20 Memory Techniques (Part 2)

2.       Make it meaningful. One way to create meaning is to learn from the general to the specific. Before you begin your next reading assignment, skin it to locate the main idea. If you’re ever lost, step back and look at the big picture. The details might make more sense.

You can organize any list of items – even random ones – in a meaningful way to make them easier to remember. In this blog I have proposed five principles for organizing any body of ideas, facts or objects:

Principal	Example
Organize by time	Events in history or in a novel flow in chronological order.
Organize by location	Addresses for a large company’s regional offices are grouped by state and city.
Organize by category	Nonfiction library materials are organized by subject categories
Organize by continuum	Products rates in Consumers Guide are grouped from highest in price to lowest in proce, or highest in quality to lowest in quality.
Organize by alphabet	Entries in a book index are listed in ABC order.

3.       Create association. The data already encoded in your neural networks is arranged according to a scheme that makes sense to you. When you introduce new data, you can remember it more effectively if you associate it with similar or related data.

Think about your favorite courses. They probably relate to subjects that you already know something about. If you know a lot about the history of twentieth-century music, for example, than you’ll find it easier to remember facts about twenty-first century music.

Even when you’re tackling a new subject, you can build a mental store of basic background information – the raw material for creating associations. Preview reading assignments, and complete those readings before you attend lectures. Before taking upper-level courses, master the prerequisites.