I’m not a mind reader, but I’m going to guess that at least once this week (if not already once today) you’ve walked into a room of your house, then forgot why you walked in there. We all have those forgetful moments, and they grow more common as we age.
Forgetting random things is my new normal, but it wasn’t until I tried to build my website that I realized I wasn’t retaining what I learned. I’d review a tutorial, complete the task, then a day later when I had to do it again, I had no clue!
In a moment of frustration, I asked myself, “Can I still learn new and difficult skills?” Could I wrap my brain around programming or learning a new language? I found out that yes, an aging brain can always learn something new! Not only do brains learn regardless of age, but learning is necessary to keep our brains sharp.
But how? How can I retain new information, when I can’t even remember birthdays or where I put my favorite shoes?
Afterall, “Learning things is easy. But remembering them – this is where a certain hopelessness sets in” (Gary Wolf).
To stave off hopelessness and brain fog, I turned to the research. I learned that things like repetition, consistency, and being a lifelong learner play into memory retention. If I wanted to retain what I was learning, then I needed to focus on my habit of learning.
Experts claim it takes roughly 10,000 hours to thoroughly learn a new skill. That’s a huge amount of time. Most of us don’t have three hours a day for 10 years to perfect a task. Think about what you do well, maybe you have a fantastic system for keeping up on the laundry or a process that works for food storage. Maybe you can do your day-job with your eyes closed. These are learned processes and habits.
Repetitive jobs, like housework or typing, train our brain to remember where the soap goes or finger placement on a keyboard. Over time we learn how to make the process simpler, the way that some do laundry on certain days of the week and others learn keyboard shortcuts to quicken their typing.
Once you’ve decided to learn something new or perfect a current skill, or maybe you just want to remember where you put your damn keys, then it’s time to develop a habit for learning. Apply the following tips to anything in your life and you’ll achieve better memory retention.
- Regular practice: It’s necessary to practice daily over the course of months (years). You can play brain games on your phone to strengthen your brain but use an app like Anki or SuperMemo to retain new skills. The more you practice, then the stronger that block of your brain becomes. “If the testing is continuous and incremental, then the learning tends to also be long-lived” (Gwern Branwen).
- Chunk your time: Study in 25-30 minute segments, then take a break and do something fun or relaxing. Patrick Allan called this “chunked sessions.” You should group together similar items to learn or work on. This allows your brain to focus and put the information into blocks in your brain.
- Space it out: You aren’t going to retain something you’ve crammed in over a weekend. “Cramming is a trade-off: you trade a strong memory now for weak memory later.” (Gwern Branwen). You need regular and consistent learning to put the skill into memory.
- Convenience: Pick a time that is convenient for you. “Convenience makes one more likely to stick with it, and sticking with it overpowers any temporary improvement” (Patrick Allan). The benefits of studying at certain hours don’t outweigh the benefits of consistent learning over time.
- Use the SQ3R method: Process what you’re reading by using the SQ3R method: survey, question, read, recite, and review.
- Reflect on and improve your process: We tend to do things without knowing we are using a process. A process is how we tackle a work assignment or even cleaning. Find ways to make your learning process efficient and productive, by reflecting on what works for you and what doesn’t.
- Think before you sleep: Choose a few things that you need to recall in the morning, maybe it’s a few names for a work meeting or questions to ask the doctor. If you’re learning something new, then glance over the information and “think about the things that are important to you.” Overnight your brain will organize your information, “strengthen those connections,” and cut back on the ones of less importance (Judah Pollack and Olivia Fox Cabane). Avoid thinking of stuff that is unimportant, trivial conversations or the day’s events. In short, “evict knowledge that does not pay rent” (Jack Kinsella).
It’s never too late to learn, in fact, you need continued learning to keep your brain fully functioning. Retaining information gets harder as you age, but it’s not impossible. Whether you want to learn a new language or simply remember the names of people you meet, consider the factors above as a way to retain more information. “The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity – it is very much like compound interest.” (Gwern Branwen)
Use these key takeaways tonight, by thinking about what you’d like to learn tomorrow. It can be something simple like I’m going to start putting the keys on a hook by the door (convenience is key). I’m going to do it every single time I walk in the door, before doing anything else (consistency matters). Apply the additional steps for more complex tasks, like learning a new computer program, language, or college class.
As for me, I’m focusing on my thoughts before bedtime. Instead of social media or TV, I will try writing out three key tasks I want to complete (or think about) the next day. I might not be able to remember your birthday, but I’m hoping to learn a few new tricks regardless of my age.
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