Everyday Learning Part 5: To Write is to Remember

This is part five of five in my series about everyday learning. Now that I've learned four things this week I need to not just learn but to remember.

In my younger and more functional days, I was into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Here we see pajama wrestlers in their natural habitat.

BJJ is a martial art that involves lots of practice. The people who were good at it practiced every day and I noticed that some of them carried notebooks to practice and they would write things with their sweaty hands after each match.

I eventually asked one guy what he was writing. He said "being good is about getting the little things right. I write down anything I learn, helps me remember." Or at least he said something along those lines, I don't recall exactly, I didn't write it down.

I was thinking about this today and it brought me to look into why people might write down things they want to know. We all took notes in high school, some of us still take notes in meetings, but almost no one takes notes on everyday life. It turns out that writing things down activates a different part of our brain than if we just talk or think about a concept. By activating new pathways you make it more likely that your brain will retain it.

So that's the last thing I learned this week, and if I want to retain it, I'll write it down.

Which, it now occurs to me, I just did.

Thanks for reading everybody. Try to remember how you learn every day and celebrate it. Our little victories are our greatest.