How is your memory recall?
Would you love your audience to recall everything you share?
Ok so I’m just putting it out there… yes I have a memory issue and I’m constantly looking for ways to better my memory. Are you the type to go to webinars, listen in on coaching calls, only to find a day later you’re questioning what was discussed? Worse still, trying and work out if it was even the day before you did the webinar! Yeah my memory is pretty hopeless..
BUT NO FEAR MY DEAR! This blog is about how we can build up the memory muscle and also apply these techniques to the content we offer out there to others in our memberships, courses etc.
If you’re new to this blog, then welcome! My name is Nikki Cali and I’m the founder of Wisdome. I created this platfrom for my own needs and the needs of fellow membership owners, course creators and coaches. They were my inspiration after learning the need they had to provide a simple fully featured platform to share their wisdom on.
I tell you all of this because to share our wisdom we are recalling lessons we’ve learnt in our past and onto our audience. But how do we share that information so our audience remembers it and appreciates it?
Let’s begin with how we first learn to walk (yep that far back), when we learn to walk we may fall over a few times, but with repetition and revision we begin to strengthen our recall patterns. Now put this into memory context and think about how you might have learnt your multiplications. I had a fantastic teacher in Grade 5 who helped me find love in mathematics.. I know I know, but I do love it, and it was all in the way he taught me to remember my multiplications, I had to repeat/rehearse my multiplications multiple times..(there is more to his teachings and I’ll explain more a little later)… So yes by repeating the message, we being to memorise the data intake.
REPEAT
Have you ever felt like you seem to be repeating yourself a lot in your content? Do you feel like you need to change it up a bit? In a recent interview I had with a guest on my podcast called The Wise Dome, we had a good ole chat about repeating our message. At times we might feel like a broken record and think we need to freshen up the content, which yes at times we certainly do, but keeping the main message and lesson on repeat is a must.
If you are starting out, then obviously REPEAT is the number one tip here! So do so through varied medium. Repeat through text, video, audio, even images. Consistentancy helps drive through your message.
Here you are creating a pattern by repeating your message in different ways.. building out more content.
However let’s look at “repeating”, in a different way.
By repetition we are helping our audience recall our message in the short term, however by helping our audience implement and evaluate the lesson, they are able to capture that lesson into a longer term memory.
When you help your audience learn and recall those lessons easier, they tend to appreciate you a whole lot more.... remember my Grade 5 teacher!
- getting your audience to recreate a scenario
- give them a short quiz
- have them evaluate the lesson
- maybe adapt the lesson in a way they can use it themselves, trial it and later evaluate.
How can we best share our content to help our audience recall?
Now earlier I mentioned my grade 5 teacher who I truly appreciated because of the way he taught me mathematics. Whilst I had to continuously repeat verbally and write my mulitplications, it was more in the patterns of the numbers that I began to relate and find equations easier to process. Now our brains can work differently from each other, but in essence we know that patterns can help us recall data, it is actually the most natural thing in the human brain to do. When we see patterns in things we tend to feel more comfortable with the information, therefore making it easier to remember. Yes with mathematics we see number patterns, however we also see patterns in past knowledge and experiences. That’s when we relate…
RELATE
According to neuroscientist Daniel Bor, author of The Ravenous Brain, chunking represents our ability to “hack” the limits of our memory. Chunking is a kind of cognitive compression mechanism, where like I said earlier, as humans we have a natural tendancy to see patterns. Have you ever read an article, to only go back and read over it again a couple times to make sure you got it? Well that’s you trying to comprehend, but with that data, did you try to relate it to something in your experience to better understand (comprehend) and memorise (relate) it? That is what Bor calls Chunking!
When we place things into chunks of memory we tend to recall that data easier. For example, Have you tried to recall what you needed to buy from the grocers? and had to recall a memory such as a conversation about missing an ingredient whilst making something for dinner that night and said to yourself, “remember I need to buy that next time I’m at the grocery store!”…. Well that is you “chunking” that memory so you can recall it later. How about trying to remember a name! Well you might relate that name to an object, like Marcus… you might think “Marcus is messy and marks things”. It’s a way we recal back data through a memory, or relating to something we know.
When we relate that data to something of our own experiences, we can recall it easier too.
Side note… here’s another form of “chunking” to gain attention…..
Ever noticed when you read a post, or a blog… the paragraphs are not too long? Well, that is a form of Chunking too! It is those bite sizes of meaning that make up the mechanism to gaining attention and in turn retention.
HOW ‘REPEATING’ AND ‘RELATING’ WORK TOGETHER
Repeating through rehearsal as we call it, and strategic learning through implementation and evaluation, can improve short term memory, and in turn help build that information you share into the long term memory for your audience. Plus Relating our information, such as offering analogies or relatable stories, creates links and integrates things into your audiences existing knowledge which helps them retain your content.
So in summary, the most amazing thing to help your audience retain your content is to;
HOW?
You can use a multitude of ways to deliver and engage with your audience with your content;
Videos – Build in stories, what we call analogies so your audience can relate, and repeat your message in different ways.
Text – build in questions, break up your paragraphs into sizable chunks of meaning.
Images – add emotion to inspire memories.
Interact – with your audience and get them invovled by implementing the lesson through a past experience of their own and evaluating both your lesson and implementing the lesson into their own goals.
I hope this post helped you in some way, either by helping you build up your memory muscle with “chunking” or offering a way to help you share with your audience.
