Memory Mastery – Advanced Memory Techniques to Remember 10x More

Hey everyone and welcome to my class. Today we are going to learn about some very exciting things. We will start with three tricks to memorize self-discipline and Jordan Peterson's method for self-discipline. I keep on forgetting things that I study and read. Even if I repeat and study again and again, after a while they all fly away from my mind like I've not studied. I'm struggling My memory is weak and I keep on forgetting things. I cannot remember the name of a person that I've just met. When I'm ready for a presentation in front of an audience, I always forget the things that I have memorized. I'm trying hard to memorize the things that I need to know, but no matter how hard, I always keep forgetting them. You read the same thing over and over again Sometimes you study from midnight until the daylight and it stress you a lot and what is the result? They all fly away from your mind as you've never studied that hard. If you had even one of those troubles, then you're at the right place because no one ever taught you how to learn. With this course, you'll learn advanced method techniques to learn faster and permanent. Using the self-discipline in your life, you'll be able to study the memory techniques and add them into your daily routines. As you keep on studying, you'll see and understand the potential of your memory that will change your life for the good. If you're eager to rule your brain, memorize things you want to learn and learn how to learn, let's begin and change your life. So let's get started with our first story. Meet Billy. He wants to go to All-Star Academy, the best college in his country. The academy is home to the world's greatest overachievers. To get in, Billy needs to ace his next exam. But the problem? The exam requires a lot of memorization which Billy is terrible at. But Billy attended my last class on the growth mindset and knows that he can improve his ability to memorize. With that said, let's help Billy get into All-Star Academy. This is Odin, also known as the All-Father. He will become the wisest and the most powerful of the north gods. But not yet. For now, he hangs from Yadrasil, the world's tree that holds all nine worlds together. With a spear lodged in his chest, he will hang there for nine days and nine nights on the border between life and death. All the while, he peers down into the magical waters of the well below, calling out for the godly knowledge of the runes. Satisfied with his sacrifice, they emerge, revealing to him their wisdom and bestowing him with great power. Odin had given himself to himself. Or more specifically, he sacrificed his present self for his future self. It's no coincidence that he had to perform the greatest sacrifice for the greatest reward. Now you may wonder why I'm telling you all these stories, right? But stay with me until the end of this class and you'll know the reason. Before we discuss the tactical advice, we need to understand some basics about memory. Collecting small processes. The act of memorization can be thought of as action of smaller processes. We are going to focus on two in particular, encoding and retrieval. Encoding is the process of creating new memories and retrieval is the process of accessing them. If Billy wants to ace his exam, he needs to optimize both of these processes. So let's start by taking a look at the process of encoding. One way Billy can improve his ability to encode information is via using a dual code process. Initially coined by Alan The term refers to the creation of both a visual and a verbal memory for the same information. While the theory of dual coding is still controversial, the process is quite promising. Visual representation. One study found that students were able to improve their ability by to memorize a piece of information by drawing a complementary image. A more elaborate form of dual coding. The memory palace is by used by a competitive memory champions to encode large volumes of information. The memory palace requires the user to imagine a palace full of weird objects. Each object is a symbol of something the user is trying to memorize. By walking through the palace in their mind and examining these objects, the user can recall the related information as impressive as the memory palace is. I'd suggest something less complex and more pramagitic for Billy. Construct a mind map. A mind map combines verbal and visual information in an easier and digestible way. It has the ended benefit of allowing Billy to see how all of the information he's gathered relates to each other and where there are gaps in his knowledge. As we discussed in the fenmen technique class, identifying gaps in our knowledge is a key to learning effectively. Let's take a closer look at constructing a mind map. I often hear people say they have trouble remembering what they read in a book. The reason for this is simple. They aren't encoding or retrieving the information effectively. Readers will often highlight or This is mostly useless. The reader would be better off constructing a mind map. Every author is trying to convey a message to the reader. They are trying to make an argument. Actively reconstruct the author's argument as you read along and you'll be able to remember the book a lot better. The mind map is one of the best ways to do this. It forces you to take the verbal information and organize it visually. Visually representing the information will help you see how all the bits of information connect and where there might be gaps in your As a result, you'll have a greater comprehension of the material which will make it easier to remember. Of course, encoding is just one half of the puzzle. The other and arguably more important half is retrieval. Studies show that we can retain information for much longer when we repeatedly retrieve it from our memory. Memory is strengthened with each subsequent retrieval. Furthermore, studies show that our memories are strongest when our retrieval sessions are spaced apart. For example, it's better to study a piece of information for one hour a day over three days than three hours in one day. Let's call each retrieval session a study session. A common question is how far apart should these study sessions be? The answer comes down to the individual. How far away the test is, the difficulty of the material, and how much time is available. But a good system to use is the Littner system. The intervals between each successful study session should be increased. In this case, successful means you correctly recalled the information you were trying to memorize. For example, you may want to recall some information after one day, and if you're successful, try again in two days, then three, then five, then nine and so on. Let's call this the Littner hierarchy. Everyone's hierarchy will look different depending on many factors, and it comes down to the individual to optimize their own. However, if you fail to recall a piece of information on the ninth day, for example, you have to reset its position in the hierarchy. You have to bring it back to the beginning. If I fail to recall it on the ninth day, I will have to try again after one day, then two, then five, and so on. Each successful movement up the hierarchy will strengthen that memory. If you start this paced and repeated retrieval at the beginning of a semester, you probably won't have to study much at the end. Most of the information will be already solidified in your memory. Naturally, I know a lot of people that are going to be watching this in preparation for an upcoming exam. The system still works for cramming. You just have to use much shorter intervals. When I have to had to cram hundreds of flash, I would use intervals of one minute, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, five hours, Of course, cramming isn't recommended, but using spaced and repeated retrieval can make it more efficient. You won't waste time going over the same information over and over again. We have optimized the processes of encoding and retrieval independently. Everyone loses focus. Imagine right now you're about to work. You sit down at your desk. You lay your work out in front of you and say to yourself, I want to get this done. I want to stay focused and disciplined. Today, I'm going to be productive and finally accomplish my goal. At first, you're successful. You're concentrated and focused. Your mind is zoned in on the task laid out in front of you. But minutes later, your thoughts begin to wander. You pull your attention back to your work, but it's no use. Random trains of thought carry your mind to faraway places. You begin thinking about your friends. You dream of going on vacation. You wonder what you'll have for lunch or worry about the dishes still left in the sink. You try time and again to control your wandering thoughts. Eventually, you give in. You stop working. You submit and you lose control. The bore of the mind. Jordan Peterson describes this universal struggle in detail. Everyone, he says, is fighting a wide array of unconscious forces. These forces push and pull your mind in different directions. One pull draws your attention to your stomach, making you feel hungry. Another pulls your attention to your phone, leading you to waste time on social media. There's a war going on in your mind. Peterson explains a war between your conscious and your unconscious. In your conscious mind, you have something called intent. The intent is a purpose, an objective, a mission you want to accomplish. In that case, that mission is work. By doing your work, you're satisfying the needs of your conscious mind. But consciousness is only a small part of your brain. Think about your brain like a room full of barking dogs. Your conscious mind is one of dog asking for your attention. When you concentrate on your work, you're giving that dog the attention it wants and craves. But a dozen other animals are begging to be recognized and satisfied. They don't want to sit there quietly while you play with another dog. They want to play too. They want just as much of your attention. And unfortunately for you, they bark just as loud, if not louder than the first. So what do you do? The solution. To make the barking stop, you pay attention to a different dog or multiple different dogs. In a heartbeat, you get sidetracked and overwhelmed. The other dogs bark so loudly and demand so much of your attention that you lose sight of where you started. If you don't have self-control, distractions work the same way. At first, you're focused on your work. But what happens when you crave a cup of coffee? That craving gets louder and louder until you can't get ignore it any longer. So you give in. You get a cup of coffee. Of course, that craving for caffeine isn't the only dog barking on your brain. You're also hungry. You're bored. You're curious what happened at the end of a TV show. Without self-control, these unconscious forces take over your mind and manipulate your behavior. Unless you're absorbed in your work, those loud distractors are going to pull you away. Why? Because your conscious intent, the first dog, isn't strong enough to fend off the others. Going back to our example, your craving for coffee is more prominent than your motivation to work. So the former overtakes the latter. And you get distracted. But the other dogs do more than distract you. They also change your thinking. Say, you get distracted by a TV show. Your conscious mind knows that it's making a bad decision. So you try to You think to yourself, I don't have to do this work right now. Or this work is a waste of my time. I'd rather do something else. The worst part is, these justifications work. You fall for them and they further motivate your bad decisions. Your thinking changes. Your attitude becomes unproductive and your conscious intent falls behind. What does justification mean? If you're making justifications There are two things you can learn about yourself. First, you don't have enough self-control. These justifications are produced by that war between your conscious and your unconscious. If your conscious mind is winning, you create reasons why your work is more important than your distractors. If your unconscious mind is winning, you do the opposite. You create reasons why your distractors are more important than your work. So if you're making justifications, are winning the war in your brain. That means you don't have the self-control to keep your unconscious at bay. Your conscious intent isn't strong enough to stand on its own. That's one thing you know. The second, according to Jordan Peterson, relates to your work. If you're making justifications, if you're struggling with self-control, you may be working on something you don't care about. You may be, you may not be invested in or passionate about the work in front of you. Self-discipline and motivation do not work in every situation. Even if you're a disciplined person, you can only be disciplined about specific things because discipline requires motivation, passion and energy. If you're bored by your work, how can you develop enough passion to succeed? Take this example. Imagine your family pushed you to go to a medical school. Medical school is a huge undertaking that requires countless hours of rigorous study. But you find yourself struggling to focus. Every assignment is a frustrating slog. Every textbook is a never-ending bore. It doesn't matter how rewarding this profession is. You may be surrounded by motivating people, following a path towards a meaningful character. But if you don't want to be a doctor, none of that matters. If you're not personally and emotionally invested in medicine, you won't be able to focus. You'll struggle to stay disciplined. Your conscious intent will always lose to your unconscious forces. Self-control. If this sounds familiar, you may need to reconsider your direction in life. You may need to reflect on For now, let's assume you're on the right path. Let's assume you're passionate about your work. It's worthwhile. It's inspiring. It's the reason you get up in the morning. Yet, you still struggle with discipline and self-control. You still cannot resist the unconscious forces pushing you away from your work. Where does that self-discipline come from? What's the recipe for greater self-control and personal management? How do you bolster your conscious intent while silencing the other dogs barking for your attention? Jordan Peterson gives a simple answer with a complex action plan. At the root of self-discipline, he explains, is practice. Every habit, good and bad, is created through practice. Take your bad habits. You give in to those harmful behaviors because you've You've practiced pouring yourself a cup of coffee in the morning. You've practiced checking your social media accounts instead of working. You've practiced ignoring your responsibilities because you've practiced these things. You're very good at them and they loom large in your mind. Your lack of discipline, therefore, displays a long-standing pattern and neglect. But, how do you turn your bad habits around? Jordan Peterson likens discipline to learning the piano. If you want to learn an instrument, you have to practice. In the beginning, you won't be able to improvise. You won't be able to play a song or write one of your own. So, instant, you'll learn the basics. You'll gradually understand notes, chords, and scales. You'll grasp more complicated rhythms and patterns. You'll have to practice those hundreds of times. Only then, you'll be able to develop the skills and knowledge to improvise or innovate. Peterson's method of self-discipline. Peterson's method for self-discipline is a disciplinary structure. Self-discipline, he explains, is built upon order and consistency. Our lives are filled with chaos. And without discipline, we are subject to that chaos. It's the chaos that drives you to slack off, make poor choices, and lose faith in yourself. To control that chaos, you have to impose an orderly structure onto your life. That structure will control the chaos by giving you a sense of direction and purpose. But, what does a disciplinary structure look like? On a small scale, it's creating boundaries that block the unconscious forces trying to tear you away. Within a disciplinary structure, you practice healthier habits over and over again. Just like your bad habits got stronger after years of practice, your good habits will too. Eventually, your conscious goals will bark louder than the other dogs. Don't get me wrong, they'll never stop barking. No matter how disciplined you are, there will be always unconscious forces working against you. But order and structure can keep those forces from damaging your life. Of course, a disciplinary system affects more than just a day-to-day life. It's also a recipe for long-term success. Think about the musician we had mentioned earlier. Imagine that he practices scales for an hour every day. He accomplishes a small goal practicing the piano each day. But he's also gradually improving at his craft. He's growing his skill set. He's igniting his passion. And he's taking responsibility for his choices. Responsibility is another large aspect of Peterson's ideology. Order and disciplines are avenues to take responsibility for your life, your choices, and your success. And that responsibility gives you a sense of purpose and meaning. When you take responsibility, you learn to value yourself and your work. You gain self-worth. And that self-worth drives you towards discipline, control, and productivity. Let's go back again to a piano player. What happened after he mastered all the orderly aspects of music? He gains the knowledge to create music of his own. That's the ultimate goal of any disciplinary system. Right now, you're sitting in chaos, unable to push yourself forward. Self-sacrifice and self-discipline. Odin's story is at least a metaphor for self-sacrifice or self-discipline. And it's one that we have been telling for generations. Humanity has held the of self-control in such high regard that it's a staple in most religions and the moral of many myths. In Christianity, the first sin, eating the forbidden fruit, was a lapse in self-control. In Greek mythology, Evel entered the world when Pandora could not control her curiosity and opened the box. This mind, in particular, has even entered our everyday language. If I want to avoid temptation for fear of causing distressed consequences, I might warn you against opening Pandora's box. The elevation of this virtue to religious and mythic proportions highlights a commonly held belief. Self-discipline plays a huge role in leading you to your best future, as in the case of Odin, or your worst one, as with Pandora. If this is true, it seems like it would be great if we could all have some more self-discipline. But what is self-discipline? People use the term to describe someone who makes good long-term decisions by overcoming short-term temptations, and that's reasonable. But when you ask them how they overcome these short-term temptations, they often invoke some sort of will or willpower. What will means isn't obvious. But before we get to that, let's start at the beginning. The decision. At any point in time, you're deciding on how to act. The difficulty arises when you have to decide between what's immediately gratifying versus what is not gratifying now but will be in the future. In other words, the difficulty lies in delaying gratification. But what causes you to not act impulsively? The reason for any single decision you make is multivariate. Genes, homes, evolution, social environment, physical environment, experience, the context of the situation, and the multitude of the other factors all play a role. But the most immediate cause of any of your actions can be traced back to your brain activity. When discussing self-discipline, one of the best places to start is with the neurotransmitter domapine. In his book, Behave, Robert Salposkay puts forth an example that clarifies at least one of the primary roles of domapine in our brains. Let's say that I take monkey and stick him in a carriage. Now, I put a lever in that. If he pushes it 10 times, reward him with the raisin. Next, I turn on a light that comes on before the lever enters the cage. In other words, the light signals that the lever will be entering the cage, which in turn signals that the monkey will be able to get a raisin. As a result, the monkey learns to associate the cue with the reward. Interestingly, the monkey will begin to release more domapine in response to the light than he does when he consumes his reward. Contrary to popular belief, dopamine is about anticipation more than it is about reward. Certain cues in our environment hint a potential reward and domapine start to arise in anticipation. Domapine is what gets us to take action concerning a goal. So, how does this relate to self-discipline? Now, let's say that you're deciding between an immediate reward and a delayed reward. What do you think about the immediate reward? Dopamine is sent to certain parts of the brain known as limbic targets. When you think of the delayed reward, dopamine is sent to a different part of the brain known as frontal cortical targets. If the part of the brain associated with the delayed reward is more stimulated, you're more likely to delay gratification. Again, dopamine plays a role in driving our actions. So, how does your brain decide how much dopamine is sent to each part? Again, this comes down to several complex factors such as past experiences, genes, hormones, social environment, physical environment, the context of the situation and so on. But, pragmatically, the brain's decision is affected by how pleasurable the reward is and how much time it takes to get that reward. Here's an example to help you understand it intuitively. Let's say that I make you an offer. You can have $100 today or $100 tomorrow. The reward is the same but the time delay is greater in the second scenario. You'll probably take that $100 today because there's no point in waiting until tomorrow. But, what if I said that you could get $100 today or $200 tomorrow? You're more likely that you'll be waiting to get an extra $100 is pleasurable enough. But, what if I said that if you wait until tomorrow, you could get $101? You'll probably reward to taking the $100 today. Your brain does more multiple calculations like this every time you decide. It creates a sense of wanting a reward or reward seeking based on the speed and size of the reward. So, how do you end up determining what rewards to seek to live life is to have desire. The world fills you up with needs and wants inviting you to come and interact with them. Every time you satisfy a desire, you receive an internal reward and a belief forms about how you did it. When that desire re-emerges, your brain activates the corresponding belief, circulatory and dopamine releases in anticipation of the reward which motivates you to repeat the In other words, you begin to form a habit. With each repetition, the neural pathway strengthens and you solidify the habit's role as the solution to your desire. Here's the punchline. Habits mitigate the relationship between an individual's desire and their habit. To change the habit, the individual, the environment or both have to change and that's why self-discipline is so hard. We have little control over the biology that determines our desires. According to Sapolsky, individuals with ADHD have abnormal dopamine responses when thinking about immediate rewards versus delayed ones. They are biased towards impulsive reaction. Individuals who experienced childhood adversity are more likely to have an underdeveloped frontal cortex, making delayed gratification more difficult. Eventually, we may be able to change an individual's biology using science but the mortality and long-term consequences of this are questionable. There is a part of a biology that is more malleable, the brain. An individual can be changed with education. As people learn more about the world, they can test out new beliefs and reinforce new behaviors. But this leads me to the heart of the issue. Self-discipline is much more of an environmental problem than it is an individual one. While an individual can change their beliefs and behaviors through education, the resources available for education are presented by the environment. Furthermore, the habits an individual builds to meet their desires are in part a product of what's available in the environment. A study done by neuroscientist Carl Hart found that when meth addicts were given a choice between $5 and 50 mg of meth, the addict took $5 half of the time. When he increased the value of the cash reward to $20, they rarely took the drug. He found similar results with crack cocaine addicts. Hart suggests that addicts are rational decision makers and will not choose to take a drug when there are alternative reinforcers. It seems that drug habits are more likely to be formed when individuals are in an environment that offers no alternative or competing ways to meet their desires. Bruce Alexander found similar results when he conducted his now famous study Rat Park. Before Alexander's study, it was commonly believed that addiction was caused primarily by drugs. When you take a drug, you get addicted. That's how the story went. But Alexander noticed that most drug-related studies occurring at the time placed rats in isolation. He wondered if this played a role in the rats deciding to take the drug. It turns out that it did. When rats were in isolation, it wouldn't be a surprise to see them consume a drug until they died. But when Alexander constructed a rat park complete with friends, sexual partners, toys, and so on, rats were much likely to take lesser drugs. Now, let us recall what we learned in the class. Let's look at optimizing the three techniques together. Our ability to recall information is state-dependent. We benefit by being in the same state for recall as we were for encoding. This includes mood, environment, and caffeine levels. One study found that students who studied in an intoxicated state were able to recall the information better when they were intoxicated than when they were sober. So, the state matters. For this reason, I suggest Billy studies in the room he's going to write the exam if possible. Also, since he drinks coffee while studying, he needs to drink coffee for the exam as well. This will keep Billy's states as equivalent as possible and improve his ability to recall information during the test. Using these three techniques, there is no way that Billy won't get into All-Star Academy. A disciplinary system does everything you need. It pushes you forward, but eventually, you'll return to chaos. You'll rediscover chaos and freedom from a new perspective, just like our pianist. With the fruits of a disciplinary system behind you, you're no longer controlled by your freedom. Instead, you're tactically engaging with your freedoms, using them to your advantage. But before you can control the chaos in your life, before you can engage with your freedoms, you need to find order. To quote Peter Son, every freedom you have that's true for you is purchased at the price of discipline. So, take ownership of your direction in life. Empower your unconscious mind and discover your freedoms through order and control. Both of the studies present an interesting idea. Addiction is much less likely to occur when you have greater access to alternative ways to meet your desires. In his meditations, Marcus said that we were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone to turn your back on him, these are unnatural. People are a product of their environments a lot more than we like to think. By acknowledging this, we can have more compassion for one another. But more importantly, we can begin helping one another. By providing people with as many opportunities as possible for learning and alternative ways to meet their needs, we can eradicate the problem of self-discipline. So, these were some of the insights into the world of self-discipline and responsibility. I hope you enjoyed the class and join me for the next class as well because so much more exciting fun is on your way. Thank you.