Improving attention and memory is a goal for many people, either because they have difficulty studying, because they want to increase their skills in this area, or because they realize that over the years these faculties seem to decrease.
The truth is that our intellectual performance increases when we manage to improve attention and memory; nor does it amount to greater intelligence, but they contribute decisively to making the most of it; in particular, the ability to learn depends on a large part of the attention.
- In fact.
- Improving attention and memory is mainly the result of proper habits.
- In addition to constancy and discipline.
- This is possible at any age.
- Although this obviously requires greater dedication to the most advanced ages.
- There are some simple strategies to achieve this.
- We’ll introduce five.
Remember that where your attention goes, so will your emotions and energy, the place where you pay attention will become more and more real for you. -Mario Alonso Puig-
It is almost obvious that avoiding distractions is critical to improving attention and memory, however, it never goes without remembering it, what you should avoid, in particular, are noises and interruptions, both factors have a very negative impact on attention. the ability to create memories is affected.
The question of avoiding monotony is not so obvious, but no less true, today we know that the human brain has precise time limits to maintain attention, for tasks that require high concentration the ideal is to take a break every 30 minutes and make changes in the task or environment every two hours.
Sometimes one of the biggest challenges to improve attention and memory is wanting to do everything very quickly. We consider that a reading simply ends when we have finished reading the chapter or book, that is not enough.
Especially in the case of reading, it is very important to highlight what we have identified as the most important or most worth being a memory, at the same time it is necessary to review the points that we highlighted at the end of the reading. This will make the most of the text. We should do something similar with other activities.
Doing many things at the same time is a common habit nowadays, but it has many negative effects, there are many people who, while doing a job, keep the TV on, hearing aids on, look at their mobile phones, etc.
The only thing that can be achieved with this is not paying full attention to any of the activities that are carried out and, at the same time, feeding the anguish or the feeling of helplessness of not being able to do everything. the worst circumstances to remember.
So, in a nut words, working in multitasking diminishes our ability to maintain attention much faster, while diminishing our ability to create powerful and accurate memories.
The environment is a determining factor in performing a task that requires concentration, if this is the case, nothing better than working in a space that favors attention control, a well-lit environment, with few distractions and little noise.
A pleasant environment predisposes the brain to perform a better activity, this environment is not only physical, it is also emotional, in this way a low intensity emotional tone will promote exactly the control of attention and memory formation, it is paradoxical, but an emotion of fame as bad as sadness is sometimes an ingredient that ends up enhancing concentration.
Attention and memory are closely linked. When a high level of attention is reached, memory processes are triggered almost automatically, however, there are times when this does not happen, either because the level of attention is not high enough or because the content to be memorized is more complex than normal.
Especially in these cases, it is necessary to use external strategies to facilitate the coding or recovery of memories. The strategies are multiple: make mnemonic maps, record and listen to a text or use conceptual maps, among others.
As we have observed from the beginning, improving attention and memory is a problem that has to do mainly with the constant and proper exercise of these faculties; that is, with good habits. This involves the introduction of effective methods in intellectual activities, so that the results are visible almost immediately.