Moonwalking with Einstein
This is an insanely interesting book that I've been devouring the past few days. I heard about it from Bill Gates' Summer Reading List.
A few years ago I decided I was terrible at remembering names and wanted to improve. The only way I was able to teach myself to get better was through mnemonic devices. I've even surprised myself at how simple it became to remember names once I applied this simple method, and have been curious ever since on how to improve me memory. The best part of remember people's name is how much fun it is to see the look of surprise on their face when I greet them by name after meeting them once in the laundromat 3 weeks prior.
I'm just halfway through the book, but one of my favorite parts so far was speaking to the correlation of regular, vivid memories making time appear to move slower than if you do the same things day in and day out.
Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. … If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next - and disappear. That's why it's important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to exotic locales, and have as many new experiences as possible that can serve as an anchor in our memories. (pg. 77)
This obviously struck home with me. Highly recommend checking out this book - it's a fascinating discovery of how memory works.