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Work Better: Remember More Stuff with 'Chunking'

The "chunking technique" can help you remember more things than you think you can remember.

I'm fighting a cold at the moment so my memory is foggier than usual, but even on my best days I wish I had a little more short-term memory capacity. Lucky for me, then, that I learned a new trick to try today: the "chunking technique." Actually, we've all done it, but we might not have thought about it in this particular way.


Chunking involves creating something more meaningful—and therefore memorable—from seemingly random bits of information. One example is if you need to remember a list of things—such as buying figs, lettuce, oranges, apples, and tomatoes—you can create a word out of the first letters (e.g., "FLOAT"), which is easier to remember than the individual items.

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I'm an aggressive list-maker, but this might come in handy when giving a presentation if I don't want to hold notes.

Do you have any brain hacks that work for you? Share them—I can use 'em this week!

Photo via Flickr (cc) on Dell's Flickr page.

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