How to learn faster and better ©copyright 20 21 by Freedman

Newman.
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Acknowledgements : Lots of research and stories have been
cited in this book. Where I know the source I have been sure to
reference it, but my apologies to the originators of any material I may
have overlooked. Cormac McCarthy said it best, "books are made
out of books." I have borrowed lots of ideas from great books. If any
of your works was mentioned without reference and you would like it
to be removed or referenced, please endeavor to send me an email:
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Dedicated
To you—the person wanting to become a better learner because
everything rises and falls on our ability to learn
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Please Note:
PART ONE
Reading: An Introduction
Is Reading Really Important?
Are Books That Powerful?
A Brief History of Books
What's Reading?
Reading Myths
The 4-step Reading System
System 1: Pre-reading
Pre-reading techniques
System 2: In-depth Reading
System 3: Key Word Noting
System 4: Speed-reading
The phonic method
The look-say method
The Development of Speed-reading
The Eye and Its Movements
Fixation
Vision
Sub-vocalization and Thought Stream
PART THREE
Memory
The Possibilities of the Memory
Your Brain Is Bigger Than Google
Memory Achievements
Modern Day Memory Achievements
Steps to Memory Boost
1: Attention
Ways through which you can develop your attention abilities
2: A Clear and Definite Conception of What Is To Be Memorized
By Sight:
By Hearing:
4: Analyze What You Desire To Commit To Memory
5: Suggestive Association
6: Mnemonics or Acronyms
7: Emotion
8: Schemas
9: Chunking
10: The Art of Practice
Learning Styles
On Food, Water and Learning
On Sleep and Learning
Stop Multitasking
Gender Differences in Multitasking
What Happens When You Focus On a Single Task
Focus Breeds Insight
The Reticular Activating System
PART FOUR
Mind Map
The Creativity Test
A mind map will…
Some Famous People in History Who Mind Mapped
Albert Einstein
Leonardo da Vinci
Galileo Galilee
Charles Darwin
Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION
Let me tell you a fascinating story. It’s about the codex Vaticanus,
some old manuscripts dated back to 325 or 350 A.D., this
manuscripts were brought from the east by Pope Nicholas in 1448.
And u ntil the Napoleonic wars, the manuscripts were hidden from
the general public.
But with the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the papers were returned to
the Vatican before anyone had a chance to examine them carefully.
Once more in the Vatican library, they were jealously guarded by the
Roman Catholics.
Tregelles, a great scholar, decided to investigate the Codex
Vaticanus in the Vatican library. He applied to the pope for
permission to examine the manuscript but his request was rejected.
When he explained that he was a professor at Leipzig University, the
pope gave him the permission to study the manuscript for six hours
only. That was in the year 1843.
Two years later, Tregelles applied and was again granted the
permission to go through the manuscript for some days, six hours at
a time. During this time, he had to submit to strict security measures.
He was searched on his way in and on his way out.
He wasn’t allowed to bring any writing materials or even take
notes. The manuscript was laid out on a large table and he wasn’t
allowed to read it for more than the time specified. To add to his
frustration, there would be guards watching him all the time he was
reading.
Tregelles accepted all these terms. He was searched as he went
in and out; no piece of paper or writing tool was ever found on him.
Now, here’s the mind blowing part, are you sitting down? Tregelles
MEMORIZED a portion of the text each day, not only in Greek but
also in Hebrew and Aramaic.
When he returned home, he would sit down and write out that part
of document which he had memorized. The next day he would go
back to the Vatican to master the next portion of the manuscript.
Within three months, he had memorized the entire text of codex
Vaticanus. This was one of the greatest memory feats of all time.
When he returned to Leipzig, Tregelles published the results of his
findings. His text was so close to the original manuscript that pope
Pius IX ordered the manuscript photographed in 1859. Doing this,
the manuscript became public property for the world at large.
You too can Memorize anything and learn faster than you
think
Are you a busy professional or student who finds reading books
generally boring? Do you find it difficult to commit whatever you have
read to memory? Do you also find it very difficult to focus on a book
without your mind wandering all over the place? If this is the case, it
shouldn't be.
Just like the story I told you above of Tregelles, it is possible for
you to develop your memory and also perform such feats if that’s
what you even want. In this book, I will show you simple, but
essential fundamentals of learning in order to help you make
maximize your time .
You will learn about reading, memory, how to mind-map, how to
read and comprehend using the 4-step reading system I have
created, and how to increase your reading speed using some very
creative strategies I will show you.
Please Note:
This book was written for serious individuals who want to improve
their learning skills. The book is based on a few straightforward and
simple ideas:
1. If you choose to be proactive in setting goals for yourself, rather
than having your circumstances set goals for you, you are more
likely to improve in any area of your choice.
2. Another thing that's important is: you have to believe that you
can improve yourself if you work at it. This is known as having a
growth mindset, which is a way of saying that you know your efforts
to keep working towards improvement will lead to improvement.
 3. Also, unlike some personal attributes, skills are not preset
(genetic). For example, if you are not tall, there's nothing you can do
about it; it’s simply genetic. But if you find it very difficult to read and
comprehend, you can learn reading and memory skills that will help
you to improve comprehension.
4. And finally, skills require practice. By practice I don’t mean just
learning how to do them better; I mean the practice of doing them
regularly. And that's because the more you practice a skill, the more
it becomes a part of you.
I hope that you read this book with an open mind and believe it
can help you develop your reading skill. And never forget: action
trumps every amount of reading you can ever do; always act on what
you have learnt.
Enjoy!!
PART ONE
 Reading: An Introduction
When we think of the two individuals in history who fought for
black freedom in America, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X
comes to mind. But it will also interest you to know that before
Malcolm X became Malcolm X, he was a popular criminal.
He sold drugs, even worked as a pimp, and then he went into
burglary. One day, he was arrested trying to sell an expensive watch
he’d stolen. He was carrying a gun at the time. When the police went
to his apartment they found jewelry, furs, an arsenal of guns, and all
his burglary tools. He got ten years. It was February 1946. He was
barely twenty-one years old.
He faced what Ryan Holiday says bestselling author, Robert
Greene, calls an “Alive Time or Dead Time” scenario. How would the
seven years ultimately play out? What would Malcolm do with this
time?
According to Greene, there are two types of time in our lives: dead
time, when people are passive and waiting, and alive time, when
people are learning and acting and utilizing every second.
Malcolm chose alive time. He began to learn. He taught himself to
be a reader by getting a pencil and dictionary from the prison library,
and not only consumed it from start to finish, but copied it down
longhand from cover to cover.
As he said later, “From then until I left that prison, in every free
moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my
bunk.” He read history, he read sociology, he read about religion, he
read the classics, he read philosophers like Kant and Spinoza. Later,
when a reporter once asked Malcolm, “What’s your alma mater?” His
reply: “Books.” Prison was his University.
He said that months passed without him even thinking about being
in prison. All the reading he did while in prison was what formed the
basic substratum o f the civil rights activist and renowned orator
which he later became.
The Carson’s
 The story of Sonya Carson and her two young sons is one I love
telling. It speaks volumes about the power of reading. Sonya spent
her childhood being moved from one foster home to another. She
merely attended school, and at the young age of 13 she married an
older man, unaware that he already had a family.
Shortly after she gave birth to her second son Ben, her husband
left her, and Sonya sank into a deep depression. Poor and living in a
run-down public housing project in one of the toughest sections of
Baltimore, Sonya knew her two sons were seemingly doomed to a
life of drugs, crime, and prison.
But Sonya was determined that her two boys would succeed, so
she began to think of a plan. She eventually came up with a plan.
The plan was to reduce her boys to watching two TV programs a
week. The rest of their spare time, was to be spent reading.
She insisted that the boys read books and submit reports to her
every week. She also insisted the boys read them out aloud because
she could barely read herself, a secret none of her boys would know
about until years later.
It wasn't long before the boys began to perform very well in
school. Ben later gave an account of a particular experience that
changed his whole perspective about reading. When their mother
had said reading was a must she didn't tell them what they should
read specifically, so since Ben loved animals, he read every single
animal book he could find in the public library.
When he finished those, he went on to rocks . He would collect
boxes of rocks, take them home and get out his geology book. He
studied until he could name virtually every rock, tell how it was
formed and identify where it came from.
One day in class their fifth grade teacher walked in and held up a
shiny black rock. He asked, 'can anybody tell me what this is?' Since
he was known to be the dumbest kid in the class he didn't raise up
his hand, he waited for some of the smart kids to raise their hands.
When none of them did, he thought, this is my big chance . So he
raised his hand, at that point some of his classmates where already
poking themselves waiting to laugh. Then he went on to tell the
teacher that the rock was called Obsidian and even told him how it
was formed.
At this point the students were waiting for the teacher to say the
answer was wrong , but when he confirmed Ben's answer to be
right, all his mates and even the teacher were amazed. But more
amazed was Ben himself. He thought, "The reason I knew this so
well was because I had been reading all those books on rocks. What
if I read books on all my subjects-science, math, history, geography,
social studies? Couldn't I then know more than all those students
who use to tease me and call me a dummy?
The idea appealed to him and this was how Ben became an avid
reader. He read everything he could get his hands on. If he had five
minutes, he had a book. If he was in the bathroom he was reading a
book. If he was waiting for the bus he was reading a book.
Within a year and a half, he went from the bottom of the class to
the top of the class. You have to understand that he still had the
same brain when he was at the bottom of the class and when he
reached the top. The human brain has 100 billion brain cells and is
capable of making over 100 trillion distinct neuronal connections, but
if you do nothing with this brain power you have, you capacity to
learn will always remain the same.
When it was time for the boys to go to the University, Sonya didn't
have to worry about paying for school fees-both of her sons received
university scholarships from the best universities. Curtis graduated
from the university of Michigan and Ben from Yale.
Her boys went on to enjoy professional careers. Curtis is an
engineer and his wife a physician. His brother Dr. Benjamin Carson,
became the first black American to separate a conjoined twins joined
at the head. During his career he was also the director of pediatric
neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital.
He ran for the office of the president of the U.S in 2016. He is the
author of several bestselling books, Think Big, Take The Risk, You
Have A Brain, The Big Picture, One Nation and the widely successful
Gifted Hands which was later created as a m ovie telling the story of
Sonya and her two sons.
Malcolm X and the Carson's are proof that reading has the power
to transform lives. If Malcolm X and the Carson family could achieve
success despite the overwhelming odds they faced, just think what
reading can do for you as an individual, or what it can help your kids
achieve as a parent or teacher.
Is Reading Really Important?
Watching a movie is a passive mental activity compared to the
active mental process of reading a book on the same subject.
Reading requires imagination and concentration for comprehension.
Reading is one of the ways to assure personal freedom more than
any other skill, because it becomes a source of solutions to many
problems—helping you to see problems with a new perspective,
what author Adam Grant in his book The Originals , calls Vuja de.
"...we’re driven to question defaults when we experience vuja de,
the opposite of déjà vu. Déjà vu occurs when we encounter
something new, but it feels as if we’ve seen it before. Vuja de is the
reverse; we face something familiar, but we see it with a fresh
perspective that enables us to gain new insights into old problems."
Here's a quick test. Speak the following words aloud: Joke, joke,
joke. Now, what is the white part of an egg called? If you said yolk,
you are completely wrong. You were fooled by the pattern created by
the repetition of the word joke.
The white part of an egg is called "albumen." Your brain organizes
incoming information according to your existing patterns of t
thinking. Reading is one way you can use to disrupt the already
existing patterns of ideas you have, and create new ones. If you
always think the way you've always thought, you'll always get what
you've always got. Reading will help build your intelligence, and
provide you with new ideas.
It is recorded by historians that Alexander the great always travelled
with a library. It is said that Cleopatra of Egypt loved reading so
much. The general Marc Anthony wanting to become close friends
Cleopatra, took his army to one of the great libraries of Asia Minor
where he stole 400,000 volumes (books) of literature and took them
down to Egypt as a gift for Cleopatra.
Historians say an act like this today would be the equivalent of
moving the entire library of congress in the U.S to another country.
The library of congress is house to over 20 million books. In tenth
century, the grand vizer of Persia, Abdul Kassem Ishmael always
took his 117,000 volume library of books with him wherever went.
The books were organized and carried by a caravan of four hundred
caramels trained to walk in alphabetical order.
Why do you think all these rich and powerful people loved books?
Books contain the wisdom of the ages. The most dangerous place in
the world is a library, because if you can read, you can go in there
and figure anything out. Books are the most dangerous weapons on
planet earth. That was why slaves were never allowed to learn how
to read during the slave trade. If a slave was caught reading a book,
he was seriously punished.
The Story of Fredrick Douglas
At the age of 10, Fredrick Douglas, began to learn his ABCs by
listening as the wife of a plantation owner read stories to her young
daughter. The plantation master was furious when he discovered
that one of his slaves was learning to read, and he demanded that
his wife stop reading to their daughter when Douglas was nearby for
fear reading would put thoughts of freedom into his head.
Slave owners fully understood the transforming power of reading,
and they took measures to keep blacks (slaves) powerless by
keeping them illiterate. Some states even passed laws known as the
"black codes," which outlawed educating slaves.
White citizens who taught blacks to read could receive six months
in jail and a $100 fine. They were also laws that recommended 10
lashes with a leather whip as punishment for slaves who were
caught reading or attempting to learn to read. The recommended
punishment for repeat offenders was to chop off the first knuckle of
the index finger.
Douglas was well aware of the black codes, but he defied them
and endured all the lashes, for he, too, understood the power of the
written word. He practiced writing his ABCs on fences and walls with
chalk. He borrowed books from his master's children and playmates,
and read every spare moment he got.
When he was 17, he bought a copy of the Columbian orator, a
collection of speeches from famous orators about freedom and
liberty. Douglas taught himself to write by copying the speeches over
and over in longhand, and in the process he memorized, long
eloquent passages that he would recite years later at abolitionist
rallies.
At age 21, Douglas disguised himself as a sailor and escaped to
New York, where he was often invited to speak at anti-slavery fund-
raisers. He continued to work on himself by reading widely in
literature, philosophy, religion, and political science. As the writer
Thomas Swell once put it, "Douglas educated himself to the point
where his words now have to be explained to today's expensively
under-educated generation."
Douglas went on to become one of the leading spokesmen for
abolishing slavery and advancing women's rights, and for several
years he published "The north star", an abolitionist newspaper.
The story of Douglas is especially inspiring because of the
struggles he faced in learning to read. No average Nigerian, I believe
has to make such a heroic effort to learn to read. All we have to do is
take advantage of our good fortune of free and affordable education.

What’s the purpose of reading?

Contrary to what you may have been told, the purpose of reading
is not just to acquire raw knowledge. Reading is part of the human
experience. It helps you find meaning, understand yourself, make
your life better, and sometimes it can even make you rich and
famous like Dr. Ben Carson.
Also, human beings have been recording their experiences and
knowledge in book form for around 6000 years now. That means
whatever problem you might be facing currently or you might face in
the future is probably addressed in some book somewhere by
someone who's a lot smarter than you, or who has gone down that
path. Save yourself the trouble and don't learn all of life's lessons
from trial and error.
 Reading is very important. It influences us in ways we can't even
comprehend. Research has proven that reading changes the way we
solve problems, store information, tell stories, interpret the world and
think about ourselves. Reading even changes the shape of our
brains. The power of the written word is so strong. It’s like magic:
used properly, it uplifts people, but in the wrong hands, it becomes
black magic, causing great pain and bringing destruction upon
innocent lives. Let me give you some examples.
Are Books That Powerful?
Well, there are numerous writings that have affected the world,
both positively and negatively, starting from the Bible, the Koran and
other religious books. There are over a billion Catholics in the world.
Add other denominations and the number of people holding unto
beliefs from the Bible runs into about 2.2billion. The Bible alone has
sold more than 1billion copies. It is the bestselling Book ever in
human history and it has shaped the way many people act, how they
eat, how they treat others and lots more.
The holy Koran has also had great effects on the world since it
was first published, with hundreds of millions of followers all around
the world today. The Tao Te Ch’ing and a host of other religious
books, which their tenets and wisdom are still held by millions
around the world, have also shaped lives. The writings and
ideologies of the ancient Greek philosophers, from Plato, to
Socrates, Aristotle, Plutarch, and the list can go on for pages,
shaped the western world. What about the writings of Shakespeare
and other great books that are still taught in our schools today?
In 1774, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe published a book called
the Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel describing a young man,
eventually driven to suicide by grief over his lost love. The wild
success of the novel reinforced the idea that it was ‘n orma l’ for
youths to spend their days and nights in mournful regret for what
might have been in their love lives. After the publication of this book
the number of suicides in young people increased to the extent that
the novel was banned in a number of German states.
 In 1848, Karl Max and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist
Manifesto , which was a short booklet. The document advocated the
surrender of private property and the end of all existing institutions.
With time, communism spread like a wild forest fire, and heartless
dictators like Stalin in Russia, Mao in China, and Pol pot in
Cambodia murdered as many as 100million innocent people during
the twentieth century and imprisoned more. You think this is bad?
Let me tell you about another book that a single man wrote that led
to the death of as many as 50 million people.
Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in 1927 when he was imprisoned in
Germany for leading a coup in Germany. The book contained his
twisted philosophy of Aryan superiority: the idea that some people's
bloodlines are superior to others. He used Mein Kampf to spread this
message that people could help themselves by hating others, and
tragically, a majority of the Germans bought into his bullshit ideas.
This led to the Second World War during which six million Jews
died by the deadly Zyklon B pesticide in gas chambers and in
concentration camps, along with several million Catholics, artists and
virtually anyone who didn't fit into Hitler’s description of the ideal
German. In all, 50 million people lost their lives within a six year
period of the war.
If books have the power to change entire cultures, build
boundaries and start wars, just think what a good book can do for
you, a single person. Just think what reading the right books can do
for you. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best when he said, "Many
times the reading of a book has made the future of a man." I can't tell
you the number of books I have read and have been glad I did.
Your Dream May Be One Book, One Page Away
In 1896, twenty-five-year-old Orville Wright fell sick. For several
days he was stuck in bed. Orville’s brother, Wilbur who was a
twenty-nine-year-old at that time, had taken an intense interest in
human flight. And with Orville bedridden, he had a captive audience.
Wilbur read aloud to Orville, and that’s how the Wright brothers
crossed paths with their biggest dream.
 Sometimes the spark of inspiration you need is often hidden
within the pages of a book, just waiting for you to flip the page. The
book the brothers read was Animal Mechanism: A Treatise on
Terrestrial and Aerial Locomotion. By the time Wilbur finished
reading that book, he had discovered his destiny.
The ir father’s discouragement and the enormous failures they
will face was nothing compared to the flame of passion that burned
white-hot within the brothers. For example, their father, Bishop Milton
Wright, once declared in a sermon delivered in 1890 that, “If God
had meant for man to fly, He would have given him wings.”
The brothers were not even the only ones on the race to make
man fly. There were better funded and educated men like Samuel
Pierpont Langley, a senior officer at the Smithsonian Institution, a
mathematics professor who had also worked at the highly
prestigious Harvard University. But still the two bicycle repairers went
on to become the first humans to overcome the force of gravity.
In the summer of 1896, human flight was science fiction. Today
it's our daily reality. At any given moment on any given day, over five
thousand airplanes carrying a million passengers are flying through
the sky at three hundred miles per hour. And it all started with an
idea from a book which became a dream, turned into an obsession
and became a reality.
On November 25, 1911, a nineteen-year-old Oxford student got a
small book from the Exeter Reading Room. That book, A Finnish
Grammar by Sir Charles Eliot . Via that book Tolkien became
obsessed with the Finnish language. Using Finnish elements, Tolkien
created a mythological world called Middle-earth.
Forty-three years later Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings
which ranks as the second best-selling novel of all time. Its prequel,
The Hobbit, ranks third. Together they have sold an estimated 290
million copies. Tolkien couldn't have imagined that a single book
would take him on a journey to such fame, success and impact, and
it all began by reading a single book. All you ever need to achieve
your dreams may be one book, one page away right now.
A Brief History of Books
So we have already talked a lot about reading and the power of
books. At this point I think it would be important if we also talk a little
bit about how books originated. What we call book—that is, bound
pages printed on both sides—came hundreds of years after the
invention of writing (writing was invented about 6,000 years ago).
Most of the earliest known documents were written on large scrolls
made from papyrus (where we got the word "paper" from) or animal
skin (parchments).
Books originated with the early Christians, who wanted to study
scripture but could not worship openly for fear of persecution. They
couldn't bear the risk of carrying around large scrolls of the scripture,
so they started looking for ways to hide letters from the New
Testament.
Eventually they came up with the idea of cutting blank scrolls in
smaller sections or "pages" and then folding each page in half twice.
By cutting along the edge of the bottom fold, the folded page was
transformed into a booklet with eight pages, front and back. These
booklets could easily be hidden inside a robe; this was how the idea
of books was born.
Hundreds of years later, a man named Johannes Gutenberg, a
printer in Mainz, present-day Germany, introduced movable type
printing press to the world in the middle of the fifteenth century.
Before Gutenberg's invention, printing presses were already in use,
but they were slow and laborious to operate.
Prior to Gutenberg, there just weren’t that many books. A single
scribe, working alone with a quill and ink and a pile of vellum, could
make a copy of a book, but the process was very slow, making
output of scribal copying small and very expensive.
Because of Gutenberg's invention, today reading is no longer for the
rich and powerful alone. An average man could enjoy reading the
same book that a millionaire reads. More than any other invention
other than writing i tself I believe the movable type printing press
did what the internet has done today; it leveled the playing field
between the rich and the poor and shattered boundaries between
nations far apart.

How to Taste Stars

 A catholic monk named Dom Perignon was the person who a
ccidentally discover ed the sparkling white wine we call champagne.
When the first sip of the wine exploded in Dom Perignon's mouth, he
was so excited by the taste that he shouted to his fellow
friars:"Brothers, come quickly-I'm tasting stars"
Anyone who has ever sip champagne to celebrate a special
occasion will accept that "tasting stars" is an apt metaphor to
describe the experience. It’s also a great metaphor for what happens
in the minds of readers when they come across a great insight in a
book. Reading great insights is the equivalent of tasting stars.
Some people say they don't like reading because most books are
boring. Trust me, reading books aren’t a boring activity; it is the
individual that lacks the necessary reading skills. The remaining of
this section is meant to give you a good headstart on some good
reading skills that you will need, whether in school or in your reading
of books that will help you grow and achieve your goals and dreams
.
Part Two
 What's Reading?
Reading may be defined as an individual's total inter-relationship
with symbolic information. Or better still, as Mortimer Adler defines it
in his book How to Read a Book , "Reading is the process whereby a
mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable
matter, and with no help from outside, elevates itself by the power of
its own operations. During this process, the mind passes from
understanding less to understanding more."
What this implies is that reading is a thinking process, rather than
just an exercise in eye movements. Hence regardless of the amount
of time you spend reading a particular material, you should have
gained some knowledge, regardless of how little that maybe. What I
see a lot of people do and they call reading is just to run their eyes
through a book without their minds passing from understanding less
about the subject to understanding more.
Reading Myths
Myths are simply erroneous beliefs or wrong ideas that people hold
as regards a subject or concept, and regardless of how small you
may think these beliefs are, they actually have great potential when it
gets to how they affect you. There are some wrong beliefs that
people hold about reading, these beliefs have served as a limitation
for many, and here we will look at a few of them.
1. Reading is linear. Just like most people, I had always thought
reading was a linear process; you know, start reading a book at the
beginning and read through to the very end in the exact order and
way it was arranged. But the truth is, reading is no more linear than
thinking or writing is. Only a few writers start at the beginning and
write straight to the end, sometimes, we usually "write the first part
last," or vice versa. Reading isn’t a linear process, you can actually
read chapter five before chapter two, and I will tell you why in a
moment.
2. You must read word-for-word. We all started out as kids
looking at individual letters (the phonic method) which didn't help
much. Next we started sounding out syllables (the look-say-method).
Finally, we could read whole words. As a result most of us had never
moved from letters, and words, to reading phrases, sentences and
paragraphs.
We have assumed the only way to read thoroughly is by
laboriously reading one word at a time. We read in such a way that
no single word escapes our awareness, hoping that through this we
will comprehend better, but that’s not true. In fact this is usually an
inefficient use of our time.
One of the reasons this is very unnecessary is because 40% of
the words on the pages of most books can be skipped and still, you
will understand what the book is talking about. So imagine if you can
skip these words that would be a 40% increase in your reading
speed. I will show you how to do that as we continue.
3. All parts of a book are of equal value. The strange thing is
this myth persists until you actually write your own book. Then, all at
once you realize there are stuffs you jam into a book just because
you want the book to appear a certain way. You realize that there are
places you actually tell two stories where one would have been
enough. Although this has reduced as a result of self publishing,
writers don’t have to submit their manuscripts to publishing houses
who will demand that the book be of a certain size even if all the
necessary stuffs could be said in half the length.
This is one reason why like I said from the first myth, reading isn’t
a linear process. For example, if a writer uses too many examples,
you can skip the remaining ones as long as you already understand
what the writer is saying. Take watching movies for instance, ever
watched a movie and began to fast forward over those long boring
conversations to go straight to where the action is? Well, in reading
you can fast forward too, and it’s not wrong.
When I didn’t know this, I used to feel guilty when I didn’t read
every single example and concept in a book. But overtime I came to
realize that my time was precious and the most important thing was
just to get what I wanted and leave the rest.
4. Reading is a laborious task which takes a long time. Not at
all! Reading can be both fun and fast. Indeed, speed reading is like
formula one racing, it is far more exciting. But when you don’t have
the necessary reading skills, reading can actually be a torturing
experiences and I will show you how to do it right in the pages
ahead.
5. Reading faster will reduce retention. This is another myth
that is just so wrong but yet most people struggle t o accept. In fact
those who labor slowly through a book painstakingly vocalizing every
single word, maybe even moving their lips, are the ones who have
retention problems. Speed reading techniques increase one's
comprehension and retention.
6. Reading a lot can cause mental problems. I remember in my
late teens to early twenties, my mom used to tell me that I should
reduce the way I read in order not to run the risk of going mad. And
my mom isn’t alone, most people including me , held unto that belief
for a long time. I have done extensive research on the brain and
there’s no study that has proven that reading a lot can increase ones
predisposition to mental illness. If you know somebody who read a
lot and became mad, then that person had genetic predisposition to
psychosis.
7. I don’t have enough time to read. This is one of reason most
unserious reasons I have seen people make for not reading and it’s
a myth. I'm usually not sympathetic with people who say they don't
have time to enrich their lives by reading, and I am about to show
you why.
The truth is even if you’re very busy you can still read at least
twelve great books a year conveniently without stress. This way you
can improve your life and even your career via the knowledge you
gain from these books.
The average person reads 250 words a minute. But we all stop to
re-read a sentence from time to time or pause to think about a new
insight. So it’s fair to say the average reading speed for most people
is 200 words per minute. For example, there are less than 300 words
on this page, which means the average reader can read this page in
less than two minutes. At that rate you could read at least seven of
these pages in a 15-minute period.
 There are less than a hundred pages in this book, including the
introduction and conclusion. So by reading 15 minutes a day-that’s
seven pages-every day, you could read this book in 14 days,
correct? It may take you a month to read some longer books, but the
point is if you commit to reading at least 15 minutes a day, you will
be able to finish a book a month.
By the end of the year, you'll have read 12 books, correct? Let's
say you do this consistently for five years, you would have read 60
books! Just think by setting aside as little as 15 minutes a day, you
could easily read 60 books that could help you grow richer and
become unique and outstanding. With time you can even double
your daily reading time to 30 minutes a day, of which you could read
24 books a year.
Les Brown, one of the best motivational speakers in the world,
had this to say in his book The 12 Laws of Success, about reading.
"41 years ago, I made a promise to myself to read 30 pages a day.
It’s one of the simplest commitments I’ve ever made and it has
created unbelievable results for my life…”
Jeff Olson wrote a bestselling book called The Slight Edge . All
you need is a slight edge above your equals and how you get this
edge is by doing something a little each day that others won't do in
order for you to get the results tomorrow that others won't get. Read
a little bit overtime and it will become a habit.
According to a research carried out at the University College
London, it was discovered that on average, it takes about 66 days
before a new behavior can become automatic. Why 66 days? Neuro-
scientists and Psychologists have all come to agree that it takes 33
days for a new habit to form new neural pathways in our brain and
another 33 days to make it permanent. The point here is to try and
read something uplifting every day until it becomes a habit.
Don’t forget you have twenty four hours in a day. You can choose
any time of the day to do your reading. I advice you use fifteen
minutes in the morning before you go about your normal business.
Just wake up 25 minutes earlier. When you begin to wake a little
earlier than you do before, there is a chance that you might be
forced to still dose off, so here is a little trick that worked for me.
Once you do this for some time and your body adjusts, you won’t
have to do it again.
Here’s the trick: the hormone that’s responsible for sleep is known
as melatonin. Studies have shown that the light that is emitted from
the screens of your smart phones, laptops and TVs is at a
wavelength that interferes with your body’s release of melatonin.
These lights can suppress sleep by about 25%.
So first, try to put away your device 25 minutes earlier than you
used to do before. The next step is, Immediately your alarm wakes
you up, make sure the brightness of your laptop or phone is 100%,
also put on the lights in your room. These lights will suppress
whatever melatonin is remaining and you will probably end up
replacing that sleep time with a 10 or 15 minute nap during the day,
which is also good for your brain.
8. The knowledge I have is enough. I have heard a lot of people
say what they know is enough for now , that they don’t need to add
any other body of knowledge until what they know is fully utilized.
That’s a great perspective to look at learning from, but there’s a
problem with that approach.
Have you ever heard of Moore’s law? It simply states that the
amount of information doubles every eighteen months. In order
words, to keep up with change, you have to probably relearn
everything you know every eighteen months. There’s a reason this
age was ushered in by the Information age.
9. I don’t have money to buy books. What if you love reading
and can't find the money to buy books? Well, that's not an excuse,
not in this present age. Y ou could check the internet; there are
millions of free books there. 60 percent of all the books I have read
in my life, I downloaded them for free from the internet. I have heard
people who can't afford hardcopies yet say they don’t like eBooks,
what nonsense. W ell , this i s the digital age, you have to adapt.
You can also borrow books from friends or the public library, buy
used books, or even save money to buy books; it’s an investment in
you. As Erasmus, the 16th century scholar once put it, "when I get a
little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy foods and clothes."

10. I am just a left or right-brain person.

It was first discovered in the mid-nineteenth century that the brain
hemispheres were not identical. Scientists came to that conclusion
after performing some experiments in the cerebral cortex. During the
experiment they had asked students to perform functions like
daydreaming, calculating, reading, drawing, speaking, writing,
coloring shapes, and listening to music, while measuring their brain
waves. The results were mind blowing . They observed that, in
general, the cerebral cortex divides the tasks into two main
categories: left-brained ones and right-brained ones.
The right-brained tasks included rhythm, spatial awareness,
imagination, day dreaming, color, dimension, and tasks needing
aesthetic activities. While left-brained tasks included words, logic,
numbers, sequences and analysis.
Here's something interesting . In simple animals (like chameleon or
chickens) everything (information) is duplicated on both halves of the
brain, so for example , if you cut off one half the other half can
function effectively. But, in humans, the two brain halves specialize
in some sort of way . Both halves communicate with each other
through a vital bundle of fibers called the corpus callosum.
I have met people who claim to be more right or left brain dominant
and as a result, can't read because reading isn't one of their
strengths. This is all bullshit. Recent study has shown that the left
part of your brain alone isn't responsible for making people into
academic geniuses, and neither is the right side of the brain
responsible for making people creative geniuses. The both sides of
the brain is usually used in conjunction with each other to make the
brain efficient.

The 4-step Reading System

After having read hundreds of books and sharing Ideas with
individuals on different subjects, people started asking me how I was
able have a broad knowledge that cuts across lots of fields and my
answer was obviously, I read lots of books. These individuals will go
back and still let me know they are trying but after a few chapters or
books they get de—motivated.
They kept asking for the exact same method I used of which I
didn’t even know I had developed a method until I sat down and
actually to pin point what has worked for me as regards reading,
over the years. As a result I came up with a simple framework that
anyone can follow and improve their reading skills by 60% within
66days, but you have to work it for it to be able to work .
R esearch shows that people, who have acquired basic reading
skills, read effectively and get much better results; that is, they
understand the material better and remember it much longer. I've
created this 4-step reading system to teach you how to read any
book. It could be a novel, your textbooks, and notebooks, or
whatever, as long as it involves the written word. Now all you have to
do is just be very attentive and you will be able to change your life
forever in terms of reading.
System 1: Pre-reading
 Pre-reading in this context is a fixed pattern of search. It’s simply
go ing through the entire content of a book rapidly before reading it
in-depth. This is important for so many reasons. One of them is in
order to give yourself a broad context of what you're about to read.
Also retention will be improved because the contents of books would
by now be a bit familiar.
The most common approach followed by most people when
reading a new book is to open the book at the first page and read
through to the end. This might seem the most obvious approach, but
it is, in fact, an inefficient use of your knowledge and time and has
lots of disadvantages, which are:
1. You may end up wasting your time going over a book that is
already familiar, or that is irrelevant to your desired aim or goals.
2. You will have no overall perspective until you finish the book,
and possibly not even then. And this is one reason many people get
bored after a few pages. Contrary to what may think you know about
the brain and happines s, the brain doesn’t like stress.
It’s not the activity that matters; it’s the way your brain interprets
the activity as result of releasing certain brain chemicals like
dopamine in response to that activity overtime. When you have an
overall perspective of what a book will give to you at the end, your
motivation will be high and overtime when you brain releases
dopamine in response to this activity, your brain will become
dopamine dependent in this area, meaning the activity will begin to
seem more pleasurable over time.
3. Another major disadvantage is that any information that is
retained while you read the book will usually be disorganized. It
would not be well integrated with the rest of the book or with your
whole body of knowledge. It’s just as simple as this; pre-reading a
book helps you have an aim and without this aim, the reading may
not even be worth it to you.
4. Your motivation will also be very low and you will easily become
bored, dull and tired, and this will lead to poor reading efficiency. I
remember someone once told me that he didn’t enjoy most of the
business books I recommend for him to read, and as a result he
wasn’t motivated to finish them.
I told him, I have read books that had over 800 pages that I didn’t
enjoy but I knew the contents were worth it and that aim I had was
what motivate d me. It’s not always about what you enjoy; it’s about
having an aim for the book you chose to study. It’s that aim and goal
that will make you finish the book regardless of how boring it is.
Don’t go into a book clueless
I once read about a guy who was under a street lamp, on his knees,
looking for something, when a passerby asked, “What are you
looking for?” “My money,” replied the man. Where did you drop it?”
Pointing to a darkened alley a few feet away, the man replied, “Over
there, by that dark alley.”
Puzzled, the passerby asked, “Well, if you dropped it over there,
why are you looking for it here?” The man responded, “Because
there is light here and it’s dark over there.”
When you go ahead to read a book without pre-reading it, it's just
like looking everywhere for something but not knowing what you are
really looking for. Pre-reading might take a few minutes, but it’s a
time well spent, because it can dramatically increase understanding
and comprehension.
Here's another story that illustrates the importance of pre-reading.
B.F. skinner was a leading pioneer of behaviorism, a school of
psychology based on the belief that all human behavior can be
predicted by positive or negative reinforcements. When Skinner was
introduced to George Bernard Shaw the great writer, the
psychologist thanked Shaw for writing the book that changed his life.
"Your book inspired my career," said Skinner. "It convinced me
once and for all of the profound truth behind behaviorism."
"You must be joking !" replied a surprised Shaw. "I thought my
book destroyed the argument of behaviorism once and for all!"
As the two men talked, it soon became clear why Skinner received
a different message from Shaw's book. Shaw had saved his
argument against behaviorism for the last chapter, but Skinner had
never finished the book.
Because he hadn't read the last chapter Skinner misinterpreted
the whole message of the book! If Skinner had pre-read the book, he
would have understood what Shaw was trying to pass across. This is
one of the things that can happen when you fail to pre-read a book,
you will never have a holistic understanding of the book if you fail to
read its entire content in-depth.
Pre-reading techniques
1. Before reading any book, make a rapid scan. Start at a rate of 15
seconds per page. Later, with practice, this time can be reduced to
12 or 10 seconds per page or even less.
2. You are scanning for significant people, events, ideas or concepts.
At the end of each chapter, stop for a minute to review what you
have just read. Then try and speculate about the contents of the next
chapter.
3. When you have scanned at least half of the chapters in the book,
ask yourself some questions relating to the contents of the book to
see if you have an idea of what the book may be about.
4. When you have reached the end of the book in the above manner,
take some time to summarize the book mentally. Form and answer
questions about the book and evaluate what you have read to see if
you will really love to read the book in-depth.
System 2: In-depth Reading
In-depth reading is the second component in the system and it’s
the most complicated and slowest of the reading processes. It
involves critical and analytical thinking to interpret, evaluate, judge,
and reflect on the information and ideas you will come across in the
book. There are four main aspects to in-depth reading:
1. Gathering facts and ideas. This is the process whereby your
brain gathers all the basic information that will serve as a foundation
for your frame of reference as regards the subject , as you go
through the book.
 2. Sorting facts and ideas for relative importance and their
relationship to one another. During this process your brain sorts the
information according to their relevant importance to your desired
goals.
3. Measuring these ideas against one's existing knowledge base.
During this process, your brain compares and contrasts your existing
body of knowledge with the new information you just acquired from
reading.
4. A process of selection, separating the ideas into those that you
wish to remember or act upon, and ideas that you wish to reject.
During this phase your brain filters out too much example, irrelevant
ideas and makes sure the knowledge that’s left is what you can work
with and one that’s aligned with the goal you set prior to reading the
book.
Now you are beginning to see that reading is a bit more
complicated than you think. If any of the processes above is skipped,
the reading experience wouldn’t be efficient. Here are the steps to
take before in-depth reading. This is what you should do next after
you have pre-read the book.
1. Establish purpose: Answer the following question as carefully and
completely as possible: What do I want to learn from this book? Your
answer to this question will be your purpose for reading. We have
talked extensively on why having a purpose for reading is important.
2. Survey the book: you can do that by reading the title, blurb , and
the source of the publication, i.e. the author and publisher, the date
of publication. Also go through the Table of Contents; it will
frequently tell you whether or not a particular book is suitable for
your objective.
3. Analyze the Index: an index is usually an alphabetical list of all the
basic ideas covered in a book. This is important to go through
because the particular concepts listed and the way in which they are
organized will tell you whether or not the book will cover the ideas
that you are trying to get educated on.
4. Read the Preface: this can’t be overemphasized enough. Most
people go ahead to read a book without going through the preface or
introduction. This part of the book will often provide an excellent
summary, and usually a statement of purpose for the book and a
note on the author's perspective on the subject. Also go through the
forward if there’s any.
5. The next step is to look at the visual material. Go through the
maps, graphs, illustrations, charts, and bold headings, pictures if
there are any. Also look at anything else which catches the eye: bold
print, italicized sections, etc. If there are study questions at the end
of each chapter, you should look at the m also.
6. Revise Purpose: Once you have done all the above and gained
some information, and if you have decided to use the book, then
revise your original purpose for reading the book. Ask yourself, why
am I reading this? This will establish your specific learning
objectives.
7. Study in-depth, keeping in mind what you want to learn; speculate
on what the book has to offer. Read with the satisfaction of your
objectives in mind. As we have already said, sometimes it is
inappropriate to start at the beginning, so decide where to start
reading.
Also, t he manner in which the author presents his ideas will
demand that you also constantly vary your reading speed. We will
talk about reading speed in a bit.
As you read write down main ideas. It also helps to mark or
underline keywords and concepts in the book itself, with a pencil that
can easily be erased, to aid review. If it is your own book, do not be
afraid to use different colored pens; it helps memory and
distinguishes different themes and topics. I usually mark all my
books when reading; this helps me to get hold of the book ’ s basic
concepts and my favorite ideas when I come back for another read.
Also, be prepared to omit sections that are irrelevant, already
familiar, repeated, outdated, or with excessive examples.
Frances Bacon once wrote that, "some books are to be
tasted...others to be swallowed...and more few to be chewed and
digested." When we read in-depth we are chewing and digesting the
text. Also don't forget to take regular breaks every thirty or forty
minutes for a short rest break. Take a minute to mentally review the
previous work; this consolidates retention.
System 3: Key Word Noting
A lot of people don't know how to take notes. They take down too
many words when reading, which in turn makes it difficult to get an
overview. They find it difficult to sort the essential facts out of a class
or book. Th e purpose of this third component in the system is to
help improve this skill.
We can’t talk about keyword note taking without defining what
keywords are. Key words in the context are words in the book that
have the greatest associative power. These are concrete, specific
words, which encapsulate the meaning of the surrounding sentence
or sentences. These words generate strong images, and are
therefore easier to remember.
Key words usually contain the important ideas, they are
memorable and are usually the essence of the sentence or
paragraph. Because of their greater meaningful content, key words
tend to 'lock up' more information in memory and are the 'keys' to
recalling the associated ideas. The images they generate are richer
and have more associations. They are the words that when
remembered, and recalled, can 'unlock' the meaning of a group of
paragraphs or sentences.
There are various reasons why it’s important to learn how to take
effective notes. Taking notes will help you: learn faster, allow you
create associations, inferences and ideas to be jotted down; bring
attention to what is important and enhance later recall.
It’s important you understand that as humans we do not remember
complete sentences, hence it is a waste of time to write them down.
When taking notes you should concentrate on the key words of the
teaching or text. We mainly use the following parts of speech when
we pick key words:
Nouns: identify the name of a person, place or object. They are the
most essential information in a text. 'Common nouns' are whole
classes of people or things, e.g. man, dog, table, sport, ball. 'Proper
nouns' name a particular person or thing, e.g. Newman, the
'Emperor', and Lagos.
Verbs: indicate actions, things that happen, e.g. to bring, eat, drink,
sing. Adjectives: describe qualities of nouns (people and things);
how they appear or behave, e.g. old, tall, foolish, beautiful. Adverbs:
indicate how a verb (activity) is applied, e.g. gently, fully, and badly.
A keyword will tend to be a strong noun or verb, and can
sometimes be accompanied by an additional key adjective or
adverb. Nouns are the most useful as key words, but this does not
mean you should exclude other words.
Remember, key words are simply the words that help trigger
associations more. T hey do not even have to be actual words used
in the book. Sometimes you may have a better word that
encapsulates and evokes the required associations, and sometimes
a phrase may be necessary rather than just a word.
Always remember People generally remember:
• 10 % of what they read
• 20 % of what they hear
• 30 % of what they see
• 50 % of what they hear and see
• 70 % of what they say and write
• 90 % of what they say as they do something. This is one reason
why it's important you take notes while you read.
System 4: Speed-reading
So far we have discussed the three components of the 4—step
efficient reading system. And I hope your wealth of knowledge as
regards reading has improved greatly. Now we are going to be
talking about speed reading, which is a bit complex but I have done
my best to simplify it as best as I can, just pay cohesive attention
and you would grab everything.
What I am about to say is in no way an insult, it’s just an
observation. And that is, most people were thought to read as kids
following a particular fashion, and for most of us, this is not an
optimal use of our brain power.
This method we were thought is the reason why there are lots of
people who as they read, 'speak' the words in their heads. And It is
this sub-vocalization that holds back fast reading and it is
unnecessary. Basically, you were taught to read in either one of two
ways: the phonic method or the look-say method:
The phonic method
This method first introduces the child to the ordinary alphabet from
A to Z, and then introduces the sound of each letter so that “A”
becomes “ah”, “B” becomes “buh”, and so on. The child is then
introduced to the letters and sounds in the context of words. When
the child has learned to make the correct sounds (vocalize properly),
he is told to read silently.
The look-say method
This is the second method and it also relies on verbal response.
The child is shown a picture (for example, a ball) with the word that
represents the object printed boldly beneath it, e.g. “BALL.” The
teacher then asks the child for the correct response. If the incorrect
answer is given (for example, bag), the teacher guides the child to
the correct response and then moves on to the next word.
The problem with this methods is that w hen the child has
reached a reasonable level of proficiency, he will be able to read, but
still vocalizing or reading to himself in his mind. Don't get me wrong,
b oth of these methods are great for teaching children, but the
problem is, as most of us grew we didn’t outgrow this framework,
that’s why we find speed reading very difficult.
The Development of Speed-reading
During the First World War, the royal air force tacticians found out
that when flying, a number of pilots were unable to distinguish planes
seen at a distance. In combat this was obviously a serious
drawback, and the tacticians decided to find a solution.
They developed a machine called a “tachistoscope,” which flashes
images for varying short spaces of time on a large screen. They
started by flashing large pictures of friendly and enemy aircraft at
very slow exposures and then gradually shortened the exposure,
while decreasing the size and changing the angle of the image seen.
To their surprise, they found that, after a little training, the average
person was able to distinguish almost speck-like representations of
different planes when the images had been flashed on the screen for
only one five hundredth of a second.
Reasoning that if the eyes could see at this speed, reading speeds
could obviously be dramatically improved, the tacticians decided to
transfer this information to reading. Using exactly the same device,
they first flashed one word in large type for as long as five seconds
on a screen, gradually reducing the size of the word and shortening
the length of each flash. Eventually, they were flashing four words
simultaneously on a screen for one-five hundredth of a second, and
the subjects were still able to read them.
But it wasn't until the 1960s that Evelyn Wood, a U.S teacher,
discovered that with adequate training, the eyes could learn to move
faster, and that comprehension could be maintained above the 400-
word-per-minute barrier. Over the years, many individuals have been
trained to read at 2000 to 3000 words per minute.
Without any training on speed-reading, on average, your reading
speed can go from 200 words per minute to 400 words per minute.
At first, this sounds wonderful—a doubling reading speed—but,
however, if you work out the math, it becomes clear that there is bad
news.
If your eye is able to recognize images (for example, a plane) in
one-five hundredth of a second, then your expected reading speed in
a minute would be 60seconds ×500 words per second = 30,000
words (this means you should be able to read this whole book in one
minute), considering the fact that this book is roughly 30,000 words.
In order to begin to see how you can improve your reading speed,
it’s important I give you a brief idea on how your eye works.
How The Eye Works
Your eyes are very powerful. Scientists say the human visual
system can photograph an entire page of print in one twentieth of a
second, and thus a standard-length book in between six and
25seconds. Your eyes also have the ability to distinguish between
over 10million colors.
 When light enters the eye, it is focused by the lens onto the retina,
which lines the inside of the eye. The retina itself consists of
hundreds of millions of tiny cells responsive to light. Some cells (the
cones) respond to specific colors, while others (the rods) respond to
the overall light intensity.
These cells are connected to a web of nerves extending over the
retina, which send information to the visual cortex. The center of the
retina, called the fovea, is a small area in which the cells are much
more tightly packed, so that the perception of images falling on the
fovea is much sharper and more detailed than elsewhere on the
retina.
As a result of the difference in image perception, we have two
types of vision. This means t he eye sees in two distinct type of
ways. There is the foveal vision and the peripheral vision. Whenever
your eyes are focused on a specific part of an object in order to get
the details, you are using your foveal vision. Foveal vision can also
be called tunnel vision.
Peripheral vision on the other hand means looking at the wider or full
picture of an o object. Here's a good example. You may have seen
teachers who, when teaching a class, focus in on one single
student w hile excluding the rest of the classroom, yet they are
addressing the whole class verbally. Thats foveal vision in action.
While there are others who use their peripheral vision to cast a gaze
over the entire class. As if the students were being addressed
collectively. That’s the peripheral vision in action. Inorder to improve
your reading speed you have to learn how to read using your
peripheral vision rather than your foveal vision.
 Diagram showing foveal and peripheral vision: the inner circled
area shows the area of foveal vision available to the speed reader
when his speed reading skills is put to use properly. The outer circle
shows the area of peripheral vision also available.
The easiest way to differentiate between foveal and peripheral
vision is to do a simple exercise. Pick a spot on the wall somewhere
above eye level. Stare at the spot exclusively. Once you’ve done that
for a few minutes and experienced what it’s like to be using only your
foveal vision, the next step is to continue looking at the spot, but
begin to allow your vision to expand outward into the periphery.
Notice that you can begin to take in whatever there is to see at
each side of the spot. Allow your vision to expand as far outward to
the sides as possible. While you’re still looking at the spot, allow your
awareness to begin to shift to the peripheral part of your vision.
Then, allow all of your awareness to be anchored in the peripheral
while still looking at the spot on the wall.
 Place all of your attention in the peripheral. Once you’ve
experienced that, you can then bring your eyes down from the spot,
but make sure that you keep all of your awareness in the peripheral.
This seemingly simple technique will help increase your ability to
speed read. Practice it over and over.
Peripheral Vision
As we said earlier that a lthough the sharpest perception occurs
at the fovea, images that are off center are still seen, but less clearly.
This peripheral vision performs a very vital function during reading.
Words that lie ahead of the current point of fixation will be partially
received by the eye and transmitted to the brain. This is possible
because words can be recognized even when they are in peripheral
vision and the individual letters are too blurred to be recognized.
On the basis of this slightly blurred view of what is coming, the
brain will tell the eye where to move to next. Thus the eye does not
move along in a regular series of jumps, but skips redundant words
and concentrates on the most significant words of the text. Here is
an example.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t
mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the only iprmoatnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can
be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe. I bet you just read that fluently without
mispronouncing words. That was your peripheral vision in action.
Understanding how to use your peripheral vision is a vital aspect of
speed reading. You also have to practice how to read key words. 35-
50% of the words on the page of a book are neither critical nor
important, the same way the Cambridge study has shown.
If I took out some words from this paragraph and left their space
empty, you would still be able to figure out what the paragraph was
communicating. So, when reading if you can figure out the "key
words" you could scan past redundant words and let your mind fill in
the blanks. By employing your peripheral vision and also training
your mind to find these key words you'll add more speed to your
reading.
Fixation
Another important element of speed reading is eye fixation, a point
where your eyes come to rest as you read. Readers who make fewer
eye fixations read faster because they take in more words with each
fixation.
When we focus our attention on something, the light from that item
is focused onto the fovea; this is called a fixation. Your eyes do not
move over words in a smooth manner. If they did, you would not be
able to see anything, the eye can only see things clearly when it can
hold them still.
When you read a line of text in a book , the eyes move in a series
of quick jumps and breaks . These jumps are so quick as to take
almost no time, but the fixations can take anywhere from a quarter to
one and a half seconds. Here are some examples to explain fixation
better.

A diagram which shows the eye's basic progression while reading.

Notice that the eye moves in quick jumps.
 Diagram showing a poor readers eye movements. Notice that the
eye makes quick jumps and then moves backward again before
making another jump.

Diagram showing a good readers eye movements. Notice that the

eyes make quicker jumps and covers more area of text at once by
using peripheral vision.
 At the slowest speeds of fixation, your reading speed would be
less than one hundred w.p.m (words per minute). As a result, the eye
takes short gulps of information. In between, it is not actually seeing
anything; it is moving from one point to another. We do not notice
these jumps because the information is held over in the brain and
integrated from one fixation to the next so that we can perceive a
smooth flow.
To increase your reading speed, follow the techniques outlined
earlier from Pre-reading down to this point. Also try to make as few
fixations as possible by using your peripheral vision rather than your
foveal vision. This will allow you to take in more text at a time rather
than taking in only a few words hence leading to frequent fixations.
This cannot be overemphasized: The number of words you can
read with a single eye fixation has a direct link with the type of vision
you are using. Your vocabulary also counts. That's why if you want to
be a good speed reader, it's important you read alot to also have a
broad vocabulary.
Sub-vocalization
We have already mentioned sub-vocalization briefly. It's one of the
major things that hold people back from reading fast. You may
probably be engaged in it right now. It is when you mentally say and
hear the word you are reading.
As we have said before, most of us learned to read by sounding out
the words. The problem is, most people never stopped. Sure, maybe
you no longer audibly sound them out, or even move your lips when
reading, but in your head you are sub-vocalizing (reading to yourself,
expressing perceived words in equivalent movements of the tongue
and larynx.)
The simple truth is we can understand and process a word more
quickly than we can say or hear it. In order to become a speed
reader you must discard this habit (or at least reduce it) and adopt a
more efficient method of reading, where you don't read to yourself in
your mind. This method consists of understanding and imagery only,
with no vocal or sub-vocal expression as you read .
 Before you can learn to let go of sub-vocalization without at the
same time, suppressing inner speech altogether, you have to learn
to differentiate between sub-vocalization and reading without sub-
vocalisation . Differentiation between the two types of reading may
be done by doing the following exercises.
Step 1. Choose a page from any of your favorite books, or notebook.
An easily understood material is required, because even when a
good reader is reading something that she finds difficult to
comprehend, there will be a tendency to back to sub-vocalization,
when a phrase or sentence containing unfamiliar or foreign words is
presented.
Note: a reader who isn't sub-vocaliz ing will find she is able to
detect misunderstood words more easily, because she will revert to
sub-vocalization as she strives to give meaning to the unfamiliar.
Step 2. Count out loud from one to ten repeatedly, while reading the
page silently without sub-vocalizing . Counting out loud will occupy
the motor-vocal system, so that the mind is unable to sub-vocalize.
Step 3. When you are able to read silently while counting out loud,
then begin to read silently in your mind and to count silently at the
same time using sub-vocalization.
Step 4. Once you can read silently while counting silently, begin to
increase your reading speed. When your reading speed exceeds
360 w.p.m., the two types of subjective reading will become more
differentiated. By avoiding sub-vocalization , you can read much
faster, and that's because sub-vocalization is limited by the speed
of motoric response.
Continue with the above exercises until you have a good
knowledge of the two types of reading (sub-vocalized and when
you're not sub-vocalizing ) and can choose between them. This
approach is better than trying to suppress sub-vocalization
altogether when trying to learn how to speed read.
To test your reading speed, choose a book that you are interested
in and can read easily. Measure the time it takes to read five pages.
Your reading speed can then be calculated using the following
formula: W.p.m. (speed) = (number of pages read) × (number of
words per average page) ÷ (the number of minutes spent reading).
Faulty Reading Habits to Avoid
We have already covered a lot in this part of the book and as we
draw this section to a close, below are some faulty reading habits
you need to avoid or overcome in order to learn effectively.
1. Vocalization: lots of people have the habit of whispering the
words or pronouncing them aloud while reading. This is a poor
reading habit that not only makes reading inefficient but also cause
disturbances as reading out words could distract others around you
. Avoid vocalization except when engaged in memory training.
2. Sub-vocalization: unlike vocalization, this simply involves
pronouncing the words in one's mind as the individual reads. This
usually makes it hard to understand the ideas conveyed in a book,
which leads to distortion of the acquired knowledge and poor
comprehension.
3. Back-skipping or regression: this is a process of constantly
glancing back physically while reading or subconsciously re-reading
words, phrases, or sentences that you are supposed to have since
left behind. This is sometimes caused by a lack of interest, absent-
mindedness, tiredness and lack of focus in the material.
There are two ways you can reduce this habit. Firstly, you must
force yourself not to constantly re-read sections you think you may
have missed. Secondly, increase your reading speed, doing this will
make back skipping or regression more difficult, while actually
increasing your comprehension.
Research has shown that, in 80 percent of cases, when readers
were not allowed to back-skip or regress, they discovered that their
eye had actually taken in the information (remember your peripheral
vision?), and they absorbed it as they read the next few phrases.
Back skipping should be avoided as much as you can.
4. Finger pointing: it’s a common practice for many people to
read and point at words using a finger, ruler, or a pen. This is a poor
reading habit that reduces reading speed and distorts the
assimilation and digestion of the material being studied. Although
some experts believe that using a guide when reading, minimizes
the amount of work the eyes have to do, keeps the eyes focused,
and gives you constant accelerations in reading speed while
maintaining high comprehension. In cases where you must use a
guide, make sure you have the necessary techniques.
5. Body movement: another common habit I have noticed
among a good number of people is to read with a lot of body
movements, such as shaking the head, legs, or any other movable
body part. This habit usually leads to an unnecessary waste of
energy which should have been reserved. Ideally, it is only the eye
that should move when reading.

How to hack your brain and read more books.

I have decided to add this here as a bonus. It’s a hack on how you
can hack your brain and read more books. The part of your brain
called the pre-frontal cortex is known as the CEO of your brain
because it helps you in directing your life by assisting you make the
right decisions, paying attention to details and lots more.

There is also another part of the brain known as the Nucleus

accumbens and ventral tegmental area, these parts of the brain are
called the pleasure center because they are responsible for the
production of a hormone called dopamine. This hormone is
responsible for making humans and even animals feel pleasure.
Anytime you are happy and excited, it’s because these two brain
areas are working together. The pre-frontal cortex helps you set an
aim to read, the pleasure centre of the brain helps you find the
activity you’re engaged in, pleasurable. Here‘s where it gets
interesting. Dopamine is also released in response to rewards, so to
get your brain excited about reading, promise a reward you will give
to yourself after you have completed the task.
It doesn’t have to be something big, sometimes I promise myself
to watch a movie I have always wanted to watch only if I finish a
particular book I need to read. Right now as I am editing this book,
there is a movie I downloaded yesterday night, The Queens Gambit .
Although I feel the pressure to go ahead and watch it, but I have told
myself that watching that movie would be the reward I will give to
myself for editing a particular section of this book.
You can do the same too, it could just be anything. You can even
promise yourself financial rewards. When dopamine is released
consistently in response to a particular activity, your brain takes note
of it, and overtime it will become dopamine dependent on that
activity.
This means your brain realizes that task makes you release
dopamine and overtime you will need more dopamine to be able to
keep that pleasure sensation going on. To have that excitement you
have to perform that task, follow the same routine. This is a brief
neurological explanation of how addiction happens. And you can use
this to become addicted to reading overtime , too.

The 10 Minute Rule

One of the reasons why most people don't read is because of
procrastination. So this rule would help you beat this habit. It works
in two ways. First, when you know you should be reading and yet
don’t feel like reading , just do it for ten minutes, then you can stop.
Of course, you’ll rarely stop at the ten-minute mark because you’ll
have built up momentum and destroyed what was keeping you lazy:
inertia.
Second ly, whenever you feel like to stop reading, just give it ten
more minutes. You may not continue much past this, but giving
yourself a specific deadline will make you want to finish as much as
possible in that time, and also increase your producti vity.
PART THREE
Memory
Memory is that faculty in your brain that enables you to retain
what you learn, either by your own reading and research or by being
taught by others, and to recall what you have learned whenever
needed.
The ancient Greeks so worshiped memory that they named her
Lady Mnemosyne: Mother of the nine Muses—she was believed to
have given birth to all the arts and sciences. They believed without
her neither logic nor poetry could exist, and the rudiments of science
would have to be rediscovered with each new generation.
As far back as there are records of human intelligence, the most
prized mental gift has been a well-cultivated memory. And you will
agree with me that a ll other abilities of the mind borrow from
memory their beauty and perfection. The greatest challenge most
individual s have to overcome in the quest to becoming outstanding
is the power to retain the knowledge already gotten so that it can be
recalled at any time its use is desired.
The Possibilities of the Memory
Here’s the good news: the memory can be trained. There is no
need of constantly forgetting. It is generally agreed among
psychologists that there is no limit to the capacity of the memory. No
person has ever learned so much that he cannot learn more.
In fact, a Californian psychologist and neurophysiologist, Professor
Mark Rosensweig, spent years studying the individual brain cell and
its capacity for storage. As early as 1974 he stated that if we put ten
new information every second for an entire lifetime to any normal
human brain that brain would be considerably less than half full. He
stressed that memory problems have nothing to do with the capacity
of the brain but rather with the self-management of that apparently
boundless capacity.
According to neurologists, your brain have a storage capacity of
approximately 2.5petabytes (2.5 million gigabytes). That’s the
equivalent of recording three hundred million hours of high-definition
television! Simply put, you have the capacity to learn something new
every second of every minute of every hour of everyday for
thousands of lifetimes.
Your Brain Is Bigger Than Google
Scientists have found out that the human brain has roughly 100
billion unique cells, every one of this single brain cell (neuron) is
more powerful than a personal computer. You could place about
30,000 of this brain cells on the head of a pin. When placed end to
end, the brain cells in just one person’s cortex (the outer layers of
the brain) would be enough to go around the world four times.
The average neuron (cell in the brain that receives and sends
chemical signals) connects to a thousand other neurons scattered
across the brain, which means that the adult human brain contains
100 trillion distinct neuronal connections, making it the largest and
most complex network on earth.
By comparison, Google has the largest index of web pages in the
world and it catalogued its trillionth web page in the summer of 2008.
What this implies is that you and I are walking around with a high-
density network in our skulls that could be larger than the whole of
Google’s database, or even the World Wide Web.
No wonder the brain is even harder to fuel than any other organ in
the body. Do you know that your brain accounts for about 2–3
percent of your total body weight, but it consumes 25 per cent of the
body’s energy when the body is at rest? Profound isn’t it.
Memory Achievements
Years ago I also read of a ninety year old woman in England who
could recite any portion of the entire new and Old Testament Bible.
She attributed it to the fact that as a child she had been made to
learn a verse from the Bible every day, and then constantly review it.
As her memory improved, she learned more, as a result she could
repeat from memory any verse of the entire bible.
And then there's the historical case of the unnamed Dutchman
who would take up a fresh newspaper; read it all through, including
the advertisements; and then repeat its contents, word for word, from
the beginning to the end. On one occasion he is said to have terrified
people, by repeating the contents of the paper backward, beginning
with the last word and ending with the first. Goethe the German
writer is said to have entertained his fellow passengers on long
coach journeys by reciting his novels to them, word for word, before
committing them to paper.
In the book Super Brain, Rudolph E. Tanzi and Deepak Chopra,
wrote about a selected group of people who share a mysterious
condition that was discovered only recently in 2006—hyperthymesia.
These groups of people remember everything. They have total
recall.
They can re member any day of their lives with complete, unerring
accuracy. As Deepak Chopra noted, "researchers have located only
seven or eight Americans to date who exhibit this condition, but it
isn’t a malady. None of these people have brain damage, and in
some cases, their ability to remember every detail of their lives
began suddenly on a specific day, when ordinary memory took a
quantum leap."
All this may sound too farfetched to you right now, but the truth still
remains that you have so much potential and you don’t know what
you can’t do. So before you conclude that these cases are unique
and that these individuals who possess this kind of memory were
unique, just know that they weren’t born that way—all they did was
to train their memory. The remaining section of this part of the book
will be aimed at giving you various tips on how to boost your memory
power. First let's look at the types of memory.
1. Sensory memory. Sensory memory is responsible for hold ing
both conscious and subconscious information you gain via your five
senses. It helps you make sense of your environment and shapes
your perception. However, this memory isn't that efficient because
you only remember or perceive these things for as long as they are
necessary or useful, and that can be only a few seconds.
2. Short term/working memory. This is a memory system that
starts to develop in the early year of life. This is the system that
allows us to hold and manipulate information “online.” We rely on
working memory constantly during our waking lives because it allows
us to keep in mind information while doing something else.
Without working memory it would be impossible to have a
conversation, read this sentence, add up digits in your head, or dial
your friend’s phone number. Neuroscientists have likened working
memory to an erasable mental blackboard that allows you to hold
information briefly in your mind and manipulate it, be it words, prices
of products in the market, or a phone number. For most people,
studies have shown th at short term memory can hold seven items,
but you will likely forget most of them after thirty seconds.
3. Long-term memory. This is the storage of information over an
extended period of time. There are three steps that information
follows to become a embedded into memory: encoding, storage, and
retrieval.
First, Encoding is when information is consumed and the brain links
the new information to something familiar to make it meaningful and
make it stay. Storage is when memories are retained, usually by
practice or rehearsal of some sort. And finally,r etrieval is when you
get the memory out of your memory banks and access it to apply it.
Its important you understand that s hort-term memory and long-term
memory are stored in different parts of the brain. Short-term memory
resides in the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex, but information
stored in long-term memory is first held in the hippocampus, then
transferred to the cerebral cortex for permanent storage.
Steps to Memory Boost
1: Attention
Attention is simply directing your mental powers to a particular
subject to the exclusion of every other thing. In other words, it means
a deliberate effort to set the mind upon a certain task.
There is a story of the power of attention told about a great writer
who lived in the time of the French Revolution, that although people
were being killed right under the window of the room in which he was
fully engaged writing a book, yet he was so absorbed in his writing
that he knew nothing of what was happening outside until he was
later told about it.
Inattentional Blindness
The best known study demonstrating this phenomenon is the
invisible gorilla test, which was conducted years ago. For the
experiment the subjects were asked to watch a short video in which
two groups of people (wearing black and white t-shirts) pass a
basketball around. The subjects are told to either count the number
of passes made by one of the teams or to keep count of bounce
passes vs. aerial passes. In different versions of the video, a woman
walks through the scene carrying an umbrella, or wearing a full
gorilla suit.
After watching the videos, the subjects are asked if they saw
anything out of the ordinary take place. In most groups, 50% of the
subjects did not report seeing the gorilla. The failure to perceive the
gorilla or the woman carrying an umbrella is attributed to the failure
to attend to it while engaged in the difficult task of counting the
number of passes of the ball.
These results indicate that the relationship between what’s in
one’s visual field and perception is based much more significantly on
attention than was previously thought. What this experiment proves
is this: You can't be attentive to two separate things at the same
time.
That's why the ability to fix your thought on what you desire to
commit to memory is the first essential principle in memory training.
The more strongly you are able to concentrate your mind upon the
subject you are learning, the easier it will be to recall it on a future
occasion. Strong and fixed attention gives strong and fixed
impressions .
Ways through which you can develop your attention abilities
1. By taking pleasure in the subject you desire to learn: Speaking
generally, nobody ever became successful in retaining ideas which
were displeasing them. You'll get tired, not from overwork but from
lack of interest in what you are doing.
2. By choosing something for study that you will be likely to make
use of in the future: The advantage in this will be that your reading
will not seem to you like a loss of time. Remember when we talked
about having a goal in the first part? It’s almost the same thing, with
the thought of a future benefit, you will be motivated to be more
focused.
3. Take a book that seems difficult, for the purpose of concentrating
your mind upon it. Try to read ten lines without allowing any thought
outside of the subject you are studying to come into your mind. If
your mind wanders, bring it back again, and again, and yet again.
Then read twenty lines without allowing your thoughts to wander .
Do not be easily discouraged. Keep this up until you can read one
page without a wandering thought. You can take a little to begin with,
but be sure to master that little. It is a known fact in physiology that it
is not the amount of food you eat that nourishes and strengthens
your body, but the amount you digest.
It’s the same with memory improvement: it is not the amount of
pages you are able to cover, but the amount you are able to retain
and remember that counts. Continue this practice until you can read
page after page without entertaining a thought different to what you
are studying.
2 . Get Your Senses Engaged
There are two ways by which you can get your sense engaged :
the first is by sight; the second, by sound—one through the eye, and
the other through the ear.
By Sight:
People easily remember and also are able to recall anything they
have seen in picture form. Psychologists say that the best way to
teach children is by means of pictures and illustrations. That’s why
when you were in nursery class; your teachers deemed it necessary
to teach you using pictures. What is true of children is true also of
adults, except in a more complex form. What the picture is to the eye
of the child, writing is to the mind of the adult when committing things
to memory.
 Writing basic ideas when trying to memorize is not a waste of time.
As you write, the more the central theme of what you are trying to
memorize gets embedded in your mind, and hence the harder it will
be for you to forget it. Remember when we talked about key word
note taking, this is why it’s important you learn and master it.
By Hearing:
The impressions made upon the brain by hearing are also very
strong. That’s why you find it easy to hum a tune after you have
heard it played or sung, than by simply reading it from musical notes.
We remember illustrations we have heard from another source than
when we have only read them in some book. (That’s why gossip
spreads; people don’t forget stories easily.)
It is good advice to look for a quiet place and repeat aloud what
you desire to commit to memory. Each repetition strengthens the
impression made upon your memory, strengthening the neural
pathways of the subject.
3 : Analyze What You Desire To Commit To Memory
Another mistake most people make is to try to memorize anything
that has not been analyzed. To simply repeat what you intend to
learn over and over again without any reference to the analysis of it
is to practically waste time as far as effective memory training is
concerned.
The reason is because after a few repetitions of the subject, the
task becomes a monotonous one, and monotony is a deadly enemy
to successful memory training. The best way to proceed to memorize
is to arrange what you intend to learn analytically and synthetically,
i.e. reverse-engineer it—take it to pieces and put it together again.
By doing this, you will have almost learned a lot with scarcely any
noticeable effort at memorizing.
4 : Suggestive Association
Hundreds of years ago the Greek lyric poet Simonides attended a
banquet to perform a poem in honor of the host. Shortly after
performing the poem, he was called outside and while he was gone
the roof of the banqueting hall suddenly collapsed, crushing the
other guests to death. Some of their bodies were deformed beyond
recognition, which was a great concern, as they needed to be
identified in order to receive the proper burial rites.
Simonides, however, was able to identify the dead by drawing on
his visual memory of where each of the guests had been seated
around the banquet table. From this experience, Simonides realized
that anyone could improve their memory by selecting locations and
forming mental images of the things they wished to remember. If the
images were stored in the visualized places in a particular order, it
would then be possible to remember anything through the power of
association.
Suggestive Association is the connecting of a thought that is
remote or abstract with others more obvious and familiar that the
recurrence of the latter may bring along with it the recurrence of the
former. When committing new concepts to memory, you must link or
associate it with a thought or thing already very well-known to the
mind.
Think of them both together. Repeat them aloud together. Write
them both together. It may take you a little time to think of something
already familiar and in the mind with which to associate the new
thought or thing; nevertheless, take the time and, in the long run, you
will be repaid, and will save much time. After a little practice in
looking for these associations, you will realize how easy it has
become.
By doing this, if at any time you fail to recall the thing you want,
then recall the association. This will bring to your mind the very thing
you desire to recall. It doesn’t matter how simple the association may
seem to be. Often times, the more simple, and even ridiculous it is,
the easier it is remembered.
Scientists have also shown that the best way to remember what
you’ve learned is to return to the place where you learned it—place
dependent learning. Keep a habit of studying in a particular place, it
helps in retention.
Here’s an example on how you can learn how to develop
associations. Take a good look at all the words suggested for each
number from 1 to 10 and try to see which word brings to mind that
specific figure.

1. Sun, bun, nun, hun, gun

2. Shoe, pew, loo, crew, gnu
3. Tree, flea, sea, knee, me
4. Door, moor, whore, boar, paw
5. Hive, jive, drive, dive, chive
6. Sticks, pricks, bricks, wicks, licks
7. Heaven, devon
8. Bait, gate, weight, date, fate
9. Vine, wine, twine, line, dine
10.
Hen, pen, den, men, wren
What are your answers?
1____________________________________
2____________________________________
3____________________________________
4____________________________________
5____________________________________
6____________________________________
7____________________________________
8____________________________________
9____________________________________
10____________________________________
5 : Mnemonics or Acronyms
As we said earlier , the Greeks so worshiped memory that they
made a goddess out of her--Mnemosyne. The current word
mnemonics, was derived from her name. Mnemonics is simply used
to describe memory techniques such as associations and acronyms.
In Greek and Roman times, politicians would learn these techniques
in order to impress other politicians and the public with their
phenomenal powers of learning and memory.
One way they did this was by taking the first letter of each word that
is to be memorized and using it to create a short word that can be
easily remembered. In biology for instance, the first alphabets of the
characteristics of living things is used to form the mnemonic (MR.
NIGER D), which stands for M-Movement, R- Respiration, N-
Nutrition, I-Irritability, G-Growth, E-Excretion, R-Reproduction, and
D-Death respectively. By creating mnemonics out of what you desire
to commit to memory a long boring list of words could be made short
and interesting. For example, the colors of the rainbow are far more
easily remembered as ROY G BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, violet).
6 : Emotion
Brain research has shown there's a strong relation ship between
emotions and memory, which from personal experience, you would
probably agree to. Emotions often involve memory and memories
often involve emotions. Emotional events are better remembered
than neutral events.
Nothing solidifies a memory like emotion that's why when we are
children, we learn effortlessly, because the young are naturally
passionate and enthusiastic about learning. Emotions of joy and
wonder, but also of horror and dread, in t ensify learning.
Your pupil (the black spot in the middle of your eye) adjusts their size
according to light intensity and the nearness of the object. The
brighter the light and the nearer the object, the smaller the pupil size
will become. Scientists have recently discovered that pupil size also
varies with emotion, and that if you are confronted with a sight that
really interests you (like a cloth you really like or an attractive
member of the opposite sex), your pupil size automatically
increases.
The point is , whenever you are interested in something your pupil
dilates, letting more light in. In other words, the more interested you
are, the wider your brain draws the curtain behind your eyes,
allowing you to receive, with no extra effort, more data per second.
When you read it’s important to try and be enthusiastic about what
you are learning, also give yourself rewards as you make progress.
This will lead to the activation of your limbic system (the emotion
center of the brain) which includes your hippocampus (responsible
for memories), and your brain’s pleasure center, the nucleus
accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). These structures
are responsible for releasing dopamine (the hormone that induces
pleasure).
The nucleus accumbens both alerts us to the possibility of
pleasure and motivates us when we are in a position to experience
that pleasure. The constant activation of these two brain areas (your
limbic area and the pleasure center of the brain) together will help
make what you are trying to i

mpress upon your memory salient.

As se en from the
image above, Its also important you know that t he emotional part of
your brain (the amygdala) and the memory part of your brain (the
hippocampus), are very close. When you make their activities to
overlap, like pairing learning with emotions, it makes information
stick faster and longer.
Here is a good example , If I give you a very hot slap on the face
and told you something. Versus I didn't slap you and just told you,
which do you think you'll remember two months from now? Definitely
the information that activated alot of your emotions (the one with a
slap). Emotions are powerful for learning, harness them.
7 : Schemas
Psychologists define schema as a collection of generic properties
of a concept. Schemas consist of lots of prerecorded information
stored in our memories. For example, If someone tells you that she
saw a devil, a picture immediately springs to mind, filled with generic
properties. You know what “devils” looks like. You picture something
ugly, with two horns, perhaps. This is because of the schema about
evil you have in your memory; you don't expect anything evil to be
beautiful.
From the example above, if I told you I saw a sports car, those are
the things that will come to your mind. Schemas help us create
complex messages from simple materials. In school, lots of science
courses are taught by clever uses of schemas. Basic science and
introductory technology deals with simple, idealized situations:
pulleys, inclines, objects moving at constant rates along frictionless
paths. As students become familiar with the “pulley” schema, it can
be stretched in some way or merged with other schemas to solve
more complicated problems.
Another nice use of a schema is the solar system model of the
atom, which many of us were taught in Integrated Science or
Chemistry. This model posits that electrons orbit the nucleus, much
as planets orbit the sun. This analogy gives students a quick,
compact insight into how the atom works. Using schemas when
trying to commit something to memory would help you enhance
retention of what you have read. The principle behind schema is
simply that new ideas and concepts will stick to your memory more if
you relate them to what you already know.
8 : Chunking
In his book The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle wrote about De Groot a
Dutch psychologist who played chess in his spare time and was
often dumb-founded when a handful of players from his chess club,
people just like him in age, experience, and background,
nevertheless, were able to perform superhuman feats of chess
mastery.
De Groot puzzled over his losses, which led him to ask what
exactly made these guys so good at chess. At the time, the scientific
wisdom on the issue was unquestioned. It was believed that the
best players possessed photographic memories that they use to
absorb information and plan strategies. But De Groot didn't buy this
theory; he wanted to find out more.
To investigate, he set up an experiment involving both master
players and more ordinary ones. De Groot placed chess pieces into
positions from a real game, gave the players a five-second glimpse
of the board, and then tested their recall. The results were what one
might expect. The master players recalled the pieces and
arrangements four to five times better than the ordinary players did.
Then De Groot did something mind blowing. Instead of using
patterns from a real chess game, he set the chess pieces in a
random arrangement and reran the test. Suddenly the masters'
advantage vanished. They scored no better than lesser players . He
realized t he master players didn't have photographic memories;
when the game stopped resembling chess, their skills evaporated.
De Groot went on to show that in the first test, the masters were
not seeing individual chess pieces but recognizing patterns. Where
novices saw a scattered alphabet of individual pieces, masters were
grouping those "letters" into the chess equivalent of words,
sentences, and paragraphs. When the pieces became random, the
masters were lost, not because they suddenly became dumber, but
because their grouping strategy was suddenly useless. The
difference between chess masters and ordinary players was a
difference of organization.
Memorizing words consists of identifying important elements and
grouping them into a meaningful framework. The name
psychologists’ use for such organization is chunking.
To understand how chunking works, try to memorize these two
sentences Daniel gave as an example.

1.
We climbed Mount Everest on a Tuesday morning.
2.
Gninromya DseutAnotserev e Tnuomdebmilcew.
The two sentences contain the same characters, just like De
Groot's chess boards, except in the second sentence, the order of
those letters are reversed. The reason you can understand, recall,
and manipulate the first sentence is that, like the chess masters, you
have spent many hours learning and practicing a cognitive game
known as reading.
 You've learned letter shapes and practiced chunking letters from
left to right with deeper meanings—words and you've learned how to
group those into still bigger chunks—sentences—that you can
handle, move around, understand, and remember.
The first sentence is easy to remember because it has only three
main conceptual chunks: "We climbed" is a chunk, "Mount Everest"
is a chunk, and "Tuesday morning" is a chunk. Those chunks are in
turn composed of smaller chunks. The letters W and E are both
chunks that you combine into another chunk called WE. And so on—
each group of chunks nests neatly inside another group. Even an 11-
digit telephone number (08133520108) can be better remembered if
broken down (chunked) into smaller units of 4-4-3 (0813-3520-108).
Your skill at reading, at its essence, is the skill of packing and
unpacking chunks, arranging words into sizeable chunks helps in
committing things to memory.
9 : The Art of Practice
Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the idea of practice, if
you desire to retain and recall what you have learned. You must
always remember that lapse of time weakens the memory. Years
ago, an experiment was carried out by psychologist Henry Roediger,
where students were divided into two groups to study a natural
history text.
Group A studied the paper for four sessions. Group B studied only
once but was tested three times. A week later both groups were
tested, and Group B scored 50 percent higher than Group A. They'd
studied one-fourth as much yet learned far more because they were
tested (practiced) more.
As you learnt at the beginning of this book, the human brain
contains about 100 billion neurons. Each neuron has a long tail-like
part (axon) and many branches (dendrites–from the Greek word
Dendron, meaning tree). A neuron sends super-fast messages to
other neurons by passing a tiny electrical current along its axon and
across very tiny gaps (synapses) into the dendrites of other neurons.
If the neurons did not communicate, your body would do nothing.
Every single thing you do–every thought, action, emotion, even
things like going to the toilet–happens when the neurons send the
right messages, very fast, through this incredibly complicated web of
branches.
Each time you repeat the same action, or thought, or recall the
same memory, that particular web of connections is activated again.
Each time that happens, the web of connections becomes stronger.
And the stronger the connections, the better you are at that particular
task. People who are good at what they do are not much different
from you.
As Daniel Coyle, the author of The Talent Code puts it, “They have
tapped into a neurological mechanism in which certain pattern of
targeted practice builds skill.”

One of the reasons practice makes for improvement is because of

myelin. A fatty substance that is like the insulation on an electric
wire, and what it does is to strengthen the pathways of brain cells so
that messages get through more effectively. It allows things to work
3000 times in a more coordinated and speedy way.
Every human skill, whether it's playing basketball, doing a math’s
calculation, or playing the piano, is created by chains of nerve fibers
carrying a tiny electrical impulse—basically, a signal traveling
through a circuit. When we fire our circuits in the right way—when
we practice throwing that ball, solving that math's problem or playing
that note—our myelin responds by wrapping layers of insulation
around that neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and
speed.
The thicker the myelin gets, the better it insulates and the faster
and more accurate our movements and thoughts become. This is
basically the reason why practice really can make perfect. If you
want to keep anything strongly impressed upon your memory, you
have to do two things; first keep your web of connections strong and
second build myelin–by practicing constantly.
There are a few principles on how to practice effectively. The first
is to be committed to daily practice. Without commitment, you won't
be able to turn practice into a habit. The second is to p ractice at
your own pace . Don't copy any person. Do what works for you. If an
hour of practice is what works for you, that's great, don't push it too
much. You may just be wasting your time. Thirdly, g ive yourself
positive feedback and finally, endeavor to t each others what you
have learnt . We learn alot by teaching others.
1 0 . Spaced Repetition
Too much practice weakens the memory that's why it's important you
practice spaced repetition. Space out your rehearsal and exposure
to it over as long a period as possible. In other words, you will
remember something far better if you study it for one hour a day,
versus twenty hours in one weekend. Research has shown that
seeing something ten times over the course of seven days is more
effective than seeing it twenty times in one day.
Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist and pioneer of
quantitative memory research, was the person who first identified the
spacing effect. He was the one who invented the forgetting curve to
show how a memory of new information decays in the brain.
Spaced repetition makes more sense if you imagine your brain as a
muscle. You can't exercise a muscle all the time, and then put it back
to work with little to no recovery. Your brain needs time to make
connections between concepts, and generally become familiar with
something. Always remember it's very easy to forget hence our
brains assign greater importance to repeated information.
Learning Styles
How we process information, organize our thoughts, and learn is
called our “learning style” and every individual learns in a slightly
different way. Learning styles start to crystallize during our primary
school years and at that time; most of us tend to be stronger in one
particular area over others. Since the early 1970s, researchers have
been studying individual learning styles and have found that there
are basically three types:
1. Visual learners: These groups of learners rely on what they see.
They benefit from illustrations and visual presentations, are good
readers and take copious notes. They respond best to instruction
that includes reading, graphs and videos. They also learn by
watching what they or others do. They learn quickly and don’t need
to have things shown to them repeatedly.
2. Auditory learners: They absorb information by listening. They
remember best by verbalizing new information, like to read aloud,
and can learn in a noisy environment. They benefit most from
instruction based on discussion and questioning. They need to take
a lot of notes.
Unlike visuals, auditory people need to have things repeated. They
speak more slowly than visuals but faster than kinesthetic. They are
attracted by sounds, melodies and music. Studying in group benefits
auditory learners since they need to talk through problems and
issues, whereas visuals work more effectively by reading books with
charts and diagrams.
3. Kinesthetic learners: This group learns best by doing. They
enjoy hands-on instruction, using manipulative, role-playing, or
building things. Touch and movement are critical for these learners to
absorb information. They also remember what was done, not
necessarily what was seen or heard. Kinesthetics have highly
developed sensory acuity when it comes to touch.
Kinesthetics need to place themselves into their subject matter. In
chemistry, they need to become a hydrogen or oxygen molecule. In
physics, they need to be on that train going from point A to point B at
60 km/hr. In literature, they need to be back in England, reciting
Shakespeare.
4. Reading and Writing. Neil Fleming added a fourth style which he
called Reading/Writing. people with this learning style love to read
alot and take notes as they read. Without doing this, they may not
get the most out of a book or study material.
It is important to keep these learning styles in mind and recognize
which ones you tend to utilize most. Otherwise, you will find yourself
struggling and getting frustrated as you follow the memory
improvement techniques to help you develop an efficient memory.
Also, nobody is uniquely one of these styles. We all have the abilities
of the other styles, even though we are predominantly one of the
three. Knowing and understanding your learning style is crucial when
trying to learn how to effectively use the memory improvement
techniques we have discussed or learning in general.
On Food, Water and Learning
The brain obtains most of its energy from glucose (a simple sugar
gotten from most of the foods we eat, e.g., carbohydrates), which is
transported in the bloodstream. The fact is, eating regularly is vital
for brain function. One of the most mind-blowing demonstrations of
the effect of eating on brain function is shown in the rare disorder
known as phenylketonuria.
In this condition, which is due to a metabolic disorder which is
usually genetic, the body is unable to digest food that contains
phenylalanine (a chemical present in most of the things we eat).
Because this chemical is not properly digested, complex chemical
reactions affect the brain and in particular the frontal lobes. The
result is low intellectual functioning, and lack of planning and control
of attention.
Fish and other protein-rich foods contain two amino acids, called
tryptophan and L-phenylalanine, which can help to increase energy
reserves and stimulate the production of serotonin and noradrenaline
(which play a role in producing feelings of happiness) in the brain.
Tryptophan, which has been found to improve mood in depressed
patients and affects the brain’s mood circuitry, can also be found in
eggs, milk, bananas, and dairy foods.
One of the amino acids in the brain that produces feelings of
energy and vibrancy is tyrosine, which is used in different
biochemical processes to produce the brain chemicals dopamine
and noradrenaline. This is found in fish, and vegetables. Endorphin
is another “happy” chemical that can be ingested in food. The
primary endorphin-producers are foods that are rich in animal
protein, such as turkey, chicken, lean red meat, eggs, and cheese.
Long chain fatty acids, known as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty
acids, are also crucial for normal brain development and function.
Long chain fatty acids are the building blocks of cell membranes and
about 30 percent of the brain is made up of them. Brain synapses
require long chain fatty acids to be efficient.
Many substances that are helpful to mental ability and learning are
all naturally present in the foods we eat, hence eating the necessary
diets (a balanced diet) is bound to affect learning. If nutrition is
inadequate negative consequences like poor memory can occur. The
brain also requires water. The brain is more than 80 percent water.
Dehydration can seriously impair learning, and simply increasing
the amount of water you drink each day can improve concentration
and memory—up to a point. Adequate hydration is drinking an
amount of water that strikes the balance between your not being
thirsty and not running off to the bathroom every second. The most
efficient way to do this is by being attentive to your body: if you’re
thirsty, drink something.
On Sleep and Learning
Sleep is a state of unconsciousness in which the brain behaves
dramatically differently from its waking state. Recent research has
proved the critical role of sleep in the way we learn and the level at
which we perform. Sleep affects how we remember information, and
our ability to think creatively.
There are two main types of brain state during sleep. During rapid
eye movement (REM) sleep, the brain is very active—it generates
frequent impulses, which resemble brain activity during wakefulness.
However, there is a major difference between REM sleep and when
we are awake: during REM sleep all the body muscles are paralyzed
(except the eye muscles, which move rapidly, hence the name
REM).
It is during REM sleep that most dreaming occurs. The other type
of sleep is referred to as slow wave sleep. During slow wave sleep
the impulses generated by the brain are slow and infrequent. It is
during deep slow wave sleep that sleepwalking and talking can
occur, because, unlike during REM sleep, in slow wave sleep the
muscles are not paralyzed.
Research has provided great evidence that we learn while we
sleep. This does not mean that you can put a book under your pillow
and absorb the information while you sleep. But during sleep, the
brain is still active. Scientists have found that the brain regions
involved in learning the day before are reactivated during sleep.
In their book The Learning Brai n , Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and
Uta Frith, cited a study carried out by Pierre Macquet at the
University of London. During the study volunteers were trained on a
complex sequence task during the day. As they learned, a brain
scanner recorded their brain activity. That night, while asleep, the
volunteers had their brains scanned again. The researchers found
that the same brain areas that were activated during the training
became activated again during REM sleep. Participants’
performance on the task also improved the following day, after sleep.
Researchers have found that simply resting without sleep usually
has no strong effect on learning but having a nap immediately after
learning a task seems to improve performance on the task. That's
why taking a nap after learning is a good idea as memories about
experiences and information encountered before the nap will be
rehearsed by the brain and transferred to your long term memory.
Many studies have also shown that sleep deprivation can have
strong detrimental effects on learning.
Stop Multitasking
Many people are having trouble with learning as a result of
multitasking (dealing with more than one task at the same time).
Most people read with their attention constantly being divided by
chatting, texting, blogging, and Web surfing, which are activities that
continually disrupts the neuroplastic conditions necessary to make
those studies turn into synaptic change in the brain.
Without the lasting structural changes in the brain, no long-term
learning can occur. Not only is multitasking an impediment to
learning, it also can cause the release of stress hormones such as
cortisol and adrenaline. Chronically high levels of cortisol have been
associated with increased aggression and impulsivity and loss of
short-term memory. In other words, multitasking can wear us down,
causing confusion, fatigue, and inflexibility. Your brain needs to be
focused in order to create lasting impressions on it.
Remember we said earlier that a person’s working memory is
capable of retaining only between two and seven different images at
one time. This means that focusing on more than one complex task
is virtually impossible.
Focusing chiefly happens in the parietal lobes (located just behind
the frontal lobes), which dampen extraneous activity to allow the
brain to concentrate on one thing and then another. The parietal
lobes contain association areas and are crucial to being able to
switch between task s.
What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth
between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases
mistakes by up to 50 percent. Harness your focus on one particular
task at hand, and once that’s done, you can move to the next.
Gender Differences in Multitasking
It’s also important you understand that gender differences exist
when it gets to people’s ability to multitask. During brain
development an area of the brain that develops more rapidly in girls
than in boys is the occipital lobe. Because of this occipital lobe, girls
can take in more information at a time than boys. This greater
sensory awareness in girls leads to an ability to handle more
information than boys. They are able to register and recognize more
incoming information, and to respond accordingly.
As girls grow into women they grow with this ability. This helps
women to be able to perform multiple tasks at one time than men are
probably capable of doing, but this doesn't mean that multitasking
when engaged in a cognitive task like reading will yield no negative
effects, memory will be impaired. Avoid multitasking when reading.
What Happens When You Focus On a Single Task
When we focus intensely on a task at hand, we do three basic
things in the brain. First , is that the part of the brain just above the
brain stem, secretes an important chemical, acetylcholine,
throughout the brain. Secondly , paying close attention intensely
activates specific circuits and we know that when neurons fire
together, they wire together, this is known as the Hebbian law named
after a Canadian Neuropsychologist Donald Hebb who was a
pioneer in the field of associative learning.
He first used this phrase in 1949 to describe how pathways in the
brain are formed and reinforced through repetition. Every thought,
feeling, action and physical sensation triggers thousands of neurons,
which form a neural network. The more the brain does a particular
task, the stronger the neural network becomes, making the process
more efficient each successive time. This is why mind maps are very
effective in cultivating a good memory, because they structurally
mimic the neural networks of the brain, hence making it more
recognizable to the brain.
The structure of a neuron
And thirdly: When we pay close attention to one thing, the
acetylcholine bathing those activating circuits works with the
localized release of another neurochemical, brain-derived
neurotrophicfactor, or BDNF (a protein that is essential for certain
neurotransmitters), to optimize how genes become expressed to
produce the proteins necessary to strengthen the connections
among those firing neurons. In summary, when you pay close
attention, you optimize neuroplastic changes that enhance learning.
Focus Breeds Insight
Years back in a classic study of animal behavior, a chimpanzee
was given two bamboo poles, neither of which was long enough to
reach some fruits placed outside its cage. Being thoughtful long
enough plus the desire for those fruits, the chimpanzee was
motivated and focused enough to connect the two short poles
together to make a longer pole and reached the fruit outside its cage.
This type of learning is Called insight, a process whereby an
animal or individual uses previous experiences, and being focused
on the present task at hand to respond to a new situation in a
creative way. Researchers have found that focus breeds insight, it
leads to new ways of doing things and since much of human learning
is through insight people who are not focused enough tend not to
learn fast enough.
 The Reticular Activating System
The Reticular Activating System is located at the base of your
brain. It's responsible for a number of functions, but the one we want
to talk about here is called filtering. This is the process that
determines what you become conscious of, what remains in the
forefront of your mind, and what simply disappears into the recesses
of your unconscious.
At any moment, your brain is swamped with millions of bits of
information streaming into your brain—most of which you cannot
attend to, nor do you need to. Because your brain must process
these data, your RAS makes quick judgments about what it should
and shouldn’t see.
Once you’re made aware of something, like improving in a
particular area of your academics or something like owing a
particular brand of car , once you focus your mind on it, your brain
stops filtering ways to help you thrive academically or that brand of
car and filtered data are suddenly seen. That's why when you
become interested in something you begin to see it around more
often, it isn't that they have become more frequent around you, it's
just that your RAS no longer ignores them.
If you learn to focus when studying, your RAS will become more
open to ideas you normally don't notice before which will lead to a
better understanding of concepts and effectiveness in the way
readable matter is impressed upon your memory.
PART FOUR
Mind Map
Mind maps are brilliant route-maps for the memory, allowing you to
organize facts and thoughts in such a way that your brain's neural
ways of working is engaged right from the start. This means that
remembering and recalling information later is far easier and more
reliable than when using traditional strategies of note-taking.
Also w ith mind maps, a long list of boring information can be turned
into a colorful interactive and highly organized, memorable diagram
that works in same way as your brain’s natural way of doing things.
In the book Passion To Profit , the author cites a research by a Dr.
Paul Goodwin from Alaska Pacific University in the USA, who said
there are (10 to the 10th to the 11th power) potential neurological
connections in your entire body and mind, which is more than there
are stars in the sky, more than there are grains of sand on the entire
planet.
What this means is that you have 10 times more neural
connections in your brain than you will ever use, and three times
more connections than what you are currently using in the rest of
your entire nervous system.
That’s a whole lot of thinking potential in your mind and body. Your
whole mind-body system consists mostly of a whole lot of
neurological connections that haven’t been fired up yet. Those
connections could all potentially be transmitting information like a
giant data-processing system, if we actually employed them. We
don’t employ them with our habitual thought processes, but we do
create more neural connections while mind-mapping.
The relationship between Mind Maps and memory has already
been scientifically proven. In his book The Mind Map Mastery, Tony
Buzan, wrote about a paper presented by H. Toi at the International
Conference on Thinking, Kuala Lumpur, in 2009, which showed that
Mind Mapping can help children recall words more effectively than
using lists, with improvements in memory of up to 32 percent.
Similarly, another study conducted in 2002 demonstrated how Mind
Mapping improved the long-term memory of factual information in
their participants by 10 percent.
The Creativity Test
An early attempt by psychologist N.R Maier to understand the
nature of insight has become a well-known creativity experiment.
The subject of the experiment is led into a room. There he or she
sees two long strings hanging from a high ceiling. Close by is a desk
with a variety of tools, including a pair of pliers.
The subject is told that the object of the experiment is to tie the
two strings together and that he or she can use any of the tools
available to solve the problem. Usually, the subject tries to first tie
the strings by simply pulling them together, but this, as you may have
guessed, is not possible. If the subject grabs one string and walks
over to the other, he or she will find that it is out of reach. The strings
are too far apart.
In order to solve this puzzle, the subject must use the pliers in an
unusual way—as a pendulum. Once the pliers are tied to the end of
one string, the person can set it in motion, causing the string to
swing back and forth. The person can now pull the second string
toward the first one and, when the pliers swing back in their
pendulum motion, easily grab them and tie the strings together.
Although the solution may seem obvious in this context, most
people at first find it difficult to solve in real time. The revealing part
of Maier’s experiment came when he tried to understand what would
make the solution more apparent. One factor was the type of tools
offered. Using pliers as a weight required the person to think of them
in a completely different context, to use them in an unusual manner.
But if one of the available tools was a plumb bob, which is used as a
weight for pendulums, subjects found it much easier to solve the
problem.
Maier also found that the subjects of this study responded to hints.
In some cases, the experimenter would “accidentally” brush against
one of the strings, setting it in motion. In those instances, the people
in the study were much more likely to quickly solve the problem.
Interestingly, the subjects were often unable to identify the hint as
the triggering factor. When asked what made them think of the
solution, they had no idea.
One can draw an important lesson from this experiment: that
creativity comes from combining concepts in an unusual fashion,
using both hemispheres of the brain. Pliers and a string, although
separate at the outset of the experiment, become one—a pendulum.
Creativity, in other words, is a combination of concepts, and constant
mind-mapping will help you put concepts together in an unusual
fashion when the need arises. So here's what a mind map will do for
you:
A mind map will…
1. Give you a good overview of a large subject area
2. Help you gather together large amounts of data in one place
3. Encourage problem solving by allowing you to see new creative
pathways.
4. Make your works more enjoyable to look at, read, muse over and
remember
5. Activate your whole brain
6. Clear your mind of mental clutter
7. Allow you group and regroup concepts, encouraging comparisons
between them.
Some Famous People in History Who Mind Mapped
Albert Einstein
Einstein also rejected the traditional standard linear, numerical,
and verbal forms of creative thinking. Einstein once wrote a letter to
a friend, explaining his difficulty in using words to express his
philosophy of science, because he did not think in such ways; he
thought more diagrammatically and schematically. When he was
young his teachers scoffed and said, "He will never amount to
anything.' Even his parents were concerned that he was mentally
challenged.
 When he applied for early admission into the Swiss Federal
Polytechnic School, he failed everything except the math and
science sections of the test. Einstein had to go to a trade school for a
year before he was eligible to take the exam again and be admitted
to school. Math teachers thought him dull-witted because of his
failure to learn by rote memorization.
Years later while being questioned by a group of reporters, one
asked, "What is the speed of sound" Einstein replied, "I don't know. I
don't carry information in my mind that is readily available in books.
His mind mapping techniques went on to have profound effects on
his various academic achievements to the extent that his name
became synonymous with the word 'genius'.
Leonardo da Vinci
He was a great creative genius who used the language of vision to
generate thousands of brilliant ground breaking ideas during the
great renaissance. He used images, diagrams, symbols, and
illustrations to capture, on paper, his thoughts and ideas. His
notebooks because of the sheer level of creativity are the most
expensive books in the world.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates bought one of his notebooks in 2014
for $38 million dollars. Even his painting “the Mona Lisa” is the most
expensive painting in the world today, worth close to a billion dollars.
Leonardo’s mind mapping techniques helped him to explore his
thinking in various fields such as art, physiology, engineering,
aeronautics, anatomy, and biology.
Charles Darwin
At the age of 22 Charles Darwin signed up as HMS beagle’s
naturalist for a five year voyage to South America and the
Galapagos islands. The notes, specimens and his observations
made during this voyage changed and challenged a lot of pre-
existing myths on how we as humans came into existence. Up till
date evolutionism and creationism are among the most
controversially debated topics worldwide.
In developing his Theory of Evolution, he had a vast task in front of
him: he had to explore as much of the natural world as possible; to
classify each of the species and their relationships to each other; to
explain the regularities and ‘irregularities’ in nature; to demonstrate
the explosive and multiplicative nature of growth and diversity.
How was he able to do this? With mind maps: Darwin devised a
basic Mind Map form of notes, which was very much like a branching
tree. Darwin used these basic Mind Map forms to help him collect
masses of data, to organize it, to see the relationships between the
various items, and to create new awareness’s from it. It is said that
within 15 months of drawing his first tree (Mind Map) diagram,
Darwin had worked out all the major components of the Theory of
Evolution.
Steps to Making a Mind Map
1. Start in the center of a blank page turned sideways. Why?
Because starting in the center gives your brain freedom to spread
out in all directions and to express itself more freely and naturally.

2. Use bold words, or better still, sketch a diagram for your central
idea or topic which in this example is classes of food. Why? A central
image is more interesting, keeps you focused, helps you
concentrate, and gives your brain more of a buzz.
 A study into image recognition, carried out by Professor Ralph
Haber in 1970, found that humans have an almost photographic
memory when it comes to the recognition of pictures, making images
an excellent memory aid. Incredibly, Haber found that the average
human, when shown 10,000 photographs, can remember more than
98 percent of them.
A diagram may even be worth more than a thousand words, the
brain processes print on a page at one hundred bits per second,
while it processes pictures at one billion bits per second. So
technically, a picture is really worth ten million words!

3. Draw a thick branch coming away from the central image, like the
bough of a tree. You can do this by sketching two lines that radiate
out from the centre and then connect them at the tip. Having nothing
but straight line to look at will be boring to your brain. Curved,
organic branches, like tree branches, are far more attractive and
engaging to the eye. This is visually engaging and therefore more
interesting to the brain, making you more likely to memorize the
information on the branch. Shade in the branch. Its thickness will
symbolize the weight of this association in the hierarchy of your Mind
Map.

4. Label the branch with a single word in capital letters. As this Mind
Map is about the various classes of food alternatively, instead of
writing a single character 'P' for protein, you should write the words
in capital letters.
 5. Keep adding main branches until you have about five or six of
them to work with. Remember all your main branches must be
connected to the central image. Also use colors if you like. Colors
are as exciting to your brain as are diagrams; they add extra
vibrancy and life to your mind map and tremendous energy to your
creative thinking.

6. Use one keyword per line. Single keywords give your mind
map more power and flexibility. Each single word or image is like a
multiplier, generating its own special array of associations and
connections. When you use single keywords, each one is free and,
therefore, better able to spark off new ideas and new thoughts.
Phrases or sentences tend to dampen this triggering effect.

7. Connect your second and third level branches to the first and
second association. Your brain likes to link two (or three or four)
things to remember a lot more easily. Connecting your main
branches also creates and establishes a basic structure or
architecture for your thoughts. This is very similar to the way in
which, in nature, a tree has connected branches that radiate from the
central trunk. Without connection in your mind map, everything
(especially your memory and learning) falls apart.
Congratulations you have created your first mind map. Repetition is
key, remember that neurons that fire together, wire together so keep
practicing with many more topics and subjects.
 Conclusion
Have a little Patience
You are going to have people and friends say, “Despite all your
efforts you are not getting any better.” Well, the difference may not
be visible, but something is happening.
In China, there is a bamboo tree which is planted, watered and
fertilized for the first four years and nothing happens. There is no
visible sign of growth. But sometime during the fifth year, the
bamboo tree grows about 90 feet in six weeks. The question is: Did
the bamboo tree grow in six weeks or did it take five years to grow,
even though there was no visible sign it was taking root in the
ground?
When there was no visible sign, if someone had stopped watering
and fertilizing it, would this have happened? Certainly not. The
bamboo tree would have died. We need to learn from nature, and
the lesson is very clear: Have patience and faith, keep working on
yourself. Even though the results may not be visible, something is
happening.
Dr. Myles Munroe told a story of how, when he was in nursery
class, they were given an assignment to plant a seed of bean in a
little container and leave it for two weeks before bringing it to school.
After he planted his own, he went every day to the container and
uprooted the seed to check if the seed was growing, and I guess you
know what happened at the end of two weeks—his own bean seed
never grew because he wasn't patient.
I also read a fable some time ago of an elephant and a dog who
became pregnant at the same time. Three months down the line, the
dog gave birth to six puppies. Six months later, the dog was
pregnant again, and nine months on, it gave birth to another dozen
puppies. The pattern continued. On the eighteenth month, the dog
approached the elephant questioning.
Are you sure you are pregnant?
We became pregnant the same date, I have given birth three
times to dozen puppies and they are now grown to become dogs, yet
you are still pregnant; what's going on? The dog asked. The
elephant replied, "There is something I want you to understand: what
I am carrying is not a puppy, but an elephant.
I only give birth to one in two years. When my baby hits the
ground, people hear it; when my baby crosses the road, human
beings stop and watch with admiration. What I am carrying draws
attention, because it is mighty and great."
What you carry is an elephant. Your future is brilliant and great;
just be patient enough, get the necessary knowledge via learning,
and see your potentials bloom.
As you pursue your dreams, I wish you good luck and Godspeed.
Meet the author
Freedman Newman is a prolific Writer, Personal development coach,
and Entrepreneur. One of his major goals in life is to inspire millions
of individuals to attain their full potentials through his books, articles
and public speaking. Connect with him on all social media platforms:
just search for Freedman Newman.
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