In this era, having a poor memory has become a common modern urban ailment.

For example:

When someone asks you to do something, you readily agree, but then completely forget about it later;

When you see a certain concept or knowledge point, you feel like you've seen it somewhere before, but you just can't recall where;

You have a bunch of trivial matters at hand and always plan to do them when you have time, but when you finally have the time, you often forget about them;

You were just thinking about something in your mind, but after taking a few steps, you suddenly forget what you wanted to do or say;

...

If you don't sigh a few times a day like "I forgot again" or "Why did I forget again", it seems you're not qualified to call yourself a modern person.

Many people may sigh, "Am I getting old?" or "Is my brain not working well?" But actually, this is a very normal situation.

Why? The reason is simple:

Our brains were not originally designed for this information age. At the beginning of its evolution, it never imagined that one day, the amount of information we receive and need to process would increase by thousands of times.

A computer can simply replace its hard drive or add more memory, but the brain can't. It can only continuously optimize and reshape itself based on its original form.

So, it's not that you're getting old, nor that your memory is failing. It's just that the pace of development in this era far exceeds the limit that the brain can adapt to.

Therefore, when we talk about "memory", what's more meaningful is not actually the memory inside the brain, but the larger - scale "collective memory system" that connects the brain with everything around it - electronic documents, fragmented information, social networks, the Internet, etc.

If you forget a concept, you can look it up; if you forget a piece of information, you can search for it; if you forget an event, you can ask someone; if you forget a file, you can find it...

We don't need to remember all the information because most of it can be obtained and accessed through the people, things, and objects around us.

In this "collective memory system", the brain acts as a commander - to issue instructions, summarize information, analyze and compare, make decisions, organize and output... to "combine" these meaningless information in a meaningful way.

In short: If we regard this "collective memory system" as an extremely large website, then the brain is the navigation of this website. Through the navigation, we can follow the winding paths, continuously extend and jump to reach endless corners.

I often say, "The brain is for thinking, not for memorizing", and this is exactly what I mean.

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In 2011, Betsy Sparrow and others from Columbia University published a major study in Science. Through a series of experiments, they found that when people realize that "information will be stored in the computer", their memory of the information itself decreases.

Instead, people's memory of "where to find this information" is significantly strengthened.

That is to say: With the development of the Internet, our memory pattern will increasingly shift from "What" to "Where".

Therefore, this conclusion was named the "Google Effect". It refers to the influence and substitution effect of "search" on memory.

This study has received extensive attention and discussion. Many people use it as evidence that "the Internet is harming our brains" - but I don't think so.

From another perspective, what is this actually? It's an update of the brain itself.

To adapt to this information age, the brain needs to transform and optimize itself. But as we all know, it's unrealistic to ask the brain to change its biological form. So, it tries to combine with the Internet and the "outside world" and embark on a new development branch.

This is not a bad thing.

As mentioned before, the brain, as the central commander, directs the efficient operation of this "collective memory system". As long as it can operate continuously, stably, and effectively, there is no problem.

But what should we be vigilant about? It's when the central commander of this memory system malfunctions.

All the things mentioned above are based on the premise of "being able to operate effectively", which means what? We must be able to remember "what I want to find, where to find it, and how to find it", and then we can execute.

These things that need to be remembered are called the "clues" of memory.

The problem we're facing now is: We can't even remember these "clues".

We can't remember what we want to find, what to do, where to find it, and how to find it... Naturally, we can't command and use this memory system well.

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So, why does this situation occur?

The biggest problem actually lies not in memory, but in attention.

Let's review the memory model. When you need to remember something, what processes does the brain need to go through?

Directed attention → Processing (short - term memory) → Encoding and storage (long - term memory) → Rehearsal and retrieval (to avoid forgetting).

In this process, every step actually requires a high level of attention.

Directed attention: You need to concentrate your attention on the thing you want to remember, make your attention focused, and not be disturbed by external signals.

Processing: You need to keep the information in short - term memory for a period of time so that they can be integrated.

Encoding and storage: You need to conduct in - depth processing and rehearsal for a period of time to "embed" the information into the neural network.

Rehearsal and retrieval: You need to give the memory a "recall" operation according to the external situation and extract the previously written information.

Only after going through these four complete steps can a piece of information be firmly remembered by us.

But in this era, it's very difficult to concentrate on completing this process because we are subject to too many distractions.

According to the calculation of the American Basex company, an ordinary employee is interrupted an average of 70 times a day at work. This will result in at least 2.1 hours being wasted in the "switching" process.

These interruptions may come from superiors, colleagues, customers, QQ, WeChat, emails, new messages... Our time is endlessly cut and refined, and is measured in "seconds". We are forced to switch back and forth between multiple different tasks, making our attention "run around tiredly".

Over time, we will get used to "switching" and find it difficult to focus our attention on something.

The direct result of this is: We find it difficult to actively call on the memory system to "remember" things and can only let it passively receive information and function.

Furthermore, these continuous interruptions and distractions will fill our cognitive resources, making the brain overwork - thus, making us feel tired and further reducing and weakening the motivation for memory.

Think about it: Do you always feel extremely tired even though you haven't done much all day? A large part of the reason is the lack of some undisturbed and focused time - that is, what I call "prime time".

This may be the main culprit that makes you "forgetful".

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Another reason is that there is simply too much information from the outside world.

In this information age, there is a specialized technical field that teaches you how to capture others' attention.

I have to say that the media and self - media we see in our daily lives are really proficient in this skill.

The brain likes novelty, so they create all kinds of gimmicks, pursue "exclusives" and "hotspots", and use the "strange" to catch your eye.

The brain likes emotions, so they use means such as nationalism, binary opposition, emotional catharsis, and group - based quarrels to arouse and stir up your emotions.

The brain likes stories, so there are "story courses", "story thinking", "how to tell a good story", and "using stories to influence others" everywhere;

The brain likes to pry into privacy, so a large number of gossip and hearsay spread widely. Even if they are just groundless rumors, they can be made into a big deal;

The brain likes to hoard, so all kinds of fragmented knowledge and "trivia" swarm in, packaging themselves with nice names, simplifying all the underlying support and logic, just to give you the satisfaction of "knowing".

...

Under this carefully designed external "feeding", a phenomenon is likely to occur in our brains - what I call the "illusion of knowing".

What does it mean? A piece of information only enters your short - term memory and has not been written into long - term memory, but in the brain's view, it has been "remembered" - so, we start to lose interest in it and shift our attention to new information.

Why does this happen? There are also two reasons.

1. Most information will continuously compete for your attention through carefully designed stimuli, keeping you in a state of "near - far" all the time, and your attention is constantly "forced" to wander among various pieces of information.

In order to receive these large amounts of fresh stimuli, the brain has to shorten the time spent on each piece of information as much as possible. Therefore, it will deceive itself into thinking that it "remembers" and regard "familiarity" as internalization to save time and cognitive costs.

2. Most information has become more and more "comfortable" in order to reduce your reception cost. It tries to make you use as little brainpower as possible and "not need to think". Information is packaged into canned products, fed to your mouth, and injected into your bloodstream.

This results in the brain not having to expend mental effort when understanding and cognizing, and not encountering any obstacles - this also gives the brain an illusion of "I understand".

Over time, our attention will become scattered. Just like muscles that haven't been exercised for a long time, it's difficult to concentrate and focus.

This also leads to another consequence: We start to "reject" slightly more complex information.

Why don't you ask yourself: How long has it been since you last carefully read and thought about some complex information?

Is the information you receive every day just some vague, logic - and information - lacking chats, stories, gossips, short sentences, pictures, and titles?

In the long run, all you can remember are these fragmented and unstructured pieces.

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So, the entire memory strategy I adopt is a combination of externalization and internalization.

I have a habit: Whenever I think of anything useful, I immediately write it down. Things to do are recorded in the to - do list; all other chat records, reading notes, and inspiration ideas are recorded in electronic notes.

Then, I regularly set aside time to organize and optimize them, making these notes "flow".

In this process, what's the most core practice?

Unification.

The reason why many people's collective memory systems fail is that they haven't optimized its structure well - information is casually placed in "convenient and labor - saving" places, without rules or organization, in a complete mess.

This leads to: On the one hand, due to the Google Effect, information is transferred out of the brain; on the other hand, it's not properly placed, resulting in the loss of its connection with our brain and becoming isolated fragments.

How to improve it? The most crucial step is to set a set of rules for yourself:

No matter what the information is, I put it in one place and sort it out according to a set of rules; when needed, I just enter through this entrance to search and call it up.

Don't underestimate the role of "unification": If you have 5 entrances, then 1 piece of information has 5 possibilities, and 2 pieces of information have 5x5 = 25 possibilities - its complexity increases exponentially.

This is equivalent to increasing the burden on the brain in disguise.

In my notes, I have a workbench page that records the indexes of all projects. For any information, the first step is collection, and the second step is organization, hooking it up to the project index.

In this way, no matter what the information is, I can easily find it just by opening this workbench page.

You can use any tool as long as it's convenient and can establish a complete set of rules for "unified" information storage.

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This is externalization. As for the internalization part, I will exercise my attention and memory through the following methods to remember more "clues".

1. Improve the signal - to - noise ratio

The signal - to - noise ratio is an information academic term, referring to the signal divided by the noise. The higher the signal - to - noise ratio, the fewer the irrelevant noises, and the stronger our ability to remember and recall important information.

How to improve the signal - to - noise ratio? The most crucial thing is to "reduce noise".

As mentioned before, most information is actually noise and of little value. The only result is to pollute your memory system. So, try to block it out.

What you need to do is to establish a valve, an effective "information sieve":

Don't read information from unreliable sources; Don't read overly fragmented information; Don't read topics that don't interest you; Don't read content of low value.

Don't underestimate these noises. The brain has a characteristic of grouping similar things together for memory. So, if these "noises" are similar in topic to the "signals", they will seriously interfere with the brain's memory of truly valuable information.

In the long run, you will easily be unable to distinguish: what is true, what is false, what can be believed, and what needs to be questioned.

2. Exercise short - term memory

Short - term memory plays the role of a "table" in the entire memory system - all information needs to be first placed on the table for preliminary processing and then can be sorted and stored in the "warehouse".

So, simply put: The size of the table determines the upper limit of the information you can process.

Although our short - term memory is limited to 4 units, the brain gives us a chance: It doesn't limit the size of each "unit".

That is to say, what we need to train is the ability to reorganize and integrate fragmented things into a whole "chunk".

The simplest way is to consciously force yourself to calculate and remember some long and complex information in daily life, such as:

Try to recite and remember phone numbers, license plate numbers, store names, etc.; Observe the scene in front of you, close your eyes, and sketch and recall it in your mind; Do some mental calculations at all times, such as estimating the customer flow and monthly income of a store.

This can strengthen your "chunking" ability and make memory no longer a burden.

3. Recall and output

What's the best way to remember an article? It's to recall its main content after reading it, write it down in your own words, and then check and confirm it.

Similarly, the most important thing to remember some key clues is to recall and use them more - only in this way will the brain think that "it's important".

You can do more of these exercises usually, calling up the stored information from long - term memory to enhance your recall ability. For example:

Record a journal every day: What did you do today, what did you learn, and what did you think about? Try to recall what you've seen recently. For example, if you recently watched a movie, what are the names of each character in it? Connect new situations and things you encounter with your existing knowledge and ask yourself: What does it remind me of?

Try to make it your daily habit. You can do it when walking, waiting, or being bored. On the one hand, it can kill time, and on the other hand, it can help the brain continuously chew on information and improve memory.

4. Maintain good sleep

This point may be easily overlooked.

In fact, psychology has long discovered that an extremely important function of sleep is to "prune" our memory: to clear away unimportant neural connections, thereby strengthening and highlighting more important information.

So, we often have such an experience: After a good night's sleep, we feel refreshed, and the problems we encountered yesterday are easily solved - actually, this is because the brain has cleared away redundant neural connections, allowing us to see the whole picture of the problem.

What you need to do is to maintain at least 6 hours of sleep every day, and make it regular and stable, going to bed and getting up at fixed times. In addition, try to improve the environment, including comfort, light, sound, etc., to avoid being disturbed.

If you can't maintain good sleep, you can take a nap to make up for it. Research has found that even a 5 - minute nap can have a certain effect of "pruning neural pathways". But it's best to develop good sleeping habits.

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I hope this article can help you break the confusion and establish an understanding of the memory system:

1. The memory system can be divided into external and internal parts, and the two are closely connected - internal memory is combined with the external system through "clues".
2. We don't need a "photographic" memory. What we need is an effective externalization system and the ability to domesticate and operate it well.
3. Our forgetfulness of "clues" is essentially due to scattered attention. So, improving internal memory essentially means protecting attention.

Do you have any experiences in strengthening the memory system? Whether it's external or internal, you're welcome to share them in the comments section. :)