6 Tips For Making It Easier To Retain Information

Retaining information, especially in the digital age of distractions, can be a challenge for everyone. However, there are some pretty simple ways to do it. Here are six tips for making learning and remembering a lot easier for yourself.

Cut Out Distractions

Attention is key to forming memories, so when you get distracted while doing something, you’re less likely to remember what you did or how you did it. This is probably something you’ve noticed quite often just in your everyday life. By focusing on one task and removing distractions, you can be more focused, productive and retain information better.

Try Not To Multitask

Multitasking has come under fire recently for how poorly it affects memory and productivity. While in school or at home, make a conscious effort to try and not do multiple things at once. Unfortunately, juggling tasks is a basic job skill that’s expected of people, so it can sometimes be a challenge to sit down and focus on one task at a time while at work.  A professor from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology said in an article for the NY Times ‘“We can do a couple of things at the same time if they are routine, but once they demand more cognitive process, the brain has “a severe bottleneck,”.’

Take Notes

Taking notes while you read or listen to information helps your retention because you can always come back to your notes later and reinforce what you’ve learned. It also creates a record of the important points of what you read, which can make it much easier to memorize and organize information.

Train Your Brain

There are lots of exercises you can do to help your brain retain memories and information better. Lifehacker has a very comprehensive piece on these techniques to keep you sharp as a needle, and there are plenty more ideas out there that might work well for you. By taking time to work and stretch your brain every day you can really help make learning a lot easier.

Watch Your Technology Usage

Technology is actively making it unnecessary to memorize things, thus decreasing our retention because we simply don’t have to – it’s all at our fingertips. Information overload decreases information retention as well because your brain gets overwhelmed and can’t focus on one thing to store away. Managed IT services, such as Ottawa managed services, have the ability to help you limit Internet usage by logging traffic and blocking usage at designated times.

Know That Reading On Screens Can Offer Less Retention

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests reading on screens can interfere with information retention, although it is not entirely conclusive. Still, the navigation of documents on screens has been shown to interfere with our ability to take passages in context because we can’t tangibly see the entire book or document. Subconsciously, there is evidence that people even approach reading on screens with less intent on learning, which thus leads to less comprehension.

Retaining information can be more difficult in the digital age, but there are still numerous methods and tricks for boosting brain function and retaining information. Use these tips as well as discover what works best for you.