Continuing Education
Cognitive Map
By H. Bernard Wechsler
Jan 22, 2008

Do You Own a Schema?

Professor William James at Harvard in 1891 figured out how to double your
your memory – you had to have a better system to record facts. A century
later a practical, relevant schema makes learning new information and doubling your working memory, a kids’ game. It is just using a Cognitive Map.

A schema is a just a pattern, plan and mental framework for learning. Our recommended schema for executives is FistNoting. It combines mental imagery
and association of ideas, and leads others to believe you’re the reincarnation of Albert Einstein..

Using your own schema for remembering lectures, books, articles, memos and reports, permits you to double your long-term memory. It improves your com-prehension and makes your peers believe you are some kind of genius.

James said, “Unless information is stored [organized] in a systematic way…
it is not retrievable when required.” Two reasons: First: the structured knowledge makes recalling a small fragment drag along the rest. Second: the schema associates new information with old long-term knowledge for improved comprehension.

FistNoting is the easy-to-use schema SpeedLearning recommends. It creates a
Cognitive Map to unlock your comprehension and memory by using visual-imagery
and associations (connections). When you use mental pictures and linking
new ideas to old memories, your memory (learning) doubles.

The Two Secrets of Doubling Your Memory

The language of your brain is Mental Images. The language of memory is Association, how you link and connect ideas, words, feelings and reasoning.
You associate an Owl with the sound – who! who! When you read the words,
“these were the best of times, you predict the second half – “these were the
worst of times!” It is the law of association.

Creative Thinking

Thinking is a solitary strategy and must be practiced daily to sharpen your
analytical skills. If you want promotions and personal creativity, you must
spend at least 15 minutes daily, thinking how to solve business problems.

Our research indicates only 20% of executives exclusively spend 15 minutes daily
thinking about business solutions. The 80% proudly state they multitask thinking while attending meetings, during group brainstorming, and think great thoughts while snoozing after lunch.

Successful thinking cannot be combined with other tasks nor done intermittently,
when you feel the inspiration.

Intervals

There are almost as many holes (intervals) in our daily waking hours than working time.
Consider 15 minutes waiting for the bus, 10 minutes washing up, another 15 minutes smoozing with your peers. These intervals are wasted hours you can
use to be creative, train your brain to think productively, and lead to promotions.

First step, prioritize answering emails; second step, reduce your intervals by
50%. When you take charge of your productive hours, you find time for organized
thinking to solve problems and create new plans.

What if you organize 15 minutes daily of exclusively thinking about solutions to
current challenges, planning new projects, and learning a new skill?
How about using these intervals for rehearsal of your coming presentation?

Dr. James Said

“Of two men with the same outward experiences and the same amount of
native tenacity, the one who thinks over his experiences most, and weaves
them into systematic relations with each other, will be the one with the
best memory.”

He/she will improve their personal productivity up to 38%, improve their
self-confidence, and be on the fast-track for promotions. Your learning-curve
inhibits your forgetting-curve based on using easy, practical strategies.

Cognitive Questions

Do you use a schema? Do you spend 15 minutes daily exclusively committed to
thinking about solving work problems? Do you promote kaizen (continuing
improvement) to your peers? Have you taught a child or adult your FistNoting
cognitive-map?

When you share your knowledge by teaching it, you sharpen your own skills.
Remember, we live in the Knowledge Economy and you choose daily to lead or
experience being a follower.

Only 10% of folks practice knowledge-for-knowledge-sake. The rest of us
require a practical motivation to learn. If you want your career to soar, be the
go-to man or woman at your workplace for information and knowledge.

FistNoting is the easiest, most practical Cognitive Map for executives; ask us about
the seven (7) core questions.

Endwords

Is learning relevant to your career? Do you have to read and understand memos,
reports, business articles and proposals? Would you be more valuable to yourself
and organization if your personal productivity improved up to 38%?

SpeedLearners read-and-remember three (3) books, articles and reports in
the time your peers can hardly finish one.

Ask us how to be a lifelong learner and its benefits. It is all about owning and using
your personal Cognitive Map for learning and doubling your memory.

See ya,

copyright © 2008
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
1-877-567-2500
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