Have you ever wondered if mnemonics and memory techniques are for everyone?

Or maybe they just didn’t feel right for you?

Here’s the thing:

They might not be.

That’s just one of the unexpected answers you’ll hear in this podcast and read below. Let’s get started with a wonderful letter I received from a student in the Netherlands:

Let me introduce myself. I am Timo, a Dutch high school student. Nowadays I am preparing for my finals, but besides that I am also working on a final paper about the human memory. To be honest, last year I failed to pass my exams, so I decided to learn differently this year. During my summer vacation, I came across your website. While listening to your podcasts, I realized that this would be the best way to learn for me. That I eventually picked out this subject for my paper was a coincidence.

Back to the story. The last months I have read many books and scientific articles about the method of loci (or the Magnetic Memory Method). There are not many articles about this matter. These articles suggest that the method of loci is an effective way, but they are written by psychologists. Most of them are sceptic to use this in classrooms. You are, on the other hand, the expert for teaching this method to students. I assume that you use this method almost every week.

My practical part of my paper is an experiment with high school students. (This is required in The Netherlands.) Last week I finished teaching them the basics and how to apply the method to a list of random facts and vocabulary words. Now they are preparing to make a test, which I prepared. A university researcher helps me to process the data from these test results. However, I met some resistance with some of the students. They think that this is too time consuming. The teachers are, however, enthusiastic about my research. They want to know more about this subject.

Therefore I am considering writing a much shorter paper for all the teachers to explain my findings. Assuming that you are the only one, who gives these kind of courses, could I ask you humble opinion. Most of the books and articles do not give a clear answer, whether or not this method is effective on large classes and is better for the knowledge of the student (long-term memory). So here are my questions:

 

Is the Magnetic Memory Method a skill that everyone can develop?

 

No. The Magnetic Memory Method, any mnemonics or set of memory techniques are exclusive to a particular kind of person.

First, the person must be open to experimentation and implementation.

These personal characteristics appear not to be present in everyone. They require learning a set of tools that must be used in order to truly understand them.

Think of a computer keyboard, for example. Anyone can look at the keyboard and understand a description of what it is supposed to do. But without putting their fingers on the keys and learning to press the keys to produce words, words will never form.

And the exciting thing about typing is that, once you’ve started learning it, you can learn to write very fast. Not only that, but you’ve become so familiar with the keyboard that you can type entire books without even looking down at the keys or your fingers.

Memory techniques are like that, especially if you’re using Memory Palaces. The Memory Palace is a kind of keyboard you build yourself based on a manual like the Magnetic Memory Method. The information you want to memorize forms the keys and the associative-imagery are the sentences you write on the paper of your imagination.

And of course, no one types an entire book without making mistakes. But editing is a minor feat and quickly accomplished simply by scanning the record and compounding your associative-imagery or making the necessary changes.

The keyboard metaphor is not perfect, but it gives a sense of how mnemonic approaches like the Magnetic Memory Method work. Other metaphors have been given, such as the wax tablet and bird cage metaphors given by Aristotle.

In sum, not everyone can develop memory techniques because not everyone will take action.

Seriously. Some people prefer crossword puzzles.

But even with games and puzzles, a large percentage of those who do get started with memory exercise and other forms of mental training will, unfortunately, abandon the task at the first sign of mental effort. This premature departure is unfortunate because incredible successes are usually just around the corner.

Again, memory techniques are best learned by doing. The real job of an instructor in the art of memory is, therefore, inspiring people to take action by learning the techniques and then continuing to take action as a kind of scientist.

As a scientist, you create the basis for an experiment based on a clearly defined outcome and track your results. When the results don’t match the desired outcome, you analyze the mnemonic procedures you used and the Memory Palace itself and make the necessary changes, try again and once again track the results.

Like many things in life, they who test win.

 

Is the Magnetic Memory Method worth learning?

 

Yes, but ultimately that is not up for me to decide. Learning is just one part of the process. You must implement the memory techniques, not just learn them. Knowing what they are and how they work without using them is like holding your fingers over the keyboard but never typing anything.

The same holds true of any other memory training you might pursue. I personally believe that everyone should read as many books on memory techniques as possible, but only if they’re willing to try things out.

To this day, I continue reading every book on mnemonics I can find. Almost every single one of them has a new angle on an old technique or something entirely new. I always give these new approaches a try and sometimes they become part of what I do in my personal memory practice.

 

How much time does it take to master the Magnetic Memory Method for tests (and eventually final exams)?

 

Mastery is not the issue. It’s results that matter and these often arrive fast and hard when people learn the techniques, follow the instructions and implement based around topics they’re passionate about and that will make an immediate difference in their lives.

When I say “instructions,” I’m not talking dogma. The Magnetic Memory Method is called a method precisely because you need to come with a spirit of experimentation. It’s not a system and it breaks my heart every time I hear someone talk about their “memory system.”

There are no universal systems and you cannot truly use the approach of someone else. Rather, people need a method that helps them create their own, highly personalized system , remembering that flexibility is a requirement as they experiment with making the Magnetic Memory Method their own.

You need to understand that the map is not the territory and results only happen when you’re with the rest of us mnemonists down in the trenches and doing the spadework.

All that said, people typically learn and prepare themselves for the Magnetic Memory Method

 

Are there any requirements to make the Magnetic Memory Method easier to learn?

 

The only requirements are a willingness to learn and experiment with the techniques. It helps a great deal if you also come with a topic you’re passionate about, but that’s not strictly necessary. Even the most boring information from the driest topic in the world can be made thoroughly exciting using a Memory Palace and the other tools mnemonics offer.

 

How can someone test, whether or not the student has learned the Magnetic Memory Method?

 

Testing is simple. The student either correctly produces the memorized information or not.

That said, unless you’re competing, 100% accuracy is not always necessary. You can create a huge advantage for yourself simply by covering 50%, 35%, 25% or even less of the material on a test.

The important point is that you direct the memory techniques where they are needed. Some people pick up lots of information without the need of any technique.

Others, for various reasons, are desperate for something – anything – that will get more information into long-term memory.

Whether one uses memory techniques or not, testing offers the only means of discovering how much and how deep into long term memory information has gone.

The best part is that we know that as memories age, they move into different parts of the brain. (Gary small link). These memories may even be segmented into different pieces that are stored in different places. In this way, the remembered material becomes connected to other pieces of information, leading to what can be considered the formation of knowledge.

So it is not uncommon that a person using mnemonics will seek a single piece of information and wind up uncorking a powerful flow of related information. This effect takes place often when the remembered information involves philosophy, history and material from subject-based textbooks. Here’s a quick training on how to memorize a textbook.

Testing is a tremendously exciting part of the Magnetic Memory Method because it not only demonstrates that the techniques are working. Merely by testing recall, you strengthen your memory. You also discover more about the techniques and create deeper familiarity with them, ingraining them deeper in your being.

In principle, without testing, which amounts to recall, you aren’t really using memory techniques. This is why I talked in this video on card memorization about how memorization really only takes place during recall, and we must take the time spent during memorization and recall together to form a proper assessment of the time investment.

 

Is your method age restricted? Is it easier for younger students?

 

I do not believe that memory techniques are any easier or harder for younger students than any other age. The one advantage young people have is a lack of inhibition and a fresh connection to play.

However, adults, when they can get their egos out of the way, have the advantage of discipline and focus. They can, by and large, sit still at will and channel their energies towards the imagination. They can also practice meditation and analyze the kinds of imagination they have at their disposal with greater insight.

 

Could information that someone learns, interfere with other information? For instance, would Latin vocabulary interfere with biology terminology?

 

One kind of information can interfere with other kinds. This possibility is called either “ghosting” or “The Ugly Sister Effect.” These tend to arise when people use the same Memory Palace more than once without cleaning it first.

If the information is too similar – such as when memorizing French and Spanish vocabulary – the interference can be severe. However, Spanish and Russian vocabulary are sufficiently different, something that reduces, if not eliminates jarring effects and confusion.

In either case, with a bit of practice, neither need be interruptive. Once you understand the Ugly Sister Effect, you can bend it to your will and make it advantageous.

 

Do you think that this method is an essential skill in our digitalising world? People are nowadays more depending on their mobile phones than their memory.

 

Is it really true that people are relegating more and more information to their memory? Or is it possible that they are freeing it up so they have more space and time to learn and memorize more important things?

Long before computer technology, people suffered from unexercised minds. We sometimes have a false vision of the past in which all kinds of people were running around with superior memory abilities. Many scholars, yes. But the average Joe? Hardly. More everyday people use memory techniques around the world than ever before.

No, it is a lame and technologically deterministic view that blames technology for human laziness. It is the same technological determinism that blamed cars for more sex amongst teenagers and now blames cell phones for sexting. Believe me, young people had lots of sex with each other before cars appeared and many lewd notes were passed from student to student in the absence of cell phones.

What is interesting about technology is that it is at the precise moment that it became so central to our lives that a mnemonics Renaissance took on full force. I believe there is no mistake that the World Memory Championships, mind-mapping and a global interest in memory techniques surged as computers grew in popularity.

But I do not believe this occurred because human memory was being replaced and weakened. I believe the mnemonics Renaissance began because technology has freed the human mind to remember much more valuable things.

For this reason, I often berate those who teach the memorization of shopping lists. What a waste of human imagination and mental energy!

No, if you want to truly learn mnemonics and feel their awesome power from the first moment, memorize something that will immediately improve your life, or at least please you. Memorize something in line with your passions, something you cannot relegate to pen and paper or a computer. It’s for remembering these daily concerns that technology exists. Save your memory for the information that matters.

 

Do you think that the Magnetic Memory Method is a necessity for all students around the world?

 

No. Some students do perfectly well without mnemonics. I believe they would do even better with them, but what matters is the results they want and the results they get.

 

Should education institutes implement the Magnetic Memory Method in the classroom? How could teachers successfully teach this skill?

 

Yes.

However, I do not think the MMM or any form of mnemonics should be crammed into the classroom with other subjects.

Mnemonics is a subject on its own. It has history, and like math, has different forms. If math has addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, mnemonics has linking, association, rhyming, keywords, abbreviations and the mothership that bears them all, the location-based Memory Palace.

If schools were to create a semester-long, or even a year-long course in mnemonics, our world would be a much different – and better place – almost overnight. We would be faced with an information revolution far more powerful and interesting than the computer revolution because more people than ever before would be using the software in the hardware of their heads at the highest level ever in the history of humanity.

 

How often do you use the Magnetic Memory Method, and what for?

 

I use memory techniques nearly every day of my life. When I meet people, I memorize their names. When I study a language, I memorize vocabulary and phrases. When I read books, I remember dates and facts. When I study music, I memorize scales and lyrics. When I sit in lectures, I memorize the messages in real time. When I warm up for memory projects, I memorize short runs of playing cards.

Above all, I spend the first minutes of nearly every day practicing dream recall. Even if I can’t remember a single dream, I make a note of it to help stimulate recall the next night.

And nearly every day, I spend a small amount of time writing in my gratitude journal. It is a powerful means of never forgetting just what a wonderful life I’ve got.

No matter where we live or who we may be, our existences are tied deeply to memory. And where memory is absent, the mindless void of forgetfulness and repetitive fantasy and negative messages persists. Only by focusing on strengthening our memory can we remember to be present with higher and higher levels of clarity. In this way, using memory techniques are a powerful form of meditation and perhaps the ultimate path to enlightenment.

Further Resources

If you’re interested in developing your memory by using Memory Palaces so that you can create genuine knowledge and achieve your most precious goals, you’ll love the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass that you can try completely risk-free. I’d be honored to be the one who helps further your education in mnemonics and get you the results you seek.

The post 11 Unexpected Answers To Your Questions About Mnemonics appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, USA Memory Champ Nelson Dellis teaches you how to win the USA Memory Championship.

Take it away, Nelson!

So you’ve read a bunch of books on memory skills. You may have even listened to all the podcasts on this site.

But although many of them have helped your memory tremendously, there might be some of you out there who want to use your techniques to compete in (and possibly win) the USA Memory Championship.

As a 4x USA memory champ (and before you think I’m cocky, also a 3x USA Memory Championship loser), I know the ins and out to winning this competition.

Surprisingly, becoming a memory champion is not necessarily all about memory. There are a lot of other subtle things that go into making it to the end and winning the USA Memory Championship.

And I’m going to explain to you exactly how.

Here we go.

Step 1 – Sign Up


 

This first point is dumb and obvious, but I’ve met a lot of people who talk about the competition as if it’s this Holy Grail that awaits them …

… once they are truly prepared.

To them I say, f*ck it.

Just sign up and compete. There is nothing better than getting the experience of a full competition under your belt than actually competing.

I hate to say this but, no one (well except for the very first winner, Tatiana Cooley) has won this thing on the first try. You could argue that Joshua Foer won on his first go, but technically he was there the year before as a journalist.

Sure, he didn’t compete that first time, but he dug himself deep into the competition for his article. Scott Hagwood, Ram Kolli, Ron White, Chester Santos and myself, we all lost before we won.

Even this year when I took first place, I honestly believe I won based on competition experience. There were some competitors with better-trained memories than me, but less competition knowledge and experience.

So, bottom line, it’s about getting competitive experience. If you want that edge, just sign up and compete. It’s worth gold. Go for it!

 

Step 2 – Make It To The Second Round

 

The USAMC is split into two parts. The morning events:

* Names & Faces
* Speed Numbers
* Speed Cards
* Poetry

The afternoon playoff events:

* Spoken Words
* Tea Party
* Double Deck O’ Cards.

Making it to this afternoon second round has a lot of parts, because you need to score well in each event to make it into the advancing top 8. Not as well as you might think, but decent enough.

The scoring works like this: With each discipline you get a score based on how much you memorize correctly according to the rules.

Then, that score is turned into a championship score, which is a weighted score based on a curve. The best score is 100 pts and then everyone scores comparatively.

Statistically over the years, you need about 200-250 out of 400 pts to make the cut. But standards change over time and it is harder to get a score that high than ever before.

But the nice thing is that even if there are a couple people hitting some awesome scores, there are a lot of people with mediocre scores. Until everyone in the USA is amazing at memorizing (which they’re not … yet), this fact will be your savior.

The mediocre scores are there because it often ends up that there are one or two, at most three front runners who are in another league compared to everyone else in the top 8. The rest are good, and still better than the remainder, but not that impressive comparatively to the top.

So the bottom line is that you need to score consistently mediocre (or better) across the board to make the top 8. You used to be able to pass to the second round by being amazing at just 2 of the events. But agian, that’s getting harder to do. And if you are great at only one event but none of the others, you’re chances are nearly zilch.

In other words, sorry to say, but there is no real shortcut here. You gotta be “good” at all four disciplines: names, numbers, cards, and poetry. But the good news is, you don’t have to be that good.

 

Step 3 – Play Strategically Through The Playoff Rounds

 

Okay, you’ve made into the top-8. Maybe not top ranked, but you’re in there. The nice thing about the afternoon playoffs is that it is all strategy. The chances for anyone to win at this point are all pretty much even. You could be the worst of the 8 (i.e. Ram Kolli in 2013) and still end up beating 1st place (me) and become the champ.

SPOKEN WORDS

They take you backstage to memorize 200 words (or as many as you can of those 200) in 15 minutes. Then, recall takes place back on stage, in order of the list, alternating between competitors.

One slip-up and …

… you’re out.

The round ends when three people have made a mistake. To me, this is the most difficult and nerve-wracking event. What you want to be able to do is memorize just enough not to run out of words before those three competitors get eliminated.

This means that the real trick is in figuring out how many words to memorize. It makes for a delicate balance between what you are capable of and what you think others can achieve.

 

Mind Explosion!

 

There have been years that the word count went up to 88, and others where it only went up to 35.

Everything depends on circumstance. People trip up on the most unpredictable things.

For example, favorite Johnny Briones recited “architecture” instead of “architect” in 2014. Top 5 finalist, Brad Zupp swapped the very two first words “aorta” and “office” in 2012. And many others have just blanked when they new up to 100 or so words. You just don’t know who’s going to trip up, so make sure you know YOUR words.

Typically I go for what I think is a safe minimum, around 100 words. Make sure you can do those 100 words, and do them perfectly. What’s tricky in recall is that you aren’t by yourself reciting. You have to be mentally prepared to say every 7th word or even less if someone gets knocked out before you. This can be a bit tricky and throw you off if you haven’t practiced.

TEA PARTY

Next up, six audience members come on stage and state eight factoids about themselves.

My advice:

Don’t bother listening to the people. Just listen for the name, memorize it, then put your head down, ignore them, and just study the sheet (the same information they speak is given to you in print). They talk way too fast to memorize it on the fly, so just read it instead.

Plus, you get an extra 7-9 minutes to review the packet info after the audience members are done speaking. On top of that, you get three strikes (not single elimination like SPOKEN WORDS).

I find this event the easiest because it’s so lenient. Typically it goes until two people are eliminated, but in recent years, no one has made three mistakes, so all five competitors qualify for the next round. Look for them to add a few more bits of info next year to make it harder.

DOUBLE DECK

So now you’ve made it to the finals! All you have to do is memorize two decks of cards in five minutes.

At this point, it’s most likely there are three competitors left (but it could be up to five). The goal is to memorize more than your opponents.

There was a time when memorizing around a deck and a half was championship winning, but not anymore. Last year four out of the five finalists memorized (or claimed to) both decks in their entirety. So then it comes down to accuracy.

How reliably can you recite those two decks perfectly? You won’t have to say all the cards, since you’ll be alternating between competitors, but as with the words, you need to be flexible and say any card when it comes to you. A few competitors have failed to do this over the years (me included) despite being clear favorites to win the title. It’s tricky, but can be overcome with practice.

 

Step 4 – Fly Under The Radar

 

Here’s an “inner game” tip to take with you for the whole competition:

Don’t talk hype. Just show up to the competition and kick some quiet ass.

For one, you’ll be no one’s focus. You can freely chill out in the back of the room hitting the scores that you practiced with zero attention coming your way.

But if people know about you or you’ve been around a few competitions and done well, you’ll get more attention. More attention means more stress and possibly more cameras in your face.

What I wouldn’t give to do my 2010 competition again. No one knew me, and I came out of the gates shocking everyone, quietly and confidently. The top guys didn’t know anything about me, and it made them nervous while I was in there just cruising.

Obviously there is still a lot of work you’ll have to do if you want to do well in all the events. But there is an endless amount of literature on just how to train your memory for competition. You can start at Art of Memory where you’ll find loads of resources created by other memory competitors.

Put all those things together and with enough luck and skill, you might just find yourself standing up on stage as the 2016 USA Memory Champ.

 

BOOM!

 

 

Further Resources

Extreme Memory Improvement interview with Nelson Dellis

Nelson’s Kickstarter campaign for a children’s picture book called I Forgot Something (But I Can’t Remember What It Was)

Help a good cause by taking the Extreme Memory Challenge and support Alzheimer’s research

Climb for Memory

How To Help Middle School Students Remember More

The post How To Win The USA Memory Championship appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Absentmindedness sucks.

You forget where you put your keys. Your car disappears from the parking lot. You left the stove on again.

Well, guess what?

There’s a cure for absentmindedness.

It’s called focus, and you’re about to learn three ridiculously boring ways to develop it.

The following techniques work best in combination, but obviously life changes work best when you add them one by one, so pick your favorite and dive in.

But if you have to begin anywhere, I recommend that you start with establishing a basic framework by understanding …

 

The Stunning Magic Of Being Boring

 

Boring?

Oh yes, and here’s why:

Just about every successful person in history has lived a life of constraint. Check out the following video and beneath that, I’ll break out some of the key points.

As you’ve just learned, highly boring people live exciting lives. They reduce everything they do to the essentials, including:

• Wearing similar clothes and eating repetitive meals every day to eliminate decision fatigue.
• Isolating tasks and remove distractions. You can do this by working in cafes without WiFi. Leave your smartphone at home and bring only a pad of paper and a pen and your laptop if you must.
• Wear earplugs if noise bothers you, or if you like music, try an app that features focus­friendly compositions, like focusatwill.com.
• Hammering away at carefully defined tasks without adding new things to do willy nilly.
• Keeping a journal to record their activities and track their time. You can even keep an attention span journal.

The reason developing a life based on constraints helps develop focus and eliminates absentmindedness is because you give yourself far less about which to be absentminded.

Not only that, but should you fall prey to absentmindedness, you’ll find your way back to focus.

Why?

Because the mountains you climb in your daily life won’t be hidden behind the fog of multitasking.

Frankly, when you limit your activities and focus on the essentials, you’ll not only find and climb your mountains, you’ll move them entirely out of your life and move on to finer things.

Even if you have a boss, it should be possible for you to isolate your most high margin tasks. Write a proposal, make a meeting and ask to redefine your activities.

If your boss rejects your suggestion, either track your time on your own time to prove what you can do on your own, or …

 

Find Another Boss!

 

Speaking of which, if you want to bypass working for the man altogether, becoming an entrepreneur or self­-employed is a great way to develop focus.

Placing yourself in a situation that forces you to get results or starve will rip absentmindedness from your life and leave it wriggling on the floor like a helpless insect.

As you can see, developing a boring life really can add tremendous excitement to your days on planet earth. So get started. Time is ticking.

 

The Extraordinary Power Of Sitting Still For No Reason Whatsoever

 

One of the most regular activities you can add to your life involves one of the most boring ­ and yet tremendously exciting activities ­ ever invented by humanity …

Yes, we’re talking about meditation.

Would you like to know why so many people struggle to incorporate this simple activity into their daily routines?

The answer is simple:

 

It’s Because They’re Trying To Meditate

 

Sorry, dear Memorizers, but that’s the wrong road to enlightenment and a quick path to suffering.

But before we talk about how to meditate the Magnetic way, here’s what meditation can do for you. All of these features of the world’s oldest brain training technique are scientifically proven and should persuade you to add meditation to your daily routine.

Meditation …

• Increases focus
• Creates emotional control
• Improves your working memory (luca link)
• Reduces “wandering mind” syndrome
• Lowers pain

Each of these benefits of meditation reduces absentmindedness because when you’re not in pain, and you eliminate mind wandering, focus glides in to replace these distractions.

To maintained your renewed focus, all you need to do is keep meditating.

Boring, right?

Not necessarily.

Not when you know …

 

How To Meditate In A Buddha-­shaped Nutshell

 

Surprisingly, proper meditation is super easy to do. You need only chuck the idea that meditation is about experiencing so­called “no­mind” and sit just to sit.

That’s it.

Sit down and let your mind wander. When first starting out, don’t bother with breathing exercises or mantras.

Sit just to sit.

After a few moments, you’ll become aware of the fact that you’re sitting on the floor, completely lost in thought.

When this happens, you’ll become present. You’ll be in the room, totally focused on the present moment instead of fantasizing about the future, playing some alternative version of things you’ve done in the past, or talking to yourself.

In reality, all that inner­-dialogue is far more boring than meditating.

Why?

 

Because You’ve Repeated All That Junk To Yourself Before!

 

When that moment of clarity comes, even if it takes a few sessions to get into it, you’ll feel pleasure, elation, and yes, enlightenment. That’s all enlightenment is: the elucidation that the present moment is all we have and you can be in it.

Here’s a practical, step­-by­-step meditation guide you can use every day for the rest of your life.

1. Pick a time. Morning, noon, evening, it doesn’t matter. Regularity matters.

If you can’t commit to an actual time of day, create an After X meditation practice.

For example, meditate after eating a major meal. Meditating after eating can feel especially profound because, so long as you’ve eaten non­irritating foods, you’ll be physically content. And who knows? You might also digest your food better.

2. Pick a place to meditate. It could be your bedroom floor, basement rumpus room or backyard garden.

Face East, West, North, South … Take your pick. Which direction doesn’t matter, so long as you have one.

Remember, the way to eliminate absentmindedness and increase focus is to eliminate decision fatigue. If you give yourself too much to think about, you eliminate the chances that you’ll get down to business.

3. (Optional) Set a timer.

Tim Ferris suggests that you do less than you think you can. In other words, if you think you can sit still for ten minutes, set the timer for eight minutes, maybe even five.

If you do this, I would add that once the timer rings, you turn it off and then sit a little longer. You can move a little or even stand up,but do squeeze a few more moments into the session. It’s often in this second, untimed session where the magic happens.

4. Sit and do nothing else but sit.

A lot of people teach that you should progressively focus on each muscle of your body from head to foot. This practice is often called a “body scan.”

By all means, experiment with this. But understand that it is not waiting for your awareness of the present moment to arrive. It is not allowing yourself to be lost in thought so you can catch yourself everywhere but here.

5. When you finally arrive, enjoy and observe.

The more you practice this simple form of meditation, the longer these moments of arrival will last.

Clarity will also bubble up in different ways throughout your days. Although it’s unlikely ­ and undesirable ­ that absentminded fantasizing can be eliminated from your life, you can limit the amount of time your mind spends wandering out of control.

There are also dietary reasons why you can’t focus. If that’s the case …

 

Cut The Booze With A Vengeance

 

Drinking’s awesome, right? You get a buzz, inhibitions loosen and that ugly stranger across the room starts looking a lot more attractive.

By the same token, your vision blurs. Your speech slurs. You develop difficulty walking as your reactions slow. Worst of all, you impair your memory, including your working memory for two days or more.

Worse, alcohol interrupts neurogenesis. Scientists once thought that the brain doesn’t generate new cells, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

However, we now know that new brain cells generate from stem cells and alcohol interferes with this process. The lack of new growth in super important parts of your brain (like the hippocampus) leads to foggy thinking, reduced concentration and poor decision-­making.

Of course, not all people react the same to alcohol, but even so, why take the risk?

 

Dump The Sugar

 

Did you know that sugar changes the structure of your brain?

Not only that, but it messes with neurotransmitters like acetylcholine. That, dear Memorizers, is one super­critical substance when it comes to your ability to learn.

Sugar also leads to brain atrophy, which itself leads to dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Those conditions involve more than absentmindedness. They are a complete and permanent journey into the void.

Eat brain healthy substances instead. These include:

• Leafy greens
• Berries
• Whole grains
• Nuts and seeds
• Fatty fish
• Avocado
• Bananas
• Green tea
• Beets
• Bone broth (link)
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Coconut oil
• Egg yolks
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Rosemary
• Tumeric
• Walnuts

Warning: Dark chocolate (but beware of this because prepared chocolate bars usually dissipate the helpful ingredients. You’d need to eat 70 or more to experience any benefits)

And of course, drink water. Like there’s no tomorrow. Without regular hydration, your brain will shrink in mass and it can’t detoxify.

And it’s 85% water, after all, so it’ll feel in good company when you keep it swimming.

 

This Is Just The Beginning

 

There is a lot more you can do to increase focus in your life. Reducing clutter, regular walks, playing games and being social all

contribute to greater focus.

Simple stuff, right?

Put these simple practices into your life and you’ll reduce absentmindedness to the bare minimum. You’ll focus like a hawk on your goals and become the Magnetic King or Queen of your realm, just like you’ve always wanted to be.

The post 3 Ridiculously Boring Ways To Add Focus And Excitement To Your Life appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

This is Andrew Barr and today I’m sitting in for Anthony in this guest post.

I’m from realfastspanish.com and over there I help Spanish students get a conversational level of Spanish using specific tactics and strategies to improve their effectiveness as language students.

And in this post I’m going to teach you how you can apply some of these strategies to significantly improve your effectiveness when it comes to your memorisation challenges using the principles of the Magnetic Memory Method.

Whether you are just starting out with memory palaces or you are a seasoned professional, today you will learn three ways you can improve your effectiveness with memory palaces in order to achieve your goals with less effort and in less time.

If you are already using Memory Palaces and mnemonics you are well ahead of the curve. You already know that using memory techniques improves the efficiency of learning. But, it is still possible to get even more out of your approach to memorisation.

It doesn’t matter whether you are using the Magnetic Memory Method for language learning, acing exams in school, vying for a memory championship title or trying to impress friends at a party. There are three steps you need to consider if you want to have even more success with your memory challenges.

Memory Palaces Are a Means, But …

What is the Goal?

 

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question; I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” — Albert Einstein.

“Begin with the end in mind” — Stephen Covey.

Before you can start to maximise the potential of your memory palace training you need a clear vision of what you are a trying to achieve. A memory palace is a tool that you can use to achieve any number of outcomes with incredible efficiency. But the real power comes when your outcome is sharply defined.

The problem is that, often, we don’t clearly define where we want to end up, which makes the path to get there a lot harder than it needs to be.

Recently, I met a guy who works for an oil company and was telling me about his vision to become rich. He said he had his whole plan mapped out. His plan was to buy property after property and then subdivide and develop. He told me he wanted to have a few million in property, a few million in stocks and a few million in cash for those “just in case” moments.

After mapping the whole plan out, I looked at him and said “Why? What is all this money for? If money is a means to an end, what is your end goal?”

He said “I want to work with children”.

 

I Couldn’t Believe It

 

I said “why don’t you become a teacher?” He said “I want to work with disadvantaged children”. He then told me that he didn’t need the money to pay for programs for the children, he needed it so he could live without needing to work to free up his time. I told him he didn’t need millions of dollars to do that.

I told him about a good friend of mine—a high school teacher who quit her job to work with disadvantaged children. She left her job here in Australia and moved to the Solomon Islands where she is working and living on a small allowance to cover her board and her food. She is working with the local teachers to develop a new curriculum in the school. As well as helping and teaching the children that live in the local area.

She didn’t need millions of dollars, she was clear about what she wanted to do and she went and did it.

After telling him the story, he just stared at me blankly.

He offered a few excuses but it was obvious there was a disconnect between the goal and the means for getting there.

Without a clear vision in mind, it is possible he will spend years trying to achieve a poorly defined goal. What if it takes him 30 years to meet his goal? Will it be worth it if he gets there in his 60s? Or worse, if he doesn’t get there at all?

 

Don’t Get Caught With A Poorly Defined Goal

 

He is not the only one, though, who got caught with a poorly defined goal. I too have found myself without a clear vision at times.

Seven years ago I decided I wanted to be fluent in Spanish. I did some online research and found some resources for beginners. I printed everything off and got to work. I practiced for quite some time learning whatever I could about the Spanish language.

Within two years, I organised my first trip to Spain. Before I got there I was so excited for the fun and adventure I was going to have with my new language skills. I was going to make local friends, I was going to go to interesting places only the locals knew about and I was going to experience Spain the way a typical tourist couldn’t.

 

Does Language Learning Overwhelm, Confuse And Frustrate You?

 

When I got there, the reality was a completely different thing. I was overwhelmed, confused and frustrated.

My Spanish was hopeless. It was miles from what I thought it was. I couldn’t understand what the locals were saying. I couldn’t remember what I had learnt. And when I did remember how to say something, I translated literally from English and got a lot of strange looks.

When I returned to Australia I was deflated. I thought my abilities in language learning were worthless and I should move on to other pursuits.

Shortly after my return, I met up with a few friends in bar. They brought along a friend from France. Her English was good but not amazing—it was good enough to communicate, better than my Spanish at least. I told her about my experience in Spain and for the next few hours we shared language learning war stories. She told me about her struggles with English. I asked her “despite what you are saying, I understand you perfectly, you can communicate. How did you get to this level?”

She then told me something about language learning that changed everything for me. She said “you can just keep learning forever, and that’s it!” I asked her what she meant.

She told me that, if I wanted to, I could spend every day for the rest of my life learning something about the Spanish language. But, if I wasn’t clear about what I actually wanted to do with the language I would be lost learning for learning’s sake.

What do I mean?

In the English language there are over 250,000 words yet only 20,000 are used in regular day-to-day communication.

 

Sure, You Can Memorize A Gazillion Spanish Words … But Why?

 

For Spanish, these numbers are even better—there are a total of 100,000 words in the language yet the top 1000 most frequent words make up 87% of spoken communication. It is really quite amazing, you only 1% of the total number of Spanish words in existence for almost 90% of the conversation language.

What I discovered after talking to the French girl in the bar was that I could spend the rest of my life learning about 99,000 words in Spanish, but if I couldn’t use the most common 1000 words properly I would never have a chance to meet the locals and experience parts of the culture I had always wanted to experience.

So the question is — how well have you defined your goals? How well do you know and understand the outcome you truly want from the use of your memory palaces? And is there actually a disconnect between the information you are placing into your memory palace and what you actually need to know?

Anthony has mentioned that one of his most popular podcasts was How To Memorize A Textbook. It is possible to memorise a whole textbook using memory palaces. But as Anthony mentioned, and I reiterate here, before you start filling your memory palaces, you should start by eliminating components of the textbook that you aren’t actually going to need.

If you are preparing for an upcoming exam, are there components of the course that you won’t be tested for?

For example, imagine you have an upcoming chemistry test. The teacher tells you that the test will be on the periodic table. The question is—do you have to memorise all 118 elements? Maybe some quick research uncovers from the previous exam tests or maybe the teacher tells you that they will only test your memory for the first 50 elements. Now you only need 50 memory stations instead 118. Through defining a clearer goal you have made the path easier.

If you are studying a language, are there low frequency words that you are unlikely to ever use? Or are there words that you can eliminate because you can easily say them in another way?

 

The 3 Person Test

 

If we use language learning as an example, one word that I don’t particularly like is the word fluency. I encourage all of my students at Real Fast Spanish to stop using this particular word when trying to set goals in language learning.

For example, I mentioned that there are 100,000 words in the Spanish language. If you wanted to be “fluent” in Spanish, how many of those 100,000 words should you put in a memory palace?

It is unclear, right? But …

 

What Does Fluency Mean?

 

Instead see if you can define a better goal for yourself. How? By using the 3 person test.

Start by coming up with an appropriate goal to help you move you from where you are now to where you want to be. Then ask 3 people if they clearly understand your goal. If they do, it is a good goal, if they don’t, you need to go back to the drawing board.

What you ultimately want from the 3 person test is a consensus from your panel of 3 when you have achieved your goal.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Imagine your goal is to count to 10 in Chinese. If you could do it, then the panel would all agree. Yes you have achieved your goal.

Now imagine your goal is to be fluent in German. When you ask three people if they think you are fluent then it is very possible you could get three different answers, when you think you are. One person might say ”yes”, one might say “maybe” and one might answer the question with another question. In this case your goal would fail the 3 person test.

Knowing and having a sharply defined outcome is the first step to maximising your effectiveness with your memory challenges. A clear end game allows you to carefully select the right information to place into your memory palace which will save you time and effort later.

Let’s look at the second step.

 

How to Overcome Resistance

 

“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work” — Steven Pressfield.

Once you are clear about what you actually need to put into your network of memory palaces and you have eliminated all unnecessary memorisation, you simply need to create the associated images and locate them where you know you can to find them later.

But, this is easier said than done right?

In order to fill your memory palace, you need to actually do the work. You need to overcome resistance.

Resistance, unfortunately, is a part of nature. It’s everywhere.

In the physical world, resistance is called inertia. Have you ever tried to move a large boulder? Or have you ever tried to push a car when the engine isn’t running? If you want to move large objects in the physical world you need to apply a lot of energy. You need to find a few friends or get the help of a large machine to apply enough force to start moving the object.

In the biological world, resistance is called homeostasis. In the human body there are hundreds of processes all working to maintain the status quo. There are buffers in the blood to maintain pH. Insulin is used to maintain sugar levels. Our bodies also use metabolic and perspiration processes to maintain a constant internal body temperature.

If you want to change your internal body temperature—which is not recommended—you need to go into a freezing cold place or an extremely hot place and stay there for enough time to break down the body’s internal regulation systems. In other words, a lot of thermal energy is required to overcome biological resistance.

In the psychological world resistance is called procrastination. Let me ask you this question—have you ever procrastinated?

 

Why Do We Procrastinate?

 

It’s because procrastination is similar to inertia and homeostasis. And here’s the thing—it’s not your fault! If you have ever procrastinated it’s because resistance is everywhere in nature. Nature loves to resist change.

So if you want to overcome procrastination, like the large boulder or the internal body temperature, you need to apply enough energy to overcome the resistance. If you want to successfully populate your memory palace with all of the carefully selected data you have chosen in step 1, you need to overcome your psychological resistance to change. How? If you want to overcome resistance you need to apply enough energy. For psychological resistance …

 

You Need To Apply Emotional Energy

 

What does that mean?

Have you ever had a big exam, assignment or report due for work that you left to the very last minute? Maybe you left it until the night before or the morning of. Let me ask you this question—in the end, were you able to pull an all nighter or some other feat of poor health in order to get the assignment done? If so, what changed?

In the lead up to the assignment, you were resisting it—naturally. Then when the deadline came close, you started to worry about failing or getting in trouble at work. At a certain point the resistance to doing the work was overcome by the emotional energy that came out of the fear of failure or getting into trouble.

Knowing this, if you want to successfully fill your memory palace, you need to develop enough emotional energy to overcome the naturally occurring psychological resistance.

 

The Test of the Five Whys

 

One idea that you can use to build emotional energy is the test of the “the five whys”. This idea originally came from industrial manufacturing as a strategy to pinpoint the cause of potential breakdowns in the production chain. They needed the test because human beings aren’t particularly good at getting to the heart of an issue.

If you want to truly understand why you should do something you need to ask “why?” five times. The true answer is rarely obvious from the first why.

If you want to unearth a limitless source of emotional energy for overcoming resistance, you need to get to the heart of your motivation.

Let’s see an example. I will give an example for learning Spanish because it’s what I’m used to. But you can apply the test to whatever memory outcome you are striving for.

Imagine you have a well defined small task to place 10 new Spanish words into a memory palace.

The five “whys” test would go as follows:

Why do I have to learn these Spanish words? Because they are important for Spanish.
Why is knowing Spanish important? Because I want to be able to speak another language.
Why do I want to speak another language? Because I want to experience a new culture.
Why do I want to experience a new culture? Because it will enrich my life.
Why do I want to enrich my life? Because it is the best way to live!

As you can see, by using the five ”whys” test I have connected the trivial task of placing 10 words in a memory palace with a higher life purpose. By asking the question “why” five times you can access a deep well of emotional energy and use that energy to overcome procrastination and resistance.

Once you have a sharply defined goal and you have overcome resistance at a task level, the final step is to create a routine that will allow maximum effectiveness with the Magnetic Memory Method.

 

Creating a Routine Allows You to Create

 

“Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her.” ― Lili St. Crow.

“You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively.” ― Anne Lamott.

One important aspect of memory palaces is the creation of associated imagery. If you want to fill a memory palace you need to create and be creative. You need to take an abstract word, sentence or formula and create an associated image that you can use to recall the idea later.

Said in another way, if you want to be more effective with memory palaces you need to improve your creative muscle.

 

How To Be More Creative

 

How then can you be more creative?

If I said the key to creativity is routine there would be artists all over that would cringe at the suggestion. Creativity is about spontaneity. It’s about moments of inspiration that can’t be bottled. And these types of moments come when we least expect them, right? At least that what I used to think.

What do Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Albert Einstein and Mark Zuckerberg all have in common? They all wore the same clothes every day. Steve Jobs is famous for his black turtle neck and blue jeans. Barack Obama has said that he simply either wears a grey suit or a blue suit. Zuckerberg rocks a black hoodie. And Einstein was known for wearing a similar grey suit every single day.

Why do they limit their wardrobes? They all choose to wear the same clothes everyday because of a concept called decision fatigue.

The idea behind decision fatigue is simple—every time you make a decision a future decision will be slightly compromised. In other words, every time you make a decision you are more likely to make a worse decision later.

For President Obama, decision making is a crucial part of his job. He can’t afford to make bad decisions. Therefore he limits simple decisions like what to wear or what to eat to someone else. What this does is leave him more decision making power for the important decisions—the types of decisions that could affect the future of the country.

Have you ever had the feeling at the end of a long day at work or college and when it came time to do something as simple as choosing what to have for dinner, the decision of what to cook was overwhelming? This is due to decision fatigue.

So what does decision fatigue have to do with creativity?

 

There Is A Trade-Off Between Every Decision You Make And Your Highest Order Thinking

 

Creative types like Steve Jobs and Anne Lamott know that they need to reserve their best thinking for creation. In order to do this they cut down decision making in their lives to an absolute minimum. They did this through routine. Either by wearing the same clothes or sitting down at a desk to write at the same time every day.

The evidence of other artists that used routine for creation is overwhelming. In Mason Currey’s book “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work”, Currey lays out the daily routines and habits of 161 of the world’s greatest artists such as Woody Allen, Agatha Christie, Leo Tolstoy, Pablo Picasso, Benjamin Franklin and Jane Austen.

Why does routine work so well for creation?

Charles Duhigg, the author of the power of habit, says that the brain starts working less and less as we start to form regular habits. The brain can almost completely shut down and this is a huge advantage because it means you now have free mental space that you can dedicate to something else.

This is how the world’s greatest artists work and you can test it for yourself.

 

How To Easily Assign “Pre-Commitments”

 

If you want to harness the power of routine and minimise decision fatigue, start by creating pre-commitments.

A pre-commitment is a decision that you make a head of time. And ideally a decision you make only once.

There are so many decisions you may be making on a daily basis—decisions that may seem inconsequential but add up quickly to fatigue of your highest order thinking.

What you want to avoid is having to make hundred of decisions in any typical day:

– What should I eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?
– What should I wear?
– What should I buy from the supermarket on the way home?
– Do we need extra supplies for the coming week?
– Should I buy that new jacket or those shoes?

Then after all those decisions:

– When should I sit down to work on my memory palace?
– Should I work on the memory palace in the morning, evening, on my lunch break, or after dinner?
– Should I work on my memory palace for 20 minutes or an hour?
– What parts of my memory palace should I be focusing on today?

 

But There Are So Many Decisions … It’s Overwhelming!

 

Start by taking stock of all of these daily decisions and start making pre-commitments. Try to make decisions ahead of time. For example, you could decide on a Sunday evening everything you are going to wear for the week and eat for every meal.

Here is a powerful strategy: can you work on your memory palace at the same time for the same amount of time every single day? Can you remove the decision of when or whether to work on your memory palace completely?

If you don’t have to make a decision of whether to work on your memory palace, you can save your best thinking for the first, second or third location based image you have to place in your memory palace.

Can you avoid decision fatigue? Can you use pre-commitments and routine to minimise as many decisions in your life as possible?

If you can, you will leave your mind maximum freedom to create and be creative. A freedom that will allow you to create amazing things, crazy and vivid imagery that will infinitely improve the power of your associated images and the effectiveness of the Magnetic Memory Method.

 

What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You About The Real Path To Overcoming Procrastination And Learning At The Deepest Possible Level

 

Memory devices and mnemonics improve learning efficiency. The Magnetic Memory Method is a wonderful framework for putting the use of memory devices in a usable process. Put simply—it works!

If you want to take the Magnetic Memory Method to the next level and be a more effective memoriser you should start with a clear vision of the outcome you want to achieve from the use of your memory palaces.

A clear vision allows you to save time by first removing information you don’t actually need to memorise. This in turn means you can focus more intensely on the information that truly matters.

Once you are clear about your destination, you then need to overcome psychological resistance to change. You can do this by connecting deeply with your underlying motivation in order to build the emotional energy you need to overcome procrastination.

And finally you can maximise the effectiveness of the Magnetic Memory Method by minimising decision fatigue and incorporating routines into your daily life. If you can reduce the daily mental load of simple inconsequential decisions, you can release your creative potential for a vivid world of associated imagery.

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