Being able to pick up skills quickly is critical in today’s workplace. Our brains are constantly recording information on a temporary basis to separate vital information from the clutter — scraps of conversations you hear on your way to work, things you see, what the person in front of you was wearing, discussions at work, etc. The brain dumps everything that doesn’t come up again in the recent future as soon as possible to make way for new information. If you want to remember or use new information in the future, you have to deliberately work on storing it in your long-term memory.
research shows that within just one hour, if nothing is done with new information, most people will have forgotten about 50% of what they learned. After 24 hours, this amount increases to 70%, and if a week passes without that information being used, up to 90% of it could be lost.
Most lifelong learning will inevitably involve some reading and listening, but by using a variety of techniques to commit new knowledge to memory, you will cement new information quicker and better.
Here Are some good methods to remember things easily:
1. Spaced repetition
Repeating intake of the information in several periods of time can help you easily remembering it because our brains learn better when we separate out information over time. Learning something new drives out old information if you don’t allow sufficient time for new neural connection to solidify.
2. Link new things to what you already know
By linking the new information you get to old things it will help the brain find it faster like a shortcut , link the things you want to remember to a color to a smell or even to another word that’s look like it even if it has nothing to do with it , like if you want to remember someone’s name for example ‘hi am Edward’ and you want to remember this name you will link it to someone you know with same name or ‘hi am flora’ you will link this name for example to ‘flower’ ,so the moment you want to remember it you’ll have an option like ‘ah her name was like flower or …oh yes Flora’
According to the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, a great brain-based technique for memory retention is to relate new information to what you already know.
3. Teach what you learned
Research shows that explaining a concept to someone else is the best way to learn it yourself. and the more you discuss the topic the more you remember every detail in it.
Well we don’t need a research to know this ,because if you think for a while you will find that things you remembered most is the things you discussed with friends trying to prove a point of view of just transferring to them the info or teaching it.
“The best way to learn something truly is to teach it — not just because explaining it helps you understand it, but also because retrieving it helps you remember it,” says Adam Grant.
4. A good Sleep
Sleeping is the most important thing to help you remember and even solve things, because the unconscious part of our brain start processing the information and link it to each other, The unconscious mind consists of the processes in the mind which occur automatically and are not available to introspection, and include thought processes, memories, interests, and motivations.
5. Practice Yoga
Yoga is an easy way to improve your brain’s grey matter, which is involved in muscle control and sensory perceptions like speech, memory, decision-making, and seeing.
Research has shown that people who practice yoga show fewer cognitive failures. Amazingly, another 2012 study found that just 20 minutes of yoga boosted study participants’ brain functions, leading them to perform better on brain functioning tests both speed-wise and accuracy-wise.