digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Improve your memory by working on five areas that together make up about two-thirds of memory performance, which Jim Kwik says is within your control, while only about one-third is predetermined by genetics and biology. The five areas are a good brain diet, eliminating automatic negative thoughts (ANTs), keeping a clean environment, constant new learning, and managing chronic stress. Rate yourself from 0 to 10 in each area, then work to raise your scores in small steps.
Key Points
- The five ways to upgrade your memory, in the order given: (1) a good brain diet, (2) killing ants (automatic negative thoughts), (3) a clean environment, (4) new learning, (5) stress management.
- ANTs stands for automatic negative thoughts, a term Jim credits to Dr. Daniel Amen's book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life." Self-talk acts like a program that the brain runs, so negative statements can lead to forgetting.
- A clean environment matters because your external world reflects your internal world, and the brain responds well to cleanliness, including air quality and toxins.
- Constant learning keeps the brain fit, with reading and fiction in particular cited as helpful for emotional intelligence, empathy, and creativity.
- Chronic stress is described as something that can shrink the brain, so ways of coping with stress matter for memory.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Take out a notebook and rate yourself from 0 to 10 on each area: brain diet, automatic negative thoughts, environment cleanliness (including air quality and toxins), new learning, and stress management. Schedule time to work on the lowest areas in small steps, such as moving a 4 to a 6 rather than aiming for 10 right away.
- Concrete instructions: For the brain diet, the foods named as beneficial are avocados, blueberries ("brainberries"), broccoli, olive oil, eggs (for choline, if your diet allows), leafy greens like kale and spinach, fatty fish like wild salmon and sardines, turmeric (for example, in a golden milk with almond milk, a little pepper, and honey), walnuts, almonds, and dark chocolate. Foods to mitigate or avoid are heavily processed foods, fried foods, and high-sugar foods.
- Concrete instructions: Read daily, with non-fiction during the day and fiction before bed, and consider scheduling reading into your calendar every day.
- Concrete instructions: Meditate if you can; Jim meditates twice a day for about 20 minutes and says that people who feel too busy for 20 minutes might need more time, not less. Exercise is also suggested as a stress reducer.
- Concrete instructions:
- Caveats: Jim recommends checking with a health care practitioner, and suggests a functional medicine doctor and a food sensitivity test, since not everything works for everybody.
- Context: Jim mentions a study of a community of nuns (nicknamed 'Aging with Grace') in which he says half of their longevity was attributed to gratitude and emotional faith, and the other half to being lifelong learners.
Bottom Line
Memory improvement is framed as a daily practice across diet, mindset, surroundings, learning, and stress, and the video's homework is to rate yourself, improve in small steps, and share what you learn.
