How much you remember is determined by

- Your inborn capacity to remember.

- Your training for efficient collection, intelligent interpretation, and maximum storage of information (sometimes called "education").

- Your enthusiasm for remembering a particular thing.

- The effect of things you learned before (proactive interference) and things you learned after (retroactive interference) on the particular thing you want to remember.

- The effect of physical, mechanical and emotional blocks.

1) Be emotional

Why can we remember batting averages and scores of lenghty melodies and stories, but not recall a phone number or the correct spelling of a six-letter word like frieze?

Like computers, people need structures for storing information, but unlike computers, the human mind loves novelty. Fascinate it with tricks and toys while you give it some storage boxes, and it will do whatever you want., Emotionnally charged events are easily remembered, probably because they are intensely personal. If you can impose emotion on something, you'll remember it. Love it. Hate it. Fear it. Be mad at it. you'll also remember it at the same time.

2) Be logical

Make structures for remembering.

3) Reward yourself for remembering.

An old reward doesn't work. You have to want it. Remember that "ought to remember" isn't the same as "will remember". Even "try to remember" is a cop=out because it implies that you might not succeed.

4) Use all your senses

If you have a "turn off copy machine before leaving office] in your short-term memory, you can form a multitude of sensory images around it that will help you get it into your long-term memory. Smell that copy fluid as you imagine holding your coat in one hand and flicking the switch with the other. See the machine and imagine it beckoning to you as you feel the sleek office doorknob in your hand. Listen to the hum of the copy machine as it spurrs "turn me off, turn me off." If you routinely pop a breath mint, a cigarette or a stick of gum in your mouth as you leave the office, you can even taste the copy machine's anxiety about being left on all night. Putting information in your long-term memory is an active process. Contrary to all laws of physics, you can speed up the trip by sending out more than one train.

Darwin formulated what we have dubbed the Law of Contrariness. While collecting evidence for his theory of evolution, he forced himself to write down evrything contrary to his theory because he knew he would forget the contradictions otherwise.

- Classyfying the fact in several ways.

- Making multiple copies if one is lost, you still have others.

- Giving the fact so much context that outside noise can't block it.

More memory benefits come from spending an hour trying to recall what you've read by spending the same time rereading the material. By recalling, you are actively involved in trying to retrieve the information.

Structures for nonfiction books and articles.

As you begin reading, look for the structure. Make a guess and then see if you are right. You can change your mind and try another structure if the first one doesn't fit. When you find the structure and then arrange the information bits on that structure, you will have a much better chance of remembering...

Speed reading

We remember more if we concentrate. We concentrate more if we read at a speed closer to the speed at which we process information in other words, very fast. When we take in more ideas instead of lingering over each sentence, it is actually easier to notice the information. The difference between driving on a flat highway in the desert and on a twisty mountain road. Our concentration rises on the twisty road, and we process much more information. Like mountain driving, speed reading is work, but it gives us back much more than it asks.

The patterns

Listed below are five main structures for nonfiction: problem, opinion, thesis, information and instruction. A few pieces of nonfiction are combinations of two or more of these structures, but most of what you read falls into one of these structures.

The problem pattern

Problem: I need more money.

Effect: outgo exceeds income. Bankruptcy is imminent.

Causes: unemployment.

Solution: find a job, steal, join the army, shoot my rich uncle.

The opinion pattern

Opinion: the next president should be a woman.

Reasons: women are better business managers, less likely to start wars, and have more compassion for people.

Significance: you should support a woman candidate.

The thesis pattern

Thesis: Alcoholism is caused by a metabolic difference.

Proofs: results of recent experiments.

Significance: testing blood samples from children might prevent alcoholism in adults.

The information pattern

Facet 1: location and description of Easter Island.

Facet 2: discovery by early explorers.

Facet 3: current inhabitants.

Facet 4: etc...

The instruction pattern

Step 1: place egg in saucepan on cold water.

Step 2: place saucepan on stove.

step 3: turn burner on to medium heat.

Step 4: etc...

A need to know

When you want to remember what you read, but you haven't decided exactly what you'd like to get from your reading effort, try analyzing the structure or organization of the piece. Unless you have a particular purpose or a "need to know," it's easy to fall into your old habit of just passing your eyes from left to right over each word or phrase. Then you end up with a random collection of miscellaneous ideas. This can be very pleasant if you are reading for pleasure only, but when you are reading to remember, you need to sort the information into structures.

Buckminster Fuller said that only 20 percent of a book can consist of new ideas, or the book won't be popular. We need that familiar 80 percent as our structure or framework for positioning the new 20 percent. The trick is to be aware of what you don't know and then use your natural predicting skills and your new knowledge of nonfiction structure to dive in for the new 20 percent.

Start reading with a purpose. It's okay to be tantalized into side-trips if you wish, and you can change your destination along the way, but at least you start out with an itinerary. Having a purpose increases your memory of what you are reading.

Distraction is the ennemy of memory. When you look for the organization and the patterns parts, it's like reading an X-ray or looking at a map. Have you ever found your mind wandering when you were lost and examining a road map? It's unlikely. You had a purpose (figuring out where you were) and a structure (a map full of streets, highways, and landmarks). Reading to remember requires the same two things. The structure has an added bonus: by organizing the material you read into the nonfiction pattern, you pay attention to it and probably remember it better.

Is all information arranged logically? Of course not! There are miserable writers, misguided editors, and inept publishers. If you run into any of these, you may have to rewrite the information in your own haed in order to remember it.

Three things you should never forget

1) We remember what enhances us and gives us pleasure.

2) We forget what doesn't enrich our immediate lives.

3) Anyone with a belly button is allowed at least a 20 percent margin for error.