Learn and never forget with these three tips.

Success has always been associated with knowledge and the information one may be able to remember. Finding it difficult to remember can be very frustrating, especially in this fast-paced era. It becomes a challenge if you keep forgetting simple things such as passwords, familiar people, and places. You may be a student looking to pass an examination or anybody who needs to constantly remember new things.
These are proven and easy tips used by smart learners to remember whatever they learn.

Have Enough Sleep and Rest.

Lack of sleep can cause imbalances in our body systems. This greatly affects our concentration, focus, and ability to learn. Our cognitive functions and memory health are greatly dependent on sleep. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sleep is a basic human need that is essential for good health and quality of life. Lack of it reduces the activities of the conscious memory, making it difficult to effectively recall what we learn.

Effective rest and sleep aid in memory consolidation, retention, and recall of ideas, facts, and figures. Sleep works as a save button on computers. Matthew Walker, author and neurologist, once said, “You need sleep after learning to essentially hit the save button on those new memories so that you don’t forget.”. Not only is sleep essential after learning, but it is also crucial beforehand. This prepares the brain like a dry sponge, ready to be soaked up to absorb and retain information efficiently.

Meanwhile, some people find it peaceful and serene to study at night because of the absence of daytime activities. Learners sometimes overlook the essence of learning in connection with sleep. According to sleep researcher and psychologist Roxanne Prichard, students often overlook the vital role sleep plays in their lives. During stressful periods, they frequently sacrifice sleep, unaware that this compromise ultimately undermines their physical and mental well-being.

The key to harnessing the power of sleep for effective learning is very simple.

• Avoid studying when stressed; instead, use sleep to regain vitality and relax.
• Get some sleep after learning to facilitate memory consolidation.
• Upon waking, make a conscious effort to recall what you learned previously, taking note of any information you struggled to remember and reviewing it to enhance retention.

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Practice what you learn.

Constant practice has proven effective in learning and remembering. Practice puts information into action. It empowers and refines learners, educators, technicians, writers, and many more. Practice has to be conscious and intentional. There are many ways to practice to remember what has been learnt. Some of these are repetition, recitation, and active recall.

Repetition, which is the act of repeating stimulus or information, can be boring, especially when learning alone. It can lead to overgeneralization. It also consumes a lot of time, yet its power in learning is always worth it. Anytime you repeat information, its natural pathway and neurons associated with it are solidified. Over time, the information gets deeper, making it easier to recall. Practice greatly increases the likelihood that students will permanently remember new information (Anderson, 2008).

Here is how practice works. It is like going to the gym. Little effort usually leads to greater gains with time. Consistent practice through repetition is what transforms information from short-term memory to long-term memory. The power of memory retention lies in its usage. If you want to memorize a new mathematical formula, consistent daily practice over a series of days will commit it to your long-term, subconscious memory, making recall effortless. According to Very Big Brain, when you don’t consistently use or review information, your brain treats it like clutter and sweeps it away. This is known as the “use it or lose it” principle, and it is the reason one can forget facts or skills you haven’t practiced in a while.

Associate New Information.

This is not a very popular strategy, but it is very effective. Associative learning is done by intentionally linking ideas or data to emotions, places, or even things. Pavlov trained dogs that a sound cue predicted the presence of a rewarding stimulus (food), thereby training them to salivate to the cue. (Pavlov, 1927)

How to use associative learning
Let’s assume you are learning Spanish. “Un hombre lava el coche” translates “a man washes the car.”. Now, to remember the various words, try associating the Spanish words to familiar words, creating mental connections that will help you remember them with ease.

for instance,
“Un hombre,” which means “a man,” can be associated with hommy (jargon for man)
“Lava”, which means “washes”, can also be associated with mosquito lava
Lastly, you can associate “el coche” with “coach.”.

Practicing this will help you remember your Spanish lessons effortlessly.

The frustration that comes with unproductive hours of learning can be minimized by following these three strategies. Rest enough, practice what you learn, and learn to associate new ideas with old ones.