A Memory Trick

Appointing the conservative commentator and former Secret Service deputy director, Dan Bongino, places a political appointee, rather than a career agent, in the No. 2 job for the first time in the bureau’s 117-year history.

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Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz was the original name given a game by its creator, Josh Wardle, before the world came to know ithe game as Wordle.

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A Memory Trick

We naturally forget older memories our brains deem less important in order to make room for newer, more valuable information. Memory is, essentially, a competitive process, according to Ranganath. 

After a month, people tend to remember only 20-30 percent of what they were first taught. 

Ebbinghaus recommended something called spaced repetition. Recalling information tags it as more important in your brain, helping it win the competition for your limited memory space. That’s why your teachers back in high school nagged you to review material multiple times before tests and avoid a single cram session the night before.

Studying that’s spaced out vastly improves memory and recall. 

Writing on Medium recently, an adult language learner named Hillel suggested a fabulously simple trick to put Ebbinghaus’s insight to use. He calls it the 2-7-30 Rule. 

Here’s the basic idea: When you’re trying to learn new material, test yourself by trying to recall it two, seven, and 30 days after you initially learn it. 

“The intervals were based on the Ebbinghaus curve and my capacity for retaining information (discovered through trial and error),” he explains. 

For Hillel, this meant making lists of Spanish vocabulary and then testing himself by translating them back and forth from English at the two-, seven-, and 30-day marks. But this technique isn’t limited to learning foreign languages. 

“You can write a one-page summary after finishing the book and schedule review dates 2, 7, and 30 days in the future,” he suggests. Rewrite the summary without checking your notes and see how well you do. 

He even suggests setting yourself calendar reminders on the second, seventh, and 30th day so you don’t miss a session.