New Verses Memorization

My method has evolved many times, as discussed here. I have separated my method for memorizing new verses. First of all, I prepare my daily excel schedule beforehand. I realized that when I am at work, if before my new verses memorization would depend on how busy my work is, for example if I was too busy and or stressed, I could not do my memorization at all, but in God's grace now and being mindful what is my priority - I was able to set aside whatever burden and do this task whatever the situation is, the quality and quantity may differ but I will do it daily. The irony is if things gets busy like 3rd or 4th working day (but not too much) I could take in more than my schedule like 8 verses compared to a normal day, and I if things are really so busy (or its more of if my job requires more thinking) then I would take lesser like 1-3 new verses. I believe the regularity or doing it on the same time of the day really makes this thing work.

This is how I do to avoid distraction and prepare to make sure I could do it - I would put an alarm that my lunch time is coming (if you think this is weird, I've tackled here how I can be so forgetful), then I would leave my phone in my desk and go down to eat my lunch. Then after eating, I would go back in my desk to check my phone for any important messages then if none I would go to a place where I can speak aloud, I only bring my Waterproof ESV NT Bible and a watch - that's all. Usually 20-30 minutes is enough to memorize my daily new verses, average 5 verses in 20 minutes. Of course not all days are same but this is just average. Then I would read ahead next verses in the same chapter or if coming to end then the next few verses in next chapter. This means at the time I will memorize my new verses, I have read it a few times already a few days ahead.

I'll take one example, on Monday 11th November, I memorized Romans 7:6-11, though I have read this about 4 days ahead already daily. Note that the explanation for each columns of below is in my daily excel schedule post, only I added recently the last column for actual count of chapters I reviewed (I'm glad to know I can recite more than 6 chapters a day and not overwhelmed, praise God!)

The day before that, I memorized 7:1-6, where verse 6 highlighted below is the linking verse for me to remember the flow. I also highlighted the verse 11 which is the next linking verse. Sometimes I didn't follow the plan thus I would write in the actual verses, I usually don't write the linking verse on actuals its just automatic in my mind.

For example on Monday, early in the morning the moment I wake up I would walk down in our block to fully wake myself and I would recite first any previous whole chapter that just recently memorized like Romans 5 or 6, whichever is more familiar. I would not try to do something more challenging at this time, it doesn't work - if I review my yesterday's new verse too early, I have to repeat it again. Once I am fully awake then I would do my recent verses review, for this example its Romans 7:1-6. If I haven't done Romans 6 earlier then I would also do Romans 6 either during shower or on my travel to work.

During lunch time, here are usual steps, I don't really take note how much repetitions as long I can recite the entire thing a couple of times:

Step 1. Read 7:6-11 once or twice until I understand it well (verse 6 is the linking verse memorized the day before).

Step 2. Read verse 7 multiple times maybe 5 times, then recite from memory maybe 3-5x. If it is too long, I chunk to phases "What then shall we say?", read maybe 3 - 5x then recite from memory about 3-5x times. Then adding another phase "that the law is sin?, by no means!", read multiple times then recite from memory, then combine them "What then shall we say?, that the law is sin?, by no means!" until the whole new verse is memorized.

Step 3. Recite once from the linking verse 6 up to this new (verse 7) that newly memorized.

Step 4. Continue same steps 2-3 for the rest of new verses, sometimes I would leave out the first or second verses in step 3.

Step 5. Once all target new verses are memorized I would recite all 6 new verses (6-11) together maybe about 3 times. 

 

Then I would read then the whole chapter 7 once or twice if I still have time until my break is over. Of course this is just the ideal for me, there will be some other things that come up but if all are smooth this is the regular pattern. Note that this is like my diary/journal so in case one day I get difficulty continuing I find it that I encourage myself by reading my own posts, and check which steps I tried and see which doesn't work so much for me.

 

For example I tried to use a digital recorder to do steps 1-5 above, which seem helped me to recite the new verses faster but I notice the next day, it was harder to recall - so I went back using my fresh voice. For reviewing memorized portions, the digital recorder can be helpful, but not on memorizing new verses for me.