We have a store room in our house, the trastero as it’s called here in Spain.

I’m almost scared to go in there. Not because there are ghosts in it or anything, but because I have no idea what’s in there.

Actually, I have an idea what’s in there but I prefer not to think about it: roller skates that I’ve never used, a huge tent that I’ve used once, fifty skipping ropes that I’ve obviously never used (don’t ask…), and a million other things I have little intention of using again.

And I don’t really want to know what’s in there because then I’ll feel the need to dedicate a whole weekend to inevitably throwing away ninety percent of what’s in there.

I don’t have time.

So I just open the door occasionally with my eyes closed and throw a bag of semi-unwanted things into it, quickly close and lock the door, and wipe the sweat from my forehead thinking, “That was close!”

The store room is the house equivalent of limbo. You put things in there that you feel don’t deserve to be in the house, but that you can’t quite justify throwing away yet. So you say, “I know! I’ll put them in the store room so I can take them back out when I need them”.

Then they stay in there for all eternity.

Or very occasionally, you go in there and clean everything up, throw everything away, and promise yourself to keep it tidy and more or less empty.

Within a month, it’s full again.

But this is, after all, the purpose of the store room, and it does help us organise ourselves to some extent.

We organise everything in our lives.

Just look at your own house. It’s organised by rooms, each with its own purpose. Kitchen for cooking, living room for leisure and relaxation, bedroom for sleeping, store room for things you feel guilty about throwing away.

Everything has its place.

Then the things inside in each room are kept in specific locations (drawers, cupboards, etc.), each item given a spot depending on how easily you want to access the item. Things which you use often are put in a location which is easy to get to. Things you use less often are given a less privileged spot, and are more difficult to access.

So what about the information in your own head? How is that organised exactly?

“Erm…what do you mean, Adam?”

Well, how exactly do you organise new information in your head when you learn it?

Many people don’t have any method at all for organising the things they learn.

We have lists of various kinds (to-do lists, shopping lists, wish lists, etc.) to help us organise our priorities and future actions.

And they’re very useful.

However, we normally focus our attention on organising future tasks in our heads, and when we achieve these things, they get crossed off our list and cease to exist.

We don’t often have lists or notes for past actions and thoughts, things we’ve learnt in the past.

Looking at it from a learning perspective, if you don’t organise new language that goes into your head, it gets lost or mislaid.

Just like the items you keep in your house, the things you use most frequently are easy to access, and the things you use less frequently are more difficult to access.

Imagine you get a new item for your house, and instead of keeping it in the relevant room and drawer, you just randomly throw it into any room and drawer, you’ll probably have trouble retrieving that item in the future.

Likewise, if you learn something but don’t practise it on a regular basis, this information will become more difficult to access.

This is the importance of organising the things you learn correctly. You’re able to organise the knowledge in your head in the best way you can so your head is nice and tidy.

Not like my store room.

Plus if it’s all in one physical place, you can practise it more easily so that it’s always fresh in your mind, and you can easily access it when you need to use it.

The best way to do this is simply by writing things down.

Studies have shown that the simple act of writing things down can have a profound effect on a range of things including how much information you remember, how stressed you are about future tasks, and even the probability of achieving your goals based on whether you write them down or not.

You can see where I’m going with this…

You need to write down everything you learn.

The important thing here is only the things you’ve learnt and key points. Anything that you didn’t know a moment ago, but do now, is what you need to write down.

This is key.

Something very interesting happens in the brain when it receives information.

The brain treats all information that comes in equally. This means that it treats important information in the same way as it treats trivial information. As the information comes in, it can’t distinguish between important and not important, so it remembers everything.

For a while…

After a while, it will start to forget everything equally.

It’s no good thinking, “Oh, that was important. I’ll remember that”.

Your brain treats all information equally and will forget it like it will forget the unimportant stuff.

Unless you do something about it.

Get a notebook and start writing things down that you’ve learnt.

A lot of English learners in a classroom environment take notes in their in-class material to study later. The problem with this is that most of the information in the in-class material is irrelevant, and you won’t need to practise it in the future. Only your own notes are relevant. This makes finding your notes difficult as they’re not organised.

Don’t mix relevant things with irrelevant things.

Plus I know what happens to in-class material after the class.

It goes on your desk (with good intentions of reading it again), then slowly over time it gets buried under other books and papers until you find it again, ten years later, and think, “What on earth is this?”, and then you throw it away.

You want a notebook dedicated exclusively to English notes.

Get a nice book, it should be your bible in English.

Don’t worry about having to carry it everywhere with you. If you’re out and about and see, hear, or read something new in English, write it down in your mobile phone notes (the one thing we always carry around), and transfer it to your notebook when you get home.

You can choose to organise it however you want: by date, skills, categories (expressions, general vocabulary, idioms, etc.), or a long list.

You can use tables, boxes, coloured pens, highlighters, or just a pencil.

Whatever floats your boat.

I’m a pencil and categorised notes kind of guy, but that’s just me.

The great thing is, whichever method you choose to use will be the right method for you, as it will generally reflect how your brain likes to organise information.

If you attend English classes and receive handouts, books, or other material, put a priority on your notebook. If you’re taking down notes correctly, you should be able to throw away all other teaching material after each class, and only keep your notebook.

After all, everything that’s important is in your notebook.

Everything else is irrelevant.

Then comes the last and most important part: keeping it fresh.

You want to read your notes on a regular basis.

Take ten minutes (preferably once or twice a week, and preferably at the same time to make it a habit) to read through your notes. Remember, try not to memorise the information, just read it.

Make practice sentences with the words or grammar that you have difficulty with. The more you manipulate your target language, the better your chances of remembering it and using it correctly.

If you do this, you’ll remember everything that you learn. If you don’t do this, you’ll forget most of what you learn.

You choose.

When you choose what goes into your head, how it goes in, and how you use it after it goes in, you have complete control over your knowledge.

As the Chinese proverb goes, “He who controls the front door, controls the house”.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]