Forgetful? This Trick Will Help You Recall Anything

I’m sure that everyone can relate to the feeling of having an answer on the tip of their tongue but not quite being able to access it. Nowadays, we constantly have so much information flooding our brains that it can be hard to remember everything (or, at times, anything).?

According to neuroscience and mental performance researcher Tiago Forte, the most successful people are always fine-tuning their memory skills. By practicing Forte’s? “CODE” method — capture, organize, distill, express — anyone can improve their recall abilities, generate more concrete ideas, and make better connections.??

Capture

Just like an electronic device, we only have so much memory available for storage, which means not everything needs to be saved to our hard drives — er, brains. According to Forte, there are four reasons information is worth capturing: It is inspiring, personal, useful, or surprising.?

If it inspires us to do better, that’s a definite save. Personal memories are worth saving for warmth and gratitude. Information that serves a useful purpose, like statistics or research from a given field or career trajectory, is worth saving. Keep surprising knowledge that challenges existing beliefs, and be open if those beliefs require a shift in mindset. In an era of exploding data, instead of aiming to retain as much as possible, choose your knowledge wisely.

Organize

Even if we choose what we remember with care, our brains will fill up, so back up important information with digital tools. Physically organize your relevant information into folders to best access it when you need it.?

Unless we actively have our hand in something at a given moment, it can be hard to keep it all top of mind. Recording important thoughts or ideas digitally can offload information and free up cognitive resources for new information.

Distill

With information organized neatly in our minds and laptops, it becomes much easier to start noticing patterns and making connections. To improve this skill, break down saved knowledge about the information to the heart of the idea. Even novels and white papers can be cut down into a core theme of a few sentences, but it does take a little reflection.

Start by asking what it is about the information that is useful to our goals or future self. Note important words or phrases that carry the bulk of the message. Include just enough data from the whole idea to remind us later what it was that made the information so important as to save it.

Express

After we gain knowledge, using it is the best way to retain it. When we choose information wisely, organize it well, and break it down to its core idea, it becomes easier to share our ideas with authority. We find our voice and know what we have to say is important. By sharing and discussing our saved information, we create a feedback loop that reinforces what we know and challenges us to learn more.?

The more we practice Forte’s CODE approach, the more we learn to search for relevant information, ask more probing and insightful questions, and seek out places to share more knowledge and receive feedback. This loop continues to strengthen our memory skills, driving us to act with more intention and think steps ahead in our efforts to improve.

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Tom Popomaronis is Executive Vice President of Innovation at Massive Alliance, a global executive branding agency. Tom co-founded Massive's Executive Leadership Branding program – which transforms world-class executives into contributing authors at leading publications.

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