Why it's so hard to remember...and how you can
Do these steps if you lack of ability to remember what you learn.
If you’re like me, sometimes it’s hard to focus. But that’s natural because it happens to everyone at least some of the time. And it’s different for everyone. For me, attention comes in spurts depending on my energy at that time. There are many factors that could contribute to the lack of memory. I’ve already mentioned one; attention. Another is sleep.
For many other people, it’s hard to remember where you put your keys or other important items. It may even be hard for some of you to remember the name of someone you just met.
Many of you probably already know how to improve your memory, or at least know a few tricks. The trick is being able to follow through with what you know to be true. It’s about building your habits so that you can strengthen your brain to be able to remember. Just like anything, that takes practice.
Below, I’ll go over some of the obvious and not-as-obvious reasons why it’s hard to remember and then I’ll give you obvious and not-as-obvious actionable advice about how you can improve your memory.
Reasons why it’s hard to remember
Lack of Attention:
A majority of the ability to remember depends on attention. If you’re not paying attention to something, you’re not going to remember it later. If you’re paying 100% attention, it still may not be enough, but it’s better than not paying attention at all. It’s important to fully engage in what you’re trying to remember.
Lack of Organization:
If you're not organized and you don't put things in the same place all the time, you don't keep track of the things that you need to do with a calendar or a list, then you are less likely to be an organized person which will definitely affect your ability to remember what you need to learn or do.
Too Much Stress:
High levels of stress can impair memory formation and retrieval. This is because stress hormones, such as cortisol, can interfere with the functioning of the hippocampus, which is a brain region involved in memory. It also puts you in a terrible mood which no one likes, and it can make it harder for you to sleep which is one of the next factors.
Lack of sleep:
Sleep is essential for memory consolidation. When we sleep, the brain processes and consolidates memories from the day. Thus, a lack of sleep can impair memory consolidation and make it harder to remember things.
Age:
As we age, our cognitive abilities decline, including our ability to remember things. This is due to changes in the brain, including a decrease in the number of neurons and a reduction in the effectiveness of neural communication. This, however, is not a reason to stop challenging yourself when you age. That’s the worst thing you could do for your mind and body.
Distraction:
In today's fast-paced world, we are often bombarded with information, which can make it difficult to focus on what we are trying to remember. Distractions can interfere with memory encoding and make it harder to remember things. Your phone can be a big source of distraction if we let it be.
Lack of Repetition:
Repetition is important for memory consolidation. If we do not repeat information, it is less likely to be transferred from short-term to long-term memory.
Lack of Meaning:
Information that is not meaningful is harder to remember. For example, if we are trying to remember a list of random words, it will be harder to remember them compared to a list of words that are related to a particular topic we’re learning about. Names of people could be another example but doesn’t have to be.
Few to No Priorities:
If you have no priorities at all then you will not know what you need to work on. This is part of organization as well because if you are organized with your thoughts and ideas then you will be able to set the priorities that you can move towards.
Overall, there are several factors that can make it difficult to remember things, but by understanding these factors and implementing strategies to improve memory, we can improve our ability to remember and recall information.
How to actually remember
To effectively transfer information from working memory to long-term memory, there are several strategies that can be used:
Attention:
Just as mentioned before, if you're not paying 100% attention then for sure things will slip by, but if you are paying 100% attention you are more likely to remember what you are learning about.
Motivated, Purpose, Priority:
Related to attention is motivation. If you're not motivated then you're not going to remember what you learn. This reminds me of the subjects in school that we were all forced to take, the ones especially that we were not interested in were the ones we lacked the motivation to do well.
The purpose of your learning is also slightly related to motivation in the fact that you know exactly what your goal is when you are setting out to learn something which also makes it easier to remember that thing and apply it in your life.
The priority you give everything that you learn or everything that you want to set out to learn and remember helps you to accomplish what you want to accomplish in the best order. It also gives you clarity as to what to focus on.
Organization:
Keeping an orderly environment physically, mentally, and digitally is going to help you remember what you need to remember.
Your physical environment plays a huge role in your ability to remember and follow through with what you want to learn about and take action on. If you never keep things in the same place or your environment is not very organized then you're going to have a hard time focusing on what you need to get done. You must try to stay organized and keep things in a proper manner the same way every time that way you save time on trying to find the things that you need for the situations that will help you to progress towards your goals.
Your mental organization has to do with all of the thoughts and feelings that you experience throughout the day. If you're not mentally fit then it makes it much harder to be able to remember the most important things or even the little things in your life. Staying mentally organized has a lot to do with the physical world around you. Each one of these three types of organizations affects the other. Another thing that has helped me to stay mentally organized is keeping a journal where I write down my thoughts and feelings and experiences throughout the day whether those are negative or positive.
Your digital organization has a lot to do with the way you organize your phone and your laptop and also the types of applications you have. If you've got a lot of clutter on your phone it makes it much more difficult to focus on the task you need to do because of the distractions such as games or social media. If you have to have those types of applications, it is better to put them somewhere on your phone that is less visible such as on one of the last pages of your home screen. The most important applications like your email, or your digital note-taking app should be front and center.
On your laptop, of course, you should have specific folders for specific tasks or projects that you're working on. Try to keep work and personal life separate and make your files as easily accessible and organized as possible that way you know exactly where to find that specific file when you need it.
Mindfulness:
Similar to mental organization is mindfulness which is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. You can’t have mental organization without mindfulness as mindfulness makes you aware of what it is that you need to prioritize and remember. It makes you a much happier and more pleasant person to be around as well.
Sleep:
Sleep, learning, and memory are complex and are not entirely understood. However, it has been proven that the quantity and quality of sleep have a profound impact on learning and memory. Research suggests that sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct ways. First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information. Consolidation represents the processes by which a memory becomes stable. With continuous lack of sleep (6 hours or less) your ability to consolidate becomes less and less which makes it harder for you to remember or even learn new things.
In other words, you need to sleep a consistent 7-8 hours every day in order to have optimal learning and memory abilities.
Elaboration:
Elaboration involves creating meaningful connections between new information and existing knowledge. By making connections, the new information becomes easier to remember and can be retrieved more easily in the future. For example, creating analogies can help to link new information to something that is already familiar.
I’m also a huge advocate of using the zettelkasten method of taking notes on RemNote which uses elaboration as one of the biggest aspects of expanding on the knowledge you have already learned in your own words. I see elaboration as a way to get my own ideas and interpretations about the particular topic that I'm learning about then continuously expand on those and make new connections.
Chunking:
Chunking involves breaking down complex information into smaller, more manageable chunks. This helps to reduce cognitive load and makes it easier to remember the information. For example, when learning a new phone number, breaking it down into smaller chunks like area code, prefix, and line number can make it easier to remember. You can also do the same thing with large amounts of data by categorizing each chunk.
Deliberate Practice:
Repeating the information and taking action over and over again is one of the simplest ways to transfer information for the way of doing something from working memory to long-term memory. This helps to keep the information or action active in the mind for a longer period of time, which allows the brain to process the experience and move it into long-term memory.
But the catch here is if your practice is the same every time you do it (like driving your car to work every day), then you won’t make much improvement. If you use deliberate practice which focuses your energy on a specific but different area of the activity that you need to improve every time you practice, then you will make drastic improvements. For example, a runner will focus on keeping the same pace throughout the whole practice, then during the next practice, they will focus on their form. A public speaker will record themself and pick out certain aspects of their speech they need to work on and each time they practice they will touch on each of those aspects.
Each time you deliberately practice, it helps to strengthen the neural pathways associated with the information or activity you’re learning. The more frequently the information or activity is retrieved from long-term memory, the stronger these neural pathways become.
Age With Experience and Experience With Age:
As you age it does become slightly harder to learn new things but it is not impossible and with experience, you are able to apply the learning strategies you've learned to learn new things. Age should not prevent you from applying all the strategies that I've mentioned in this newsletter. You have the benefit of experience. Young people may be ambitious and good-looking and have a whole lot of energy but older people have experience, wisdom, and the ability to take effective actions with the lessons that they've learned throughout their lives.
So it is better to age with experience and then use that experience with your age to make impactful strides toward your goals.
Remember what you’ve learned here
Overall, using a combination of the strategies in this newsletter can help you to effectively transfer information and experience from working memory to long-term memory, and ultimately improve retention and recall of information.