How to remember what I read?
Parents always set goals for their kids. And children keep on studying and thinking and the process keeps on going on and on. When they become adults, they still do the same thing and do nothing to improve their ways in any manner. But children should really practice the skill of learning the correct way if they want to succeed and wish to fulfill these goals.
Let us see how we can help children study the right way so that it makes a great difference in their lives.
Skills – One Part At A Time
If you are learning how to play a musical instrument, like say a guitar, you don’t learn all the things at a time. You try to memorize a few chords in the starting which are easy and then how correctly strum and so on. What happens if you try doing everything at once? You either fail or get confused enough that it makes you lose interest in it altogether.
Learning anything one part at a time is a much better thing you can do for yourself. When you do so, you learn different things about the same over time, and with it, your skills develop and you finally learn how to do it as a whole. Playing the guitar in this case. The same thing applies to everything you do.
Don’t Try To Be A Computer – You Only Forget
Most people try to do 2-3 things at a time. That is actually bad for you. You will forget more often doing so. Our brains can’t give equal attention to tasks done simultaneously. So do one task at one time. Doing so will give you inner happiness too that you achieved performing the task in the best possible manner.
Even when you are doing 1 task at a time it is better to break it into parts or steps so that you can work more efficiently. Give your best to that step which you are performing at that moment. But if in case you get distracted due to something, it takes not more than 25 odd minutes to refocus. Don’t give an excuse that you have lost the attention to do the task and you can’t do it anymore and will do it at some other time.
Doing several things at a time also doesn’t allow you to learn or understand your task completely. You only get to know a few things about it and you don’t become a master in it. Multitasking is good for computers but not for you.
Write To Learn – Learn To Write
You must be remembering when you were a child your parents used to say “when you learn anything just don’t learn it verbally, write it down, so that you remember it by heart.” It is a fact that when we write anything by ‘hand’ it somehow gets ‘cemented’ in our minds. Researchers say that it is a way of transferring information into knowledge.
As technology has advanced at an amazing pace we can see everyone using laptops, tablets, and smartphones. It makes our work easier and more interesting too because of all the interactive images and videos and so on. But the students or people who write their notes by hand tend to remember and learn more things and for a much longer time period as compared to those who typed on their laptops and other devices.
Writing also forces your mind to come face to face with the ideas and what you are writing and leads them to be remembered for a long time.
Made A Mistake? Don’t Regret Forever
Let’s agree to this one without talking much. We all make mistakes every now and then. Nobody is perfect. When we learn something we make attempts in doing so and while we are in the process of learning we sometimes fail. But what most people do is, either they lose heart or they regret that they made a mistake. You must stop doing so. Remember, while you are learning something and fail you always learn a lesson. You come to know where you went wrong. You get the opportunity to know your mistakes and work on them.
Parents generally scold their children when they make a mistake or try to teach them that they should never make mistakes. But this can’t be true at all times. Instead of doing so, they should tell them to give it their best shot at any task and if they fail they rise up and try again. A person who doesn’t makes a mistake always ends up missing a great wealth of knowledge.
Always Be Optimistic
Parents usually do this. They scold their children when they fail and whatnot. The brains of kids are very delicate and when you fill them up with negativity by scolding etc then they get emotionally weak. They start doubting their own self, their ability to work upon things, and more. It leads to anxiety and the worst part of it is that you don’t even come to know. Both of these things are very harmful and also lead to learning disorders too.
What parents should do is teach their kids to see learning as a way of exploring things and not scoring good grades in school or college. This positive psychology gives the children a sense of determination which eventually helps them throughout their lives.
Weird Is Cool, Rest Is Boring
This thing applies to everyone. A person remembers all the weird and stupid things but finds other things boring. But parents should not let this happen to their kids.
Joshua Foer did an interesting thing to remember a full deck of cards in just 2 minutes, actually less than 2, by doing what most of us could never even imagine doing. What Joshua did was he tied each playing card to a weird image in his mind and by doing this he remembered them all. Isn’t that magic on its own? In the same way, your children can apply it while remembering things like Time Tables or Prime Ministers/Presidents, Wars, and so on.
Speed Is The Mantra
We read slowly and also tell our children to follow this rule. But do you know slow reading is actually bad for learning anything! Yes, you read that right. Read faster and you can learn faster. You might be thinking that reading quickly takes a great deal of effort but it is not like that at all.
By reading speedily you train your brain to process the words quickly. It takes a little time to get used to this procedure but it works wonders for you. If you read slowly you try to imagine a single word one at a time in your brain and this slows you down too much.
Practice Makes You Perfect
My Father always used to say “Practice makes a man perfect” and like any other child, I used to think “Ya! Okay” and that’s about it. When we grow older we come to know the real value of this. So if you have small children try to make them understand how important this is to them. Even you should follow this, why always children should learn. (Smile please).
When you learn something, say you learned how to do embroidery, then don’t let it stay like that. You must practice it sometimes so that it keeps fresh in your mind. If you don’t then one day you will forget most of it. Practicing what you learn is very important. Remember, if you do not use it you will only going to forget all about it one day.
Learn To Know, Know To Learn
We often find it difficult to learn things. This is more applicable to children. And if this happens we must try to relate what we are trying to learn with something else, something interrelated, something we already know. This process is also known as Associative Learning.
Look It Up
Children should learn how to tackle and deal with tough problems as this teaches them how to be disciplined. But if they do it for too long it makes things difficult for them as it gets worse.
Just like everyone else, I too forget things. It’s very normal and one should not create a fuss about it. If you know about something but simply are unable to recollect then there is no harm in finding more about it in books or going ahead and Googling it.
Teach One, Teach Yourself
When we teach someone about a topic, then we teach ourselves too. Yes, that’s correct. When you teach yourself to speak and when you speak you are not only showing, rather demonstrating your mastery in that topic, but also at the same time you are refining your very own understanding of it.
In the last, I would like to add one more thing. When we teach someone, we perform the duty of passing our knowledge to others. This is in itself a great job.
I would also like you to watch this video from one of my favorite YouTubers, Matt.
