M2M Day 6: I wear the dorkiest glasses while commuting on the train to work
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For November, my goal is to memorize the order of a shuffled deck of cards in less than 2 minutes.
Today, I’m going to talk about the apps and gear I use while memorizing…
Pulse: The Metronome App
For the past couple days, I’ve been using Pulse for my metronome training.
In particular, if I want to memorize at a rate of 5 groups per minute, I’ll set the metronome to 5 groups x 4 beats per minute= 20 beats per minute. On every downbeat (higher pitched click), I switch to the next 3-card group.
I need to eventually reach around 36 BPM (for a two-minute memorization), which seems slow when not memorizing cards, and very fast when I am.
White Noise+: The “Noise Cancelling” App
Since I’m doing most of my training on Caltrain (the Bay Area commuter train) on my way to and from work, I’ve been using the White Noise+ app in an attempt to block out any auditory distractions.
During my morning commute, most other commuters are pretty quiet, so focusing is easy. On the way home, the train is much noisier, requiring that I blast white noise and rain sounds into my ears.
52Cards: The “Card Memorization” app
Surprisingly, there’s actually an app specifically designed for memorizing cards. Sadly, though, you can only view one card at a time, making it not so great for my purposes.
Mostly, I used this app during Days 1–4 to practice my PAO system.
Bose FreeStyle earbuds
I’ve had these somewhat-noise-cancelling Bose earbuds for a few years now. It looks like Bose has stopped making them, but they do a pretty good job cancelling out noise when the white noise is turned up.
“Memorization Glasses”
A few weeks before I began Month to Master, I read Moonwalking with Einstein, New York Times bestseller and the most popular book on memory.
In the book, Joshua Foer, the author and aspiring memory champion, describes how he created Memory Goggles to improve his concentration. Basically, his goggles were completely opaque with the exception of a smallish hole, through which he would view the cards.
These seemed like a little much for my purposes right now, so I opted for Memory Glasses, which are designed to block out peripheral distractions.
And by “designed”, I mean “I taped a few cards to lensless 3D movie glasses”.
Occasionally, if I’m distracted, I’ll wear these on Caltrain. Not sure what people think, but they help, so…
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