One short-cut to learning anything more quickly is to connect it with something which you already know. That approach will streamline your progress in memory improvement, as well as any other learned skill.
My memory has been pretty good, though it needed some retraining after an accident some years ago. The procedures are now fairly automatic for me and I don’t consciously use the systems much. But I first learned them in a similar step-by-step way to what I show you here.
I use the Numerical Peg system to recall numbers and the Link System for shopping lists.
The Numerical Peg system intrigued me. I’m a computer geek, so I found it easy to apply myself to getting the first 10, and then 100 Numerical Pegs down cold.
If that seems too much, you could use one of the other systems instead for some tasks.
I suggest that you, at least, make the effort to learn your first 10 Numerical Pegs. They will serve you well, even if you go no further with the system. I think that many readers will be encouraged by the benefits they see when they start to use those 10 Pegs, and most will probably work to fix more into their minds and use them.
If 10 are enough for you, then that’s fine too.
I used the Link System when shopping. I found that I could start from whatever item on my list for that day which I first saw on the shelves. Then, I just worked backward or forward as other items came into my view.
But, some people find that they have to start at either end of their series of links and count through to the item they see. That won’t usually take more than a few seconds anyway.
You may be more comfortable if you switch those choices around. There’s no one perfect choice which will suit everybody to the same degree.
Copyright © 2006 by John Williams 30. http://www.ezymagic.com/
“Maximum Memory Power” by John Williams
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Many people use these systems differently to me and there are many variations which have their own supporters. It will take you a while to find those systems and tips which give you the best results but, remember, none of these exercises will be wasted.
At the very least, you will get some improvement to your current methods of storing and recalling information. But, you will also be exercising your mental ‘muscles’ and the benefits of doing that in a productive way have been proven many times over.
I’ve seen these methods work with the people that I’ve shown them to, so I suggest that you try them as shown. Then, you can make any changes you want to better fit them to you, when you have the basics as second nature.
Copyright © 2006 by John Williams 31. http://www.ezymagic.com/
“Maximum Memory Power” by John Williams
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Link Them & Never Lose Them
You can use this system to remember any series of items, from a shopping list to the important points in a speech.
Start with a sample shopping list:
• Bread
• Fish
• Newspaper
• Apples
• Toothpaste
• Milk
• Candy bars
• Sausages
• Lettuce
• Lottery ticket
The first step is to close your eyes for no more than a couple of seconds, and focus on a picture of the type of bread which you get every day. If you need to do so, take a quick look in your kitchen.
Many people fill their minds with heaps of trivial images, or become overwhelmed by work and personal pressures. All of that stops them from making sharp, easy-to-recall mental images. But Copyright © 2006 by John Williams 32. http://www.ezymagic.com/
“Maximum Memory Power” by John Williams
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they should get quick results, just from conscientiously doing this exercise for a couple of weeks, and that will give them more positive associations to fill their mind with.
Now, get a picture of the fish, which is the next item on your list, on to your mental screen. You don’t need to know what your fish looks like; just print the name of the type of fish you want on a simple picture of any fish.
Now, this is the important part.
Put the fish and the bread into the same picture but make it funny or, at least, startling. You might have the fish with slices of bread coming out of its mouth like a fountain or, perhaps, have the loaf of bread cut in half - with the whole fish flapping around between the pieces.
Put action into your mental images whenever you can. That’s much more important than that the images should make sense!
My examples are very plain. You will probably come up with a better image for your own recall
– one that you are more comfortable with and that makes a better impression on your mind-set.
We’re going to do the same linking between each two items in your list. Don’t spend more than a couple of seconds on forming and focusing on your mind pictures. The first picture you think of will probably be the best one for you but all your mental images will improve over the months to come as you get some experience of the systems.
Don’t worry about details – these are memory joggers, not works of art.
Now, we’ll put the fish and the next item, your newspaper, in a new picture. You might have the newspaper wrapped untidily, and not very well, around an ENORMOUS fish, or have the fish reading a newspaper (big eyes on the fish and maybe spectacles too!), or …...
The more odd and funny you can make your images,
the better and quicker this system will work for you.
Copyright © 2006 by John Williams 33. http://www.ezymagic.com/
“Maximum Memory Power” by John Williams
Page 34 of 67
You can see the next step, can’t you? Put a newspaper in a picture with apples or just one out-size apple. You might have;
• an apple with rolled newspapers curling out of it like worms, or maybe
• a fruit tree with both apples and newspapers hanging from it, or
• the front page of your newspaper filled with a picture of an enormous apple.
A ‘tame’ picture like that third example might be enough until you have more confidence about the system, but it won’t work as well as a more startling picture. Make your apple(s) and newspaper(s) unusual - this is one time when the sillier, the better is the rule!
No-one else will ever know anything about your personal mind pictures and you can forget them as soon as you have paid for your groceries! Go Wild!
How will you combine toothpaste and apples in your next picture? Maybe you will make your usual toothpaste tube really large with apples being squeezed out of it, or with a huge apple instead of the usual cap.
Toothpaste and milk are the items in the next picture. You might picture yourself squeezing toothpaste onto your breakfast cereal from a milk bottle or brushing your teeth with a milk carton.
Milk and candy bars? See hundreds of Candy bars pouring out of your milk bottle or someone being squirted in the face by milk from a candy wrapper.
Candy bars and sausages could just be someone eating a sausage which is sticking out of a candy wrapper or a fry pan full of sausages and candy bars. The pictures don’t have to make sense, they have to stick in your mind like a candy bar melting in a frying pan!
Copyright © 2006 by John Williams 34. http://www.ezymagic.com/
“Maximum Memory Power” by John Williams
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Sausages and a lettuce might be represented by a large lettuce with sausages curling though it like grubs, or a rabbit chomping into a sausage wrapped in lettuce leaves. Put action, like that hungry rabbit, in all of your pictures whenever you can.
If you remembered the last two items on your list, this might be your lucky day!
How can we link lettuce and a lottery ticket? You could simply create a lettuce with all the leaves made of lottery tickets, or show dollar signs all over a lettuce.