A Simple Hack to Boost Recall & Form New Habits

It’s All About The Limbic System

• The limbic system is key when talking about the formation of new memories.
• Specifically, the amygdala and the hippocampus are the two components related to memory and learning.
• The amygdala regulates your emotions, and the hippocampus forms new memories.
• When the amygdala and the hippocampus interact, they attach emotional context to memories.
• This is why all learning and memory is state dependent: Your emotional state matters.
• Habits are tied to memory and learning.
• You have to remember to do the behavior you’re learning as well as retain the knowledge of how to do it.
• You can increase your ability to create these habits by adding emotion.

Three Ways To Learn

• In physics, there are three variables: Frequency, duration, and intensity.
• If you were building muscles using frequency, you’d be doing lots of reps throughout your workout on top of working out multiple times throughout the week, or even the day.
• When it comes to memory, frequency is using repetition to memorize information.
• Duration is the length of time you’re spending engaged in an activity.
• With duration, instead of doing a ton of reps you’d spend more time on the treadmill, in an exercise class, walking, or running.
• In memory training, duration is the amount of time you spend studying.
• For example, an all-night study session.
• Those are both great options and will get you results.
• But the downside is that they take time.
• This can be a detriment, particularly if you feel like you simply don’t have a lot of time in your busy day.
• Intensity can get the same results in less time.
• When it comes to memory training, intensity comes in the form of visualization.
• A lot of this intensity also comes from emotion.
• Think about a song that takes you back to your youth. That’s emotional intensity at work.
• Remember: Information by itself is forgettable. But information tied with emotion becomes unforgettable.

Memory, Habits, & Emotion

• You’re not logical, you’re biological.
• You make decisions emotionally and justify them logically.
• Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins are the chemical soup of emotion that drive your behavior.
• When you take information and attach emotion to it, it’s far more likely to become a long-term memory.
• It’s the same with habits.
• Dr. BJ Fogg has a lab at Stanford University, where he studies behavioral psychology.
• He studies why we do what we do, what it takes to create new habits, and how to break old habits.
• He summarizes his work in three words: Emotions create habits.
• You have habits of thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• Memories are a habit.
• The three stages of memory are encoding, storing, and retrieval.
• Encoding is turning something into a memory. Then you store it. And then you can retrieve it.
• Information gets encoded based on the three pillars of memory: emotion (encoding), location (storing), and association (retrieval).
• Learning how to use tactics like visualization and imagination makes information more intense to ensure it gets encoded.

Applying Emotion To Memory & Habit

• Ask yourself two questions when you want to remember something: What do you see and how does it make you feel?
• Usually the things you want to remember are things you hear.
• Adding visual and emotional cues helps adds intensity to the information.
• Adding emotion works to help build healthy habits in the same way.
• If you want to get into the habit of remembering someone’s name, you’d apply emotion to three areas.
• First, when you meet someone, you need to remember to that you want to remember their name.
• Second, when you engage in the behavior of actively trying to remember.
• And finally, when you retrieve the information later.
• At each step, you want to reinforce the memory/behavior.
• Whatever you reinforce or reward, the more likely it becomes that you’ll do more of that behavior.
• Emotions are the molecules of motivation.
• The same chemicals that create emotion­­—dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins—also create motivation.
• The more you get these chemical releases, the more you want them.
• Rewarding yourself gives you these bursts of chemicals faster than if you wait for someone else to reward you.
• What does reward look like?
• It can be anything that makes you feel good.
• An internal high five, giving yourself a pat on the back, telling yourself good job.
• Whatever feels like a celebration to you is a reward.
• Reward yourself when you remember to remember, when you actually remember, and when you retrieve the memory.
• You can apply this to any habit.
• You remembered to workout? CHEERS! You’re working out? CELEBRATE! You finished working out? VICTORY!
• Celebrating looks different for everyone.
• Find what works for you; whether it’s something you tell yourself or something you physically do.

The Neurology Of Reward

• Most people reward themselves after they’ve completed an activity or reached a goal.
• But in terms of the way your brain works, you’ll get faster and better results if you celebrate during the process.
• Giving yourself smaller rewards while you’re engaging in the behavior motivates you to continue.
• Waiting to celebrate can lead to frustration, which can make progress slower.
• It’s common to struggle with feelings of inadequacy or imposter syndrome.
• When you delay rewards, it makes these feelings stand out because you don’t feel like you’re making progress.
• Emotion has a substantial influence on cognitive processing for human beings.
• This is true for perception, intention, memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and more.
• Add more positive emotions to your memories and habits to build more of them.
• Remember: First you create your habits, then your habits create you.
• Emotion helps facilitate the encoding of a memory, but it also helps retrieve the information more efficiently.
• Your emotions have immense influence on your motivation, retention, and all of your behavior.
• That’s the mental trick; figuring out how you can add more joy, more celebration, and more self-praise to everything.
• It can feel awkward, but learning how to add emotion to your learning and memory will make both stronger.
• Sometimes all you need is a shot of positive emotion to reinforce behavior and encode the memory.
• Reinforce small changes every day.
• Add more emotion to your memory by celebrating your wins. Celebrate when you remember to do something.
• Think about how to apply this to others as well.
• By pointing out the good behaviors that others do, you help give them a jolt of celebration.
• They’ll be more likely to do it more often, and it will help remind you to celebrate too.
• Maya Angelou said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
• Reinforce good behavior and look for the positive to celebrate in yourself and in others.
• Be sure to check out the unedited, extended episode on YouTube, here.

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