REMEMBER WHAT YOU READ
Have you at one time or another had to reread a page of a book several times because you can’t seem to remember anything you just read? I have a solution that can be broken into six steps to help your reading experience.
Step 1. Don’t try to memorize
While you read highlight things that stick out to you or grab a pen and paper to take notes. By doing this we take the pressure off ourselves to remember what we just read.
Step 2. Mind Palace technique
The mind palace is essentially a map of a room in our minds. Start with your house, stand in the doorway and pick 5 prominent pieces of furniture and label them one through five. Move to the next room and pick five more, six through 10. This is YOUR mind palace and will help you store data that you read.
Step 3. Create pictures
Turn the key points you want to remember into pictures. Let’s say you’re reading a book about Abraham Lincoln and you want to remember he was born in Kentucky and that he was the 16th President. The following are examples of what I would use:
Abraham Lincoln = penny
Kentucky = Kentucky Derby
16th President = car (we get our driver’s licenses at the age of 16)
Do this for the things you highlight.
Step 4. Place pictures in your Mind Palace
In this step you will take the pictures you’ve chosen and place them on the furniture you’ve selected to be in your Mind Palace. To remember that Abraham Lincoln is from Kentucky I would take a penny and imagine it racing around the Kentucky Derby. Next I would place that picture on the first piece of furniture, let’s say a table. To remember he was the 16th President I would imagine a penny driving a car and place that on the second piece of furniture. It’s that easy!
Step 5. Segment the chapters, keep it simple
Don’t overwhelm yourself. Try beginning with 5 key points from each chapter. Each chapter use one room along with five pieces of furniture. As you are recalling the information that you’ve read step into each room and walk around looking at the pictures you’ve placed on those five pieces of furniture.
Step 6. Create pictures for important dates (optional)
Like in step 3 you will have to create pictures that correspond to the date. Think cupid for February or marching soldiers for the month of March.
When you turn key points into animated pictures and imagine them in your house on the furniture it helps you to remember what you read. Check out my video below to help you memorize what you read.
