How Can I Get More Benefit From Reading? (memory, Learning Skills..)

[lomi]

Hi everyone.

Im a psychology student, starting to read books and a lot of information. But I would like to be able to
remember in a better way all this information in long term, I feel that I need a strong base of memory
or learning skills to get more benefit from it. I think I am sufficiently motivated (I know this is an
important factor), I take care of my nutrition, and taking magic mushrooms microdoses (improves focus,
motivation...).

Besides all these things, do you have guys some tips or tecniques for reading? Maybe taking notes,
and reading them every week/month or something like that.

Thank you, and sorry for my english

[RossE]

Take notes of the key facts/opinions/knowledge presented by the author which resonate with you, perhaps in bullet point form. This will give you a nicely condensed version of a lot of theory in a very quick to read, accessible format. 

The process of taking notes itself is very helpful as you will read each sentence again, and the ones which you take notes from you will read multiple times.

If you're doing this for degree study I suggest typing the notes so you can easily rearrange them.

[mostly harmless]

The more you learn, the more you can connect new information to what you already know. That's sort of like a web of knowledge.  The negative side-effect is resistance to change what we learned is incompatible to new information.

You need to sleep for your brain to consolidate what you've learned. Stored information is literary transferred from one part of the brain to another. Sleep is essential for that. By the way: Allegedly, sleep between 22:00 a.m. and 4 a.m. is twice as efficient as sleep in a different time of day.

Check the books by Richard Thompson - The Brain: A Neuroscience Primer 3rd Edition 2001. Among other things, Thompson explains how memory works.

Peanut butter and coconut oil do, I think, serve as resources for the brain to build Myelin. Myelin is used to insulate connections between nerve cells. This makes data transmission a lot faster. I have been eating lots of Peanut butter daily for years. Many people are actually nothing less than shocked when I tell them details about situations and conversations that happened 30 years ago. So it seems to work for me.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin 

For your psychology studies, check Spiral Dynamics, Logotherapy, Mindfulness (very helpful for therapy, taken from Buddhism).

 

Check Thomas Frank's youtube channel:

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by mostly harmless

[lomi]

Thanks to both! You really helped me.

The Thomas Frank´s videos are very helpful. I am curious about that of sleeping between 22:00 and 4:00, that´s only for USA? (Im from Spain). The same every day of the year?

[JustinS]

What has helped me was to cut out alot of the small distractions throughout the day; social media, obsessive thinking, anxiety, etc. and to put my primary focus on the one thing at a time. Daily meditation helps with this tremendously. Keep your mind clean, purified, and simple like of a child. 

[ctro]

Quality sleep is very important in order to remember more (sleep mask/ear plugs/cold room etc). Repetition is key if you want to remember something for the long term, but this should not have to be forced in the long term. In the short term, repetition and writing are the most important ways to learn something. 

If you want general advice on how to be a good student/scholar, read Cal Newport: 'Deep Work'.

 

[mostly harmless]

19 hours ago, lomi said:

Thanks to both! You really helped me.

The Thomas Frank´s videos are very helpful. I am curious about that of sleeping between 22:00 and 4:00, that´s only for USA? (Im from Spain). The same every day of the year?

I am from Europe as well. People are different and it's probably not scientifically proven. But you don't need proof, just try it and see how you feel. 

 

Edited March 28, 2017 by mostly harmless

[mostly harmless]

Ironically, despite claiming to have such an amazing memory, I have to make a correction: The alleged 2x value sleep time is supposed to be 22:00 (10 pm) to 02:00 (2 am).

Dr. Allison Siebern said in an interview with Time magazine, that the window for the most recreative sleep is 20:00 (8 pm) to 00:00 (12 pm). http://time.com/3183183/best-time-to-sleep/

So that information is similar but not the same.

Edited March 28, 2017 by mostly harmless