"Sherlock Holmes really understood the concept of mindfulness long before it was on the radar of any psychologists," says Maria Konnikova, author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. 

For Holmes, the entire thought process is akin to a scientist who is doing a research experiment. He is applying the scientific method to thought. A state of mindfulness is necessary to optimize your mental resources because those resources are finite. Mindfulness requires a prepared state of mind that allows you to parse through data and only focus on what is truly important. And then, through thousands of hours of practice you will be able to hone the skills of the imagination in order to see new possibilities.  

This is a particularly useful way of looking at your own mindspace when it comes to memory. Do you want to devote your mind to instantly recalling information? Computers can do that. So in today's lesson, Maria Konnikova show us how, like Holmes, you can train your brain to function as a retrieval mechanism. You can use your brain to focus on where to find things, like Sherlock Holmes referencing his files. 

 

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