When I study, I need to repeat through everything 10 or 20 times. Say it out loud, write it down, doesn't matter. It's just getting the repetitions in. And if it is something of mass, I tend to separate it into sections, and remember everything in bundles of 5-10. If it is something sequential, especially, this method works wonders for me. For example. I used to be a waiter. I would have to remember each portion of the menu, and exactly what was in each dish. I would remember the 10 part appetizer menu as such: Item #1-5 I would get down like the back of my hand, then remember item #6 as #1 in a new set of items, while remembering that #1 in the second set came directly after #5 in the first, then 5-10 sequentially again. That way if I had trouble remembering #7, it would just be #2 in the second sequence of items. If it is not just plain numbers or items in a sequence, there is nothing better than doing or repetitive writing and reading, interwoven with multiple sets of quizzing (This helps if you have a friend who is willing to help, or flash cards will due in a pinch) Do not move on to something new until you can rattle off whatever it is you are trying to retain with absolute perfection.


I know this is a little complicated, and at first it will seem as so, but once you get rolling, it is quite helpful. Although my brain is a bit of a strange one, so I'm sure it will not work for everyone.  Hope this helps buddy!

Sleep Sleep Sleep!

Sleep is where memory formation takes place. Skip those adderall fueled all nighters and get a full nights sleep.

Short breaks to focus on other things are incredibly helpful. A 5 minute break every 20 mins is what I generally see recommended.

Summarizing things really helps understand and retain them. If you cannot easily explain it to an 8 year old, you don't understand it.

Set-Up A Timetable:

When it comes to studying, whatever coarse you may be learning about its best to ease into it, like with exercise. If you delve into it too strong, studying six hours a day you might just burn yourself out and drop out. I find that writing down a liberal schedule-timetable that you know you can stick through everyday helps out a lot. For me personally I'd like to reach the goal of studying six hours per day in total, as I was during my academic peak. However I won't just jump into that routine because I know I won't have the psychological capacity to carry out such a task all at once. The trick is to ease into it gradually.

Diet & Exercise:

The key to a healthy and efficient mind is a healthy body. There's been numerous studies denoting the positive effects of both cardiovascular and resistance exercises has on the central nervous system. I know that from your previous posts you already like to workout so I won't lecture you on this one. Just keep at it everyday to stay motivated and keep that dopamine, norepinephrine, phenethylamine and other goodies elevated for sharper cognitive capabilities. These neurotransmitters will essentially mimic the effect people get from stimulant drugs, which brings me to the next topic.

Psychostimulants:

This subject is a little controversial but if you really need a boost stimulants drugs like caffeine, nicotine, methylphenidate and amphetamine all have robust cognitive enhancing capabilities such as improved motivation, working memory, inhibitory control, attention, etc... Just remember that with all the good effects these drugs produce they also produce an equal and opposite effect, mainly addiction and dependence. I don't think these are really necessary though or worth the risk but some others do, caffeine seems benign in comparison to the rest of them.

Conclusion:

I think repetition on a daily bases is key over here and for maximum results you want to work up to studying > 40h/week, aka full working day if you have the time. As dreamer and shaman already mentioned its also vital you develop healthy sleeping habits, take small breaks every 20-30 minutes and repeat your work thoroughly. Best of luck in your studies!

That technique makes a whole lot of sense to me. I think that is a permutation of "chunking" information. I recall a quote : "Repetition is the father of learning."

What was the longest series of information you've been able to remember using that technique?

There are courses out there, that teach you how to learn or at least tell us that they teach us

What I mean is there are a bunch of nice people who've gone through these pay to enroll courses, and summarized them nicely on free websites. So you can always check those out. I remember reading through Learning how to Learn summary on reddit last year it was a fine one.

Regarding to sleep, I would like to add that learning new things before sleep, and repeating those things after waking up is the key method here.

So lets say you want to learn counting frmo 1 to 20. You'd learn 1-5 tonight, wake up and go through 1-5 again, and tomorrow night you would start with 5-10, again go sleep /wake up and do 5-10 in the morning.

So you learn new things, let sleep integrate them into your memory, and refresh that knowledge/structure in the morning so it lasts longer.


It goes without saying that health contributes to learning and studying. If you can not keep fitness up because of an injury, you should look at cold / or especially heat stress. Saunas are a great addition to a healthy lifestyle, and they mimic a bunch of things exercise does, so if someone can not exercise but they could sit in a sauna daily, that would help out.


There are some medical mushrooms that could help with learning and memory, and also if you need critical thinking or connecting ideas/being clever or letting your fantasy do the work psychedelics can definitely help.

I have heard from whole different sources that high omega 3 would help with learning and memory, as well as reaction time and other things, so getting adequate high quality omegas is something we should be looking after I guess?


A lot of people also report that learning while in a fasted state is the way to go for them. And that through the afternoon it gets a bit harder. In my personal experience, nutritional ketosis seems to do the trick. But that can be hard to achieve for certain folks (certainly its difficult for me since I wonna transition to vegetarian...)

If anything else comes to mind I'll post.

I'm not quite sure. Off hand, I can say that, using my previous example as a basis, I have been able to learn up to 100 items, their exact placement on the menu, the ingredients to said items, as well as sides and available dips, add-ons, etc. in under 24 hours elapsed time. About 4 hours of studying, one hour of quizzing, sleep, wake, quiz, brush up anything I may have let slip, quiz again. A total of about 8 active hours in that 24. The rest is also very important. Our brains only have the capacity to intake so much information at a time. We must allow it rest.


Best Wishes

I think the learning through the fasted state is interesting, since the brain needs calories to function. I'd like to see what mechanisms are at play in the brain in the fasted state in learning processes.

I have been blessed with the ability to learn quickly and retain information very well so my "study habits" have always been very laxed. For instance I had a deposition today from a car accident 4 years ago. I filled out the "interrogation" papers over 2 years ago. I briefly skimmed the papers (about 50 pages in 5 minutes) to brush up and everything went very smoothly. I love learning and try to learn something new everyday.

Having been working out for many years now, I've found that having a 4-5x/wk 1hr-session/day continually, week to week has paid greatly in my mental energy and attention. I'm talking very intense workout sessions. If I didn't have this I'd most likely be a much lesser version of myself imo.

Also I love cooking and have for many years now. It's a nice break for me, it's meditative in a sense. Cooking nutritious food is always pretty high on my priority list. It goes in conjunction with the above surely and I feel has aided me quite a bit.

ry it yourself and see Smile I sure as hell am coding much better in ketosis or in a fasted state...