Daily School and Work Review
Review Daily Class Work and Workplace Tasks
Every day after school or work, complete a ten-minute review of any notes, worksheets, reports, memos,and assignments that you worked on in that day. This review interrupts the “forgetting cycle” and will help you prepare in advance for tests, meetings, or discussion.
Memory research tells us that people remember up to 70% of new information if that information is practiced and placed into the long-term memory within the first 24 hours after first learning that information. The level of retention drops to only 10% after one week. So, build in to your daily routine a review time soon after school or at the end of work every day. A little bit of review, rehersal, and study with a Daily Review will actually save you time studying or preparing for the night before the test or business presentation.
Review Daily Class Work and Workplace Tasks
Purchase a spiral-bound notebook for each of your school or work subjects or classes. Label each notebook, according to the subject. Write the date of your Daily Review at the top of page and list the key areas of focus for that subject or class on that day. Write possible test questions, discussion points, questions for further research, and memory tricks to remember key ideas and details for the most important content learned that day on small sticky notes and arrange them on the Daily Review page. A few nights before an upcoming test or business meeting, you can transfer the sticky notes to a study sheet and use them to create a practice test or presentation. Also, don’t forget sticky notes that you used to take marginal annotations on worksheets, articles, and from your textbook, articles, memos, or reports.
A Few Tips for Writing Memorable Sticky Notes
1. People remember information best when that information is organized in a structured manner.
Tip: Organize your sticky notes into distinctly memorable patterns. Try general to specific, alphabetical, and chronological patterns. Color code categories with different color stickies. For example, if you are studying the explorers you could use blue for people, yellow for their countries, green for their areas of exploration, and pink for their accomplishments.
2. People remember information that is connected to visual imagery.
Tip: Draw out quick graphic or picture representations of key ideas on your stickies.
3. People remember events and information that are made exciting, interesting, or even embarrassing.
Tip: Personalize what you are trying to remember to keep things more memorable on your stickies. Relate the information that you want to remember to events and people in your own life.
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