You could start with your everyday life. You can count things like:
money
time, speed
calories
For example, you could make a list of your monthly income and expenses. How much money you make? How much do various things cost? (If you do it on monthly basis, as would be typical in Europe, remember to divide the things you pay once in a year by 12. And if you do it on yearly basis, as would be typical in America, remember to multiply the monthly values by 12. Either way, there will probably be some things that you pay yearly and some things that you pay monthly.)
You could make a list of places that you visit regularly, by foot or by car. How far are they from your home, according to an online map? How much time until you really get there? What is then your average speed? Look at some other places, and try to estimate how much time would it take you to get there.
How much time do you spend sleeping? How much time do you spend at work? Commute? Exercise? What other things you do, and how much time you spend doing each of them? Make a pie chart of your life.
Look at the nutrition info of the food you eat; try to figure of how much sugar do you actually consume every day on average, every month, every year. Maybe try to split the food you eat into categories such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, sweets, soda, alcohol… and calculate how much you spend on each of these. You don’t need to do the calculation by hand, use the spreadsheet, the idea is to think about the results.
For greater numbers, look at economy, or astronomy. Here, human brain is naturally quite bad at remembering large numbers; for example, you hear about “five millions” of this, and “seven billions” of that, and at the end of the day you remember that it was “six point one something”, but you’re not sure whether the something was millions or billions. That of course defeats the purpose of the entire effort.
The “one weird trick” that works here is to choose a different unit. For example, if you think about economy, don’t use euros or dollars, instead, always think about “megaeuros” or “megadollars”. For example, if the government spends $600 000 on something, remember (and write it down) as M$0.6. If you do this consistently, you will find it easier to remember the difference between M$0.6 and M$600.
For astronomical bodies, it helps to notice the relative sizes. It is nice to know the diameter of Earth and Moon in miles or kilometers, but it’s easier to remember that Moon is about 1⁄4 the size of Earth. So when you e.g. learn about the size of Pluto, immediately check “so is it bigger or smaller than Earth?”.
You could start with your everyday life. You can count things like:
money
time, speed
calories
For example, you could make a list of your monthly income and expenses. How much money you make? How much do various things cost? (If you do it on monthly basis, as would be typical in Europe, remember to divide the things you pay once in a year by 12. And if you do it on yearly basis, as would be typical in America, remember to multiply the monthly values by 12. Either way, there will probably be some things that you pay yearly and some things that you pay monthly.)
You could make a list of places that you visit regularly, by foot or by car. How far are they from your home, according to an online map? How much time until you really get there? What is then your average speed? Look at some other places, and try to estimate how much time would it take you to get there.
How much time do you spend sleeping? How much time do you spend at work? Commute? Exercise? What other things you do, and how much time you spend doing each of them? Make a pie chart of your life.
Look at the nutrition info of the food you eat; try to figure of how much sugar do you actually consume every day on average, every month, every year. Maybe try to split the food you eat into categories such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, sweets, soda, alcohol… and calculate how much you spend on each of these. You don’t need to do the calculation by hand, use the spreadsheet, the idea is to think about the results.
For greater numbers, look at economy, or astronomy. Here, human brain is naturally quite bad at remembering large numbers; for example, you hear about “five millions” of this, and “seven billions” of that, and at the end of the day you remember that it was “six point one something”, but you’re not sure whether the something was millions or billions. That of course defeats the purpose of the entire effort.
The “one weird trick” that works here is to choose a different unit. For example, if you think about economy, don’t use euros or dollars, instead, always think about “megaeuros” or “megadollars”. For example, if the government spends $600 000 on something, remember (and write it down) as M$0.6. If you do this consistently, you will find it easier to remember the difference between M$0.6 and M$600.
For astronomical bodies, it helps to notice the relative sizes. It is nice to know the diameter of Earth and Moon in miles or kilometers, but it’s easier to remember that Moon is about 1⁄4 the size of Earth. So when you e.g. learn about the size of Pluto, immediately check “so is it bigger or smaller than Earth?”.