Now that I’m using Reading Refresh to keep myself up to date on books I’ve read in the past, I thought I’d share some of them as they came back up. Today is “Unlimited Memory” by Kevin Horsley. This book is also available as a free flashcard deck on Ripple Recall.
If you’ve followed my blog very long, you’ve likely seen dozens of posts from me related to memory. Like most people, I feel like I have a “bad memory”, but over time I’ve learned that it was more about bad techniques that I simply needed to work to overcome.
In the foreword of Kevin Horsley’s book “Unlimited Memory”, Dr. Marius A. Welgemoed says:
I did not suddenly become a genius—I did not need to—I merely decided to use Kevin’s principles to transform my perceptions about my memory.
Related is the idea that we no longer need to remember things because we have Google and AI to give us the answers to whatever we need. That’s true to a degree, but if you offload all memory it can really hurt your decision-making ability:
Some people say you don’t need a good memory in the Google age. Yet Ken Jennings said, “When you make a decision, you need facts. If those facts are in your brain, they’re at your fingertips. If they’re all in Google somewhere, you may not make the right decision on the spur of the moment.“
Horsley also spends a good bit of time discussing multitasking, around the core idea of simply “multitasking is a myth”. Focus can help tremendously. He shares:
Stop overwhelming yourself by continually changing the channels of your mind. Sharpen your intellect by making it a habit to do one thing at a time. Rediscover the value of consecutive tasking, instead of settling for the diluted quality that comes from simultaneous tasking. Exceptional work is always associated with periods of deep concentration. Nothing excellent ever comes from a scattered effort. When you are “all there,” your brain power and resources will be all there, too.
I’ve shared before that memory is a choice (“you’re not bad at remembering – you just don’t care“) and he reiterates that in the book with:
You are the source of all your memories and remembering is a choice! There is no magic when it comes to memory improvement; there is only management.
There are a lot of ways to work to improve your memory, and this book is a great way to start. Grab a copy on Amazon, test yourself on the book with some flashcards at Ripple Recall (a great tool for helping with your memory!) or watch this short overview video for a bit more:
