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This is a column about a helpful trick that will radically improve your memory with minimal effort so you can learn faster. But before I get to the science behind the technique and how it can help you in business, indulge me for a minute in explaining why I was so thrilled to discover it. Learning as an adult is hard. For the past 10 years, I have lived abroad on a small Greek-speaking island. Therefore, I have been trying to learn modern Greek. This, dear reader, has felt roughly like beating my head against a brick wall for a decade. Ive gathered advice on how to speed up language learning, hired a tutor, made flashcards, tried apps, and embarrassed myself countless times flubbing my words in front of bemused locals. When my Greek remained passable at best, I consoled myself by reading up on just how hard it is to learn new skills as an adult, particularly new languages. I am, in short, in desperate need of any method that will help me shove more grammar and vocabulary into my head and help it stay there. As an entrepreneur, you might not be trying to master past perfect verb declensions. If you are, you have my sympathies. But perhaps youre trying to learn to code, pass a professional exam, or just retain more of what you read. If so, let me introduce you to the 2-7-30 Rule. The neuroscience of improving your memory. The scientific underpinnings for this rule arent new. Neuroscientists have long understood that, when it comes to our brains, forgetting isnt a bug. Its a feature. As University of California, Davis memory researcher and author of Why We Remember Charan Ranganath has explained, Although we tend to believe that we can and should remember anything we want, the reality is we are designed to forget. We naturally forget older memories our brains deem less important in order to make room for newer, more valuable information. Memory is, essentially, a competitive process, according to Ranganath. All the way back in the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus studied this propensity to forget and visualized the phenomenon with his “forgetting curve.” It falls steeply at first, showing that our retention of information plummets in the first few days after we learn it. Then rates of recall flatten out. After a month, people tend to remember only 20-30 percent of what they were first taught. A representation of the forgetting curve showing retained information halving after each day. Image: Icez/Courtesy Wikimedia Commons The power of spaced repetition. So if our brains are naturally wired to refuse to remember the gender of Greek nouns, the shortcuts for that new software tool, or the exact wording of that key regulation, what can be done about it? Ebbinghaus recommended something called spaced repetition. Recalling information tags it as more important in your brain, helping it win the competition for your limited memory space. Thats why your teachers back in high school nagged you to review material multiple times before tests and avoid a single cram session the night before. Studying thats spaced out vastly improves memory and recall. Instantly improve your memory with the 2-7-30 Rule. Thats the theory. How do you put it into practice? Writing on Medium recently, another adult language learner named Hillel suggested a fabulously simple trick to put Ebbinghauss insight to use. He calls it the 2-7-30 Rule. Heres the basic idea: When youre trying to learn new material, test yourself by trying to recall it two, seven, and 30 days after you initially learn it. The intervals were based on the Ebbinghaus curve and my capacity for retaining information (discovered through trial and error), he explains. For Hillel, this meant making lists of Spanish vocabulary and then testing himself by translating them back and forth from English at the two-, seven-, and 30-day marks. But this technique isnt limited to learning foreign languages. You can write a one-page summary after finishing the book and schedule review dates 2, 7, and 30 days in the future, he suggests. Rewrite the summary without checking your notes and see how well you do. Give yourself a memory upgrade. I have to admit, my eyes lit up when I read about Hillels trick. One of the few techniques that has helped me remember more Greek is a similar procedure of quizzing myself on vocabulary over time, but I always did this in an ad hoc manner. Hillels method structures the idea into a clear procedure with a catchy acronym. He even suggests setting yourself calendar reminders on the second, seventh and 30th day so you dont miss a session. If theres something youd like to remember, give the 2-7-30 method a try. Nearly 150 years of science (and the testimony of at least two frustrated language students) say it will radically improve your memory with a minimum of effort. By Jessica Stillman This article originally appeared on Fast Company‘s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American etrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists use an economic model known as the Zillow Market Heat Index to gauge the competitiveness of housing markets across the country. This model looks at key indicatorsincluding home-price changes, inventory levels, and days on the marketto generate a score showing whether a market favors sellers or buyers. Higher scores point to hotter, seller-friendly metro housing markets. Lower scores signal cooler markets where buyers hold more negotiating power. According to Zillow: Score of 70 or above = strong sellers market Score from 55 to 69 = sellers market Score from 44 to 55 = neutral market Score from 28 to 44 = buyers market Score of 27 or below = strong buyers market Nationally, Zillow rates the U.S. housing market at 52 in its August 2025 reading, published this month. That said, Zillows reading varies significantly across the country. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}(); Among the 250 largest metro-area housing markets, these 20 are the HOTTEST markets, where sellers have the most power: Rochester, New York 153 Buffalo, New York 107 Hartford, Connecticut 90 Syracuse, New York 90 Albany, New York 82 Charleston, West Virginia 81 Poughkeepsie, New York 80 San Francisco 79 Norwich, Connecticut 79 Binghamton, New York 76 New York City 74 San Jose, California 74 Bridgeport, Connecticut 74 Springfield, Massachusetts 73 Canton, Ohio 73 Kingston, New York 73 Providence, Rhode Island 72 Lansing, Michigan 71 Manchester, New Hampshire 71 Boston 70 Among the 250 largest metro-area housing markets, these 20 are the COLDEST markets, where buyers have the most power: Jackson, Tennessee 8 Terre Haute, Indiana 10 Macon, Georgia 20 Lafayette, Indiana 21 Florence, South Carolina 22 Gulfport, Mississippi 25 Longview, Texas 27 Beaumont, Texas 29 Brownsville, Texas 30 Naples, Florida 30 Lubbock, Texas 30 Asheville, North Carolina 31 Waco, Texas 31 Daphne, Alabama 31 Panama City, Florida 31 Hickory, North Carolina 32 Bowling Green, Kentucky 33 Gainesville, Florida 34 Punta Gorda, Florida 34 McAllen, Texas 35 Does ResiClub agree with Zillows assessment? Directionally, I believe Zillow has correctly identified many regional housing markets where buyers have gained the most powerparticularly around the Gulfas well as markets where sellers have maintained (relatively speaking) somewhat of a grip, including large portions of the Northeast and Midwest. Based on my personal housing analysis, I consider Southwest Florida the weakest/softest chunk of the U.S. housing market. Not too far behind are pockets of Texas, Colorado, and Arizona markets, which have also seen a bigger buildup in resale inventory and unsold new-build spec inventory. In my view, many West Coast markets are softer right now than Zillows analysis suggests, in particular the areas that have recently seen big jumps in active inventory for sale. What did this Zillow analysis look like back in spring 2021 during the Pandemic Housing Boom? Below is Zillows August 2021 readingpublished in September 2021.
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. I go to conferences just a few times a year. To make the most of the frenzied days, I rely on a suite of tools. The Week Before 1. Mine Your Network Goldmine Clay: This personal rolodex enhances your contact list with info from LinkedIn and whatever other social platforms you choose (Instagram, Facebook, X). You can use Nexus, its new AI-enhanced search to surface contacts in your conference city or people in your network with specific expertise or interests. If you connect Clay to your calendar and email, it shows you a list of past meetings and email threads youve exchanged with a given contact for context. At the conference you can also use it to add private notes to a contact. Its free for up to 1,000 contacts, or $10/month billed annually for unlimited contacts. Pro alternative: Folk is a more advanced CRM (customer relationship management) tool thats useful if youre attending conferences for sales, or if you manage a service business that involves a lot of outreach. Its a surprisingly well-designed pro tool. Theres a new ChatGPT integration, so you can use ordinary language to query all your contacts and sales leads. If I were to run a sales-heavy project, Id use this. 2. Build Your Intelligence Hub Perplexity Spaces: Create a dedicated Space for your conferencethink of it as a smart folder for all your research queries. It can be private, shared with colleagues who can contribute, or public. Use it for queries related to conference sessions youre attending or leading. You can also use Spaces to plan for free time between sessions. Customize a Spaces instructions with your preferences to discover restaurants, music, museums, or whatever else interests you near the conference site. Upload files to give the AI assistant further context. Add reference docs from conference organizers, recommendations from friends, or a city guide you like. Learn more: Check my most recent Perplexity guide. Alternative: you can similarly set up a project in Claude or ChatGPT with relevant documents and queries. Or set up a notebook in NotebookLM. For further prep: Check out this pre-conference Planning Exercise, part of a helpful OpenNews tool kit by Emma Carew Grovum. 3. Create Pop-Up Networking Meals Partiful: Set up open lunches or dinners that conference connections can join spontaneously. Group meals build on hallway small talk for relationship building. Many people eat alone because coordinating is tricky, or they dont know where to go outside the hotel or conference center. Its completely free. Create events during the conference, then share the QR code when you meet someone interestingthey can RSVP instantly on their phone. You can use the app to check RSVPs or to send updates or follow-ups. Or post the RSVP link to an event discussion thread, or include it in an email. Schedule two to three meals throughout the conference and cap attendance at six to eight people for rich conversations. For informal conference get-togethers Partiful is a good alternative to Lu.mathe RSVP app I like using to send invites for my paid subscriber events online. Both are great, but Partiful integrates texting in a smart way, includes QR codes for RSVPing, and has a more social feel for spur-of-the-moment gatherings. At the Conference: Capture What Matters 4. Never Miss a Moment Granola: This hybrid note-taking app combines your typed notes with AI-enhanced transcription. Record sessions on your phone or laptop while jotting down key thoughts; Granola merges both into session summaries you can query. No audio or video is stored, just the transcript and summary. Ive been surprised at how accurate the transcripts tend to be, even when Im sitting in the middle of a large presentation room. Its free for 25 meetings or $18/month for unlimited use. Case in point: At the Online News Association (ONA) conference I just attended in New Orleans, I created a folder with Granola for all my session notes. Now I can query my whole collection of conference notes for follow-ups. Bloks is another good option that Ive written about before. It integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other pro platforms, but its now $69/month billed annually after a 14-day trial, so its relevant only for hard-core business use. Macwhisper is a great free app that can record and transcribe locally on your laptop, but it doesnt show you the live transcript or let you mix in your own notes. 5. Connect with People LinkedIn QR Code Scanner: Skip the business card shuffle. To use LinkedIn’s free built-in QR scanner, tap the mobile apps search bar and click the scanner icon on the far right. You can then scan someone elses LinkedIn QR code or have them scan yours. Youre instantly connected without having to type anything. No need to spend an hour processing a stack of business cards later. Uniqode: If LinkedIn doesnt suit you for connecting, create a free Uniqode digital business card. Save to your Apple or Google Wallet to easily share contact info without having to hunt thrugh your photos app. Or if you want a simple way to give people you meet a link, a PDF, a group of images, or a vCard with contact info, QR Codes Unlimited lets you quickly create and download a QR code for free with customized colors and designs. 6. Digitize Everything Scanner Pro by Readdle: Transform blurry photos of slides or awkward snapshots of handouts into clean, readable documents. The features I like: Access your scans from anywhere: Use Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive for automatic backups and to see or share your scans on any device. Quality scans: New tech improves on previous apps Ive tried. Smart cropping: The app auto-detects slide or paper edges. Conversion: I usually render scans in high-contrast black and white, unless the colors are crucial. Organization: Its simple to keep scans in topical folders (e.g., receipts, books, mementos, recipes, ONA25). Less paper: At conferences I try to scan most handouts now instead of hauling a stack of paper home. It lightens my bag, limits my office paper mess, and shortens processing time back at work. Cleaner camera roll: I prefer scans in a dedicated app so they dont clutter up my camera roll. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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