IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY BUT DON’T LET THE CHORUS LINE OVERWHELM YOU!

OH BE THE DAY OF 10,000 HOURS OF JAZZ DANCE EXPERIENCE…

Being mindful of how much data you can handle is important to the success of your memory retention. Being overwhelmed with data is a classic ‘memory disrupter.’

I love Malcolm Gladwell books and he’s so right in OUTLIERS about 10,000 hours of practice to perfect a skill <the word “perfect” according to vocabulary.com means “…originally comes from the Latin word perficere, which breaks down into per– (‘completely’) and facere (‘do’)>” however if you start with too much, the road is harder to hoe.

Take the case of the not so ‘beginners’ level Jazz Dance class I started recently. The teacher announced to me (apparently I was the only new student in the group that day) that the warm up routine takes a while to get the hang of but that I should hang in there. What she didn’t tell me is the dance choreography of the ‘routine’ (think Chorus Line dance line up practice) for the last 30 minutes(of a 90 minute class), has been rehearsed by the class for about two years. Well, um, er not-so-beginners’-ish. Whoa, the first day of class left me…

1. Discouraged,
2. Drained mentally and physically,
3. Brain glucose depleted,
4. Pondering how this might be helpful to my readers!

There are reasons it took you no time at all to learn The Hussle dance routine in the 80s when you were younger but now takes you 10,000 hours of practice. Or, why your french or spanish homework isn’t the best it can be, why you haven’t memorized your new credit card number, why you don’t know your driver’s license by heart or why you can’t remember your friends’ phone numbers any more; Least of all trying to remember all the things you need to do when you get home. There are several culprits: one is the information is too long, secondly it has not been attended to in the OPTIMUM MEMORY LEARNING (OML) style that enhances your working memory. You’ll have to wait for the book to get all the great things you can do for “Optimum Memory Learning” (OML)(shameless plug) but here are two important ideas:

CHUNKING. When learning something new, try small groups of info at a time. Example: I recorded the dance routine, took it home and played in slow motion. It was still too much data. The next week I recorded the beginning and the end of the routine. That was palatable and I could do the small chunks in order to frame the context and feel confident. Feeling confident helps to build up your tolerance to novel data and gives you more patience and balance. In this case I needed patience two-fold: to learn the novel data, and patience to deal with being the beginner (and clumsily looking the part) in front of the Vets of the class. I needed to focus on the data not on my humiliation.

ATTENDING. In this crazy ADD-induced lifestyle we lead it’s hard to stay put and attend. We have “memory disrupters” everywhere: our desktops have messages popping up, our phones, are built for multitasking our tablets present too many temptations, etc. I recommend the following:

Put the “DND” feature on your phone: Do Not Disturb if you are using it while trying to learn something. For your laptops, don’t allow pop ups or instant messaging. One little interruption and your learning experience is at risk. Pay attention to your DOPAMINE SEEKING HABITS: don’t fall prey to the toggling to your Instagram or Email. It’s a serious addiction problem and does not help when you are in a learning moment.

DRIVING INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPTIMUM MEMORY LEARNING:

1. I put my phone on DND.
2. I watched the bookend videos of the dance routine twice.
3. The next step was a Postit reminder for chunking: I wrote down 4 jazz steps to rehearse each day. ‘Will let you know how it goes in the next class!

Postscript: In the vain of not ‘overwhelming with too much data’ I realized that one time a week for class was not going to get me very far so I dropped out of my Stanford Greek lit class so I could add an extra day of dance class. Now I am feeling really good and can breathe which will all aid in my resilience to learn this new skill!!!!