Boost retention through spaced repetition

Did you ever feel frustrated that your employees (or kids or spouse) didn’t remember a simple instruction or piece of information that you gave them? If you really want to boost their retention consider using the power of spaced repetition.

If I share a nugget of information with you one time (in this blog perhaps) today you will only retain half of it tomorrow. You’ll lose another half of that by the next day until at the end of 16 days you’ll only remember about 2% of the message. If, on the other hand, you are exposed to that same piece of information 5-6 times, perhaps once a day over a business week, you’ll retain 62% or more of it from fifteen years to life!

If repetition sounds about as exciting as doing push-ups, let me just ask you whether you can get great shoulders and pecs without reps spread out over a number of days. You can’t just do push-ups all day long for one day and see results. It takes days and maybe weeks of repetition, and then eventually you build muscle memory that will stay with you even when you’re not working out as intensely. You’ll be able to get back to fighting shape more quickly than you were able to get there in the first place. Your brain works in the same way.

Think about how you retain song lyrics. I’ll bet that even these short cues will get you going:
· “Happy Birthday…”
· “You know Dasher and Dancer…”
· “Oh beautiful for spacious…”
· “My humps…”

Now in the case of music your brain has the advantage of words linked with melody and rhythm. The three elements work together to boost your retention. Your childhood teachers might have used this information to help you memorize the times tables. In my school back in the dark ages we would chant together, “two times two is four, two times three is six” and so on through the twelves. My daughter watches Dora the Explorer on TV where they help preschoolers remember a sequence of events by repeating, in rhythm, “Bridge - forest - Grand-ma’s house! Bridge – forest – Grand-ma’s house!”

Spaced repetition can help you access information instantly. You don’t want to have to grab a calculator every time you want to figure out how much three loaves of bread will cost – you simply multiply right in your head. You don’t want to have an irate customer in front of you and have to run back to a book you read to remember how to handle their irate-ness.

Spaced repetition can also help you redevelop your habits of thought – your attitudes. When I had my first sales role we had a mantra that said, “If it is to be it is up to me.” It’s been more than 20 years since I had that little pewter elephant figurine on my desk, pulling up the stake that was holding his foot to the ground. But I still remember the quote, and I believe that it influences me today.

If it’s important that you or somebody else remember a piece of information accurately and for the long haul, give spaced repetition a try. Then let me know how it works for you.