Reddit reviews Your Memory : How It Works and How to Improve It

Your brain is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it becomes. I picked up this book a few years ago and put it to use, I recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Your-Memory-How-Works-Improve/dp/1569246297/ref=la_B000APPDT8_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408713761&sr=1-1

If you want to memorize a list of song look up the peg system, online or in the book. If you want to have a better memory in general start trying to recall things. Get short numerical sequence or 3 song names and write them on a piece of paper. Look at the information than put it aside. Try to recall the information without looking on the paper. That's very important, making your brain learn to store the info is half of it and the hard part is making it find the information and pull it back out. That's the recall.

Your Memory: How it works, and how to improve it

Excellent book, it explains what memory is, debunks common memory myths, and gives you several very useful mnemonic techniques to do things like remembering lists of facts.

You're welcome :)

frasoftw is correct. Photographic memory is a myth. Eidetic memory is the closest thing, it only lasts about a minute, and it doesn't really work like a photograph at all.

This is one of those popular myths that persists because people like to believe in it. It also shows up a lot in movies and TV shows and that too helps to perpetuate it.

An excellent book on how to improve your memory, how memory works, and the science of memory:

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Memory-How-Works-Improve/dp/1569246297/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291858083&sr=8-1

(it's written by an actual scientist who studies memory)

Having tried armodafinil and finding it extremely uncomfortable, I started taking a more negative view of nootropics. Vaniver (LW admin) told me in person that he recalls someone taking an *afinil and thinking "This must be what Elon Musk feels like all the time". Well, I doubt that he feels like I did! It was probably the most nervous I've ever been. Someone on LessWrong said I'm drug naive, which is true, but they seemed to imply that I'd think more positively of nootropics if I took more and got used to them.

After that, my impression did change. My view is that people tend to use nootropics instead of other more effective things because taking a pill is easy. If you want cognitive enhancement or wakefulness, get enough sleep, get cardiovascular exercise, and eat right. (Strength training is highly overrated in my opinion and seems to me to be more popular for reasons similar to nootropics: it's easier than cardiovascular exercise. But cardiovascular capacity is generally what people want to feel less tired and live longer, so why not train that directly?)

If you want to improve your memory, you'd do a lot better using spaced repetition software and learning about how memory works. No amount of stimulants or memory enhancement drugs will make you understand something that you never learned right in the first place, and most people don't know how to learn correctly!

If you want to sleep better and fall asleep faster, practicing good sleep hygiene will probably work better than anything else. If you have chronic insomnia, the "Bootzin technique" seems well supported by the evidence, but can be hard to maintain as a habit. (Again, taking a pill tends to be easy, but not the best approach!) I've suggested these approaches to several rationalists over the years and all I can recall seemed remarkably dismissive. Many claim flat out that they tried this and it "doesn't work". Well, the studies disagree from what I understand. (I haven't read any in particular about sleep hygiene, however, but the expert consensus is that sleep hygiene helps.) Anecdotes unfortunately seem to trump science, even for people who claim to be rationalists.

For what it's worth, the only meds I take are for allergies. Some folks have called me "straight edge", but I'm not a punk so I don't think that's right. I don't drink coffee or take any stimulants on a daily basis. Any caffeine I ingest is purely accidental. I might take a 1 mg melatonin pill if I'm changing my sleep schedule to be earlier, but usually not. (By the way, it does not appear that the common, very large, melatonin doses seem to be more effective than a small dose from what I recall. 1 mg is still more than I'd like.)

I'd like to get the Muse myself, but the only program they have released doesn't actually show the EEG info, they have released something (the SDK) which one can get that info from, if they know code. In demonstrations they have the EEG shown and people can type words with their thoughts.

I recently got the books Your Memory: how it works and how to improve it which has a ton of memory citations, and Moonwalking with Einstein: the art and science of remembering everything which I have yet to read

I knew about Mr. S from Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It.

Reading Infinite Jest for fiction and Your Memory: How it Works and How to Improve It for non-fiction.

I highly recommend Kenneth Higbee's "Your Memory: How It Works And How To Improve it" http://www.amazon.com/Your-Memory-How-Works-Improve/dp/1569246297.

It is the absolute perfect blend between textbook understanding and popular mnemonic text. It provides one with just enough understanding of the inner workings of memory so that one may make adjustments and experiments with their memory as necessary. The principles laid out are the foundation for all mnemonic techniques, therefore by learning the principles you'll also be able to create your own methods. It becomes a perfect diagnostic tool when you hit dead ends.

It's BY FAR the best book on memory I've ever read, and the only one you'll ever need to read.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Memory-How-Works-Improve/dp/1569246297
Im reading this book rn, recommend it for anyone who wants a more scientific approach to mnemonics

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Memory-How-Works-Improve/dp/1569246297/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318975999&sr=8-1

There are a lot of good comments mentioning that you should first take good care of yourself and check if ADHD is an issue.

I consider myself to be on the neurotypical end of spectrum and here's what I got running currently.

Ok, first a word of warning. I have been trying to find different things that work with me for several years so the end result is kind of a mix and match of several things. These most definelty won't work for everyone so don't try them all at once and don't worry if they don't stick. Also, sorry for the wall of text.

At one point I was getting overwhelmed with work and started looking for help online and started with blinkist.com The site offers summaries and the main ideas of several books. I found some interesting ones and got the whole books in to my hands afterwards. I used the free trial to find the most interesting ones and copied them down in to a file for myself :)

The best books I have so far read that have helped me:

The now habit - Neil Fiore
This helped me a lot when I was way over my head any things started to fall out of my hands. It had some great things relating on how you should prioritize time to play and have fun. Actually reserving time for them on your calendar. It helped me with trying to focus getting the first draft done instead of aiming for perfect right away. I also had some good things about being merciful with yourself.

Getting things done - David Allen
A really extensive system. I picked some of the things for my own use but many of the things have fallen out.
The main thing I have currently in use is having categories for tasks and some of the task organizing. Also reviewing the tasks every once in a while is excellent for getting rid of those old tasks that have been hangin on for an eternity as you find that maybe they aren't important after all as you have gotten along quite well without actually doing them.

Your Memory How it works and how to imprve it - Kenneth L. Higbee
An interesting book about the things that affect remembering and learing things. A more recent thing I read and I am still trying to find ways to utilize it. I now know that I got a way to remember things that I abosultely have to but I still rely mainly on other things. By the way, googling the name of the book seems to offer a pdf version of the book.

I wrote some of the main ideas I got from the books for myself to read again if I need it.


Apps in use:

Onenote. This is my main tool with work. ConnieLingus24 mentioned it already and I would recommend it as well. I use the Onenote 2016 desktop app as it seems more stable and has nice add ons when compared with the app found in windows 10 store. I have each new task in it's own page with all the relevant information pasted on the page (the outlook integration is great), the pages are on their own sections grouped by project. I have a main page with a kind of kanban look with tables with links to the tasks. Took some time to set it up but it's infinitely easier to find the information related to tasks afterwards.
Also the Onetastic add on is extremely nice. The onecalendar by itself has saved me time a lot as it shows which pages you have edited in a calendar view. If I know I had a meeting last month I can just search for the proper day and see what pages I have fiddled with that day. I got so excited with the thing that I ended up training others in the office on OneNote.

Wunderlist. This one I use more in my personal life. My day to day things are in a bulletjournal, but all the lists that don't need to be dealt with right now or today but are more like just waiting for the proper time are located there. Also a bonus is that I can share the lists with my SO. We got our reading challenges and knitting challenges up there as we wouldn't otherwise remember what we bet on and what's the prize. Also if I have to run errands and I can't use my bullet journal I tend to write the things for today on wunderlist and check them off in my phone.

The main tool:
Bulletjournal. I tried using google calendar and other things but in the end this was the only one that worked with me. I didn't take all the fancy stuff like mood trackers and what nots on my bujo and I am not too worried about getting it looking pretty. I did but some pictures on the covers but the insides are filled with things I don't want to show others so it doesn't matter how ugly it is inside. No one else is going to see it anyway.
The best parts for me are the future log, monthly log, week log and day log.
I got plans for the long run in the future log, the next and ongoing month in the month logs and with the week log I am forced to see what is going to happen each week a bit in advance.
Each morning I start the day with writing the plan for the current day and it helps a ton. I know what needs to happen and the amount of mental stress from remembering everything is a lot smaller. The most help I have gotten to my productivity has definetly been just because of this. The feeling that things are somewhere down where I can access them without worrying about losing something important is a huge relief. My SO has also felt a lot happier as things we have talked about actually happen as I write them down and get the chance to do them.

TLDR;

Bullet journal is a heaven sent. Be kind to yourself and remember to reserve time for play.