M2M Day 5: Practicing with a metronome, practicing to fail, and other ideas

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.

Since my video memorization from yesterday, I’ve attempted a few more memorizations and have noticed a constant theme: I don’t know how long I need spend visualizing each 3-card image in order to ensure recall.

In other words, I want to spend the minimum amount of time needed to successfully recall the 3-card image, and no more (let’s call this minimum amount of time needed MATN). The problem is that I am not sure where this minimum threshold is.

I attempted a memorization, where I tried to push faster, but after the first few card groups, I started to slow down again in fear of unsuccessful recall.

To address this problem, I’m going to introduce a metronome into my training.

Using a metronome

Based on my memorization from yesterday, I was memorizing each 3-card groups at a rate of 21.85 seconds, which equates to 2.75 groups per minute (GPM).

In order to reach a 2-minute memorization time, I need to get that sped up to 8.65 GPM.

My plan is to use a metronome to help push my speed forward, based on the following system:

1. I set a metronome to a very slow speed like 3 beats per minute (BPM).
2. With the metronome on, I start my memorization.
3. Every time the metronome clicks, I need to move on to the next 3-card group (whether or not I feel done with the current group).
4. Once I finish memorization, I attempt recall.
5. If I’m successful, I will slightly increase the speed of the metronome, and memorize again.
6. If I fail, I will keep the metronome at its current speed, and try again.

This method will allow me to assess my current MATN, force me to maintain my MATN throughout the memorization, and help me push my speed forward (decreasing my MATN).

My metronome training schedule

I have 25 more days to complete this challenge, but want to aim for completion around Day 25 (i.e. in 20 days).

So, with that in mind, here are my Groups Per Minute benchmarks over the next 25 days.

• Day 5: 3 GPM
• Day 10: 5 GPM
• Day 15: 7 GPM
• Day 20: 8 GPM
• Day 25: 8.65 GPM (2 minutes exactly)
• Day 30: 9 GPM

I’ll use these benchmarks to monitor my progress moving forward.

Confidence level unwavering, at 90%.

Read the next post. Read the previous post.

Max Deutsch is an obsessive learner, product builder, guinea pig for Month to Master, and founder at Openmind.

If you want to follow along with Max’s year-long accelerated learning project, make sure to follow this Medium account.