The Box: System of Review and Memorization Tool

This is going to be a strange post, I warn you. You'll either like this tool or think it's obsessive. I happen to like it and have benefited enormously from it.

On my mission there was a humble old senior missionary, Elder Watrous, who had a system for memorizing scriptures. It consisted of reviewing a scripture 21 times within a 4-month period. I adapted it to be a little more flexible in case I happened to miss a day (as I did yesterday because of food poisoning). This system can also be adapted to learning a new language; vocabulary and idioms can be put on these cards as well. (I am starting up a Marshallese Box, so I'll let you know how it goes. My Marshallese tutor got dengue and now is busy at work, so I need to do something.)

I followed The Box for most of my mission, forgot about it upon my return (I'm not blaming Andrew, but . . . ), and I just picked it up again in the last few weeks. It is very refreshing and brings back some powerful memories. Some of the scriptures were in Spanish and I remember those words particularly well ("Examinadlo todo. Retened lo bueno"—1 Tes. 5:21).

So, if you dare, this is how The Box works:

Create the following tabs in The Box:

• No dividers needed for Stage 1 (reviewing a card every day)
• Dividers marked 1, 2, and 3 for Stage 2 (reviewing a card every third day)
• Dividers labeled 1–7 for Stage 3 (reviewing a card every week)
• Dividers labeled 1–14 for Stage 4 (reviewing a card every two weeks)
• Dividers labeled January-December for Stage 5 (reviewing a card once a year)

I probably could have used different colors to delineate the categories a little better, but oh well.

Get a little ring and a hole puncher, and this is how it goes:

Preparation. Write down a scripture or vocabulary words on a 3x5 card—one new card a day. Sometimes I like to make a bunch of them in advance and put them in the front of The Box. Punch a hole in the corner of the card and put it on a key ring (the kind that opens and closes easily—I don't know its technical name).

Stage 1. Every day add a new card to memorize to the ring. Keep that card on the ring for 5 days—look at it or read it out loud for 5 days in a row. I try hard to memorize that particular scripture completely the first day, but you'll be looking at it for 5 days, so there's no pressure. Draw a line on the left side and make a tick mark on it, one for each of the five days. Once you have five tick marks up the side (see picture below), then move the card into one of the Stage 2 dividers—marked 1, 2, or 3 . . . it doesn't really matter which one. I usually put the card in with the cards I'm putting back into that Stage, so I won't see it until I've gone through the rest of the dividers in that Stage and start over again.

Stage 2. The second stage is to look at that card once every 3 days for 24 days, eventually making 8 little tick marks on a separate line at the bottom (see picture again). Once that is done then put that particular card in one of the Stage 3 tabs (marked 1–7).

Stage 3. The third stage is to look at the card once every 7 days. After one month (= 4 tick marks on another line at the bottom), it goes, as you might suppose, in the 1–14 set of dividers for Stage 4.

Stage 4. The fourth stage is to look at that card once every 14 days. After two months (= 4 tick marks again), the card is filed away into one of the monthly categories, January to December.

Stage 5. The Stage 5 cards you only need to look at once a year—at the beginning of the month you review whatever cards are filed under that month, and then you're done until the next year with those cards. By this time whatever was on those cards should be locked in your heart. Elder Watrous had multiple boxes filled with cards that he had memorized. And he had a heart of gold. Correlation does not equal causation, but I believe that listening to holy words can make us better human beings.

Some pictures to help:

Make a little tick mark every day for 5 days on the side (end of Stage 1), then make a tick mark on a longer line every 3 days until you have 8 tick marks (end of Stage 2). (This scripture helps me be more genuine, a valuable trait in the Foreign Service, I think.)

Eventually you'll have 5 tick marks (Stage 1), then 8 marks (Stage 2), then 4 (Stage 3), then another 4 (Stage 4), then a long line up the other side (Stage 5).

So every day during breakfast you can take the cards off the ring, file them (except the every-day Stage 1 cards) where they used to go (or move them to the next stage), and take out the new cards for the day from Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4, making all the new tick marks in the appropriate spot. 

For example, one morning I would put cards back in #1 (of the Stage 2 dividers), #1 (of the Stage 3 dividers) and #1 (of the Stage 4 dividers), and get out the cards in #2, #2, and #2. The next day I'd put those back where they were and get out #3, #3, #3. The next day I'd put those back and get #1, #4, #4 (starting over again with the Stage 2 dividers). This is quite difficult to describe, and I don't think I quite do it justice, but again, it's just a tool for memorizing and reviewing. It takes some thought to set up and start, but after that it's quite easy.

Why memorize scriptures? My friend Mary, in the epic Facebook debate TV vs. Reading, brought up a good point while arguing that all forms of communication have merit: the medium of memorized oral communication has largely been supplanted by newer media in our society—why memorize something if I can find it in a book or online in a few seconds? Why memorize a story if I can watch a movie about it? 

But discarding this form of communication is perhaps unwise. There is something to be said for strengthening neural networks through memorization—it's like calisthenics for the brain. Who knows, maybe it prevents memory loss when we're older. Besides that, I've found that memorizing scriptures that I like gives me a boost when I find myself getting sad, frustrated, despondent, or lazy. I'll be interested to see how it helps me with my Marshallese, too. A good experiment.

There you have it: The Box.