The Futurist's Guide to Smarter Learning
Can you remember what you had for lunch on this day last week?
For most of us, it's not even easy to remember what we had for lunch yesterday. Yet we can remember events from our childhood and lots of factual information that's accumulated over the years. That's how we can play along with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Memory is also central to your ability to make great decisions. Your experience of the past is what fuels your imagination for the future, and the decisions you make to shape it.
Yet your memory doesn't work the way you think it does.
Most people regard their memories as being like computer hard drives, recording the facts of their lives. We need to believe this, because faith in our memories is how we can maintain continuity in our lives – the sense that we are today the same person we were yesterday.
But rather than a record of the past, it's perhaps more accurate to think of it as an interpretation of your experience.
That means your memory is far more chaotic and subjective than you give it credit for.??
Researchers asked 3,000 Americans, for example, what they remembered of the 911 terrorist attacks in the U.S. – such as what they were doing when they first learnt about the attacks – at various intervals after the event. The results showed that after around a year, consistency in people's memories was only 63 percent, and this deteriorated another 9 percentage points over the next two years. This was despite consistently high levels of confidence that their memories were correct.
But it's not just forgetting that's a problem. A famous experiment by Elizabeth Loftus showed she was able to convince a quarter of the participants that they had experienced being lost in a shopping centre as a child, even though they hand't.
So, we forget things without realising, and we remember things that never happened.
As a futurist, you shouldn't leave this process of remembering and forgetting to chance. Because you can learn much more from your experiences by actively reflecting on them.
By being deliberate about your memeory, you can increase the power of your imagination and, therefore, the decisions you make.
There are lots of ways to reflect on your experiences, but some kind of journaling is the most obvious.
For example, a study in India of call centre trainees showed that those who spent just 15 minutes to write down what they had learnt that day improved their performance on a final exam by 23 percent.
In another experiment by the same researchers, participants had to solve two rounds of puzzles. Between rounds, they could choose to either do some practice puzzles or write down what they had learnt from the first round. More than 80 percent chose to practice more. Yet it was that smart minority who reflected on their experience that were more successful in the second round.?
One of the best ways to bring structure to your learning is through journalling. Of course, you could just take some time to just think about what you've learnt, but it can be far better to write it down in response to prompts that get you to think in a certain way, critically assessing what you've experienced.?
Here are three journaling techniques to help you maximise the learnings from your experiences.
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When to Use It This is a great daily journaling exercise to develop self-awareness and reflect on your experiences.
How to Use It At the end of each day, answer these three questions:
This helps you identify your assumptions, recognise recurring situations, and learn from both positive and negative experiences.
Main Benefit The Three Questions Method builds your capacity for self-reflection. By consistently examining your experiences through these lenses, you'll become more attuned to your thought patterns, emotional responses and decision-making process. This heightened self-awareness can lead to better choices going forward.
When to Use It Keep a Decision Journal for important, high-stakes choices you need to make.
How to Use It For each significant decision:
Main Benefit Documenting your decision-making process in this structured way allows you to review your choices objectively over time. This can reveal patterns in your thought process, highlight areas for improvement, and help you make better decisions in the future.
When to Use It This technique is helpful for gaining perspective on experiences, especially ones that felt stressful or overwhelming in the moment.
How to Use It Imagine looking back on a recent experience, but from 6 months in the future. Write about:
Main Benefit Creating psychological distance through future-focused reflection allows you to identify what truly matters most. This can help you let go of minor details or fleeting emotions that clouded your judgment in the moment and focus on the lasting significance of an experience.
Futurists don't just learn by doing; you learn by thinking about what you've done. By extracting the real value from you experience, you can think much more clearly about what you want from the future.
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