

The second reason having fixed locations is so powerful is called “matching conditions.” As Bruce Goldstein explains in his textbook Cognitive Psychology, he once needed to remember to bring a movie to a lecture.

As part of triggering his recall, he thought of his office first:

“The key to remembering the DVD was that I retrieved the thought ‘Bring the DVD’ by returning to the place where I had originally encoded that thought. This example illustrates the following basic principle: Retrieval can be increased by matching the conditions at retrieval to the conditions that existed at encoding.”

The success of the Memory Palace technique is based on the fact that our minds “match” information with space.

When I was sitting in those field exams and answered the questions that determined my ability to earn the PhD, I often thought back to the locations where I’d read the books I was responsible for knowing. And I use the exact same “matching conditions” to remember what I want to write about in my books.

Finally, when it comes to rotating the exact locations where I read, I do this because novelty has been shown to improve memory. I have a few places I read in parks, a few favorite cafes, and I routinely visit new cafes. Even if I suspect that they will not have coffee, I give it a try anyway.

The research I’ve read always proves true: I remember more of what I read simply by making a point of combining walking to and from anchored and new places to study.

Give it a try!

4. Block Out Distractions The Easy Way

Actually, what I consider the easy way might strike you as incredibly hard. That’s because those “study walks” I just mentioned usually take place without my smartphone.

That’s right. I kiss my wife goodbye and tell her I’ll be back when I get back. Then, I go out with nothing more than my study materials and note books. (Sometimes I bring a camera to grab a pic for social media, but not always. Even the thought of documenting my studies can be distracting!)

Whether or not you go to these extremes, the point is the same: If you don’t have anything that rings, pings, or buzzes near you, it can’t distract you. The sounds of traffic, cafe chatter, and birds in the trees can actually help you focus if it’s in the background.

But some people think that part of our minds scan the environment for distractions from our phones. It’s sometimes called “anticipation addiction” and is related strongly to gambling.

Reading from physical books instead of a device is also very useful. Not everyone agrees with me, but I rarely read from digital anymore, preferring print for a few reasons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er-k8...

First, print has no multiple tabs. It won’t vibrate or spike your dopamine with a notification.

Second, you can use the pages of books as mini-Memory Palaces. This feature is tremendously useful.

Third, your brain can track the space of physical books in a way that is impossible with digital books. I suggest you read The Case for Mental Imagery if you’re interested in more scientific research on just how important space is for learning and memory.

5. Train Your Attention Span

A lot of people think that brain training apps will improve their attention span.

Maybe.

But since we want to focus on information and be able to recall it under test conditions where we’re not allowed to access any kind of computer, does that approach really make sense?

Instead, seek out brain exercises that are not reliant on devices.

One of the best I know involves nothing more than memory techniques and a deck of playing cards.

You have to learn something called the Major System so you can give each card a unique image. Then, using a Memory Palace, you simply shuffle them up and memorize the unique order by making the images interact.

This simple exercise not only increases your attention span — it also helps you learn how to memorize information that is similar without any bleedthrough or what I think of as “borderblur.”

Learning to play an instrument or memorizing lyrics is also a great way to increase your attention span because performing music requires extended focus.

I practice what I preach in this regard, and even memorize songs in other languages just for the attention span benefits it brings. As a result, I never say “I can’t concentrate on studying.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCyPV...

The best part? Scholar Gunter Kreutz has shown that singing also promotes healing and improves mood.

6. Place Long-Term Outcomes First

Instead of worrying about grades, focus on your vision.

Sure, I have quite a few A+ grades on my transcript. But guess what? No one cares, including me.

Instead, I completed all my degrees because I wanted to fulfill the vision of being a writer and teacher. If I had focused only on grades in the short term, I would have endlessly frustrated myself and felt empty later.

That’s why I’m so glad I just did the best I could and made sure I enjoyed the journey along the way. In addition to working on my degrees, I also worked on my writing. I did not enjoy writing academic papers one bit, but loved every moment working on poetry and novels.

And I supplemented many of the dry and boring film theory textbooks I needed to read by working at the legendary Queen Video and promoting cool events.

These supplementary experiments taught me how to run a small publishing enterprise and organize events — key skills I have drawn upon far more than my knowledge of Shakespeare. Sure, I got an A+ in “Shakespeare and his Contemporaries” in a third year English course at York University, but my career success in no way relies on that grade.

It never will either, but I draw upon the sum of all the experiences I added along the way to practice the comprehensive professionalism that has enabled me to run the Magnetic Memory Method Mission for nearly a decade.

What’s your vision? Focus on that and the grades will surely follow.

7. Put Accountability On Autopilot

There are at least three levels of accountability:

Accountability to yourself
Accountability to another person
Accountability to a group

Sadly, some people don’t even practice one of these layers. And no doubt: effort will be involved and that will scare some people away.

But what if there was an easy way to “set and forget” accountability?

There is!

If you’re going to be accountable to yourself, I recommend The Freedom Journal. Other journals will do, but this one helps you create achievable study goals — and it’s hard to ignore the physical copy when you anchor it to space in your environment.

The way to get yourself motivated using another person can be summed up in three words: hire a coach.

If you’re skeptical that it works, just read some of the science that compares different levels of effectiveness based on the kind of coaching you get. When you pay for coaching and get the sessions on the calendar, your investment itself will pay off because loss avoidance will increase your “show up” and implementation rates.

As for groups, this approach can take a little more work, but it’s worth it.

Throughout my university years, I participated in study groups. We made it simple on ourselves: We met immediately after our classes. The best part? We walked from the classroom to the campus pub, giving our brains a bit of time for diffuse thinking before piling back into our books.

In grad school, my study groups were a bit more sophisticated. Since there was always more reading than anyone could expect to cover thoroughly, we would assign presentations to ourselves.

That way, if you had to cover five books or articles, you could scan four of them and focus deeply on just one of them. Then, your fellow study group participants let you know the most important points of the book they focused on.

Upon review, your brain had been primed to perceive those big points and all the minutia stuck better thanks to having your radar switched on.

To make sure it happened on autopilot, we scheduled each date throughout the semester in advance.

Sure, sometimes things happened and people couldn’t attend. But overall, by selecting serious students in advance, things went smoothly and we all were able to cover far more territory as a group than would have been possible as students on our own.

In sum, it doesn’t have to be lonely along the extra mile.

8. Track Your Progress

Too many students fail to concentrate because their responsibilities aren’t mentally manageable.

They’ve got syllabi scattered across multiple folders in their computers, or worse, they’ve done little more than bookmark pages on their university website. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Instead:

Translate all of your reading obligations onto a physical calendar, including the titles of all the books and articles.
Print out your syllabi as well and paste them into individual notebooks for each course.
Then, schedule your reading and check off or cross out each book after you’ve completed it. You might even want to use multiple colors, such as blue for the first read, green for the second and red for the third.

As part of tracking your progress, put rewards in place. You can assign a movie night, museum visit or anything healthy and fun you love to do for after you complete a set of study tasks.

When it comes to your writing assignments, I used to keep track of the number of words I wrote on a daily basis. I also went out of my way to complete reading early so I could get writing started early.

That allowed me to consult with my teachers in advance to see if I was on the right track or if they had any additional reading they thought might supplement my research.

Without tracking my progress, I wouldn’t have created the spare time for seeking out their advice, and if I hadn’t gotten to them early enough in the semester, they wouldn’t have had time to give it.

9. Use Tangible Study Tools

Far too many students dump everything in Evernote or some other app and then wonder why they can’t find anything. My friend Charles Bryd has shown just how effective such tools can be — but if you’re like me, it’s a losing gambit.

If you’re struggling to remember your notes, give physical notebooks and flashcard or index cards a try.

I never suggest people throw out technology and am a huge fan of computers myself. But if you’re struggling, digital fasting and working with physical tools like pen and paper could be a huge boon for you.

Mind Mapping is one technique I highly recommend you explore. It’s not a magic bullet, but when it comes to focusing on big picture ideas and digging deeper into the minutiae, it’s really powerful.

It can also help you remember to study and work on assignments, which is one reason why I keep my Memory Journals where I can see them — and often carry them with me to those cafes I mentioned.

Frankly, it’s darn hard to forget your study commitments when your tools are too big to ignore!

10. Keep Your Body Fit

The Internet is loaded with dietary and exercise advice. This should be non-controversial in every way — endless scientific studies show that movement increases blood flow to the brain, for example.

There are also tons of foods that are proven to improve memory.

I don’t think we have to dwell on these points. It’s just obvious that you need to care for your body if you want the ability to focus on studying with any success.

11. Breathe and Meditate

I was lucky to learn how to meditate at a young age. But it wasn’t really until I was in my PhD years that I started a consistent, daily practice. Around the same time, I learned a number of breathing exercises.

Breathing has been shown to assist mental functioning. The trick is in remembering to watch your breathing.

Concentration meditation is a great way to assist the self-observation needed to monitor your breath.

Here’s a simple exercise:

When you’re reading a book, focus on your nostrils and imagine that you’re inhaling the words up from the page. Then, when writing your notes, imagine you are exhaling them onto the page — or assisting your hand as it writes with your breath.

This action can take a bit of practice, but it is worth it. One of my favorites sources of breathing exercises is Let Every Breath by Vladimir Vasiliev.

How to Concentrate On Studies The Easy Way

I know I’ve shared a TON of information in this post.

But there is an easy way to get started: Pick just one of the tips I’ve shared above. Put it into action. Then add another.

Soon, you’ll have a nice “habit stack” that will create what I call “cruising altitude.” What I mean by that is exactly what pilots talk about when flying aircraft — that wonderful sense of peace as you fly through the air.

Sure, there’s going to be turbulence as you study. Life happens and sometimes you have to make changes when you least expect something to come up.

But the more of these study survival techniques you have, the sooner and easier you’ll be able to get yourself back on course.

That’s how I managed to be so stable during my doctoral studies that I had time and attention span to pick up a second Masters degree while writing my dissertation.

How I pulled it off isn’t rocket science. It’s just normal science, and I hope you find the research materials I shared with you today useful supplementary reading.

Let me know if there’s anything I’m missing — and what do you say?

If you’re ready to concentrate on studies in a whole new way and want to learn how to use Memory Palaces to help you focus on studying, sign up for my free training today.

The Ultimate Guide to the Link and Story Methods

Are you confused by the link method and the story method?

Seriously, the sheer number of definitions is enough to make your mind melt.

Well, never fear. On this page, I’m going to do my best to reduce the confusion.

Because the reality is this:

Linking and the use of stories to help you learn faster and remember more are tied at the hip.

But… each has its own superpower. And it’s the differences between them and how you apply the right mnemonic device in the right situation that matters.

So if you want to know how to memorize a story so you can learn faster, or want to leave the narrative aspect behind and go for pure linking, this training is for you.

Here’s what this post will cover:

What Is The Linking Method?

Link Method Examples

What Is The Story Method?

Story Method Examples

Link Method Psychology

Let’s get started.

What Is The Linking Method?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH5i2...

A link is literally part of a chain. If you have a gold necklace, for example, each loop links to the next one until the circle is completed by a clasp.

When it comes to memory techniques, a link is the element we use to help us create an association that “triggers” information we want to remember.

In many memory courses and books, linking is described in terms of a chain. Everyone from Bruno Furst to Harry Lorayne presents it this way.

For example, in some memory trainings, the memory expert will give you a list of words like:

Hero

Drill

Spacecraft

Music

They will suggest that you:

Create an image that reminds you of the first word in the chain, and
“Link” the next word to the first.

For example, you would imagine that the hero uses a drill on a spacecraft that is blasting out music.

This way of using linking sounds a bit like a story, doesn’t it?

If so, then it is the story that is doing the linking.

And no doubt, having a narrative to think back to is helpful in recalling the list. It also has a weakness though. If you can’t remember how the story started, or a link in your chain goes “missing,” then your hopes of remembering the list quickly falls apart.

When Is This Version Of The Link Method Helpful?

Do you want the truth?

I really don’t know. It’s up for you to practice it and use it in different situations.

What I can tell you is that I rarely if ever use it this way. I don’t memorize random words for no reason, and I personally think it’s a shame memory books use such examples.

Really, the only time you need to memorize random words is when it’s actually not that random. I’m talking about when you go shopping and need to get tomatoes, carrots, celery, and bread. In such a case, it does make sense to see a tomato stabbing celery and bread with a carrot.

But why waste time on memorizing such a list when you could just write it down? If you’re going to memorize your shopping list, at least get a bang for your buck by memorizing it in a foreign language.

That extra step will give you practice so you can memorize complex terms, like medical definitions, more foreign language vocabulary, and names for new people you meet or important people you learn about.

The Ultimate Linking Supplement: Spatial Linking

The Memory Palace technique – sometimes called the Method of Loci or the Roman Room Method – is the ultimate link for a few reasons.

First, let’s think about that necklace again.

Rather than using a memory system where your links must provide both the connection and the trigger for the target information, the Memory Palace lets you divide the two things.

So imagine a necklace with eight links. That’s like a Memory Palace with two rooms. In each room, you simply use the four corners in each.

(Of course, you can make much bigger Memory Palaces with many more Magnetic Stations, but let’s just keep it simple for the sake of explanation.)

Now what you’ve done is created a no-brainer, easy-to-follow journey with rooms as the linking structure. Then, you can place your hero on or near corner one of your Memory Palace. That hero is linked to the space itself and you don’t need to “link” it to the drill on the next corner.

NOTE: I call these corners “Magnetic Stations.” I use this term for two reasons:

First, it’s like each place in the Memory Palace has a fridge and my associations are like a fridge magnet. I can then use the imagery to stick information I want to memorize in place, just like I would store concert tickets in real life.

Second, magnets have the ability to repel certain things. For example, when I use this kind of linking, my mind pushes away all the distractions. I’m focused just on the information on hand.

Now, this doesn’t mean I can’t have the hero and the drill interact. If it’s useful to do so, the hero can move from the first corner to the second. But I’d rather have some kind of image that is working to help me memorize the word “hero” first before moving on to the next word.

My “link” for that word would drill into the word itself, leading to the use of something like a favorite superhero eating a Hershey chocolate bar in a weird way before blowing a smoke ring. I explain more here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-Yr...

Now, there is a story element going on here, but it is not the story method of such. Rather, it’s more like having a vignette on each and every station of the Memory Palace.

The real benefit of the Memory Palace as a base or meta-linking structure is how it helps with recall. You don’t have to think back to how the story started. You can think back to where you placed the first link, which gives you two chances to kickstart your list of associations.

Link Method Examples That Will Make Your Memory Pop

There are potentially millions of examples one could give.

The problem is this:

In 90 BCE, the unknown author of Rhetorica Ad Herennium warned against weakening students by giving too many examples. It counsels the teacher of memory to give only a few so that students quickly learn to create their own. It’s like the old saying goes: Teach people to fish so they can feed themselves.

I actually think we need to take it further:

Teach people to fish, hunt, and farm so they can eat whatever they want. Eating fish every day is boring!

Jokes aside, here are some of the best blog posts on my site that are packed with mnemonic examples:

How to Memorize Scripture

How to Memorize the Presidents

How to Memorize Vocabulary

How to Memorize Numbers

In addition to the best coming from your own efforts, great mnemonic examples are the ones that:

Connect with multi-sensory levels of your imagination
Come from your personal experiences with people, locations and pop culture
Dig into the alphabet based on the “hero” example I gave above

Why is the alphabet so crucial?

The answer is simple:

It’s the ultimate necklace! Think about it: A-Z is a pre-memorized set of “locations”.

So if you want to always have “links” ready to go, get out a piece of paper and write out associations for each letter of the alphabet. Like this:

Z = Zorro

Y = Yankovich (Weird Al)

X = Xylophone

W = Weathervane

Etc…

Go for a mixture of objects and people.

Ideally, all of your objects will connect with people or places in some way. For example, I don’t just think of a weathervane in an abstract way. I’m thinking specifically about the weathervane used as a weapon in the movie Warlock.

Likewise, with Zorro. I think specifically of Antonio Banderas’ performance of this character. That was particularly important when I was learning German, a language packed with Z words.

For example, “zerbrechlich” means “fragile.” I simply saw Banderas as Zorro at a Berlin movie theatre with a few other images to help me memorize the sound and meaning of this word.

The next steps are to make sure the “links” are multi-sensory and then add some more German words. 5-10 at a time in a single Memory Palace is a decent sweet spot, though some people can memorize many more.

It’s just a matter of:

Thoroughly studying the techniques
Preparing your Memory Palaces and images in advance
Practicing through consistent application

Next, let’s look at the story memory technique.

What Is The Story Method?

So far, we’ve seen that story elements play into every variation of the link method.

But you can also:

Use stories themselves as sources for a Memory Palace
Memorize stories using story structure

Using A Story To Memorize

In the first case, you’d be taking locations from novels and movies and using them to create a Memory Palace. For example, at the beginning of The Name of the Rose, we meet Adso in his chamber.

Even without the movie version to show us an image of Adso where he sleeps, we can imagine a medieval bedroom. Since most rooms have four walls, we can use them as a Memory Palace.

To use this version of the story method, pick a movie or novel and make an inventory of locations you can remember. Ideally, you work based not on every little last detail — instead, work with just what comes naturally to mind.

For example, in The Matrix, I readily remember:

The hotel
Neo’s apartment
The dance club
The interrogation room
The desert of the real
The bridge of Morpheus’ ship
Neo’s chamber
The Oracle’s waiting room
The Oracle’s kitchen
The subway
The hallway with the final showdown between Neo and Agent Smith

While I was writing the list, I remembered even more, such as the street with the woman in the red dress, the dojo, and more. Just going through one movie makes for incredible memory exercise!

To use this version of the story method, mentally arrange these locations to suit your learning project. Using the chronological order we see them in the movie makes the most sense, but you could also arrange them alphabetically or in whatever way feels right for you.

Next, start to “link” your information inside the story. Now, unlike your home, this kind of Memory Palace comes “pre-loaded” with all kinds of imagery to work with.

For example, if you want to memorize a phrase like meliora sequimur. This is the Latin motto for Brisbane, which means, “We aim for better things.”

You can take the mess hall on Morpheus’ ship and have Mouse complain about the “meal’s aura” “meliora” and have a giant second-hand from a clock ticking over his head. From there, you have many choices.

However, you can probably already tell… The story memory technique is not the greatest method for speed, efficiency, or even effectiveness.

I haven’t talked to every memory expert under the sun, but so far I don’t know anyone who works this way — though Idriz Zogaj mentions something like this when speaking about a memory competitor he knows, but the explanation is second hand and therefore a bit vague.

That said, a close parallel is the use of video games. I’ve used Donkey Kong and have heard of people using the Legend of Zelda, Skyrim, and all kinds of fantasy locations to help them learn faster and remember more. It’s really up to you to learn and practice the techniques.

How to Memorize a Story

Now, you’re probably thinking I’m going to suggest the Memory Palace technique.

Not exactly.

But before we talk about memorizing stories, we need to consider:

What exactly is it that we want to memorize from or of the story?

Ask yourself:

Do you want to recite a story verbatim?
Do you want to recite the highlights?

If it’s just the central points of the story, then here’s what I suggest: Memorize story architecture instead.

Most stories worth memorizing are built like this:

The hero is haunted by something from the past
The hero experiences a conflict between their conscious desires and unconscious needs
The hero struggles with some kind of social force (like a job they hate)
The hero encounters a dilemma and needs to act but has no easy solution
The hero faces a crisis that demands a decision — and they usually have to take the least likable solution
The hero needs allies or has to learn some kind of skill
The hero meets an enemy and has a battle
The hero defeats the enemy, usually be learning something that dissolves the conflict between the conscious desire and unconscious need
The hero’s victory resolves into a better world

Obviously, there are endless variations and other potential plot points, such as the call to adventure and refusal of the call.

The point is that when you know the basic plot structures, all stories become instantly easier to memorize. Because you can see the skeleton, the tendons and muscle on the surface settle into your memory with much greater ease.

Story Method Examples

Personally, I’ve used my deeply internalized knowledge of story structure in many ways.

For example, when I tell people about how a story went, I can unfold the details pretty much as they happened because I simply follow the configuration of plot details. I was also a film studies professor for a number of years, so that helped.

But it’s also helpful for when you need to write stories.

For example, can you see the ghost haunting me in this story? How about the crises and the decision?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtYj...

If you can remember these plot points as a form of memory linkage, every story you tell will come out in much more structured and interesting ways.

Link Method Psychology: The Mindset of a Memory Master

Phew — that was quite a deep dive into linking!

In sum, if you need to memorize a list of items, having the words themselves interact with each other based on mental imagery can work.

However, if you need to memorize information that is a bit more ambitious, you’ll probably want more robust techniques.

The good news is that neuroscientists like David Eagleman think the brain has space for a zettabyte of information. And like a computer’s hard drive, everything you memorize requires space.

My suggestion is that before you start practicing any of the memory techniques available to you now, think about your goals first.

Then pick the technique that is most likely to help you accomplish your mission.

If it’s just memorizing grocery lists, then you’re good to go with the information on this page. Of course, a lot of people will tell you it’s the easiest, but that’s only true if you have small goals.

Bottom line: if you want to not only deliver speeches from the top of your head, but know the stories you’re sharing deeply, it only makes sense to memorize story structure.

You will quickly go beyond the story method and become an expert in it, rapidly memorizing story details almost on autopilot.

So what do you say? Are you ready to give either of these a try? Or if you want more simple and fun memory improvement tools to choose from, sign up for my free Memory Improvement Kit today.

Long-Term Memory Loss: 5 POWERFUL Prevention Tips

I have come to this area a hundred times before.

Yet, I’m lost in this maze of streets now.

Where’s my schoolmate’s house?

Wait, schoolmate, or was she my colleague at work?

Sound familiar?

That’s your long-term memory acting up!

So, what causes long-term memory loss? What are its symptoms? And, how do you treat or prevent it?

In this article, I’ll tell you all about long-term memory loss, how to identify it, and its treatment. I’ll also show you a powerful, magnetic way to improve your memory so it stays intact even as you age!

Here’s what I’ll cover:

What is Long-Term Memory?
What is Long-Term Memory Loss?
Symptoms of Long-Term Memory Loss
What Causes Long-Term Memory Loss?
How is Long-Term Memory Loss Diagnosed?
How to Treat Long-Term Memory Loss
5 Ways to Boost Memory and Prevent Long-Term Memory Loss

Let’s start with a quick look at long-term memory.

What is Long-Term Memory?

Long-term memory is how your brain – over many years – encodes and remembers events, facts, and how to do things. For example, your high school teacher’s name, the route to the house you stayed in 20 years ago, and so on.

How is it different from short-term memory?

Short-term memory (or working memory) is how your brain stores things temporarily — a grocery list, or what you had for lunch today.

The more you recall memories, the better they get consolidated into permanent, long-term memories.

So, how are these memories stored in the brain?

Short-term memory activates the prefrontal cortex, frontal lobe, and parietal lobe of the brain.

The hippocampus brain region is responsible for the consolidation of info from short-term to long-term memory.

And, your long-term memory is associated with the prefrontal cortex, cerebrum, frontal lobe, and medial temporal lobe.

Types of Long-Term Memory

Your brain stores many types of long-term memories, including semantic memory, episodic memory, procedural memory, implicit memory (non-declarative memory), and explicit memory (declarative memory).

Now for a deep-dive into all things related to long-term memory loss!

What is Long-Term Memory Loss?

When you find it difficult to remember information stored in your long-term memory, you call it long-term memory loss.

Is long-term memory loss the same as dementia?

No. Long-term memory impairment isn’t the same as dementia.

But, it can be a sign of dementia.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, dementia is an umbrella term for “diseases and conditions characterized by a decline in memory, language, problem-solving, and other thinking skills.” It could affect your ability to perform daily chores.

Different types of dementia

There are many types of dementia:

Alzheimer’s disease: Alzheimer’s disease is a kind of cognitive impairment that progressively destroys your episodic memory, thinking abilities, and the ability to do even simple tasks like writing.

Around 10% of Americans above 65 years of age are said to have Alzheimer’s disease. And Alzheimer’s disease happens to be the most common cause of dementia.

How does Alzheimer’s disease affect long-term memory?

The first symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is short-term memory impairment. Long-term memory impairment follows, along with other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Lewy body dementia: This is an umbrella term for Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Parkinson’s disease dementia — both characterized by abnormal deposits of the alpha-synuclein protein in the brain.

It usually sets in after the age of 50. Dementia symptoms are episodic loss of long-term memory, movement problems, and decision-making difficulties.

Frontotemporal dementia: This dementia is caused by progressive degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobe of the brain. It usually starts with behavior changes, and could eventually lead to severe memory impairment.

Vascular dementia: This is caused by reduced blood flow to the brain due to stroke or any other vascular brain damage. It causes progressive memory impairment and affects your attention and problem-solving abilities.

Remember, while memory impairment is a symptom of dementia, having long-term memory impairment doesn’t always mean you have dementia.

Also, note that dementia is often confused with cognitive impairment conditions like amnesia.

People with amnesia find it tough to form new memories. Others are unable to recall facts or past experiences. The two main types of amnesia are anterograde amnesia (characterized by short-term memory loss), and retrograde amnesia (inability to recall long-term memories that happened before developing amnesia).

So, is long-term memory loss different from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)?

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the intermediate stage between normal age-related memory difficulties and dementia.

People diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment have significant short-term memory impairment. But, for some people, it will eventually progress to severe long-term memory impairment and even dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.

How is long-term memory loss different from short term memory loss?

You’d be able to remember incidents from 15 years ago when you experience short-term memory loss, but you’d forget details of what happened 15 minutes ago.

Tests for short-term memory impairment

Your doctor would start with a medical history. This may be followed by cognitive function tests, blood tests, MRI or CT scans, or cerebral angiography.

How do you prevent short-term memory loss?

The simplest way to prevent short-term memory impairment is to practice various memory games, crossword puzzles, or sudoku.

Now, let’s look at the ways long-term cognitive impairment like Alzheimer’s disease manifests itself.

Symptoms of Long-Term Memory Loss

The main symptom of long-term memory impairment is forgetfulness of important things or events that happened earlier in your life.

Here are some examples:

Forgetting the name of the countries you’ve lived in
Mixing up names of people and words
Forgetfulness of common words
Losing your way in familiar places
Irritability and other mood changes

Let’s also look at some causes.

What Causes Long-Term Memory Loss?

Long-term memory problems could occur due to several reasons:

Anxiety and depression
Side effects of prescription drugs
Vitamin B-12 deficiency
Fatigue and sleep deprivation
Thyroid problems
Drug and alcohol misuse
Chemotherapy
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Brain tumor, encephalitis, stroke, epilepsy, transient ischemic attack, transient global amnesia
Sleep apnea
Kidney and liver disorders​
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

You may also wonder:

Does aging lead to memory loss?

Yes, your long-term memory can get weaker as you get older. So, occasional forgetfulness – or memory lapses like forgetting your new neighbor’s name – is normal.

This kind of forgetfulness is just a part of normal aging, and won’t affect your daily routines or the quality of your life.

But how do you know whether you should get medical help or not?

Let’s see.

When should you see a doctor?

Visit a doctor if:

Your memory problems start affecting your day-to-day activities
You had a head or brain injury
You’re disoriented or experience delirium
You have other symptoms like headaches, sluggishness, or vision problems

Why is it essential to diagnose long-term memory impairment?

Some people hide their memory problems due to fear of social rejection or family issues.

But, you should get any memory troubles diagnosed by a doctor, because in most cases it can be treated partially or entirely.

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia will help you sensitize yourself and loved ones about the illness, get proper care at home or at a facility, and get support from organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association.

So, how can it be diagnosed and treated?

How is Long-Term Memory Impairment Diagnosed?

To evaluate long-term memory problems, doctors typically perform the following steps:

Medical history, including your family history, and any medications you take.
Physical exam to check for symptoms like muscle weakness.
Neurologic exam and questions to check for signs of cognitive impairment. (For example, basic calculations, naming common items, and writing short sentences.)

Depending on the results, your doctor would prescribe some or all of the following:

A blood test to check for vitamin deficiencies
Urine tests
Nerve tests
Brain imaging tests like computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Neuropsychological testing to find the exact reason for memory problems like Alzheimer’s disease

A holistic examination and the results of these tests will help your doctor make a correct diagnosis.

Based on the diagnosis, your doctor might refer you to a geriatrician, neurologist, or psychiatrist to medically manage the condition. Or they may refer you to a psychologist to help you cope with memory problems.

How to treat long-term memory impairment

The treatment of long-term memory impairment will depend on the underlying reason for your mental condition.

For instance, if cognitive impairment is due to vitamin B12 deficiency, the doctor could prescribe vitamin B12 injections. Or, if the underlying cause of your forgetfulness was a brain tumor, then you’ll need surgery to remove the tumor.

But, think about this:

Wouldn’t it be better if you could prevent memory problems instead of seeking treatment after it reaches advanced stages like Alzheimer’s disease?

I’ll show you how to do it.

5 Stimulating Ways to Boost Memory and Prevent Long-Term Memory Loss

These simple yet powerful activities will help you boost your mental function.

They work by strengthening connections between your nerves, helping compensate for any cognitive impairment due to changes in your brain.

1. Build Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method

Building Memory Palaces is one of the easiest and most powerful mnemonic techniques to improve your long-term memory!

It allows you to develop and use your spatial memory while unlocking your episodic memory, procedural memory, semantic memory, and more.

When combined with Recall Rehearsal, you’ll be able to move information into long-term memory faster — and with predictable and reliable permanence.

You can also use any other memory technique inside of Memory Palaces (but not the other way around).

Here’s how to use it:

Imagine you need to understand DNA sequencing techniques and be able to recall them later.

Mentally walk through a familiar place like your home or office. Place the facts related to one DNA technique in your entrance hall, all facts related to the next technique in your bedroom cupboard, and so on.

As for remembering complex DNA-related words, associate them with everyday words already in your memory — e.g., to remember Cytosine, associate it with cycle.

Later, take a mental walk through your home, and you’ll easily recall all the DNA techniques.

And, the more you recall (recall rehearsal), the better you’ll commit this information to your long-term memory.

2. Do regular exercise

Regular physical workouts are proven to enhance the development of new brain cells in the brain. Exercise lowers the risk of age-related brain impairment and protects the brain against degenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s or Mild Cognitive Impairment.

In a study, a few participants were subject to MRI scans and a series of cognitive tests before and after a physical workout over a period of 12 weeks.

Researchers found that those who exercise regularly could remember things long after the workout was over.

So, set aside at least 30 minutes of your day to walk briskly, run, dance, or cross-country bike.

3. Eat a healthy diet

Consume a nutrient-rich, healthy diet to strengthen your long-term brain function.

Some of the best brain-boosting foods are:

Fatty fish (like salmon and mackerel)
Turmeric
Dark chocolate
Berries like strawberries and blueberries
Nuts and seeds like sunflower seeds and almonds
Whole grains like brown rice and oatmeal
Eggs
Vegetables like broccoli and kale
Green tea

Also, stay away from a high-calorie diet. Research shows that a high-calorie diet can impair memory if it causes inflammation in certain parts of the brain. In a 2009 study, women above the age of 60 who reduced their calorie intake by 30% showed significant improvement in their verbal memory scores.

4. Learn a new skill

A study showed that older people who learned a new skill showed a significant improvement in memory even when tested a year later.

A seemingly simple activity like knitting is a complex one for someone new to it. So learning it from scratch will boost your brain by strengthening the connections between various parts.

You could try to learn anything unfamiliar to you — digital photography, speaking a foreign language, playing a musical instrument, or even how to fix a motorbike.

5. Specific strategies for older people to cope with memory impairment

Older people can use these strategies to cope with forgetfulness and prevent memory decline, including symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease:

Get enough sleep
Make shopping lists
Keep a detailed calendar for the week
Play board games and card games regularly
Pay focused attention to one thing at a time
Keep all your things organized, like car keys and stationery
Stay socially active

Prevent Long-Term Memory Loss the Magnetic Way

Your long-term memory is bound to decline with age and due to several other factors.

However, these strategies – especially building Memory Palaces with the Magnetic Memory Method – are sure to keep your memory razor-sharp and prevent any long-term memory decline.

To learn more about how to create and use a Memory Palace, pick up your copy of my free training.

5 Proven Visualization Reading Strategies For Comprehension And Memory

The reason why nearly every visualization reading strategy fails is simply this:

Visualization is not about seeing pictures in your mind.

It’s about multisensory visualization based on a strategic process with a well-defined outcome — better comprehension and memory.

If you’re tired of Googling “reading strategies visualization” and finding the same ineffective talk about creating “pictures in your head,” get ready for the real deal.

Here’s what this post will cover:

What Is Visualization In Reading?

3 POWERFUL Benefits of Visualizing While Reading With KAVE COGS

5 Easy to Implement Visualization Reading Strategies

The Ultimate Visualization in Reading Tactic

Let’s get started.

What Is Visualization In Reading?

Visualizing text while reading is just what it sounds like: mentally picturing images and ideas as you read. Simple, right?

Not so fast!

For example, how do you “see” the concept of visuality itself? Chances are, so many possible answers emerge that the visualization of visualization quickly falls apart.

Then there are those with aphantasia — these are people who are said to not have a “mind’s eye.” Yet other people actually see text versions of the words they hear. It’s called ticker tape synesthesia (and is very rare).

The fact of the matter is that there are many kinds of mental imagination, and to reduce visualization down to “pictures” is simply false.

Instead, it can be any of these imaginative processes:

Kinesthetic: imagine the feel and weight of binoculars and how they feel when you put them to your eyes.
Auditory: hear the sound of an electronic microscope zooming in on a subject.
Visual: specifically imagine the color of a camera’s metal and plastic parts, or how the light bounces off its surfaces.
Emotional: imagine how it feels to see a loved one again after a long time apart.
Conceptual: think about the concept of something being visual, perhaps by imagining the word itself appearing on a screen.
Olfactory: imagine the smell of rain after you’ve heard distant thunder and seen a lightning clap.
Gustatory: imagine the taste of that same rain.
Spatial: think about the size of your vision in terms of how far you can see or how big objects are relative to one another.

To remember all of these options, think of the words “KAVE COGS.” Then, whenever you read, move through each step strategically in order to make sure you’re using multisensory visualization.

The next step is relational, which makes any word instantly multi-sensory by creating associations.

Let’s take a well-known example:

“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity.”

— The Year Of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion

The first thing to do here is focus on the first word and think about images that relate to it.

For example: life cereal – life magazine – the tree of life.

Think of as many as you can in the beginning and run them each through KAVE COGS.

Then think about change. You might bring to mind a handful of coins or magicians you’ve seen who quickly change their uniforms. Again, run your choices through KAVE COGS.

“Fast” offers many options — and to give you an example of the conceptual mode from KAVE COGS, you can think about the practice of fasting.

Keep going until you’ve completed each word of the Didion example (or an example of your choice).

With practice, you’ll be able to select keywords from sentences, find associations for each, and run them through the multi-sensory tool I’ve shared.

Next, let’s examine the positive impacts of doing this.

3 POWERFUL Benefits of Visualizing While Reading With KAVE COGS

With a visualizing comprehension strategy like KAVE COGS in place, you’ll soon experience the following benefits:

1. Greater Focus

Having the ability to seize upon every word simply by creating an association and running it through KAVE COGS means you always have a way to keep concentrated on a text you’re reading.

If you find you want even more granular “hooks” while reading, you can create associations at the level of the letter using the pegword method.

As learning expert Dr. Erica Warren demonstrates, this kind of visualization has been cited as useful for focus as far back as Aristotle circa 384 BCE.

2. Greater Memory

When you tap into all of your sensations as part of how you visualize text, you’ll remember more.

For example, “Life changes fast” leaps instantly to mind because I can taste the cereal, feel what it’s like to change clothes quickly, and have the taste of that first morsel of food following a period of fasting.

The tactics on this page are just one reason scholars Bob Algozzine and Patricia Douville urged teachers to use mental imagery across the curriculum. But you don’t have to be a student — anyone can benefit.

3. Greater Comprehension

When you have a reading comprehension strategy like multisensory visualization in place, you’re going to understand more.

This will happen because when your focus goes unbroken and you can remember through association, your brain percolates information better. The better your memory and concentration, the more you can compare and contrast ideas.

Pro tip: Make sure to set aside time just for reflection. A lot of people simply consume information through reading, but without active recall efforts, you’re less likely to understand the material. I suggest writing summaries of everything you read to promote better understanding.

Why does this work?

Largely because we’re tapping into what the memory scientists Lockheart and Craik called “the levels of processing effect.” They basically showed that approaching information from multiple angles led to deep processing instead of the typical shallow processing that holds so many learners back.

Now that you know why it’s beneficial, let’s look at a few ways you can implement a visualizing comprehension strategy.

5 Easy to Implement Visualization Reading Strategies

Now that you know the basics, here are some suggestions for how to put it into practice:

1. Use a Bookmark

Write KAVE COGS down on an index card and use it as a bookmark. It will help remind you to use the strategy while reading.

Or if you read from ebooks, put the card on your wall or anywhere you’re likely to see it.

You can also use a Memory Palace to memorize the formula. Here’s how you can learn more:

And once you’re comfortable using Memory Palaces, you can move on to the next step.

2. Start Small

Now, you might be thinking… “Start small?… How is that a strategy?”

Given that so many people overwhelm themselves by taking on everything all at once, being selective and breaking things down really is strategic.

To do this, start with just one sentence. To ease your way in, count the words and then get an image of the number in your mind. Then think of something else that has that number.

For example: if you count four words, you could think of The Beatles, a music group of four members.

Then continue with the first multi-sensory mode: Kinesthetic. Really explore it before moving on to the next.

3. Exercise Your Brain

Complete regular visualization exercises and sensory memory exercises.

4. Mind Map

Mind mapping is a fun and easy way to keep notes visually. As you capture each idea on the page, run it through the KAVE COGS formula. You might want to assign a color to each so you’re able to spot the precise visualization at a glance.

For example:

Kinesthetic = Kiwi green

Auditory = Apple red

Visual = Violet

Emotion = Eggplant purple, etc.

The use of colors might seem like an additional step that isn’t worth the time. However, as reported in Prospects for Scientific Visualization as an Educational Technology by Douglas N. Gordin and Roy D. Pea, adding colors helped learners perceive and understand information far better than black and white readouts.

For more help with mind mapping, please check out this detailed video playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

But it’s not just video that’s helpful.

5. Create Written Summaries

Spending 5-15 minutes writing out everything you remember from your reading by drawing upon your multi-sensory visualizations is one of the best strategies.

To start, sit with a blank sheet of paper and your pen or pencil. Write down the title of the reading. Then let the first thing that comes to mind arise — do this without writing first. Then write out the details.

You don’t have to lay out the information in any particular order of importance. The exercise is just to call back to mind what you remember and lay it out in your own words.

You can also revise or rewrite your summaries.

For example, I wrote many summaries on large index cards when researching my Ph.D. dissertation. Later, I rewrote many of them into my dissertation itself. Because my reading strategies visualization tactics were solid, I automatically remembered more and understood everything with greater depth.

And the best part is that you’ll find you understand things with greater humility too.

When you find that you can’t remember details, you can go back and fill them in. Or, you will benefit from bumping into the limits of what you don’t know and carry on with other books you need to read.

The Ultimate Visualization in Reading Tactic

At the end of the day, if you put just 10% of KAVE COGS to practice in your reading over the next 90 days, your visualizations skills are going to dramatically increase. I personally read a ton of information that most people would consider “dry and boring.”

But the truth is that when you can dig into each letter of every word and find a ticket to your very own “Mental Disneyland,” there will never again be such a thing as dry or boring in your reading life.

And remember, the Memory Palace is the by far the best of all possible strategies, especially when combined with visualization meditation. When you get really good at it, you can use each page as a Memory Palace.

To do that, you want to not only create associations for each word, but also each number. This is a fairly advanced tactic, so I suggest everyone start with the ideas I’ve shared here first.

So when you’re ready for more, dive into the Magnetic Memory Method world — starting with the free memory training.

How to Improve Concentration: 15 Proven Tactics

If you want to concentrate better, you probably think it’s going to take a lot of work.

After all, your brain probably feels as limp as lettuce.

Mine used to be pretty soggy too. But after I learned what I’m about to teach you on this page, it has become laser sharp.

Even with chronic pain and mental health issues, I’ve improved my concentration enough to participate in memory competitions, learn languages and even give a TEDx Talk.

The best part?

You can easily practice every concentration exercise I’m about to share.

Here’s what this post will cover:

How Focus Works

How To Improve Your Focus: 15 Easy And Fun Strategies

1. Assess Where You Are

2. Stop Asking Search Engines

3. Meditation and Mindfulness

4. Memorize Information

5. Choose Long-Form Content

6. Invest In Ad-Free Content

7. Play Games That Improve Concentration

8. Practice Sleep Exercises

9. Get Into Nature

10. Coffee and Dark Chocolate

11. Mind Map

12. Let Go Of Outcomes

13. See More Friends, More Often

14. Have A Vision And Long-Term Missions

15. Seek Complexity and Question Simplicity

Challenge Your Concentration Daily For Best Results

Let’s dive in!

How Focus Works

Your brain actually operates in at least two different “zones” of focus:

Default Mode Network
Task Positive Network

The DMN is slow, plodding, and constantly tricks you into thinking about your past and future. Worse, it keeps you daydreaming about an alternative future that does not and cannot exist. What a waste of time!

As happened to me, lingering in this mode has been scientifically proven to keep you bogged down and depressed.

That’s why I’m so glad I learned how to get into the Task Positive Network on demand. Basically, this is the part of your brain that creates those dynamic experiences of flow.

You know the kind:

When time passes without you noticing and you feel amazing. You’re completely focused on the present moment and enjoying everything – like when you’re on a first date, riding your bike through a fun park, or playing a stimulating game.

If you want to instantly fall into this incredible feeling of focus, keep your eyes glued to this page. I have science that backs up everything I’m about to share with you.

And the best part is that all of these focus exercises are fun and easy to complete.

How To Improve Your Focus: 15 Easy And Fun Strategies

Let’s break down all 15 strategies in detail.

1. Assess Where You Are

One of the problems people face is that they haven’t got a concrete description of the problem. As physicist and science educator Paul Black has shown, self-assessment is a major key to experiencing any kind of development.

To keep things simple and fun, get out a piece of paper and rate your daily concentration on a scale of 1-10. (If you don’t like that range, change it to 1-100 or whatever you like).

For example, I would rate myself a 9 most days. If I haven’t slept well, it might be a 7 or 8. The point is just to get a sense of where you’re at — then you can journal a plan for how to increase focus immediately.

I also suggest you give yourself a series of metaphors. This is a science-backed activity I talk about in my book The Victorious Mind: How to Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being.

I’m not alone in pointing out such science. Nir Eyal talks about similar research in Indistractable (highly recommended).

2. Stop Asking Search Engines (At Least Not Immediately)

Some friends visited me in Brisbane a while back. We were talking about music and Richard Marx came up. I started to guess the year and immediately everyone but me reached for their phones to check the year of one of his most popular songs.

“Stop!” I urged them. “Let’s try to figure it out and exercise our brains a bit.”

We did and we came very close to nailing the exact year. I was actually right the first time, but second-guessed myself by one year.

Constantly looking things up has led to something called “learned helplessness.” Martin Seligman and Steven Maier are two of the first scientists to study the problem.

It’s really insidious because the more you train yourself to look up answers, the more likely you are to:

Continue looking up answers you probably could find in your memory if you spent a bit of time practicing active recall
Blaming your need to look things up on bad memory

The truth is, your memory probably isn’t as bad as you think. It’s just lacking exercise.

The next tip will help you catch yourself looking things up and start using your brain more often. The benefits will astound you.

3. Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation is essentially a practice and mindfulness is the result. You’ll be more aware of your environment and the thoughts rolling around in your head.

In other words, you’ll spend less time in the Default Mode Network and more time in the Task Positive Network.

This is useful because you start to realize that you are not your thoughts. You are more like the conscious witness to your thoughts.

Or to put it another way, your thoughts are like clouds in the sky. They need each other to exist, but the sky serves as the field clouds move across. It’s still the sky, even when there are no clouds in sight.

When your conscious experience becomes as clear as the sky, you’ll notice those clouds of thoughts a lot more. As a result, you’ll catch yourself reaching for your phone for quick answers. Then you can stop and at least try to bring the answer to mind. For example, with the Richard Marx song, I guessed what grade I would have been in when it came out, figured out my age, and deduced the year from there.

This simple activity provides tremendous brain exercise that will help you focus better. And now you know how to be more aware of opportunities to practice it.

4. Memorize Information

Frankly, it breaks my heart when I see people claiming that memorization isn’t necessary anymore in the age of the smartphone.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

If you want to improve your focus, you need to commit information to memory. Doing so also provides the path to understanding information better. And I can prove it to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ePa...

If you need help with memorization, just give the following a try:

Register for the free training yet? Good! Let’s keep going.

5. Choose Long-Form Content

Every day people ask me to make shorter videos and podcasts.

The answer is firm no.

Look, there’s a time and place for short videos and thin books. I engage with them too.

But the tough love reality is that the more you snippetize information, the more you’re cutting off your concentration and focus skills.

Make it a habit to read long books, watch long videos, and go for long walks to listen to two- or three-hour-long conversations. If you know how to memorize information on the fly, you can memorize the key points as you go using the surrounding environment.

6. Invest In Ad-Free Content

Do you like Spotify? YouTube?

Me too.

But those ads they keep shoving into the music and educational content you’re trying to enjoy?

It’s disastrous for your concentration, and studies have shown it can take up to 25 minutes to get back to your original train of thought after an interruption. Some scientists have called the problem “infomania.”

The worst part is that ads can be so frustrating that they cause you to click away. Then you wind up spending even more time floating all over the Internet, far from the original long-form experience you were trying to have.

The solution? Invest in the subscriptions that eliminate ads from your favorite streaming platforms. Try it for 90 days and I’m sure you’ll agree your concentration abilities have increased.

Plus, research shows that people hate ads. Why on earth would you invite hatred into your life when you can spend a few bucks to eliminate it?

7. Play Games That Improve Concentration

If that’s computer games, by all means, have at it. However, many of us are going to need to get offline to benefit.

To help you out, I’ve gathered a ton of the best brain games for adults for you (online choices included for those who aren’t ready to make a change yet).

8. Practice Sleep Exercises

A lot of people know about robotic sleep routines. You know the kind: have a sleep ritual, brush your teeth at the same time every night, etc.

But does anyone really live like that?

Try this instead:

Have a solid computer curfew. It can be general. Read for 1-2 hours before bed, meditate, and then lay down on your back.

Breathe in and out in a relaxed manner and do not move for as long as you can. This is a yoga posture called Shavasana and it is powerful.

For me, the trick is to not “try” and fall asleep. I’m just laying for the sake of practicing not moving. Usually, I’m fast asleep and awake again after a fit 6-8 hours of sleep.

I then repeat the computer curfew by not turning any devices on until I’ve meditated again and read for an hour or so.

The best part about Shavasana is that it’s a great way to practice concentration while you’re resting. It’s kind of like reverse psychology too, as you focus on not moving instead of falling asleep. It’s an awfully tiring thing to do!

9. Get Into Nature

Did you know that the color green makes you more creative? When I learned about this, I instantly realized that I had no plants in my writing space and experimented with adding a few.

To be honest, I’m not sure it made an impact, but I do make a point of getting out into nature a few times a week, ideally once a day. Fortunately, there is a ton of green in my neighborhood, as well as water.

Isn’t it just common sense that fresh air and the calm of natural environments can help improve your concentration? Get outdoors more and enjoy aspects of the world that aren’t filled with news alerts and cars whizzing by.

10. Coffee and Dark Chocolate

People like to argue endlessly over the latest scientific report. One day coffee and chocolate are unhealthy, the next day they’re both manna sent from heaven.

Health particulars aside, both of them are known to improve concentration. And if you get really good dark chocolate that hasn’t had the active ingredients baked out of it, the antioxidants in cacao have been shown to help students improve their test scores by as much as 25%.

Dr. Scott A. Small has shown similar results with aging study participants who tested chocolate’s benefits for memory.

11. Mind Map

My friend and fellow memory expert Tony Buzan worked hard throughout his career to promote what he called “Mental Literacy.”

Mind Mapping was one of the most important tools he recommended for making sure you had enough imaginative and creative space in your mind to be truly “literate.”

Source

Of course, there are many different ways to mind map, but I like his version the best for a few reasons. For one thing, he offered ten laws, all of which lend themselves to the diffuse thinking benefits we’ve already discussed.

Second, you’re using multiple colors on large sheets of paper. This aspect of size and materiality not only exercises your spatial memory in a way that apps cannot — it also helps build your figural memory and allow you to compare and contrast ideas at a glance.

Finally, mind mapping can be used for multiple outcomes, ranging from business planning to language learning. It’s an incredible tool and I suggest you spend a good 90 days learning and practicing this skill. Your concentration will improve.

12. Let Go Of Outcomes

A lot of people want to know they will be successful before getting started on developing new skills.

The problem is… no one gets to know the future. According to the Growing Block Universe hypothesis, the future doesn’t even exist yet — and learning about it will definitely stretch your concentration!)

Not everyone gets hung up on the need for certainty, but those who do will benefit from spending some time on weeding it out. It’s not that it’s harming their concentration. It’s that waiting for the certainty you will succeed amounts to focusing on the wrong things.

You might need to work on a personality trait psychologists call “openness” or openness to experience. I’ve had to work on my own lack of openness a lot in my life — and I’m glad I did.

It was meditation and mindfulness that ultimately helped me see how closed I was to different exercises that were highly likely to help me the most, so the tactics I teach in The Victorious Mind might be your way into greater openness too.

13. See More Friends, More Often

Socialization has been shown to reduce incidents of dementia.

Why might this be a predictable outcome?

For one thing, conversation challenges our memory and critical thinking skills. Such activities preserve “memory reserve” or “cognitive research.”

To explain how, I interviewed scientist Christine Till. Her research has shown that it is not online brain games that help improve concentration and memory, but the follow-up with personal coaches for those who incorporate those aspects of brain training.

Theoretically, you can get the same brain benefits from playing bridge, Monopoly, or just having a good philosophical conversation with a friend. Add in a long walk and a few cafes for even better results.

14. Have A Vision And Long-Term Missions

No one can be an expert in everything. In fact, it’s hard enough to be an expert in just one thing, and really accomplished individuals will usually be so humble, they hide their expertise.

That’s a good thing in the end because none of us know what we don’t know and real scientific living always delays final judgment on the status of all facts.

However, you can instantly improve your concentration by choosing and setting up long term learning goals based on the kinds of research that will lead to personal expertise.

Michael Nielson talks about the importance of integrating research into your life proactively and with vision. As he points out:

A vision is not something you develop overnight. You need to work at it, putting time aside for the process, and learning to integrate it into your everyday life. It’s a challenging process, but over the long run it’s also extremely rewarding. History shows that great actions usually are the outcome of great purpose, even if the action that resulted was not the original purpose.

I know it can be hard to figure out what you should research, but to give you some examples from my own life, I spent six years researching friendship for my dissertation. I’ve spent three years just researching Advaita Vedanta (the philosophy, which is not to be mistaken with the spiritual tradition). I am now hard at work researching Hermeticism and its relationship to memory.

Memory itself is now a nearly twenty-year research mission I’ve been engaged in.

Am I an expert in any of these areas? Hardly — and that’s not false modesty. I’m researching these areas as missions to support a vision for many different reasons. One of them is simply the self-serving outcome that focusing on large research projects improves concentration.

Examples other than the philosophical research projects I personally choose include:

Learning a language
Learning a musical instrument
Learning history (and, for example, memorizing the presidents of a country as you go)
Learning to draw
Learning bushcraft
Learning a hard science like physics or astronomy

Why does it work?

Well, limiting your zone of focus does not mean you’re necessarily excluding other topics. In reality, there is so much overlap between ideas. The problem is that if you never verse yourself well enough in one area of interest, you simply won’t see the connections when you explore the next area.

That’s why spending longer periods of time as a specialist is essential to becoming any kind of generalist. You need a wide enough contextual field in individual areas to have a field of understanding “concentrated” enough to reveal insights in other areas.

So pick a field of human knowledge and study it over the long haul. You’ll be delighted by just how complex one topic can be.

15. Seek Complexity and Question Simplicity

Have you ever heard someone think they’re clever by quoting Einstein? For example, many people quote him as saying something along the lines of, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it.” Another version of the quote is “everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.”

The problem is… no one I’ve asked can ever show me where exactly Einstein said any variation of this quote. According to QuoteInvestigator, the quote has a long history and simply cannot be directly attributed to Einstein.

I raise the issue because the world is really freakin’ complicated and Einstein above all knew this fact really well. When people distribute this quote around and attribute it to Einstein, they are often trying to pass off what amounts to ignorance as a form of genius.

It isn’t. The world is complicated and few things are simple. Seek complexity and the journey itself will improve your concentration.

Your brain and critical thinking abilities need challenges in order to grow. And you can get started by improving your concentration right now by scanning the environment for meaningless quotes people attribute to famous people.

Just ask yourself, “Is it really true that this person said that?” Chances are, they didn’t. And if they did, there’s probably very useful context you’ll need in order to form a more accurate picture of what they really meant.

Challenge Your Concentration Daily For Best Results

And remember, “simple’ can also mean simple in terms of your intellect. Often, that’s precisely what people prefer because they’re trying to dodge taking steps to improve their lives. They’re seeking the path of least resistance.

But if you want ongoing growth and better concentration that lasts for life, you’re going to challenge everything about your mind.

When you realize that someone named “Roger Sessions” is perhaps the first person behind the misattribution of the “simple” quote to Einstein, instead of letting the fact pass you by, memorize that person’s name.

When you have memory techniques on your side, it’s easy to improve your concentration by practicing multiple times throughout the day. Every word is built out of letters, and we who use memory techniques seriously have an image for every letter of the alphabet.

That means we can look at facts and focus on them in ways people who do not have these techniques cannot.

So in some, I urge you to say, “Yes! I will do what it takes to engage in every concentration challenge I can find!” Embracing the challenge and showing up consistently is key because here’s the most important fact of all:

If you’re willing to spend a few months practicing the skills on this page most people won’t, you’ll be able to enjoy concentration skills that most can’t.

Is that statement “simple” enough for you?

How To Improve Focus: 7 Ultra-Fast Tips

Zoning out sucks, doesn’t it? You’re sitting there, wishing you can concentrate, wishing you knew how to improve focus … and yet … your mind is just dancing all over the darn place.

Well, if you want to know how to improve focus and concentration so you can finally get those important things in your life done, these ultra-fast tips from Joanna Jast will give you exactly what you need to succeed. Make sure to read the entire post and download the audio she narrated for your convenience. Enjoy this game-changing focus training! 

Visualization Meditation: 9 Benefits and Techniques (With Examples)

You’ve experienced obstacles in your visualization meditation practice, right?

I sure have, but I persisted and eventually found ways to break through all my blocks. But without any practical guidance, my progress took far longer than necessary.

That’s why on this page, I’m going to share my best tips for visual meditation.

The exact way to make substantial progress may surprise you.

Here’s what this post will cover:

What is Visualization?

5 Incredible Benefits of Visualization

4 Steps to Visualizing Through Meditation

Meditation and Visualization, Simplified

Let’s get started.

What is Visualization?

We usually think visualization is about mental pictures.

It is, but that’s just scraping the surface. And stopping at the visual level is why so many people get stuck.

For example, did you know there’s something called aphantasia? It means not having a mind’s eye.

I’ve been in this world, and yet I could still visualize while meditating.

How?

By using a full range of “Magnetic Modes” to experience multisensory visualization.

We’ll talk about these visualization modes below. But for now, it’s important to consider what we get from going past pictures to multisensory visuals.

5 Incredible Benefits of Visualization

There are a handful of important benefits a visual meditation practice brings.

1. Digital Fasting Boosts Memory

Time away from devices creates mental focus, boosts concentration and extends attention span

A lot of people look for visualization apps. In many cases, that’s going to be counterproductive. Instead, you get more benefits from leaving all the devices behind. I call this Digital Fasting.

I try to get in at least one per day. Personally, I go to the local campus, sit on a bench, close my eyes, and visualize.

By spending time visualizing with full knowledge that nothing will interrupt you, you’ll not only improve your mental imagery skills. You’ll also expand your attention span.

Plus, the walking back and forth from your chosen meditation area gives you exercise and encourages diffuse thinking.

As Alex Pang notes in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, many of the most productive authors and inventors visualized while walking. It was the walking itself that helped them come up with so many great ideas.

2. Creative Problem Solving

When you visualize in a multi-sensory way, you practice what you can think of as “mental rotation.” You literally spin a problem around in your mind so you can see it from multiple angles.

In the 13th century, Ramon Llull created a process called ars combinatoria that used visualization as a kind of mental machine. Not much is known about it, but one aspect seems to have involved thinking through a series of metrics.

For example, you would think about how much something weighed, its length, width, color, and other aspects. Merely running through these characteristics helps the mind consider problems in a way that is not possible without multi-dimensional visualization.

The 40 Triz Principles are a related, modern manifestation of this approach to visualization. You might look at something like this and ask, “What the heck does this have to do with meditation?”

Please revisit point one and think of all the problems that people solved when they went back to first principles about certain problems and took a walk to “rotate” the various dimensions in their minds.

3. Encourages Deep Relaxation

So long as you don’t place pressure on yourself, the benefits of visualization will shine clear on their own.

But if you find yourself unable to ease into it without expecting a particular outcome, you can start by visualizing yourself as relaxed. You can imagine your own body using multi-sensory tools and then imagine each part relaxing.

For example, you can visualize a warm blanket easing all the muscles in your feet, then your calves, thighs, lower back, etc.

And by using a visualization of relaxing yourself, you get to meditate and practice meditative visualization at the same time!

4. Visualization Combats Negativity

As I shared in my TEDx Talk, I think of negative thoughts in terms of the “like/dislike monster.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtYj...

Sure, that ancient image is a bit silly. But that’s the point. Visualizing attachments as a kind of dragon-like monster instantly helps me neutralize unwanted thoughts.

In other words, you can use positive thoughts to get rid of unwanted ones through visualization.

5. Provides Emotional Stability

When you practice visualization consistently, you have mental images you can revisit on demand. The more you practice, the more tangible they will be for you, leading to great mental strength.

For example, when I went to defend my Ph.D. dissertation, I relaxed by mentally visiting my favorite bench near Lake Ontario.

Although I was sitting outside the examination room in the Vanier College building of York University and should have been shaking in my boots, I wasn’t.

Instead, I had my bike on its kickstand and was laying on the bench beneath a warm summer sun. I could hear the water lapping at the shore and felt a light breeze.

It was bliss in the midst of a nervous moment and I took that emotional stability with me into the examination room. After the committee grilled me for two hours, the head examiner told me, “The only guy cooler than you is Miles Davis!”

I told him that I really owe it all to the guided visualization meditation that I created for myself. And you can learn how to do it yourself quickly and easily.

Here’s how.

4 Steps to Visualizing Through Meditation

There are 4 steps to take on your journey to guided visualization.

1. Learn About Multi-Sensory Visualization

Remember this code: KAVE COGS.

I use this simple to remember acronym to help me go through my visualizations in a structured way.

Kinesthetic
Auditory
Visual
Emotional
Conceptual
Olfactory
Gustatory
Spatial

It’s a lot like ars combinatoria applied to meditation. For example, I gave you a sense of it with my Lake Ontario meditation.

I feel the physical sensation in my imagination of the wind and warmth from the sun.

I hear the waves.

I don’t see much in my imagination, but I still get something like a mental picture of the sun and the blue sky.

Then I make sure to remember calm and peaceful emotions visiting the lake in Toronto always made me feel in my heart and mind.

Using concepts is a bit trickier to explain, but one of the simplest is the fact that it’s Lake Ontario, not some other body of water. It’s also in Toronto, a place where I have lots of history.

Next, I think of the taste of water from the water bottle I used to always have bolted to my bike.

I smell the water and finally think of the spatial elements.

I’m talking about the length of the bench. How thick the wood was and how heavy it must have been.

It might sound silly, but it’s actually the path to deepening the experience of the visualization meditation.

Finally, I sometimes add spatial factors like how long it took to ride my bike to the lake and how far away the CN Tower appears in the distance.

All of these factors combined really pay off when you practice them consistently and as a package.

2. Have a Regular Meditation Spot and Time of Day

I’ve already mentioned my current favorite meditation area. There’s good reason to believe that visiting the same places to meditate “anchors” your practice.

By this, I mean it’s a lot easier to settle in quickly by conditioning your mind to fall into the practice when you ritualize the location.

Ultimately, you want to be able to meditate anywhere, but it’s an ability you’ll sooner develop in bulletproof fashion by keeping a regular time and place than if you constantly randomize everything.

As they say, failure to plan is planning to fail. There’s great wisdom in that when it comes to getting the most out of relaxation visualization in particular.

In my own practice, I don’t get out of bed in the morning without visualizing first. That makes it less critical when exactly I go outside to walk and meditate. But I still try to make sure it’s before noon to keep a regular pattern.

3. Pick an Object or Text

Franz Bardon describes a powerful object-based meditation in Initiation Into Hermetics. Basically, you picture a clock on a wall.

The goal is to hold that clock in your mind as sharply as possible for as long as you can, working up to 20 minutes or more.

Personally, I don’t think it’s strictly necessary to go that long. Even 2-5 minutes will do. It doesn’t have to be a clock either — especially since such an object involves movement and sound (if it ticks). You can imagine a vase, bookcase, or a toy you had as a child.

Or, my favorite is to use passage meditation. I’ve memorized long-form texts and simply start at the beginning and don’t stop mentally reciting them until I’m done. Currently, I recite four pieces and it takes about forty minutes.

Sometimes I recite them out loud, but usually I just do it in silence. I use a Memory Palace, which provides the ultimate visualization meditation because I revisit each and every part of the mental journey where I laid out the words.

Here’s the Memory Palace journey for one of them:

There’s a powerful and streamlined process anyone can follow to get a Memory Palace working for long-form passage meditation.

Another option is to memorize something like the planets and reflect on their position in space for visualization meditations. Alexander Dicsone advocated this practice, something Martin Faulks has recently revived in The Hermetic Art of Memory.

Of course, you don’t have to tie your visualization practice to esoteric matters.

Even creating an image of Einstein writing E=MC2 on a chalkboard can provide a powerful meditation that offers all of the benefits of above. After all, I’m a scientist myself and don’t for a second want to live without mental imagery that helps create emotional stability and adds stamina to my focus.

4. Journal Your Experience

I find that keeping a journal is one of the best ways to learn more about meditation and how to deepen it.

Although you certainly can memorize everything about your experiences, I feel it’s best to leave memory free for language learning, names, and other knowledge-based projects.

When you journal, you can write out your KAVE COGS and reflect on any ideas or emotions that come up. This is a great way to visualize, even if you have aphantasia.

Just the other day, I was meditating in the morning and suddenly a vibrant experience of snow sledding with my dad and brother came up. I made sure to write it down in my 5-year snapshot journal.

That way, I’ll not only remember it, but it will come back to me in my handwriting a year later on autopilot. And all without needing an app to remind me.

Meditation and Visualization, Simplified

After all, isn’t that the goal of a proper visual meditation practice? To have your mind work well without getting ensnared in the world of notifications?

I don’t know about you, but I usually find that apps and notifications break my mental imagery, not build it up.

So what do you say? Do you have any steps or resources to add? Or are you just ready to dive in and start visualizing while you meditate?

And if you want to learn how to use a Memory Palace to make it part of your visualization meditation, sign up for the free training today.

Lack of concentration: 3 Scientifically Proven Remedies

If you can’t stand your current lack of concentration, don’t worry. There are concrete steps you can take. They will reduce, and potentially eliminate, your problems with focusing.

Fair warning: 

What you’re about to read is unlike anything else you’ll find on the Internet.



You see, I once completed a PhD during a time when I swallowed concentration-destroying antidepressants with beer.

Yet… I had powerful strategies. Instead of experiencing difficulty concentrating, I was able to laser-focus on large amounts of information I needed to remember for my exams.



Then, when I sat for those exams, I was able to recall that information with ease – even though I did not feel very well.

In sum, pay close attention to the tactics I’m about to share. I learned them from real world experience. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwfMH...

 

Lack of Concentration? Here’s the Solution

 

The first step is to commit. 

Yes, you need to commit to becoming a dedicated student of focus and concentration.

When I first realized that I was having concentration issues, that’s exactly what I did. In my case, I was used to committing to large learning projects. I’d completed a BA and an MA in English literature. Despite all the odds as a student with mental illness, I’d also managed to get into a PhD program. 

Here’s a quick exercise:

Get out a piece of paper and list 2-3 times you’ve accomplished a goal before.



It could be completing high school, learning a language, getting a job after submitting multiple applications, or anything that has meaning for you.

What you’re looking for is proof that you’re capable of completing learning goals. If you can do it once, you can do it again. 

Proven Remedies For a Lack of Concentration

 

The second step is to find resources that will help you develop focus and remove your inability to focus. 

These resources are bound to be different for different people. 

1. Meditation

One of the most likely sources for most people is going to be meditation. 

However, you need to understand that there is more than one kind of meditation. Plus, your gender might play a role in which kind might be the right kind for you. 

That said, you should avoid thinking about meditation as a singular thing. In truth, you want to create a “meditation habit stack.” Literally erase the idea of mediation as a singular thing and start to think about meditations.

For example, my meditation habit stack looks like this almost every morning (sometimes I do it in the afternoon or evening depending on my schedule):

Stretching
Reciting mantras
Silent sitting
Journaling (general autobiographical journaling plus gratitude journaling)
Walking meditation
Cold showers (often silently running through meditations as I focus the cold water stream at a spot just below my lower lip)

You absolutely do not have to master your meditation habit stack overnight. I’ve been practicing for years and keep discovering new things. You can read more about my exploratory journey in The Victorious Mind: How to Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being.

There are many other sources you can pursue. I would suggest books by:

Gary Weber (Happiness Beyond Thought)
Shinzen Young (The Science of Enlightenment)
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now)
Greg Goode (Standing as Awareness)
Richard Wiseman (59 Seconds)

Finally, here are 12 concentration meditations that will put you in the zone. Practice these for the next 90 days and you’ll be amazed by how much your focus has improved.

2. Diet 

As part of your commitment to removing your concentration problems, you’ll want to do a thorough analysis of your diet. 

There’s no magic bullet when it comes to optimizing your eating habits for focus. However, it’s common knowledge that the foods we eat create our states of mind. Going back to the ancient world, people have known that there are at least three kinds of foods:

Foods that make us feel lazy or tired
Foods that make us feel energetic or agitated
Foods that make us feel peaceful

Everyone is going to be different. To find out how you respond to different foods, keep a food diary for the next 90 days.

It’s not about right or wrong. You just want to look for patterns. For example, I find that I cannot concentrate well after eating rice.



Does this mean that I don’t eat rice? No. It just means that if I need to read or write after a meal, I eat something else instead, like salmon with carrots and celery. For me, those foods keep my mind clear and focused. 

I only know these things because I’ve completed: 

Food elimination diets
Rotation diets
Low FODMAP diets
LEAP assessments
Food tolerance tests

These are well worth exploring, even if there is a lot of conflicting information about the ins-and-outs of these different styles of eating.

Basically, the more you experiment and document, the more observations you’ll have that will help you sort out the foods that help you focus and the foods that leads to a lack of focus. 

3. Exercise

Also on the level of common sense, it’s well-known that you need to keep your body well-oiled with movement if you want your brain to function well.

Walking and reading in Denmark

Personally, I make sure to get in at least one walk a day, but usually three, one after each meal. Yes, this is a pain sometimes, but it helps with digestion and circulation. 

The Science Behind Concentration Problems

But there’s something else: 

Diffuse thinking. 

Learning How to Learn has one of the best explanations on how walking to allow your thoughts to percolate works. Another great resource is a book called Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. 

Basically, when you do something as simple as walking and remove your focus from what you’re trying to focus on, your brain will automatically start to make connections in the background. Give exercise a try. 

Exercise also helps get rid of stress, which is another major source of poor concentration. It can come from poor diet, lack of exercise, bad sleep habits or constantly exposing yourself to negative people or situations. 

Look back at the meditation habit stack I shared above. Each and every one of those activities has been scientifically demonstrated to help reduce stress. 

You can also add lighting a candle, using some aromatherapy, laughing, singing (here’s how to memorize a song) and spending more time with family and friends. 

Obviously, these changes aren’t going to take place overnight, but it’s the extended journey towards improvement that will matter in the end. Take it one step at a time.

For book recommendations I’ve found useful, please try:

Hack Your Habits
Laser Sharp Focus
9 Brain Exercises

 

3 More Common Causes Behind Your Difficulty Focusing

 

1. Not having a vision statement for your life. 

Do you have a plan for where you’re going to live and what you want to be doing when you’re 95? How about when you’re 150?

I’m not kidding. As Dan Sullivan has pointed out, when people are asked when they think they’ll die, they usually list a number between the range that matches the widely published life expectancy statistics.

Maybe that’s why so many people are stressed.

How about this alternative? Get out a journal and write down your vision for each coming decade of your life. For example:

When I’m 80, I plan to take every opportunity to visit the gym. I will be thoroughly knowledgeable of recent medical advancements and taking advantage of every possible means of delaying the onset of disease from natural aging. 

You can relieve a lot of worrisome thoughts that break your focus by repeating this exercise with your family goals, financial goals and travel desires. This is your life, so dare to dream big!

2. Not having a plan. 

Having a vision is one thing, but then you need to plan.

Rest assured, no matter how much planning you perform, life will throw curveballs.

However, the act of planning accomplishes (at least) two things:

You have documented plans. Without plans, you put stress on your memory and stumble through life blindly. 
You develop the skills of planning. When things change, you can rapidly chart out a new plan. 

One useful planning skill you can learn is mind mapping. I suggest Mind Map Mastery as a great resource for learning how to do it well.

In sum, when you have plans and the skill of making plans, you’ll reduce a ton of focus-destroying stress that come in the form of unwanted thoughts. 

3. Short Form Content Addiction

Let me rant a little here. 

Those 5 minute videos you’re watching?

They’re killing your attention span. Especially when you’re watching them on your so-called “smartphone.”  (You can learn how to combat smartphone addiction here.)

If you really want to master the skill of mental focusing, you need to go on a short content diet. 

Next time you’re searching for information on a topic you want to learn, choose the longest and most in-depth content you can find.

Get out a pen and paper. (No devices with their focus-stealing tabs and apps and widgets.) 

Sit with the content for the long haul. Engage with it thoroughly. And remember diffuse thinking – if you get bored, doodle on the paper instead of taking your attention away. That’s just one of 5 unconventional note taking tips I have for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U64aw...

The more you engage with long form content, the more you’ll start to heal your flighty attention span. 

Rest assured: I’m as tempted as the next guy to hop around multiple pieces of short content.

But it’s not a realistic strategy if you really want to learn. If anything, you want to not only watch long videos and read long books, but you also want a rereading strategy that takes you through the content twice. 

 

3 More Strategies for Destroying Your Lack of Concentration

 

1. Form study and/or discussion groups based around a single topic. 

When I was in university, I always belonged to study groups. Not only was I president of the English Undergraduate Student Association, a position that allowed me to create groups and invite interesting speakers. I also sought out and belonged to poetry discussion groups, philosophy groups and film studies gatherings. 

Look, there are problems with groups, such as timing them, having someone capable of leadership and the fact that not everyone will complete the agreed upon readings, etc. But that’s no reason not to go and flex your skills at being the leader and the reader. These are precisely the activities that will stretch your concentration skills. 

2. Learn a language.

A lot of people start learning a language and then give up. They don’t have the attention span for it, or they come up with a whole list of excuses about it being “hard.” 

The fact is that without challenge, we cannot grow. And taking up a long term learning project like picking up a foreign language has been scientifically proven to increase your “cognitive reserve.” That basically means that your memory improves, as does your ability to find the words you want to use quickly. 

3. Volunteer.

So many people are aimless these days. They don’t have any vision or purpose for their own lives, and they certainly don’t lend their time and energy to causes larger than themselves.

I recognized this as a problem in my own life, which is why I started teaching freely on the Internet and became part of the Pollination Project for a few years. I found that by being part of a mission with positive consequences for other people around the world, nearly all of whom I would never meet, a lot of my thoughts became very focused. 

I think you’ll find this is true for you too, and there are a lot of compelling studies showing that giving, not receiving is the true path to lasting happiness.

However, you need to watch out for what is called volunteer’s folly. For example, if you’re an amateur at building shelter, your volunteer hours won’t be nearly as powerful as donating money to hire expert builders. Not only are you creating unprofessional housing that will need many costly repairs or outright replacement. You’re also failing to hire a local company that could use the revenue. (Rolf Dobelli points this problem out in The Art of Thinking Clearly and it is very easy to avoid.)

 

Conclusion: Concentrate On Creating Memories Worth Having

One last tip based on research by Tim Dalgleish that I discovered years after feeling the effects of it myself. 

Remember when I told you about my depression and bad habits while completing my PhD?

Well, on top of becoming a student of focus techniques like meditation, I also started using an ancient device called a “Memory Palace.” (Sometimes called the Roman Room Method or the Method of Loci.) 

This ancient device lets you use buildings like your home and workplace to remember information quickly. 

In “Method-of-Loci as a Mnemonic Device to Facilitate Access to Self-Affirming Personal Memories for Individuals With Depression,” Dalgleish’s research has shown that memorizing positive information also boosts your mood – even if you have depression or other ailments. 

Here’s what to do in order to experience the results of his research:

Create a Memory Palace. My free memory improvement kit walks you through everything:

 

 

Populate your Memory Palace with 5-10 happy memories. For example, in one of my Memory Palaces, I placed a scene from the party after my dissertation defense in one corner of a room. In another corner, I placed the memory of my first book arriving after it was printed, and so on.
Use the Memory Palace to revisit your happy memories – especially during moments when you can’t focus. 

I use this technique to this day. It is powerful. 

You can combine it with other elements from your meditation habit stack, such as wandering your Memory Palace of happy memories mentally while you walk your neighborhood for exercise. 

So what do you say?

Are you ready to become a serious student of improving your concentration?

What Causes Memory Disorders And How To Overcome Them?

Misplaced your car keys?

Forgot a new acquaintance’s name?

Confused about what day of the week it is?

These are all common occurrences.

But could these memory lapses be symptoms of memory disorders?

In this article, I’ll walk you through 5 common memory disorders and their symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.

I’ll also introduce you to a powerful technique to supercharge your brain power and help prevent simple memory loss.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

What Are Memory Disorders?
Five Memory Disorders: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment
Why Must Memory Disorders Be Diagnosed Early?
How To Strengthen Your Memory?

What Are Memory Disorders?

Forgetting your house keys is basic forgetfulness.

But when memory impairment starts to interfere with your daily tasks, social activities, and work, you might have a memory disorder.

Memory disorders are problems associated with communication, decision making, recollection, reasoning, and cognitive skills. A memory problem could also occur due to neurological damage to your brain structure.

Besides causing immense psychological stress, they also affect your ability to create, store, and recall memories.

Memory impairment could occur due to:

A side effect of medication
Brain impairment
Trauma to the head
Substance abuse
Vitamin deficiencies
An untreated metabolic disease or infection
Cardiovascular disease
Heredity
Aging

It’s tough to pinpoint the actual reason for memory disorders. And this is what makes their diagnosis challenging.

Curious to know if your memory problem is a memory disorder?

Let’s find out.

Do Age-Related Memory Problems Always Mean Memory Disorders?

Cognitive decline usually develops with age. Older adults with no memory disorder problems may pause to remember directions, but they do not get lost in familiar places.

Forgetting where you kept your reading glasses is just a sign of normal aging. In this normal aging process, your judgment remains intact, and the memory problem doesn’t affect your routines.

However, if an older adult starts forgetting what reading glasses are and how they are used, it could point to a memory disorder.

Research indicates that the amount of hippocampal neurofibrillary tangles or protein deposits in the cortex help differentiate between normal aging and a memory disorder.

Are all memory disorders alike?

Short answer: No.

Different memory disorders have different progress rates and involve different brain structures.

Some memory disorders like Alzheimer’s are progressive, and it may take years before the symptoms appear. Others like frontotemporal dementia are also progressive and cause reduced brain function in the frontal and temporal lobes.

Damage to brain function caused by traumatic brain injury like a car crash has an immediate effect.

Some of these cognitive disorders can be treated, while others like anterograde amnesia don’t have a cure yet. However, there are many scientific solutions to assist patients to go about their daily lives.

Early clinical assessment can help determine the future course of action. Behavioral neurologists can assess the patient to understand the extent of cognitive impairment.

Patients can take remedial steps by attending a memory disorders program to manage symptoms and improve their quality of life.

5 Memory Disorders: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Let’s take a look at 5 common memory disorders.

1. Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disease – a type of dementia – which causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. It also happens to be the sixth leading cause of death in the world!

Alzheimer’s Disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who reported “a peculiar severe disease progress of the cerebral cortex” in 1906 in Tubingen to the 37th Meeting of South-West German Psychiatrists.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is most common in people above the age of 65. This is called late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The other two types are early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which typically occurs in people of the 40-50 age group, and Familial Alzheimer’s disease which is linked to genes.

Alzheimer’s symptoms develop gradually, worsen over time, and eventually affect all everyday tasks.

The typical symptoms of people with Alzheimer’s disease are:

Memory loss that worsens gradually
Changes in mood and behavior
Disorientation
Trouble communicating with others
Confusion about time, place and events
Depression
Difficulty walking, swallowing food, and speaking

How Does Alzheimer’s Disease Affect the Brain?

Alzheimer’s disease AD damages nerves, degenerates brain tissue, and leads to the accumulation of an abnormal protein called beta-amyloid and the development of neurofibrillary tangles.

It affects the hippocampus first, which is why memory loss is often the first symptom in a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Microglia cells then create inflammation to start the immune response, which further damages the brain. Eventually, it affects the entire brain.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease and Treatment

There is no single Alzheimer’s disease and memory test or any particular cognitive test to detect Alzheimer’s disease.

Because of this, an Alzheimer’s disease center will use a combination of factors and tests such as:

Detailed medical history
Assessment of Alzheimer’s disease memory, problem-solving, and other mental abilities
Standard blood and urine tests
Brain imaging, such as CT, MRI, or PET scans

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, yet.

Take any Alzheimer’s disease research center, and you’ll find several ongoing clinical trials that attempt to slow down the progress of the disease.

People in the early stages can enhance their cognitive function and manage the signs of Alzheimer’s disease with medication. They can also use behavioral treatments like speech therapy, and technological solutions like smart wearable devices along with medication.

Patients can also seek help from health organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association or any Alzheimer’s disease center for care and support.

2. Dementia

Dementia is a neurological disorder that makes it harder for individuals to remember, communicate, and reason with others. It is caused by constant damage to the brain cells.

There are different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementias. (The Lewy body disease is associated with abnormal deposits of the alpha-synuclein protein in the brain.)

Other diseases like Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis can also lead to dementia. Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, which is caused by thiamine deficiency, can also cause dementia.

Symptoms of Dementia:

There are a few common symptoms:

Memory loss that interferes with familiar tasks
Trouble with language — understanding and expression (like in Parkinson’s disease)
Problems with judgment
Personality changes

How Does Dementia Change the Brain?

Most changes that occur in the brain due to dementia are permanent and get worse over time. It interferes with the ability of brain nerve cells to communicate with each other. Different types of dementia affect different brain regions first.

Diagnosis of Dementia

Dementia can be diagnosed using:

Neuropsychological tests where a neuropsychologist assesses mental functioning
Analysis of bodily fluids such as blood, urine, and saliva
Brain scans to identify changes in the brain structure
Psychiatric evaluation

Treatment for Dementia

A disease like dementia is incurable. Medicines and therapy can only make dementia patients feel better temporarily.

The good news is, people with dementia can live comfortably by routinely exercising and engaging in some form of activity.

Assistive technology can help dementia patients stay independent and safe as long as possible. For example, Google calendar to help them remember things to do, and video calling apps to help them connect with their loved ones.

Routine health checkups are also a vital part of a dementia patient’s life.

3. Mild Cognitive Impairment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional state between dementia and normal memory and thinking (cognitive abilities). It is a slight yet noticeable cognitive decline.

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment have more difficulty with memory, language, and thinking than others their age. They also have a high risk factor of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s.

However, some mild cognitive impairment patients remain at a stable state or regain their normal cognitive abilities over time.

Symptoms of Mild Cognitive Impairment

There are two types of mild cognitive impairment — Amnestic MCI and NonAmnestic MCI. Amnestic MCI deals primarily with memory loss, and NonAmnestic MIC deals mostly with a decline in thinking skills.

Here are some symptoms of Mild Cognitive Impairment:

Impulsive behavior
Getting overwhelmed while doing simple tasks
Forgetting appointments and other social engagements
Feeling lost and confused

How Does Mild Cognitive Impairment Impact the Brain?

The changes in the brain are similar to Alzheimer’s dementia but less intense.

Mild Cognitive Impairment results in:

Shrinkage of the hippocampus
Enlargement of ventricles
Reduced use of glucose
Abnormal clumps and tangles of nerve cells
Reduced blood flow through brain blood vessels

Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment

For the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, the doctor looks into:

A complete medical history
Inputs from a family member or a close friend about daily activities
Psychiatric evaluation to trace signs of depression
Brain imaging
Behavioral neurology examination

These evaluations have to be done every six months as patients with mild cognitive impairment are at increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Treatment for Mild Cognitive Impairment

The treatment mostly focuses on managing or easing symptoms. Medications are used only in cases of significant memory changes or for someone who is also exhibiting symptoms of Parkinson’s.

Those experiencing depression often benefit from psychotherapy. Treating other underlying conditions such as cholesterol and hypothyroidism is also a good idea.

Lifestyle changes and maintaining cognitive health can allow patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment to stabilize their condition without making it worse.

4. Autoimmune Encephalitis

Autoimmune Encephalitis is a rare disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks healthy brain cells and causes inflammation.

This disease is caused by viruses, including rabies, herpes simplex virus, toxoplasmosis, and the West Nile virus.

Symptoms of Autoimmune Encephalitis

Initially, some patients may exhibit neurological or psychiatric symptoms, and that makes this disease tricky to diagnose.

The symptoms could be:

Tremors (like in people with Parkinson’s disease dementia)
Seizures
Involuntary movements
Loss of inhibition
Paranoia
Severe insomnia
Depression
Loss of balance

How Does Autoimmune Encephalitis Affect the Brain?

The body’s immune system attacks healthy brain cells, leading to inflammation in the brain.

Diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis

This disease is challenging to diagnose, as the symptoms appear at different times with different intensity levels.

Patients need to meet these criteria:

Rapid progression of working memory deficits, altered memory status, or psychiatric symptoms.
And one of these criteria should be met:

New focal CNS findings
Unexplained seizures
Increased white blood cell count
MRI suggests encephalitis



Treatment of Autoimmune Encephalitis

Early detection and quick treatment are necessary for the treatment of this disorder. Patients should be hospitalized immediately. The treatment is focused on preventing complications, reducing swelling, and controlling seizures and fevers.

5. Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Vascular Cognitive Impairment is a common form of dementia in older adults. It is caused by decreased blood flow to the brain, which eventually damages the brain tissue.

There are many types of vascular dementia, including:

Mixed dementia, where symptoms of both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease exist.
Multi-infarct dementia where the blood flow affects a specific part of the brain.
Stroke-related and post-stroke dementia may also be a cause of vascular cognitive impairment.

Symptoms of Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Symptoms of Vascular Cognitive Impairment could develop gradually or appear suddenly after a stroke.

They are:

Inability to carry out instructions
Concentration and communication problems
Memory loss
Movement troubles (like people with Parkinson’s disease)
Tremors
Urinary problems
Depression

How Does Vascular Cognitive Impairment Affect the Brain?

The effect of vascular cognitive impairment depends on the location and size of the affected area in the brain. It occurs due to blood clots, ruptured blood vessels due to atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and infection.

Diagnosis of Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Doctors conduct the following tests in addition to taking a detailed medical history and physical examination:

Brain scans such as CT, PET, and MRI
Electroencephalogram (EEG) of the brain
Neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric tests

Treatment of Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Vascular Cognitive Impairment cannot be cured. Any treatment will only manage the associated conditions.

Doctors could advise:

Medicines to control blood pressure, diabetes, and blood clotting
Procedures like angioplasty to improve blood flow to the brain
Lifestyle changes, including exercises for cognitive stimulation and cognitive rehabilitation.

With so many complications associated with memory disorders, it is imperative to diagnose them early.

Here are a few more reasons why it’s essential to do so.

Why Must Memory Disorders Be Diagnosed Early?

Being diagnosed with a memory disorder can be disorienting for the patient and their caregivers.

Early diagnosis can:

Explain your symptoms and reduce your anxiety
Give you access to treatments to slow down the disease
You could find a place in a clinical trial for a miracle drug
Give you time to prepare for the future, both emotionally and financially
Help you to preserve your cognitive skills and abilities

There is a cultural aspect to it as well.

In many societies, there is a stigma against those who suffer from mental illness. There have been several cases of patients being denied jobs, denied places to stay, and having false criminal charges levied against them.

Keeping all these factors in mind, prevention is definitely better than a cure.

You may be able to delay or prevent the onset of memory loss by merely exercising your brain regularly!

A regular brain workout will be extremely helpful even if you’re only struggling with minor memory loss.

How do you do that?

Build Memory Palaces And Give Your Brain a Workout

Using a Memory Palace is the ultimate brain exercise to boost your cognitive abilities.

Creating a Memory Palace stimulates your spatial memory, visual memory, recovered memory, and autobiographical memory.

So, if you forget what day of the week it is, try this out:

When you wake up in the morning, imagine you’re looking at a gift box with seven boxes within.
In each box, place an image. For example, in the first box (Monday) place a man. In the Tuesday box, place a truck. On Wednesday, a walrus, and so on.
These mnemonics will help you remember the day when you wake up.
Remember to mentally cross out the day’s symbol and keep the day’s box aside before you hit the bed.
This way, you will think of what happened yesterday when you wake up and instantly remember the day.

You can remember pretty much anything using a Memory Palace — names, faces, grocery items, a new language, academic material… the list is nearly endless.

Attaching physical locations to memories helps you access them with ease.

Building Memory Palaces is a technique you can use for life. Once you build one and master using it, you can create plenty more with ease.

And, if you can do that – like Sherlock Holmes – you can do great things with your memory.

Ready to supercharge your memory and keep cognitive disorders at bay? Pick up your copy of my free memory improvement kit, and get started today!

How to Memorize the Periodic Table: A Proven Process

If you want to memorize the periodic table, chances are you’ve heard the following advice:

Use songs
Use flash cards
Use acronyms or acrostics
Use associations
Use a Memory Palace

Some trainings even suggest that you combine all of the above in order to speed up the process.

If such vague suggestions make you want to pull your hair out, let’s talk about the truth so you have a real shot at getting what you want:

The only way anyone can memorize the periodic table quickly is to already be good with memory techniques, ideally the Memory Palace technique. In fact, you’ll probably want several Memory Palaces in the manner I’ll show you in this guide. 

But don’t put the cart ahead of the horse.

And don’t fall for the clickbait nonsense about memorizing the massive amount of information on the periodic table “fast.” Rest assured, there’s no question that it can be done. You just need to have the real secrets of how to do it already working for you.

So if you’re ready for the real deal and really want to know how to learn the periodic table, let’s get started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sahjk...

Learning The Periodic Table The Right Way

As I’ve just revealed, this process is only going to be fast if you already know your way around memory strategies like the Memory Palace. 

But even knowing how to memorize the elements of the periodic table will not necessarily mean that you’ll actually do it. And it also doesn’t mean that you’ll understand the information encoded by the table. 

So the first step you need to cover has nothing to do with memory techniques. 

You have to know your reason why. Seriously: Why do you want to memorize this information?



If you don’t already keep a Memory Journal, get one. Then, on a fresh page, write out at least 5 reasons why you want to memorize this particular information. 

Is it to show off? 
To pass an exam?
To become a great chemist? 

If you cannot find five distinct reasons why, then it’s time to face the facts: You’re probably going to give up because the sheer mental strength needed without a reason why is just too much for most mere mortals to pull through such a goal.

What Do You Need To Memorize From The Periodic Table?

Next, think about exactly what you need to know. Do you need to know the names? The abbreviations? The atomic numbers? Do you have to recall each element in order? Do you have to be able to visualize the table in your mind? 

These possibilities are important to know, because this information will shift how thoroughly you approach the task. 

Next, I want you to make sure you perform a bit of “brute force learning.” This means knowing: 

Who created the Periodic Table
When it was created
Why it was created
What changes have been made to it over time
What problems it solves
How it solves those problems

As you go through its Wikipedia and associated information, you’ll be laying the groundwork for some of the next-level memory tools that will help you truly learn it, not just memorize its information. You’ll see just how important this will be for your success soon.

How to Memorize the Periodic Table: A Proven Process

Now that we’ve abandoned the fantasy that this task can be done quickly without pro memory skills first, and covered having a good reason why, here’s the next step most memory experts and memory athletes would use: 

Have a number of Memory Palaces ready. 

I think of these clusters as “Memory Palace Networks.”

To create them quickly, go back to that Memory Journal. 

How long should it take to create each Memory Palace?

The answer depends on your current level of skill. But for most people who complete my training, each one should take no more than 2-5 minutes. I suggest you draw them and there are at least three reasons why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntbec...

 

Now, there are many different ways you can configure your Memory Palaces. I’m going to take you through an intermediate-level suggestion that will hopefully get you excited so that improving your skills with memory techniques is a no brainer.

But always remember this:

How you choose to proceed will depend on your exact goal, something only you can identify.

Let’s continue with the steps you need to consider. 

Obviously, you’ll want a diagram of the Periodic Table. You can download this one for free at Pixabay.

I suggest you print it out and paste a copy in your Memory Journal. Put a second one on your office wall, or somewhere you’ll see it every day. That’s not to help you remember any of the information. It’s to help you remember your commitment to the goal of memorizing everything on it.

Spend some time just looking at the information. Observe it closely. 

Here’s what I observe as a mnemonist who works on memorizing large bodies of information: 

The periodic table has two blocks. Whereas one is irregularly shaped and large, the other is small and uniform. 

On the top block, you have columns that have either seven or four blocks each. The final four horizontal columns contain eighteen units of information. (In fact, each block contains three or four distinct pieces of information, but we’ll get to that later.)

Let’s keep focused on the top block and think about some of the ways we can use the Memory Palace technique to memorize the information.  

My first instinct is to create seven Memory Palaces to cover the large block on the top. 

For example, Hydrogen and Helium would be in Memory Palace one. Using the Method of Loci, this Memory Palace would have just two stations. 

The second Memory Palace would then have eight stations to cover Lithium to Neon. 

Once complete, I would take a break before adding two more Memory Palaces of fourteen stations each for the second, regular-shaped block.



Let’s have a look at how this would play out from a purely spatial perspective using the second horizontal column. 

This column contains eight elements. To rapidly memorize them, I would then want eight Magnetic Stations in a well-formed Memory Palace.

In my studio bedroom in Berlin. One of my favorite Memory Palace sources.

These Magnetic Stations follow all the Magnetic Memory Method principles and are:

Bookcase (barely visible in the photo, but it’s there)
Bed
Music stand
Poster
Chair
Wall
Guitar
Wall

Don’t worry if this isn’t clear yet. I’ve got 5 more Memory Palace examples you can learn from.

Now, I know what you’re thinking:

I wanted an easy way to memorize the periodic table! And now you’re placing the information from right to left, instead of left to right!

Trust me, this is not only incredibly easy once you have the skills. It’s also a lot of fun. And the reason that I am laying out the information in what appears to be the opposite direction will take an entire course to explain. Why not pull up a seat in my course and learn all about it now?

Once you’re in, let the fun begin based on the real knowledge of how the ancients memorized mountains of facts like the Periodic Table.

How to Remember Each Element

Let’s recap:

You want to have enough Memory Palaces to memorize all of the elements. For that, you need to create a Memory Palace Network. You could potentially memorize every single element in just one, but I think that’s putting too much pressure on most minds. I certainly would not approach the task that way.

You also need to decide how you want the information to fall in the Memory Palaces. I’ve chosen a horizontal method. However, you could just as easily choose a vertical method. This approach would require at least eighteen Memory Palaces, but you could do it with less if you’re skilled and work out your strategy. 

Now we need to figure out how we’re going to place the information in these Memory Palaces. We do this through a process called elaborative encoding. It’s a scientific term for taking information we already know and associating it with information we don’t know. Or, in the case of a word like Lithium, which pretty much everyone knows, we just want to know where it falls on the table and additional information related to it. 

If you’re familiar with one of the ways to use the pegword method, you might draw upon those skills. 

Here’s where your “why” and exactly what you need to memorize is going to be important. 

Let’s take Lithium, for example:

On this version of its Periodic Table listing you have:

Atomic number (3)
Element symbol (Li)
Full name (Lithium)
Atomic mass (6.938)

Let’s say we want to account for all of this information. The best approach will probably be to memorize from the top-down, starting with the atomic number. In this case, we’ll need to use the Memory Palace accordingly. Like this:

This mnemonic example shows the placement of periodic table information in a Memory Palace.

Let me explain these images:

Atomic number = moustache. Using a number-shape system, 3 looks a lot like a moustache on its side. As an alternative, you could use macaroni or the McDonald’s logo.
Element symbol = Link from The Legend of Zelda. I actually think about his LinkedIn profile (i.e. Li.)
Full name = It’s not reflected in the mnemonic example above, but I imagine that Link is listening to the Nirvana song “Lithium.”
Atomic Mass. In this case, I am drawing upon a 00-99 PAO (Person Action Object) system. It’s built on the Major Method.

For reasons you’ll discover by learning any of the main techniques for memorizing numbers, Jeep is my personal image for 69 and Max Maven is my image for 38. There are many different images you can choose from, and mine have evolved over time. 

Your next memory trick is to get these images interacting in a multi-sensory way. Here’s How to Build A Memory Palace which includes details on making this happen in a memorable way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-Yr...

The basic idea is to create a kind of chain reaction with special properties you can train yourself to automatically tap into with these sensory memory exercises.

In this case, the moustache which represents three crashes down on Link who uses his wooden sword to pop a tire on the Jeep, causing a bolt to fly at Max Maven, who stops it using magical powers. The bolt represents the decimal in 6.938. As this entire image unfolds, I hear the Nirvana song Lithium as if I were Link listening to it.



How To Make Sure Each Element Gets Into Long Term Memory

I suggest you start small and work one column at a time. If you choose the horizontal columns method, you’ll have them all memorized in numerical order by their Atomic Number. 

In each Memory Palace, I suggest that you use a process called Active Recall. It means that you deliberately ask your memory to bring back the information you placed in the Memory Palace. 

In my case, I would think about the bookcase. Then, I would relax and ask myself… “What was happening there?” 

Because I have practiced these techniques for many years, I’ll probably think about the moustache, guided by the fact I decided upon how much of the information I wanted to know from the beginning. (Remember, you have to know your goal intimately first.)

If you only wanted to remember the world “lithium,” then obviously you would want to call back the imagery you created and placed in your Memory Palace just for that target information.

Next, I’ll assume that you’ve memorized all eight of the Elements that appear in this horizontal column.

You’ll want to call them to mind first, then write them out by hand in your Memory Journal. (Make sure you don’t cheat, however. Genuinely test yourself first and check the answers only later.)

Later, when you’re certain that your Magnetic Imagery is working, recall each Element you memorized in the following patterns:

Forward (Magnetic Stations 1-8)
Backward (Magnetic Stations 8-1)
From the middle to the beginning (Magnetic Stations 4-1)
From the middle to the end (Magnetic Stations 5-8)
Station skipping (Magnetic Stations 1,3,5,7,8,6,4,2)

Why follow these patterns? 

Because you will be harnessing the best of:

The Primacy Effect

The Recency Effect

The Serial Positioning Effect

Sure, you can get Anki or some other spaced-repetition software to present the information to you based on similar patterns.

The Problem With Software For Learning The Elements

But the problem is that these softwares don’t get you bringing together the forces of creative repetition and active learning. Your brain needs a bit of challenge to learn. 

And when you use the techniques I shared with you today, you’ll get real results. And then you can apply your memory to even more challenging goals. 

Everything begins when you’re sure about your why and you’re clear about what exactly needs to be memorized. Once you’ve got that covered, you truly can learn so fast, it’ll make you head spin – in a good way, of course.