I'm told that you have your best ideas when you're not trying to think about something. So, for example, when you're sitting on the bus or train staring out the of window you might realise the solution to the problem you're having with an essay. Or when you're getting ready to go to bed and suddenly the plot of a film you didn't understand suddenly becomes really obvious to you. My recent idea came as I was walking to class today, with the only things on my mind being Panic! at the Disco's new album blaring in my ears and making sure I wasn't clipped by a bus as I crossed the road. Maybe that's why it's such a good idea?
The idea is simple. Every night I am going to sit down and write five things that I've learned during the day. The next night I'm going to copy those things out and write five new things, which will then be copied out the next night and so on. Not only will this force me to reflect on what I have been doing throughout the day, it will also force me to return to the most important things I learned the day before. That way I have more chance of remembering things.
The five things can be anything. I undoubtedly have learned five things just from the reading I did from university today but I'm going to make sure to mix things up a bit. For example, I learned about an element of competition law which really interesting and I also learned that the woman who plays Don Draper's wife in Mad Men was also in Love Actually briefly. Two things from completely different contexts but both of which I might like to call upon in the future so they'll be in my five for tonight.
My memory is a pretty powerful thing but only with repetition. I can't hold stuff that isn't immediately important for very long unless I give myself a moment to think about it. Something that has always baffled me is how other people are able to recall parts of TV programmes (and even huge chunks of dialogue in some cases) which I have also seen but can't even begin to put together in my head. Unless I've seen an episode a few times I tend to leave the repetition of jokes and lines to other people.
However, when it comes to repeating things my memory is apparently limitless. At work I have to remember all of the codes for the items that don't have barcodes - that amounts to about 25 different lines from the bakery and about 40 from the fruit and veg. When I first started these codes were at least four digits, and five in most cases. They have all since been changed to two digits but I can remember all the old ones and the new ones no bother, but only because I use them so often. Another good example is from second year where I had to learn huge numbers of cases and their basic facts. I used to be able to remember case lists that stretched to over a hundred and the facts but, again, only because I used to repeat them over and over again.
Having had the original idea on the way to class I have since had time to think about it and the advantages it might have for me. Repeating little facts or important legal rules over a period of a day will surely stand me in better stead than I would be were I to just let it drop after I had learned it. I can remember a few things most of the time but why would I not want to learn lots of things all of the time? I mean, why would I let myself forget who January Jones is in a hurry?
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| January Jones and Betty Draper in Mad Men (Picture from Entertainment Weekly) |
Thanks for reading tonight and I hope that you have a think about what you learned today.
Martin
