How to quickly learn a text: 7 life hacks

“It’s necessary, the whole concert was played by heart! I wouldn’t have been able to do that.” The compliment most often given to performing musicians is about their “phenomenal” memory. In fact, anyone can memorize large amounts of text or music. It is the same skill as driving a car or riding a bicycle. The main thing is to train it correctly.

It does not matter whether we are talking about music, presentations, webinars or lectures, the memorization algorithm is the same. To learn a text, you need to use as many different parts of the brain as possible. By weaving a “web of associations” between them, one can tie them together with a strong network that will last for many years. How to do it?

I offer you several methods that greatly simplify the process of memorization and save time. They are based on the use of all types of memory: logical, emotional, motor and figurative.

1. Logic

It is important to structure the text and find the logic of development in it. When one thought leads to another, it is easier to navigate the material. Try to break the text into several parts: introduction, main part and conclusion. In each of them, identify the main idea and see how they are related to each other. You can move from the main idea, gradually revealing the details, or you can move from examples and details to a logical conclusion. For example, I started this article with the main idea – the need to build a chain of relationships in the brain, and now I am sharing the details, telling how to do this.

2. Speech

Be sure to pronounce the text aloud in order to connect verbal-logical memory to the process. The musicians “drive” the musical text into their hands, and the dancers – into the body, bringing motor memory to automatism by repeated repetition. Speaking the text aloud, we pay attention to hard-to-pronounce words, intonation and pauses, which means we solve two problems at once: we learn the text and work on its lively and conscious reproduction.

3. Gesticulation

During rehearsals, the actors come up with appropriate gestures for their lines: for example, they take a glass before saying a monologue. So, on the stage, as soon as the hand reaches for the glass, the actor automatically, without difficulty, pops up the desired text. So he ties motor memory to verbal memory.

This link also works in the opposite direction: as soon as the actor starts the monologue, the motor memory turns on and the hand itself reaches for the glass. You can also use this technique: come up with expressive gestures and every time you rehearse, add them to the text in the same places.

4. Emotions

Try not to memorize the text mechanically, just by memorizing the words. Supplement it with intonations and emotions. Emotional memory is one of the strongest: we can forget the plot of a movie, but remember the emotional impression it made on us. In the future, it will be enough for you to recall the desired feeling for the part of the text associated with it to pop up in your memory.

5. Picture

Masaru Ibuko, author of the bestselling book It’s Too Late After XNUMX, believes that young children perceive words as pictures. This allows them to quickly distinguish familiar inscriptions from each other. Using visual memory will help you memorize the text.

Close your eyes and imagine the pages. Mark the language in which you talk about this or that idea. For greater clarity, you can underline important paragraphs or words with multi-colored markers. So you will navigate exactly where in the text you are, and “read” as written.

6. Associations

Use figurative memory: in each section of the text, find a key phrase or thought and come up with an association to it. Moreover, the more strange and detailed it is, the better it will be remembered. For example, in Yesenin’s poem “White Birch”, I was not given a line about fluffy branches. I imagined that the hair of a huge fluffy dog ​​was growing on the branches, I instantly remembered everything and years after school I can recite a poem without hesitation.

7. From the particular to the whole

Our brains are only able to actively concentrate on a task for no more than 20 minutes, so the learning process will be more effective if it is broken down into small parts. During this time, learn small fragments, do not try to cover everything at once. After learning a few paragraphs, try to connect them, as if stringing beads on a thread. So, one by one, you will collect them into a complete text.

Properly using the resources of the brain, we can achieve excellent results in the shortest possible time. Practice your memory skill and compliments about your phenomenal memory will not be long in coming.