Three Tips To Help You Remember Everything

I’m sure you feel like your brain is going to explode some days with all the knowledge just dropped on you, then other days (usually exam days) it feels completely empty right? I totally get it! So many nursing students and new nurses are worried they won’t remember everything, I know I was. That’s why I want to share what has helped me and so many others retain the loads of information thrown at us. I’m also super pumped to share even more of my tips with you at another time… more on that later…

Here’s tip #1 to help you retain info when you’re burnt out and feel like a zombie is better off than you…

Write your notes over and over again. Every night before you go to sleep (before you start your nightly staring contest with our pal Mr. Ceiling) commit to writing your notes. You will be amazed at what you remember in the morning. And here’s a bonus to this tip. When you are taking your exam… you will envision your handwriting in your notes. You will see the words on the college lined loose leaf paper and it will help give you the answers to the exam. I used to go crazy with different colored highlighters for different topics. My memory would pull the different colored words and sentences full of signs and symptoms and I would remember! There is something about putting your pen to paper that makes your brain remember. When you’re exhausted, stressed, anxious and can’t even make a decision on what to eat for dinner and all you want to do is take a nap… tell yourself to sit down and just write your notes one time. Commit to do this every day.

Tip #2 to help retain all that nursing mumbo jumbo…

Know what time of the day you are most productive… and use it! I personally am a morning person. I love waking up early and getting my tasks done… and its not because I love waking up at 6am. It’s because I know I am useless to the world after 8pm when I put my daughter to bed. I used to have great intentions of getting things done, but 8pm would roll around and I was a ball of mush. See what time works for you. Pay attention to when you have the most energy and feel like Rocky when he conquered those steps!

Use these hours to crush your tasks. This is not the time to decide that you would study better if your room was clean or the dishes were done. Maybe a quick vacuuming sesh?… nope! And keep in mind…this productivity time is different for everyone. Some people are total night owls. If that’s you, then make those hours the time to write notes, study, read, watch skills videos and tik tok’s LOL…But please make sure you get enough sleep for morning clinicals, classes and exams. Getting enough rest is so important. No one wants a crab at clinicals, and if you remember a previous email of mine when I spoke about the importance of building relationships with the nurses at clinical… you’ll know you won’t want to be the sourpuss who’s half asleep and not helping clean or turn a patient cause you’re too tired. Everything is worse on no sleep, and I mean everything.

Tip #3 to help save you for an exam

There is strength in numbers! Use your classmates, don’t try to do this alone. Get a study group together of 4-6 people. Break down what chapters/topics will be on the exam…everyone takes a chapter. And everyone is responsible for their topics for the study guide. This study guide which should be made in advance, is something you will be writing over and over again when you are a few days away from the exam. This worked so well for me in school. I had my crew. We attacked each exam together. And if your classmates are anything like mine…. then no one wanted to be the one who clearly spent the least amount of time on their portion. Everyone wanted the other study group members to value their work and to know that they were trying hard. We all want to do well for ourselves and our peers. We want to contribute and be helpful to others, I mean that’s a reason why we want to be nurses right?

Xx,

Jessie

P.s. 

P.s. Want more tips like this? Join the JOD SQUAD for Nurses and Nursing Students- membership doors are OPEN! Click here to join!

For regular inspiration, and to tell me how you're doing, follow me on social: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. I'm rooting for you!

Bonus tip: give this a whirl tonight and hit reply to tell me how it felt.. go to sleep smiling. Yup, it’s that simple. As you lay in bed... just smile. I do this every night before I fall asleep. I also do this when I go for my morning run. When I’m tired and want to quit, I smile. It immediately makes me feel better. You’ll be amazed at what a little smile can do. The smile travels through your whole body and you can’t help but think happy thoughts.