Have you ever heard of chunking? No, not chunky, chunking! Chunking is the process of putting the information you need to know into categories, clusters or hierarchies. By doing this it (in theory) will make it much easier for you to recall all the information you need to remember. This memory technique is quite simple to use and it will quickly transform your ability to remember lots of data and information if used correctly.
Chunking describes the method of grouping together a series of items in order to make remembering each item individually much easier. Make sense? Clear as mud? Chunking usually comes in the form of categories or hierarchies and it can be applied to just about anything - objects, formulas, names, dates, numbers, places, events, symbols, and so on.
You may like to group items together based on the first letter of the word or sentence (so you would group all words or sentences starting with the letter S or the letter C for example). Or you could group them together based on what type of item it is or what you do with it, or what it's made from, or even on how you use or apply the item. There are literally 100's of ways that items can be chunked together.
Whatever groups you use, make sure that the information is meaningful or familiar to you. In other words, don't create groups you won't even remember the group name of! If you do that, you will have no chance of remembering the smaller bits of information that are contained with the groups. Let's take a look at how this might work.
Let's say we have ten items: lamp, bread, sausages, table, strawberries, bananas, basketball, television, soccer, and bean bag. We could chunk them in several ways couldn't we? For example, items you might find in a living room: lamp, table, television, and bean bag. Or how about sports: basketball and soccer. What about things that are edible: bread, sausages, strawberries, and bananas. Even just first letters of the words would be very effective: B - bread, bananas, basketball and bean bag. Followed by S - sausages, strawberries and soccer. Finally, T for Table and Television and L for Lamp.
As you can see by using chunking the items are being grouped together in order to create more memorable memory traces. Building memory traces helps you to remember the items. Don't believe me? Quick - tell me what items we just learnt that start with B. I bet you got at least a couple without even trying to commit them to memory. The point is, once you have chunked the items you only need to remember the group in order to recall the items instead of trying to remember each item on its own.
Now let's take things a bit deeper. What about chunking numbers? Let's say you need to remember the following number - 3112196911222006. Say each number one by one. Did you get all that? Now repeat it out aloud without looking at it. Hmm - three, one, one, two - wouldn't have a clue? There was a six somewhere? Not sure? But if we use chunking all of a sudden this becomes much easier.
Firstly we have 3112. If you applied to this number to a date you would get the 31st of December - 3112. Next, 1969 - everyone remembers that this is the year that man first went to the moon. Next comes 11. This is the first number that can't be counted on your fingers or your toes. Next comes 22. Well that's just double 11! Finally, we have 2006 - that's the very same year that Brazil won the world cup of soccer. Pretty simple stuff really!
So, now that we've "chunked" it up properly what we're really remembering are events - not numbers. And by chunking it in this way we're much more likely to remember it. New Year's Eve, man walks on moon, one too many fingers, double one too many fingers and Brazil wins the soccer world cup. 3112 - 1969 -11-22-2206. 3112196911222006. Bingo!
Once again, these examples do simplify the process but you can't argue with how effective this method is. So start chunking today and see how much you can remember. You will be amazed! Good luck.
Chunking describes the method of grouping together a series of items in order to make remembering each item individually much easier. Make sense? Clear as mud? Chunking usually comes in the form of categories or hierarchies and it can be applied to just about anything - objects, formulas, names, dates, numbers, places, events, symbols, and so on.
You may like to group items together based on the first letter of the word or sentence (so you would group all words or sentences starting with the letter S or the letter C for example). Or you could group them together based on what type of item it is or what you do with it, or what it's made from, or even on how you use or apply the item. There are literally 100's of ways that items can be chunked together.
Whatever groups you use, make sure that the information is meaningful or familiar to you. In other words, don't create groups you won't even remember the group name of! If you do that, you will have no chance of remembering the smaller bits of information that are contained with the groups. Let's take a look at how this might work.
Let's say we have ten items: lamp, bread, sausages, table, strawberries, bananas, basketball, television, soccer, and bean bag. We could chunk them in several ways couldn't we? For example, items you might find in a living room: lamp, table, television, and bean bag. Or how about sports: basketball and soccer. What about things that are edible: bread, sausages, strawberries, and bananas. Even just first letters of the words would be very effective: B - bread, bananas, basketball and bean bag. Followed by S - sausages, strawberries and soccer. Finally, T for Table and Television and L for Lamp.
As you can see by using chunking the items are being grouped together in order to create more memorable memory traces. Building memory traces helps you to remember the items. Don't believe me? Quick - tell me what items we just learnt that start with B. I bet you got at least a couple without even trying to commit them to memory. The point is, once you have chunked the items you only need to remember the group in order to recall the items instead of trying to remember each item on its own.
Now let's take things a bit deeper. What about chunking numbers? Let's say you need to remember the following number - 3112196911222006. Say each number one by one. Did you get all that? Now repeat it out aloud without looking at it. Hmm - three, one, one, two - wouldn't have a clue? There was a six somewhere? Not sure? But if we use chunking all of a sudden this becomes much easier.
Firstly we have 3112. If you applied to this number to a date you would get the 31st of December - 3112. Next, 1969 - everyone remembers that this is the year that man first went to the moon. Next comes 11. This is the first number that can't be counted on your fingers or your toes. Next comes 22. Well that's just double 11! Finally, we have 2006 - that's the very same year that Brazil won the world cup of soccer. Pretty simple stuff really!
So, now that we've "chunked" it up properly what we're really remembering are events - not numbers. And by chunking it in this way we're much more likely to remember it. New Year's Eve, man walks on moon, one too many fingers, double one too many fingers and Brazil wins the soccer world cup. 3112 - 1969 -11-22-2206. 3112196911222006. Bingo!
Once again, these examples do simplify the process but you can't argue with how effective this method is. So start chunking today and see how much you can remember. You will be amazed! Good luck.
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