Coaching practices for How to Encode Information Better
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Encode Information Better, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I figured more is better, so I cram in every word and every image at once and narrate the picture line by line
- I read something and immediately copy it down word-for-word and move on, and it never actually lands
- I encode a number with a great vivid image and assume it’ll just stay
- I learn everything in just one channel
- I understand a concept in the moment but it leaves no hook to grab onto later, so it just evaporates
Practices that may help
- Cut redundant words when the visual already says it
Do not narrate a self-explanatory diagram word for word — it overloads, not reinforces.
Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together - Process new information by its meaning, not its form
Ask what something means, how it connects to what you know, and why it matters — not just what it looks like or sounds like.
Levels of Processing: Why Depth of Encoding Determines What You Remember - Review and maintain encoded numbers before they fade
Walk your number encodings at 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month to keep them durable.
The Major System: Encode Numbers as Words - Use multiple modalities to encode information, not just one
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
The Learning Styles Myth: What the Research Actually Says - Levels of Processing: Why Depth of Encoding Determines What You Remember
Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) levels of processing framework proposes that memory is a by-product of the type of processing performed on incoming information: shallow processing (appearance, sound) produces weak, short-lived traces, while deep processing (meaning, elaboration, connection to prior knowledge) produces strong, durable ones. The implication for learning is that how you engage with material matters more than how many times you see it. - Elaborate new information with examples, images, and stories
Create a specific example, a mental image, or a story connecting new information to something already meaningful to you.
Levels of Processing: Why Depth of Encoding Determines What You Remember - Amplify images with sensory detail and emotion
Add sound, smell, movement, and emotion to your mental image to make it stick.
Peg System Mnemonics, Made Practical - Link new information to your own life and identity
Ask how the new information applies to you personally — self-referential encoding is one of the deepest processing routes known.
Levels of Processing: Why Depth of Encoding Determines What You Remember - Extend to the Person-Action-Object (PAO) system
Assign a person, an action, and an object to each two-digit number to compress large sequences.
The Major System: Encode Numbers as Words - Put words and pictures together, not apart
Place labels on the diagram, not in a caption your eyes have to hunt for.
Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together
Related concerns
- How To Encode Information Deeply
Ask what something means, how it connects to what you know, and why it matters — not just what it looks like or sounds like.
Process new information by its meaning, not its form
- Semantic Encoding
Ask what something means, how it connects to what you know, and why it matters — not just what it looks like or sounds like.
- Semantic Encoding Study
Ask what something means, how it connects to what you know, and why it matters — not just what it looks like or sounds like.
- Contextual Encoding
Ask what something means, how it connects to what you know, and why it matters — not just what it looks like or sounds like.
- Levels Of Processing Why Depth Of Encoding Determines What You Remember Before Bed
Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) levels of processing framework proposes that memory is a by-product of the type of processing performed on incoming information: shallow processing (appearance, sound) produces weak, short-lived traces, while deep processing (meaning, elaboration, connection to prior knowledge) produces strong, durable ones. The implication for learning is that how you engage with material matters more than how many times you see it.
- Multiple Modality Encoding
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
Use multiple modalities to encode information, not just one
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