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The Monkey Trap   |  Accelerated Learning Techniques  |  Memory Maps

The great thing about learning is that like anything, it becomes easier with practice. The more you use your brain, the more receptive and willing it becomes. The brain, although an organ, reacts just like any muscle in the body; exercise it and it will grow stronger. Pump iron and your body grows, pump knowledge and your mind grows.

The one main difference between the brain and muscles is that brain matter does not deteriorate with age … Apparently!

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Transcript

• You And Your Brain!
• Learning How To Learn
• Memory Maps

You And Your Brain!

The great thing about learning is that like anything, it becomes easier with practice. The more you use your brain, the more receptive and willing it becomes. The brain, although an organ, reacts just like any muscle in the body; exercise it and it will grow stronger. Pump iron and your body grows, pump knowledge and your mind grows.

The one main difference between the brain and muscles is that brain matter does not deteriorate with age … Apparently!

Keep it stimulated and you will be rewarded with higher intelligence right into old age. If you don’t end up with one of the diseases associated with ageing then it is quite possible to keep learning and retaining information indefinitely. The brain positively thrives on stimulation.

We are now entering a wonderful new time, we have stepped out of the industrial era and are moving into the information age. These days it not ‘who you know’ but ‘what you know’ … knowledge is king!

We are developing into Cyborgs. No! Really…

Our phones give us instant access to the entire library of world knowledge. Elon Musk recently took this concept further in a Joe Rogan podcast. He believes that the only thing stopping complete morphosis of man and machine is bandwidth.

There will come a point where the little tablet that never leaves our sides will become redundant and the body will access knowledge directly.

It’s already seeping into everything. It began with our phones, then our watches, glasses, even the fridge.

The greatest problem we face in this new and exciting epoch is that you need to digest and retain such masses of information, it seems overwhelming. The other problem is that modern man/woman doesn’t know how to learn effectively.

On average, it is said that we only use around 2%-10% of our full brain capacity in everyday life

It seems incredible that there are vast areas up there that are not even used. Imagine what it would be like if only we could harness just a fraction more of what we are capable of. Scientists are only now scratching the surface, the brain is like a super computer without a manual.

We are gifted with this amazing organ and we haven’t a clue how it really works!

I recently saw a programme grossly called ‘World of Pain’. It featured the story of a young gunshot victim. The poor lad literally lost half his head along with the brain it protected. The footage just didn’t look real. I was convinced that the injury he seemed oblivious to, was computer generated.

It featured him a few months after the accident. So much of the healing had taken place but the whole side of his head was missing! His brother would find great amusement in throwing socks into the crater!

Anyway, the point is, that the surviving brain took over, it compensated for the massive trauma in other ways and the lad was able to lead a relatively normal life. Plastic surgery which filled the hole with silicon and covered it with the remaining scalp, helped alleviate the unwanted stares.

It’s like someone who loses their sight. The brain will compensate by intensifying the hearing and spatial awareness … wonderful and totally fascinating!

Yes, the brain is an awesome organ indeed!

I lived in Greece for many years and had a Swedish friend with a Greek husband. They had a daughter. Now, the Swedish girl spoke Greek, and the Greek husband spoke Swedish, and they both spoke English.

Infuriatingly, they would slip from one language to the next and the funny thing was that the daughter would pick it up. At one stage in her development the little girl had a mixed up language all of her own which not even the parents understood! Eventually it sorted itself out and the girl is now fluent in several languages.

The point is, that because in the early stages learning is fun and interactive, children don’t make a conscious effort to retain information. The brain is happily and effortlessly working away behind the scenes, building a library of epic proportion.

My young son is into his dinosaurs at the moment. He’s only three and comes out with the most incredible words and names, species even I find hard to pronounce. He learns this stuff because he loves dinosaurs and beasts. The recall of the difficult names are a bi-product of the playing experience, they are registered effortlessly because of the total learning adventure.

I also have a young daughter developing into speaking age. Although she isn’t old enough to have discovered a passion yet … except for her mom and dad!

It will be an awful lot harder for her to learn creatures such as Tyrannosaurus, Gastornis and Lepticidium because they’re not what she’s into. The learning experience won’t be totally engrossing, she’ll have to force herself to remember daft old reptiles that she has no interest in. She’ll struggle in the dangerous world of the Spinosaurous.

And if I was to try to teach her using conventional methods, blackboard, pointer and repetition I’m sure she’ll just end up hating the bloody creatures!

You are already a great learner, just look at what you’ve achieved in your life.

Learning can still be fun!

Look at what a laugh it is when learning to drive a car (if you ever have!!!). A totally alien concept for the body, but because the results at the end are so exhilarating and the learning process is such a scream, you don’t notice the information and muscle memory being assimilated, logged and stored.

The problem for you right now is that many of your past experiences with learning have taught you that trolling through information and trying to retain it, is damn hard work, dull, and only to be attempted a last resort.

Who on earth taught you that learning is boring?

Your school teachers, that’s who!

You were doing great until you started attending those boring lectures and were forced to sit still for hours while Mr Monotone droned on about algebra and left handed, unilateral, tri-squares … unless you happen to like algebra and left handed, unilateral, tri-squares.

You were then sent home with piles of homework and weren’t allowed to do the fun things until you’d finished. In the vast majority of cases your main learning experiences and methods for retaining information are from school teachers who, as I know now, didn’t know better!

They tried to teach you the way they thought you wanted to learn. The thing is they forgot to ask you! You would have had favourite teachers and others you hated and would not have done well in their classes.

Only now are those in charge of our children’s education understanding that we all learn in different ways.

But there is something you probably weren’t aware of as Mr Boring drivelled on … Mr Boring would have had a reasonable record of success. Some students, around 30%, would have actually enjoyed his style of delivery!

This is because his ‘teaching style’ actually suited the ‘learning style’ of those students … it’s the reaming 70% that we’re the ones he couldn’t communicate with.

If you are one of the rare exceptions to the rule and attended a cutting edge, forward thinking school where the learning experience was enjoyable, do you understand why it was so?

Although things are changing and accelerated learning techniques are not new, the sad fact is that most schools are slow to change. Most are still banging away with methods that should have gone out with the Victorians. (If you don’t know who the Victorians were I suggest that once you’ve got to grips with fun learning you go and read up on your history!!!)

But even if schools do introduce these radical teaching techniques it’s no use to you is it?

Postscript When I first wrote this section about 6 years ago
it was unheard of for schools to subscribe to the
notion that we are all different. I have noticed
recently that suddenly schools are using many of
the learning techniques I outline. Shame they
weren’t in use when we were kids eh! learning
would have been so much more enriching.

Everyone is different and we all have our own unique way of learning.

Discover how your mind likes to receive its information, then supply it in that format, and you’re on your way.

The good news is that accelerated learning does not require you to change in any way. All you need to do is what you are doing now, but better and more often. You need to expand your current capabilities.

On average we remember:

• 20% of what we read
• 30% of what we hear
• 40% of what we see
• 50% of what we say
• 60% of what we do
• and 90% of what we see, hear, say and do.

Therefore the secret of successful retention is to combine seeing, hearing, saying and doing … and make it fun.

In order to show you what I mean, I would like you to take a little test. We are going to learn to count to ten in Japanese!

English | Japanese

1 ichi
2 ni
3 san
4 shi
5 go
6 roco
7 shisci
8 hachi
9 kyu
10 ju

If I was to leave you with that list and ask you to learn it, how would you go about it?

Each individual would have their own method and I’ll bet most are dull and boring. When learning becomes dull, retention becomes much harder, even if you would consciously like to remember what’s being read.

We are aiming to stimulate as many senses as possible through an enhanced learning EXPERIENCE. The bigger the event, the better chance you have of recall.

Now try learning Japanese my way:

“What on earth are you going on about?” You ask.

Simple! We have just built a very clear, vivid picture which you will find extremely difficult to forget. I guarantee that in several days from now, you will be able to recall that picture with absolute clarity and, in doing so you will automatically recall how to count to ten in Japanese.

Read this out loud and visualise the scene:

It’s a scorching summer’s day. The sun is is blazing through your window. If you’re not of the male sex then you are for this experiment — an odd thing eh and it will make the vision even more memorable!

You get an itchy (1.) knee (2.) and bend over to scratch it. As you stand up you look out of the window, you have to squint because the sun (3.) is so bright. A sexy woman ‘she’ (4.) wiggles by.

You are spotted by your wife eying up the girl and you can see that she is very angry. You leave the room — go (5.). You have to duck because in her rage your wife has hurled a rock over (6.) your head. You get outside and the door is slammed behind you. The itch returns, your knee it’s-itchy (7.) again so you bend over to scratch it.

As you do you spot a hatchet (8.) You pick it up and break down the door. As it gives way you are confronted by your tearful spouse at which point you ask “coo jew (9.10.) forgive me?”

I don’t mean to sound sexist but this graphically illustrates that by combining all the senses, learning becomes easier and more fun. To the females among you either put yourself in the position of the man (God forbid!!) or build a new picture.

You will be building pictures as a matter of course anyway. It is much easier to recall your own pictures because of the extra effort required to build them in the first place. Research has also shown that the more contrived and bizarre (in a humorous way) the story, the better it seems to stick.

In this example we can feel the heat of the sun, the anger of the wife, desire (the woman!!!) and the joy of being forgiven. If we wanted to make this little scene even more unforgettable we would act it out. Bend over to relieve the scratch, squint your eyes etc. This play acting is reserved for the most important things, you don’t want to be going through a mini play every time you want to remember something!

We have just established that the dull, boring task of learning Japanese can be made fun and enjoyable, and in doing so the main points are easily passed on to our long term memory.

Over the next few weeks you need to practice this visualisation and picture building. Get into the habit of creating pictures for tasks you wish to remember.

Ironically, the more bizarre these thoughts the deeper they will become inscribed and more easily recalled.

This is why in the example I have given the females an even more weird picture as they’ve had to become a man!

Here’s another example:

How many stomachs does a cow have?

The answer, if you didn’t know already is four.

Not a particularly relevant fact to remember for any length of time is it?

Now picture that black spotted, cow stumbling around its field, tripping over its own feet because a stomach is tied to each one!

You won’t forget that in a hurry will you?

…

Learning How To Learn

It is said that the brain is really three smaller brains inextricably linked.

First there is the primitive brain which controls our instincts and bodily functions. Then there is the middle brain which controls emotions and an important part of your long term memory. Then there is the truly extraordinary outer brain, your thinking brain.

The middle brain (cerebral cortex) is where memories start, it is also where emotions are controlled. It is the middle brain that decides what is committed to long term memory and passes it up to the thinking brain for confirmation. This is why memories are far stronger when linked to an emotion.

I wrote that we all assimilate information in different ways and the secret of successful retention is to supply the information to your brain in the format which best suits it.

Before we can do this we need to establish what type of learner you are.

We all use a combination of three basic learning methods:

A. Seeing (Visual learner)
B. Listening (Auditory learner)
C. or by doing (Physical learner).

Although we use all three methods we all differ, one sense is dominant for each individual.

This is why when Mr Monotone was dribbling on in the classroom he was only connecting with about 30% of the class. He had his way of learning and assumed that because he found it easy to learn by listening to a lecture, teaching it that way was the way forward.

What he didn’t realise was that his dominant sense was ‘auditory’. He absorbed information a lot better if he listened to it. The problem was, 70% of the class had a different dominant sense.

Change the teacher and teaching method and a totally different section of the class, around 30%, will do better.

We need to establish which is your dominant sense. We need to find out if you learn best by watching something, by listening or by actually doing a task.

I find it extremely difficult to read a manual then follow the instructions, yet if someone shows me how to do something I can grasp it in an instant. I am a physical learner; I learn best by seeing and doing. The majority of you, around 70%, will have a different view.

Visual learners.
You like drawing diagrams, seeing pictures, charts and films. You like to see the written word and read instruction material.

Auditory learners.
You like to listen to lectures, tapes. You like to read out loud to yourself.

Physical learners.
You need a hands-on approach. You have to get in there and actually act out the subject. When you learn things you like to underline important paragraphs, doodle, imagine yourself actually doing whatever.

We all use a combination of the three different elements, but one sense will stand out.

Try the simple test below. Choose which phrase most suits you, click it then tot up the score and type it in the text box. The column with the highest total will give you some idea of which is your dominant sense.

Don’t worry if the scores come out about equal because that just shows that you like to stimulate all three senses equally. All we are trying to establish is how to present information the way your brain likes to receive it.

Print it off HERE http://gaukmedia.com/images/learning.png

There is also a copy in the resources section

How did you get on?

You should now have some idea of how you best like to take in information:

If you are an Auditory learner then it will help if you read out loud and listen to tapes.

If you are a Visual learner take regular breaks and visualise the scene.

If you are a Physical learner take breaks and imagine how you would do the task.

I did say that the best way to truly retain information is to use all three senses.

The next question you are going to ask me is: “How do I involve all my senses?”

I knew you were going to ask that!

We are starting at the basics here and as we progress we’ll make it more interesting and fun.

1. Read and visualise the material … You have seen it. (Visual)
2. Read it again out loud … You have heard it. (Auditory)
3. Ask yourself: “what are the key points I need to remember?” Write them down and circle them … You have done it. (Physical)

It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Because formal learning does not come naturally, a system has been developed so that you can readily digest large blocks of information, and more importantly, retain them for future recall. Once you have a system that works you can apply it, practice it, and practice it again until it becomes second nature.

This system works … use it, practice it, and you will become much smarter much quicker.

You don’t need a high IQ to be intelligent. In fact a high IQ will be of little use unless it is combined with an acute sense of awareness. I measure intelligence by the amount of common sense someone possesses.

There are hundreds of people with a high IQ who wouldn’t know what the real world was if it grabbed them by the scruff of the neck and shook them till their bifocals fell off.

I have taken several IQ tests and they gave different results, the first 179 (only joking!), so that suggests my intelligence changes depending on the test.

The time has come for you to start learning with ease …

Let’s take a large unwieldy subject for you to take in and digest. Let’s take something important to you. Let’s use Accelerated Learning Techniques!!!

This is of sufficient size to become dull and boring as you try to sift through all the info so we’ll break down the task and stimulate all the learning senses.

1. Prepare mentally and physically for the learning process.

Before you begin to tackle any task you need to prepare yourself. You need to get into a learning state of mind.

I am going to keep banging on about mental preparation right throughout this book so get used to it!

What would happen if you tried to run a marathon without being prepared?

You’d race off, cover a couple of miles, and before long all the other PREPARED competitors would be passing a sweaty, quivering mess as you lay exhausted in the gutter.

THERE IS NO POINT IN STARTING ANYTHING UNLESS:

i. YOU ARE MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY PREPARED
ii. YOU CAN VISUALISE THE ‘PAY OFF’ AT THE END OF THE TASK

The only reason a marathon runner starts a race is to get to the end!!!

Before he sets off he can visualise the sense of self satisfaction and achievement he will experience on completion. This is his motivation, his ‘pay off’. Whoever heard of someone doing a marathon so they could enjoy the pain and endurance of the run.

They do it to win, or they set out to complete the race. Either way, they crave the achievement.

This is how you are going to tackle learning. Next, you are going to establish why it is you need to learn the subject. “What’s in it for me?”

Always look at the positive. Never dwell on anything negative, it’s a cancer which will spread.

Ask yourself: “What benefits will it bring to my life if I learn how to learn?”

Imagine being able to tackle any subject and rapidly becoming an expert on it!!!

What would that be worth to you???

You need to visualise the pay off before the subject is learned. Crack this learning system and you’ll be able to go out and learn anything you wish. I can’t think of a better pay off!

So, now you are motivated, you have developed a desire to learn ‘how to learn’, and you have a clear picture in your mind of why you want to learn the ‘learning system’.

Remember how important goal setting is? I hope now you are beginning to see how immensely important these little things are to your life.

Every system you are learning now will, in the future have an impact beyond measure.

Individually, they may not seem world changing influences, but together they will change your world. You can’t see it now because you haven’t had time for them to take effect. I promise that you have an amazing life around the corner, but only when you have turned it will you be able to look back and say: “Bloody hell. He was right!!!”

Your goal for this task is to learn learning systems.

You have prepared mentally, you are ready to begin … NO YOU’RE NOT!!!

You need to prepare physically. You will never learn anything if you are stressed, distracted, tired, bloated, got kids screaming down your ear…

I taught you earlier how to prepare physically for a task, especially a learning task.

Now do it.

If you are not entirely comfortable and able to give this section your absolute undivided attention come back in ten minutes or after a good sleep or when your dinner’s gone down. Go for a walk in the fresh air or to really set yourself up, go for a short run. Have a shower.

Come back when you feel fresh and ready for the task ahead.

Now you are ready to learn ‘how to learn’. You can only concentrate effectively for around 30 minutes at a time whilst learning, so in about thirty minutes from now take a short break!

2. Get The Big Picture

There are two different ways to approach a learning task. Linear and global.

Linear: means that you are fed a subject bit by bit, starting at the beginning and ending at the end.

The picture is built up as you go. This was often the way you were taught at school.

Can you imagine Mr Monotone ever giving you the answers before he gave you the questions!

Plodding through your subject, section after section is hard. It is often impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel and very easy to get disheartened.

Global: means that you are shown the big picture first.

You get an overview of what you are about to learn, you can see what you are going to get at the end. You can see the pay off before you start. This it the way we need to learn.

Before you go any further, scan over this section, check the subheads, see what the contents are, write down in a few short sentences, what’s coming up? Get a clear overall picture of what’s in store. If you were to apply this to other areas in your future, such as attending a seminar or watching a video, get an overview, look at the index and menu. Have a global view of the subject matter in hand.

Next, take some time out and jot down what you think you already know about the subject. Ask yourself what you understand at this point then write it down. Try and get an idea of what you would like to know. One or two areas will have pricked your interest. You must have seen something and thought: “I wonder what that’s all about?”

Write down all the key points. This exercise should have taken you no more than five minutes because you are cherry picking the major topics. When you have done that place a tick after this paragraph. This will indicate that you have understood what was required ‘in this paragraph only’. Each time you have read and digested a paragraph and fully understood it, place a tick by it.

Although this is a large subject, we are going to tackle it bit at a time. We will not move on until you have fully got to grips with why you are doing things.

My dad used to be a builder and, as a young boy, I remember watching him repoint the brickwork on our house. He was tackling a huge wall and from where I was standing it looked like a Herculean task. I asked him: “Why didn’t it drive him mad tackling such a big wall?”

“Because,” he replied, “I just look at a small section at a time and when it’s finished I move on.”

If he were to stand back and contemplate the size of the wall, he’d have sat down with a cup of tea and never finished it. By keeping his head down and completing each small section, eventually the whole wall looked like new.

We are breaking these techniques down into small manageable steps. It matters not if the subject is as big as War and Peace because we are only interested in the small section we are tackling now.

We know what the big picture looks like and can see the large blazing light at the end of the tunnel, the pay off when we’ve finished. At this stage you understand that it is important to break the subject down and when each section is fully understood you put a tick by the side of it.

You can now tick this paragraph

It doesn’t matter how you break your subject down and it really doesn’t matter where you start, so long as you just pick a point, and start! Once you begin your assault it must be sustained.

Start somewhere that inspires you, learn it, then move on.

As you go through this course and read something that is important to you, something that you want to recall at any time, print it off and mark it with a highlighter pen. This trick applies to any material.

The effort required to re-read it as you physically highlight it will commit it to memory.

To ensure you are using all your senses read it out loud. You are twice as likely to remember something read aloud. Print off the page and go get a highlighter pen then draw though this paragraph and while you’re at it you can put a tick in the margin.

Now read it out loud to yourself. You need these tricks, they are part of your learning tools.

Summarise what you have just learned and write it down to make sure you have fully understood everything.

YOU HAVE NOT TRULY UNDERSTOOD SOMETHING UNTIL YOU CAN TEACH IT TO SOMEONE ELSE SO THAT THEY CAN FULLY UNDERSTAND IT

Now to make sure you have fully understood the last section turn away and see what you can remember. Sit and visualise what you have just read.

Make sure everything falls into place.

• Why do you scan the whole book before you start?
• Why do you put marks in the margin?
• What is your dominant sense?

If you struggle somewhere then go back and try again. When you can fully recall the methods in this small section put a tick at the bottom of the page in a different colour.

The colours you use will be up to you so long as you always stick to them, eg. blue for a paragraph you have understood, red for a section.

By doing this you are forcing yourself to remember, albeit on a subconscious level. Most people will read a book from beginning to end and that’s all they will remember, the beginning, the end and a couple of events in the middle.

They might as well read this:

One day there were three little bears who djeo feuj swfjdf ewo depdfu wdf fpwpefu efdoude fepf ewpofu wpf wdufps fpwu wdpfu wpf eat all the porridge wpwfufjng p eg gi dgupr pt epwho’s been sitting in my chair etpug epg eu eri t4 r rwoi rwept wp bkkyye aoou !!@ kskh aaappq aaapu tr and they all lived happily ever after. THE END.

By using the tools you have acquired, reading out loud, marking important paragraphs, visualising and ensuring that you do not move on until you have finished and understood each section, you are guaranteeing the whole subject is committed to long term memory

I don’t consider myself overly bright so how did I learn Accelerated Learning Techniques?

I managed to learn the subject sufficiently well to write this module and teach you.

Originally it took me a lot of time and effort, but now I know the techniques I could do it in a few days … How?

Well firstly, I want to write this release, the techniques fascinate me and I want to pass them on to you. That is my pay off. I would take out several books on the subject and scan over them, looking to see what areas would grab my attention.

Within a few hours I would have a fair idea of what the systems were and how they had been developed. This is only a very rudimentary grasp of the techniques. I would have spent only a relatively short time glancing over each section, picking out key points. But this is enough to give me the big picture.

I choose various sub-heads and read them, the ones that look most interesting, marking them as understood when finished. I do this in no particular order although I do eventually complete every section, even the boring ones!

I get through those because I could see that pay off!

I am like that marathon man who hits the wall (that extremely hard section about three quarters of the way through a race, where most want to stop), he keeps on going because he has visualised what is at the end before he set off.

I have found that when I’ve have read and digested the interesting parts of a subject, I want to read the rest in order to link it all together.

I want to finish the big picture.

I buy some tapes and listen to them, writing down key points as I go.

I then sit down to write this. I have forced myself to remember the subject as I read it out loud and then type it out.

In going through a considerable study to put this module together. I listened to tapes and read out loud — Auditory.

I pictured how the systems worked and how I should be applying them to learning about learning — Visual.

I wrote this — Physical.

Finally, I reviewed what I wrote and questioned each paragraph to make sure it was correct. I have thoroughly committed this subject to my long term memory. You can phone me at anytime and ask me a question on ‘Accelerated Learning’ and I will be able to help you.

It is important to review what you want to remember at intervals. This absolutely cements your knowledge.

The review cycle should be:

1. Review after an hour and rectify any mistakes or holes
2. Review after a day. This is the ’24 hour test.’ Any major voids will show up
3. Review after a week
4. Review after a month.

If you follow the review programme you will see a 400% improvement in retention.

You can place a tick in the paragraph now!

SUMMARY:

1. Prepare yourself mentally and physically for the learning process. Establish the pay-off for learning this information before you begin. What is this knowledge worth to me at the end? Will you receive a certificate that in turn will get you a better qualification? Will you be able to do something better which in turn will increase your worth?

2. Get an overview of the subject, get the big picture.

3. Decide what you already know and how it fits into your current knowledgebase.

4. Break the subject down into manageable sections and start on one of them.

5. Explore each section using all your tools. Tape it, listen to the tapes, sketch it, write it on cue cards, write notes, read out loud, act it out, discuss it with friends or family, visualise yourself doing whatever it is, stimulate all your senses and concentrate mainly on how you like to learn.

6. Review what you have just learned. Do not move on until you can recall the last section from memory.

7. Take regular breaks — you can only work at peak performance for around thirty minutes.

8. Re-write the section in your own words. Discuss it with friends or family. Create a learning map (we go into this in a minute), list out the key points of your subject and test yourself, go back and fill in the blanks, write a song or jingle if it helps.

Tape yourself, write out the key words and speak on the subject. You’ll soon know if you have a grasp. Some people are amazing at remembering the words to songs. It is totally natural for them to hear a song once and then be singing it the very next minute.

Try fitting the key words of a subject to a tune that is familiar. If you are able to do that you will never forget the trigger words and in turn the ‘body text.’

Question the subject continually. Why, where, what, who, how? As you question a subject you are forced to find answers; it is while looking for the answers that you re-enforce the knowledge and commit it to long term memory.

After you have tested yourself ask: “How would I do it better next time; how would I improve on my answers?”

9. Mark the section as thoroughly understood and move on to the next

…

Memory Maps

Memory maps are amazing tools. It is possible to create a memory map for just about anything.

They are so easy and quick to do. Once you have drawn one on a subject you will instantly get an overall picture of the main points and in turn trigger your memory on the subject.

First you begin with the main subject. Write it down and draw a circle around it.

Next list major key points that apply to the main subject in off shoots.

Then list the sub-heads. You can keep breaking each key area down to suit your required depth.

All a memory map needs to be is a scribble on a bit of paper. If you add sketches and colours it becomes even more vivid. You can see at a glance the whole subject and instantly recall those sections.

Easy as that eh!

These techniques now stand you in good stead for the vast amounts of information available to you … you are now in the enviable position to be able to work faster and smarter.