The key is to review at the right time

Forgetting things is not a failure of the brain, but a natural mechanism of memory to prioritize the really important of the rest. As I explained Charan Ranganath, neuroscientist from the University of California and author of the book ‘Why we remember‘: “We are designed to forget the irrelevant and prioritize the essential.”

New technologies have reduced need to memorize dataso it is possible that this part of our brain needs some more training in recent years, given the enormous flow of constant information we receive.

He Method 2-7-30 Not only will it help you Improve retention of any new knowledge that you acquire, but also contributes to maintaining the active mind preventing premature cognitive impairment.

The science behind oblivion: Ebbinghaus’s curve

In 1880, the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus He discovered that we forget between 70% and 80% of what we have learned in the last 30 days if we do not review it during that period. This phenomenon, known as “curve of oblivion“, It shows that, without periodic reviews, the brain classifies information as expendable and ends up discarding it to the corner of oblivion.

The Ebbinghaus curve describes a strong fall at the beginning, and progressively stabilizes. That represents the importance of reviewing the subjects learned during the immediate days, saving that high risk of initial oblivion.

Ebbinghaus’s forgetfulness curve

Here the 2-7-30 method that, like other study and memory systems, is based on The systematic review From what has been learned, so, by reactivating memories periodically, you deceive the brain to archive those memories as relevant.

As Ranganath recalls, memory is, in essence, a competitive process in which the newest flap to the oldest. If you do not recover from so much as long as it ends up forgetting. This strategy takes advantage of neuroplasticity, brain capacity to reorganize even adulthood.

How to apply the 2-7-30 rule

The name of this method refers to the time period between reviews recommended for retain knowledgeso the method is simple to apply. After learning something new (a language, technical concepts and even routines), review it again two days later. Then, repeat the review after seven days and, finally, 30 days after having learned it.

The cyclic use of this technique to set knowledge progressively, thus enhancing what Ebbinghaus called “learning savings”, or the reduction of time or effort necessary to learn something that had previously been memorized and then partially forgotten

To optimize results, the results can be combined with other retention techniques, such as summaries out loud or Explain to someone which proposes the Feynman method.

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