On Walking to Improve Performance

Within my first semester in college, I have developed a new habit to help my memorization and thinking: walking. The day before or morning of an exam, I will write down several key facts I will need for the test on index cards, then proceed to either walk around my dorm room, repeating the information, or go for a walk around campus with the deck of cards in my hand. I hadn't done this during my high school years because I had not felt the need to, however, with needing to know a significantly greater amount of information for my college courses, I have developed this new study strategy, and it has proven effective. The motion of walking around stimulates my mind and encourages me to think more productively than I would by sitting at a desk and memorizing information in my partially unorganized notebooks.

An article published in The New Yorker by Ferris Jabr, entitled "Why Walking Helps Us Think," reiterates and supports my realization that walking around encourages the mind to think more erratically, allowing for a greater attention span and better memorization. I found it interesting that this article assigned to me for my english course related so similarly to my study habits. Not only did the article explain how walking is a more productive method to stimulate the brain to think than remaining immobile, it also mentioned that spending time in green spaces tends to rejuvenate one's mental capacity from exhaustion and fatigue. Last year, I read an article claiming that green highlighters are more effective than the typical yellow or orange-pigmented markers because the brain is more inclined to have a heightened memory retention under green hues. At the time, I doubted the legitimacy of this claim, but nevertheless switched to writing in green pens, and have felt that this change improved my memorization. The fact that this article discusses the advantages of walking in a green space further supports what I had read last year, and I found this connection interesting.

After reading this article, I am encouraged to continue my newfound study habit, and possibly walk around UNC Charlotte's botanical gardens to see if the green scenery can help my memorization even more.