Moment 134: 10 Hacks For The Perfect Memory: Jim Kwik

In this moment, brain training expert, Jim Kwik discusses some simple techniques to have a better memory and a higher functioning brain. Jim discusses how teaching is the best way to learn anything, and how all of learning is based on taking something you don’t know and connecting it to something you do know. He also gives his 10 keys for optimal brain health and his 3 PIE ingredients for a better memory: P for place, as we remember things based on where we put them in our mind. I for Imagine, as we remember things better when we can visualise them. Finally, E for entwine, as we need to connect both place and imagine for a better memory. Listen to the full episode here - https://g2ul0.app.link/Ue1rJ8uhpEb Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Jim: https://www.jimkwik.com https://www.instagram.com/jimkwik/?hl=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Steven Bartlett?

  I've just gone through life telling myself that I just have a bad memory.

• 0:03Speaker 01

  We could turn this into a little masterclass.

• 0:04Steven Bartlett?

  Go ahead.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  So the three keys to a better memory are.

• 0:11Steven Bartlett?

  I've been thinking a lot about this in the book that I've been writing coming out soon called The Diary of a CEO, Thirty Three Laws for Business and Life. And in chapter one, which is law one of the book, I was playing around with this idea of knowledge and skills and all of these things. And the relationship they have between them. And really it was trying to find advice for young people that want to get to a point where they have reputation and a big network and lots of resources, right? And I was trying to figure out the order. So I almost visualized it like five buckets. And the first bucket I wrote down is knowledge. That's the first one, right? And these are sequential buckets. So they go from, you know, this is bucket one.

• 0:52Steven Bartlett?

  And then, once you fill that bucket, when you apply knowledge, it turns into a skill. And then, once you have knowledge and applied knowledge, which I call skill, then you'll get these other things. Then you'll get resources, you'll get a network and you'll get a reputation. But it's those first two buckets. You can't have skills without knowledge, really. And knowledge is certainly the first one, but just having knowledge alone without that applied skill, without that applied knowledge, which we call a skill, you will, you'll never get the reputation, the resources and the network. And the only two buckets that no one ever can take from you, the only two buckets that anyone can never unfill is the knowledge bucket and also the skill bucket.

• 1:36Steven Bartlett?

  People can take away your reputation, they can take away your resources, they can take away your network, but they can never unfill these two buckets. And these two buckets are the first two buckets which go on to fill the other three. And that's why I think more recently in my life, I've, I've become obsessed with learning. Am I a great learner? No. I don't think I am because I sit here, you know, I sit here with the greatest minds in the world and I remember very little of it. And it's funny, as you were saying, I was like, I've been thinking this over the last couple of weeks, I've never really shared this with anybody, but I thought, gosh, you're in such a privileged position to get to meet all these incredible people. I should be like a human encyclopedia of information and wisdom. And I don't think I, I don't think I am, you know, I meet people that are, I sit here

• 2:21Steven Bartlett?

  with them, I think you're one of them, I go, this guy knows everything and he's remembered everything and he knows the names of studies and he can recall names. I can barely recall names of people. So I'm like, where, where do I start? Cause look, I'm in a privileged position, meeting all these wonderful people and our listeners are too. If anyone's, you know, loyal to this podcast, you're like me. I actually wrote something down as you're speaking. I was thinking, what we need to do here at the Diary of a CEO, after the episode ends, is we need to set the audience some homework.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:49Steven Bartlett?

  And what I mean by that is say, okay, Jim said these three core ideas. After the episode, I want you to go and implement them. And then I want you to like, tag me on social media of you implementing them. The action after the episode and share it with me. And that's what I think we should all do because then not only are we going to listen, we're going to learn. And those are two very different things.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I feel also when we teach something, we get to learn it twice. Meaning you share that with your friends, your family, your followers, your fans. It's, it takes advantage of something called the explanation effect. The explanation effect says that when you learn something with the intention of explaining it to somebody else, you're going to learn it much better. And that's kind of obvious, right? If you, you know, if we talked about speed reading or the best brain foods or changing your habits, optimizing your sleep, the kind of things that, that we specialize in, and somebody listening had to give a TEDx talk about it the following week, would they focus better? They would have a better concentration? Would they take more notes? Would they ask more, post more questions online, right? They, they would own that information.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  And so I think that learning with the intention of teaching helps you to be able to certainly learn it better. I mean, that, that's even how you could even use a You could explain it to somebody. I mean, the whole Richard Feynman method was, you know, take this difficult subject, neuroscience, quantum, whatever it happens to be, like social media, marketing, AI, and explain it to me as if I am a six-year-old, you know, right? And I can, you know, and I can open up a whole thing with this conversation in terms of artificial intelligence, you know, and creatives. But I really feel like all these tools are there to augment. I don't even think it's artificial intelligence. For me, it's obviously machine learning, but it's it's augmented intelligence. And I'm thinking like, how do I use this tool, like I would use a book

• 4:41Speaker 01

  or a computer or the internet or whatever, to AI to enhance HI, like human intelligence? I'm very interested in that.

• 4:49Steven Bartlett?

  People, I think me and you know the Feynman technique well, but I, when I came across it, it really was a game changer for me because it explained why I'm some, I have good comprehension on certain subject matter and then I'm quite loose on others. Could you explain it in a simple way? I know you have, you speak to it in a version of it in the book, but for anybody that isn't aware of that technique.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  So the idea here is anyone can make things more complex, but the idea is when you really understand something, you could simplify it in a way that makes it usable for the end result, right? And not only the end result, but the process of learning it. So meaning, I love reading the neuroscience papers and having deep conversations. And I think where, where if we have had any level of success is translating that in a way to people where it's conversational, where they see the relevance in their daily lives, in the application, and as results oriented.

• 5:50Steven Bartlett?

  And how does that impact our ability to learn the subject, this Feynman technique? Because stage one is of the Feynman technique, from what I remember is you learn something. And then stage two is, I believe you simplify it and then you share it. And then if you can't share it to the six-year-old, you go back to learning it.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Right. And that's a great synopsis of it. And I would say that so how.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  How it builds, so every single time you have a new, there's a Oliver Wendell Holmes quote that says, "A person's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." And so when we have, so neuroplasticity happens when we experience novelty. So we learn a new idea, or something happens in our environment, it's neuroplasticity allows learning, it allows adaptation, it even allows recovery from traumatic brain injury, right? It like, I had these deficiencies, if we call them that, and I was able to compensate by creating workarounds, like somebody would do in some kind of program, you know? And then you start building paths.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Another way of neuroplasticity, it's kind of like, if I walked through a field and there are lots of bushes, you know, I walked through it once, and I, you know, not much changes. But if you take that path and you reinforce it through repetition, or spaced repetition, interval training, then all of a sudden it becomes more of a path. And eventually it becomes a road, and it becomes a highway. And we've made that connection. So I like, I like pulling on things that are natural as metaphors. But we learn through metaphors because all of learning is taking something you don't know and connecting it to something you do know. People say, "Learning is repetition." They just say, "Do, just say it loads." Does that work? It does, but when we're looking at methodology, repetition, the problem with repetition,

• 7:42Speaker 01

  and certainly it leads, it gets a result, it's rote learning, it's like when the, when the churches started universities and how people would teach would be, the teacher or professor would say a fact to the class, and the class would repeat it. And then the teacher would say it again, and the class would repeat it. And so I'm making on video, if you're watching this, a circular motion, like rote, like rotary, like a rotary club, their symbol is a wheel. The first half of the wheel is the teacher saying the fact. The second half of the wheel is a class repeating the fact. And you do that 50 times and then you build that pathway and you have quote unquote, "learning." The problem with that is it takes so much time.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  And now we live in an age where the amount of information, it's like doubling at dizzying speed, right? There's more information today in a newspaper than somebody in the 17th century ever came across in their whole life, right? When you think about also blogs and social media and podcasts, it's just like, it's overwhelming. So we can't be learning the same ways.

• 8:45Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, so I've got a book coming out, as I said, and there's 33 laws. And I've been saying to myself, listen, you're gonna at some point start really promoting this book. So you need to memorize all 33 laws. Like, I actually don't need to, I mean, so I need to, fucking hell, what am I doing with my life? Thirty, these 33 laws, I need to remember basically what the law is and then the gist of it.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:08Steven Bartlett?

  How would you help me do that?

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, in a heartbeat. All right, so let's turn this into coaching and we could, we could use just content that everyone could relate to, because I don't know how much of the laws you want to share or how much you have on tap. Okay, so the method I'm gonna share with you, I call it pie, P-I-E. That three ingredients for a better memory. P stands for place. We remember things based on where we put it. Like, you put your keys in a certain spot each time you enter, you're always gonna find it because it's organized, right? You forget someone's name, you ask yourself, where do I know the person? Sometimes the context gives you the content. So that's a place, is a place to store the information. The I is imagine. We remember things better that we could see and imagine.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Meaning, I bet as difficult as names are to remember, you remember faces.

• 10:01Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  So many people remember faces because you're more of your visual, more of your brain is dedicated Towards your visual cortex, it takes up more real estate. So we tend to remember things we see better than what we hear. So you see the face and you go to someone, I remember your face, but I forgot your name.

• 10:19Steven Bartlett?

  That's me every day of my life.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  You never go to somebody, say the opposite. You never go say, I remember your name, but I forgot your face.

• 10:25Steven Bartlett?

  I roll up to people and say, hi, nice to see you. And then I realized I didn't remember their name.

• 10:28Speaker 01

  We're willing to help you with that. Okay, so here, here we go. So the I is imagine, we tend to remember what we see. There's a proverb that says, what you hear, you forget. What you see, you remember. What you do, you understand. What you hear, you forget. You heard the name, you forgot it. What you see, you remember. You saw the face, you remember the face. So what you could see, and we think in pictures. Like when you got on an airplane, it doesn't say, no longer does it say, no smoking, fasten your seat belts. There's just pictures and we think in pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words. So you want to imagine those pictures. And the E in pie, entwine. Entwine is where you're connecting. Entwine means to associate or to connect. And what are you connecting? The P in the I, the place in the image. So let me give you an example.

• 11:08Steven Bartlett?

  Five buckets. Law number one.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Right, yeah, yeah. And we could do the, we could do the five buckets also. I was, I was going to teach people quickly 10 things that they could do to upgrade their brain.

• 11:19Steven Bartlett?

  Let's do your 10 things.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  But certainly we could apply this towards buckets too.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  All right, so there are, so we're blessed that the, the book was heavily endorsed by like the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health. The founding director there, one of the top Alzheimer's research out of Harvard, Dr. Rudy Tanzi. And when I speak at these organizations, we know that about one third of your brain performance, your memory is predetermined by genetics. Two thirds is in your control. They say the metaphor is that, for example, Alzheimer's, and this is like, we donated a lot of the proceeds to Alzheimer's research for, for our book, is in memory of my grandmother. They say that your genetics will load the gun, but your lifestyle will fire it. Right, kind of makes sense.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  And it's not like all metaphors, they're not absolutes, but there's an idea to connect something you don't know to something you know. So going to this, two thirds, I'm going to give everybody right now the 10 keys, as you know it, in the book, but I'm going to show you how to memorize them. But what I liked it to do, whether or not people memorize them or not, and I find that people will be able to do it pretty easily and effortlessly, is at least rate yourself zero to 10, how much energy and effort and attention are you putting towards this area? Because everyone wants to know the one thing they could do for an incredible memory. There's just not, there's not a magic pill, but there is a process, right? So we'll go through them fast. Number one, good brain diet. So everyone, on a scale of zero to 10, 10 being the best, how much energy, attention,

• 12:50Speaker 01

  time are you putting towards a good brain diet? So there's certain foods that are very neuroprotective. And I would also say, I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, everyone's bio individual. So do allergy testing, do functional medicine testing in terms of microbiome test, nutrient profile, food sensitivity. So everyone's a little different. In general, some of my favorite brain foods, avocados, the monounsaturated fat is good for the brain, blueberries, I like to call them brain berries, very neuroprotective, broccoli, good for your brain, olive oil, good for the brain. If your diet allows, eggs, the choline in eggs is good for your cognitive health, green leafy vegetables, like kale and spinach, and now again, some people are allergic to kale,

• 13:34Speaker 01

  so that wouldn't be for you. Another one, I would say, wild sardines, or like wild salmon or sardines. Like your brain is mostly fat, so those fish oils. Turmeric is a great brain food, meaning it helps to lower inflammation, you could use that while you're cooking, walnuts.

• 13:53Steven Bartlett?

  Everybody's just waiting for you to say chocolate.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, there you go, walnuts and dark chocolate, dark chocolate, not milk chocolate. So those are some of the brain foods. So zero to 10, on the other side, that's not so good, processed, you know, foods, high sugar.

• 14:07Steven Bartlett?

  What is it due to the brain?

• 14:09Speaker 01

  So, sugar is highly addictive, right? You've had guests on here probably talking about how it's more addictive than a lot of drugs, right? There's certain things that are not good for the brain. And again, people like we've had on our podcast, or we've interviewed for the book, like people like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Daniel Amen, you know, sugar, alcohol.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Marijuana, certain things are just, certain things like alcohol could, some people say they use it to help them sleep, but there's a difference between getting knocked out and actually getting good deep sleep, getting good REM sleep. Sleep is just a personal focus of mine. But sugar is highly addictive, not good. A lot of people are also hyper, you know, the ADHD, the hyper behavior. A lot of times you could eliminate sugar, but in the US schools it's tough. You know, we've been having vending machines there with all the pop and the sodas and the, you know, just, yeah. But to get through the list, zero to 10, how good is your diet? Number two, and I'll go through these fast,

• 15:13Speaker 01

  killing ants. Ants, killing ants is actually clinically proven to be good for your brain. Ants, I get this from Dr. Daniel Aiman, automatic negative thoughts. Remember we talked about the power of your thoughts and just keeping it, even if you say you don't have a great memory, just add a little word like yet at the end. It just changes, you know, the potentiality of that statement. So in zero to 10, how encouraging, optimistic are your thoughts and your beliefs? Number three, in no specific quarter again, is exercise.

• 15:43Steven Bartlett?

  Okay.

• 15:43Speaker 01

  There's so much research talking about the power of movement and the brain. When you move, by the way, studies show that when you listen to your podcast, when people are listening to this podcast and they happen to be doing something rhythmic, going for a nice walk with the dogs or on an elliptical, they'll actually understand the information and retain it better. When your body moves, your brain grooves. Just remember that. When your body moves, your brain grooves. When you move your body, you create brain-derived neurotropic factors, BDNF, which is like fertilizer for the brain. It's like fertilizer promoting neuroplasticity. Number four, brain nutrients. And this is, I always prefer people get it from whole, you know, their own foods. But, you know, I, again, you could

• 16:28Speaker 01

  get so much data nowadays, you could do a nutrient profile, because if you're lacking, if your vitamin D levels are low, you're not going to perform, your brain's not going to perform at its best. You know, if you're not getting your omega-3s, your brain is mostly, you know, made out of fat, your DHAs, your vitamin C, your vitamin Bs.

• 16:44Steven Bartlett?

  Everyone comes here and talks to me about bloody vitamin D and omega-3.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:49Steven Bartlett?

  Everybody says the same two things. Supplements work for that, right? Do supplements work for vitamin D?

• 16:55Speaker 01

  Quality supplements. You know, I would again prefer people get it from sunlight and prefer people get it from natural sources, like whether they eat fish or whatever.

• 17:04Steven Bartlett?

  Damn, I don't go out in the sunlight enough. Need to fix that.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, you've had guests talking about the power of sunlight first thing in the morning to reset their circadian rhythm and help them sleep. You know, for me in the morning, I try to do, I try to get the elements in my life. So I think about thousands of years ago, they thought the four elements made up of, made everything up that you see. So it's like, you know, in Babylonian times and Greek times, you know, four elements of air, water, fire and earth. And so like, I don't know, I take this approach in the morning, you don't have to biohack everything, you can do it for free. Go out there, outside, you know, get some earth, get your feet on the ground, right? Really simple to do. To feel more grounded and more connected. And there's also, I think, an energetic, and people talk about pulse electromagnetic

• 17:50Speaker 01

  fields and everything, but I don't know, I feel more grounded when I just walk in the grass. Simple thing people could do. And then I'm thinking about air. I could do my, my, my deep breathing, or some people do fire breathing, alpha breathing, Wim Hof breathing, first thing in the morning, clear the cobwebs of the night, and then some water, drink some water or take your cold shower, you get to integrate it, however, whatever your morning routine is. And then fire is the, is the sunlight for me, you know, first, first thing in the morning. But I just find that any of the biohacking stuff, and people follow me on Instagram, you know, I have my toys and everything else, they're just to mimic nature, you know, a lot of the times, you know, the, the red lights and the, the, the cold plunges and all that, all that stuff.

• 18:32Steven Bartlett?

  Nature, point number five is a clean environment?

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, so after brain nutrients, zero to 10, rating yourself, five is a clean environment. And I, this is for everything, including the quality of the air that you're breathing. Some, you know, like I had somebody on our podcast talking about the neurotoxins in brand new carpets or furniture, you know, in terms of what they're sprayed with, and the off-gassing that comes from it and how it could have a toxic effect, you know, on, on, on your brain.

• 19:00Steven Bartlett?

  You wrote, "Air pollution is a massive and underrated health risk. They, they cause up to 30% of all strokes. Life expectancy is appreciably lower in cities than in the countryside, even accounting for differences in wealth and lifestyle."

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, we sorted through a number of research, talking about air pollution, water pollution also as well, you know, in terms of the certain residues that happens to be in, whether it's in tap water or what have you, or some people are concerned about plastics that come from bottles also as well. And other people are concerned about, we've had a couple of episodes talking about EMFs, you know, just the... How does that impact my brain, though? I don't think we know. You know, all I know is that the brain hasn't changed a lot in the past hundred thousand years, but technology certainly has. And, you know, and we talk about, you know, these videos that we make about morning routine and evening routines at millions of views, just simple things like, don't touch your phone the first

• 19:59Speaker 01

  thirty minutes of the day or the last thirty minutes of the day, something so simple. And then seven's brain protection? Brain protection, so clean environment, even just cleaning your desktop, you know, your external world's a reflection of your internal world, or making your bed just helps you get, how you do anything is how you do everything. Numbers, number... Sorry, that was number six. Yeah, number seven is sleep. So, very concerning with sleep and brain performance. We know when you don't sleep, how's your thinking the next day? You know, how's your ability to solve problems? How's your ability to focus, remember things? When you sleep, if you have long-term memory issues, get a sleep study done. That's where you consolidate short to long-term memory is during sleep. When you sleep, the sewage system in your

• 20:41Speaker 01

  brain kicks in, because there's, you know, energy to do so also as well. And your brain doesn't, it's not, doesn't stop at night. If anything, it's sometimes in ways more active. It's consolidating short to long-term memory. It's cleaning out beta amyloid plaque that can lead to brain aging challenges. Often, a lot of the studies show that with a lot of disease, there's a kind of a sleep deficiency component also as well. Sometimes I'll wear a device to monitor it, because it's not the, people ask the quantity of sleep, what's the perfect amount, seven, eight, nine hours? It's absolutely not the quantity, it's the quality of your deep sleep and your REM sleep. Your deep sleep, you can imagine, is where you're recovering your body. Your REM sleep is where you're restoring your mind.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  So seven, seven is sleep, zero to 10, you know, how much focus, energy, attention are you putting towards it?

• 21:28Steven Bartlett?

  We've done stress management, which we talked about how stress impacts the brain. We talked about sleep there, we've talked about novelty.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, the last three really quickly are protect your brain.

• 21:41Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 21:41Speaker 01

  Wear a helmet, zero to, you know, your brain's very resilient, but it's very fragile. So I get to work with a lot of sports figures that have post-concussions or TBIs.

• 21:50Steven Bartlett?

  Yep.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  You know, and so we have protocols for that and then obviously see a doctor. Zero to 10, rate yourself. New learnings is big. We talked about the power of learning.

• 21:59Steven Bartlett?

  Novelty.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Novelty. And for me, reading, reading is to your mind what exercises your body. I think it's the best, people at, you get all fancy apps and everything else. I think, look, someone who has decades of experience, like yourself or your guests, and they put into a book, and you could sit down and read that book in a few days, you could download decades into days. That's the biggest advantage, right? And reading is incredible exercise for your mind, especially the way we, we teach it. And then finally, stress management, which you mentioned, you know, zero to 10, how well are you mitigating stress and coping with stress? What mechanisms and tools, rituals or practices do you have? You know, my, my go-to is meditation.