A room in your memory palace
In Je brein op orde, Konrad still describes ways to improve your memory, but he also shares useful tips for more calm and focus in your mind. In doing so, he combines scientific insights with his own experience of memory sport, where he has won eight world titles and four Guinness World Records, among others. “To remember things better, you can create a memory palace: an imaginary space where you put the things you want to remember. In your memory palace, you can also create a room where you store all the emails you still need to answer. That way you know you still have to do something about it, but you can then let it rest.”
Konrad also sees a lot of benefits in mindfulness. “As a student, I wasn't interested in it, but since then neuroscientists have pointed out the positive effects of mindfulness and I also notice them in my daily life.” He gives the example of an exercise you can easily do between meetings: the 5-4-3-2-1. “Start by looking around you and counting five things you see, then move on to four things you hear, three things you feel, two things you smell, and one thing you taste.” The goal of these kinds of short exercises is to make your brain work differently for a moment and thereby ‘tidy up internally’, says Konrad.
Another favourite is the body scan. “Just before you fall asleep, move your attention through your body from head to toe, and pause at each body part to check how it feels. It helps with falling asleep.”
ChatGPT as coach
Another challenge of our time is dealing with technologies such as AI. In his book, Konrad zooms in on AI's ability to give your mind some rest. “You can use ChatGPT as a kind of coach to help you decide how to make best use of your time. Say you need to prepare a presentation. You can have ChatGPT ask you five questions, from easy to difficult, to assess how well you understand something and how much time you still need to prepare.”
With his book, Konrad hopes to help people get more peace and focus, but as a memory expert, he has one last tip for the readers of both his book and this article: “After reading a text, take one to two minutes to repeat in your head what you just read. It takes very little time and it helps you remember the text much better.”
Win a book
We are raffling off three copies of Boris Konrad's book among members of Radboud Recharge. Want a chance to win a copy? Send an email to recharge [at] ru.nl with your name and address and you might receive a copy.
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Boris Konrad|Your brain in order. Je brein op orde. Een beter geheugen, minder stress en meer rust en ruimte in je hoofd | 2024, publisher Ambo Anthos.
