Many people have a hard time committing things to memory, especially with all the distractions that can come your way. Maybe the answer is as close as your iPod!
Developing better memorization and faster recall skill for school-related projects will enhance your ability to pull together a wider spectrum of information for class discussions, papers, and tests. This blog will show you how you can use your favorite songs to help you do just that.
Continuing with my back to school series, which began with "Back to School, Use Music to Get Better Grades," this blog will discuss how you can use your favorite music to help improve your memory when it counts most: for things you are doing at school. Again, this approach is not about using music to get smarter. Rather, it is about how to use music to optimize some of your natural skills that already help make you smart as well as more successful.
In my book Your Playlist Can Change Your Life, my co-authors and I discuss the science of optimizing the mind by balancing it. This starts with figuring out which way your mental energy needs to go (up or down) before you start a task and using music to get you there. In my last blog, I gave playlist suggestions and meditations to help guide you into states of more alertness or more calm.
In terms of increasing enhancing memory, my partners and I, in Playlist, talk about using your favorite music to launch your mind into a flowing (optimized) and remembering mode and, all importantly, sustaining that mindset for your projects. If you'd like to try adapting this some of this strategy toward school work, here's all you have to do.
- First, balance your mind. This is an important first step. Consult my previous blog, "Back to School, Use Music to Get Better Grades," for playlists and meditations to increase your mental energy or decrease it, depending on which way you need to go (again... up or down) to feel simultaneously relaxed and energized.
In brief: If you are too mellow to accomplish a task or too unmotivated, then create a playlist that will bring you up to the right level mental energy you need -- but not over. Too much of a good thing, in this case, can have negative returns. You're looking for balance. If you are too anxious or pumped up and need to calm to send your focus to its peak effectiveness, put together a calming playlist. Just push play for 7 - 12 minutes until you've reached the desired effect.
Next, play a song from your distant past that you really enjoy. When you feel you have balanced your mindset (you're feeling alert and relaxed simultaneously) try this: Pick a tune that you liked a lot "back when" and which you still really like today. For me, I try to pick songs that my mom or dad liked in my childhood, when I felt in the deep comfort and safety of my parents -- happy days with warm and comfy memories of my mother and father and good interactions among us. These were days when my entire hand was still smaller than my father's palm. For you, it can be anytime, anywhere as long as it doesn't send conflicting feelings or themes that may inhibit what you are trying to do next: in this case, schoolwork. As for me, I love listening to "You Are My Special Angel" by Bobby Vinton. This one is loaded with childhood memories of my family eating breakfast in our small country town, with my mother usually singing a little along with the radio that was always playing in our house. I was younger than my youngest child then, but my memory of this is quite clear and moving. It's perfect. If I try hard enough, I can imagine even the food on the table and flood of good fragrances from all those years ago.
Lastly, make a mental movie. Create a narrative (story) in your head using some of the images or segments of your memory that are coming back to you. The more parts of your mind you use the better. Try to create dialogue; hear the voices. Pay attention to scent and touch and taste. The more the better -- 10 - 12 minutes works great. Now, you are ready to start working. Balance again if necessary. Send your brain the message that you want it to remember. Read what you are trying to commit to memory often before you actually need it for a test, presentation or discussion. Read aloud. One young woman I was working with said her college grades went from Bs to straight As in one semester by using this activity and tapping the power of her favorite songs. Worth a try.
For a more detailed discussion of how this works, you may want to check out Your Playlist Can Change Your Life.
Stay tuned: In a series of upcoming blogs, I will explore how you can use music to help with on the roller coaster of emotions you will probably experience at school this year, including in new relationships and breakups. We will also look songs to help keep you organized.
As always, remember, it's really all about training the mind to act the way you want it to in specific daily situations -- and music, when used in this way, becomes your conditioning tool.
"Gonna Make You Sweat," C+C Music Factory
"I'll Be There For You," Bon Jovi
"I Want To KNow What Love Is," Foreigner
"Only Wanna Be With You," Hootie & The Blowfish
"Roll With It," Steve Winwood
"Punk Rock Girl," The Dead Milkmen
"Genie In A Bottle," Christina Aguilera
"All Star," Smash Mouth
"Back At One," Brian McKnight"
"Love Shack," The B-52's
For more by Joseph Cardillo, Ph.D., click here.
For more on emotional intelligence, click here.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
It's Another Trump-Biden Showdown — And We Need Your Help
The Future Of Democracy Is At Stake
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
The 2024 election is heating up, and women's rights, health care, voting rights, and the very future of democracy are all at stake. Donald Trump will face Joe Biden in the most consequential vote of our time. And HuffPost will be there, covering every twist and turn. America's future hangs in the balance. Would you consider contributing to support our journalism and keep it free for all during this critical season?
HuffPost believes news should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. We rely on readers like you to help fund our work. Any contribution you can make — even as little as $2 — goes directly toward supporting the impactful journalism that we will continue to produce this year. Thank you for being part of our story.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
It's official: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden this fall in the presidential election. As we face the most consequential presidential election of our time, HuffPost is committed to bringing you up-to-date, accurate news about the 2024 race. While other outlets have retreated behind paywalls, you can trust our news will stay free.
But we can't do it without your help. Reader funding is one of the key ways we support our newsroom. Would you consider making a donation to help fund our news during this critical time? Your contributions are vital to supporting a free press.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our journalism free and accessible to all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.
Support HuffPostAlready contributed? Log in to hide these messages.