My memory is failing, what can I do?
12 December 2012
Read by 1576 persons
Meetings, work pressure, over-packed schedules... The stress of professional life harms our memory. But we can train it with adapted exercises and techniques.
How does memory work?
Before the practical exercises, let's first understand how memory works. Memory is not located at a precise point in the brain but in certain areas: the hippocampus and the amygdala, the seat of emotions, play an important role in the memorization process. There would also be several types of memory: working memory, which is only effective for a few seconds (for example, to remember a phone number) and long-term memory which involves complex mental operations.
Learning to memorize
First observation: without revision, we would lose up to 80% of the details learned in less than 24 hours. Repeated learning is therefore the key to good memorization. The best time to assimilate information? Just before falling asleep. It has been shown that the memorization process is optimal at that time. Another tip for training: adopt a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, stress and lack of sleep block the recall of memories. Also, to facilitate the storage of information, we can associate it with an image, a smell, a sound or emotional memories. Remember Proust's famous madeleine!
Choose the method adapted to your memory
Not all techniques are effective. Start by identifying your preferred memorization channel. If you feel that your memory is rather visual, prefer learning in writing. Read, take notes and underline the keywords of a text. If you are rather auditory, favor recordings and reread your speech aloud, before a meeting for example. If you are kinesthetic, you then have a rather tactile memory that encourages you to be attentive to smells or temperature. To reactivate information, it is therefore advisable to associate it with these various sensations.
An exercise to stimulate memory
A quick and effective technique at work is to use the "mind map". Are you afraid of forgetting the thread of your speech? Draw it! Take a piece of paper and write down the central theme of your presentation. Then, use keywords that you will link to the center using branches, themselves broken down into sub-branches. This map, which can be visualized at a glance, is more easily memorized than a linear plan.
Etre-bien-au-travail.fr
Published on December 11, 2012.
Posted online on December 12, 2012.
How does memory work?
Before the practical exercises, let's first understand how memory works. Memory is not located at a precise point in the brain but in certain areas: the hippocampus and the amygdala, the seat of emotions, play an important role in the memorization process. There would also be several types of memory: working memory, which is only effective for a few seconds (for example, to remember a phone number) and long-term memory which involves complex mental operations.
Learning to memorize
First observation: without revision, we would lose up to 80% of the details learned in less than 24 hours. Repeated learning is therefore the key to good memorization. The best time to assimilate information? Just before falling asleep. It has been shown that the memorization process is optimal at that time. Another tip for training: adopt a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, stress and lack of sleep block the recall of memories. Also, to facilitate the storage of information, we can associate it with an image, a smell, a sound or emotional memories. Remember Proust's famous madeleine!
Choose the method adapted to your memory
Not all techniques are effective. Start by identifying your preferred memorization channel. If you feel that your memory is rather visual, prefer learning in writing. Read, take notes and underline the keywords of a text. If you are rather auditory, favor recordings and reread your speech aloud, before a meeting for example. If you are kinesthetic, you then have a rather tactile memory that encourages you to be attentive to smells or temperature. To reactivate information, it is therefore advisable to associate it with these various sensations.
An exercise to stimulate memory
A quick and effective technique at work is to use the "mind map". Are you afraid of forgetting the thread of your speech? Draw it! Take a piece of paper and write down the central theme of your presentation. Then, use keywords that you will link to the center using branches, themselves broken down into sub-branches. This map, which can be visualized at a glance, is more easily memorized than a linear plan.
Etre-bien-au-travail.fr
Published on December 11, 2012.
Posted online on December 12, 2012.
