And while you’re jamming your way through those great movies, I have to say that my all time favorite video course from 2016 has been SuperLearner 2.0:
The Magnetic Memory Method 2017 Predictions For Your Memory
A lot of people are making 2017 predictions about a lot of things.
As far as I know, none of them involve the state of memory improvement.
Here are my top predictions for how things will go with some tips about how to make memory improvement part of your 2017 adventure.
Why Friendships Improve Your Memory
Friendship and memory, you ask?
You bet. And as more and more social groups form online, the more “real life” friendships will matter.
For example, a recent memory improvement book demonstrates that we just don’t remember a lot of what we experience online all that well.
Of course, you can develop techniques that help (check out Jonathan’s course!), but my bigger concern is that you get the memory benefits of spending time with real people.
In the world.
Some ways to make sure you get your memory-friendly time with people in the world include:
Daily walks with a friend
Weekly lunches or dinners
Meeting to memorize cards together
Shared language learning challenges
Just getting together to shoot the breeze
I know you heard me talk a lot about him in 2016, and that’s because the favorite new friend I made in 2016 is Tony Buzan.
I have a prediction that there will be even more amazing stuff coming out from him in 2016, and I’m going to suggest to him a quarterly feature on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast called Buzan².
He reads so fast … I wouldn’t be surprised if he already knows about it before I’ve had a chance to ask him.
For now, my favorite pic of the year:
Why The Pen Will Remain Mightier Than The Sword in 2017
Penmanship used to be a preoccupation of mine. I predict I’ll be returning to it in 2017.
Maybe I’m old school. Or maybe I just like Da Vinci.
Either way, there’s no arguing that there’s a thing called penmanship and developing it is good for your brain.
It’s tempting to say to hell with it. People type, tap and swipe now.
But in watching April wrangle pinyin and hanzi out of my iPad on the same day I watched some of the beautiful Chinese calligraphy in Devils on the Doorstep:
As I study Chinese calligraphy a bit myself, it seems clear to me that it’s not just the multiple intelligences and muscular activity we’re losing.
It’s a kind of art.
And I predict that individuals and nations that hang onto it will outpace those who do not.
Journaling Will Improve Your Memory Even Better Than In The Victorian Era
John Lee Dumas is an entrepreneur on fire.
And The Freedom Journal is just one aspect of his genius.
I’m not ready to share yet how it helped me on a massive project in 2016, but I can tell you that the The Freedom Journal has streamlined my daily journaling down to the essentials.
Even better:
The Freedom Journal has given me the means of tying those essentials to making huge strides toward an ambitious goal I had left dangling.
Here I am using The Freedom Journal in Zürich. I carried it with me all around Europe while working on a project I predict I will tell you about in 2017.
My favorite part is that The Freedom Journal is also a memory tool. So I also predict that in 2017 you’ll hear me sharing more about this exciting tool in relation to memory techniques.
It doesn’t require any psychic powers to predict that knowing more than one language will be even more important in 2017 than it was in 2016.
The question is …
Will it be any easier in 2017?
The answer is easy, but …
The ease of that answer depends.
It depends on the decisions you make and the tools you use.
My 2016 recommendations won’t change:
1. Know and use The Big Five of Language Learning
Use your memory
Read
Write
Speak
Listen
Every day.
2. If you’re going to use apps, use them intelligently.
Olly Richards is definitely your man for figuring out how to do that. Make Words Stick gives you some cool insights and I predict there will be many more interesting language learning and memory insights coming from Olly in 2017.
3. Speak with native speakers.
My biggest recommendations for finding great speaking partners boil down to italki and Skill Silo. I’m expecting great things from both, but liked Skill Silo the best in 2016 thanks to a streamlined process that puts only one core language learning text on the screen with your teacher.
But you still need to teach your teacher. Olly again has lots of ideas to help you get the most from that.
N=1 Experiments And Competition
Alex Mullen continues proving that human memory moves at least as fast as the human hand and eye.
I’ve spoken with him and his results clearly come from the same processes all memory athletes and experts use.
The real difference is in how you apply the techniques to your memory improvement goals.
Or it could be learning a massive topic related to science, computing, philosophy or some interesting combination you make in a course of study of your own.
How To Design A Learning Project That Works In 2017
To get the most out of any learning project, four elements will be key:
1. Use Magnetic Memory Method Memory Palaces.
This is kind of a no-brainer, but if your Memory Palace strategy isn’t bulletproof, you risk wasting time and energy.
2. Dive in and go all the way.
The map is never the territory, so action is key. (Note: Getting yourself into the picture can and most likely will involve making changes to the map as you go along.)
3. Track your results.
Stay tuned for some more information about tracking your results in 2017, particularly in combination with The Freedom Journal.
4. Refine Your Approach
Once you have data on what’s working and what isn’t, I predict that all people serious about using memory techniques will be capable of learning faster, remembering more and having an amazing 2017.
2017 Will Be The Year Of Memory And Sleep Research
My biggest memory improvement surprises in 2016 came from experiencing great memory wins despite way too much sleep deprivation.
As the author of The Ultimate Sleep Remedy, I still stand behind everything I taught in that book.
However, I also wrote the book during a period of time when I took lamictal every day. I had also done a huge course of research in sleeping 12 hour days and dream recall.
But since becoming an entrepreneur and giving up the pretty pink pills as part of “Project Wolverine” …
Things Have Been Different!
I don’t think the pretty pink pill ever helped me sleep any better. But I think it did give my like a machinic quality.
And that consistency has been replaced with something more akin to the classic and cliche Bipolar Rollercoaster described in psychology textbooks.
To combat the suffering that comes from Manic Depression, I’ve been experimenting with raw cacao and coffee, sometimes Bulletproof Coffee. There is no doubt in my mind that the swapping of these substances in for lamictal has changed the nature of my sleep.
But overall, despite tons of exhaustion, my mnemonic memory has never been better. I find this amazing, especially since recent research has shown that the older you get, the less likely you are to get memory consolidation during sleep.
My Mnemonic Calendar Will Come Back Into Use
That said, the tasks to which I direct my mnemonic memory need refinement. I have a mnemonic calendar, for example, but need to use it more often so that I don’t forget appointments.
Or even better, remember when appointments have been cancelled. Sometimes the ghost impression of an appointment made can override the attempt to remember that it has been canceled. This is The Ugly Sister Effect in full force as too much competes for your attention.
There is also the pressure of absentmindedness on memory. For this reason, it is important to place as many things on autopilot as possible so that remembering is unnecessary.
Funny, right?
But it’s important to note that a great way to improve your memory is to remove things from it that stress it out.
HumanCharger Light Therapy And Memory?
Light is an increasingly important topic to me.
In fact, light exposure has become a way of life. Since February of 2016, I’ve been using a unique light-therapy device to explore the topic.
The benefits of using the HumanCharger have been clear, measurable and amazing.
Basically, the device addresses a simple reality:
The human brain is sensitive and receptive to light.
There’s a lot to that statement. Especially if you can find a way to let light reach more of your brain.
Of course, your eyes have a means of doing that.
But what if your ears were a pathway light could use to reach your brain too.
I predict that I’ll be part of spreading the good news about exactly how you can use the HumanCharger to bring light to your brain.
I’m also excited to explore the relationship between memory and light as well. My initial n=1 conclusions are that feeling more alert and in a brighter mood definitely adds to the arsenal when you’re living the art of memory improvement.
The Magnetic Memory Method Will Be Enshrined As The Martial Art Of Memory Improvement
I predict that I will continue extending my feeling that mnemonics are a kind of Martial Art.
I’ve long felt that my background with Systema has helped my memory. Apart from meditation techniques derived from Alan Watts and Eckart Tolle, Systema continues to provide the basis for how I connect relaxation to memory.
Ego-depletion will also remain important.
Yet, ego is so crucial to memory techniques because you draw on what you know based on what you know about yourself. You tap into what you like, what makes you emotional, sometimes even what makes you mad.
Case in point:
I was filming myself learning some Chinese in a bank when I got some attitude from a guy. He basically told me I shouldn’t get him on camera (a camera that was in no way pointing at him). But he did it so indirectly that I wasn’t sure if he worked for the bank, was representing the bank’s interest or … trying to audition for my YouTube channel …
Anyhow, I was trying to remember how to say, “I am lost” using memory techniques in real time.
But in the moment of conflict, I not only had to maintain calm to avoid getting into a fistfight. I needed calm to make sure I could create Magnetic Imagery to attach to the Magnetic Station I’d created on the fly in the impromptu Memory Palace.
My images were Mini-me from Austin Powers and Jennifer Lopez.
No, the phrase isn’t epic in length. No is it particularly difficult.
But neither is it extraordinary. And in a field of Chinese words and phrases, I needed to make it stand out. So while I’m managing my ego in the face of a potential attacker, running the camera and thinking about how I’ll edit it, AND memorizing this useful Chinese phrase so I can get it into long term memory …
It really does require Martial Arts-level memory to manage all of these elements and not forget the core information.
Physical Fitness And Memory Will Remain Mutually Supportive
In 2016, I dropped a lot of weight and built a lot of muscle. My trainer, Lars at Ignite.Fit, taught me a lot about my body, discipline and the nature of life. We also became friends and talked a lot about education, technology, business and how all three intersect.
As I worked to heal my body in the gym, I started drafting “Project Wolverine.” I can’t say much about it now, but I predict that memory and physical fitness will remain important to me and all who care about the quality of their memory.
Brad Zupp agrees on the connection between health and memory in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. I can’t wait to speak with him again on the matter and predict that I will.
My Year Two Of Chinese Prediction
It’s one year since I started learning Chinese.
Fluent?
Hardly.
And I know for a fact that I’ve got a long way to go.
But it raises the question of how exactly I define fluency.
Context decides.
When I asked my father-in-law permission to marry his daughter, he understood my request. I was fluent.
When I sang her a Chinese love song I’d memorized on our wedding day, I was fluent.
When I got an email from one of her friends expressing his amazement with my Chinese and memory techniques, I was fluent.
But …
… When I went to make dumplings during the 冬至 Dongzhi Festival …
I was in the limbo every language learner knows so well.
It feels like you must have been studying all the wrong things. Although you recognize dozens of words … It’s still hard to penetrate even 10% of what’s going on around you.
But I am fluent in memory. I zone in on what I do recognize. I isolate what I want to memorize. Then, provided I follow the MMM to the letter …
I’m on the road to fluency, which is the present moment, the only place anything is to be found.
The Toughest 2017 Prediction To Uphold …
Tough, but I still predict that I will maintain my love affair with German. It’s actually kind of easy.
All it will take is dedication to The Big Five of language learning to maintain my current level.
Yes, even as an upper-level student of German, maximum attention must be paid to reading, writing, speaking, hearing and continuing to memorize German.
I know, because I remember just how quickly it faded the last time I left Germany. I don’t want to feel the fade of disuse ever again.
What Are Your Predictions For Your 2017 State Of Memory Address?
So that’s my 2016 in a nutshell.
I’m grateful to everyone who contributed comments here, left reviews on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast or joined the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. It’s been an honor and delight to improve the ability of people around the world to learn, remember and recall anything with greater ease, fun, passion and high levels of accuracy in their recall.
Like how about this amazing win from a Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass member:
Or this wonderful lesson from an action-taker with the Magnetic Memory Method:
And then there’s this short note from a great MMM Masterclasser:
I received hundreds of emails and messages just like these in 2016.
So when it comes to 2017 predictions and the state of your memory, tell me …
Are you in?
Have a great New Year and talk soon!
Sincerely,
P.S. If you think you don’t have time for memory improvement in 2017, here’s how to memorize things fast from my friend Tor.
Except for the threats, the sirens and the guys with guns … last night was amazing for my memory.
First, April got invited to make dumplings to celebrate the last day of Autumn and the first day of Winter on the Chinese calendar.
I love the Magnetic Memory Method because I was able to remember those words in Chinese …
秋天 qiūtiān (Autumn)
冬天 dōngtiān (Winter)
Crazy thing is … I’d only heard them once in my life and used an impromptu Memory Palace to memorize them.
Months later …
They Were All Still Intact!
As was this song that took really just a few minutes to memorize:
Sure, I had a bit of a pronunciation problem here and there, but that’s easily solved by developing muscle memory. It’s understandable that words you don’t use for months that you only heard once don’t exactly snap into place.
But what a GREAT feeling to be able to remember them! And all by doing something I really love:
Using my memory.
After that, we were shooting video and getting into more of the particulars about how all this works.
We Got Lost!
We wound up getting a bit lost and keeping warm inside the bank machine area of a building.
And that’s when the threats and guns appeared.
Turns out, that a guy didn’t like me having the camera on while April was teaching me how to say, “I’m lost” in Chinese.
Good thing the Magnetic Memory Method teaches relaxation as part of the memory technique …
You certainly need to be calm when a stranger starts telling you what you can and cannot do.
It’s hard managing your defensive instincts and memory at the same time.
(You’ll laugh when you see my reaction in the video and the guns that were there to keep us safe all along).
So yes, April and I survived.
Perfect Recall … Even Under Duress
And the coolest thing is that I was still able to memorize “I am lost” in Chinese.
I can still remember exactly how to say it this morning.
Not to mention a couple of other words and phrases.
Like, “Smells good!”
And “garbage can.”
Instantly Memorized!
No sweat.
No tears.
No index cards.
No software.
But as I was editing the video this morning … it occurred to me that not everyone learning Chinese has access to native speakers.
And in the video I was talking about some solutions. They’re all part of The Big Five of Language Learning.
But then I remembered something really special I’ve been following for awhile.
It’s a website called MandarinHQ.
And when they released a course on real spoken Chinese, I jumped at the chance yesterday to grab access to it.
It’s called The Real Spoken Chinese Vault.
Yes, I laid down some cash even though I have a Chinese native speaker in my family.
Why?
Partly because I like to support awesome people out on the Internet who do good work.
But also because I do memory research.
Lots of it.
And I also want to support because what I’m about to tell you helps solve a huge problem for people learning Chinese.
It’s the “Can you please repeat that?” problem.
Chinese Native Speakers On Demand
Imagine having a video course where you get access to vocabulary and short phrases that lets you …
Instantly click a button …
… and then instantly hear that phrase again.
That would be cool, wouldn’t it?
Well, The Real Spoken Chinese Vault isn’t just about audio.
You Can Hear Them And See Them
The Real Spoken Chinese Vault also has video.
And you get strategically placed buttons so that you can see and hear 4-5 different native speakers repeat key phrases you’ll need to learn.
It’s the kind of button I wish I had in real life when learning a language.
For When You Can’t Put Life On Pause
Because, yes, I can memorize information in real time.
But sometimes it’s nice to be able to slow the world down and repeat things so I’m sure I’ve heard it right.
In fact, most of my memorization errors from real-time memory work come from now having heard it right.
What you’re about to learn about solves that problem.
Again, you get to SEE and HEAR native Chinese speakers.
A Lot In The Form Of Important Questions And Answers
Just like you’ll need to know in every day speech.
But there’s more.
Not much more, but just enough more to make this powerful package a no-brainer:
Because the program really wants to help you learn Chinese without overwhelming you …
Imagine a progression of exposure to the language in each lesson.
You start with seeing and hearing the speaker.
Progressive Exposure Reduces Cognitive Overwhelm
You can repeat each one delivering the phrase as many times as you like.
Then, when you’re ready, you can see the pinyin.
Same principle applies.
Click that magic repeat button all that you like as you watch and listen.
And then move on to the next stage.
When You’re Ready …
Then, and only then will you see the Chinese characters on the screen.
Your magic repeat button is right there, ready for use.
This program truly is one of the only times I will support hard-repetition. It’s very smartly done.
It’s not boring.
It’s not painful.
And you learn in a way that doesn’t waste your language learning time.
I also like that each module ends in a quiz.
You Get To Test Yourself
So far, I’ve done really well and LOVE this program.
Here are some Basic Chinese examples with my own tailor-made (and Magnetic) Mandarin Mnemonics:
And you can get lifetime access now at a HUGE discount (time is running out, though!)
(Note: The following offer expired at 11:59 p.m., December 26th, 2016. To let me know that you’re interested in studying Chinese using memory techniques, please get in contact.)
Let me introduce you to my friend Angel to explain her “listening framework” in detail.
If you want to join me in the course, before the deadline …
I’m going to do you even one better:
I’m going to make you a short video course of what I’m doing to memorize the material I need from the course using the Magnetic Memory Method.
But here’s the thing:
This bonus is only for people who take Angel’s course and keep it.
She’s being VERY generous with this discount for early adopters on LIFETIME ACCESS.
And I only want to reward people who take it for 30-days along with me.
So that means I’ll be sending you your access to the MMM Chinese Vault Supplemental 30-days after you grab The Real Spoken Chinese Vault before the deadline.
Can’t wait to share more of my Chinese memory journey with you soon!
Sincerely,
Anthony
P.S. Remember: This amazing opportunity for LIFETIME access to Angel’s The Real Chinese Vault with its unique listening and viewing framework closes soon. You should at least look it over.
P.P.S. You’re right. One bonus from me isn’t enough.
I’m also going to throw in a video I’ve already made about how that I quickly memorize Chinese poetry.
The poems are usually only 4 lines long, but I only need to hear them once. Recall is so strong that I am delighted by the response of native Chinese speakers.
Just check out this email I received after dinner the other night:
“Dear Anthony,
It was definitely happy time having dinner with you.
Especially, I checked out your website, that’s amazing. Those techniques, please forgive me that I call them techniques, help people memorize things. Actually, I was shocked that day, with your Mandarin.
As you know, not even all of real Chinese people speak 100% correct mandarin. And the way you were trying to memorize the few Chinese poems is cool. When I was trying to memorize the same poem at very young age, I don’t know what those words/characters mean. I just repeat it again and again. Those are ancient/classical Chinese words and very different from nowadays.”
If you’d like to get emails like that yourself from native Chinese speakers, don’t miss out on my bonus. Scroll and click that link for The Real Chinese Vault now.
P.P.P.S. Oh, okay, yes after 30-days in The Real Chinese Vault, you can also get access to my Secret Chinese Vocabulary Facebook Group.
Unlike some of the other FB groups I run, this one isn’t free and the fun for language learners who use memory techniques is only getting started …
Scroll up, click the link and check out The Real Spoken Chinese Vault now.
Bonus Update For Action-Takers: How To Use The Real Spoken Chinese Vault With The Magnetic Memory Method
If you joined us for the Chinese Vault special offer, here is your first bonus video:
Your password will have been delivered to you via email, so please be sure to check your spam and/or promotion folder if you haven’t received it.
Tone Control
The Ultimate Language Learning Secret
Also, be sure to have requested access to the Secret Facebook group for access to the 30-day Chinese Vault MMM Challenge. Can’t wait to share my mnemonic images with you!
In the modern world of omnipresent information access, memorization is almost a thing of the past.
And this shift has occurred very quickly. Little more than a decade ago, it wasn’t uncommon that a person had to memorize a sizable list of phone numbers belonging to partners, siblings, parents and close friends.
Now Many Of Us Forget Our Own Cell Phone Numbers!
Despite this, there are situations in the modern day that still require memorization. Perhaps phone numbers and historical facts are better left to Google, but not everything can and should be searched via a computer.
A notable example which is becoming conversant is “language” – which requires that you memorize a huge amount of vocabulary and grammar. Until now, there isn’t a technology effective enough to replace human ability to learn and master a language.
In the past, having to memorize information was not optional because information wasn’t easily accessible. Up until the 19th century, paper was expensive, especially for quantities required to make a book. To add to it was that not many people could read and write so the ability and need to memorize and recall information was critical.
Why The Greeks Adored Memory Palace Science
That’s why a powerful memorization method was adored by the ancient Greeks. This technique is used even as at today by memory experts to commit huge amounts of information to mind. And thanks to have an abundance of Ancient Greek facts that have been handed down, anyone can learn to use a Memory Palace at any time.
One such memory expert, used it to memorize Pi to over 100,000 digits. This memorization technique is called the Method of Loci, or more commonly the “Memory Palace”. It is a memorization method that not only has held the test of time, but has been shown to be effective through modern-day studies.
You may even have heard of the Memory Palace technique without realizing it because it has been featured in multiple books and media.
The Silence Of The Memory Palace In Fiction And Movies
For example, the technique was employed by the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the novel series “Hannibal” written by an American author Thomas Harris. In several passages of the novel, Lecter was described as mentally walking through an elaborate Memory Palace to remember facts. That’s the basics of the Memory Palace technique.
Although relatively unknown, this method can be a game-changing technique for people who want to improve their ability to retain large amounts of information. You might be a student trying to master information for an exam, or an aspiring polyglot trying to learn Italian. You might be aging and finding it more difficult to recall routine information.
Whatever memorization challenge you face, the Memory Palace technique is a proficient way to finally help you achieve your goals.
How the Memory Palace Technique Evolved
The origin of the Memory Palace technique was traced to ancient Greece. As mentioned earlier, in the olden days, people had higher incentives to create effective methods of retaining information. Writing and writing materials were difficult to access.
The Memory Palace technique was introduced to the ancient Romans and the world via Greek rhetorical treatises.
The Roman Cicero described the Memory Palace technique in his writings on rhetoric, called De Oratore.
In De Oratore, Circero claims that his Memory Palace method originated from the Greek poet Simonides. Simonides was commissioned to recite a poem praising a group of nobles at a banquet. After the recitation, Simonides left the hall and shortly after the edifice collapsed and killed all the people in the banquet.
The bodies were so badly mangled that not even close relatives could identify the corpses of their own people. However, Simonides was able to identify each of the corpses by name based on their location. Based on this experience, Simonides devised the Memory Palace technique (Bower 1970).
Whether this story is reality or myth, it illustrates the basic idea behind the Memory Palace technique. Luckily, you don’t have to attend a tragic banquet to master the technique and start using it to improve your information retention.
The basic idea behind the Memory Palace Technique is to associate pieces of information with a location that you are very familiar with. A prime example would be of your home.
If you’d like some free Memory Palace worksheets and a concise memory improvement video course, do this now:
If you close your eyes right now, you can probably picture your home with a high degree of detail. You know where the furniture is found, what colors the walls are, and even where small objects are placed.
The Memory Palace technique has to do with associating information with specific areas of that familiar location. As you walk through that location, you place pieces of information that you wish to memorize in specific areas. When you want to recall the information, you go through that mental route, and the information will be easily accessible.
The technique is made more effective when you add surprising or out-of-the normal features to the information.
For example, assuming you would like to memorize this sequence of words:
hero
drill
spacecraft
music
You could imagine yourself at your front door, with a hero standing next to you. Here you’ve made an association between your door and a hero.
You can increase your ability to memorize and retain this by making the memory more distinctive or unusual. For example, you could imagine the hero opening the door for you, or banging on it before you enter.
You then walk down your hall, and before your feet is a drill. To increase the power of this imagery, imagine that it is turned on and you have to leap to avoid being hurt.
You then turn the corner and see a spacecraft flying out of the window leaving behind itself a trail of glitter.
Finally, you sat down on the couch, and as your bottom touches the cushion, your favorite song starts playing. You might even imagine the word “music” written on the cushion before you sit.
The Memory Palace Technique Is Not Necessarily Visual
As you can see, the technique seems to require a vivid visual imagination. However, when done correctly using all of the Magnetic Modes, you can memorize a very large amount of information relatively quickly without necessarily seeing the Memory Palace in your mind.
Here’s an infographic to teach you all about the different ways that your brain perceives information:
Keeping the full range of your Magnetic Modes in mind, you can use any home or location with which you are familiar.
You can even use small areas, such as the inside of a broom closet. You can even use your own body, attaching information to different limbs.
Just keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to see the Memory Palace. You can feel it, hear it, taste it, smell it and even just think about it.
Many studies have been conducted to analyze the effectiveness of the Memory Palace technique. It’s all based on the scientific fact that your brain and spatial memory perceive space as a kind of image.
Check out this lecture for more information about how that works:
Cool, right?
The answer is a resounding “yes!”
Even better:
In a study conducted by J. Ross and K. A. Lawrence in 1968, the Memory Palace technique was tested on a group of 40 students. The students were asked to memorize a list of 40 items. They were given only a few minutes to do so, yet were able to recall an average of 38 out of 40 items upon immediate recall.
The next day, the average recall rate dropped to 34 out of 40 items – still very impressive!
Nature Magazine did an investigation of so-called superior memorizers (SM) in a 2002 paper (Maguire et al). They studied a group of 10 champions who had competed in the World Memory Championships.
The researchers first wanted to know if these SMs had some special natural advantages that other people do not have, such as a higher IQ.
They first found out that SMs did not have exceptional cognitive abilities. In fact, they did not even show superior performance on visual memory tasks (for example, the recall of faces).
The paper further investigated the brain structure of these SMs, and found out that their brains were not significantly different from average brains (Maguire et al 2002).
The scientists also performed functional MRI scans to see if the SMs brains were activated differently when actively memorizing. Here the SMs brains differed from normal brains – SM’s brains activated particularly when memorizing (Maguire et al 2002).
Significantly, scientists found out that SMs all used mnemonic techniques to aid in their memorization. Nine out of ten of these subjects were specifically using the Memory Palace technique (Maguire et al 2002).
Note: Some of people call it the Mind Palace method, but the basics are the same.
Plus, the different activation patterns observed were associated to the fact that SMs used mnemonic techniques, namely the Memory Palace technique, to memorize information (Maguire et al 2002).
No Need For A Huge IQ To Use A Memory Palace!
It’s not that SMs are smarter or have bigger brains than the rest of us. It’s that they use mnemonics, and specifically the Memory Palace technique to memorize information. That is the secret behind their impressive abilities. And because these SMs had been practicing the technique for a little over 11 years on average, they were really good (Maguire et al 2002).
This suggests that anyone with average abilities can use this technique to improve his/her memory.
And once you know the drill, it’s really just a matter of spending some time with a few solid Memory Palace training exercises. Like these:
Even if you are not seeking to learn large amounts of information, the Memory Palace technique still has something to offer. There is evidence that the Memory Palace technique can help maintain a healthy brain during old age.
Benefits of the Memory Palace Technique for the Aging Brain
As we age, our memories become weaker. In elderly people, this might lead to a frustrating situation where they are struggling to recall routine information.
There has been much study on age-related memory loss, but so far not many effective solutions to this problem.
Happily, the Memory Palace technique holds promise in aiding the enhancement of memory in the aging brain.
One study conducted in Norway in 2010 employed expert instructors, who taught the Memory Palace technique to 23 volunteers. The average age of these volunteers was 61 (Engvig et al 2010).
After training, these volunteers were able to memorize a list of 30 words in sequential order in under 10 minutes – impressive!
A control group, a set of volunteers of the same average age, sex and education was included in the study. They were not trained in the Memory Palace technique, and were instructed to memorize the list as well (Engvig et al 2010).
Afterwards, both groups were released into the world to live normally for eight weeks.
When they returned to the study, researchers challenged both groups to a recall task.
They first flashed a list of 15 unrelated words, each for only a second. The volunteers were then instructed to recall the words in order.
Researchers then showed them a list of 30 words. Half of these words had been displayed in the initial 15 word list while the other half was completely new.
The volunteers were asked to pick out words that had previously appeared and also identify their correct position in the first list (Engvig et al 2010).
Volunteers trained in the Memory Palace technique outperformed the non-trained volunteers for recognizing the position of the words (Engvig et al 2010).
The study also measured the amount of brain thinning that occurred in the trained versus untrained groups of volunteers. Normal age causes the brain to shrink. The brain of the individuals showed thickening in areas of the brain which were key for visual abstract memory (Engvig et al 2010).
Why The Memory Palace Technique Is Not Snake Oil
This research and others like it have shown that the Memory Palace technique is not snake oil.
Sadly, most adults in the modern world are not encouraged to use their imagination. It might therefore be slightly challenging for someone newly using the technique to really get into it, especially if they don’t have the kind of Memory Palace example you can get when you take my free memory improvement course.
However, after practice, many find out that this memory technique is not only effective in memorization, but is also very engaging. Certainly more engaging than the traditional rote memorization technique.
With some practice, you’ll be impressing all of your friends and family with how good your memorization has gotten in no time.
References & Further Resources
Bower, G. H., “Analysis of a Mnemonic Device: Modern psychology uncovers the powerful components of an ancient system for improving memory” American Scientist, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 496-510, September–October 1970 Web. 21 Jan. 2016..
Engvig, Andreas, Anders M. Fjell, Lars T. Westlye, Torgeir Moberget, Øyvind Sundseth, Vivi Agnete Larsen, and Kristine B. Walhovd. “Effects of Memory Training on Cortical Thickness in the Elderly.” NeuroImage 52.4 (2010): 1667-676. 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.
Fan, Shelley. “Can a Mnemonic Slow Memory Loss with Age?” Scientific American Blog Network. 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.
Maguire, Eleanor A., Elizabeth R. Valentine, John M. Wilding, and Narinder Kapur. “Routes to Remembering: The Brains behind Superior Memory.” Nature Neuroscience Nat Neurosci 6.1 (2002): 90-95. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.
You’ve heard about Mind Mapping and Memory Palaces, right?
Well, if you’re anything like the hundreds of people who have emailed me about it, you’ve probably wondered …
“Can I bring Mind Mapping and the Memory Palace together?”
To help me answer the question, I asked the reigning World Mind Mapping champion Phil Chambers to talk about Mind Mapping and how to bring this creativity, memory and learning tool together with a Memory Palace.
Turns out that we had a lot more than just that to talk about. Tune in to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and learn all about.
How To Combine Mind Mapping And Memory Palaces With Phil Chambers
⊕ The techniques Phil uses in his personal daily memory practice.
⊕ How to capture and store ideas using memory techniques – even when you’re driving.
⊕ The number-rhyme technique to take action on to-do list items. (Not to be mistaken for the Major Method/Major System.)
⊕ The perfect Mind Mapping definition and where to learn more about mind mapping techniques
⊕ Why there are always new things to explore in the world of memory techniques. Once you start using them, you will never cap out on new angles to explore and increase your skills.
⊕ The difference between semantic memory and episode memory and how using the journey method capitalizes on the power of both. This is the most “natural” way to use your memory.
⊕ The reasons why memory competition skills translate directly into every day memory needs we all face.
⊕ Why the principles behind Mind Mapping never changes, but Mind Mapping software continues bring new enhancements to the art and craft of this thinking, learning and planning tool.
⊕ Details on how to bring Mind Mapping together with the Memory Palace technique.
⊕ Why and how Mind Mapping uses all of the classic memory techniques.
⊕ The major criticism about memory techniques as regurgitation of knowledge and not learning – and why it’s misguided.
⊕ Why Phil’s title as a World Mind Mapping champion is up for grabs and exactly how to take his title.
⊕ The exact criteria by which world class Mind Mapping is judged.
⊕ Why you should never worry about your artistic ability when creating Mind Maps.
⊕ Phil’s Mind Mapping examples of how to schedule your week and get more done.
⊕ How Mind Mapping your daily schedule gives you many more details than a to-do list. Not only that, but you’ll often be able to double your efforts in ways you wouldn’t have otherwise seen on a page with linear notes.
Joanna’s back with a new book called Hack Your Habits and in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we’ve got her here to talk about it.
As always, I’ve got the interview transcript for you below and would love to hear your comments and questions in the discussion area below. Enjoy!
Why You Don’t Have To Have It All Mapped Out To Get A Handle On Your Habits
Anthony: You go into your personal story in the introduction. Why do you think you faced so many challenges and what was the turning point?
Joanna Jast: It’s interesting you’re asking me this question. I actually thought about it the other day on my way to work. And – I don’t really have the answer. I suppose it’s the combination of many factors: my temperament – which is like emotional and behavioural building blocks for personality and to large extend is hardwired, inborn, so my temperament, my upbringing, the environment I grew up in, the challenges I faced in life and the solutions to those challenges I chose to follow etc.
I haven’t got it all ‘mapped out’, but I think the key reasons why I’ve faced so many difficulties is my low threshold for boredom, poor ability to delay gratification, my self-compassion, which drives many of my willpower failures with: ‘But you deserve it, Joanna… you’ve had such a bad day’.
The turning points? There have been quite a few. But if I was to choose the key turning points that led me to create my own system for building better habits, it would be the following three:
The first one the day when my study routine was born. It was actually accidental – I wrote about it in my book Laser-Sharp Focus. It was the moment when I decided to stop trying to study in the evening, sitting on the sofa or on the bed and start doing it in the morning, at my desk.
To cut a long story short, I suddenly realised not only how much more productive and effective my study sessions became, but also how much happier I became – with better grades, more energy and time to do other things in life.
Now, 20 years later, looking back at what happened, I realise that back then I created a study routine, which over the years became my productivity and now writing routine that has transformed my life. My study routine happened to be one on those keystone habits – habits that create a ripple effect throughout our life, creating space and energy for more healthy habits to emerge and grow stronger, ultimately transforming our lives.
How The Secrets Of Behavioral Economics Can Improve Your Life
The second turning point was the day when I heard about Behavioural Economics for the first time. It was during a lecture on marketing. I went home, did more research, read books, articles, did a course and… fall in love with the approach. I thought this could be something that would work for me. So I started experimenting with various behavioural economics strategies. Initially, I applied them to sort out my finances – so paid off my debts and started saving money. Then, I started experimenting with my exercise routine and eating habits.
And the third pivotal point was, when I refined my exercise routine, my running routine to incorporate all the lessons I’d learnt about human nature and my own difficulties in forming habits, and particularly – my previous failures in establishing a reliable exercise routine. I used many of the behavioural economics strategies I’d learn about when doing it. And now I’ve got a running routine, where I run 3 times per week, whether I feel motivated or not (and at least once a week I don’t feel motivated at all), whether is raining, or 100% humidity, or my foot is sore. I just do it.
The Truth About Your Age And Your Habits
Anthony: Is the problem of habits age specific? Does it apply to all ages equally?
Joanna Jast: I don’t know, really. I think this is a problem of our times though – so this modern age. We become more aware of the role and the impact of habits, good and bad, on our health, happiness, success, on our lives, and also we realise that motivation and willpower have limits. And that’s why we think about our habits more, we become interested in strategies for improving them.
You can say that ‘habits are in fashion these days’. And it’s nothing negative – on the contrary. I’m very happy to see that many people are turning away from relying on unreliable motivational strategies towards using more practical approaches to transforming their lives.
So it’s not only scientists, or health and fitness fanatics who are exploring habits. Many people, of all ages, are seeking better understanding of habits, and their own habits in particular, to improve their health, happiness, wealth, relationships and many other aspects of their personal and professional lives.
Anthony: Talk about putting systems on autopilot. It sounds too good to be true. What does “autopilot” mean and how can a person get started?
Joanna Jast: Putting a system on autopilot is about creating a system that makes you perform certain behaviour, or a sequence of behaviours without thinking much about it, without putting much energy into it. It’s like getting up in the morning and washing your face or brushing your teeth.
Most of us do it automatically, without thinking: Oh, geeesh, first, I need to wash my face, then, I need to brush my teeth, and then – I comb my hair. These are things that most healthy adults would do automatically every morning. These are habitual behaviours – well engrained in our brains, within the neural pathways.
For me putting a system, say an exercise routine, on autopilot is about creating a system that kicks in as if with a push of a button, and makes you go out and run three times per week, rain or shine, whatever your motivation level, or the mood of the day.
How To Harvest The Power Of Your Desired Outcome
Anthony: How can you get started?
Joanna Jast: I suggest you start with the end result in mind. Start with what you want to achieve. You need to understand what problem you are trying to solve, but more importantly, what you are trying to achieve.
I like the concept of Desired Outcome, which I’ve borrowed from user experience design field. Desired Outcome is what we really want. Not what we think we want. Not what other people are telling us we should want. But what we’re really really want.
In my new book, Hack Your Habits, I write about my own struggle to cut down on my carbohydrate intake. I’ve got a sweet tooth and sadly, also use sweets as a reward and a way to boost my ‘motivation’ or willpower to carry on with tasks I don’t really want to do, tasks that are too difficult, too complex, etc. There was a time I was eating a lot of sweets. I was going through a stressful time personally and professionally, and this was my way of dealing with stress. So I wanted to cut down on my carbs.
So initially, I thought about this task as a cutting on my carbs task, a diet-changing task. I was all motivated to do that, and all. But it didn’t work.
So I looked at the whole issue again and really wanted to zoom in on what I cared about. And don’t get me wrong, I do care about my health, but the instant gratification monkey that lives in my brain always tells me that I can start again tomorrow, and now – I can have that biscuit.
So I had to start with the Desired Outcome. Yes, I wanted to eat less carbs, but what I really wanted out of it was to be able to resist sweets and toast with jam.
So I reframed my goal, taking into consideration my personality, my temperament, my weaknesses and strengths. I’ve got a competitive streak, I’m an achievement junkie, and I get excited with new ideas and testing them. So this ended up as an exercise in self-control and I did really well.
2 Of The Most Powerful Questions You’ll Ever Ask Yourself
So the Desired Outcome is where you need to start. What do you want out of it? Do you really care about it? And it has to be something you really care about, you care about. If you don’t care about it truly and deeply, it won’t really happen.
Anthony: You talk about getting the diagnosis right when tackling a problem. What does this mean and how does one get started?
Joanna Jast: I really like this quote from Albert Einstein:
’If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it’.
And I would do the same.
If you’re trying and trying and trying to solve a problem, say of your unhealthy diet, or an unproductive study routine, and you’re constantly failing, it may be that you’re using an ineffective strategy, but it may also be that you’re trying to solve the wrong problem.
In medicine, getting the diagnosis right is crucial to an effective treatment plan. And getting it wrong can really result in people dying. This is not as serious as that with habits, but in the end, if you don’t understand, if you don’t define your problem correctly, you can waste a lot of time, energy, and even money on trying to fix something that is not the reason for your struggles.
Let me reiterate it: the better you understand what’s wrong, what’s not working, the more targeted your solutions, your treatment will be.
How to go about diagnosing your problem? Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as doing an X-ray or a blood test, but it is doable.
Start with self-reflection, and be honest with yourself.
For me there are two major components to understand any problem you have: you – how you operate, your personality, motivation, strengths and weaknesses and your context.
The context is the external environment, your internal environment and your social environment. And they all come with their own limitations – what’s possible and constraints – what’s appropriate.
Why It’s Never Mind Over Matter
And it’s important to include that context -your physical environment, and your social environment as well. The power of those external systems that force us into behaving in certain ways is really undermined by many people. We think it’s all mind over matter – but if your physical environment or social context, is not conducing to exercising, or a healthier diet – it makes the change much, much more difficult. So don’t underestimate that.
And once you’ve got a good understanding how you and your problem or your habits goals sit within you and your context, you are in a good position to start tackling it.
So self-reflection if used with a healthy dose of honesty, is a great tool for discovering, diagnosing your problem. You can ask other people for their opinion what they think is not working for you. But then, they will be biased and what’s more important – they may not have access to some of your hidden motivations, or aspects of your personality or life you don’t share with others.
How To Get Started Fixing Persistent Problems
To get a really good grip on what’s wrong when fixing persisting problems, I ask myself two questions:
The first question is: What is this for? What is this doing for me? What purpose does it serve? What need does it meet? And this works really well with habits, because every habit serves a purpose. And most bad habits, such as overeating, procrastination, or shouting at your kids usually either helps either deal with boredom or with stress.
And the other questions I ask myself is: why have I failed at addressing it so far?
And once you’ve got it figured out, it will fall into those categories I’ve just talked about – you and your context. It should give you a better understanding of what it is and why you’re struggling to address it. And from this point, finding the best solution is quite straightforward really.
Exactly When You Should Run From S.M.A.R.T. Goals Kicking And Screaming
Anthony: Talk about SMART goals. What’s your major concern with this popular approach to goal setting?
Joanna Jast: The SMART goal setting framework is very popular, and it does work for most things, but in my opinion it does not work for habit goals, and for a number of reasons.
First of all, let’s look at the last letter of this acronym: T – time-bound. Setting a habit-based goal with a deadline for achieving it is not a good strategy. Why? Because habits take as much time as they take to develop. Some of it is in your control, but let’s not forget we’re talking about creating or rearranging neural pathways in your brain. That takes time to shift.
Studies shows that habit formation depends on many factors, and most importantly on the person working on it – their motivation, personality, their context, as well as on the complexity of the habit itself. A simple habit can take a few days to develop, a more complex one, such as exercise – up to several months.
So if you give yourself a deadline for your habit goal, you may be bitterly disappointed if you don’t achieve it before it. That’s just setting yourself up to fail. So when setting habit based goals, don’t give yourself a deadline, but rather create a schedule for your new routine.
Then, there is the matter of measurability , so the letter M- how do you measure your success in a achieving your habit. In my opinion, it’s important to look at it carefully and measure what you want to achieve. And my advice is to link it with your desired outcome.
So if you, like me, testing your ability to resist marshmallows, you measure your ability to resist marshmallows, not the side effect, the healthy eating side effect of it, or weight loss. When I’m building a new habit, I’m not interested in performance measures – I don’t care how far or how fast I run (I try not to at least), but I’m focused on getting it done every time I’m supposed to do it. So practice is more important than performance when working on developing a new habit, and we should measure accordingly.
Why You Need To Be Realistic With Your Habits
And there are two more aspects of the SMART framework I have an issue with it’s the A and R – achievable and realistic.
Call me cynical, call me a party pooper but I am not a big fan of being aspirational when setting your habit goals. It’s great to feel inspired and motivated to achieve greater things in life, but in the end the reality of my life is what It is, and no matter how hard I try to refrain from eating sweets by the sheer power of my willpower and my desire to be slim and beautiful, it’s going to collapse on day 3 or 4. That’s what the 30 years of my experience in doing it tells me.
So being realistic and setting habit goals that are achievable again refer to you and your context – your personality, your motivation, your inner world, your physical environment, your social environment and all these things that affect us with all their limitations and constraints.
Anthony: You mentioned two kinds of environment, internal and external. What are these and why is understanding the difference important?
Joanna Jast: The difference isn’t really that important. I just like having things organised in my head. I also like to make that distinction because it makes it easier to you look for solutions later on. And that’s how I look at difficulties in addressing habit problems. It’s again the same thing: the better you understand where your challenges come from, the easier it will be to find a solution to your problem. So we’re back to the importance of correctly diagnosing the problem.
Your external environment is what surrounds you – your physical environment, your house, workplace, the gym you go to, the supermarket where you shop; your financial situation, even the weather.
Your internal environment is the environment you create for yourself – your thoughts, your emotions, your motivation, your values, what happens with your body.
How To Use Cues To Hack Your Habits
Anthony: What are some of the “cues” you talk about? Which is the most important in your opinion?
Joanna Jast: Cues are very important. Cues remind us that we need to do something. They prompt us, trigger us to do what we’re suppose to do. They whole idea of a habit as a repetitive action in response to a cue, really relies on the cue being enough of a trigger.
So if you want to have an effective trigger, effective cue, find one that stands out in your environment. There is little point in putting your cue on a sticky note, and pinning it up on a corkboard full of similar sticky notes. You won’t see it.
I say: choose something that disrupts the fabric of your reality. Just like the sound of a notification ‘time to go for a run’ popping up on your screen. And it disrupts what you’re doing, right? But that may be not enough. If then instead of going for the run, you just snooze or close the notification, it’s just doesn’t work, does it?
So once again, it’s very important that the cue you choose stands out in your environment and is hard to ignore. The best cues are those that have a cost of ignoring involved.
The Cost Of Ignoring Your Cues
I’ll give you an example of what I mean by having the cost of ignoring the cue. So I run three times per week. And my cue is seeing my greasy hair in the mirror in the morning – I run on days when I need to wash my hair. This is how I know it’s my running day.
And the cost of ignoring this cue is that I’d have to go to work with my hair unwashed. That’s unacceptable. Or that I have to jump in the shower and wash my hair. I don’t like washing my hair in the morning. So if I wanted to back off and don’t go for a run – there is a cost involved. And it’s just so much easier to just go for a run.
Anthony: Talk about checklists. What’s the most important thing people need to know about them when building habits?
Joanna Jast: Checklists are fantastic tools. Checklists help saving lives, prevent infections and industrial accidents. Checklists are simple, effective, they lower your cognitive load, they have high reliability. Research shows that if you follow a checklist, you’re 75% less likely to miss any of the steps required – and reduce the likelihood of failure to carry out your desired behaviour from 23% to 6% .
I use checklists particularly early in the process of establishing new habit, when I’m still learning what to do, when, in what sequence. I can’t rely on my memory anymore and I don’t want to add any more cognitive load to it.
The best way of creating a checklist is to:
Focus on critical steps and use as few steps as possible (the more steps you have, the more intimidating the checklist looks and the less likely you are to follow the steps – that’s just human nature
Ideally, you want it to fit on one page (my checklists need to fit on a standard size post-it note – no room for writing novels!)
Make sure the sequence of steps fits the flow of your behaviour (e.g. Don’t turn your fitness tracked on before you put your running shoes on)
Use simple sentences and basic language
Have it visible and ideally where you will be carrying out your new habit. So if you’re trying to create a productivity or a focus routine – have your checklist somewhere in your workspace; highly visible to you of course. If you have a checklist for working out – keep it either with your workout gear, on your phone if you use your phone for tracking your workouts, or maybe even in the pocket of your running jacket.
How To Make Your Habits Perpetuate Themselves
Anthony: What is a habit loop?
Habit loop is the secret formula for creating and remodelling habits. It’s a three-element self-perpetuating cycle that is behind any automatic behaviour. It consists of three key elements:
Cue (also called reminder or trigger) – which we’ve just talked about
Routine (sometimes called Behaviour, Action)
Reward
Every habit rests on these three pillars: Cue that prompts you to carry out the Behaviour, which is then reinforced by the Reward. The more of those habit cycles you go through, the more often the behaviour gets reinforced, the stronger the habit is ingrained in your brain, and the stronger the neural pathway that is created in your brain.
What To Do If You Fall Off The Wagon
Anthony: What should someone do if they miss a day on their habits? How about a week? A month? A year? Is there a difference when it comes to getting back on the wagon?
Joanna Jast: There are habit building strategies that rely on performing your action every day – for example ‘don’t break the chain’ but actually, research shows that missing on a day in your habit routine does not make a difference to our habit formation process, but psychologically it may.
I wouldn’t worry too much about missing a day. I do it sometimes, not very often and only for very good reasons. Because life does get in the way of best-laid plans, so I just accept that. Sometimes you will be just too busy or too tired, or maybe sick, or you may have something super-important to do. Don’t beat yourself up about not ‘turning up’ one day. But get back on track as soon as possible. Don’t let the not turning up become a pattern, because this is when it becomes a problem.
When it becomes a pattern? You may have your own individual ‘definition’ of pattern, for me it goes like that: once can happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three is a pattern.
The more days you miss, the harder it will be to return to your routine.
If you notice that you miss your routine are more and more often, you need to look at your system again. Because it means your system is not working as well as it could or should.
And for me, it’s going back to the beginning – maybe not necessarily to the desired outcome, but at least going over all those limitations and constraints that come from within me, or from my environment. Because it my system is not delivering as well as it used to, it means that something has changed.
And sometimes those changes are temporary. For example you are on holidays and working away and you’re struggling to keep your exercise routine up because your environment is different. And sometimes the change may be more permanent. For example if you just had a baby your productivity or sleep routine may be affected in a way you’ve never experienced before.
Things like that will happen, because that’s part of life. For me, it’s always about being mindful that your habit system will also be affected. So it is crucial that you recognise when it happens and adjust your system to cater for your changed needs, or changed life circumstances.
The key thing is to realise when a temporary change has become more permanent, and make appropriate adjustments in your system. Or redesign it completely.
Why Your Willpower Resources Are Limited
Anthony: You talk about how willpower needs to replenish itself. What’s this all about?
Joanna Jast: This is about the concept of willpower or ego depletion – the theory that the amount if willpower we have is limited. We have like a willpower tank, where only so much willpower can be stored. And every time you use some of that willpower from your tank, there is less left for later. The amount of willpower will not increase, until you are able to replenish it. And that goes back to the studies done by Roy Baumeister, who is a social psychologist and one of the key researches in the field of self-control and willpower.
However, newer research challenges this belief about willpower depletion, suggesting that we have as much willpower as we perceive it. So again, it’s all in the mind.
Personally, it’s not a scientific argument, I know, but personally I experience those willpower outages quite often, and I’m aware of typical situations that are likely to cause it.
I’m also very conscious that I don’t have much willpower and need to be careful in how I use it. I make sure that I’m able to recover safely before I make any silly decision when my willpower tank is on zero.
What helps with the process of replenishing willpower is rest, and sadly, something sugary, or at least of a sweet taste in your mouth.
How To Experience A Miracle Every Morning
Anthony: What is scribing?
Joanna Jast: Scribing is one of life SAVERs, as Hal Elrod calls them. One of the key elements of the morning routine he recommends in his bestselling book the Miracle Morning. (Silence, Affirmations, Visualisation, Scribing, reading, Exercise)
In a nutshell scribing is about taking a minute out of your time, in the morning, to write down what you’re grateful for, what you’re proud of, and the results you’re committed to creating for that day. Doing so, you put yourself in an empowered, inspired, and confident state of mind.
It’s scribing is journaling that encompasses gratitude – one of the key factors in creating the sense of happiness and fulfilment in life, positive affirmations, stock-taking, reminding yourself of your goals.
It’s an excellent to start your day.
One Of The Most Powerful Principles You Can Ever Live By
Anthony: You have a bonus section in the book. What habits did you use to get in contact with all those high-profile authors and convince them to contribute to the book?
Joanna Jast: It’s not really about me or my habits. The people who contributed to my book, Steve SJ Scott, Hal Elrod, Stephen Guise and Martin Meadows – they are amazing people, who are very generous, humble, and have fantastic knowledge and experience to share and they desire to use it to help other people. And that’s really what it is about – collaborating in helping people become happier, live more fulfilling lives.
But from the practical point of view, what helped me in reaching out to them, it’s not a habit, but more a principle I live by – it’s about building relationships with people; it takes time and you need to invest upfront.
Anthony: What’s coming up next for you and where can people get in touch?
Joanna Jast: At the moment I’m very excited with the launch of my new book: Hack Your Habits. 9-steps to finally break bad habits and start thriving. I’ve been also getting a lot of emails and messages form people asking me to help them transform their habits, speed up the learning and adaptation curve. I’m not providing individual support at the moment, but I’ve been thinking about it. So watch this space.
Early next year, my previous book Laser-Sharp Focus will be published as an audiobook and I’m really excited about it, too. I’m also thinking about translating the into other languages, as people have been asking me about it.
For now, if you want to stay in touch – visit my website www.shapeshiftersclub.com and subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date and get some insider tips on habit hacking, focus sharpening and faster learning. You can also try to catch me on Twitter and on Quora – which is the only site I allow myself to browse when procrastinating.
Chinese poems thrill poetry fans around the world. They’ve been translated into umpteen languages and create wonderful images in the mind.
Here’s something even cooler:
As a student of the Magnetic Memory Method, it’s easy to encounter a new Chinese poem just once and memorize it with a high level of recall.
We’re talking 92-95% accuracy after 24 hours, with 98-100% accuracy thereafter using MMM Recall Rehearsal.
And the best part is:
Each Poem Is Easier To Memorize Than The Last!
So by now you’re probably asking …
How does the Magnetic Memory Method work for memorizing Chinese poems? And how can I do it too?
I’m glad you asked because the steps are clear, crisp, clever and concise.
1. Get some Chinese poems (Duh!)
In this regard, I’m the luckiest man on the planet. I’m married to a woman who knows a bunch of Chinese poems by heart.
But even if you don’t have a Chinese speaker in your life, it’s easy to find someone using a learn languages online service.
The important thing is to choose poems that are short, sweet and simple. This helps reduce the cognitive overload at the beginning.
Songs work too. Like this one:
2. Have More Than One Memory Palace On Hand
It’s no secret that I teach the Memory Palace technique as a skill of multiples. One is the most dangerous number when it comes to memory, so make sure that:
1) You always have more than one Memory Palace ready to go.
With these two abilities, you can either use a pre-existing Memory Palace or just whip one up on the spot.
In this case, each of the Chinese poems I’ve learned are only four lines each. I used a new Memory Palace for each.
I created the first two Memory Palaces on the fly, one in a hotel room, the other in an AirBnB. The third was in my current kitchen, a Memory Palace I’ve been using and reusing for Chinese since I started learning the language.
3. Create Your Associative-Imagery Word For Word, Line By Line
Nothing creates more fun than creating associations that let you recall information like the lines of Chinese poems.
I like to get a sense for the word and let my mind do the work without force. Daily meditation helps because I’m relaxed, but I also tell April to give me a second when she feeds me the lines. In that second, I’m breathing and accessing the deepest reservoirs of relaxation I’ve cultivated over the years.
I also do a quick body scan and squeeze all my major muscles. This calms and centers me. My ego gets out of the way and all forms of resistance slip away.
Please don’t laugh at the meditation and relaxation. They are key to the success of most memorizers and memory competitions incorporate a version of it into the events.
The “Buttock Squeeze” Memory Technique You Should Not Dismiss
I’ll never forget the Amazon reviewer who dismissed one of my books because I talk about relaxation and memory – including squeezing your buttocks. It was a seriously strange review.
But here’s the thing:
If taking a second to clear the mind and body good enough for memory competitors who demonstrate intense memory feats like memorizing a deck of cards in under 20 seconds, it’s good enough for my simple goal of memorizing some Chinese poems.
Don’t discount the power of relaxation in your memory practice. It makes a huge difference.
And yes, squeezing each muscle in your body – including your rear end – helps. Try it before you knock it.
4. Keep Your Mindset Intact
As April feeds me the lines, I see Han Solo, Dee Snider and Shania Twain interacting in uncouth ways with Horton from the Dr. Suess book. I see my friend Shayne strangling Jar Jar Binks and Bruce Lee fighting a Chia pet. And that’s just for starters.
Are all these images a lot to juggle?
Not really. I do it all the time, as you can see on my Basic Chinese Phrases and Mandarin Mnemonics playlist:
And the truth is … I don’t even really see the images. It’s somewhere between sight and sense using all the Magnetic Modes.
I made this infographic to help explain what I mean:
In such, the Magnetic Modes are entities of thought that have specific locations in a Memory Palace. Like Carl Jung dumping sand on my mom’s old friend Sandy. Where else could that be taking place except over the garbage can in the kitchen?
That where else question is one of the most powerful tools in mnemonics you’ll ever use.
But even if this jumble of characters and actions were challenging to keep moving in the air, it’s all a question of mindset.
Think of it this way: If the people who built rollercoasters said, “Woah, that’s WAY to much track to erect in the sky,” there would be no amusement parks.
Same thing with using a Memory Palace. If you tell yourself it’s too much to handle, it will be. But if you take it just one Memory Palace Station and one word at a time, you’ll have no problem memorizing Chinese poems.
5. Make Sure The Images Are Strong Enough
When memorizing Chinese poems in a hurry, it’s tempting to use the first images that come to mind. But that’s not always a good policy.
For example, in one line I saw a guy I used to know named Dan doing …
… something.
The reason I couldn’t see what that something was?
Because the image wasn’t strong enough. I had to crank up the volume on whatever forgettable image I’d seen before and see him stomping on a record from The Who with Roger Daltrey and crew screaming in protest.
Yes, screaming. It’s the exaggeration that makes it more memorable. Plus, Dan’s a big music fan, which makes the image incongruous. Because he would never actually destroy music, the image of him harming an album is that much more memorable.
6. Rehearse According To A Plan
Sometimes I can get away with just encoding the Chinese words and leaving it at that. But usually not and it’s stupid to take the risk.
Instead, I rehearse the words of the poems according to a plan. In the Magnetic Memory Method, it’s called Recall Rehearsal.
5) My stubborn insistence on using internal repetition cues rather than SRS to learn.*
* The exception is that, in the spirit of Ebbinghaus, I sometimes complete n=1 experiments with various software as part of my memory research. So far, none compare to the power and the glory of memory techniques – at least not for me.
7. Speak And Write The Chinese Poems
Although I rehearse the Chinese poems quietly several times, nothing beats reciting them. Getting them out through the mouth creates muscle memory and helps with general pronunciation practice.
Likewise, writing puts the words into the muscles of the hands, arms and eyes as you see the words. Together, you are giving your memory the highest possible chance to succeed.
8. Memorize More
I also memorized Chinese phrases, individual words, some numbers and an English poem during the same period. This extra activity is not necessary, but I like to do it.
Why?
Because it’s like being a chef. Normally, I’m an expert with cooking eggs, but to get better at cooking eggs, I also need to make the occasional soup or steak or some other complimentary dish. Variety enriches and enlivens the core skills.
And that’s important for all of us as we live our lives using memory techniques. Memory improvement is the most critical activity in the world, especially now that we’re relegating so much of our memory needs to machines.
Be it math, Chinese poems or some other information that will make a difference in your life, following steps like the ones I outlined above will keep you in good stead.
Memory improvement is fun, easy and you can use it to recite Chinese poems – or anything you like – at any time.
But for some reason, when times get tough, without knowing a thing about the Prime Ministers of Canada, people around the world throw up their hands and say, “It’s time to head to the Great White North.”
Here’s the thing:
You’ll find some beautiful terrain and plenty of peace-loving citizens. But as a nation, we do not lack our own host of colorful characters.
So if you’re coming over for a permanent BBQ in response to US election results or some dictator who’s been giving you the squeeze, it’s time to learn how to memorize the Prime Ministers of Canada. It’s important to know what you’re getting into, after all.
Beginner’s Guide To Memorizing Any List
The first thing to understand when memorizing the names of the Canadian Prime Ministers is that you’re dealing with a list. We’re talking about discrete units of information. Like, Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-1891).
The best way to rapidly memorize any list is to create a Memory Palace.
All Memory Palace creation takes is a simple drawing and a list of your Magnetic Stations charted out in a strategic way. Creating an effective Memory Palace reduces your cognitive load to a bare minimum. That reduction forms a huge part of the secret behind how memory techniques like a Memory Palace work:
You use a location you already know to place information you’ll Magnetically encode with imagery you already know onto a station so you can retrieve and decode what you want to know later.
Curious about correct Memory Palace creation? Here’s a Memory Palace walkthrough based on a Memory Palace submitted by a Magnetic Memory Method student:
A Small Set Of Super Important Information
In this case, we have just 23 names for the Prime Ministers of Canada. When it comes to memorizing them, you have options.
1. You can create one Memory Palace with 23 Magnetic Stations exclusively for remembering them.
2. You can create two Memory Palaces with 12 Magnetic Stations each.
In either case, you ‘ll ideally use Memory Palaces with more Magnetic Stations than you need so that you can use more than one station per name if needed.
Or, if you’re already experienced with memory techniques, you can experiment with the Magnetic Memory Method “passing the baton” technique, which allows you to memorize more than one name per station. That’s for advanced memorizers, however, and even then, it’s good once in awhile to stick with the basics.
And that’s ultimately what I recommend so that you can add the dates of the Prime Ministers later using the Magnetic Chaining memory technique.
The Art Of Embarrassing Politicians
Let’s assume you’ve got a Memory Palace with a bit more than 23 Magnetic Stations to give you wiggle room.
Next, you need your list of information. The Wikipedia Prime Ministers of Canada page is as good as any. Whip that little darling open and look at the first name.
The trick to memorizing anything is association, also called encoding. It’s easy, fun and with a bit of practice using special exercises I’ve created for you, unbelievably fast.
John A. Macdonald, for example, brings to mind a picture of my friend and fellow mnemonist, John McPhedrine to mind. You’ve heard him on the show talking about memorizing German and music before.
I see John at the first station of the Memory Palace I’ve created with a giant letter ‘A’ in his hands. He’s using this to smash my MACbook Pro, which is playing a video of Donald Trump singing “Old Macdonald Had A Farm.”
Plus, as an advanced memorizer, I’ve got Trump’s hair as the tail of a dog swatting at a bat.
Why?
Because that additional imagery helps me remember the dates of this Canadian Prime Minister.
How does that work? It sounds complex, but it’s actually simple:
Using a special memory technique for memorizing numbers, 15 is “tail” and 91 is “bat.” I’ve got an entire course in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass about all the ways you can remember numbers, or you can just check out this post on the Major Method. It’s a great way to instantly memorize any number, and not just short ones like historical dates.
The Prime Minister Who Built Walls You Can Be Proud Of
Once, while touring Fort Henry as prime minister, he asked the soldier accompanying him if he knew the thickness of the wall beside them. The embarrassed escort confessed that he didn’t and Mackenzie replied, “I do. It is five feet, ten inches. I know, because I built it myself!”
Little anecdotes like this can be fun to remember when memorizing a name. Plus, it’s interesting that Mackenzie was three times offered knighthood, but refused each time.
To encode all of this into memory, it’s a simple matter of seeing Alex from A Clockwork Orange taking … certain liberties with a former high school girlfriend of mine by the last name of Mackenzie against a section of the Berlin Wall now fixed on station two of my Prime Ministers of Canada Memory Palace. (Phew … that was a mouthful.)
But the Mackenzie I used to kiss so gently in high school fights back by trying to knight him with a giant camera that he beats away with a pamphlet printout of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Why a camera and this bizarre retaliation with an ancient allegory? You’ve probably already guessed it by now. It’s our old friend the Major Method, which tells me that “cam” decodes to 73 and “cave” to 78, the same years Alexander Mackenzie served as one of the Prime Ministers of Canada.
Isn’t That Just Too Simple?
It really is, and that fun simplicity explains why so many people who get into memory techniques email and ask me …
Isn’t this … cheating?
Absolutely not. And here’s why:
It’s one thing to create the Memory Palaces and have fun dreaming up weird images and vignettes.
Long Term Memory Requires Recall Rehearsal
But you’ve also got to replay these stories and decode them in your mind over time. Skip this step and the information might still get into long term memory, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Luckily, setting up a Magnetic Memory Method Recall Rehearsal routine is easy. Just go over the information you’ve memorized about 5 times before the day is through. Make one of those times right before bed to help consolidation.
But here’s a warning:
Some recent research evidence suggests that older people don’t get the same memory consolidation benefits as younger people do. It’s good to keep that evidence in mind, but also be your own scientist. As you can see in this video on making boring information more interesting, I got away with a high recall rate after far fewer Recall Rehearsal sessions. But I would have done better if I’d repeated the poem more often.
The Rule Of Five
That’s what World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien calls it and The Rule Of Five holds great power.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or wondering where you’re going to find the time, don’t stress it. The important thing is just to get started. Memory techniques are a skill you’ll want to use for life and the Prime Ministers of Canada is just the beginning.
I hope you’ve seen how you can not only memorize a long list of names, but also add historical dates and facts. When I look at station two of my Memory Palace of Canadian Prime Ministers, it’s easy to see a movie character and person from my past interacting with a few select symbols that help recall an interesting scenario and numbers.
Wrapping It All Up With A Magnetic Little Bow
Here’s a summary of all you have to do to experience great success:
1. Create a Memory Palace for the Prime Ministers of Canada.
Remember to pad out your Memory Palace so that you have a few extra stations in case you need them.
2. Have the names prepared.
You can do it directly from a Wikipedia page, but you’re better off printing the list out and encoding the names to your Magnetic Stations somewhere you won’t be bothered by notifications.
Being tempted to skip around on your browser isn’t helpful either. Like I said last time about boring information … Instead of taking it in small doses, make it exciting for yourself. It’s not that hard!
3. Practice Recall Rehearsal diligently.
The Rule of Five is great, but take it on principle, not as dogma. Always test and never hope that five repetitions is enough. It might become more than necessary once you get good with mnemonics, but it will never be too much. Every time you enter a Memory Palace and practice the beautiful art of memory, you get better and better with the best asset you’ve got:
The ability to learn, remember and recall anything.
Studying about boring topics you don’t give a hoot about sucks, right?
Especially when you’re in a rush.
Especially when all you want is the grade, the certification, the knowledge.
Well, I can’t make any promises, but there might be a way to help make any topic much more interesting to you. At the very least, we can remove the sting of boredom. At best, we can make any topic we want 100% Magnetic.
1. Warning Signs That Your Mindset Is Off
I know, I know. You’re tired of hearing about mindset.
But let’s face it. We have minds. Every day we wake up with more or less the same world outside the window. Just like we have to make our beds so that the sheets won’t be sprawled all over the place, we have to set up our minds for success.
But that’s the problem, isn’t it?
Lots of people are happy to leave their beds messy all day long and then crawl into the unkempt mess at night. It’s cold because the mattress has been exposed and probably a bunch of insects have settled into the dune-like patterns. Sure, you might fall asleep okay, but there’s nothing like slipping into a made bed.
You know it’s true.
It’s The Same Thing With Your Mind!
Sure thing, you can get through life without setting up your mind for success, but it will be cold and exposed to the elements. The bugs will crawl in and lay their eggs, and you’ll never get the warmth you deserve.
But take just a few moments to tidy up and you’ll reduce the suffering that comes from studying things you don’t like.
Because that’s just the thing: A lack of mindset is probably the thing that got you into a position where you’re studying things you’re not passionate about in the first place. You’re probably studying material that produces no great excitement because you’re chasing after hopes and beliefs and dreams and wishes – not what you really want.
How To Set A Powerful Mindset For Learning
Whether you’re trapped or not, the process works the same. The best way to get your mindset in order is to set it each and every morning. As I talked about in the Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, having morning rituals is a killer way to conquer the day.
When it comes to creating a mindset for making the material you’re studying vibrant and exciting, all you have to do is write down in a journal how exciting it is to be studying and how grateful you are to have the opportunity.
And it’s true: Not everyone has the learning opportunities you do. A massive percentage of people in the world don’t have access to the Internet, schools, books or anything even remotely related to helping them develop their knowledge.
But you …
You’ve Got Everything You Need
So take a moment every day to recognize what an amazing opportunity you have. If that isn’t a recipe for injecting excitement into a boring topic … I don’t know what is.
If all else fails, here’s what to do if you or someone you love is considering not completing their high school diploma. They may have already left school, but it’s not too late to go back. I dropped out of high school myself for awhile, but I’m so glad I returned.
Best decision of my life.
2. Be An Info-Completionist
Okay, so now that you’re plump with self-hypnosis induced excitement for the privilege of study, you still have to sit down and learn the stuff.
The question is … How?
A lot of people ask me how I manage to read so much, and the answer is simple:
Get a book. Find a place to sit. Read the book. Repeat until you’re done.
I don’t say that to be flippant, but it’s the truth. If you’re trying to read in a place filled with distractions or on a device that encourages you to skip from tab to tab and answer notifications …
Stop Trying To Read Like That!
Seriously. It’s not a recipe for success.
Plus, you want to read in a way that helps you isolate the information you want to memorize. I have two posts with podcasts and videos that show you how to realistically memorize a textbook. Just check out the video for now:
True, my approach to realistically memorizing textbooks involves a bit of setup, but people who give it a try usually find that the process makes reading and remembering the key points of even the most difficult books much easier.
The best part:
By having a dedicated strategy for reading books, you make it a lot more fun. Like having a mindset, having a process you can follow without having to think about it makes everything more fun and interesting. Having operating principles and guidelines reduces cognitive load, and like Tony Buzan said when I studied with him, the rules set you free.
3. Look For The Parts That Do Interest You
One thing that you’ll learn from my training on (reasonable) textbook memorization is how to skip the parts that don’t interest you.
No, you can’t always do this. There are times when you have to slog through boring stuff you don’t care about.
But here’s the thing: by knowing what you do care about, you get more interested in things that connect with it. It happens automatically.
And when interest doesn’t spontaneously erupt, you at least get a clearer picture of why those other elements are necessary. The more you know about a topic changes the nature of what you don’t know. It makes it more attractive, more Magnetic.
And that which becomes more Magnetic is easier to attach to memory because you’re simply more interested in it.
4. Invite Information Into Your Memory
In other words, use memory techniques.
You knew this was coming, didn’t you?
Let’s face it: The best way to make dry and boring information more interesting is to make it part of your memory improvement lifestyle. That means organizing the information so that you can rapidly absorb it into a Memory Palace.
To do that, you get to invite the information into a place you’ve created in your mind. I don’t want to sound woo-woo, but there’s something ritualistic about this. It’s like anointing information, blessing it or touching its shoulder with the edge of your sword as if you were knighting it.
Once anointed, you start looking at the information through mnemonic eyes. You’re looking for how you can attach it to associative-imagery and place these images on your Memory Palace stations. You’re already getting excited about revisiting your Magnetic Stations and decoding the imagery to ease it into long term memory.
And before you know it … The information isn’t boring any more.
Far from it! That information has become …
The Most Interesting Information In The World!
This is without a doubt the finest thing you can do for the life of your memory and overall intelligence. When you privilege information and stop demonizing it by framing it in negative ways, it will want to enter your mind.
Even better: If you’ve invited the information in just the right way, it will want to stay.
5. Bore Others To Death With Your Boring Topic
Just kidding.
By the time you’ve made the information interesting to yourself, you’ll be excited to talk about it and to do that, you should have something already in place:
Community.
Remember how I told you should be grateful for having the opportunity to learn in the first place? And how you can use your gratitude as a tool for generating excitement in even the most boring topic?
Well, you also have the Internet and thousands of groups people have created for discussing topics that they either find really exciting, challenging or want to kvetch about. You can find these groups meeting on forums, on Facebook, G+ or just shooting the breeze in YouTube comments. Maybe there will be some interesting discussion on this video I put together to accompany this post, for example:
Let’s say you’re studying cognitive therapy, something I’ve recently gotten interested in studying.
The first thing is to show some gratitude for having the time and opportunity even to do so. Write that down in your daily gratitude journal.
Don’t overwhelm yourself with this. Just pick one or two that looks like it has enough members for finding a decent amount of discussion in process.
Introduce yourself once you’ve been admitted. Tell them a bit about who you are and why you’re interested in the topic. Make friends with the group admins and shoot them a note to thank them for taking time to put the group together. Probably no one else is doing that so you’ll be on their radar and recognize your name later.
Why would that matter?
Easy. Because when you get bored or stuck somewhere in your reading, you have a place to go and post where at least a few people are going to know your name.
Knowing that you have a place to go and share ideas in advance is a great way of making sure a topic never becomes boring to you.
Of course, the dark side of this technique is that you’ll get swept away doing a thousand other things online, but we all need to learn how to balance these things. I’m writing this post now in a library where getting online is too much of a pain – deliberately so that I have no distractions.
Because here’s the core of the matter:
If You Really Want To Get Ahead, You Will Find A Way
And with that monster of a headline, we’ve circled back to mindset, something you can get started crafting or refining right now.
Exciting, isn’t it?
Now get out there and tackle some uninteresting information you using these tools. I dare you to be bored!
Want to improve your ability to use memory techniques almost overnight? I promise it’s super-easy. All you need is the willingness to support your nearest art gallery and your awareness of the following 17 reasons going to an art gallery is good for your memory.
1. Art Inspires Your Visual Imagination
When you’re using memory techniques, you draw upon visual imagination. Even if you’re only using words in your mind when developing mnemonics, you’re using visual words.
The more visual iconography you’ve seen in your life, the more potency the visual words you use will hold. Exposure equals experience. Experience leads to substance. When you use the words “run,” “hit” or any other verb, the more art you’ve seen, the great depth of meaning these words will have.
2. Art Depicts Words Used In Visual Ways
If you’ve been to an art gallery lately, you’ve undoubtedly seen how modern artists use words. Pop artists use comic strips. Futurists made a big deal out of typefaces. You don’t even have to enter an art gallery to see words used in graffiti on nearly every street in your city.
Looking at art and paying attention to how artists use words is especially great for inspiring how you can use your visual imagination to memorize foreign language vocabulary and phrases. Next time you’re in an art gallery, pay particular attention to how words appear in the exhibits.
3. Art Helps You Make Mental Connections Between Space And Material Objects
Looking at art is never just about “looking.” As your eyes meet the graphic displays, ideas emerge. In fact, “art” happens the moment that you start thinking about what you’re looking at or noticing your emotional responses.
You can become conscious of what you’re thinking and feeling and use your awareness to become more visual. Reflect on how the visual experience has triggered your thoughts and responses.
Also, journal what you’ve thought while at the gallery. By writing down your responses, you access your memory. Accessing your memory exercises your mind, which helps keep it fit.
4. Visiting Art Galleries Makes You Aware Of World Geography
It’s not just that art often depicts different parts of the world. Art galleries also exhibit art by international artists.
Pay attention to the international names and locations of where the art originates. This will exercise your geographical imagination and give you more facts to remember. It’s also great memory exercise to remember the names of the artists you see and include their home countries.
For bonus points, you can also use the Major Method to add the dates of their lives and when they created the pieces you’re admiring. The more experienced you become with memory techniques, the more information you can memorize at a single go.
Plus, the location of the art itself within the gallery amounts to a Memory Palace station. Using the location gives you great practice at using your spatial memory in addition to all the other tools mnemonics draw upon, such as association, semantic memory, episodic memory and the like.
5. Art Galleries Are Depositories Of History
Yes, you can memorize the raw data of dates when going to an art gallery. But you also expose your memory to information about historical periods.
Artists love to reference other eras and historical events. Some artists have even made careers out of referencing history. Fluency in art equals fluency in history, which is always good for your memory.
6. Art Galleries Exercise Your Ability To Create Meaning
Let’s face it: A lot of art doesn’t make much sense.
At least, that’s until you give it some thought and learn about how to interpret art. Believe me. Interpretation matters.
After all, a huge part of art interpretation is creating meaning. To have created meaning, you have to remember the meaning you created. Ergo, going to art galleries and interpreting what you see is good for your memory.
And if you’re practicing memory techniques, handling abstract ideas your mind is perfect for practicing the art of remembering challenging and abstract ideas. Art history is loaded with them.
7. Art Galleries Give You The Experience Of Puzzlement
Being puzzled by something is different than having to create meaning. To be puzzled, after all, you must have already understood something. Two (or more) things are separated and you know they go together …
You just have to figure out how. Visiting art galleries gives you that experience and to fit the pieces together, you need to hold them in memory.
The benefits of being puzzled are massive because it always exercises your memory as you work things out. Even if you give up before you’re satisfied, your memory abilities will have grown.
8. Art Galleries Create Enigmas That Carry On Throughout Life
Looking at art not only forces you to create meaning and solve puzzles. It also creates unsolvable mysteries that you will carry throughout your life.
Take “The Persistence of Meaning” by Salvador Dali. What exactly does it mean? No matter how many times you see this painting, it still mystifies. The enigma of surrealism persists precisely because it resists meaning.
And yet, we can continuously connect to the enigma and try puzzling out new meanings even if we know we’ll never come to a conclusion. In Critical Theory, this is called “indeterminacy” and it is a powerful tool in art, cinema, theatre and literature.
Try This Simple Memory Exercise
For a cool memory exercise, take a painting like “The Persistence of Meaning” and try to remember the first time you saw it.
Even if you’re wrong, right down your earliest memory. For me, my earliest memory is in Collier’s Encyclopedia. I believe it was in black and white.
My next memory is seeing it in a book in high school. After that, I remember buying an art book, cutting it out and hanging it on my wall.
Although I surely saw it countless times after that, my next memory is seeing the painting itself in Manhattan.
My most recent memory is in seeing watch sculptures in Zürich-based on the melting timepiece in the painting. And that triggers my memory of hearing Alejandro Jodorowsky tell me about the time he met Dali as a boy and the story of finding a watch in the desert.
You don’t have to use “The Persistence of Time” when you do the exercise, but give it a try. List as many exposures to the artwork as you can and then free associate. You’ll find that your memory expands the more you use it, and all the more so as you engage in memory games of this sort.
9. Looking At Art In Galleries Creates Conflicting Opinions
Even if you go to art galleries alone, you’ll often find yourself in disagreement. Many artists go out of the way to polarize audiences, and using tools like “indeterminacy,” they often pull your heartstrings in opposing directions.
Conflicts like these are perfect for memory because you’ll remember how you felt looking at the painting at a deeper level. You’ll have more interesting inner dialogs which also encodes longer term memories.
If you want to help yourself remember more, keep a journal of the conflicting opinions you experience while looking at art just before you sleep after visiting a gallery. The reason to do this before you go to sleep is that memories consolidate during the night. Some studies have shown that the closer to sleep that you review information, the more likely your brain is to consolidate it into long term memory.
10. Art Gallery Gift Shops Have Memory-Inducing Books
After you’ve looked at the art in the gallery, you wind up seeing a lot of it over again in the bookstore.
Don’t get annoyed at the upselling. It’s good for your memory.
Plus, there are often cool books you can buy and read to learn more about the art you’ve encountered. Interview books with the artists themselves appeal because you find out more about their personal stories, theories and opinions at the same time. It’s a very cool way to make sometimes difficult information more concrete.
One of the reasons interviews with artists makes the ideas easier to remember is because you get stories and examples, but also the questions of the interviewers. Interviewers bring particular perspectives. If you pay attention to them and absorb their character, their attitudes instantly make the ideas under discussion more memorable.
11. Art Galleries Make You Look At The Outside World Differently
Often artists use everyday objects within the art gallery to change our perspective of the outside world. But when you deliberately remember more of what you’ve seen inside the gallery, you will find that you also see the outside world differently.
For example, I just saw “Michael Jackson and Bubbles” by Jeff Koons for the first time in Oslo. You often read about the effect that it has in art criticism, but it’s not until you’ve seen it with your own eyes that the kitschy art in stories takes on the intended effect.
12. Visiting Art Galleries Inspires New Ideas
Art galleries are idea-generating machines. After all, every piece of art started with an idea – even if it was just the idea to throw paint at the wall.
The more ideas you encounter and the more you play with those ideas in your mind, the more likely you are to come up with ideas of your own.
Plus, you might walk away with the idea of actually creating some art. If you do follow through, that might be the best idea of all. No matter what happens to the art you create, you learn so much just by taking action.
13. Visiting Art Galleries Gives You More To Talk About
Be honest: You wish you were a more interesting person.
I know I do, and the secret is in always feeding yourself new and exciting things to discuss.
“Hey, did you see the new exhibit at our local gallery?” is a powerful conversation starter, for example. Plus, you’ll be supporting art in your community by inspiring others to see art and helping them experience a better memory in the process.
14. You Can Make A Memory Palace From Each Art Gallery You Visit
Art galleries don’t always make the best Memory Palaces, but you can still use them for the exercise.
Plus, as I mentioned, each piece of art automatically provides its own station.
As with historical sites you encounter while on vacation, I recommend that you make your art gallery Memory Palaces as simple as possible. Use the entrance, one or two simple rooms and the exit only.
You don’t want to overwhelm yourself with multiple floors, stairways and those weird nooks and crannies. Unless they’re crucial to your success, skip the complicated parts of art galleries and focus on the parts that are dead simple to remember.
15. You Can Take A Guided Tour And Develop Your Concentration
All of us struggle with not having enough FOCUS. So if the art gallery you visit offers a guided tour – take it.
One of the best ways to extend your concentration is to focus on lectures filled with data. I like to repeat the information I’m hearing in my own voice to help extend my focus.
It’s perfectly fine if your attention wanders. Just gently bring it back and enjoy how with practice you can extend the amount of time you hold focus during the tours you take.
For another kind of memory exercise, you can record the audio presentation and later use the How To Memorize A Textbook training to get the key points rapidly into long-term memory.
You might even want to give tours or your own by taking friends to see the art gallery later. You can practice your memory in a substantial way by telling others what you’ve learned and sharing your conflicting opinions.
Listening to their responses is another great way of practicing focus and developing your memory. You cannot lose by taking and giving art gallery tours.
16. You Might Even Meet Artists
During a recent art gallery visit in Helsinki, I met an interesting landscape artist. She gave me a personal tour of her works in the gallery, explaining her thoughts about color and telling me where exactly she was when creating the art.
Not only did this make the visit to the gallery more memorable to me, but I had the chance to ask her about her own memory. She said that she can paint from memory, but prefers to compose in the environment so that she can respond to the present moment.
Fascinating ideas like these make living a life devoted to memory even more interesting.
17. You Can Experience Fear In Art Galleries And Still Be Safe
At the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, I almost crapped my pants when I saw Zhou Tao’s “”Chicken speak to duck, pig speak to dog.”
It’s a video installation with a weird dude yelling and squealing while up in a tree.
I had a hard time figuring out what it was all about until I read the title and description, but the combination of emotion, enigma and solving the riddle by reading the information consolidated the experience in memory.
Even better, I’m practicing what I preach right now by writing about the experience as my last job before going to bed, all of which will help consolidate the memory of this experience.
For Memory’s Sake, Visit An Art Gallery Soon
There are loads more reasons why going to art galleries can improve your memory. You see so much art in so many different mediums that it gives you an incredible amount of exposure to vibrant information that you’ll want to remember.
Are some of the pieces you’ll see meaningless fluff?
Perhaps.
But it’s all part of experiencing the world of art and expanding as a visual person.
And the more visual you become, the easier it is to use memory techniques.
Give yourself the gift of visual exposure and plan to visit an art gallery today.
Seriously. In most cities, it doesn’t have to cost a dime. Usually, art galleries open their doors once a week for free.
Plus, your city might have local galleries featuring independent artists. Restaurants often feature works by local artists. You can even arrange viewings of private collections in the homes of collectors with a simple Google search.
Trust me. It’s worth it and will make your life more memorable.
Memory techniques work by dressing up information in costumes. Sound weird or confusing? No worries: One of the best ways to understand this concept is by having a system for remembering cards.
Consider the following when it comes to using memory techniques in your quest for total memory improvement:
Dressing information in costumes is at least 90% of what’s going on when you develop a system for remembering cards (or any information).
Don’t get caught up in the terminology, however. That risks missing the math, because …
The other 10% of memory success belongs to the Memory Palace and how you use it to store and practice recalling information. Since you need a means that will help you get good at remembering numbers, check out this video:
Since it’s in the storage and recollection practice that helps you guide the information on playing cards into long-term memory, you’ll want to know how to memorize numbers with letters to make the process fast and easy.
When you know how to “hack” your memory, you know that it’s actually in that 10% of the process where most of the memory magic happens. It’s in the process that you’re harnessing the power of the primacy effect and the recency affect. But the memory magic happens only …
If You’ve Got The Skills Needed For The 90% Under Control
And if you want to get that 90% humming along for yourself in record time, then there is one crazy memory exercise you can do that will completely train your brain so that your memory operates at a shockingly high level.
Sounds Stupid, But Memorizing Playing Cards Is Still The Best Memory Exercise Ever
I know, I know. Unless you’re a magician or memory athlete, memorizing a deck of cards does sound like a meaningless skill.
Yet, I can tell you with absolute certainty that all of my success with memory comes from, is maintained and continually improved by this seemingly stupid stunt.
And 90% of it involves little more than dressing up each card in a costume using the Major Method.
And to convince you that you should have a system for remembering cards, I’m going to show, you 13 reasons why you should memorize playing cards as part of your memory practice.
1. You Experience Overall Memory Improvement
Obviously, memorizing playing cards improves your overall memory. How could such intense memory practice not improve your memory abilities?
After all, the best way to improve your memory is to use it. I normally say that you should always practice your memory by using it to remember information you can use to improve your life in a substantial way, but card memorization is the one exception.
And since there is ALWAYS an exception to every rule, this one is worth your close attention.
The rest of the points I’m about to share explain in detail why card memory is so powerful even if it amounts to memorizing information you cannot and will not use in any immediately practical situation (outside of card magic).
2. Having A System For Remembering Cards Improves Your Memory For Numbers
Not only that, but you wind up with a neat way of remembering a lot of different kinds of numbers. So long as you don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with excitement by your super memory powers (like I sometimes do), you’ll have the ability to memorize any number after picking up this simple memory technique.
3. You’ll Get Good At Memorizing Long Lists
After all, what is a deck of cards other than a list of job positions in a unique order? Learn to remember the order of 52 cards and you’ll instantly know how to memorize 52 of anything.
And with a few simple expansions and some practice, you can repeat the process or hundreds if not thousands of lists. It’s easy and fun.
4. You’ll Develop Killer Abilities With Memorizing And Managing Abstractions
People find memorizing concepts amongst the most difficult information types in the world. The symbols on playing cards are downright abstract themselves, so this skill will lighten the load on other abstractions and arbitrary associations you encounter.
One trick is to simply stop convincing yourself that concepts are different than any other kind of information. Training with card memory will teach you how to stop making that mistake because it levels the playing field. Just like a rose is a rose is a rose, so does all information share certain core tendencies.
When we focus on the differences between information and levels of difficulty, we trick ourselves out. When we zone in on the similarities and refuse to privilege information by placing it in hierarchies of difficulty, we win.
5. Remembering Cards Improves Your Imagination
Just about everyone wishes they could be more imaginative. With the ability to memorize a deck of cards, your imagination can grow on a daily basis simply by carrying a deck of cards in your pocket. Or, if you don’t want your memorize a deck of cards mnemonics linked to a physical deck of cards, you can use a memorize a deck of cards app.
6. Memorizing Cards Helps With Language Learning
To be honest, I’ve only used the card memory application to language learning with the tones of Chinese Mandarin.
But darn if this approach to memorizing Chinese tones with the Major Method isn’t a humdinger! Anytime you can put a number or image on how words should be pronounced in any language, you’ll almost certainly find assistance from this skill.
Plus, I’m convinced that regular card practice has developed my speed and agility with coming up with mnemonics for memorizing vocabulary in any language.
7. Card Memorization Improves Your Critical Thinking
Imagine being able to see more angles to different arguments and manipulate information in your mind. It might sound unrelated to card memorization, but I’m confident you’ll find yourself more capable of manipulating ideas once you have this simple skill.
Why?
You experience boosts in critical thinking from using memory techniques in general because you’re combining spatial memory with the manipulation of perspectives and scenarios. When you’re using Bridging Figures, for example, you spend time considering what it’s like to act and react from different perspectives.
Plus, you’re continually diving deep into your imagination which makes it easier to penetrate other topics imaginatively. You should find that you start thinking at a more engaged level by default.
8. Memorizing Cards Is A Cool Party Stunt
This reason isn’t as lame as it sounds. After all, when those other dudes are winning bets by balancing quarters on the edges of their beer mugs, you’ll be demonstrating real miracles.
Seriously. People will start looking for mirrors. They’ll look at the back of the cards to check if they’re marked or gimmicked. Recalling a deck of shuffled cards in perfect order is such a stunning feat to watch that it’s hard to believe what’s happening, even if it’s the hundreth or thousandth time you’ve seen it.
If you’re not doing card memorization as a memory stunt, you can also learn to false shuffle cards and perform magic tricks that play like miracles. Provided that you can pull off false cuts and shuffles (it’s not that hard), tricks that use a memorized decks are probably the most powerful you can ever learn.
9. Card memory is a legitimate sport.
If you aren’t a physical athlete, but have always felt that lust to compete in some area of human performance, card memory is a great option. The memorize a deck of cards world record list is stunning, inspiring and … frustrating. It’s hard to not want to beat it.
And if you ever give it a try, at either a local, national or international level, you’ll meet a lot of cool and interesting people. And if you attend events like the World Memory Championships, you’ll meet absolute masters of the art. Just listen to Tony Buzan talk about that on this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.
10. Having A System For Remembering Cards Is A Transferable Skill
I’ve already got this point covered, but it deserves its own category. You really can use this technique to remember a large assortment of numbers and experience powerful applications in language learning and more.
Having a set of mnemonics for memorizing a deck of cards gives you improved abilities in all areas of memory. And even if you’re already good at memorizing cards, you can always get better. Alex Mullen may currently hold the world record for memorized cards, but someone will eventually take this title. It could be you and the transferable skills you’ll build along the way will be invaluable.
11. You’ll Experience Untold Waves Of Accomplishment From Card Memorization
When was the last time you felt proud of yourself?
I mean, really proud?
Be honest and don’t worry if it’s been awhile.
With card memory skills, you can feel proud each and every day of your life.
I know self-pride strikes some people as fickle, but it’s not. The normal need for self-confidence is what extraordinary people use to keep their memory sharp and help fend off “digital dementia.” I’m in no way claiming that mental exercise medically prevents brain disease, but it’s positively logical to assume there are physical benefits at work.
12. You Become More Mentally Agile When You Practice Card Memory
Not only do you experience physical brain benefits, but you strengthen your memory skills across the board. It’s like getting better at skipping rope can make you better in the boxing ring.
Think about your memory in terms of space. You have warm and cozy places of familiarity and outer regions of cold and darkness you rarely visit.
By taking on a simple new skill, you bring heat to more parts of your memory. That means new civilizations of information can move in, giving you the chance to practice managing diverse data as part of your personal and professional growth. Just imagine being able to juggle facts in your mind, knowing each one in crisp and sharp detail thanks to the well-lit fires in your mind.
In fact, you’ll be like the expert juggler, each piece of information like a burning torch you can expertly spin through the air and effortlessly catch in a display of memory mastery.
Plus, the ability to memorize a deck of cards teaches you to create a system for remembering cards based on classic memory methods. You can the practice you’ll get creating and using the system you create to help you create other memory systems.
It’s in this ability to create memory systems out of an understanding of universal principles of memory and methods that you develop amazing powers of mental agility.
13. You Can Excel At Card Games Like Bridge, Poker And Blackjack
Imagine being able to remember every single visible card in play during a card game. Do you think that would give you a competitive edge?
It certainly would, even though most experts agree that it would only amount to a 2% advantage.
ONLY.
If you know your numbers, then you know that a 2% advantage in any game is huge. And if that game involves bets with money, be it pennies or dollars, your earnings could be huge.
I myself don’t gamble, but I can tell you that the pleasure I take in playing no-stakes games using memory to my advantage is a lot of fun. And it’s always amazing exercise as one of the most powerful brain games you’ll ever play.
Of course, you don’t have to use memory techniques for gambling games. The “memorize a deck of cards game” world is full of non-competitive “find ’em” variations that have no stakes involved whatsoever. You just lay out card pairs and practice remembering locations so you can match and remove them during game play.
Should You Use An App For Memorizing Playing Cards?
A lot of people ask me to recommend my favorite memorize a deck of cards app.
I always tell them to simply carry a deck of cards with them. It’s the best deck of cards app on the planet in my view because it gets the muscles of your hands, arms and eyes involved in card memorization at a much deeper level.
No, I don’t have any direct research to make claims that you get a memory advantage when using a real deck of cards. In fact, using a memorize a deck of cards app, provided it includes such functionality, has the advantage of tracking your results on autopilot.
By the same token, you get equally great results by tracking your results by hand, including developing the discipline of monitoring results based on a tracking system of your own creation. Ultimately, if you take the art of creating a system for remembering cards seriously, you’ll eventually create your own tracking methods anyway.
If you come to rely on a memorize a deck of cards app, you won’t be able to modify its tracking modifications to your needs. But you’ll likely have become habituated to using it, which means you may be less likely to evolve. Or maybe you’ll be more likely to evolve … it could go either way.
One of the memorize a deck of cards app you can try that can give you tracking options if you’re a premium member is the Memrise deck of cards course.
What I like about the course is that you get some good ideas for images for each card. However, you aren’t getting training in the universal principles of memory, nor are you creating your own system. The relationships are not arbitrary, which is good, but they’re also not based on the Major Method, which means that you don’t have functionality beyond the card memorization for numbers.
But as far as a kind of deck of cards memory game, the Memrise deck of cards course is worth taking a look at. It gives you something different to try. However, taking this course risks creating some confusion if you have an existing set of memorize a deck of cards mnemonics in mind. It will also not give you a system for remembering cards in the true sense of a “system” you get when basing your card approach on the Major Method.
By the same token, it can be a great memory challenge to have more than one system for remembering cards in mind. Juggling multiple memory methods and the systems you create from them is for advanced stages of the game, however. It’s best to master one memory skill first and then move on to the next.
Should You Develop A System For Remembering Cards?
Absolutely.
Again, I know it sounds like remembering cards is a useless skill on the surface. However, if you’re serious about memory improvement, you’ll be glad I twisted your arm into learning it.
Once you’ve recalled even just 1/4 of a deck of cards, you’ll be convinced of how much potential your memory holds. This simple feat of memory accomplishment will create energy and inspiration that keeps you moving forward. Once you’ve accurately recalled just a few cards you’ll know just how easy it is to learn, remember and recall anything.
It’s a life changing experience and I can’t wait to hear your story of success with developing your own system for remembering cards!
The only problem is that most people don’t maximize the value of their vacations. Instead of going in prepared to remember as much as humanly possible, they accept what they can get from the default settings of the muscle sitting between their ears.
Well, it doesn’t have to be that way for you. Here’s how to travel differently so that you remember more, enjoy more and get to take your vacations again and again with the vibrant recall of an intense dream.
Infinitely Increase The Value Of Every Hotel Room With A Simple Memory Palace
One of the first things to do is draw out a quick sketch of your hotel room. It’s simple to chart a well-formed Memory Palace journey using such a small space.
Even if the Memory Palace only has four or five stations, you’re already ahead of the game because your mind is in memory mode. Here’s an example of a quick hotel Memory Palace in room April and I shared on our honeymoon. We were taking the ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm:
As seen in the video, you can also create a Memory Palace of the lobby, the hotel restaurant, gift shop and any other rooms you spot that look manageable. If you’re comfortable using outdoor Memory Palaces, parking lots and the hotel entrance can be powerful resources.
Of course, to draw Memory Palaces, you’ll need a Memory Journal.
How To Keep A Memory Journal
Memory Journals are great for a number of purposes:
Drawing Memory Palaces
Describing mnemonic images
Testing recall
Troubleshooting
Tracking results
Recording thoughts and impressions
When traveling, your Memory Journal will also let you make notes about what you did on each day of the trip as you make quick sketches of the places you visit.
To get started, buy a simple notebook. It can be lined or unlined. I recommend that you decorate the cover and then get started listing out as many potential Memory Palaces as you can. If you need help, check out the episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast called How to Find Memory Palaces and make sure that you have the MMM Worksheets that come with my FREE Memory Improvement Kit.
Gather Maps, Floor Plans And Think Strategically
You’re traveling to enjoy yourself, right? Who wants to sit around drawing squares all day? (Except me?)
Luckily, when visiting many parks, museums and historical locations, you don’t have to spend your time this way. Instead, you can grab up brochures with mockups and floor plans of museums, churches and art galleries for reference later. If your Memory Journal has a storage pack, you can bomb these inside for reference later.
The important thing is that you think strategically when entering the location. Note the corners of rooms and the best areas for Memory Palace creation. You can already start constructing it in your mind.
If you’re experienced, you can also start using the Memory Palace right away. For example, using the Major Method, you can memorize the date of a painting along with its name. If you’re learning a foreign language, this is a great way to pick up new vocabulary.
Use The Memory Improvement Power Of Photography
Taking photos of your loved ones and the main attractions is an important part of traveling. But you can get your camera into the Memory Game too by taking photos of building layouts. Hotel beds, for example, make excellent micro-stations in Memory Palaces.
Using PowerPoint software, you can reconstruct the Memory Palace from your photos. For many people, this simple process makes their Memory Palaces much more vivid and useful. You can also use the software to impose information directly onto the Memory Palace stations for Recall Rehearsal.
However, please note that although this kind of activity is acceptable at the beginning stages, it will not strengthen your memory in the same way that drawing Memory Palaces and then using them from your imagination alone achieves. Work towards creating and using tech-free Memory Palaces and your skills will soar.
Think of it as the difference between doddering along with training wheels and the freedom of riding a bike assisted only by your instinctual knowledge of balance, velocity and the physics of pedaling. The only difference is that in matters of memory and the mind, you never need to work up a sweat to get the benefits.
But if you do need some assistance, here’s an example of a Memory Palace station and directionality I created using the Midland Hotel where I stayed during the New Media Europe convention in 2015. As you can see, it’s easy to place the station number and a direction signature for later use as you scroll through the PowerPoint (I used Keynote in Mac):
As a final camera tip, photograph street corners and use them as Memory Palaces for memorizing street names. It’s a wonderful feeling when you can recall intersections, not just for finding your way back to places, but for giving recommendations to other travelers.
Yes, it’s an ego boost too when you can show off your knowledge of cities around the world. Just don’t let it get to your head and never forget that with great power comes great responsibly. Teach what you’ve learned about memory techniques to others by telling them how you memorized street names.
Make Videos For Review Later
If you’ve been following my YouTube channel, you’ve probably seen some of the videos I’ve been putting out about creating Memory Palaces along the way.
I even got April into the memory improvement game while visiting Prague:
Part of what I’m doing by making these videos is teaching what can be done to create an impromptu Memory Palace. But I’m also practicing my own memory as I teach.
You don’t have to do anything so elaborate as posting your personal travel videos on YouTube, but the act of shooting the Memory Palaces you want to create will not only make your trip more memorable, but aid you in the creation process. It’s also a fun way to create images of yourself that ideally won’t lead to the corrosion of your memory.
The Forbidden City: My Most Challenging Memory Palace
A lot of historical sites offer fodder for Memory Palace creation, and many are straightforward to navigate and commit to memory. Other historical locations, however, are so sprawling and complex, it’s difficult to know how to use them.
I found this to be the case with the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It’s not just that the Forbidden City is labyrinthine. There are also many large spaces inside matched by contained areas. The temple structures within each area differ in shape, size and purpose. A few sections feature trees, ponds and fountains. Plus, there are gift shops throughout, many difficult to distinguish from each other.
Rather than take the Forbidden City as one entire Memory Palace, it made more sense to prepare for the creation of three individual Memory Palaces:
The front entrance
The largest structure (name)
The exit
By breaking the Forbidden city down in this way, I can capitalize on two of memory’s biggest assets:
The primacy effect and the recency effect.
Although not always true, we tend to remember the elements of a sequence we encounter first and last the best.
For example, the one and only time I participated in a memory competition with Dave Farrow during the playing cards event, I remember to this day the first few cards and the last few I memorized. I can pick out a few in the middle, but most are hazy. (If I’d used Magnetic Memory Method Recall Rehearsal, I could have overcome the forgetting curve that wipes out the middle part of sequences, but I normally save that process for important info like foreign language vocabulary and names).
Study The Layout In Advance To Maximize Memory Potential
Knowing that I’ll be limiting my choices to these areas in advance, I studied the layout on the map before entering the Forbidden City. With a plan for using only a few select spots, I released my mind of the burden of capturing it all and absorbed most of the site on autopilot.
For the entrance, core building and exit, however, I photographed and sketched the layouts to help substantiate them in my memory.
The most important step?
Follow-up.
What does follow-up involve? Rehearsing the Memory Palace right away using the tools of Recall Rehearsal, followed by using the Memory Palace to memorize some information.
For example, as soon as possible after leaving many Memory Palaces on our honeymoon, I asked my fiancee to help me understand some new Chinese vocabulary and then used the new Memory Palaces to encode the sounds and meanings of the words. I sometimes did this fully impromptu without creating a Memory Palace first, which is also an option:
This Memory Palace Technique Is Good For the Entire Family
Whether you’re going to the Acropolis or the Empire State Building, there’s a way to efficiently turn these locations into Memory Palaces without disrupting the flow of your vacation. If you have children and are interested in memory techniques for kids, you can set the foundation for a life of learning with greater ease by helping them maximize their impressionable minds with the global real estate travel puts in their hands.
And if you use the Memory Palaces to learn elements of the local language while visiting the city, all the better. Bilingualism is good for your brain, after all.
Heck, even if you just learn how to say good morning, good afternoon and good evening to the hotel staff, you’ll make your vacation much richer.
Seriously. Memorizing a few niceties for use in restaurants will endear many staff members to you and this leads to better advice and more patient explanations when you have questions. You’ll also have more fun on your trip.
The trick is not to get nervous about making mistakes and simply open your mouth and speak from your beautiful powers of enhanced recall while your newest Memory Palaces are still fresh.
I hope you take these tips to heart and start enjoying your future vacations at a deeper level by making them both more memorable and more suitable for servicing your Memory Palace needs for years to come.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could create an impromptu Memory Palace on the go? I’m talking about a responsive memory tool that would let you hear a word or phrase and instantly learn, remember and then recall it forever just by thinking of that place.
Here’s the good news:
Creating an impromptu Memory Palace is fun and easy to do. You just need to know the principles of the Magnetic Memory Method, and you’re good to go.
You can create an impromptu Memory Palace in a restaurant as discussed in this video:
Or you can create your first impromptu Memory Palace in a park as I talked about last week with Barbara Oakley.
Since park Memory Palaces are a bit more challenging here are the basics using 秋天 qiūtiān (Mandarin Chinese for “autumn”) as an example. Although I struggled with the pronunciation at the beginning (and even experienced a few rare seconds of frustration), the techniques set the stage for success using the rest of The Big Five Of Language Learning.
Scan The Scene For A Suitable Location
If you’re familiar with the method of loci, then you know that impromptu Memory Palace elements are everywhere. But you also know that not all Memory Palace stations are created equal.
For example, stations in obscure and hard to measure places really don’t serve as well as stations with fixed features.
Corners, for example, serve as bulletproof stations because they’re fixed. You can instantly zoom to them in your mind. Think of the corner of a park, for example, and BANG, your mind Magnetically zooms there.
The weak memorizer, however, chooses loosey-goosey stations, like “halfway between those clumps of trees,” or places even less certain.
Focus On Solid And Certain Stations For Total Success
Walking through a park with April discussing German phrases she’s learning, 秋天 came up. My eyes instantly searched for a place to create and secure a mnemonic image.
At that point, I had no idea what image I would create. But I let a sense of relaxation overcome me and trusted the process to do its work.
And, of course, the Magnetic Memory Method delivered (it always does).
Combine Your Impromptu Memory Palace Stations With No-Brainer Associations
Of course, you’ve got to be willing to make mistakes, which is exactly what I did.
Why?
Because to memorize the sound and meaning of 秋天 qiūtiān, I saw a giant 9 and yo-yo because 九 jiǔ (nine) sounds similar to my ear.
However, the similarity is a fantasy in my mind that led to one of my classic pronunciation errors. Nonetheless, by associating the tones of 秋天 with the Major Method and using the word as often as possible in sentences, the work of getting it right every time is underway.
Notice too that by writing this post, making the video and the podcast episode, I’m practicing The Big Five Of Language Learning.
Should you go through all these motions online just to learn a word and practice it?
Not necessarily. But you should do it at a personal level to utilize all your representational systems and learn to speak your language.
Finish The Impromptu Memory Palace Later
The cool thing about a small impromptu Memory Palace like for 秋天 qiūtiān is that there are 3 more terms needed to complete my knowledge of the words for the seasons in Chinese.
冬天 dōngtiān for Winter
春天 chūntiān for Spring
夏天 xiàtiān for Summer
In this case, I used four trees in the park. Each tree served as the station for one of the seasons.
冬天 dōngtiān. I won’t tell you what’s going on with this image, but let’s just say I’m not using a ding dong in combination with a snowy tree.
春天 chūntiān. For this I see Chewbacca chewing on a twenty dollar bill before spitting it out as rusty springs into the tea cup with burning yen.
夏天 xiàtiān. The t-sah-ya sound makes it hard to get a clear image in play, but I have the band Twisted Sister playing Yahtzee with miniature, but blazing hot suns and that works great.
In each case, the goal is to use the mnemonic imagery to bring back the sound and meaning of the words in the same stroke. The point of the impromptu Memory Palace location is to have a mental place to go for recalling the meaning and for playing around with the words in sentences.
For example, “I like autumn” can be changed to, “It is now autumn” and “Tomorrow it will be autumn.” There are countless variations and it’s important to run through as many as you possibly can to help the key vocabulary words stick in place in the context of a sentence.
After that, it’s just a matter of repeating the process with new words and new Memory Palaces.
Impromptu Memory Palaces Are Not For Everything
At the end of the day, you need to pick your battles. Impromptu Memory Palaces serve small sets of information like the seasons or days of the week well. But for anything larger than ten pieces of information, you might struggle.
Why?
Because the problem with Impromptu Memory Palaces is that you have to recreate them in your mind at the same time you’re recreating the images. But if you use Memory Palaces based on real locations, you reduce the mental load. If you’re really good with Memory Palaces, you eliminate the load altogether.
If you don’t already know how to create the perfect Memory Palace, please consider completing this free Memory Kit. It will help you get the most out of the process.
But here’s the thing:
Nothing happens unless you take action, so please be sure to give this technique a try. Post any questions you have below, and understand that the best questions come from experience and struggling a little bit with the process. Please do not overthink mnemonics. The answers come from taking action and using the techniques
Are you interested in learning how to learn at a higher level? I’m talking about mastering math, sailing through high-pressure exams and making the most of your study time. Every time you sit down to learn.
If knowing how to do that sparks your interest, in this special interview, bestselling author and world famous video professor Barbara Oakley shares her best study and memory tips.
Plus, as the author of some interesting works on human nature, you’ll discover some of Barbara’s most powerful insights about altruism and memory that you won’t soon forget.
How A Former Math Flunky Changed Her Brain And Created A Mind For Numbers
Anthony: Barbara, thank you so much for being on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. One of the things that I wanted to begin with was your first memory of being interested in learning as a topic, as a subject, even at a meta level where you’re aware of this as being a concern, an issue, and something that you can optimize.
Barbara: Oh, it’s funny because I think there are two kinds of people who are teachers. There are people who are teachers because they really love teaching. There are people who are teachers who really hate teaching. They’re very shy about getting in front of a bunch of people, and they only do it because they feel it’s so important to communicate what they’re trying to communicate.
I fall more or less into the latter category. I never envisioned myself becoming a teacher or learning about learning or anything of that nature at all. It wasn’t until I was probably, well, about five years ago, four years ago, something like that, one of my students asked me. He found out that I had been a formal math flunky. I had flunked my way through elementary, middle and high school math and science. Which is really kind of ironic since I’m now a professor of engineering.
He asked me, “How did you do it? How did you change your brain?” I wrote him a little a page of information about how I had been a linguist in the Army. I’ve always loved languages and that’s all I thought I could ever do. How did I gradually shift? Well, not so gradually but with a lot of work, to being able to assimilate and master math and science. I wrote him this email, and then I thought well, you know, how did I really do that? That’s a very good question.
I started looking more deeply into it. A Mind for Numbers grew out of that. I thought, oh you know that’s a very straightforward thing, I’ll just kind of put together some of the good insightful research and talk a little bit about that. Of course, it was far more intensive than I ever might have dreamed.
The Biggest And Best Permission You Can Give Yourself As A Learner
I think it was just such an interesting experience to realize that I’d never really thought about learning even though I remember when I was growing up. I was like man, you know, isn’t there an easier way to learn these things because I do these stupid things like reread a page over and over and over again. Then finally I would flip the page and there the answer would be. If I had just turned the page earlier, I would have kind of figured it out.
Anyway, I backed into it I think. But, I do notice that when I’m in front of my classes. I think because I’m very empathetic, I’m always looking at them and going you know they didn’t get that. I know they didn’t get that even though I explained it very clearly. A lot of learning is just growing out of wondering about how other people learn.
Anthony: That’s very interesting. I think so many people they wind up getting into teaching as an art itself by having that experience of being asked how did you learn that and coming from a space where they weren’t masters of something first, or that not even close to mastery, but actually flunking in that area.
I wonder what lessons you might give to someone in sort of number one thing you have to realize if you’re failing right now in something like math, that someone struggling with could see that turn around perhaps in the future.
Barbara: Probably the biggest thing that if I had known back in the day when I was trying to retool my brain and actually learn math and science, and even before when I was just plain flunking it, the biggest thing that I could have done was to realize that it is quite all right to not understand something the first time you see it. I always thought I must be an idiot because these other people are all understanding what’s going on and clearly I’m not. I’m just really slow.
If anything, the only reason I persevered was I would just kind of say well I don’t care even if I’m really slow and it takes me more time than everybody else, I’ll just try to hide that and I’ll still learn it anyway. Of course, to other people it just looked like I was really doing well. But behind it was a lot of work because I’m not one of those naturally gifted, really bright learners.
But in the same sense I think because of the that, when I learn something I really learn it at a very deep level. I think it’s that way for many people. They think they are not very bright, but actually the way they have to learn it because their brains may not be like swift moving, that they can actually learn it much more deeply.
The Magic Of Concentrated Effort For Creating Impetus
Anthony: I read somewhere someone made a mathematical proposition that something like 98 percent of people just give up after the first resistance that they come across. I wonder how did you develop in yourself this stamina or what would you call it this ability to give yourself that permission to have it okay that you didn’t get it the first time.
Barbara: I think what worked for me is to be successful in something that did require some learning, some concentrated effort in other words. Whether that something is learning how to play a musical instrument, or learning to sing, or learning to play soccer, or learning any number of different kinds of things, if you learn one thing so you are successful at it, then that gives you the impetus to think you know maybe if I just stick with this next thing I can be more successful.
I think that’s probably the thing. For me, I joined the Army and learned Russian. I just learned step by step how do you practice and really learn a language well. In doing that it sort of taught me meta skills about learning and that has served me in good stead in math and science.
The Special Meta Skill That Links Math And Language
Anthony: As a linguist, do you see a relationship between math and language?
Barbara: Oh, very much so. There’s a sort of an expert on experts. His name is Anders Ericsson, who works out of Florida and just wrote a great book called Peak on becoming an expert in virtually any topic. Often what you’re doing when you’re learning a language is you’re not just memorizing a bunch of vocabulary words although that actually is an important part of learning a language. You are learning to think in a different way and to be able to process that information in a very different way so you cannot just spew out a bunch of vocabulary words, but you can bring out the grammatical structure and do it quickly.
That is a big part of what’s going on in math and science. You’re bringing out a new numerical structure, and you have to be able to do it fluently. If you haven’t practiced enough, you have nothing, no patterns to pull into your working memory to make things easier. You’re just doing everything de novo in your working memory and it’s too hard to do.
I think there are great similarities and I think part of the reason may be, in this country, many engineers are from other countries besides the U.S. Part of that is that there is a big need for engineers and there’s not enough engineers in this country. I think part of it too is that those coming from outside the U.S. they know how do we learn because they’ve often had to learn English. That has, I think, been a meta skill that has transferred to their ability to also do well in math and science and engineering sorts of topics.
Anthony: That’s a fascinating point. I think one thing that I observed when I was studying German is that the Russian learners, particularly the Russian learners, seemed to get German articles a lot easier.
That seemed to have something to do with the fact, this is just my conjecture, but it seemed to have something to do with the fact that they didn’t have to deal with articles. When they came across articles, they got them the first time because it was just the sort of new sort of thing.
For an English speaker, where we do have articles just not of the gendered kind, the brain wants to get lazy and sort of ignore that. We’re not really thinking of it in quite the same way as people who don’t have articles. If that if that makes sense as a kind of observation of how learning another language can then give you a skill that can transfer over to it to something else like math.
How To Learn A Language – Even If You Have Limited Working Memory (Hint: Almost All Of Us Do)
Barbara: I think that’s a very interesting point. Well, let’s say you learn –I’m studying Spanish now. I am a slow learner, but I’m going to be using your techniques to help speed things up.
When you’re learning those kinds of things, you’re working away at it and cognitively I have a very limited working memory. What that means is that things fall out of my working memory very easily. But because some things fall out, other things come in and that is correlated with perhaps why I might be considered more creative.
When people say, “Oh man, I have to work so hard to keep these things in mind. What’s going on?” They often think, “Oh I must be so kind of dumb because I don’t have a steel trap mind like some people.” They are often more creative people and so it’s actually a talent that they have. I try to remind myself of that when I’m when I don’t have a steel trap mind in memorizing vocabulary and so forth.
Barbara’s Take On The Ancient Art Of Memory
Anthony: What you say is your number one technique that you go to when you really need to remember something?
Barbara: Trying to equate something with something extremely off color. If something happens to come to mind that is either just really wacky or else something that’s not repeatable in the public forum, it will stick. I mean whether I like it or not it’ll probably stick very well.
Indeed, the old memory experts from ancient Greece often said the same thing that if you use unrepeatable sorts of things to help you remember things that can be helpful. But just wacky images sometimes.
My challenge, and if I can turn the question around to you, my challenge is I’m really slow. Let’s say I’m trying to remember a Spanish phrase. How can I put that in my mind other than repeat it a whole bunch of times and hear it? It is hard for me to come up with some kind of wacky sort of mnemonic that would help me more easily place it in my memory.
Anthony: Well there’s a lot of ways to skin that cat. Phrases are an interesting thing because I always try to work from a word and then add a phrase to a word. If you had a key there like token, for example, and you had a Memory Palace a location where that were token was, and then you already knew conjunctions for nosotros,then you could encode an entire phrase around that mnemonic for token.
You could think of a number of ones and use that Memory Palace where you had that word to make a number of phrases with the word token for example or we and token. There’s that option. I like to bulk things up so it’s never just about like one phrase but multiple phrases for a single word. If that makes sense.
The Energizing Way To Learn Pronunciation Using Memory Techniques
That’s kind of related to the theory of substitution in language learning. Right now, I’m learning Chinese and my biggest problem with Chinese is not memorizing vocabulary but actually reciting the tones. I learned, let’s see if i can get this right, and people will listen to this and correct me I’m sure if i didn’t. Winter, and now i feel on the spot so I am going to try and get this, but I member it is, oh how did this go.
There’s a tree with a number nine and a yoyo that is smashing a teacup with yen that’s burning inside of it. That’s not winter that’s fall. Sorry, winter is a different, that’s autumn right but I’m getting that mixed up because right beside that is another tree that represents winter. Then I have spring and summer. They all end with 天 tiān.
Now, I have to remember that almost all of these are words that have the first tone. One of them has the fourth tone and the first tone. Now, I have a frog there because I’m using the major method to remember the tones. I have the number nine because number nine is 九 jiǔ or something pronounced like that. It’s like a lot of confusing stuff. This is my challenge as a teacher which is one reason why it’s very interesting to speak with you because I’m always trying to think of how can I teach this stuff better.
Because mnemonics are insane. You are saying well there’s a frog and then there’s a teacup with yen burning inside of it to remind me of 天 tiān. I don’t know the best way to teach these crazy images to people in a way that really makes sense, when it makes sense to me. I have a basis now to recall that again and again without any flashcards.
I just have to remember that it’s something like 天 tiān. Then, when it comes to substitution, I would say to my speaking partner 我喜欢秋天 which means, “I like autumn.” Then I want to be able to say, tomorrow I will also like autumn, or next week it will be winter and I will like winter. Start changing the phrase so that it is today I like autumn. Tomorrow I will like autumn. Next week I will still like autumn, or I will like winter, or it will be autumn after winter. This is sort of like the substitution thing.
If you just have that one word, then you can play with the phrases around it. I have a park that has the four seasons. It’s just a matter of practicing those pronunciations. I go in my mind. I see the tree. I see the images. I know some basics of phrases, and I just start drilling different phrases around that.
How To Deal With Learning In Little Snippets
Barbara: That makes a lot of sense. I’m going to incorporate that into my Spanish practice. It also relates in a way to the concept of interleaving. This is something that is frequently spoken of in the context of math and science learning.
I teach statistics and probability. I have my textbook and it goes through chapters one by one of the various aspects and it kind of builds up. Often what is in chapter four is rather unrelated to chapter six and unrelated to chapter eight. You learn everything in these little snippets.
You learn chapter four and you can do the techniques of chapter four. Then chapter eight and you learn those techniques and so forth. But the only time you ever see them all at one time is during the final examination. People sometimes say ‘oh I just don’t know how to do this stuff’ because they haven’t learned how to pick out one thing as a one technique as opposed to a different technique because they’re taught in different chapters.
What you’re doing is you are using a commonality, a word or a concept, but then you’re saying oh but you can use it this way. Then there’s another way to use it. You are kind of interleaving at the same time that you’re bringing everything together with a single word. I think that’s really cool. It’s a great approach to learning.
Anthony: I certainly have a lot of fun with it and one of the questions that I’d prepared to ask you relates to this. You talk about index cards, how to optimize the index cards process and how that revisiting information absolutely is critical. I’m the kind of student, and I always have been, with language study in particular, I’m not the kind of person who’s going to ever use them. I’m not going to use spaced repetition software.
I think that is what has appealed to people about my books. They are often attractive to people who are also not ever going to use that. But knowing that they are effective and knowing that spaced repetition that is assisted by software is also effective for creating a long-term memory, I wonder what other alternatives you might suggest to people who also aren’t going to go that route but do need to be revisiting information.
The Power of Learning In Spare Moments
Because the example that I just gave you, the reason why that I can remember it today, noting that my pronunciation isn’t perfect yet, is because I’ve repeated it in my mind several times. I just haven’t done it with index cards in front of me.
Barbara: There’s several different ways that you can approach it. Maybe a good way is to just use those spare moments to recall what you can of whatever you’re trying to work on. That effort to recall will actually do a good job. Whatever you can recall, that’s going to imprint that ever more deeply on your mind.
We do want to let our minds wander some. We don’t want to use every spare second. “Oh, I’m going to the bathroom now. I’ll conjugate my verbs.” There are lots of spare moments. When I go for a walk, sometimes I’ll practice to become more fluid at certain phrases. I’ll be walking along, and of course my husband is like what are you doing. I’ll just be doing something perhaps in my mind or saying it out loud.
The Great Thing About Sticky Notes And The Annoying Thing About Flashcards
Using those kinds of moments. If it’s really important, it can’t hurt to take a sticky note and stick it on your mirror with whatever that phrase or whatever is going on. I often will tell my students in my face-to-face classes, see this point right here, see this equation. This is such an important equation that you should put it on a sticky note on your mirror and memorize it.
Whenever you go in front of that mirror, see if you can remember it and then check and make sure you got it right. That’s a good technique. What I find annoying about flashcards is you get it in your mind faster than you can flip the flashcards. It’s like is this sticking? It’s like you know where you are going already and you just want to go right through them.
Of course, it would be quicker to have something like Anki or something like that. A lot of the time I don’t want to take the time to type it all in manually. I will do some by handwriting. I often like to have sheets of paper where I just write on one side. I’ll write the words that I’m trying to remember in English and on the other side in Spanish or Russian or what have you. When I kind of get familiar with the page, I’ll put the page aside. I have a big collection of pages. That makes it really quick to go through.
Often the kinds of things that you’re trying to remember are related to one another and you want to see the patterns for how they change. It’s hard to do that with flashcards. If you write them on pages, you can see the relationships between different tenses say or that kind of thing.
It doesn’t seem to me to matter so much that I’m able to mix them up with flashcards, that’s the one advantage of flashcards, but they’re so much faster to quickly review something. Even the act of writing it out, of course, is helpful.
The Amazing Genesis Of Learning How To Learn
Anthony: Thank you for those great thoughts on memory that’s very useful. I wanted to talk as well about a great course that you have on Coursera called Learning How to Learn. This is something people can find on Coursera and it’s a free course. I just wonder, what’s the evolution of that course? How did it come into being? What does it mean to learn how to learn?
Barbara: I sort of backed into doing the course. It’s kind of funny, my husband and I were down in the basement filming the course. We were just kind of going, gosh, is anybody ever even going to watch this? Why are we doing this?
It was like we have to do this. We just have to do this because it has a lot of helpful information and we feel it’s really important. Now it’s the most popular course in the world. It’s about 1.6 million enrolled students so far. People just really love the course. They find a lot of value. It’s people from all walks of life.
Five percent of the learners have their Ph.D.’s. I got an email from a fifth grader about 12 years old who says oh I took a course with my mother. You know I never realized that professors could be so witty.
I was like well if you knew how long I worked to try to be witty. Then our older daughter was at that time in med school. She was sitting in her class in med school and being taught by a preeminent specialist in southeast Michigan. He suddenly, there’s seventy medical school students, and he suddenly stops the class, points right at her and says you. You’re the girl in the MOOC, the massive open online course.
Here’s this preeminent specialist taking this course of on learning so that he can be a better specialist at what he’s doing. But I think what can happen just willy-nilly in any discipline is that it grows this the sort of structure that is sort of haphazard. It’s a cruise through history.
What You Really Need To Learn When Learning How To Learn
For example, people now will say, oh man anybody who did a course on learning that’s what a no brainer it’s going to be the most popular course in the world. But I would beg to differ. I would venture to guess that if let’s say that you happen to go to a school of education and you said you know I want you to do a course on learning. They would have immediately said great. You know teachers really need a course like that. Then you no, no, no, that’s not what I want. I want a course on learning for people in general.
What you would have gotten was an online course that would have had two or three weeks on the history of education. Two or three more weeks on educational theories and then how babies learn and then maybe a little bit on the end about how people might learn a little effectively with maybe a lecture or two on neuroscience. But that’s it because it’s really tough and we can’t go there.
If you can see that kind of structure, which is a very natural structure, it would have grown because there are all sorts of different groups in education. They all have their approaches and their desires. I teach the history of education. You have to cover my material in your MOOC and so forth.
My co-instructor in the course Learning How to Learn is Terry Sejnowski. He’s the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute. He’s one of only ten living human beings who is simultaneously a member of all three national academies.
The approach that we took was just to upend everything. To say now wait a minute. Let’s start from what do we really need to know about how our brain works, I mean truly from a neuroscientific perspective in order to leverage that to learn more effectively.
We don’t have to start with here’s a neuron. Here’s how a neuron works. We can take the fundamental key ideas and bring those forth and explain them using metaphor so that people can easily grasp some key approaches about how their brain works. The we can use that to build on all sorts of different aspects of what cognitive psychology and neuroscience are revealing about how you learn effectively not just in the humanities and social sciences.
As important as those are, but also in the sciences which I think a lot of those who teach about how to learn don’t have a solid high caliber professional expertise in a mathematical or engineering or technical type of discipline. It is sort of like what they’re teaching actually doesn’t really apply to how you learn effectively and learn science, technology, engineering and math.
The way we’re teaching is in a way that is meant to be encompassing of all disciplines. Of not just more of the soft sciences side of things, but everything. I think when you look at meta learning in that fashion you can really enhance people’s understanding of their brains and their limitations and how those limitations can also simultaneously be strengths.
Anthony: Is there a sense that by learning something, at least on the surface seems more difficult, like engineering and science than a liberal arts topic, is there a sense that greater rigor makes it easier to learn in the humanities if you have learning experience and meta learning understanding from something like engineering to transfer over? The reason why I ask that is because I have a liberal arts background and I can juggle continental philosophy quite well.
The Truth About Learning As A Transferable Skill
But when I look at something like engineering, and I’m now actively learning math with the help of your book, because I’ve been one of those people who sucked it algebra. But I still look at all that stuff, and I don’t feel like I have those tools. I talk to a lot of engineering and mathematical people and they’re like oh that’s easy. They just sort of get it but that stuff that I had to be trained to get. You know what I’m sort of saying? Is there a transferable skill from the technical sciences to liberal arts that isn’t transferable the other way?
Barbara: I believe so, but I also believe that there is important and, in fact, vital value to the social sciences and humanities they can be lost if you use solely focus on a technically mathematical. There are many things that can be grasped more easily if you do have an engineering or science kind of background, a mathematical background.
But at the same time, you have to be really careful because you don’t want to say well yeah, I can do anything because I’ve got this great science background. No, you can’t! You also want to be keeping your feet in both worlds I believe.
I learned math and science. I started learning it when I was 26. Because I started learning it at an older age, I feel as if I speak it with a bit of an accent. I’m not as fluent as somebody who was a whiz when they were kids and they always studied it and so they became a professor of engineering. They are just naturally good at the numbers and so forth.
I can be very good at them, but it’s not like it flows quite so easily. By the same token, I think that I often think more creatively about things because I am much more aware of the structure because I had to learn it as an adult. I guess the best thing I could say is yes I do think math and science gives you a transferable skill that can make some things in the humanities and social sciences easier to learn. But, you can get those transferable skills in math and science at any age.
Why You Need To Learn An Entirely New Way Of Thinking
It’s just that it is kind of like learning a language in that you’re not just memorizing vocabulary. You’re learning a new way of thinking and it’s that new way of thinking that is what provides for some of the transferable skills.
Anthony: I think of it in particular because I was trying to go back to school and I wanted to go into an M.A. program, and I have a Ph.D., M.A. in science here in Berlin and they said oh no you’ll have to go back and get a B.A. in science. But, looking into it you know it is I just don’t have that grounding even though I have some understanding of the concepts and so forth. But they simply won’t let me in without having done that groundwork first which makes sense given what you’re saying.
Barbara: I can add a sort of a side point. There are some programs where you can take tests and test into master’s programs without having to have the bachelor’s degrees and some people are using MOOCs, massive open online courses to train themselves, and then they’re taking these tests and going directly. They are getting that undergraduate degree equivalence without having to pay enormous sums of money, and, also giving up big parts of their life. Then just leaping right into the master’s programs.
The Darkside Of Altruism And Its Connection To Your Memory
Anthony: I want to shift gears a little bit, because one of the things that I get to do in my job as in interviewer people about learning and memory is also talk about some of their other interests that connect maybe in a different way to memory and a shared interest that we have is altruism. As I shared with you, I did my Ph.D. in humanities, and I wrote about friendship and had something related to something you’ve talked about in a book called Cold Blooded Kindness. You edited a collection that is called Pathological Altruism.
I have since had some similar ideas about how that altruism has a dark edge to it. I wanted to ask you a few questions about that especially in the age of online education and so forth where there seem to be so many people doing things altruistically. First of all, what is altruism and then we’ll go from there.
Barbara: Well, that’s an open-ended question. I wrote a book many years ago with the intentionally ironic title of Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend. It was about why do nasty people do what they do. It got great critical acclaim. I was really surprised. It did very well. Steven Pinker wrote a really nice blurb for it.
What came out of that was I begin to realize certain people will come up to me and they’d say well Hitler, he may have been evil, but all Germans weren’t evil. How come they all climbed on board with him. I mean that was a very good question.
I thought a lot about that and began to realize that the best way to get people on board with things is to claim you’re doing something to help others. That’s really how Hitler came to power was he’d say it’s when I appeal to their best traits, that’s when I’ve got them.
Whatever political persuasion you might have, you’re immediately thinking no it’s that other one. That’s the one. They’re doing that. They’re appealing to people. But each side is actually saying the same thing.
I think it’s important as critical thinkers to also step back and look at both sides, be able to do that and not look at the other side through the lens of the things that people on your side say about them.
Because she was like I know all about them. I heard it. I read these articles. But they are articles framed by people on your side. Critical thinking means you actually go in and look at it from other people’s perspectives, from the perspective of the people of that side.
The Counterintuitive Reasons Why Altruism Can Be So Dangerous
You could look at all the definitions of altruism, but when I really begin studying altruism, what I finally discovered is altruism is whatever you want it to be. It varies by culture. It varies by what your intentions are. It varies. If you’re a rather narcissistic individual, you will believe that whatever you’re doing is altruistic. It’s by definition. If it’s good for you, it’s good for everybody even if it kills millions.
Altruism is the most dangerous – it’s the best trait and also the worst trait of humanity because it can be so easily used to seduce us into doing really bad things. Look at all the terrorism going on now. It comes out of people who are, at least superficially and I think in large part, actually very much willing to give their lives, because they think that they’re helping some in group of theirs.
Altruism is a very dangerous thing and it’s a touchy thing to talk about because among many deeply well intentioned people it’s practically a religion. You never question altruism. It’s like it’s like questioning the most fundamental tenet of your sacred approach to life. People really get upset about that kind of thing.
I’m always just a bit wary in talking about pathological altruism because the most pathologically altruistic of people are the ones who get really touchy about you ever questioning their altruism.
Anthony: I think people are touchy. I mean I wrote about friendship as being potentially pathological. I just called it hypothetical consent which was I actually got the term from a philosopher, David Benatar. It’s not in my dissertation. If people ever look that up and they’re searching for hypothetical consent it is not there, but it’s what I came to call after my dissertation was written.
It’s the idea that in friendships we assume hypothetically that we can do certain things because that person is our friend. Because they are our friend we can do certain things. There’s like a tautology there. That’s one of the things that got me very fascinated about what you were talking about with pathological altruism. A little bit different, but it is sort of this kind of thing that as you said a person will tend to think that whatever they’re doing is altruistic because they see themselves as altruistic. They assume hypothetically the consent to act in particular ways.
I wanted to ask you if you see a connection there to memory. Because I see a connection to memory that is a bit vague, but it seems to me that so many people become memorable to us because of the altruistic things that they do. That seems to be a way that we encode ourselves on other people’s minds.
I just wonder if you have any thoughts about that in response how that your idea of pathological altruism touches memory, just memory as such as a cultural phenomenon, a biological phenomenon, a thing that happens to us and that we can do to ourselves and have done to us by others.
The Fascinating Truth About Bill Clinton’s Memory And Altruism
Barbara: You bring up so many interesting ideas with that. People will often say Bill Clinton is just an extraordinary person. He’s such a people person. You immediately get this feel that he cares about you as an individual when you meet him.
I’ve known a number of people who have met or have known him. One of the things he does that’s quite remarkable is that he remembers you. For example, I met a friend at the Clinton library who five years before had met Bill Clinton, and her husband had been sick that day, he wasn’t able to come, but she’d met him.
Just recently, right before I met her, she had met him again. He remembered her by name, remembered her husband had been sick, asked if he was doing better. I mean there’s this utter charm when you can remember someone’s name that it breaks through everything.
People are charmed, I think, by Bill Clinton. Part of it is, he’ll walk into a room and he hasn’t seen people for a year, and he’ll go around and greet each person by name and shake their hand and so forth. There is this sort of wow. If you look at great leaders through history, part of a common thread is that they had extraordinary memories.
They could remember. People like Hitler had an amazing memory. He could remember all the armaments, all the names from different divisions and so forth. Franklin Delano Roosevelt same thing. Jimmy Carter same thing. Ronald Reagan same thing.
Why People Like It When You Remember Their Name
Having a powerful memory is a great tool to help you get to leadership positions. In part, because people, I think, they really like it when you can remember their names. Of course, it has many other added values sorts of things as well.
I do think even though the simple act of remembering a person’s name is a like a kindness. I think for Bill Clinton, it’s easy. There’s some research on memory and some people just plain have incredible memories. I think Bill Clinton is one of them. I don’t think he has to use any kinds of things more ordinary people like me often use.
It’s kind of an amazing thing how memory can be such a powerful tool, but part of it is people like you because of that. But also, I do think that’s the kindness of remembering their names. But like when I’m teaching a class, I take great care to memorize all my students’ names. Very quickly the class becomes like a family. I think it’s because I took the care to memorize the names.
That’s an act of kindness, but I think other acts of kindness can also help people stick in your memory in a good way. Is that pathologically altruistic? I guess it could be. It sort of depends on what your intentions are.
Altruism And Education In The 21st Century
Anthony: Another angle that I wanted to go through quickly with the pathological altruism is online education especially outside of the traditional university relies so much on giving away something for free, building an audience, and then essentially pitching somebody on a product. That seems to be a working model that works very well.
But I wonder are our educators in the twenty first century online being in any way pathological in their altruism as you have gone through it in your studies and other authors that you’ve read on it. Is there a problem in online education that you see emerging as an online educator yourself? Is it more or less a safe sort of thing to do? Do people need to be worried about navigating online education in the future because of this way that altruism can have a pathological aspect to it?
Barbara: The reality is that online education – well let’s put it this way. In the 1950s people started playing basketball better. I mean they just did. They start playing basketball. Why did people suddenly start playing basketball better? It’s because there was television.
Suddenly people could see for themselves what the moves were that some of the top basketball teams were making. If you’re some kid at home, you can try it out. If you are a basketball coach at a high school, you can encourage your students to try it out. Television actually provided this new way of learning about a sport that really improved the sport altogether.
I think that online learning is going to do the same thing. What it does is it showcases a lot of different people. Some of whom do it for free. Some of whom do it because they get they get might get some remuneration. Some because their arms are twisted by their universities to make this course because otherwise you won’t get tenure or something like that.
There’s all sorts of reasons people do it. Basically, what that is doing is getting out into people’s eyes all sorts of different ways about how you can teach effectively. I mean nobody’s going to watch a television show, or not a lot of people are going to watch a television show about in-depth physics, or how to do electronic circuits, or something like. There’s just not a big enough market to make big television shows.
What Makes A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Succeed
They are kind of like not the same as a classroom. But a MOOC, a massive open online course, it shows a teacher. It gives active learning sorts of exercises similar to that in the classroom. You can watch some of the world’s greatest teachers, not all of them. It’s sort of a little bit of a random funnel. Just because you might be at Princeton or Harvard or Yale teaching doesn’t mean you’re the best teacher for that topic.
But even so you get all these great courses. The really good ones sort of stand out. They get great reviews. What that means is for us as teachers, we can go and look at these courses. We can improve our own teaching as a result.
I think online teaching is whether or not sometimes it might be just somebody doing it because they just feel an urge to do it. I mean that’s why I did the course in the first place, Learning How to Learn, I just thought I just have to do this. I didn’t think there ever be any royalties or anything. I thought it was all just all for free.
Later on, I found out there are there are small royalties that do accrue for certificates. At the same time though, anybody who wants to you can take the complete course for free. Only if you’d like to get a certificate for the course,is it paid. You can take everything for free.
It’s the best of all possible worlds. I can give this material completely for free to anybody who wants it. Some people because it is kind of on the collect the certificates. I know because I collect some of the certificates. It’s like yes, I learned that subject.
If I’m reading something really dry at night, I will fall asleep. if I’m watching a MOOC, it somehow it’s like a got a teacher. They are making it more exciting. It’s really more cool. I really like it. Taking MOOCs is a lot of fun.
How To Find The Perfect Learning Environment
Anthony: Speaking of your own way of taking courses, and it’s exciting to hear that you also take MOOCs which is interesting, one of the things I was curious about is where do you learn best? Both when you’re taking an online course and when you are learning in a more paper, book-bound way or for your Spanish learning or when you learned Russian, what were some of the environments that you learned best in? What characterizes them that people might be able to reproduce so they also can learn better?
Barbara: This actually relates to my next book, which is going to be coming out in spring. It’s going to be one of the lead titles on Penguin Random House. It’s called Mindshift. I’m really excited about it. They even asked me to do the audiobook. I’m going to read the audiobook. I told him I said you need to get somebody really good. They said we are going to. They didn’t tell me it was me.
One thing that people often don’t understand is when you’re when you’re memorizing, it’s often very good to have a very quiet environment. I mean like if you’re really doing something totally need focus for, then a very quiet environment can be helpful. Although, if you want to have a little music, it kind of depends on you. Whatever you want. If you like having music, you can find research that says music is beneficial. If you don’t like music you can find research that says it’s not.
If you’re learning how to learn something that involves concepts, say you’re trying to learn how the structure of how the heart works, how it pumps and all the different motions and movements that are going on with the heart, that’s not something you can just memorize. You actually have to think about how the parts all connect.
Why Memory Techniques Don’t Apply Equally To All Topics
It’s interesting. Sometimes people in med school, they are like ace memorizers. They can wait until a few days before the exam, a day before the exam, memorize all these anatomical terms, and boom they do great. These same students do terribly when it comes time for the cardiology exam.
It’s because the same techniques just don’t apply. You can’t just sit there and memorize parts of the heart and answer questions about how the heart actually functions. To do that kind of learning, it can often be helpful to go to an environment like a coffee shop or something where there’s like a little bit of disruption here and there. Because that little bit of sound disruption actually puts you into a different mode of thinking momentarily.
It forces you just step out and step back, use more default mode momentarily. That puts you into broader connections neurologically speaking. That can help you see the bigger picture of what you’re working on. You’re going back and forth between a past positive focus mode work and then then stepping back into more diffuse networks and alternating between that can help you when you’re learning kind of difficult and more abstract kinds of learning.
Anthony: That’s fascinating to think that one could have permission to study in a slightly distracting environment and still be able to learn effectively. That’s a good tip. Now here’s a test of my memory. I wanted to ask you what’s coming up next for you and I believe you said the upcoming title of your new book is Mindshift.
Barbara: Yes.
The Global Scope Of Learning How To Learn And Experiencing Your Own Powerful Mindshift
Anthony: My working memory is intact and that’s very exciting. Is there a release date that people can look forward to?
Barbara: Actually, you can go to Amazon and you can preorder it, which my publisher always likes. The actual publication date is April 18, 2017. It’s doing really well. It is going to be translated into simplified Chinese. It’s already going into translation.
Because of Learning How to Learn, I was able to travel all around the world, talk to learners and kind of get insights from many different perspectives about the best aspects of learning in different parts of the world and kind of bring them together. Even at the same time that I’m talking about the science of learning and things like going to a coffee shop for certain types of learning, it was just marvelous fun to work on the book. In some sense it’s sort of a sequel to A Mind for Numbers and Learning How to Learn.
I’m thinking that that if it goes much bigger in scope. It’s worldwide in scope. I think it’s not very often you find a sort of a combination of travel log with science book with just insights about the human psyche. I am hoping that people might find it of interest in their own lives.
Anthony: I’m glad it’s already available for preorder. I will definitely go and check that out. Just a tip for people, you can go on an Amazon authors page and be notified when new books from them come out. I just learned this myself the other day. That’s something people should definitely do is go and find Barbara Oakley on Amazon and make sure you click that so you know when new books are coming out and check out Mindshift. Add it to your collection so it just gets zipped into your Kindle device when it’s available. I’m going to go over after this interview to do that myself.
Barbara: I have to laugh, because I just followed you on Amazon.
Anthony: Excellent. That’s how I found out about it. Someone else said that they had followed me and so a new thing that I just sort of put out on a whim there. I also want people to check out your other books about Pathological Altruism and the material that you have there. I personally find it super fascinating. Like I said, I sort of had an ulterior motive because I’ve written in my dissertation on a similar topic. I hope one day to turn that dissertation into a book as well. I wanted to get a chance to speak with someone who has been in similar territory. I didn’t mean to cut that short but also get back to the subject of learning. I think I could talk certainly more about that at a different occasion and hopefully have you again maybe some months after Mindshift is available and people have read it to do an interview specifically about that book after I have had a chance to read it.
Barbara: I’d be absolutely delighted. In the meantime, I can hardly wait. I’m going to be ordering a lot of your books. What a treat to meet.
Thanks for reading and listening!
Are You Ready To Take Your Memory To The Next Level?
It sucks to think about death, doesn’t it? You’re busy enjoying life, after all.
Or are you?
Admit it. It’s not always fun and games. Sometimes life really gets you down.
That’s where thinking about death can be strangely uplifting.
In fact, there are powerfully positive and empowering things that can happen when you put time into the notion that one day, you’re not going to be here anymore.
For example, by putting your affairs into order, you can live better now because you’re free from worrying about what will happen after you die. Not enough people put time into this, leaving chaos after their demise that tears families apart. And that can make the memory of your life a bitter pill to swallow for years to come.
But that’s not the direction I want to take us in. Rather, these three simple activities will make your life more memorable starting now. All you have to do is give them a try and you’ll be amazed by how they help.
1. Imagine Your Funeral
Sounds grim, I know. But once you get into it, seeing and hearing your friends, family and colleagues acknowledge your passing creates perspective and insight that can improve your happiness.
This brain game is best played with pen and paper. Make a list of two friends, two family members and two colleagues (or fellow students if you’re still in school).
Next, write down in their voices one positive memory each person will share about you at your funeral. It could be a story or just a description of an attribute.
Focus on the positive. Don’t invite haters to your funeral. Really feel the positive sentiments and enjoy the warmth they create.
I read this weird little exercise in Richard Wiseman’s 59 Seconds. It’s highly recommended if you’d like some of the scientific background behind this positivity technique.
2. All Life’s Profoundest Pleasures Are Found Here
You probably already know The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost:
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
There’s Mathematical Truth To Frost’s Claim:
You’re much more likely to live a more interesting life simply by taking alternative paths.
And the sooner the better. As we age, many of us grow more conservative. Not because getting old switches on some kind of political gene. It’s because the more assets we gather, the more protective we become of them.
And the biological need to protect the status quo can be irrationally strong. So strong that people have refused to flee volcanic danger zones driven by conservative inertia (this problem relates to social inertia, which is well worth learning about).
Live Life Like It’s A Gameshow
The Road Not Taken principle relates to something called The Monty Hall Problem. It refers to situations of choice in which it is counterintuitively beneficial to change your mind.
The core issue isn’t the math, however. The real point of interest is that most people will stick with their original decision despite the benefits of traveling the road not taken. I’ve seen this play out hundreds of times as a magician with a simple question that leads over 90% of people to stick with their original decision.
Merely by asking people if they’d like to change their mind and even offering them handsome sums of money if they do, I create the illusion of complete and utter free will because I know that the vast majority will stick with their original decision.
When The Sane Choices In Life Are Actually Insane …
I’ve seen The Monty Hall principle play out in my personal life too. During a difficult time when I couldn’t find a university teaching gig, I applied to get high school teaching certification and did the necessary voluntary teaching in schools to qualify.
As a former university professor, this is not what I wanted to do in life, but I felt driven to teach. And it was taking action, which was far better than sitting around and biting my fingernails.
Then, out of the blue came the invitation to rejoin The Outside, record an album and go on tour. At that point in my career, doing something like that was insane. Nearly every person I talked with about the option agreed, and yet I knew the Monty Hall Problem and let it guide me.
And the reality is that the traditional path was truly the insane one. Plus …
The Sane Choice Would Have Been Totally, 100% Forgettable!
Think about it:
Had I gone the traditional route, I would have taken on student debt and locked myself for years in classrooms with students unprepared for the kinds of thoughts I think. It would have been bad for everyone, and that’s not to mention all the teacher’s strikes and worries about a pension I’d go through.
But conservative forces in society were so strong that I almost went for the traditional career. Because I changed my mind, however, I’ve wound up still getting to teach, but in multiples I never would have imagined possible. I’ve been around the world and have over a million free downloads, a dozen bestselling books and tens of thousands of people studying and using the Magnetic Memory Method every single day.
I don’t say that to brag. It’s just the consequence of making a counterintuitive choice that was mathematically bound to create a better outcome. And I’m facing another in the near future that involves living in yet another country. This time I may decide for the conservative choice, but … Probably not.
3: This Simple Exercise Will Stop Your Life From Being Boring
One way to instantly make your life more memorable is to document it. You can use writing, podcasting, video or various combinations of media. The point is to get it down. Even if it’s boring.
And quite frankly, it might just be boring at the start. If you’ve never done it before, talking about yourself might seem excruciating.
But the reality is that by going through the exercise on a consistent basis, you’ll develop a talent for spotting the memorable. And there are many things happening every day worth your attention.
For example, two days ago April and I heard a cellist playing Bach in an art gallery. The next day I noticed a store I’d never seen before. Just a few hours ago I observed a heavily tattooed man, including much of his face, playing with his kid in the park.
I wrote all of these things down. And the act of writing the observations down spawns more observation which in turn creates more things to write about.
All wealth comes from writing, so please be sure to take up this practice. Along with envisioning your funeral and taking the roads not taken, observing and writing will help you live a more memorable life.
The best part is that you can also journal with your friends. Jonathan Levi and I have done that recently in Israel just to talk about our memory improvement projects and memorize together in real time:
But whether you journal on paper or video, with other people or alone, put all of the exercises you’ve just learned together and you truly will have an amazing life.
Lots of people do brain exercises, often in the form of brain games. You’ve probably even tried a few, right?
That’s all fine and dandy, but there’s a catch:
Playing brain exercise games on your “smart phone” is not necessarily brain exercise. Not by a long shot.
Brain Exercises Or Brain Thinners?
In fact, some of those brain games don’t exercise your brain at all.
You don’t have to take my word for it either. Just check out all the people on this live call who totally agreed:
Instead of helping you, those apps train your brain to get good at completing tasks within the world of those apps. The mental fitness doesn’t apply to other parts of your life.
And as we discussed in the video above, your memory and brain fitness exercises need to be both the dojo and the exercise.
Use Concrete Brain Exercises And Avoid Abstract Ones
Bottom line:
If you’re exercising your brain on an abstract level but not directing the fitness at specific life improvement goals, you’re missing out. Your brain fitness must be targeted at specific goals so you get tangible results.
And if you’d like brain exercises that do improve your mind and give you a great mental workout that matters, give the following easy exercises a try. I promise they’ll be fun and give you a memory improvement boost in a short period of time.
By the way, if you also want a detailed list of methods that will improve your memory and help you remember everything better,please check out:
And in case you weren’t aware that you can listen to me narrating this post, click play here and I’ll happily speak to you as you discover these powerful brain exercises.
1. The 4-Details Observation Exercise
Gary Small talks about memorizing four details of people you encounter out in public.
For example, let’s say someone is wearing a gray sweater, black hat, red belt and green shoes. The goal is to observe the details first and then recall them later.
Some scientists call brain exercises like these “passive memory training.” They’re passive because you’re not using any special memory techniques. You’re just asking your mind to do what it was designed to do: remember.
Why does this matter?
It matters because we don’t ask our minds to practice observation enough.
For that reason, we fail to observe. We also fail to observe things that we aren’t seeing, such as by making visual images of movements we hear in other rooms. I teach about how to complete this simple visualization and memory exercise in this video.
If you’d like to be a better observer of the world around you, this exercise will help.
It’s also scalable. You can start with observing just one person per day. Once you’ve gotten good at recalling four details of just one person, you can add more information or more people (or both).
If you like, you can also notice details about buildings, cars, movies or series, foods that improve memory, etc. But focusing on people is the more potent. Being observant of others around you is a great social skill.
2. Number Brain Exercises That Skyrocket Your Concentration
I can’t emphasize this enough: numeracy is a powerful skill. It’s something I work on myself as often as possible, both with and without memory techniques in play.
“Add 3 Minus 7” is a fun brain exercise you can try today. To get started, all you do is pick any 3-digit number. Then, add 3 to that digit 3 times. Then minus 7 from the new number 7 times.
Repeat the process at least 5 times and pick a new 3-digit number the next time. You can also start with a 4-digit number and use other numbers to play with. For example, you could start with 1278 and add 12, 12 times and minus 11, 11 times.
It’s up to you and the amount of numbers dictate the level of challenge. This brain exercise also strengthens your working memory because of the amount of detail you need to hold in mind to complete it.
3. Repeat What People Say In Your Mind
We all know in our hearts that no one is really listening when we speak. And that’s sad.
But here’s the good news: You don’t have to be another person who is just nodding your head like a puppet while actually thinking about something else.
You can train yourself to focus on what people are telling you and remember everything they say.
It all begins by creating presence in the moment in an easy way: Follow the words being spoken to you by repeating them in your mind.
For example, imagine that someone is saying the following to you:
“Tomorrow I want to go to a movie called Memory Maverick. It’s about a guy who cannot forget. He’s hired by a group known only as ‘The Agency’ to infiltrate a competitor. But once the hero learns the secrets, he doesn’t want to hand them over. But since he can’t forget, The Agency starts making his life miserable.”
All you would need to do to complete this brain exercise is repeat everything in your mind. You’ll automatically remember more by doing this.
Visualization Secrets Of A Memory Maverick
To remember even more, you can create pictures in your head.
For example, you might see an image of Mel Gibson as he looked in the movie Maverick trying to remember something.
Or you might get a picture in your mind of an agency building and scenes of evil men in suits torturing the hero. Any images you create will help you become a living, breathing mnemonics dictionary.
It can be a bit awkward to repeat back information like this to people to practice your concentration and memory powers, but you can write an email later from memory:
“Hey, did you manage to see Memory Maverick? That whole thing with infiltrating ‘The Agency’ for those secrets and not wanting to hand them over sure sounded cool. What did they wind up doing to make the hero’s life more miserable?”
Showing people that you’re interested in them and their lives.
Easing conflicts when they arise because you remember the issues in greater detail.
Take this training seriously:
You’ll feel better about your connection to people because you’re really with them.
4. The Metronome-Clapping Exercise
Back in grad school, I had a great professor named Matthew Clark. For some reason, he told our class in Classical Literature about a great concentration exercise that I’ve practiced ever since.
It’s simple: You put on a metronome at a slow speed and then practice “covering the click.”
I don’t think this brain exercise helps memory in any direct way, but it’s excellent for improving concentration and presence. Both concentration and presence are skills we all need and the more we have, the more we can remember by default.
The better you get at this exercise, the longer the amount of time between clicks you should place. To accurately cover the metronome with a minute between clicks would be impressive!
5. Create A Memory Palace
The ultimate brain exercise on the planet is also the easiest. It involves nothing more than a simple drawing that follows some simple principles.
Why is creating a Memory Palace such a powerful exercise?
Take my free memory improvement course and find out for yourself:
First, creating a Memory Palace draws upon your spatial memory.
It’s also a great recovered memory and autobiographical memory exercise .
As far as brain exercises go, the Memory Palace training exercise works kind of in reverse.
Why?
Because you’re accessing cues that are usually blueprinted on your mind outside of your awareness.
Think about it:
You’ve rarely gone into a new home or store with the conscious intent of memorizing its features.
Yet, if you think back to the last home of a friend you visited, here’s a fact:
Most people can recall an insane amount of detail. Creating a Memory Palace lets you exercise that inborn ability.
Second, creating a Memory Palace is creating a tool that you can use for life. Once you have one and you’ve mastered using it, you can create dozens more.
And if you can do that, you can do great things with your memory, like how Matteo Ricci learned Chinese in record time. You can also remember names at events with ease and accomplish any goal in which memory plays a role.
And what goal doesn’t involve memory?
If you’d like to learn how to create a Memory Palace following the good rules of the Magnetic Memory Method, my FREE Memory Improvement Kit will take you through the entire process. It includes videos, worksheets and more to get you up to speed on this important talent.
Improve Your Mind With Brain Exercises And Conquer Any Problem
At the end of the day, brain exercises are best when they help you solve problems. Forgetting important details, for example, harms us day in and day out. You now have a brain exercise that will assist you with that.
Not being able to focus on numbers leads us into making all kinds of mistakes. The simple game you’ve just learned is just one step towards improved numeracy skills and a better memory.
You’ve also learned to listen better, be more present and develop concentration for extended periods of time. In many ways, repeating the words of others in your mind or “covering the click” are forms of meditation, a skill known to improve memory.
You Now Have The Best Of The Best
Finally, you have the opportunity to create a Memory Palace. This simple, ancient invention will also improve your concentration while letting you remember anything. I’m not sure I believe in left brain exercises versus right brain exercises, but I’m confident that if such things exist, the Memory Palace covers them both.
Combined, all of these mind fitness activities will improve your life. They all serve as great brain exercises for kids too, so please pass them on to the young people in your life. On that note, they’re also great brain exercises for seniors, so don’t ignore that branch of your family and social circles either. People of all ages want to keep mentally fit!
Turn Your Dream Of Operating A Fully Fit Mind Into Reality
When you regularly complete brain exercises, you’ll feel filled with pride. Few people have the gumption to take consistent action, after all.
Your commitment to what Tony Buzan calls “mental literacy” means you should celebrate. Consistently completing brain exercises should be rewarded, so be sure to factor that in.
You don’t have to think hard about giving yourself the perfect gift, though. The brain fitness that comes from regularly completing brain exercises is its own reward.
It’s not just about “brain” activities either. Asking questions about ambidextrousness and memory can help too. For example, I’ve practice juggling, writing with both hands and writing backwards to involve both my brain and body.
I also make sure that I don’t fall into the traps of smartphone addiction. Sure, you can get some great brain fitness reading from the Kindle app. But if you’re constantly interrupted by notifications, you’re probably damaging your focus and concentration more that helping improve it.
Oh, and here are a few more brain exercises for when you’re feeling depressed:
What are your thoughts about the principles discussed in this post?
Do you think these are activities you will bring into your life? Is there anything I’m missing?
Let me know in the discussion area below and I’ll gladly respond and update the post.
A lack of memory training plagues every nation. It’s true.
And as far as I know, no country on the planet includes dedicated memory training in its educational programming.
The result?
We have all experienced unnecessary pain and frustration thanks to forgetting precious information.
But That’s Not The Biggest Problem!
The biggest problem is that we don’t always know the signs related to our memory problems. Without that critical insight, we can’t make proper decisions about taking memory training. (Worse, you might wind up wasting time on memory training software that you really don’t need if you have a solid understanding of mnemonics and other memory techniques.)
Here’s the good news: I know the signs that you need memory training. And I have the solutions, none of which involve wasting time on tedious memory training games or the fraud of photographic memory training.
Interested?
Let’s go through each of the 9 signs you need memory training in detail so you have a better grip and know exactly what to do. You’ll find a tip included with each sign that will help ease each problem. Work on improving just one issue per month and well within a year, you will be the owner of a superior memory you’re proud to call home.
Sign You Need Memory Training #1: You Can’t Remember Names
You know the scene:
Two seconds after hearing someone’s name and shaking hands, you’re looking into the eyes of a stranger. And now instead of paying attention to the conversation, you’re paddling around the pond of your mind …
“Was his name Ross … or Roger … or Tom?”
The feeling is tiring and exasperating. Most of us have grown so accustomed to it that we laugh off our forgetfulness instead of getting memory training to take care of the problem.
The fix is simple: Learn and practice the simple art of association. When you meet someone named Lars, instantly see Lars Ulrich from Metallica drumming on the top of their head with drumsticks made of “lar”d. If you meet a Betty, see Betty Crocker pouring flour into her ear while midgets “bet” on how Betty is going to react.
The associations don’t have to be celebrities. One John you already know can help you remember the name of another.
Associations are just the beginning of memory training for how to remember names, a quick tip that will serve you well. There are other memory techniques in this department of the art of memory you can use to memorize names for which you have no immediate association.
Sign You Need Memory Training #2: Your Mind Goes Blank During Exams
Stress and pressure cause havoc on memory. The higher the stakes, the more we quake in our boots, especially after weeks of diligent study during which we’ve dreamed of a great post-exam future.
In addition to taking basic memory training based on the principle of association, you can add relaxation to your memory exercise. A lot of people skip this step in memory training (assuming it was included at all), but relaxation is one of the most critical tools in remembering.
Meditation before studying, including progressive muscle relaxation, can be repeated before sitting for your exam. Reproducing the same calm physical state will help your memory in exams a great deal because you will have reduced fight-or-flight syndrome.
In some cases, you can also get access to the examination room and study in it. That way you’ll be entering a familiar environment. And as Scott Gosnell talks about in this interview about mnemonist Giordano Bruno and memory techniques, you can even use that room as a Memory Palace.
Put relaxation and a Memory Palace together as part of your memory training profile and you’ll never need to sweat through an exam again. And here’s more info on avoiding 17 other student fails related to your memory. I got you covered.
Sign You Need Memory Training #3: Your Memory Gets You In Trouble At Work
There’s nothing worse than having your boss mad at you because you still can’t remember simple data points or you need your password reset for the umpteenth time.
But countless are the ways having reliable memory skills at work can keep your boss off your back. A good memory based on solid memory training can make you the boss.
Your work undoubtedly involves a lot of numbers, so you’ll want to learn the Major Method. It lets you quickly associate images with numbers so that they’re easy to recall. With a bit of practice, you’ll be rattling off not only budgetary figures but also the complex formulas used to manage them in no time.
Sign You Need Memory Training #4: You Struggle With Dates, Appointments, Birthdays & Anniversaries
When you think about it, putting together the day, month, year and hour of the day is a lot of information. Sometimes we get it all together right away, but usually … not.
You now have a link to the Major Method, but you’ll also benefit from having a mnemonic calendar in your mind. To get started with this aspect of memory training, associate an image with each day of the week. For example, for Friday, see a giant frying pan, an opera-singing satellite for Saturday and a massive Ice Cream Sundae for Sunday.
Once you know the Major Method, you can interact any combination of hours and minutes with any day of the week. You just need to create vignettes or stories using your imagery.
Sign You Need Memory Training #5: You Start And Give Up On Language Learning Goals Due To Poor Memory
People around the world dream of learning a second language, but so few ever do. There are a lot of moving parts involved in language learning, and that means multiple bumps on the road.
But the biggest barrier to entry is memory. You can’t practice a new language without a growing profile of information stored in memory and available for access. And contrary to popular belief, repetition a.k.a. rote learning is not enough on its own.
Rather, you need a dedicated means of creating memories and actively helping your brain access those memories. To do that, this memory training video about The Big 5 Of Language Learning is highly recommended viewing:
Sign You Need Memory Training #6: You Find It Hard To Concentrate
Concentration might not immediately seem like a memory training issue. But in reality, it’s the crux of memory because remembering and recalling information requires focus.
The beautiful thing is that developing your memory automaticallyincreases concentration and focus. Plus, the better you get at one, the better you get at the other.
One great and very light concentration exercise was suggested by Dr. Gary Small. He talks about noticing four aspects of a person you see on the street and then recalling those details a few hours later.
That’s great as a memory training exercise, but as a concentration exercise, practice noticing four details of EVERYONE you see. You’ll find it difficult at first, but soon you’ll find that you’re much more observant of the world around you.
Even better, this increased concentration will spill over into other areas of your life, including paying attention to the details of conversations.
Sign You Need Memory Training #7: You Suffer From “Senior Moments”
There’s nothing worse than walking into a room and then forgetting why you went in there.
The reason this happens seems to involve an overwhelm of new stimulation. When you move from one room to the next, for example, you’re suddenly bombarded by new:
* air quality * light levels * sounds * textures
… and potentially people and a whole host of other variables that hold zero connection to the reason you entered the room in the first place.
To combat senior moments like these, try closing one fist tightly while repeating the reason you’re leaving the room. Do this with emphasis as you cross the threshold of the door when you’re first facing a rush of new information.
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how quickly senior moments disappear from your life once you start using this unique memory training technique.
Sign You Need Memory Training #8: You’re Constantly Afraid Of Alzheimer’s & Dementia
You have every reason to be worried about brain diseases that rob you of your memory. Alzheimer’s is one of the biggest threats besides brain trauma and no one in their right mind wants either.
Although there’s no hard and fast proof that memory training prevents such conditions, it’s a worthy investment because you live in the here and now. Plus, it’s more likely that people serious about their overall brain health will also eat foods that improve memory. That’s an even surer path to protecting your brain as you age.
Once you’ve felt the power of memory improvement, you’ll be inspired to play higher order brain games and do all kinds of things that not only ward off Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The memory training activities help you experience an incredible life so that even if you do face those conditions in the future, you’ll have enjoyed an amazing mental life until that time.
Always remember this: Memory is the now. Always, and yours can be the greatest.
Sign You Need Memory Training #9: You Kick Yourself For Not Doing The Exercises In That Memory Training You Bought
You know you need memory help when you’ve started taking memory training, but never follow through.
However, you have indeed started investing in memory training and that’s a great sign that you can pull through. You just need to create a plan of action based on those memory training books and courses.
Then, commit to reading the entire book from cover to cover or watching all the videos. A lot of people want interactivity and learning by doing is super-important when it comes to memory training exercises.
By the same token, it helps many others to have a global overview. The art of memory has some technical aspects and it really helps to go through everything before getting started.
Either way, complete the exercises.
All. Of. Them.
The reason memory training resources come with exercises is so that you can see the techniques in action and get results. But if you don’t do them, you won’t fully understand the techniques and your skill set can’t build.
It’s as simple as that. So crack open that memory training book on your shelf. Read it from cover to cover and then do everything it says. Yes, it requires a bit of sacrifice, but it will be the best time, energy and money you’ll ever spend.
Heck, this doesn’t even have to cost you a dime. Libraries still exist, you’ve got my Free Memory Improvement Kit and the Internet is filled with information.
No excuses. Take action and you’ll be rewarded.
We All Need Memory Training
Believe it or not, even the most accomplished memory champions need help with their memory. Even of the most impressive winners are no better than anyone else without memory training.
And we all need to make memory training, memory exercises, memory techniques and mnemonics an ongoing part of our lives. And just as with any aspect of physical fitness, we need to maintain our gains.
Luckily, just like going to the gym, memory training is fun. It makes you feel great and you can experience a rush of accomplishment whenever you want simply by using the tools your memory training has given you.
If you’re ready to give memory training a try, or if you’re already on the road, take a second to leave a discussion post and let’s get busy remembering everything and anything we want.
What If You Don’t Have To Give A Speech From A Memory Palace On Its Own For Your Speech To Benefit From Using Memory Techniques?
Sunil Khatri raised this question in my mind when he wrote to me after giving this speech:
I was so impressed by Sunil’s explanation of how he used the Magnetic Memory Method and Memory Palaces to help him with the speech, that I asked if he would record an episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.
He agreed! As you’ll learn, you can get great benefits from memorizing a speech in advance, even if you still recite it from the page.
The same thing is true of reading from a teleprompter, which the best directors and producers always advise people giving speeches to do: Know where you’re going, but don’t appear like you’re recalling during delivery. It looks weird.
I’m super-excited by Sunil’s results and look forward to hearing your stories of triumph when you use the Magnetic Memory Method to help prepare for your next big speech.
Episode Transcript
Anthony, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to talk about some of the things I’ve been doing with the Magnetic Memory Method. I just also wanted to also say thank you very much for the support that you’ve given me directly through email interaction has been really, really useful and amazing.
I started learning Korean maybe a little over a year ago I would say and mostly for work purposes. I’ve been traveling back and forth to Korea, and it is a really tough language in my opinion. When I started studying, I would read things like verb conjugations. There could be up to 500 verb conjugations based on the level you are at in society, in your office, your age group, all of these different things come into play in the written language and speech. It was pretty tough.
I started learning and for the 6 months it was through rote memorization, flashcards, and things like that. Then I was trying to figure out is there a better way. Because I had spent the better part of 6 to 7 years learning Japanese and it was all through rote memorialization and talking to people and so forth.
I came across your website and from one link to another to another and it ended up being at your site. I took your intro classes and so forth and it was actually pretty good. Then I started reading up on Memory Palaces more and things like that.
“Korean Words Just Sort Of Magically Appeared In My Brain As I Was Talking … I No Longer Use Flashcards”
What happened was about 6 to 7 months ago, I think that was the first time we communicated, I basically started building a small Memory Palace and expanding that. Korean words just sort of magically appeared in my brain as I was talking, as I was remembering to the point where I gave up using flash cards. I no longer use flash cards.
I put everything into an Excel spreadsheet and categorize them based on my Memory Palace. I come up with a mnemonic picture, crazy picture, whatever it is and associate the word to that crazy picture and there it is. I go through my Excel spreadsheet once a day to put it into long-term memory and it’s been amazing.
“Even My Teachers Are Freaking Out.”
Even my teachers are freaking out. How am I learning all this stuff so fast? But that was vocabulary. Then I started looking at grammar and things like that. Really in about 6 months I achieved over 500 words through the Memory Palace techniques. It was amazing.
Then I was handed a request to do a speech for my office to a bunch of our clients. Essentially what happened was I said, okay and this was about a week and a half prior to me giving the speech. They said, okay you can do it in English. We’ll have a translator and everything for you. I said well, that’s great thank you. Then I thought about it. I said, wait a minute let me try this in Korean and see what I can do.
“Actually A Lot Of This Was Beyond My Vocabulary”
The speech was about 3.5 to 4 minutes, 5 minutes long. Rather than say, “Oh my god, I don’t know any of these words,” because actually a lot of this was beyond my vocabulary. It really focused on a lot of different types of grammars that you would use in a very formal setting. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know any of these structures or things. Some of the words were quite new.
What I basically said was, I said all right I am going to think about doing this in Korean. Let me try and see if I can break this down. I guess when I said I think I’m going to do it, it really meant I’m going to do it and there was no looking back for me.
I took the words, basically got the meanings of what the speech was in English and then took the Korean statements and broke it down into an Excel spreadsheet. So rather than reading everything as you would normally do, I took small phrases and put them in a cell in the Excel spreadsheet and then I created the mnemonics associated with that. Those wordings and so forth.
“It Was Pretty Daunting”
It turned out to be several hundred cells in the Excel spreadsheet with phrases and so forth. Then I started memorizing, and I did this in about a week. I got about 70 percent of the way through it, and then started working with a person on my team to kind of walk me through how to say the phrases. Where are the emotions, where are the intonations and so forth.
Then from there I kind of build up what I say, how I say it, where I would put the stresses and so forth in a natural language type of view. It really was quite amazing. Then I just went through the Excel spreadsheet and started practicing over and over and over again to get that into memory. The remaining 30 percent was sort of rote because I just didn’t have time to do the mnemonics. Because it was only in about 5 days I put all this stuff together.
The day of the speech came, and I got in front of couple hundred people, all Korean. I started talking and I used the notes. Because it was pretty daunting. Standing in front of a crowd and just trying to remember all these things and the stresses of speaking. Speaking in front of a crowd is difficult anyways.
I had my notes but what my notes were the Excel spreadsheets. It was basically two pages just printed out, and I started just working through it. It was incredible. The crowd reaction was great. Everything was good. I just had a great time because all of this stuff was right there. The way that you pronounce things, even though I was referring to my notes. It was really amazing.
How To Experience Boosts In Confidence From Your Memory
It just gave me a huge new level and boost in confidence. I’m nowhere near fluent but I can guarantee you that this is all I’m doing now. I don’t use flashcards. I don’t do anything. All my learnings, not just in Korean but even beyond Korean, are based now on how I use Memory Palaces and your teachings and so forth. Really, really amazing.
I’m continuing to focus on Korean but I’m also looking at other languages later. I really want to look at Mandarin Chinese as you’re doing. This is, again, I feel only after about 6 months of working with the Memory Palace techniques.
It took me years to get to be able to speak in Japanese in front of people and even now I’m hesitant. But I’m going to back and apply these techniques to that too. Really amazing stuff. Thank you for the opportunity and I will continue to converse with you and get your advice on all the problems that I know I’m going to continue to have. Thank you so much.
============
Anthony, just one more thing I wanted to add if it is possible to edit it in or do something.
I had mentioned about 70 percent of the speech I had done using a Memory Palace and 30 percent because I just did not have the time. I just sort of started reading the end of it.
There was actually a noticeable difference in that 70 percent versus the 30 percent that people were telling me. They said, “Oh, the 70 percent that you did, the first part of the speech sounded so good, rhythmic, everything was there. The 30 percent sort of trailed off a little bit.”
I owe that to the fact that I didn’t go through the mnemonics for that last bit. Even though I was able to continue doing it, reading it and kind of working through and people were still excited that I was being able to do this whole thing in Korean.
So the application to Memory Palaces and so forth is really critical, I think, from a grammar perspective as well as from a comfort level. Because once you ingrain those things in your head, whether it’s subconsciously or whatever, when you’re reading it, those emotions and that structure come out.
I just wanted to add that statement. But once again, thank you so much. Take care.
Sunil’s Speech In Korean
안녕하세요. AKL HQ의 IT를 총괄하는 순일 상무 입니다.
여러분들의 뜨거운 열정과 도전으로 한국 암웨이가 25주년을 맞이 하였습니다. 한국 암웨이와 함께 걸어온 25주년을 축하하고자, 대구경북 ABO 리더님들을 모시고 암웨이 프라자에서 ‘A Happy Birthday Festival’ 행사를 개최하게 되었습니다.
많은 ABO 리더님들께서 이렇게 말씀하십니다. “ 암웨이 사업은 분위기를 타는 사업이다. 요즘은 그 어느 때 보다도 사업하기 좋은 분위기이다 “ 실제로 한국 암웨이는 25년 전 오픈 당시에 비해서, 제품 수는 5개 에서 500 여개로, 매출액은 50억원 대에서 1조가 넘는 마켓의 독보적인 리더로서 지속 안정적으로 성장하고 있습니다.
아마도 이렇게 지속 안정적으로 성장 할 수 있는 원동력은 여기 참석하신 ABO 리더님들의 열정과 도전 정신을 기반으로, AKL과 함께 일구어낸 소통과 화합이 있었기에 가능하다고 생각합니다. 이번 25주년 기념 행사가 또 하나의 소통과 화합의 장이라 생각합니다.
암웨이 프라자에서 일주일간 진행되는 다양하고 신나는 이벤트에 많이 참여하시고, 마음 껏 즐겨 주시기 바랍니다.
내가 먼저 우리 함께 !!! 신나는 암웨이!!! 감사합니다.
What About You?
Do you have a story of using a Memory Palace to give a speech?
Or how about your struggles with speeches in public? How would better memory skills help you in this area? Take a moment to leave a comment below and get the discussion started.
As Sunil’s experience demonstrates, memorizing even a speech you intend to read from the page improves your delivery beyond belief. Keep that in mind the next time you need to give a speech either in public or on the screen.
The answer is a resounding “Yes!” and Brad Zupp’s story proves it!
In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Brad Zupp joins us to talk about everything from language learning and memory techniques to the philosophy of education.
As you start opening multiple tabs and start absorbing all of this memory-boosting information, you can also follow Brad Zupp on Twitter and follow his author page on Amazon to be notified when the new books he mentioned on this interview appear. I’m all hooked up and as a serious student of memory improvement, you should be too.
Enjoy this episode with the stellar memory athlete and educator Brad Zupp and be sure to say hello in the comments below!
Brad: Thank you. It’s my pleasure. I really appreciate both the chance to talk about memory improvement and the kind review of my book.
Anthony: For people who aren’t familiar with Unlock Your Amazing Memory yet, tell us a little bit about your story. Maybe, what’s your first memory about being interested in memory?
Brad: The first memory about being interested in memory was when I was myself in about the fourth or fifth grade I was horrible at numbers and names. Names were not helped in that we moved a lot. My dad was an executive in a company. He was he was a fixer. He was someone that they’d say well that division or that office branch is having trouble. We need someone to go fix it, so my dad would get tapped for that. So we moved a lot.
I remember third grade I guess was the first time it really came to me that memory is important. It was the end of the school year, and I gone to that school for the first time in the fall. The third grade, it was at the end of the school year though the teacher asked me to hand out papers on Friday. We must have written some type of paper or book report or something.
The One Memory Problem That “Freezes” Just About Everyone
She said, “Okay, Brad, you can hand out papers this week.” I just froze because I knew I didn’t know everybody’s names in class. Now as adults, we introduce each other to each other or introduce ourselves to each other. Kids don’t do that. Kids will come up and say, “Hi, my name is Sally.” So part of it was I had never met people.
But I had a horrible memory with names and with numbers. I was up at the front of the class and I had the papers. I was going, “Oh, Sally you got a B. Way to go.” You know, kind of looking up with my eyes to see who of the girls in the class was going, “Oh, I got a B,” Because that’s how I knew it was Sally. I didn’t know people’s names.
That continued all my life. Numbers, I was always bad at math in large part because I couldn’t remember numbers. I could do the calculations. But if it any of it involved storing a number in my head to add it or anything, I couldn’t retain that number long enough to do the second step of the calculation. If I could write the first part down or use my fingers, I was fine. The calculations weren’t the problem. It was remembering numbers was the problem.
There was no solution for me back then. That’s in part one of the reasons I wrote the book I did first instead of writing a book for adults first is that there’s a lot of kids like that. They can’t remember something. Maybe they’re good with math, but they can’t remember the spelling of their vocabulary words, or they’re great with spelling but they, for whatever reason, cannot remember numbers like me. That’s why I wrote the book. That’s my first memory.
How Do Kids Deal With Memory Problems?
Anthony: This is fascinating. I wonder how do you think that kids enunciate their frustration with their memory, because you know you were aware of it and that’s quite an early memory, but to what extent do you observe that young kids are aware of that as being a memory problem and how do they express it?
Brad: Back when I was experiencing that, there wasn’t really a way to express it. I mean I didn’t go home to my parents and say, “I can’t remember names. Let’s get a book and help me or let’s look on the Internet.” We didn’t have any of that back then. I think it was kind of suffer in silence. It wasn’t something that traumatized me, but I remember it very clearly to this day being up in front of class and the embarrassment of the end of the school year not knowing my classmates names. That was just horrible.
These days, kids with the Internet, more libraries, more books available on Amazon and other online availability of books, kids know that they can find solutions online. One of the things I do when I go into schools for presentations, I say something like, who thinks they have a bad memory? Who has studied for a test, been very confident, then you sit down in your classroom, the teacher hands out the test, you look at the first couple questions and go what? Am I in the right class? Am I in the right school? Because you cannot for the life of you remember these things.
Kids as young as seven, eight, nine years old are experiencing that. They’re confident, they’ve worked hard and then they blank out. So they know, I think kids these days are more aware about things like money. They’re more aware of this is it working for me, and I can get help with this.
So I think kids these days are willing to tell their parents, teachers or a visiting presenter like me, “Yeah, that’s me. I have that problem. Fix it! I want to get better grades.” That’s one of the joys I have is going into schools and helping kids realize the memory, as you tell people, young and old, memory isn’t something we’re stuck with. We can improve it.
Why Memory Improvement Is Easy And Fun To Do
It can be easy and fun to do. It doesn’t have to be boring, because I think that’s where a lot of the kids, as they get a little bit older, is that they catch on remembering, or they give up they say remembering is hard, studying is hard. I hate school. This is boring. The teacher says, “Oh, you can’t remember it? That’s okay, just read it again.”
If you don’t read well, or you don’t enjoy what you’re reading, which is pretty common I think across the ages, anybody going to school, there’s always a few subjects you like why am I learning this. If the teacher says well read it again, you read it the second time you’re even more bored than you were the first time, and the teacher says you still don’t have it. Read it a couple more times. At some point, you just go no. I’m just not good at this. I’m just going to give up. It’s great that people like you and me and a lot of other people are out there saying there’s a different way.
Anthony: Right and I think that’s one of the things I admire so much as you’re out there and you’re bringing this message. That leads me to a question that I think everybody who works in memory education encounters all the time. I certainly get it at least once a week, which is why aren’t they teaching these techniques in school? You are actively actually going out and teaching it in schools. How did you get into proactively making sure that memory techniques are taught in schools?
Brad: I was a financial planner for a while. I got really tired of sitting in an office and not being able to use my creative side. Sometimes I struggled as a financial planner with memory, with remembering some of my clients’ names. I remembered my top several clients’ names. But, if someone just did something with me once, it was sometimes hard to remember their name. So I was already struggling with that. Of course, the number problem continued to haunt me, which is pretty important for a financial planner. But I also just hated it in the office.
One day I told my wife I should get out of this, and I should go back to doing something fun. I had been a professional juggler for a number of years before getting into real estate and then finance. I told my wife I should go back to doing something fun like juggling, but I wanted to do something important. So maybe I should combine them and do a fun show about money for kids. I said it just kind of as a joke to make her laugh, but she paused and said that’s a really good idea.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a good idea. I eventually found other financial planners for my clients. I gave my notice. I sat down and wrote a school assembly show about personal finance. I did that successfully for a few years. Then I was thinking, what’s another show? Money is so important for kids.
But what’s something else that’s so important for kids? If I were back in third, fourth, fifth grade, and I could have any type of presenter come, whom would I have come? I wish I could say my first thought was yeah, someone to explain money, which is what I was already doing. But it wasn’t. It was someone to help me remember better –math, science and names.
I thought if I had that problem, maybe other kids are having that problem. I did some market research by calling a bunch of my friends that had kids anywhere from seven to seventeen years old. I said, “Do your kids have this problem?” The universal response was, “Oh my gosh, yes. They can’t remember anything from schoolwork to bringing home the parent signature that they have to have the paper signed for their field trip, to pick up their clothes. I tell them hey we’re going to do this on Saturday. Then an hour later, they’ll come back and say, hey what are we doing Saturday because they were completely forgotten.”
So I thought well I might have something here. I just sketched out a few of the things that wanted to do with the show. I realized the way to present this is to make it fun. I can’t just go in and lecture kids, because kids don’t want to be lectured. I’ve got to make it fun.
Why The Fun Is In The Pudding (With The Proof)
To make it fun, I really have to demonstrate that I know what I’m doing. I have to be able to do kind of some phenomenal feats of memory. That means that I need to improve my memory, because I don’t like just to preach. I want to walk the talk.
How Brad Zupp Went From Bad To Great In Record Time
I said, “I need to make sure this works.” It coincided with me turning forty, and my already bad memory in some areas getting worse. I thought okay this is great. I’ve got this idea for a school show. My memory is getting horrible as I turn forty. I still can’t remember numbers. I still can’t remember. Let me make sure this works.
I don’t want to be going into schools and telling kids yeah do this and then have a horrible memory. I want to have an outstanding memory. I want to go from bad to great and say it worked for me. Here’s how I did it. It can work for you.
So I threw myself into memory training. Shortly after I kind of started with this stuff, I remembered reading an article about a memory competition. So I on a lark signed up for that, went and did relatively well for someone with no training. That kind of started my love affair with memory competitions as well, which we can talk about if you want.
Eventually, I got good enough at the memory feats where I felt I could present it in a school, impress the kids and show them that I’m not just some guy talking. I’m some guy who knows what he’s talking about and can do it.
I continued writing the show. I started practicing the show in little bits and pieces. I started memorizing the names of students when I would go into schools for my personal finance show. Gradually over a couple years got better at it and good enough at it where I could actually do the show. It took off from there.
Anthony: So a large part of this was learning to teach.
Secret Memory Improvement Ingredient: Be Driven By The Passion To Help Others
Brad: Yes, I mean, as you’ve shown, we have to be able to do this. There are a lot of memory people out there. I would say almost all of them, maybe a few aren’t keeping up with it, but almost all are really passionate about not just helping others, but also making sure their minds stay sharp as they get older.
Finding the deficiencies where were they struggle and saying, “Well I’m a memory guy. I should be able to fix this. What would I do if I had a coaching client that said I’m having trouble with this? Well, I’d tell them to do this. I’m going to do that. Look, it’s fixed. It does work.” The next time we have a coaching client, or someone asks us for advice, we can say yeah that happened to me and I fixed it. Here’s how you can to.
Anthony: Right and I think that’s a great way of going about it. I would say that’s almost a scientific way of going about it. You are analyzing the issue, trying something out, checking the results and then improving from there or just going with what works. Would that be sort of a fair assessment?
You Don’t Have To Be A Scientist To Benefit From Performing Memory Experiments On Yourself
Brad: I think so. I don’t usually think of myself as a scientist, but I certainly experimented on myself through this whole process. Because for me, it’s not enough to read the scientists say this, or the scientists say that, or another memory guy I once read said this or said that, I really have to prove it for myself.
If someone says well this works, well I’ll try it. The things I’ve continue to show others are the things that have worked for me. I do keep in the back of my mind, as I think you’ve said with a couple things in your podcast, this this may not work for you. This is how it works for me, but here are some other ways that don’t work for me that might work for you. It’s important whether it’s a yoga class or a dance class or whatever to say, okay if you’re having trouble with this part, do it this way. Oh yeah, that works for me.
It’s important to know what works for other people as well. But for me, it really has to work for me or I can see how it could work for me if my situation were little bit different before I’m on to share it with someone else.
Anthony: I think we’re having a great shift in education due to the Internet. So we’ve had an authoritative education system where people really needed someone to say this is how you do it, these are the steps and now follow them one, two, three. Where we’re now online and we’re getting a much more demonstrative education system or education networks that are people really living out what they want to learn and then just showing their journey and opening doors into many possible avenues.
That seems to me to have a lot of pros but it also has the cons of no real authoritative guidance. As someone who teaches young people, what do you think is, if there is, the ultimate point of entry to memory techniques? Specifically, for young people and if it’s universal to everybody, what would that be or what would be a better point of entry for adults to memory techniques?
How To Understand Need Versus Desire When Seeking Memory Improvement
Brad: Well that’s a good question. For me, in my life with anything there has always been both a need and desire. So I might desire to learn to speak French because I’m going to go to Paris for a week’s vacation. But if I don’t really need to learn how to speak French, well I always have my phone, I can I was type something in the phone, it will give me a translation and they’ll speak English anyway, then there’s no learning.
If I have a need, like I really need to learn some minutiae about computer programming or something, but I don’t really want to, I could probably hire someone to do it instead. Yeah, I’m going to do that. If there’s a need but no real desire, I don’t learn either.
So for me it’s need and desire. I think it’s a typical bell curve. Usually, at least in my experience at schools, there’s a group that knows they need it because their grades are suffering, and they want to have better grades. So they’re receptive.
Then there’s a bunch that their grades are suffering and they don’t really care. Maybe their home life isn’t supportive of getting better grades or they just don’t see the benefit of it. They’re really not motivated to learn.
There’s another group that they already get good grades. They’ve somehow stumbled upon either our techniques or a way that they have done it themselves and it just works. They don’t think about how to remember they just read a couple times and for some reason they got lucky and it sticks. So they don’t really see a need.
So I think need and desire when they combine. If someone is out of shape physically and their doctor tells them well you know you should probably lose ten or fifteen pounds is that often enough. Not usually in my experience, but when the doctor says that and you know the kids say that and they have a heart attack scare, then it’s usually time to make a change in our lives.
Does a Healthy Body = A Healthy Memory?
So I equate a lot with the same question about physical health improvement. What’s the point of entry for that? Because we see are we see our bodies in the mirror every day, and for the last sixty years or so, fifty, sixty years since the mid-sixties, early seventies we’ve been told eat better, exercise, do this, do that, floss, brush your teeth, see the doctor, all these things. There are still people who don’t take care of themselves physically.
I think it’s an even harder uphill battle to say let’s take care of ourselves mentally, because we can get away with faking it, outsourcing our memories to our phones and going oh yeah I remember your face better forgotten your name. Oh, I have a horrible memory and everybody goes along with that. We do that for years until all the sudden we’re much too early being faced with memory being a real problem.
At that point, it’s even harder to kind of pick up the pieces and start learning these techniques. They still work. It’s just at that point, it’s kind of like instead of being twenty pounds overweight, it’s being two hundred pounds overweight and now it’s time to start exercising. It’s just a lot harder to get there.
Memory Techniques 101 With Brad Zupp
Anthony: There’s so much in what you just said that I want to unpack, but the thing I really want to leap on first is that you use the phrase “our memory techniques,” which to me is a beautiful way of phrasing that. But how would you describe our memory techniques more specifically.
Brad: I think to me the techniques come down to what many of us talk about and what you talk about, and then we all put our specific spin on them. Basically, converting the information into a picture, associating it with something you already know so you can then reclaim it easily and reviewing it on occasion to it to tell your mind basically hey this this part’s important let’s transfer this into long term-memory. Then we put our particular spin on it.
My little spin is making sure people identify where they’re going wrong first, because back to the physical. If you want to look like more physically fit with your upper body, it’s important to do a full body workout but do you really want to be doing squats for hours on end if you want to have larger biceps. No. You want to do arm exercises if you want to have larger biceps. You may do squats occasionally to stay kind of whole body healthy.
The Need For Specific Memory Training Arises When …
But if you want something specific, you need to do a specific type of training. So if you’re having trouble, you think you have a bad memory, you need to identify the problem. Is my problem getting the information? Am I not focusing well enough? Am I multitasking? Am I not pay attention to what my kids say and that’s why I can’t remember what they told me yesterday?
Am I getting the information? I pay really close attention but my mind is so disorganized that it goes in there and there’s really no system for holding onto that. It’s just kind of just everything gets piled up in there. It’s kind of like piling everything up in a closet.
Yeah, you can get it out of there, but if you need to get something quickly and you don’t know if that the top of the pile or the bottle pile or the middle pile you’re throwing things around trying to find it, you’re not going to get it. If your problem is that, you really need to focus on finding a method to organize your mind and your storage.
You’re concentrating well. You’re getting the information. You’ve stored it well, but when you’re put on the spot, you blank out and you can’t recall the information. But soon as the person walks away, you go, “Oh, his name is Anthony!” and it’s too late. If that’s your problem, you need to work on that.
Find Out Where You’re Going Wrong
My particular take on it is identifying where things are going wrong, helping people figure that out and directing them toward that. But I think our memory techniques pretty much go back thousands of years to placing interesting, crazy, memorable pictures in a certain order or location using Memory Palace technique, linking them together or just associating the question with the answer. You know going back to students. I know you work a lot with students and vocabulary words for foreign languages.
You know you don’t necessarily need a Memory Palace for that, though that can work in certain circumstances, but if you can just associate the English word with the German word. If you can picture the two them together and create an outlandish image, you’ll have that. You will have that bridge to long-term memory.
Anthony: This raises an interesting question because for me the number Memory Palace is essential to memorizing vocabulary. Just as a quick example. I was in Tel Aviv and recently got back. Just as you mentioned that, I just thought of phrase that I learned there which is “Where’s the washroom?”
When I learned that, I used the spot that I was in right there as a Memory Palace. I placed that image right there which gives me an additional chance to find that image in my mind. That’s one of the major powers of the Memory Palace and why I advocate and use it so much myself. Because now it’s almost ten days since that I first learnt that and I can still recall it just by having revisited a few times.
Brad Zupp’s Harry Loryane/Japanese Connection
I raise the point or I jump on the point also because I want to go out on a limb. In additional research that I was doing with you, and not having taken any notes, if I remember correctly you have some history with Japanese.
Brad: Yes.
Anthony: Something was connected with Harry Lorayne there.
Brad: Yes, that’s true.
Anthony: I would love if you would tell that story a little bit and talk about any language learning experience that you have with memory techniques and if you tried a Memory Palace and how you would see building out a vocabulary memorization approach on master phrases or what’s your language learning story with mnemonics?
Brad: My language-learning story with mnemonics is exactly what you correctly recalled, very well done. After my struggles as a student, really the next time I delved into memory improvement was when I was working in Japan. I was there seven different times over the course of five and a half years, seven different trips for a total of about three years living there. The first trip was ten days or so. Then a month or two went by and I was going back. I was going back for six months.
I’m a big proponent of if you’re going somewhere we should make the effort at least to learn some of the language, as much as we can. That was daunting at the time. I said, well I need help with this. It was Japanese. Everybody perceives as a very hard language to learn.
“It’s Just Pure Memorization” …
I went to the college bookstore and I got a book, a basic how to speak Japanese book and learn Japanese. I also found a book at a bookstore by Harry Lorayne about memory improvement in general. It really piqued my interest because there was a there’s a whole chapter on memorizing foreign languages. I’m like that’s great.
I don’t have time to do this now, but I’m going to be there for six months. When I get there, I’ll have lots of spare time. I will take these two books and I will learn as much as I can. A week or so into it I got out both the books. Reading just the Japanese book here’s how you say this and here’s how you say this. It was a pronunciation guide with some simple vocabulary. This is just like any language, there’s really no sense, especially if it’s not a Roman type language, there’s really no sense to it.
It’s like why does that equal that. It doesn’t sound alike. It doesn’t start with the right letter. There’s no rhyme or reason. This is just pure memorization. Well thank goodness I brought this book. I read Harry Lorayne’s book.
It said you want to do this, if you want to learn this, do this. So I started basically picturing a word in English and then finding that word in Japanese, translating it as you suggest a lot in your training, and we have that in common. I think you take it to a better level of breaking the word down into things that I can picture, syllable by syllable if necessary.
It’s better if I can do a bigger chunk, but if I have to picture more that’s fine. If I have to take it two letters at a time, whatever, I can make a picture out of that. So I started picturing and connecting them together. I think it was kind of bad. I don’t even think I read the rest of the Harry Lorayne book. I just read that section.
Hold The Presses: You Might Not Even Need A Memory Palace!
I didn’t learn about Memory Palaces. It wasn’t even in my vocabulary at the time. I just said I’m going to picture this word in English. I am going to picture of these syllables in Japanese. I am going to create a funny picture together and go.
I have these cute little things in Japan. I don’t know if you have seen them. You will see them in your travels. They are like a little key ring and a tiny little flash card not even the size of like half of my finger. You write down on one side the one word, on the other side the other word and it’s a little key ring you get like fifty or a hundred of these at a time.
I just got a bunch of them and I started filling one of these up a day. In between writing out the Japanese word and the English word, picturing the crazy combination, and then reviewing them and testing myself at the end of the day, I was learning fifty to a hundred vocabulary words a day. Language experts I’ve read often say that to be conversationally fluent you need about two thousand words. If you learn a hundred words a day, it doesn’t take that long to get conversationally fluent.
People were spellbound, the Japanese people I was working for, and the English-speaking people I was working with. At the end of the first week when I had four or five hundred vocabulary words, they are going how are you learning to speak Japanese. How are you doing that?
Why Memory Techniques Are Easy – Even For Japanese
They were saying you’re a genius. I’m like no, I’m not a genius, trust me. I’m like here. Let me let me show you. See with this word I pictured this, and then I pictured this. They were like oh, that’s pretty easy. I would teach them five or ten words and they learn them.
That’s where it comes back to earlier discussion about the need and desire. They didn’t really have the need because we had interpreters, nor did they really have the desire. The technique was there, the concept was there, but they never bothered to pursue it because it wasn’t important to them.
But for me, I am a vegetarian. I’ve been a vegetarian since shortly before I went to Japan. This was essential. I needed to know how to say fish, how to say meat. How to say I can’t eat this. I can’t eat this. Does this have fish broth in it? Is this pork? I needed to know all that stuff as quickly as possible. The translators and interpreters didn’t go out for dinner with us. I needed to be able to say please bring me this type of thing.
So there was a real need and a desire there. That’s how I picked it up. After the first month or so, I was answering the phone in our office room in Japanese. The Japanese people that were calling would say, “Is so and so there?” I was like no she left. Okay, will you give her the message when she comes back? Here’s the message and thinking I was a Japanese person.
I’d take down the message and the Japanese person would come back in. I would say so and so called (all in Japanese) and this is what they said to tell you. The first time that happened, she picked up the phone and called. It was one of our higher-level bosses and he was confused. He said well whom did I talk to? She said well you talked to Brad.
He said, she related it to me later, she said Brad the American, well not the American, the foreigner. She said yeah. She said no you’re wrong. I spoke to a Japanese person. No, you spoke with Brad. Really! They were just amazed. Especially, back at that time in the late 1990s, that an American, a foreigner could learn to speak their language that well that quickly.
I’m not a genius. I totally attribute it to Harry Lorayne’s teaching and the Japanese textbook I got and just needing and desire to get it done.
The True Definition Of Genius
Anthony: I think there is genius in actually taking action and following through. Just to share a little bit of my own story. I’ve never been mistaken for being a Chinese speaker, but in two and a half months, I went to China. I was able to say to my future father-in-law that I liked his daughter very much and asked his permission to marry her in Chinese. He knew what I was saying. It’s just desire, as you’re saying, and action. But I think the genius is in actually following through, taking action and then having techniques that get you the result you want. I myself would call you a genius for doing that.
Brad: For that part, but not for the other parts. You could ask my wife if I’m a genius. But see, you get into a good point there. We were talking about the educational system earlier. That’s the really tricky part, because here in America we have common core, and the last, even before common core the last several years if not the last decade or two there’s been a real discussion about whether memorizing is important. When I went to school, we had to memorize certain speeches. We had to memorize poems.
I go to some schools still to this day where they make memorizing an important part. Where in fifth grade usually in the early spring, March or April, they have to do – in in higher education we call it thesis – but it’s not that in depth but basically, an in depth book report about a topic. Then they have to get up in front of their class, just their class, not the whole school, just their class of twenty to thirty other students, and talk for five to ten minutes about their topic and what they’ve learned. Not just off the cuff, but they have to give a speech.
The Two Things That Terrify People Most About Giving Speeches
That terrifies people because they can’t remember their speech, (a) because of the pressure, and (b) because they don’t memorize. A lot of students and from what I hear, the parents push back and say memorization isn’t important. We have computers. We have our phones. We can Google anything we want. Facts aren’t essential. This is stupid. We don’t need to teach kids to do memorization.
That’s kind of something I get once in a while when someone will call about my school show. They will say well I really want it because my kid struggles with remembering, but you got to help me sell this to the other parents in the parent teacher organization or to the principal because we don’t ask kids to memorize things anymore.
Memorizing facts, memorizing formulas isn’t important. Knowing how to use the formula is important, but we don’t say memorize this formula and use it on the test. We say here’s the formula. Do you understand the math concept behind it enough to get the correct answer? Show us your work.
I think both are valid, but for me the essential part is that while we may not need to memorize facts the way we used. Well any fact, because it’s relatively easy, my phone I can just enter “what’s the population of Denmark?” How many whatever is in whatever? I don’t need to know that. So there’s an argument to be made for that.
Why Memory Is About So Much More Than Facts
But memory is about so much more than facts. I know I’m preaching to the choir here with you because as you know this as well. But for others who may have considered that, memory is the feel of the air as summer turns to fall, remembering that. Remembering to look not just in the rearview mirror as you change lanes, but to turn your head and look as well. It’s the smile of a friend or a loved one. It’s the directions on how to get home if your phone battery dies.
We use our GPS on our phone to get to where we’re going. What if the battery dies or the connection is gone. Can we find our way back? It’s not just here’s a bunch of facts. Memorize this. Oh, those memory technique techniques might be important. We can use a Memory Palace or visualizing something we need to remember, not just with facts but also with anything in life.
I think all of life is a comedy. I do to some comedy in my act, and I like to consider myself somewhat funny when I’m not talking very seriously. The basis of comedy is being able to associate things and come up with a twist. You take thing A and you take thing B because in your mind, you’ve connected them and it’s a funny connection. Then you share that and you get a laugh because people have not connected A and B.
The Most Important Part Of Memory Training
So you have to be able to have both A and B somewhere in your memory to then bring your sense of humor to bear and make that connection and share it. If you can’t keep things in your mind, you can’t make those connections. I think that’s the essential part of any memory training.
Yeah, we can learn foreign languages. We can learn all these things, but just being able to keep things in mind whatever they are, whether they are facts that you that you can easily look up on Google or whether there are things that you need to keep in mind just because they’re valuable to you. The exercising of the mind is the important part.
Anthony: Absolutely. And again, there’s so much in what you just said, and I want to pre-book you for the next interview because there’s just so much to cover if you’re willing.
Brad: Definitely, this is my passion. I love talking about it. To people my age, I think were of a certain age, once you’re over forty, and I get people coming up to me going oh I could never do what you do. That’s amazing. My memory is horrible. As you and I have proven individually and with the many, many thousands of people we’ve helped, as well as other memory coaches have helped, it’s totally possible. This can be done. We don’t have to accept the natural decline as we get older.
The Ultimate Decision Is In Your Hands
But it does take effort. I’m not even sure it takes all that much effort. I think it mostly takes just a decision to try.
Anthony: I think the most exciting thing for me in helping people is that they’re memorizing stuff anyway no matter what. It’s just how are you going to do it. How are you going to pay attention to how you’re already doing it and then make some slight modifications and shifts based on an education about how you’re remembering things already anyway?
Brad: Definitely, but I do see, maybe this is getting a little bit off track, but I know you like to think about these things as well. I do see a lot of people leaning away from wanting to learn anything in general. I stumbled upon a group, and I’ve gotten really connected with a group of late twenty somethings, early thirty somethings.
How many of them, they are five to ten years out of college, brag about thank goodness I’m out of school. I never have to read another book, which to me is alarming.
Okay, say you don’t want to read a nonfiction book. Really? You don’t want to read a fiction book? But especially the number of people I talk to who are passionate about reading, you say, oh no, I only read science fiction, or I only read romance, or I only read thrillers. I can’t wait for the next Tom Clancy or the John Grisham book. But no, I don’t want to read nonfiction. Why would I want to do that? I’m not in school anymore.
The True Path To An Educated Life
To me just the idea of underlying the memory, taking it back a step further is the willingness to experience more of the world, and one aspect of that are books. Another is travel. I know you are a big traveler. I live in upstate New York. I live about three and a half to four hours outside of New York City. It’s a semi-rural area. There are probably a million people surrounding Albany, which is the state capital of New York. But out here, I’m about an hour outside of Albany itself.
I can’t tell you the number of people who when I tell him oh I’m going here for a memory competition or I’m going to go down to New York City for this or that. Oh really, I’ve never been. Oh where? You’ve never been to China. Oh no, New York City. Well you’re three and a half hours away and you’ve never been to New York City? Oh no. Well where were you been? Well nowhere really.
I think for some people that is fine. But I think that disturbs me in many ways because I don’t think that person is going to be open and receptive to expanding their mind with memory techniques of any sort. Whether it’s the simplest here’s how you pay more attention so your natural memory takes over, to maybe the next step up of here create a few simple Memory Palaces.
When you’re driving down the road you hear a new song and you want to remember the artist, you know picture the name of the artist in the passenger seat of your car and when you get home you can you know look her up because you will remember her name. I think people who are closed off about things like travel or reading, I think that excuse is going to extend to being closed off with learning simple, very simple techniques that can help them remember better.
The Unkown Future Of Memory
Anthony: I’m actually really glad that you went in that direction, because as unanticipated as it was it connects with some things that are in the air that I’d love quickly to tell you about.
Brad: Yes please.
Anthony: The first is that I interviewed Tony Buzan last week. He was talking about similar things of this nature. So people listening to this they will have had the chance to hear that about a week or two weeks before that they hear this interview they’re hearing now. I think you personally are going to be fascinated with what he has to say. It’s near the end of the interview we get into some kind of dark territory. I was quite surprised but with a big hopeful bang at the end, no hopeful whimpering but just amazing Tony Buzan sized bang.
The other thing is when I was in Tel Aviv with Jonathan Levi, which is where I interviewed Buzan from although he was in the UK, I was sitting with some friends and we were talking about you know the coming explosion of singularity and all of this jazz. They were saying you know machines are going to create our art for us, and the machines are going to do this and that for us.
I said, “Yeah and are they going to gamble for us too?” I was kind of being sarcastic in that moment. But for me, the reason that I work so hard at teaching these memory techniques is because I think that we are moving into a place where the human mind is going to become so soft. Those of us who have trained our brains and our minds are going to be the ones who have at least that last hold on owning the machines that may or may not create the art for us.
Because we’re going to be the ones who not only can still create our own art, but we’re going to own something, and we’re going to be influential on the things that are influential on us rather than just being a consumer. I was just wondering in a loose jazzy kind of way, what you think about all that connecting with what you’ve been saying.
Brad: I agree. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie Wall-E?
Anthony: Yes.
Brad: In the movie Wall-E, it’s a great movie, humanity has escaped earth, which has suffered and is uninhabitable. They’re in a starship and everything is done for them by machines. So they have nice comfy chairs they recline in. A machine brings them or a robot brings them their soda drink, their food, their entertainment and they’re glued to their screens, which is not that far from current reality.
Obviously, they are pictured being physically soft. What’s not as well pictured in that movie is the mental softness. I fear us going there. I fear us getting to the place where we don’t really need to put that much effort into thinking. We have in America, we probably don’t need to get into, but we have a lot of people talk about having a warrior class because there are many wonderful people dedicated to defending our country.
Some of them have expressed to me that they feel under-appreciated because the rest of society moves on and the small group of people who are dedicated to serving their country have become their own their own caste. It is often passed down from generation to generation where father is in the military, the daughter goes into the military and then her daughter goes in the military. That’s kind of a distinct area now where those people are very dedicated to that. I’m grateful for them.
Will You Belong To The Intellectual Caste?
It just got me thinking along the lines of are we getting to an intellectual caste where there’s a small but very dedicated group of people who are really focused on thinking basically and learning, and absolving the rest of us from having to do too much of that. Kind of like there’s, I think less so, but even an athletic caste where there’s a lot of people who are really truly dedicated to physical fitness like the Olympics.
How many of us watch the Olympics, which are wonderful, and use it for inspiration to get out in the next couple days and go do something physical ourselves? How many of us watch the Olympics and sit for four, five, six, seven hours at night and never use that as a motivational tool to do something ourselves.
So I think these are philosophical questions more so than memory questions, but they’re interesting to think about, and I like thinking about this. I like reading for a variety of different approaches and topics and viewpoints. I don’t think there’s one right answer but it’s certainly something to keep in mind and decide individually. Who do I want to be?
I, in particular, don’t need to be the smartest person. I could probably do more nonfiction reading, but I try to lead read at least one nonfiction book a month and think. I like to listen to books on tape, especially nonfiction books on tape when I’m driving to and from my presentations. That’s not for everybody and more power to them.
The Power Of Focus
But I think it really shows what we’ve put our focus on grows. If we’re very focused on physical fitness, our physical fitness gets better. If we’re focused on creating art, our artwork tends to get better. If we are focused on creating more connection amongst other people, deeper relationships, bringing people together that grows. So I think that maybe being a little bit of all things is better than being just a memory person or just a physical person.
Anthony: All amazing thoughts and you remind me of my idea that I really need to get back and read Republic again. I don’t know if you’ve read it, Plato’sRepublic.
Brad: I have not.
Anthony: It touches on these ideas of caste like the bronze people and the silver people and the gold people, and there’s a lot in there about who is going to rule and why, and the Philosopher King idea. If I recall it correctly, it’s been since 2001 or even earlier, maybe 1999, since I read it.
The Republic has a lot to do with the difference between being able to juggle information in your mind because you’ve memorized poetry and you understand poetry. You’ve learned poetry or philosophical texts because they want to get rid of the poets in the Republic. It’s kind of a mixed bag that book, because it’s not even clear what they’re saying about whether poets should be allowed to write or not.
But nonetheless there is something in there that if you have internalized poetry and the lessons in poetry or literature and so forth, then you are much more suited to being one of the ruling class people, or the gold people. I am really exposing my memory loss on that book. But it’s in that direction and I want to reread it. Maybe that’s something fun we could do is to book a time to both read it, and then have a discussion about it through the lens of memory because it’s well worth your time to read the Republic.
Why Memory Techniques Are A Means To An End
Brad: Definitely, I really like how you said that. It brought to mind is the connections. With me, the memory techniques are not necessarily an end to themselves. They are a means to an end. The end is having a very active mind both now and in the future, as I get older. In staying physically fit, which I work on in a variety of ways, but also mentally fit.
The same way we have kids hopefully getting recess, gym or physical fitness class as they get into the later grades. That gets less time devoted to it. Here in America we have a lot of TV ads that encourage kids to get out and exercise or play physically for an hour a day at least. We’re encouraging that because we all know the benefits that come into a physically healthy body.
I think reading and just thinking about these things and going oh, Plato didn’t know what he was talking about, that’s complete bunk, hated the book. But in reading it, whether we love the book or hate it, just you know putting something else in our brain to think about creates more connections.
We go okay that kind of reminded me of what my friend in high school said. Then, you know that reminds me of what my boss mentioned the other day. I don’t know how this relates but oh you know they’re kind of somehow makes me think of this. We get all these connections. We have a physically active mind that’s thinking and it’s not doing the Wall-E movie where we’re just kicking back in our chair not thinking.
Because I notice, as I get older, that it’s harder to want to focus on things. It’s harder to want to exercise my mind. I mean it’s my job. I really need to do this and even for me for the last year or so as I get closer to fifty, I see that I’m less inclined really to want to buckle down and focus.
How It Feels To Have An Aged Memory
Talking with my in-laws who are both in their late eighties, they’ve told me about as they’ve aged what their minds have been like. So it’s been wonderful to kind of ask them, well how do you feel? How do you think now? What are you thinking? What are you remembering?
They are very much interested in big picture, and they do have their passions, gardening and some politics and they will learn some detail. But overall, they are kind of big picture people and they need don’t drill down, buckle down and truly focus.
I think it’s really interesting how that happens. I’m cognizant of what’s going on in my own mind and willing to look at that and see what’s going on.
Anthony: That’s one thing that I have certainly loved about what you do and in interviews that I’ve heard with you elsewhere talking about your inner process, your inner experience. That forms part of how you get it out or why that you get out into competitions and I do want to get into that. But I think we should save that for another interview.
But to sort of bridge, what I would love to ask to kind of round off a lot of the things that we’ve been talking about, particularly the issue you raised about the pedagogical concern between is memorizing learning? Part of competition is memorizing a deck of cards. I have competed once myself. I surprised myself by both how well and poorly I did.
But there was something that happened when I did it that made me understand what it is to memorize a deck of cards. So I would like to know, given what we have mentioned about this pedagogical concern of is memorizing information, understanding and is it learning, I would like to wrap this particular interview up as a bridge to talking about competition in at the beginning of our next to our chat. What have you understood by memorizing cards?
The Truth About Memorizing A Deck Of Cards
Brad: I take cards and the other disciplines that I’ve worked on, as basically, to go back to the physical analogy, they are weights. They are barbells. They are dumbbells. They are Nautilus and other brand machines.
Memorizing a deck cards is similar to bench pressing. It’s a way for me to increase my ability to remember other things that are actually important to me. Again, whether it’s something my wife said that oh, there’s a new song out she loves. Okay, you know I am want to listen to that. I am going to go online. I’m going to find the video and I’m going to listen to that and see the video or hear it because if it’s important to her it’s important to me.
I am not the best competitor in the world because I don’t see it as the end. It’s, again, another means to the end of being able to exercise my mind. So is memorizing learning? I think it can be, but I think just because I know the steps to do something because I’ve memorized them, doesn’t mean I understand it well or could even do it. So I think memorizing is learning and memorizing is not learning.
I think memorizing can help us and certainly knowing more allows us to do more of the connections in our minds. Like I have mentioned before, you can’t you can’t on Friday talk to a child about the realities of World War II if on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday they don’t remember who you told them fought in World War II. So there has to be the foundation before the higher-level discussions.
I think having a base of knowledge of reading books and meeting people and remembering how the sun changes over the course of the year because you’re outside a lot. Oh yeah, it’s grayer and darker in the winter. I remember that, having that base that allows us to form higher-level thoughts and have higher-level discussions. Without that base, it’s not as much fun.
I mean talk to a child or a young person who hasn’t traveled or hasn’t learned. It’s not as much fun as having a conversation with someone who’s traveled the world at whatever age and learned a lot of stuff, because it creates a depth of mind, a depth of thought that is for me personally a lot more fun to talk about and talk to.
Brad Zupp Leaves Us With The Feeling That With Memory Improvement Anything Is Possible!
Anthony: Absolutely, and to bring this full circle you do have a foundation for people who are dealing with younger students and that’s Unlock Your Amazing Memory: The Fun Guide That Shows Grades 5 To 8 How To Remember Better And Make School Easier. I want to encourage everybody to pick that up. I have a full review of this book by Brad Zupp on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast if you have any doubts about rushing to Amazon or your favorite book dealer to grab that.
Brad: It’s much less deep than what we’ve gotten into today. It’s a very lighthearted, fun, simple book without a lot of jargon or technical things. It just very clearly and simply states how memory works and how we can improve it especially for the young people. I get a lot of people that I present to who are adults who claim they bought it for their child or their grandkid, but I read it first and I loved it. I had to get another copy for them because I’m keeping mine.
We got into a lot of really deep stuff today and just to assure any listeners there’s very little philosophy or anything like that. It’s just a really fun helpful book.
Anthony: Absolutely. As Tim Ferriss often says on his podcast when he gets into these conversations, he says we got deep into the weeds. That is perfectly fine and wonderful, but what’s coming up next for you. I understand that there are some books for a more adult audience. Is there going to be jargon in that or is it also going to be clear and easy to understand for us adults?
Brad: I pride myself on being jargon free. I’m not a scientist. There are neuroscientists who have written some many wonderful books about how the brain actually does things. What I’m good at is saying this is how my brain did it, and how when I helped other people what happened with them and what seems to work best. Give it a shot. If that doesn’t work, try this. If that doesn’t work, try this because one of these things is really going to help you improve your memory.
So there are two books coming out. I won’t get too into them, but one is going to be for a specific career, type of career, and another one is going to be a more general type of book. That will not be too jargon filled. In fact, it will be a fun book similar to my kids’ book but fun for adults.
I have a memory competition coming up in November. I’m going to be doing some teaching at a university in September as a as a guest lecturer, I guess at the end of September or October. In September, depending on when people are listening to this, I’m going to be attempting a world record, which I don’t want to say more about now. But hopefully by the time your listeners hear this, or September comes along, I’ll have set a new world record on memory.
Anthony: Well I want to catch up on that then in November or December and hear everything about it. Just on a personal note to you, I really admire your writing style. I loved Unlock Your Amazing Memory. It helped me in several ways just because every book that I read on memory techniques, particularly the well done ones, I always pick up something new. But in your case in particular, because you write so well, so clearly and with such great direction, it inspired me to pick up my own game.
I’m always working to be a better writer, because in reality I’m not a particularly good one especially when it comes to explaining difficult things. So it is inspired me to pick up my game as a writer. I really appreciate it on that account as well because there’s obviously a lot of care and craft in how that you present these ideas. I know, as a writer, it is not easy to be jargon free. The clarity that you bring is incredible. Again, Unlock Your Amazing Memory is great.
I can’t wait to hear more about the record that you’re going to break and the new books and catch up on everything that we’ve talked about. I have a list of questions that we haven’t even looked at because we just hit the ground running. I know people are going to love this.
So we both, I think, agree that we encourage you to read. So that will be there for you to check out. I really want to thank you for being on the show. Any last words of wisdom from your perspective for people who are suffering with forgetfulness and want to get that out of their life.
Brad:Whether it’s my book, your course, Anthony, or anybody else’s, I just encourage people to look around and take advantage of Anthony’s free videos. Check out my book or anything, even just a Google search on the Internet, because as both you and I Anthony have discovered, shown and taught, memory can be improved and it can be easy and even fun to do so.
Anthony: Absolutely. Those are excellent words. Thank you again, and I look forward to speaking next time.
If You Don’t Know Tony Buzan And His Mind Map Technique, Here’s How To Learn Faster and Remember Everything!
Actually, it’s unlikely that you haven’t heard of Tony Buzan before.
But even if you’ve never heard of Tony Buzan, this is almost certainly true:
Your life has been touched by someone whose creativity and intelligence was revived by the ideas, processes and incredible inspiration found only in the Buzan troposphere, stratosphere and infinite universe of imagination and inventiveness beyond.
Either way, today’s your lucky day, because you’re about to learn:
How Tony Buzan transformed himself from thinking he was stupid to knowing he is extraordinary. (You’ll be modeling this simple tactic before you know it.)
How to create an imagination so valuable that you would never sell it – not even for a trillion dollars!
How to use your mind to deal with the dark times. No matter how deep the valleys go, with Tony Buzan’s approach, they still can be fascinating and even fun.
… and much, much more.
In this interview, Tony Buzan also reveals one of his personal heroes and gives clues on how to maximize the power of your own. We talk about threats to the future and exactly how you are already equipped to deal with anything and everything that could ever come your way.
Make sure to download the MP3 to your desktop and revisit this episode often. You can also download a PDF of the transcript and go over it using the same speed reading skills you’ve learned from the master himself. I recommend that you print out a copy and share it with your friends.
Plus, don’t forget World Mind Mapping Day. Here’s a beautiful and amazing mind map about it created by Phil Chambers:
Tony Buzan On The Paradise Of Multiple Intelligences
Anthony: Tony, thank you so much for being on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. It’s been in the making for a while. I’m really excited, actually, that we have done it after I had a chance to meet you and attend one of your trainings, which was so pivotal for me even after some time in the world of memory training. It was just a delight and an honor to learn from you directly. So thank you for being here.
Tony: Well, thank you for being on my course, and thank you for having read so many of my books. Thank you for being such a good beacon really for other people who need to follow the development of their own mental literacy and the empowerment of their memories, their mind mapping skills, their reading, speed reading, their study skills, and their mind-body coordination. You are a lovely example.
Anthony: Well thank you very saying that. It kind of circles back to you, because I remember in high school first just being fascinated by your name and the covers of your book, and they’re really adventures to get into once you’re in there. They are so unique because of that. I know that there are ideas behind how you even design your books to make them feel that way. It’s just amazing how the world works and how fate puts you in certain places.
“I trained myself very cleverly to become stupid, and I was very successful.”
Tony: It does doesn’t it. It’s almost odd that when I was in school I didn’t like schoolwork. I didn’t like homework. I didn’t like taking notes. I didn’t like studying. So you would think that the person who has written books on studying and thinking would have loved it, but he didn’t. That is actually the beginning of my journey, because I had begun to realize that the way that I was being taught in my school, like in many other hundreds of thousands of schools, I was being taught in a way that turned me off my brain, tuned my brain out. I tuned it out very well. I trained myself very cleverly to become stupid, and I was very successful.
Anthony: Talk about that. What do you define as stupid and how did that feel?
Tony: I think probably stupid, which is a word that ideally should not need to be used anywhere, means being unable to use the natural skills and intelligences with which the brain is gifted. We are, i.e., we humans are astonishingly brilliant, beautifully multiply intelligent.
When the brain is given misinformation, because it learns so fast and when it believes people who tell it what it is, when they are told things that are wrong and they believe them, then they train themselves to become less intelligent. I did that brilliantly.
The Only Stupid Thought Tony Buzan Has Ever Had
It was aggravating because I had dreamt of being bright. I had dreamt of being successful. I wanted to be. Yet I would do poorly on certain exams. I couldn’t remember the dates in history. I couldn’t remember the formulas in chemistry and physics. I began to think I was stupid. That perhaps was the only stupid thought I had.
We are all basically naturally brilliant and it started me on the journey. When I began slowly to realize I am actually brighter than I think I am, that my studying methodology was not only not helpful, it was the opposite of being successful. It helped me get worse and worse.
Anthony: What was the tipping point that enabled you to have a change of mind and set you on the path to thinking more positively and starting to learn in a more optimal way and then design optimal learning strategies?
Tony: There were a number of tipping points. One was my best friend. We were seven years old and my best friend and I only loved nature. That was our main hobby. My best friend could identify the flight patterns of any butterflies or birds. He could identify them with machine gun like accuracy. That’s a sparrow. That’s a cabbage white butterfly.
But, in school, he was called stupid because he was illiterate, he was innumerate, he was dyslexic. But I didn’t know those terms existed. He was just my brilliant friend. I began to think, hold on. How can they possibly be calling this best friend of mine stupid, and sometimes calling me quite bright when I knew that he knew more than I knew about nature? So that was turning point one.
Where Not To Look For Your Brain’s Operating Manual
Another major tipping point was the fact that when I was at university I went into the library, because I was panicking about exams. I thought I’d go find out how to use my brain. I walked in the library, and I said to the librarian, “I need a book on how to use my brain.” She pointed to the medical section and said the medical section is over there. I thought what? I don’t want to take my brain out. I don’t want to operate on it. I want to know how to operate it. She said there are no books on that. That made me think … what?
Whatever I buy, whether it’s a pack of aspirins, or a little radio, or a washing machine, or a car, what am going to get? I am going to get an operations manual. But for this delightful extraordinary gift of a brain, I get no operations manual. That’s when I began to write.
Thank you for your kind words about the covers on the books, because once I wrote one book, people were asking for another book. My first book, Use Your Head, which really was the operations manual, was really written for my brother, my friends and me. It included chapters on memory, chapters on creativity, on reading, on speedreading, on studying, on note taking, and on the origination of mind maps.
How One Book Become One Hundred And Forty-Two Others
Another tipping point:
People said Tony don’t write that book because as soon as you’ve written it, everybody will copy it, will learn from it and you won’t have any more books to write. It was exactly the opposite. I wrote that book, Use Your Head, and as soon as people and publishers had read it, they would point to me and say, “You’ve got a chapter here on memory. Why don’t you do a full book on memory?” I’d say yeah, okay.
Sure enough within a few months people were saying, that chapter in Use Your Head on mind maps, why don’t you have a book on mind maps? So I thought, yeah, okay. Then when I’d written the mind map book, which was the child of Use Your Head, people read the mind map book and said have you done a book for children on mind maps?
I said no, you know some of it is in the book. They said no, no, a full book just for kids. So I said okay. Publisher came up and said could you do three mind map books for kids. One on mind maps the introduction. One on mind maps memory. One on mind maps for studying. Every book gave birth to more books.
As you and I are speaking right now, I am now on book No. 142. I’m sitting in my garden, and for this afternoon I’ve been working on two books, and in the next hour I’m going to be meeting with a designer, co-designer and co-editor this evening to work on another book.
Anthony: Wow, this is incredible and it reminds me and connects me to some other things that I wanted to ask you. You’ve written about multiple intelligences. You were a huge figure in developing that field. I think that not enough people really recognize how, or at least in the material I’ve read, how that you actually are a demonstration of all these multiple intelligences, because it’s not just about books, right?
You have written books but you’ve been responsive to the audience that wanted more books. But not just through books, you’ve gone into various parts of media such as television, and then you’ve produced software for people and are using the Internet in creative ways, and the mind map itself, the things you’ve done is art and you’ve also been a proponent of art itself.
How To Find Your First Multiple Intelligence
You brought beautiful art to the training that I attended. It’s just incredible. Then you turn people into artists. Just how do you explain your interest in all of this and the energy that keeps you going and enables you to do it? I know it is multiple intelligences and I know that it comes down to things that you’ve classified – creativity, personality, the social, the spiritual, the physical and so forth. But a lot of people just see this from a person like yourself and they’re like, where’s the alpha here? Where do we begin?
Tony: That’s a lovely question because it is a question worth me thinking about. Because when I was a 7‑year-old, 10‑year-old, 12‑year-old boy, I was a kind of good above-average kid, but I was poor in sports. I was virtually hope less with art. Socially I was fairly good but not fully aware of how to get on with other people.
I gradually began to realize, for example with my first intelligence, I began to become very attracted to young girls. The spark in my eyes started when I was about 5. But I didn’t know anything about that.
By the time I was 12, most of my other male friends became interested in girls and so did I. I began to think well I want to get a good girlfriend so I better get strong. So I then went into the gym and I learned how to run. I learned how to swim. I learned how to build my muscles because I wanted to be a good guy on the beach that girls would find attractive because of my good built-up body, my biceps and my six-pack.
The Real Secret Of Verbal Intelligence
I was at a party and I developed my verbal intelligence. So I was pretty good at that stage of talking, fairly good at writing and I was getting strong. So I thought the girls would immediately gravitate towards me.
I noticed that some kids who were not doing well in school, not doing well in sports, but they were funny. They were telling good jokes. They were making people laugh and girls would go more for them than they went for me. And I thought how can they be possibly more interested in an unfit kid doing badly in school when I’m doing now well in school and I’m strong.
It quickly dawned on me that being humorous having a sense of humor was a massive creative and social intelligence. I thought well I better build up the package. I better learn how to tell some jokes, learn how to be funny, learn how to make a fool of myself. Not try to be so clever, so good and so always top.
Over the years, and it was years, I began to realize about multiple intelligences. Then my hero in my early teens, throughout the teens and the rest of my life was Leonardo Da Vinci. Who would I really like to be? Sometimes people teach us in saying who would you like to be. I was thinking who would I like to be.
When and Why Being A Copycat Is Good For You
Would I like to be a fabulous artist? Yes, I would. Would I like to be a physically fit man? Yes, I would. Would I like to be an architect? Yes, I would. Would I like to be an astronomer? Yes, I would. Would I like to be a sculptor? Yes, I would. Would I like to be a top scientist? Yes, I would. Of course, they were all wrapped into Leonardo Da Vinci. So he became my hero and I began to study him. As any kid does, try to copy my hero.
So that was part of my journey into multiple intelligences and some of the tipping points in my life that led me to where I am. I now know, it’s not even just think, I know that nearly every kid on the planet can develop into this multiply intelligent wonderful human being.
Anthony: It seems like there is a bit of a code that can be extracted from what you’ve said which is essentially becoming an observer of your desires, observing the observation and then figuring out a way to take action. Would that be fair to say?
Tony: That would be a good beginning summary. In fact, Leonardo said something dead on that. He said, I’ll put this into different words, but basically what Leonard was saying was, look guys, don’t keep calling me an artist. I’m not just an artist. I am more than that. The word artist means a surface level somebody with paintbrushes who paints.
He said but I am a student of nature, and what I do is I notice that people don’t look and don’t see. We need to look and see. So he said I am simply a student of nature. I, Leonardo, am a student of nature and I observe her. When I observe her, I study her, I analyze her, I remember her, I copy her and then I add to whatever she’s given me and that is action. That’s what he did.
He would go into the woods, into the fields and he would observe flowers or animals, and he would observe them. He would then study them. He would analyze them and then he’d measure them. He would then copy them. When he had copied them that helped him remember them, and when he copied and copied say this kind of flower or this kind of face, then he would begin to change it in his own mind’s way. Those were his actions, a total genius. If anybody wants to learn to draw, copy Leonardo because he said copy nature. So go out there and learn how to copy. It’s wonderful.
How To Be A Real Teacher And Touch The Lives Of Millions
Anthony: I think a common idea that we come up with, and it certainly is in the air already, is something about the way that we are put into schools interrupts this process that you were just talking about which is so elegant and simply has certainly helped you lead an incredible life that has changed so many lives.
Sometimes one wants to point the finger at the Victorian sort of nature of the school education system that has somehow made it’s made its way into the 21st century, but where do you see things now. What do we do to help people regardless of why? If it is the school, or they are not eating properly, or however things are playing in their lives, how do we help people participate in this procedure that you described so beautifully, into what you have called, actually to quote you, a mentally literate planet? At the core of things, how do we get this to more people?
Tony: Good question and an immediate answer is what you are doing now. You’ve got a podcast. You are contacting tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of people. You are spreading global mental literacy. That’s one wonderful way to do it. Another is to be a teacher, but a real teacher, a teacher who is a beacon to a child. A teacher who is someone who launches the child on the exploration of their internal universe. A teacher is a harvester of questions so being a teacher is a wonderful most important profession. Mind mapping is another way.
Let me give you the hot off the presses two bits of information. We are now approaching the beginning of August. August 19 is the day. It’s a global mental literacy day and on that day, two things are going to happen.
No. 1, I have just been nominated and going to be given the Toastmaster Award. The Toastmaster organization has 15,000 members in 135 countries. Their simple goal for each individual Toastmaster is to learn how to present and to learn how to become confident. As soon as someone learns how to speak publicly, and obviously mind maps are a wonderful way to do that, and as soon as they do that, they then become more confident. When they get to that stage, all they have to do is to help another person do the same. So it’s like a wonderful positive brush fire, a positive viral.
The Toastmasters are going to give me the Golden Gavel Award in Washington, D.C. on August 19 this year. I will be speaking to 2,000 people from 135 countries and all of them know about mind mapping. They are anointing me as like a new leader for them to help the planet learn how to communicate and how to give birth to more leaders. Because people who can communicate, are confident and know how to think can help the world.
So on that day, the 19th, I’m going to be given that award and will be connected to 15,000 people who believe in human beings and believe in helping them to help each other, how to communicate, how to learn and how to become a leader that’s an ultimate global goal. So, please come to Washington and be with me there.
Announcing The First Ever World Mind Map Day!
On that same day, that day is now also going to be announced as the World Mind Map Day because there are global days for football and global days for golf and global days for politics or whatever. But this is the World Mind Map Day on August 19, 2016. On that day, the goal is for every mind mapper on this planet and there are already well over 300 million mind mappers, the goal is to have every mind mapper get as many mind maps out in as many ways as possible.
For example, if you’re an individual who mind maps, you don’t do an enormous number of big things, but you could get mind maps on your Skype, on your Twitter, on your Facebook, you could put mind maps on your car, when you go into a restaurant you could give them a fabulous mind map to stick on the window. You could put mind maps on billboards. You could give them to schools, give them copies, and/or send them virtually.
If you’ve got a little database of a thousand or ten thousand people, send mind maps to every one of them saying welcome to the World Mind Map Day. On my Twitter, my Twitter home page is @tony_buzan. The World Mind Map mind map is there so you can retweet that.
It is going to be like a super nova. It is going to explode mental literacy around the world, and I am really happy with that because in this modern age, despite the fact that the information age has given us a lot of information overload, it can do wondrous things. One of the things it can do is to spread good news to every brain, igniting every brain to become a flame with a beauty, the magnificence of the human mind.
Anthony: This is absolutely true and I’m glad that you raised the topic of people just getting their own podcast or getting out there and Tweeting at whatever level that they can to help spread the good news about these techniques and about the people who are really expert at explaining them.
The Power Of Lineage In The World Of Memory, Multiple Intelligence And Creativity
Tony: The power of podcasts is a good phrase. You could use that, the power of podcasts because it’s very powerful. You know, if you, for example, Anthony influence one person on one interview you have, and that person transforms the world, it might have been a little Thomas Edison, it might have been a little Maria Montessori, it might have been a little Mandela, it could have been any child who you influenced and ignited. Then one podcast with one person changed and evolving it would be wonderful.
Anthony: I just wanted to tell you, to make a concrete example for people and I should really give a shout out to someone special. I’m here in Tel Aviv, and I have this podcast and maybe we came into connection because you were in British Columbia where I grew up. So maybe there was something in the air about that. Having grown up with your influence and then learning all this time and I’m in Tel Aviv.
I just let people know on my podcast and through my email that I’m here and a guy named Eldon Clem emails me.
He’s in Jerusalem and we haven’t managed to connect yet, but I really want to meet him because he’s taken my training that he found out because that I spread the word about these things, and I’m almost choking up here because he emailed and he said that what I’ve done has changed how he teaches Semitic languages.
I’ve talked to him over a year ago and he told me that he memorized a thousand words in six weeks of ancient Ethiopic and this is a very difficult language where the words have three letters. He said it was no problem even without an online language learning course. I just went on to read a thousand words and then I just started incorporating your stuff into my classes and now I heard that he’s even using the Memory Palace as a technique to give quizzes.
So this is how the lineage works. From me seeing your books as a kid in British Columbia to ultimately getting to meet you and already having had the podcast in action and then somebody gets involved in my stuff and then they start passing it on to students. He said they are getting great success because it enables them in the testing period. So I just want to take this opportunity to give a concrete example that’s happening right now and I hope to meet him and let him know that I spoke with you. It’s amazing what can happen.
Why You Should Come To The 2016 World Memory Championships
Tony: Wonderful. I mean your story links in with the World Memory Championships, because that was just an idea that I had many decades ago. Why are there tidily winks championships? Why are there chess championships? High jumping championships, long jumping championships, weight lifting championships, you name it there’s a championship and nothing on memory. I thought we’ve got to have a World Memory Championship. I discussed that and people said Buzan you must be crazy. What’s the point of having a memory competition? Nobody will be interested in that.
This year is the 25th World Memory Championships. It is the Jubilee year, No. 25, and there are tens of thousands of competitors and there are multiple grand masters of memory spreading around the world. All the people in the World Memory Championships, like you Anthony, are busting all the barriers that are placed around the human brain.
It’s like balustrades, pickets that are staked around the human brain and it is fenced in like a trapped animal, when in fact when the brain knows how to think, knows how to remember, knows how to learn, knows how to be intelligent, it will break all those barriers. I’m sure you’re going to be at the World Memory Championships this year, which are now going to be in Singapore this year December 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, World Memory Championships. Please, both you and me, invite everybody from your podcast group, team to come to Singapore.
Anthony: Let’s do it! Maybe you can help make it concrete for people. What is the No. 1, or by all means add more than one if it comes to mind, but what would you say is the top benefit of participating in the World Memory Championships for someone who is already feeling that sense of resistance? Like I could never go what’s the tipping point for them to get in there and just give it a try.
Tony: One of the great events in your life, when you compete you will naturally meet all the greatest memorizers in the world. You’ll meet every Grandmaster. You’ll meet Dominic O’Brien, eight-time World Memory Champion who as a kid in school who was told you will never succeed. You can’t remember. You can’t concentrate. You are useless. Get out of this school. He became the eight-time World Memory Champion because he suddenly realized, oh, they say I’m stupid but I’m not.
If you went to the World Memory Championships, you would meet all the people. You would meet me because I will be there. You would meet Anthony Metivier. I mean what a wonderful opportunity. You would be meeting people who would charge something like £1,000.00 or £2,000.00 an hour for their time and you would be meeting them as new friends.
It would be like going into the United Nations where all the presidents of the countries were coming together and you’d just be with them. Same in the memory championships and as soon as you competed, you would learn that your memory, no matter how poor, weak and bad you think it is, it’s powerful and all you need is the correct formulas for unlocking the doors of your genius.
How To Create A Trillion Dollar Brain
I’ve asked people sometimes how much would I have to pay you to promise that you’d obliterate your memory of the World Memory Championships. You just wipe out your memory of it. If you met all the world champions, the national champions, all the best memorizers and they taught you how to remember.
If you met all the top competitors in the world, you met Tony Buzan, Anthony Metivier, Grandmaster Raymond Keene, the ultimate chess, mind sports, Times journalist and writer, how much would I have to pay you if you promised to forget all of it?
People said, no matter how much you pay me I would choose to remember it all. It’s changed my life. It would destroy me if I forgot all that I now know about memory and my new friend Dominic O’Brien. People have said if you offer my £100,000.00, I would still say no. It’s priceless. That’s how important it is.
Anthony: I feel the same way about having attended your training. You couldn’t pay its way out of my memory. It’s just too valuable.
Tony: Thank you for saying that, because if you and all the people on the podcast here said listen Buzan we’ll give you a trillion pounds if you promise that you’ll never use a mind map again, you will never use anything in your books, you wouldn’t use your speed reading, you won’t use your studying skills, you won’t use your creativity, you won’t use your multiple intelligences, but we’ll give you a trillion pounds. I would say you must be mad! What’s the point of wiping my brain out for a trillion pounds? My brain is infinitely valuable and that’s how important it is.
Anthony: Absolutely. One of the things that I want to point out is that I went to the training that I went to as someone who already used the techniques, and I’m just so devoted to learning as much as I possibly can. I was blown away not only by how little that I know but how little that I knew about what I know. Let me put it that way.
Tony: There is that kind of a common saying in most cultures including the Arabic culture, Japanese, Chinese, European cultures. The common saying is the more you know the less you know.
The Truth About What You Know About What You Know About What You Know About …
That is a complete misinterpretation of what actually everybody meant. The real saying is, the more you know the more you know, and the more you know the more you know that there is even more to know than you thought you would have to know.
Anthony: That is a much more empowering and profound and useful way of using that phrase.
Tony: So I now know that I know a lot more than I ever knew before, and I know that now that I know all that, I know now know there that there are an infinite number of infinite number of infinite number of other things I don’t yet know and would love to know.
Many people are saying about old age, people are saying I don’t want to be old. I don’t want to be over 80. It would be terrible. My brain would rot and I don’t want to learn anymore. My brain is stuffed which is sadly tragic. Because the fact is, the human brain can learn an infinite number of things.
Why Tony Buzan Wants To Live Forever
Therefore I want to live forever because would like to be a concert level violinist? Yes, I would. Would I like to be a concert level pianist? Of course, I would. Would I like to be a brilliant gymnast? Of course, I would. Would I like to be an Olympic level swimmer? Of course, I would.
Would I like to be a bestselling novelist of detective stories like Sherlock Holmes? Of course, I would. Would I like to be a top children’s author with 100 books? Of course, I would. Would I like to go to every country? Of course, I would. Would I like to spend years in each country, in different cities?
Would I like to spend 10 years in Paris learning French, learning French cuisine, learning French philosophy, French poetry, French literature, and French music? Of course, I would. How many years is that going take me? Trillions of years. I would love to live forever.
Every day of my life is wonderful even when I’m in pain or sad or depressed or melancholic, or contemplating suicidal thoughts, I’d far rather be alive than not.
How To Deal With The Darkness Without Pills Or Psychiatrists
Anthony: Let’s go in this direction a little bit. How do you deal with those challenges that you’ve just mentioned, the dark times? We give this impression always these super incredible intellects they just have it all and live in paradise. But, it’s not the case. So what do you do? How do you use your multiple intelligences to deal with the down sides?
Tony: When I’m down, I explore the bad. You know for example, if I give you a simple example about having nightmares, and let’s say things are going pretty awfully and friends are dying, personal situations are difficult, sickness or illness causes nightmares, and people wake up screaming in the middle of the night with monsters howling or whatever.
Rather than waking up screaming and trying to block out the nightmares, I now think, because I used to try to stop them, but then I began to think hold on a minute, among the most popular movies on the planet are horror movies. Horror movies and how much do they cost to make? It costs $250 million to make one horror movie.
What is my nightmare like? It’s a lot better than that one $250 million movie. It’s fabulous. It’s got monsters in it that I’ve never even imagined before. It has unbelievable pain. It has all the horrors. So I now think, wow, what a great story that is, wat a great poem that will be. You know like the American author Edgar Allen Poe. His horror stories, he got those from his nightmares. Wonderful.
I recently had a big molar wisdom tooth taken out, which was infected, broken, so it was literally a bloody mess. I was asked to take paracetamol or any other painkiller to prevent the pain because for two days it would be really painful after the numbness disappeared from the eight needles I had to have.
I said no, I’m not going to take any painkiller because pain is information. It’s a friend of mine. My mouth is telling my brain I’m in agony. I am bleeding. I am ripped apart. I am in asunder. I am still bleeding and I’m trying to tell you Tony, please look after me. You know rinse me, listen to me, hear me, and so I had all night conversations with pain.
What was fascinating was that the pain in my mouth was a giant pulse – roomph, roomph, roomph. Why? Because the blood was pumping and it was all open and damaged, and it was roomph, roomph. The more I got into it the more it was like a wonderful music, roomph, roomph, and sure enough after five hours of listening to that, I went to sleep. I was sent to sleep by my pain.
The Magic Of Rowing
When I went sculling, you know, rowing sculling in the morning, I was told do not do any big exercise for two days because it will break open all the sealing. But on the third day, I went sculling and every time I put my oars in the water, where I took all the strain, roomph. Every time I took a stroke my mouth, my crater went roomph, roomph, roomph. So it was telling me exactly the moment that I put all my effort into rowing. Stroke, stroke, row, row, and it was in my mouth. I mean it was phenomenal.
Anthony: Rowing has been a fascination of yours and something you’ve been deeply involved in for a long time. Where did that begin and how has it been that it fascinated you so deeply that you still do it to this day? You did it even the morning before you came into the training that I attended.
Tony: I fell in love with it because I saw a superb male athlete sculling in a single boat. In your life, you suddenly see things, and it’s pretty well the same for everybody. Everybody sees something and wow, I want to be like that. I just saw this athlete sculling and it was the most beautiful sport I have ever seen.
I just thought I want to do that. I want to be able to skim across the water like one of those fabulous insects that skims across the water. I wanted to do that with all my gymnastic muscles rippling but not going solid but more flowing. It was wonderful. I did it this morning. This morning I rowed 4,000 meters on the River Thames.
Anthony: I remember you telling us that your doctor said you were definitely in prime territory to keep going for a long, long, long time to come.
Tony: I would invite all the podcast people. Put in your diaries guys June 2, 2042. Second of June, 2042, that’s my 100th birthday. Make sure you come.
Anthony: Absolutely, I can’t wait for the 100th birthday of Tony Buzan!
Tony: What I would love to do is do another podcast with you.
The Greatest Challenges To Planet Earth And Humanity
Anthony: I would love that as well, and the time has gone so fast and I really appreciate that you’ve been able to be here. If I could ask one last question before we go, what in your future do you feel is your biggest challenge and as a person with so many tools to tackle them, what is your No. 1 tool for tackling that challenge?
Tony: That’s another book of a question. The greatest challenge to this planet is the destruction of intelligence. It can be destroyed in a number of ways. It can be destroyed in schools where like I taught myself to be stupid and I was very successful. Children have to be taught to learn how to learn and then they will think intelligently and they will deal with all the future problems and they will find solutions. That’s one.
Another threat is technology used in the wrong way. So for example, when technology is used, consumes all the hours of a day that has people become couch potatoes, diabetic, fat, nonathletic, that’s the negative side of technology. Technology when used well, like you can use mind maps with technology to your advantage. That’s another wonderful threat and opportunity.
We must learn how to use technology intelligently. So we have to use information intelligently. We have to use agriculture intelligently. We have to use knowledge intelligently, and we have to use intelligence intelligently because the threat is that if we don’t use intelligence intelligently, we lose intelligence. If we lose intelligence, we die. It’s as simple as that. Think intelligently or die.
Anthony: Absolutely.
How To Eliminate The Manipulation Of Thinking
Tony: Another big threat is the manipulation of thinking. So for example, in politics all the arguments are spun. Truth is manipulated. When truth is distorted, being destroyed, intelligence becomes destroyed.
So in politics for example, if there is some wonderful evidence that when people eat a lot of junk food, all the statistics show that the brains in the wombs of pregnant women, the brain in the embryo get destroyed or damaged. There are masses of incontrovertible information, studies done on hundreds of thousands of pregnant moms, and we know that if someone keeps on stuffing themselves with dangerous food, the body bloats and basically explodes.
There are many people when they are given information like that, they say yeah, yeah, yeah that’s what those statistics say, but statistics always lie. I know and I believe that eating all the food that I eat is good for me. I know it. I believe in it. You’ve got to believe in it. I mean I am still alive. I may weigh 400 pounds, but so what? I enjoy that food and those statistics must be wrong. I believe in what I believe.
That is intelligence hypnotized, mesmerized and destroyed and it goes blind. So blinding intelligence is another hyper-dangerous threat. All we have to do is ignite the intelligence and get it working, the intelligence working well and the world will be fine. We have to work hard to do that.
The Path To Becoming A Warrior Of The Mind Begins With This …
What we’re doing today, what you’ve been doing, more and more tens of thousands people, millions of people are beginning to think about thinking intelligently which is wonderful. What I’ve just said wouldn’t be true if you did not have a thousand podcast people because people wouldn’t be interested. But I’ve never met anybody who isn’t interested in intelligence as long as it is explained properly.
Anthony: I do hope that you will write a book on the topic and since you called me a Warrior Of The Mind, I’ve been thinking that that would be an amazing title for a book. So, I don’t know if that will trigger anything, but I think it’s certainly in line with the solution is for people to become a warrior of the mind. I am going to do everything that I can to get the people listening now and the people that will find my website in the future also linked up with what you do.
Tony: Wonderful.
Anthony: I’m so delighted that you gave me the opportunity to do it with an interview between the two of us, a discussion, and that you have already proposed the next one. So let’s definitely get together to talk about that and what more we can do together.
Tony: Let’s do that after the Mind Map Day.
Anthony: Great.
Tony: By then we can talk about the results and the Mind Map Day, the World Mind Map Day will extend into the Mind Map Week, the Mind Map Month and the Mind Map Year.
Anthony: Excellent.
Tony: It’s going to go on until the end of December.
Anthony: Just to let you know, and the listeners know, since I was there, you guys were teaching memory. I was watching you use mind maps and you talked about mind map as well as a bonus. Since then I’ve created at least nineteen and designed more outlines for books than I have time to write over the next ten years, but just the exercise of being able to use that to plan out ideas and books and so forth is just so empowering and I really want as many people as possible to have this skill.
Tony: Welcome to my world Anthony.
Anthony: It’s a wonderful place to be, and you asked if I could hear birds at the beginning and that moment I couldn’t but throughout the interview, birds have been audible and they are going to be in the interview. I hope everybody enjoys that as well. We talked about nightmares and I said it’s not always paradise but quite frankly, it sounds like it is always paradise where you are.
I hope you don’t have those conditions, but either way, there’s hope for clearing up any and all brain fog from messing up your memory. And it’s great honor that Rob Lawrence, host of Inspirational Creatives Podcast has allowed me to share his interview with me.
In it, we talk about creativity, concentration, musicianship and how all of it ties into living a life of superior memory.
Note: Quite a few things have changed since recording this interview. Olly Richards helped me fix a Spanish pronunciation problem created by the power of mnemonics and there have been a number of Magnetic Memory Method podcast episodes on Music Mnemonics For Guitar And Piano that have shown development and huge promise since recording this talk with Rob.
Anthony: Well that’s always a very interesting issue. I really don’t know. I mean get a kick out of being called doctor, and it certainly circulates around but it’s not necessary. My dad gets a kick out of it too. Actually, it’s funny that you mention brain surgery. Because for years and years he didn’t really quite understand what I did in my Ph.D., so he used to call me a brain surgeon, which there are some elements of that involved in what I do. It’s just psychic brain surgery.
Rob: Yeah, there’s some technical accuracy in that. Have you always been interested in memory and imagination?
Anthony: In a roundabout way. I basically wrote my first story that I remember, when I was in grade four. By story, I mean something that had a solid beginning, middle and an end. I had an ability to remember stories, as we all do, and loved to retell stories, tell jokes and retained stories in my mind. I’d often watch a movie and then try to rewrite it from memory. Yeah, I’ve always had this interest from a very young age.
Rob: Stories are a fascinating concept, something that we tell our children and seem to be something that we’ve done since the beginning of time. Do you think we’ve lost our ability to remember in the way that we used to?
Why You Have Not “Lost” Your Ability To Remember
Anthony: I don’t believe at all that we’ve lost it. But the extent to which we use it has certainly changed.
There is a kind of running myth that back in the day in Ancient Greece and in Matteo Ricci‘s era everybody used these memory techniques that I teach. They all memorized thousands of books and this kind of thing, which isn’t true. I would say that the ratio of people who use memory techniques then and in comparison with now is relatively the same per capita let’s say. It’s really just a growing thing.
We’re in a renaissance of memory techniques right now. It seems to be happening at the precise moment that technology appears to be taking over or our memory needs, which I find deeply fascinating that this renaissance is taking place now at that technological moment. There are reasons to believe that actually technology is expanding our memory abilities rather than diminishing it. That’s a topic to be explored. It’s very conceptual, and I don’t have any hard data behind it but it’s something that I feel is being enabled by technology rather than the common statement that our memories are being eroded by technology.
Rob: That’s fascinating, an absolutely fascinating thought there. So what are the key factors necessary to be able to succeed in improving your memory and using these Magnetic Memory Techniques that you teach?
Anthony: Well there are a number of factors, but it all begins with the desire actually to improve your memory because without that there is nothing to ground it upon.
Lacan, the French psychoanalyst, always said that the fantasy is better than the reality. That’s not exactly true in this case because you use fantasy in order to create reality, but nonetheless, there is an effort involved. A lot of people don’t have the necessary drive in order to get into it.
One of my jobs is to give them that drive. So that’s a key factor there. In many ways, that is what my job is. It is simply to open the door for people, give points of access and points of entry.
Beyond that, there’s the willingness to experiment, which is a key factor, the pleasure in imagination is a key factor and also a kind of wish or desire to have this information and to use it. Because if you’re not going to use it, you can have memorize all the things in the world and it won’t do anything for you.
Memory champions, for example, can memorize thousands of digits that they forget half an hour later, but they have that particular use value in the competition in of itself. It’s always got to have some sort of use and some sort of pay off. The more you can identify with that use and that payoff is, then the more you have that necessary key factor to succeed.
Don’t Miss The Motivation Train!
Rob: You’re talking about motivation there, and you’re also talking about trying to find ways to get started exploring these techniques.
Anthony: It’s not particular to the field of memory training. All areas need points of access and entry points. With music for example, people who would be perfectly capable of becoming very good musicians don’t get the point access that enables them to enter the kingdom. It could be that they didn’t get the right teacher or they didn’t get enough sleep or enough Cheerios or whatever the case may be.
They just missed that train which is very sad because we all have musical capacities. That really is, I think, one of the key factors of all education is helping people find that entry point, as many as possible, because it’s really sad. We all have the ability to do anything really. We just need the prophets and the leaders who are able to show the way.
Rob: I’d love to come back to that point about music because I’ve heard you’re a musician. Before I do, with your work, what are some of the key access points that you help people with in terms of being out to get a footing on these Magnetic Memory Techniques?
Anthony: Well for me the big thing is the Memory Palace. The reason why I focus on it so specifically and teach so much about it is because it’s not only the fundamental memory technique, but it is the memory technique that you can use all of their memory techniques inside of. If you can get going with that, then you have enabled yourself really to have a success with every other memory technique.
One of the other reasons that I focus on Memory Palace is because everybody knows where their toilet is. Everybody knows where their bed is. Everybody knows where their kitchen is. Because of that innate ability to recall locations with great detail, just conceptually knowing the distance between different areas and where they’re located in space in your home or in your workplace, you can then leverage that power and place information by the sofa or on the desk and recall it at ease by simply mentally going to that location.
That is a major point of entry if you can learn how to use that technique correctly, instantly use it for something that is interesting to you and makes a significant difference to your life. Because so many people encounter memory techniques and they say well memorize your grocery list. Nothing in the world could be more boring than memorizing a grocery list, which is another reason why people don’t find a point of entry.
But when you say memorize the lyrics of your favorite song that somehow evade you are using a path from your sofa to your office desk to your dinner table, well then that’s interesting because you get a great deal of pleasure out of it. Now you can sing along with that song. Now you can annoy your spouse or your friends by singing it over and over again or whatever the case may be. That makes a difference in your life. Those are two points of access, the very specific technique and then how you’re going to use that technique to get a victory, that make you feel good. You see the possibilities for what else you could memorize.
Two Kinds Of Memory Palaces … Take Your Pick!
Rob: That’s fascinating. So there is this concept here of Memory Palaces and are they real places or these places that we make up in our minds?
Anthony: You can make them up in your minds or people use video games. There are all kinds of possibilities in what I call virtual Memory Palaces.
I typically do not recommend that people use them at least not at the beginning stage. Yes, you want to ground your Memory Palaces on real locations, places that you’re familiar with and generally places that you have a positive association with. I have worked with people over the years who suffered abuse in a home, and they just keep coming up against those memories when they’re trying to use it as a Memory Palace.
You could use a Memory Palace technique to help cleanse those bad memories, but until that that has taken place it’s really best just to use places with positive associations or at least neutral associations, which is another technique that you can use to have a clinical approach to things so that positive and negative memories don’t really play. For example, high schools have both positive and negative memories. If you can get a neutral approach or a clinical approach, then they’re pretty safe to use and very detailed so that you can get a lot of action out of them.
Familiarity Is The Key
Rob: Is there an advantage to using places that you already know you know?
Anthony: What you are going to do is actually create a journey through a home, or a school, or a church, or a movie theater or whatever the case may be. You’re going to follow that journey the same way every time.
It’s not exactly like following a movie through your mind, but it’s more like following a play through your mind because you restage it every time. It’s going to be slightly different. But nonetheless, a movie or play, you’re going to move on that journey in the same way.
I mean there’s later techniques were you leap frog around in order to overcome what’s called the forgetting curve but in general you follow that same path just as you would basically follow of the same path from your door to your driveway. I mean you could walk around in circles around your car, but normally you just go from the door to the driveway to the door of your car. Because that is so ubiquitous, so every day and so commonplace, there’s nothing to remember or forget about it.
You just know that intuitively and intentionally because it’s what you would do in real life anyway. Instead of just walking passively alongside the rosebush, now you have a giant clown who is eating your slippers to remind you that they need to go buy new shoes, or to help stimulate a line of poetry, or a foreign language word, or whatever the case may be, you’re actively using that location instead of passively. It’s just something that you pass by every day anyway.
Rob: It sounds to me like something we intuitively do as children when we’re younger and we recount stories. That thought is inspired by something you just said there which is the clown eating the slippers. It’s part of the technique to exaggerate and create these kind of images in our minds.
How To Experience Cartoons In Your Mind
Anthony: That’s a fundamental part of it. So on top of the journey through a Memory Palace, every place that you want to memorize a target piece of information you create an image in order to encode it. Then when you go along that journey again in your mind you, decode it.
The way that you remember the coding is by making it big, large, bright, vibrant and colorful, and on top of that, including some kind of zany crazy bizarre action. The more that you can focus on doing that, which in the beginning can be a bit of a challenge for some people, but gets very easy very quickly with some exercises and just practice, you can shock yourself into remembering anything.
The more that you have cartoon-like silly engaging actions between characters, like an action with a reaction the way you would have in Wile E. Coyote cartoons with the Road Runner, or Pinky and The Brain or whatever these cartoon characters are. They are actually quite rigorous with one another. One would even say violent, but in a cartoon way, then they’re going to capture the interest of your mind’s eye in the way that a car wreck on the highway causes the rubberneck effect and you have to see it. Then you decode it and you get your target information back. If you do it a sufficient number of times, then you don’t need the image anymore. You have affectively learned and memorized the information and it’s yours.
How To Harness The Memory Power Of Emotions
Rob: Wow! That’s pretty fascinating. So it sounds to me like these techniques are more objective than they are subjective. What I mean by that is you were talking earlier about positive and negative emotions. I guess one of the assumptions I made automatically before I spoke with you today is that you use some kind of emotional power to help you remember certain things. Would that be an accurate reflection or is it a bit more complicated than that?
Anthony: Technically you’re using an objective process to create subjective experience that relates to an object memory or some piece of information that is a kind of object. It’s a living breathing object. Yes, emotions are involved. I mean if you see your spouse smashing something with a hammer, there’s going to be an emotion involved.
That emotion can be anger. Some of the images involve kissing which can involve romantic elements. You do want an emotional element to it, but you want it objective in the sense that there is a strategy involved. So in the same way that Hugh Grant might not be in love with Drew Barrymore and yet they’re kissing and projecting that emotion, you’re going objectively to create an emotion through deliberately rigging images in your mind.
The Real Reasons Why Anyone Can Improve Their Memory
Rob: Got it. So is this something that anybody can develop in your experience?
Anthony: Everybody can experience memory improvement. They’re already doing it at some level anyway. So it’s just a matter of understanding how that your imagination works, which is pretty simple and easy to do, then leveraging it and then developing it in certain directions. But even if you don’t develop it, you still have the ability to do this at an intermediate level.
There’s no elementary level to it whatsoever. You can go from intermediate to an advanced level. Anybody can do it. I mean I have podcast interviews on my podcasts with 10‑year-olds, 8‑year-olds who are using these techniques. I have personally trained 88‑year-old individuals and people in their 80s, 70s, 60s and 50s. There’s even very interesting research going on right now by someone in Kasper Bormans who is using the Memory Palace technique to help people with Alzheimer’s remember the names of their family members and getting results with this which is absolutely incredible.
So there are curative properties for people who have brain damage. They’re also using Memory Palace techniques for what’s called chemobrain when cancer patients have to take a lot of chemotherapy and they lose their memory, and they lose general cognitive abilities. So they are getting results with this kind of memory exercise as well. So anybody can do it.
Rob: Wow! That’s pretty incredible and something I was going to ask you about. But it is pretty inspiring to hear that these techniques can be used, or similar techniques to this, can be used to help improve the memory of people that have health conditions, which are affecting their memory. That’s pretty inspirational. What are the common applications that your students tend to use? You’re talking about very young people there and very old people. In your experience, what do people tend to use these Magnetic Memory Methods for?
The Most Common Applications Of Memory Techniques
Anthony: The biggest application in my personal experience as someone offering these is with foreign language vocabulary and to a certain extent grammar principles. This has been tremendously successful because it’s one of the hugest pain points in the world. People want to learn new languages. They want to improve their own language, but words just don’t stick without either massive amounts of repetition or some kind of technique. There are all kinds of techniques in the world for using your memory to help you better recall words. But there is no specific strategy that was developed just for word retention and recall. So I developed it. I developed it out of my own personal need, shared it and it just became wildly successful because so many other people have that pain point. That’s really the largest part of my training is specifically for the purpose of learning languages.
Rob: So I’m guessing you speak different languages?
Anthony: I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise because I just don’t have any kind of natural ability the way some people do. But of course, some people don’t have a natural ability. They are just using certain techniques in their minds that relate to what I teach, but without a kind of actual apparatus. I never it was very successful despite a deep interest in languages throughout my life.
But being able to build a number of Memory Palaces and put large amounts of vocabulary with a basic understanding of grammar, vocabulary being like a kind of petrol or gas that you put into an engine, and grammar being a kind of engine, then you can get very far very quickly. You just need to add speaking, reading, writing and listening to the mix. Things happen very quickly.
Rob: So can you give me an example of perhaps one of the languages that you’ve begun teach yourself, and can you talk me through how you’ve perhaps memorized the phrase or something like that with these Memory Palaces in mind?
Anthony: One thing that I’ve been developing for some time now but that I really love is Spanish. So imagine you came across the word abuela. Abuela means grandmother, and you wanted to memorize that. There are really not any cognates with English. There’s no relationship grandmother and abuela. So you’ve got to find a point of access.
One thing that you can do is split the words in different pieces. So there’s ab-u-ela. One thing that I like to do is use famous people. So ab reminds me of Abraham Lincoln and ela reminds me of Ella Fitzgerald. I imagine that Abraham Lincoln encounters Ella Fitzgerald dressed as his grandmother and she is saying boo like a ghost.
So now, you have ab-u-ela. You can add abuelo for grandfather just by having some Jell-O or whatever the case may be. Now you’ve got that word and that is on the bed in a Memory Palace that I have. Then just move to the next one, the next one and the next one so that you’re collecting words.
Just imagine that there are a number of words in Spanish that start with “ab.” Abraham Lincoln moves from place to place to place interacting with different other people. You can pick up a lot of words really quickly. Then again, using them in speaking, reading, writing and listening, you’ll encounter them, you’ll hear them, and you’ll use them. Everything is just absolutely fantastic. You might even call it Magnetic.
How To Memorize Grammar Concepts Fast
Rob: How does it work with grammar without getting into too much detail because I imagine that’s a slightly different ballgame.
Anthony: It is and it isn’t. A lot of grammar has to do with conjugations.
I mean grammar is a big world. One of the things is verb conjugations, which are very difficult for people. So imagine that you create a Memory Palace for say the “to be” verbs. Spanish has two, so let’s just deal with one. You would have ser. For me, I used Hamlet serving desert because ser is in desert.
It’s not a one-to-one correspondence but it works for me. You’re rarely going to find one-to-one correspondences. There are a number of conjugations of “to be” like you are, I am, they are. You have a sufficient number of stops or stations in a Memory Palace and you just see Hamlet helping you remember all of those different conjugations. So ser is to be. Yo soy is I am. Tu eres is you are and so forth.
So yo soy, Hamlet is injecting the cake into a bathtub of soy. Tu eres is this giant statute of Aries and he is throwing the cake at that statue’s face and so on. So that’s one way for verb conjugations. You pick any verb that you and you conjugate them. But you also generally pick up the way that the regular and irregular verb contributions work. So after a while you really don’t need to do that for every verb. You just need the verb.
How To Develop Unconscious Competence
Rob: I’m guessing that over time through practice that you become unconscious competent at this. I guess the language just starts to come naturally does it?
Anthony: Yeah, especially if you do a kind of alphabetization that I was suggesting because, not in all languages but in many languages, you get a feel for how the structure works. So in German, for example, there are a lot of words that start with ent.
That generally, but almost always, suggests something about the next part of the word. Also with words that start with ber. Whatever follows that generally has something to do with what that ber characterizes about the language. That works in English as well with endings and with some beginnings.
You get a feel for it. You get to a point where you can guess with some accuracy what a word means. Of course all language learning is experimentation, testing. Do you get a result from the use of a word or is it making sense when you read. Of course, words have multiple senses. But language learning, like memory itself, is not a fixed piece of glass. It’s something that is wet and movable. You just go with the flow, and you use memory as a kind of surfboard to navigate through torrid waters.
Mnemonics for Music Memory Hacks In Development
Rob: Got it. I’d like to turn our conversation towards creativity, and come back to this point about music and appreciate that you’re a musician. How long have you been a musician? Have you been a musician your whole life?
Anthony: I played guitar in my dad’s lap. It is one of those classic images where the father is helping you press down your fingers on the guitar.
After that, it’s kind of a long story, but when I got to band class in grade six they didn’t want to let me into band class because I didn’t pass the proper tests. I persisted anyway even though I was tone deaf or whatever those tests were that they had. I persisted. I wanted to play bass guitar and they said you can’t. We’re not going to buy an amplifier for the class just so you can play bass guitar.
I said well what’s the next closest thing and they said trombone. I went with it. Then I played trombone until I got grade nine, and I was able to finally able to get a bass. Then I just started in bands and went from there. I ultimately wound up playing in a band in Germany and going on tour and having lots and lots of fun as a result. Bass has always been my thing, but I’ve also played sitar, flute, banjo, a bit of piano and a little flute that I got in Prague once upon a time.
Rob: I read, I think it was on Amazon actually, that you were memorizing Bach’s compositions on cello. Can you describe to me a bit about how your methods apply to creative endeavors, for example, playing or more writing music?
Anthony: I’m learning the Bach cello pieces on bass guitar for performance on bass guitar. One of the things that really help is if you are able to create an image for each string.
So E is for Ernie. A is for out Al Pacino and so forth.
Then you can have each fret have a sound attached to it or an image. There’s something called the Major Method where each number is a sound. So 0 is “sa,” 1 is “ta” or “da,” 2 is “na,” and so forth up until 9. Then you can create combinations. So if something where at the twelfth fret, for instance, that would be tan because 1 is “T” or “D”, and 2 is “N”. You don’t even have to be as specific as the string if you don’t want to.
But if you know something’s on the twelve fret, and it’s on the E string, then that is Ernie getting a tan. Or it’s Al Pacino getting a tan. It’s just a quick thing where you can look at a piece of sheet music and you can navigate quite quickly and establish not needing to look at the sheet music and not really needing as much dedicated practice looking back and forth, closing your eyes, playing, and looking back and forth.
It really helps. But you need the basis first. If you are trying to do this while you’re learning the memory techniques, then it probably would be more of a barrier than anything, or if you were trying to use it while you’re learning music it would probably be more of the barrier than anything. But if you have both of those things in combination, then it’s a beautiful thing.
The Real Secret Of A Solid Memory Is Sleep
Rob: So get some music theory first, learn the memory techniques, then try and put the two together.
Anthony: Basically, but I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from trying to do both at the same time. My feeling is that having learned music myself and having learned to do dedicated practice playing with that rote learning style, I can see that they would jar with each other.
Rob: Yeah and how reliable have you found these techniques in terms of your music and being able to memorize such compositions?
Anthony: Well I’d say that it’s basically an 88 to 98 percent success rate. A lot has to do with how tired one is, how well fed one is, how much the bodily needs are taken care of so they can use your attention, which is going to be true one way or the other. Also, it has to do with motivation and intensity. When I was playing, I just came back to Germany from Canada and I needed to be prepared to go on the road with The Outside.
Rob: The band.
Anthony: There wasn’t a whole lot of time for me to think F, G sharp and all that stuff, and try and get it. I just needed to know that those were the notes and as quickly as possible. So it really helped in that in that case rather than feeling around. Plus we were tuned in C#, and that doesn’t really go with my ears that well. I really needed to know what the notes were, I couldn’t hear them as well, and as I mentioned, I sort of have had historically a difficult time with learning by ear. It’s really helped me out to pick up things fast that way. It also helps build concentration.
The Bare Minimum Time Investment In Memory Techniques You Need To Make
Rob: So for somebody very new to these techniques, how long would it take you to start learning and to start implementing them and getting results?
Anthony: Well you really could be pretty well master level by the end of the day if you want to.
Rob:Wow!
Anthony: This is this is well known. There have been all kinds of people. In the UK there is Mark Channon who used to have a TV show. He would have regular people learn these techniques, perhaps not in a day, but over a week, and then they would go on his show.
They would compete against taxi drivers with the knowledge. They would do better than taxi drivers who have been on the streets for twenty years reciting routes from their minds after a week’s training or so. It’s really not rocket science.
It’s just actually wanting to learn the memory techniques, wanting to use them and having a good instructional basis upon which you can learn them. That’s really ultimately the problem. Because people just don’t find the right teacher, and there’s all kinds of people who are the right teacher. You just kind of need to read multiple books sometimes, or take multiple trainings in order to get it, but you can get it. Once you’ve gotten it, it happens real fast. Most of my people are ready to go within two to five hours and get great results.
How To Overcome Memory Challenges
Rob: Amazing! What are the common challenges that people new to these memory techniques face in your experience?
Anthony: One of the challenges with respect to how I teach them is with getting enough Memory Palaces. People feel that they don’t have enough because one just won’t do it.
You really need at least two dozen Memory Palaces for the kind of language acquisition method that I teach. But unfortunately, people feel a kind of Memory Palace scarcity. I try my best to remind them that everybody has been to more than one school, or at least most of us have been. There are shopping malls all over the place. There are stores all over the place, restaurants, cafes, etc. You just need to go out in the world and you’ll find more than enough Memory Palaces.
To this day there are Memory Palaces on my street that I haven’t had a need of, but if I ever am I’m running on street screaming because aliens are attacking, and I need some special formula to create a death ray gun for them, there’s a bakery that I’ve never been in, and I’m going to go use it.
To me it’s a non-issue but people do struggle with that. Then the other thing has everything to do with are they relaxed. That’s one of the hugest barriers to creativity. I always include a module on using relaxation techniques. Because the mind wants to create barriers, it wants to say this doesn’t work. It wants to say I’m not creative. It wants to say that I don’t have an imagination. It’s wants to say I’m not visual. The ego comes up again and again and again. Relaxation is a very key tool for just overcoming the voice that says this is impossible. That has helped a lot of people.
Why Relaxation Solves All Struggles With Mnemonics
Rob: That’s really interesting you say that because about the relaxation techniques there, and the mind creating barriers. I think there is a whole conversation in itself that we could have there. You mentioned earlier health and well-being. How do these methods help to improve concentration and creativity?
Anthony: Well they are fantastic. I mean they saved my life because I was in grad school and I couldn’t concentrate.
I still have concentration issues because of a medical condition, which is bipolar disorder. I had to take a lot of lithium at that time. It was just unbelievable the cement that was in my head. I was responsible for very technical French philosophy and literary theory. It just wasn’t getting in.
That’s when I really discovered these systematic memory techniques and started to use them. What I found is that it was irrelevant how good or bad a day I was having, because they were grounded on that relationship between where my coach was and where my cupboard with cookies was.
It just didn’t matter what my mood was. It didn’t matter how sick I was. It didn’t matter how healthy I was. I could just recall the information because I could lean upon the simple architecture of my house.
This new level of focus and concentration happens for all kinds of people. They find that this is reliable regardless of how they feel. Because you learn to concentrate differently, and like I said, you lean upon leverage what you what you already know.
That’s the basis of all memory techniques because you’re using where you are already know. It helps improve concentration simply by using what you are already concentrating on, and then just amping that up a little bit.
Rob: How did you discover these Magnetic Memory Methods?
Anthony: I’m not aware that I was aware of them before that I needed them. I don’t have any distinct memory of knowing about memory championships or memory techniques.
What had happened, as I mentioned, I was in this really deep clinical depression, having to take these medicines I was unfamiliar with, and completely thrown into a storm because of it, not only from the condition that required the pills, but the pills that address the condition.
I was avoiding life basically. I was going back to an older love of mine, which are card tricks. I found that, as many people do, I could concentrate just fine on something that pleased me. You don’t get far in advanced card tricks before you encounter the holy grail of memorizing a deck of cards.
There are two types in magic. There is the kind where you make it appear like you have memorized a deck of cards. Then there is the kind where you actually have memorized the deck of cards. There’s a third kind where you have memorized a stack, which is a preordered arrangement. It also makes it appear that you have memorized the whole deck but you have actually memorized just a portion of it.
Now I got fascinated with the idea of memorizing the whole deck because I really like to do advanced magic tricks. As it turned out, what I thought was impossible was incredibly easy.
I learned card memorization and from there I never really looked back at it again as a form of study. I just started using it. I saw instantly how I could apply that to my graduate studies. Then years later, I saw instantly how that I could apply it to learning a language.
I also used it to learn Biblical Hebrew, which was part of my graduate studies and needing to show proficiency in another language.
But it wasn’t really something you could become fluent in, Biblical Hebrew. So it was some time later when I was in Germany. I thought wow if only I could find a way to use these techniques to get a lot of speed going for myself with German because I love this language and I want to be able to speak it.
One day it came to me, I was sitting on the porch (a favorite place for concentration), and I thought what if I had a Memory Palace for every single letter of the alphabet. That’s where it all began. That was where my first book began. Sometime after that, when I was teaching some students how to do this, and they said oh you have to write this down for us. So I did and then that became the first book. That’s basically the journey. It’s just been incredible. But it all came from deep, deep need. It really did save my life. It turned things around in a big way.
Why Memory Techniques Improve Everything In Life
Rob: Yeah and how’s it improved your life in terms of you were talking earlier about your bipolar. How has this improved your life in that aspect?
Anthony: Well it’s a confidence thing in many ways. It’s reported often the frustration with feeling better, and probably better said feeling like a normal person, because you can feel pretty good when you bipolar disorder.
But feeling better in terms of being able to contribute to society and maintain a normal life from lithium, but the cost is a certain zombie effect and certain straight-line nothingness.
Also, this poor concentration and sludge in the mind, and also some of the antidepressants that go along with that, or the antipsychotic medications that go along with that also do devastating things to your personality. I managed to get onto a different medication altogether called Lamictal or lamotrigine that is for people with epilepsy but it also helps maintain mood.
That has limited those side effects, but they’re still there from the condition itself. These techniques are amazing in terms of the confidence. Because I know no matter what mood I’m in, I can walk into a place and if I need to, I can not only recite some poetry, but I can tell you what page it’s on.
That’s an incredibly empowering thing. It’s not necessarily as fast as I would like it sometimes because I still have to access these images and so forth, but it is there. As long as I’m relaxed, I am 100 percent confident that I can do it. Spring is a really bad time, but I’m going to be presenting at the polyglot conference in May in Berlin, and I’m going to do it basically from memory. They require that I have a PowerPoint presentation, which is a bit sad.
Nonetheless, I know that no matter how turbulent the spring is for me, I’m going to be able to go there and do that speech. That’s incredibly empowering. There are other things. I mean just being able to memorize a Buddhist meditation ritual, which incidentally ancient Buddhist rituals seem to have used something like a Memory Palace technique in and of themselves.
That’s great. It was a path for me into meditation. I’m not really spiritual in the sense of beliefs or anything like that, but spiritual in the sense of taking care of myself and connecting with nature and meditating and all of these things. That came from memory and developing approaches where there is a clear enough state of mind to use them at their highest possible abilities. I’m really grateful for memory and to memory for introducing me to all those different areas.
Rob: How different is your life now compared to before you knew about these men techniques and developing these memory techniques?
Anthony: I’m a lot less stressed out, and I’m much more creative. I was always creative, but the creative capacities have increased incredibly. Some of that is due to the fact that I write. I’ve written several novels. You just simply can’t get help but get more creative when you continuously write.
Often when you have these burned out periods where you feel like you’re not being creative at all and everything is off, and when you look back, they are the most creative periods of all.
But memory has really helped with that because one cool thing that happens is that I can remember what I’ve written a lot better, which I never used to be able to do. I used to have to go and look back. What was that character’s name? What were they wearing? What town were they in and so forth?
But with improved concentration, I’m able to manage my own stories a lot better, which is really great, the metaphors and turns of phrase that characters use. It doesn’t have to be fiction writing either. You can memorize copywriting headlines, for example. You can have a cheat sheet, a crib file, or a swipe file in your head, and that really helps with writing headlines or writing sales letters. It’s just fantastic. That’s one very practical application.
The Future Of Memory Techniques For Concentration And Creativity
Rob: Fantastic. I’m losing track of time actually talking with you here. What’s the most exciting aspect of your work for you right now?
Anthony:Well, really, it is when people who have joined the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass or read one of my books email me and they say I was really skeptical about this. I didn’t think it was going to work. Now I’ve got two hundred words in my head.
People have reported much more than that. They use very specific figures like 70 percent more fluency. Some guy wrote me a couple weeks ago and it said thanks for the donuts in the subject line. He had added another notch to his belt because he bet his coworkers that he could memorize some extraordinarily dry codes that have to do with hookup parts for RVs or something like this in the United States, and he bet them donuts that he could.
I don’t think that’s good for his health, but nonetheless, it’s an absolute demonstration of what’s possible. I love, not just the actual accomplishments, what it has done for the people and their confidence. What it has done in their ability to take that now and apply it to any goal that they want to achieve.
You just hear it when I speak to them over Skype. You can see it in their emails with the exclamation marks and the all caps and just the phrasing and the excitement in how that they write about it. You know that they have been transformed and that is the most exciting thing is transformation. Also, knowing that it’s not short term is that if they want to continue using these techniques it just gets better and better and better from here and there really no ceiling to it. That’s really the best thing of all.
Rob: Yeah, that’s pretty inspirational actually. Just hearing how it transforms people’s lives in that way and how it can help them with their work. I can think of multiple ways it could just make your life more efficient and more enjoyable in the sense. What has inspired you most recently?
Anthony: One of the things that has really inspired me, even though I have left the band that I was playing in, is just watching the development of how that they are constantly getting gigs, constantly out on the road and promoting the new album and making videos. Also, bass players and guitarists have a special connection.
Sergio Klein is the guitarist at The Outside, and just watching him develop as a teacher and what he does with respect to creative problem solving.
He’s moving into the online field where he’s making videos and putting a course together about arpeggios. Just watching him also learn marketing and some of the packaging that you need to together in order to offer trainings to the world is just really inspiring because he’s taken to it in an extraordinary way. I know that he is such an amazing teacher. He’s such an amazing guitarist as well.
He recently joined Criminal, which is a great South American medal band. He’s just accomplishing his dream. He told me something so extraordinary. He went played with them in a festival in Spain. He said that for the first time in a long time he came home with money, which you know is just awesome. He was in London also recording with them. He doesn’t have to pay to go there. It’s just a real testament and an acknowledgment of his skills as a guitarist. I really see a great future for him.
Where Preparation Meets Opportunity, There Is No Ceiling
Rob: They say success is preparation plus opportunity. You mentioned developing marketing online products, which is something I know you do. How has that aspect of the journey been for you?
Anthony: It’s been great. I mean that’s what I do. I don’t have a job or anything like that. I had to learn it and have to experiment. Every day is an experimentation and in one way or the other. Being able to have multiple levels of trainings available for people has been great because there are so many different learning styles. I have audio books, Kindle books, paper books and video courses. The video courses contain audio. Basically, being able to serve a wide spectrum of learning styles is really incredible and helps spread that reach much farther than it would go if it were just a book. That’s really great.
Rob: What’s next for you? What are you working on right now?
Anthony: Well I’m putting together some new video courses. One of the things that I’ve experimented with that I didn’t think was going to be as successful as it was, is to go and make video courses about older books on memory that are in the public domain.
I started with Aristotle. I thought, oh this is just for me it’s not going to be something that is anything for anybody else but I want to do it anyway because I love Aristotle’s essay on memory. So I’ll make a video course about it and see what happens. It was a wild success. I had never launched a course that did more business than any of my others on the first week. It was just unbelievable.
I’m going to continue making these little mini courses about some of the ancient writings on memory and keep doing that because that’s obviously of interest to people. Of course, I’m able when working with Aristotle’s essay on memory I’m able also to talk about Plato on memory and different aspects of the philosophy that go along with that.
So in other words, I have never been able to use my Ph.D. much. As a professor, I did have a couple gigs here and there and a teaching research grant. But I sort of got off that track. Now through video teaching I can use a memory as the basis for teaching philosophy in the things that I trained for.
That’s what’s coming up next, more of that and more memory training. I have endless amounts of work that I can do. I have a mastermind group where I’m starting to do monthly webinars just for the people who belong to that and go really deep into many of these areas that aren’t in any memory training books and extend out into other areas where memory touches our lives which just about everything. So I got my life’s work now. It’s just a matter of what am I going to do next.
Rob: Fascinating. That’s fantastic. You mentioned Aristotle. Have you read Brian Clark’s post about Aristotle and writing?
Anthony: No, but I’ve got to look it up!
Rob: I read it last night and I thought it was quite good.
Anthony: Yeah, I’m looking it up. Aristotle’s Top Three Tips For Blogging?
Rob: That’s it. Yeah, Top Three Tips For Blogging. That’s was the one. For anyone that’s interested, where’s the best place for them to be able to find out more about you and your work?
You’ve heard people throw the word serotonin around, right?
But do you know what serotonin is and how it connects with the quality of your memory?
Well, if you want to experience a better life, it’s time to pay attention.
Serotonin is not only essential to having healthy memory abilities. It also helps you feel good, sleep better and works magic on your mood when you’re feeling down.
In fact, as a neurotransmitter derived from tryptophan …
Serotonin May Be The Most Important Anti-Depressant In The World!
Actually, there’s a lot of controversy about whether or not serotonin levels create depression. It’s only known that many people with depression show low levels of this chemical.
But here’s the real question:
How can you actually use the information you’re about to read?
Easy: If you can get your serotonin in order, you’ll not only feel better, but you might not need SSRIs and whatever other pills you’ve been taking to regulate your mood. I’ve taken a lot of those pills myself, and although none of what you’ll read in this post should be taken as medical advice …
I can’t emphasize this enough:
Healthy Serotonin Levels = Better Learning And Memory
Why?
Because there are seven distinct receptors with different densities. When things get messed up with your serotonin, you’re much more likely to experience the aging of your memory and fall into risk for Alzheimer’s and other issues.
In order to understand exactly how serotonin is connected with memory, we need to look at how it interacts with other neurotransmitters. These include:
Acetylcholine
Dopamine
Glutamate
y-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
Basically, all of these elements hang together and require precious balancing in order for you to be able to learn and remember.
When it comes to serotonin, scientists have found that by using serotonin reuptake inhibitors like alaproclate and oxotremorine, they can improve memory retrieval. Moreover, its believed that with more research, they’ll be able to use related chemicals to suppress the retrieval of addiction-primed memories.
Sounds Like A Mouthful, Right?
It’s actually easy to understand:
When it becomes possible to treat addiction-associated memories, that drug addicts might experience decreased cravings. That means fewer destructive behaviors to themselves and others in society.
The reason serotonin plays such a huge role in this area of memory is that its connection to different receptors involve reward-based learning, something that can be helpful, so long as negative drugs like tobacco aren’t involved. (By the way, stop smoking.)
But it’s not just all about addiction memory. Serotonin is also involved in:
Boosting Spatial Memory
If you’re serotonin levels are in check, you have much better chances of remembering locations and the relative distance between objects. This means that you can use a new place you visit as a Memory Palace with greater ease.
Mastering Emotional Memory
It’s well known that we tend to remember things with greater accuracy and vividness when emotions are involved. But if you’re low on serotonin, you might not be experiencing emotions properly.
Lower emotional capacity also means that you may not be paying attention properly. You cannot encode information into memory that you haven’t registered either in part or whole.
This explains why depression and other mental illnesses are so devastating for memory, especially since emotions are often so short-lived.
Luckily, however, we can generate emotions at will. By using mnemonics, we can supercharge every piece of information we meet so that it is more memorable. But it sure helps if we have healthy serotonin levels.
You Can Forget About Fearful Memory
Fear can either create new memories or inhibit their formation. Either way, if your serotonin is out of whack, your brain can’t properly manage fear to any advantage. Having your serotonin out of balance leads to memory errors and contributes to the fearful part of depression. With certain mental illness, for example, you can learn to be afraid when there’s nothing fearful in the environment. Proper serotonin levels can correct this problem, however.
But … What Exactly Does Serotonin Do?
Research shows that serotonin influences memory by increasing the ability of different neurons to get excited by various kinds of stimulation. Too little response to stumili and you’re depressed. Too much and you might go manic.
Either way, without the maintenance of serotonin, it’s difficult to pay attention, form new memories and learn. Poor serotonin levels messes with memory consolidation. Not being able to consolidate memories can lead to forgetting names, new information you’ve struggled to learn and even entire years of your life.
What Interferes With Your Serotonin Levels?
Unfortunately, scientists and doctors don’t always know. It can be that brain lesions create issues, along with some of the mysteries that create Alzheimer’s Disease.
What is known with relative certainty is that serotonin levels are linked to the quality of your sleep, diet and fitness.
The problem with the hypothesis that serotonin levels are connected to diet is that serotonin isn’t found in foods.
It is, however, synthesized from tryptophan. This is an amino acid found in many foods, some of which help create a healthy brain and memory.
Salmon is a big one, and it’s hard to go wrong with eating this fish.
Other ways to get more serotonin include exercise, sunlight and creating positivity in your life. Memory friendly activities such as meditation have been shown to help.
Although there is no clear cut route to boosting serotonin, the important thing is to try without the use of pharmaceuticals.
One reason is that taking drugs to feel better might have this positive effect, but it can also make you fee worse. After all, you now need a crutch to function, something that can crush your self-esteem. It shouldn’t, but the stigmatism has harmed me in the past. Plus, now that I’m living free from lamotrigine, I feel better and going solo has prompted me to live a healthier lifestyle overall.
When it comes to light exposure, it’s no secret that I’ve been using the Human Charger. Steeped in controversy though it may be, I’ve noticed a positive effect. I’ve also been switching on the lights I use to make my videos in order to get more light exposure.
You can also get more light when you …
Spend More Time Outdoors
People used to spend 30-40 hours outside a week. Nowadays, that’s the number of hours people spend inside at work.
Quite frankly, that’s insane and the health of our culture shows it.
Frankly, I believe that becoming an entrepreneur with a strong brand is one of the ways to escape the fate of sitting in an office and helping make someone else rich. As I talk about it in the Self-Improvement Supercharger, I like to walk from cafe to cafe to do my writing, which gives me not only more light, but more air, more exposure to people and much more fitness than I would get sitting at my desk.
I believe it’s the combination that matters: For example, just walking around and getting more light and fitness is helpful. But I don’t think it would be nearly as good without going up to people and asking them for help with German phrases I’m learning. I also go to my friend Max Breckbill’s co-working groups as often as I can to get more exposure to other people for the brain chemical benefits it creates.
And heck, some of them even wind up using memory techniques too after I talk about them.
In sum, people have put a lot of time, money and energy into researching serotonin. Although the link serotonin shares with tryptophan can make it difficult to study, countless experiments have shown that mice and humans alike cope better in life with regulated serotonin levels. They experience less stress, recover from depression with greater speed and remember more with greater accuracy.
Of course, further research is necessary, but my belief is that you are the ultimate scientist. If you’d like to experience better memory, organic brain games might be just what you need.
You don’t have to have your DNA extracted in scientific experiments or undergo the horrors of serotonin depletion in order to experience better memory.
Get more exercise, eat properly, sleep well and use memory techniques. Track your results using some of the tools linked to in this post and you’ll notice an impact. And if you’re sitting on the fence about training your memory, here are 9 Signs You Need Memory Training, Memory Techniques And Mnemonics that will convince you of the truth.
Bottom line:
Your serotonin levels are important and almost guaranteed to go up if you’ll just take care of these few areas. That means more memory and a better life.
Put some thought into that question. It could well change our entire life.
Because, yes. YOU are obliged to learn.
And even though learning takes time, energy and can even cost a bundle of bones you’ll never see again …
You Cannot Lose When You Learn The Right Ways
Download the MP3 of this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and have a blast reading the transcript below. And if you’ve got something to say, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Anthony: This is Anthony Metivier. You’re listening to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, coming to you live from Tel Aviv with my good friend Jonathan Levi. Jonathan has been on the show many, many times before. You know him from SuperLearner.
This is a universe where you can learn how to learn faster with greater comprehension, greater memory of what it is that you want to learn. Every time that we speak, he’s been on the Magnetic Memory Podcast so many times, it’s just absolutely incredible what I learn. It is incredible what you can learn from Jonathan Levi. We’re going to freewheel it a little bit. We’ve got some background noise and so on.
But it would be a lost opportunity if we didn’t just jump on the fact that we’re together hanging out in Tel Aviv and have a talk about how you can learn and memorize more information, do so in a way that feels great, is a load of fun, reduces stress from your life and just makes everything better so that you can make the world better, which is what this is all about really. What would you say to that?
Jonathan: Yeah, I would say that I really like – I was actually editing a video today from the last time that you were in Tel Aviv and it resonated. You said something that I often say, and I think a lot of people in our very fortunate position to help people and educate people for a living often say.
I think Tony Robbins says it a lot as well. He says you have a unique gift and it is your duty and obligation (we say it in Branding You), it is your duty and obligation to figure out what that gift is a soon as possible and then arm yourself with the tools that allow you to deliver that gift. I think the sooner you do that the more quickly you realize your potential in life then you realize your purpose. I mean it ties all the way back to Viktor Frankl. Like all you need in life to be happy is a purpose, a worthwhile purpose, and then that just sets your trajectory in life of what you’re going to do, skills you’re going to acquire, the things are going to learn about, the people you’re going to be with, it all comes from that purpose.
Anthony: So then riddle me this, if I can quote the old Batman movie. Why is it that some of us know our purpose and some don’t? For those of us that do, what’s like an example from your own life that got you to know your purpose, and how did you take that knowledge of knowing your purpose and turn it essentially into a self-sustaining engine that just drives you towards doing what you’ve accomplished? It’s the fire that burns itself, or you know the burning bush. We’re here in the land the burning bush.
Jonathan: We are in the land of the burning bush.
Anthony: How does that work?
Why You Need To Seek If You Want To Find
Jonathan: That’s a tough question. Why do some people know and some people not know? I think the first question is why do some people seek and some people do not seek? I think a lot of people go through their lives not seeking more. I call it the prefix approach when what you really want is the a la carte approach to life.
I think in order to really be seeking and searching for your purpose, your mission in life, you have to take the approach that my life is a la carte in the sense that I can pick and choose from certain things. I can pick and choose if I want to have kids. I can pick and choose if I want to work in an office. I can pick and choose and so on. I think that’s a big component of why people struggle to find their purpose.
Why The Cost Of Stability May Be Killing You
But I think the other thing is we somehow along the way through the industrial era have kind of all settled on this stability over excitement mentality. A lot of parents raise their kids go get an education, get a good stable job, and that’s wonderful. Stability is great especially if you’re raising a family, but I think we need to get over this mentality that stability comes at the expense of excitement. You can have both. I know a lot of people who have super stable jobs, who are working at a very stable corporate job, and they’re doing their life’s purpose. They’re really excited about what they’re doing. So I reject the idea that you have to give up on a purpose and just go to a 9:00 to 5:00 that you hate.
Anthony: Right. Now let’s make this even more localized to a particular memory subject because a lot of people that say they want to learn a new language right. They think well I work from 9:00 to 5:00. I am with my kids until whatever time late night, I have six hours to sleep, then I get up, and then I go to shave and shower and go to get in the car, and so on and so forth. They have endless reasons why that they can’t not only just spend time learning language, but use the memory techniques that I teach and that you teach in order to be able to get the components of language into memory. Like where do they just begin, given what you said? Like where’s the entry point to getting started and then keeping going so that you have a different mindset for it and actually execution of learning given the situation they’re in?
Jonathan: Learning anything, well learning kind of in the direction of your purpose you mean?
Anthony: Yeah I mean if your purpose is to say you know you need to learn a language in order to fulfill a particular purpose.
The Best Way To Know When Something Isn’t Right For You
Jonathan: Sure. So a few different thoughts there. One is I find when you work on things, when you find that right thing, the resistance goes away right. Like you can drag your feet on projects for years, and you and I know we’ve dragged our feet individually on projects. That’s a pretty good indication if you have to like force yourself to do something, it’s a pretty good indication that’s not you’re calling and not your purpose. I think you need to listen and be true to yourself and ask yourself what your motives are to do certain things. With that said, I mean there are pragmatic considerations and concerns around generating time which you know I talk about a lot in my productivity course.
Exactly How To Make More Time Magically Appear In Your Life
How do you make time? I think for most people the psychological boundary of busyness and how much time they actually have is much more significant than the actual pragmatic realistic constraints on their time. How many of us waste that twenty minutes waiting for the bus? How many of us waste that time sitting on the bus? How many of us, while our kids are brushing their teeth for school, are sitting there like flipping through Facebook instead of reviewing whatever it is. In your case, memorizing a deck of cards because that’s part of your purpose is empowering people with memory. I think we need to be realistic actually about how busy we are and actually how well we’re using our time. I’m well known for tracking everything I do, and I can tell you on any given day how productive I am in percentages because I track how my time is being spent on my computer.
Once you start doing these things, you start looking at yourself and your life through an optimization mindset. What you discover is quite surprising. Like those five-minute breaks that you spend on Facebook amount to an hour and a half of time, and unless and until you track you have no insight into that. That would be my advice is like be honest with yourself. How busy are you really? The first thing where I was trying to get is like why is it that you’re not making time for these things, because that’s also a good indication. When I decided I want to learn piano, which is part of my mission, right. I want to inspire people to learn anything. I can’t do that if I don’t play musical instruments.
It’s amazing how much time I make Anthony. It’s amazing. Like I put off breakfast some mornings, because I’m just like you know, I’ll have like a quick breakfast and a smoothie, so that I can use my hands to like play piano while I wait for my first call in the morning because I love it, and I’m so passionate about it. And the first thing I wanted to talk to you when you came to Tel Aviv was like dude how are you memorizing this? How can I figure out these chord structures? The night you came, we talked for two and a half hours on the beach about mnemonic techniques for music. That’s a pretty good sign that that’s like serving my purpose and my mission even though I’m not a musician. I’m pretty damn excited about teaching other people and empowering other people to lean learn musical instruments, or whatever.
Anthony: All right, well let’s talk about that because I’d been talking about it on the podcast with John McPhedrine a few weeks ago who has just brilliant ideas about it of his own accord so forth, and I thought you know I am not done with these ideas. I haven’t fully gone through it and everything, but I’m going to get this off my chest because I’m so excited about it. I’m going to do it partially as like a tribute to you, a gift to you.
Jonathan: Thank you.
Anthony: And with deep acknowledgement to John for his contributions to music mnemonics, and also just to get something out that I’ve been thinking about working with and so forth. By the same token, you were yes I get it. You understand exactly where I’m coming from. But at the same time, you are deeply unsatisfied by it, and you said you know, I think it the there has to be a better way kind of thing. So take us through two things. First, you know what is it from a SuperLearner perspective that you’ve been doing, like the top two to three things that have gotten you where you are with music. I sat and watched you play which is amazing. Then what is it you know, either with specific or just general references to what I told you that night, that sort of deeply unsatisfied you, and what you found maybe interesting about it or whatever. I mean just jam on it.
Jonathan: So first, I have to say, I’ve spent so much time with you in the last few days in person, I haven’t listen to the podcast episode. But I feel like I got a pretty good idea based on what you explained to me. There were a few things that I thought were absolutely brilliant like using the major method for notes and stuff like that I think is really clever. Like on the fretboard, I think it’s really clever. It’s a lot of work but then memorizing all the notes on the fretboard is going to be a lot of work. I’ll first say my difficulty, and then I’ll say what I’m doing.
The Raw Truth About Methods Versus Systems
My difficulty is, and this is at the core of how you and I teach differently, I like systems because I’d rather be 80 percent to 100 percent of the people, and you like methods because you’d rather be 100 percent flexible to 80 percent of the people. I think I cater to an audience who wants to know precisely. Students ask me all the time how often should I pause in making markers or visual symbols, we call markers. How often should I pause? Every paragraph, every two paragraphs, they want exact specific numbers.
The truth is it depends. It depends on you. It depends on your working memory capacity. It depends on what you’re reading obviously. It depends on how long the paragraphs are. But my students seem to want systems, and they want things nailed down very, very specifically. I’m of the belief that you need to know the rules really well before you break them. Like for example, a non-native English speaker could never start a sentence with and, but for Gary Halbert and Anthony Metivier, who have a perfect command of copyrighting an English speaking can, and know how, even though that’s wrong technically.
It’s like you need to know the Magnetic Memory Method really well to break the rules. But I would believe that your approach is make your own rules. It’s a method, not a system. I think that was my difficulty. I mean you’ve seen how I run my business as well. Like everything is a system. We know exactly how many characters are allowed to go into this title, and we know exactly what settings to use on every single blog post we do. We have the exact processes that are never deviated from. I think that would drive some people crazy, but that’s kind of how I operate. It’s the German passport, what can I say.
Here’s what I’ve been doing to accelerate the learning of music. First things first, I needed to do was memorize each of the keys as in the physical keys on the piano. I needed to know what each one of them were. So I came up with a nice little mnemonic technique where each one looks like a certain thing. For example, the “D” is in between two other white keys, which face inward towards it. So that, to me, as someone who speaks Spanish, was “dentro.”
“Dentro: in between, and the one next to it to the right was “E” which for me is it’s facing backwards into the cluster, “espalda” which literally means back as in physical. You’re back, not backwards and so on and so forth. You know the “F” key is facing forward into a cluster. So that’s “F”, and that’s how I did that, and within you know two or three minutes I could look at any one and know exactly what it was. I mean that’s easy stuff.
I’m using essentially a very similar way that you are to memorize the songs essentially. I’ve been using that with guitar for some time. I’m still trying to figure out a lot of other stuff. I’m doing a lot of like brute force learning. Not just reading music, but also figuring it out on my own, and just understanding like what different intervals sound like. So one of the things we teach in our courses is this idea like brute force learning. A lot of people will just go to a piano tutor, and then just do the piano tutor’s homework. I’m like watching YouTube videos, memorizing songs that I would never be able to read in sheet music to get familiar with the finger movement. I’m writing out sheet music as I hear it. I’m doing all different kinds of multifaceted approaches so that it’s not just me, the book and the piano tutor. It’s a holistic approach to learning.
Anthony: Now how are you doing that systematically though?
Jonathan: That’s a big problem for me I haven’t really conquered. I’m doing it kind of as I feel, and really what I’m doing is I’m using it as a frustration avoidance mechanism. Like when I get really sick of playing Jingle Bells, which is something I can actually read because it’s very easy. Then I go to a really hard song that I know is going to take me about ten seconds to figure out each chord as it’s written, because I haven’t even started learning chords.
That kind of breaks my frustration and creates a new frustration. When I get tired of that, you know maybe in the next session what I’ll do is I’ll just sound something out, or I’ll watch a YouTube video, which just shows me which keys to press. Then later I’ll reverse engineer it by looking at the music. Ironically, it’s not a system. It’s a method, and my method is go until I get frustrated, but if I still want to keep playing, jump from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing so that I am still getting hours, because I get really frustrated super fast playing Jingle Bells a hundred times.
Anthony: Well, the reason why I asked that and it wasn’t meant to be to be a nasty thing to do. One of the things that I think makes us interesting people to follow and listen to is we’re one hundred percent transparent about the things that we do. We’re out there. We’ve got our heart on our sleeves, and one of the things that I always say, when I talk about it being a method and so forth, is I also always say one is the most dangerous number in the world. You need multiple teachers. You need multiple exposure to how people do things in multiple ways. You don’t teach how to learn music yet. But I’m really fascinated about how you think that you could turn what you’re doing, exploring, your mixing system with method and so forth, how you could turn that into a systematic approach that matches what you already teach systematically in SuperLearning.
Jonathan: Well I think the closest thing to a system that I’ve seen is your use of Major Method. Then I really like the idea, I know you’re not huge on PAO (person, action object), but I really like this idea of you know much music is either three fourths time or four fourths common time, so I like this idea of having PAO for three fourths time and PAAO (person, action adjective, object).
How To Make Metaphors Part Of Memorizing Music
For example, C D G E, I would have C as PAAO. So C could always be Charles Manson chewing on crunchy capers. If C is the first piece in that, then it would be a Charles Manson. Then the next one is D, which would be David Bowie diving into deep dragons or something like that. Then I would use the diving. Charles Manson diving so on and so forth. Then you just create a visual symbol, which I’m sure your audience knows all about and then you put it into Memory Palaces. Now here’s where you and I differ. Up until that point you and I somewhat agree. You believe that you should vary every single time the P, the A, the O. I say like let me just learn C, D, E, you know A through G, have one PAAO thing.
That’s a system versus a method. So for me it’s always Charles Manson chewing on crunchy capers. So there is your system, and then again, where you and I would differ is I would want to system that says the first verse is always in this corner, and then the chorus is always in a corner of the room, and so on and so forth. The choruses are always, the refrain is always in the bathroom. I’d want something like that, so that if I ever just want to jump in at a certain point in the song, I think that would drive you nuts if I’m not mistaken.
Anthony: Actually, I think that this is a good a good discussion point because I think people misunderstand what I mean by system versus method. Because the kinds of systematic things that you’re talking about, and you know PAO, and I don’t like PAO and all that sort of stuff. It’s not so much that I don’t like PAO, it’s just that like when you’re using major method, major method actually is not a system. It is a method right.
Jonathan: Fair, yes.
Anthony: So when you’re doing something like what you’re talking about, what I think is so exciting, and what my mind leaps on, and I would instantly adopt systematically, is you mentioned Charles Manson and David Bowie. Both of those guys have strong ties to the world of music. So what I would do in a systematic way is say to myself as I’m developing memorizing music, every character comes from the world of music.
Now that’s now you’re getting into semantics whether that’s methodological or systematic. But if you said that it must be someone from the world of music, then you are giving yourself an aid to recall because if you’re searching for something, you instantly already have a hook. It must be someone from the world of music. So who could it be? Well it’s there’s only so many notes in the scale. So there are a lot of systematic things in the Magnetic Memory Method. But why I insist on the methodological thing is because a lot of the training out there comes from people who develop the techniques for competition. The material that you memorize in competition lends itself to systematicity.
Jonathan: Right, it’s always the same competition, the same events and stuff like that.
Anthony: But foreign language learning does not lend itself to systematicity. Especially not when you learn languages online.
Jonathan: That’s fair.
Anthony: There are, as far as I know, no real substantial language learning competitions and that’s because the margin for cheating would be so high because one could pose as not knowing languages.
Jonathan: That and it’s so hard to test actual fluency. You know I mean. It’s hard to define fluency much less test it.
Anthony: I’m glad these things came up because I think that again it just sort of reinforces my pedagogical philosophy that one is the most dangerous number that you will ever know, and you need multiple teachers. That’s why I like to go and study from you, for example, and be around you and study you because you challenge my assumptions and my presuppositions. I grow and I think and I apply and I implement and so forth, and I’ve gotten faster at certain things that I do.
Also, you’ve broken down certain walls of stubbornness against all odds because I’m a cranky professor sometimes. I surprise myself. So I really encourage people who are listening to this you don’t know Jonathan or you know you have come across him, but haven’t dived in and just gotten into the SuperLearner way of doing things, to go and do that. My only caveat being that you implement. Because it doesn’t matter how many people that you study from, if you’re not taking action on what they’re teaching you, then it’s not going to go anywhere. Who is someone that you’ve recently learned something from where you went from this is a concept or an idea or a process and you leapt on it, and then you got a result. What comes to mind?
Jonathan: Wow!
Anthony: I mean maybe there are multiple things.
Jonathan: You put me on the spot there. Let’s think. Someone that I have immediately put something into practice and it is just worked. I am going to give a shout out to our head of marketing, Mr. Steven Pratley because I wrote out this whole webinar thing. I wanted to host a webinar or for my audience to educate them.
Basically, my goal is to reach a million people if your audience doesn’t know. I want to teach a million people how to learn more effectively. One of the best ways to do that and still be able to pay your bills is do a free one hour webinar which teaches them you know a lot of the basics and gets them up and running. I can get that in front of a million people and then at the end you offer them to join your premium training so I can also afford to advertise and send that out to a million people. I’d written like these slides. Steven was like look, this is good, but let me show you this webinar that, I think it was like Frank Kern did, one of the folks that you admire so much.
He sends me this thing, and I just read through it I’m like whoa. This goes through, you as a story consultant will love, the whole story. Why this works this way and how this works this way and it’s not you know that the hero’s journey. It’s brilliant. I put it in a place. The next day I just wrote out all the slides and boom, boom, boom, and I think we’re going to be delivering a similar version of that to your audience very shortly here. Boy, did it work. People were in the chat. They were going nuts and they really appreciated it so much more than they would have if it were just my boring presentation. Like here are the top three tips that you could – so it worked really well. We were very fortunate to have a few people join also our premium training and they’ve been enjoying it really well because they’ve had this nice primer to get into it. That I think would be the example.
How To Put A Knife In The Heart Of A Memory Expert
Anthony: I’m glad that you raise that because one thing that I’m always itching and burning to talk about, and it’s a very uncomfortable subject or at least it’s often received very poorly, and it can lead to something that I find so extraordinarily paradoxical that I can’t quite understand it. It’s this. We are rewarded handsomely for the work that we do. When we do promotions, we do our best to help people understand the value that we offer and to compel them to take action so that they can get the kind of results to lead the lives that they want to lead.
But to lead the lives that they want to lead, how that they want to learn at a higher level and be able to remember more, and do it in ways that are fun and so forth, the strangest things happen. I get multi-paragraph emails of people who say, “You know man, I was just so skeptical of your stuff and it’s there’s certain things about your marketing that just kind of you know rub the wrong way and so forth but I took a chance on this and it’s just unbelievable what happened. You know, in six weeks I memorized a thousand words. I just finally am able to learn in a way that’s fun, and I’m remembering stuff. It’s just changed my life.” On the other hand, emails come in from people, and I’m not going to quote this person, but you know someone swore at me. They basically said in a couple sentences that I’m completely out of my mind. That they hate me they wish that I would go to hell.
Jonathan: That’s pretty offensive language.
Anthony: I don’t want to give that person who may or may not be listening right now some feeling that they have power or whatever, but it puts a knife in my heart. The reason why is because that person obviously needs the same help that the person who succeeded needed. Why is it that some people that come to these webinars that we do, which have different levels of free training based on where you may be at, why is it that instead of turning the channel when it’s not for them, they feel that they have to throw a stone, be filled with hatred and try to destroy as opposed to just turning the channel? Or, taking action and giving something a try. We give these extraordinary guarantees. What’s going on here?
Jonathan: That’s interesting. You know what’s funny is, I often have to be given the advice that I give. I’m going to give you the advice that you give which is great, that’s awesome, because I think it’s Gary Halbert who says, and you introduced me to Gary Halbert, who says if you’re not pissing a couple people off then you’re not being provocative enough. I would love for everyone to love me. I would love to never get an email that says hey you kind of look like a sleaze bag in this video.
But the vast majority of people are getting impacted because it is out there, because I’m telling crazy outrageous stories and stuff like that. I mean also, you can learn so much from those folks I think because it just allows you to tighten up your game. Eventually, you take enough feedback, and the reason we have a master class is because I took enough feedback from people saying this is unclear, this was boring the way you recorded this and that’s constructive feedback I guess. More constructive than like you know you look like a blank and blank in a blank and you probably blank your blank. But you take enough of that feedback, and you become airtight which is pretty cool.
The Moral Obligation To Teach Memory Skills Once You’ve Learned Them
Anthony: Another reason why I wanted to raise this topic is because I think, and I talk about it all the time, is that if you learn memory techniques and you use them you are morally obligated to teach them to other people.
Jonathan: Agreed.
Anthony: I think that a lot of people would like to be able actually to make a living out of a passion that they have. One thing that Dave Farrow pointed out when he was a guest on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, there are a lot of people out there who teach memory techniques who actually aren’t qualified to be teaching them because they haven’t gone out and actually accomplished anything from those memory techniques. I’m not a memory competitor, but I wonder if you would talk a little bit about what you’re feeling is about that. How do you get to a point where you are satisfied that you could teach something that you’ve learned? You should become a SuperLearner to the extent that now it’s time for you to become a super teacher.
Jonathan: Sure. I struggle with this myself because I don’t use a lot of the memory techniques that we teach. I mean I use them but I’m not going up to people and memorizing their credit card numbers and stuff like that, and I don’t even memorize, to be honest, my own credit card numbers because I change credit cards every time there’s like a new offer and it’s just proven to be useless to me. But at the same time, I do memorize. Someone sold me a lock at the store the other day, and he was joking with because he asked what I do. I was like I teach memory.
He’s like okay, I’m taking out of the package. I’m not giving you the manual with the code. He like just flashed it to me, and I still remember it. I’m not going to say it now in case someone steals my bike again. I still remember it because I just created a Major Method system for it. I use the techniques but not maybe as much as I’d like to. I think my approach to that is why not. I should start using them just for giggles to learn music. That’s why I’ve started piano.
To learn languages, I do actually use them quite extensively, but I don’t memorize cards. I think I should. I think I should because I talk about it and I don’t use PAO as much. I think I should because I talk about it. But to answer your question, just to finish on that a little bit actually, but I do speed read quite a bit. I do learn quite aggressively. I do take on learning projects. I’m learning three instruments and two languages right now as we speak. I struggle with the parts of the course that I needed to put in there to be complete. Do I use them enough really to proselytize them?
With that said, I believe in them. I know that they work, and when I do use them, they work extraordinarily well. So even though I don’t have a Memory Palace for every single book I read, I do use spaced repetition and I do highlight in a certain way, which is kind of a SuperLearner way of doing things. When are you good enough to teach these methods? I think actually, and this touches on the brute force learning thing, something taught is something twice learned. One of my best techniques, do you remember what I was reading when we were in Berlin together?
Anthony: I don’t even remember observing what you were reading.
Jonathan: We didn’t have much time for reading, but I was talking your ear off about this book, Sex At Dawn. Well, I’m not even talking someone else’s ear off, but whatever book I’m reading at the time, I’m usually talking people’s ear off about it. I was recently talking to you about Stephen Hawking and like how you mind blowing all this stuff was. I think the same is true of learning memory techniques. Like you not only have an obligation, but you’re highly incentivized to share everything you learn.
I try to talk with you as much as I can about different things that I’m learning. I try to talk with all my friends. We talked about mnemonics for music as I mentioned. The thing is you learn something, you go out that night and you happen to be chatting with friends, share that knowledge with them.
First off, it is way more interesting than talking about Donald Trump or political gossip or whatever. It is way more uplifting than talking about whatever godawful event happened you know across the world in some terrible attack. You’re spreading knowledge, you’re spreading wisdom and you’re reinforcing your own learning.
I would hope that anyone who’s taken my courses or your courses is going around and when people say, “Oh sorry. I forgot your name. I have a terrible memory,” they stop and say, “You don’t have a terrible memory. You don’t know these powerful things called mnemonic techniques.” Then explain because that’s a way more interesting first conversation with someone than what do you do, and where do you live and all that junk that we’re also tired of answering.
Anthony: I’ve certainly had many of those interesting conversations. Without going a long spiel, but give the people listening to this podcast your assessment of what you’ve seen as me being someone who does practice these techniques and an honest one, given you see me make mistakes, you see me correct myself.
Jonathan: Perfectly done. I will give you a glittering testimonial that you really do use this stuff.
Anthony: But I want you to do like also give a portrait of the reality of what you saw.
Jonathan: Yeah.
Anthony: With like the self-correction and how I actually –
Jonathan: Absolutely, you use the techniques. You use them in a different way than I would use them, which is you like to go back and correct and clean up because that provides – I mean there’s merit in doing it both ways. You have these kinds of memorable, almost like slightly awkward situations where mispronounce a vowel and stuff like that, and then after that was memorable right. Once you have this like red face moment, it’s memorable. With certain words, we’ve been like correcting the vowel pronunciations because we don’t have an “A” sound in Hebrew.
I think one thing that I’ve learned from you that’s really great is knowingly or unknowingly you take really good advantage of social pressure in the sense that people ask can you tell them what you do and then you encourage them to challenge you. Tim Ferriss talks about this all the time like setting good stakes. I should probably advertise more often, and I try not to it because I don’t like to be put on the spot too much.
Then you’re walking down the street and six months later you see someone who frankly just didn’t impress you that much or wasn’t that memorable to you, and oh you’re the memory guy. But with that said, maybe I should be taking more advantage of that and I should be because it pushes you to use the techniques and social pressure is kind of a social accountability are kind really powerful things that I could use to improve my practice of memory.
Anthony: I think you do have social pressure working in your favor and in other respects. My observation is, and it’s absolutely incredible to me how that you can with we’re talking about this or that subject, and the detail with which you go through the points that you want to make with names, dates, percentages. You have this laser-like accuracy in the things that you want to talk about, that I don’t have like a mobile Internet thing where I can like check your accuracy or whatever. But it’s so obvious to me that what you’re reciting comes from something not that you’ve just memorized, but you’ve learned it so deeply that you’ve made it part of your knowledge base and that you’re able to report on findings and inform other people from your mind unassisted. This is to me the demonstration that you l walk the walk and you talk that talk.
Jonathan: Thank you, sir. I appreciate that very much.
Anthony: I’m constantly impressed by it. Also just what you do in recorded settings on having your broadcast and so forth, because you refer to the people that you’ve interviewed on your podcast in ways that show me you’ve learned from what you’ve done using your own learning approach.
Jonathan: You know what the craziest thing about it is? I think you can probably testify to this as well or attest to this as well, after a while you become so confident in your memory and your mind becomes so interconnected, I often don’t need to use visual mnemonics anymore.
I often don’t even need to, because my brain is just like a hyper connected network and so like Ben Greenfield tells me something on the show, and I just connected it. I mean I guess maybe deep down intrinsically I do have a specific image that I remember from when he told me why he doesn’t use gyms and he likes to work out of doors. I do have an image for that, but it’s not like I’m sitting there and imagining it. I’m in conversations. I’m generating images as second nature and they’re all just interconnecting to everything that I know.
Ironically, we talked about this the last time we sat down with Jimmy and we recorded. I really want to figure out a way to get my brain tested because I have a theory that just everything has become so interconnected. Now one of the things that I want to talk about it that I want your audience to know is people are always like oh I well I learned Spanish and it pushed the Russian out of my mind. That is so not true. It’s actually the more you use it, the more you have. The more I learn, the more I’m able to learn because I just have so many more connection points. Especially when you’re learning about peripherally related things.
The Ultimate Secret Weapon According To Jonathan Levi
For example, when I started learning about hormonal balance, I knew more about weightlifting than I did about supplementation, but I was able to fill out clusters of neural networks because the more you learn the more you’re able to learn, and the more you have as a basis. I would attribute I read a ton, I read a proper ton. I talk to a lot of people and I have a lot of conversations. I learn from many different sources, and I think that’s like the secret weapon.
Anthony: Well I know a way to test your brain. I’m going to create a hypothetical, and I want you to answer a question that I know is on a lot of people’s minds. What do I do to get started on a particular thing? Like what’s the first step that I need to take to learning a subject. What I’m going to do in this hypothetical is there’s now something called the Magnetic Memory Method Memory Championships. That memory championship requires that you be able to memorize a deck of cards, and recall the order of that deck of cards that has been randomly shuffled in under twenty seconds. You have six months in order to develop the skill. The prize is $7 billion. I want to know what you’re going to do as the first step in order to enable yourself to win that prize, knowing that you have six months to do it.
Jonathan: Is the prize determined by speed or accuracy or what? Or it is just my ability to do it.
Anthony: Just to keep it simple, anybody who can come and memorize a deck of cards. Now, let me condition this though, because the way it typically works is that they count the time that you spent memorizing. But I want it to be that within twenty seconds you can memorize it and recall it. I know that’s totally hypothetical and totally impossible. Because it does take longer to do the active recall than it does to do the act of memorization, but just imagine that it is possible. That you could just go through a deck in ten seconds and then in another ten seconds you could say the order of what you saw. What is Hour 1 of what a SuperLearner is going to do to tackle this problem in order to win this prize?
Jonathan: I think most people, especially if they read like some of Tim Ferriss’ stuff would be like deconstruct the skill and understand. That would be probably in the first hour of work. The, first, first thing I would do is set goals. I need to know what my goal is, what do I need to be able to do. Then I would try to get in touch with my motivations, because adult learners as Malcolm Knowles taught us in 1955, there you go setting statistics, said that there are five adult learning requirements, and one of them is pressing need. One of them is a good learning environment.
One of them is connection to prior knowledge, but another one is an understanding of why they’re learning what they’re learning. So I would connect with this $7 billion prize and ask is that why I’m doing it, am I doing it for pride or my doing it for whatever. Then I also need to know what do I need to be able to do? What are my deliverables? I would set goals. I would break those goals down into steps. They would be S.M.A.R.T. goals, specific, measurable, actionable, reasonable, timely goals:
By this month, I’ll be doing it one minute. By this month, I’ll be doing it in thirty seconds, so and so forth. Then I get into all the accelerated learning stuff that people know me for. I would talk to you. I would talk to my buddy Nelson Dellis. I would read probably a couple hundred pages of different books on people who’ve done it. I’d read anything Ben Pridmore has come out with. I would not take this approach that many people do of like no, no I’m learning it this way not this way. I would learn it every possible way that I could, and then I would just build a training schedule around my a S.M.A.R.T. goals, and I would just get it done.
Anthony: What would be a compelling reason to do something like that?
Jonathan: For me? It comes down to like authenticity. The reason that I want to start playing around with memorizing cards is like I want to walk the walk to talk the talk. I speed read. So I’m cool teaching speedreading. I use memory techniques. So I’m cool teaching memory techniques, but I’ve taught PAO and I don’t really use it that much. So I want to start using it more, even though I think it’s important to give my audience like the full spectrum.
On my show, I host people who talk about nutritarian eating and not eating too many animal products, and I don’t really believe in that, but I think it’s important to share the spectrum, expose people and let them create their own learning journey. This is something else that that Knowles tells us. You need self-directed learning. It’s important. Kids will just do the homework because the teacher said, but adults will need to kind of feel that they have ownership and agency in the learning process. That’s what I said when I said like an ideal respectful learning environment, a learning environment that respects their autonomous process. I’m starting to melt here.
Anthony: We’re going to hot and we’re going to put this episode to rest, but I really appreciate everything that you’ve said. I think that it’s always empowering to hear your perspective on things. I really appreciate that we could cover so much in this talk. I really hope that you will put time into memorizing cards because I’d love to pow-wow with you on it. I think that if we can walk away on one thing is that the power of your friendships with people has a lot to do with shared terrain and territory. The more you know, the more you can know and that means more people you can know and more people you can connect with, and you are a great connector. I really hope that people will find ways to connect with you by taking up your training as a first point of entry for sure, and getting on your podcast and mailing list and all the things that you do so that they’re learning more and more from you. How can they do that?
Jonathan: We’ll put a link in the show notes, which you know Anthony is part of our ecosystem and stuff like that. If you guys want to support the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast then use his link, and you can check me out. My personal website is www.jle.vi. You can also check me out at Becoming A Superhuman if you want to download some free podcast episodes. Check out the show notes. I’m sure Anthony will have some resources for you guys.
Anthony: We’re going to have a transcript of this. I don’t know if it’s going to be available immediately upon publishing because we’re going to hopefully get this out this week so that is in sync with what I said at the beginning, but thank you for tolerating the background noise. One of the things that I would point out is that we have and enjoy the success that we do because we jump on opportunity and when preparation meets opportunity, there is no ceiling. So until the time that we speak again, keep that in mind, keep it in memory, and keep yourself Magnetic.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could look at a piece of music once, instantly memorize the notes and then immediately start drilling it into muscle memory? The time you’d save using music mnemonics would be immense, and you’d experience much more pleasure learning music as a result.
Here’s the thing:
You Can Memorize Music!
But there’s a catch.
What I’m about to share is largely untested. I’ve completed some promising experiments, but haven’t completed the full Memory Palace for any single instrument. That means I haven’t used the approach I’ll describe for you to its fullest potential.
UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have made great strides. Here’s a run down of where things currently stand with how to memorize notes on a guitar:
Bottom line:
I will keep exploring every nook and cranny of using mnemonics to remember music.
And when I’m satisfied, I’ll make a course about how you can use the method too.
In the meantime, the concepts are far too exciting not to share. They’re also so logical, coherent and mnemonically beautiful. It will be impossible for you not to grow in memory and mind if you choose to tinker with them.
And who knows? You might come up with a cool variation that winds up in the forthcoming book and video course!
Music Mnemonics: The Ground Rules
First off, we need to establish some ground rules and guiding principles for music mnemonics. When talking about memorizing music, we need to be specific about what kind of music and for what instrument.
Or, we need to focus on particular parts of music theory. To just throw around the term “music mnemonics” risks confusing everyone.
If we’re talking about musical terminology, that’s easy. Just treat the terms like you would any professional material, like you would using the second edition of How to Learn and Memorize Legal Terminology. Since numbers might be involved, go in prepared with the Major Method.
If you want to memorize notes on the staff, there are already well-established mnemonics for that. I don’t have much to add when it comes to Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge for the treble stave and FACE for the notes between the lines. You can find lots more mnemonics for music like these all over the net, but in truth …
You’re Always Better Coming Up With Your Own Music Mnemonics
Why does this matter?
Because you’re on the Magnetic Memory Method website to master music mnemonics and other memory techniques. Not goof around with yet another crutch of limited, short-term value. You’re here to learn skills that will serve you for life and that means learning to make music mnemonics of your own.
Here’s how a thorough reading and re-reading of this material will help:
What I’m going to cover in this post is the memorization of the notes on the fretboard of stringed instruments like the guitar and the keys of a piano. This material is a demonstration of what is possible if you combine a number of Magnetic Memory Method elements and see your instrument as its own kind of Memory Palace.
To accomplish this, we need to know how to use instruments like guitars and pianos in terms of what note falls on which spatial position. I’ll make a few suggestions about chords, but beyond that, I cannot currently say much. There are a lot of aspects to music and what I’ve got for you is just a piece of the puzzle.
But Oh What A Piece!
Let’s look at guitar first. For some much earlier writing I put out on the topic, you might want to start with Memorize Bach On Bass. Or, just dive in.
The fretboard of the guitar is a field that can be expressed using coordinates. In this way, the fretboard shares characteristics with the chess board (something I believe this approach will also help with when it comes to memorizing chess moves).
For example, E appears several times in the fretboard.
A string, 7th fret
D string, 2nd fret
E string, 12th fret
There are several more appearances, including the open string noted and 12th fret positions on the E strings themselves. If we say that each open note is represented by 0, as it is in guitar tablature, then we can agree that each note has a numerically expressible geographical coordinates.
This May Be The Simplest Unused Technique In All Of Music Learning
Next, let’s try and make each string more concrete.
For example, I play primarily 5-string bass, so my strings all have an associated character:
B = Bob (Played by Bill Murray in What About Bob?)
E = Ernie from Sesame Street
A = Al Pacino
D = Dracula (As played by Bela Lugosi)
G = Grover from Sesame Street
Coming up with these figures took approximately 2 minutes. Probably less, but I didn’t have a timer running. If you play any stringed instrument, be it a 4-stringed violin or a 21-string sitar, I recommend you name each string. It makes for great mental exercise.
Next, since you’re a clever fan of the Magnetic Memory Method, you already know the Major Method. You’re set to get started.
You’d Be Crazy Not To Have This Math Memory Weapon In Your Arsenal
In case you don’t know the Major Method, here’s a simplified primer:
The idea is to link consonants with numbers. Like this:
0 = soft c or s 1 = d or t 2 = n 3 = m 4 = r 5 = l 6 = ch, g, j, sh 7 = k 8 = f or v 9 = b or p
From this point, you can make words when you pair two numbers together by inserting a vowel. The vowel you use is largely arbitrary, but the trick is to find a word that represents a concrete person or object that exists in the world.
For example, we know that E appears in the 7th fret of the A string. Since 7 is a solo number, let’s call it 07. That gives us “s” and “k” using the Major Method.
The first thing that came to mind for me is the word “sack.”
Since the A string itself is represented by Al Pacino, having him do something with a sack tells us instantly that our target information is located on the 7th fret of the A string.
All we need now is a sign to tell us that the note on that fret is E.
Since we’ve already established that open E is Ernie, we can use him in the image. Therefore, the image of Al Pacino placing a bag over Ernie’s head to strangle him let’s us instantly decode the following information:
The 7th fret in the A string is E.
To take another quick example, E on the 12th fret of the E string itself could have the image of Ernie getting a “tan” from a “ton” of “tuna.” It’s bizarre and makes no sense, but is easy to remember. I’m compounding 3 words that have “t” and “n” to create words that mean 12 in the Major Method.
E on the 2nd fret of the D string is 02, which lets us imagine Dracula pushing the “sun” into Ernie’s face, again using the corresponding number-sound associations from the Major Method to create this word.
In sum, where E appears on the fretboard, we can instantly know where it is by having a predetermined system that links:
A string Bridging Figure with a note Bridging Figure to a sound-number spatial co-ordinate.
If for some reason you needed to play E in these three positions and wanted to instantly remember that order, all you’d need to do is experience either visually or conceptually a story in your mind:
Al Pacino pops a sack over Ernie’s head, but he escaped to get tanned by a ton of tuna before Dracula shoves the sun in his face.
It’s A Mouthful To Explain … But This Technique Sure Packs A Punch!
Just imagine:
If you had a character for each note, a character for each string and the Major Method, you could memorize the sequence of any riff, solo, scale or notes in a chord.
But There’s A Problem!
What if your instrument isn’t tuned in E or you change tunings often?
I’ll admit that I don’t have a solution for this, but I’m working on it. If you’re set in C, B, or any other note, then you can create this system using the core principles you’ve just learned.
When it comes to changing tunings ranging from a single string to placing them all in different tunings (in The Outside we played in C#), you at least have fixed relations to rely upon.
For example, if your E string is in C#, the first fret on that string will be D. You can name your string Bridging Figures and still use the Major Method and your objects or actions accordingly relative to the position of the notes in the tuning environment.
Column Theory
Another music mnemonics idea I’m developing involves the frets as columns.
For example, we’ve seen the 7th fret involve a sack, the 12th tanning and tuna by the ton, and the 2nd the sun.
What if these fret Bridging Figures represented those frets for each string? The 2nd fret A note on the G string also involves the sun (Grover pulling the sun out of Al Pacino’s nose.) The D on the 7th fret of the G also includes a sack (Grover putting a sack over Dracula’s head).
By operating in this way, you drastically cut down on the number of images and actions you would need to create music mnemonics for the entire fretboard. You also create a lot of repetition that could initially create confusion, however. You just need to dive in, experiment and see what works best for you.
How To Apply The Major Method To Memorizing Piano
In a similar vein, to get a similar spatial representation on the piano keyboard, you need only give each key a number. To make a word for each, simply assign a zero to each single digit, giving you nine words that start with s. Mine are:
01 = Sad tragedy face 02 = Sun 03 = Sammich (White trash pronunciation of “sandwich”) 04 = Sartre (the French existentialist philosopher) 05 = Sal (character from Dog Day Afternoon) 06 = Sash 07 = Sack 08 = Savi (friend from university) 09 = Saab car covered in Maple Syrup
I haven’t done all the keys on the piano keyboard, but assuming I owned an 88 hammer Grand Piano, the 88th key might be the singer of Voivod or a Volvo. In each case, there’s an extra consonant, but this would never lead to confusion because the piano I own would never have more than 88 keys.
The cool thing here is that you’ll always know not just where Middle C is, but also its number. And you’ll be able to create a story to memorize any chord, which can also be used to help remember scales and useful for many other applications.
The One Step With Music Mnemonics Nearly Everyone Forgets
The tools you’ve just learned are exciting and will be game-changing for any musician who wants to learn them. You just need to sit down and do the preparatory assigning of the notes and numbers.
However, in order to get the fullest possible benefit, you need to also rehearse the assignments you make in your mind with the instrument in hand. Then, when you look at sheet music and make up a story, you can quickly “translate” that story into practice.
Following these steps will get the notes into long-term memory the fastest. In fact, you should not expect to or even desire to play music from the Memory Palace you’ve made of your instrument.
The sole purpose of this music mnemonics technique?
It’s a tool. You can use it for drilling the scales, music theory material and song passages into long-term memory for performance.
It’s a tool for making any piece of music part of you in ways that go beyond just recall and music muscle memory.
This should be your goal for language learning too, which I mention because language learning and music learning share many similarities. That’s true even if you use something like Gabriel Wyner’s Fluent Forever App.
When it comes to spoken fluency, the number one mistake people make: is thinking that they need to go into their Memory Palaces to find imagery and decode words on the fly during conversations.
This is not the case at all!
Rather, you use the Magnetic Memory Method learning process for Recall Rehearsal.
Recall Rehearsal means mentally revisiting the information a sufficient number of times to get the information into long-term memory.
So whether it’s foreign language words in a sentence or notes and chords in a musical phrase, use the mnemonics to drill the sequences into the muscle memory of your tongue or fingers. Even speed card memory pros take a long time reading the sequences they’ve memorized in their mind, far longer than it took to memorize the cards themselves.
When it comes to music, you’ve got to play it in real-time according to an established construct of time. The tools you’ve just learned will help, but must be used in the service of placing the music so it ultimately comes from your body an soul with minimal involvement of your memory and your mind.
I’m a fan of Vaughn’s book, How to Remember Anything: The Proven Total Memory Retention System. However, after using his fixed, 10-station Memory Palace approach a few dozen times, I don’t find it as clean or practical as his work suggests and continue to prefer the flexibility of the Magnetic Memory Method. It’s possible, however, that his approach to music mnemonics will give me insight into:
* Better incorporating sharps and flats in the current method I’m developing. At the moment, I don’t see this as a pressing need because I already know a sufficient amount about music. But it would be helpful for others to have music mnemonics and other strategies for memorizing which notes take sharps and flats and where they reside on the fret and keyboards.
* Memorizing relative and minor keys quickly and permanently.
* Recall triads in major, minor, diminished and augmented forms for any note at will.
* Handle chord permutations with ease.
* Complete mastery of all the scales in every key.
* And much, much more! In the meantime, are you ready to give the current state of this exciting new branch of the Magnetic Memory Method a whirl?
If so – Awesome! I’m excited to hear what you think about this approach to music mnemonics and look forward to your feedback on this preliminary description.
Sincerely,
Anthony Metivier
P.S. Gracious acknowledgment is due to John McPhedrine with whom I’ve had many discussions about this approach to remembering different aspects of music using music mnemonics. This write-up is also dedicated to Jonathan Levi who has been pleasing the world with multiple instruments lately. Have fun!
Seriously. People constantly tell me I’m such a disciplined person, but the truth is that I’m not any more or less disciplined than your average Manic Depressive alcoholic heroin-addict gutted with debt living in the gutter.
The difference is that I use rituals and systems. And I do so in a way that minimizes the need to be disciplined. Such as not acting like a person who already has a memory implant.
Can You Use My Daily Productivity Systems?
Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t believe you can carbon copy what another person does, which is why when it comes to mnemonics, memory improvement and creating your first rock-solid Memory Palace I teach you the Magnetic Memory Method. It’s a method that teaches you how to create your own system of Memory Palaces.
The same thing goes for learning how to control your time.
You’re never going to reproduce what anyone else does. But you can emulate their methods to create your own system. If adult coloring books become part of that, awesome.
But it all begins with saying “Yes!” to making a change and replacing discipline with systems.
Once you’ve got that under control, create an If-this-then-that sequence.
How To Fire Off The Perfect Time Control Sequence
Rules, as Tony Buzan said at a recent training I attended, set you free. Poets have known this for years. When Shakespeare submitted himself to the rules of the sonnet, for example, he managed to write X NUMBER of the most beautiful poems history has ever seen. That’s not to mention the glorious theatre he produced following other rules and guidelines at the level of dramatic structure and the sentence.
When it comes right down to it, constraints are not restrictive. They’re productive.
So my method is to chain together a number of “ifs” and then tie those to follow-up sequences to ensure that I’m living the life of my dreams. (Crazy, but yes, playing with adult coloring books while using memory techniques is part of my dream lifestyle.)
My “If-This-Then-That” Revealed …
Here’s a sample morning ritual sequence:
If I get up in the morning (which I always do), I meditate for 9 minutes.
If I meditate for 9 minutes, then I start the day off on solid footing with The Freedom Journal.
If I write in The Freedom Journal, then I study Chinese and learn 3 new words.
If I study Chinese and learn 3 new words, I write a minimum of 1000 words on a new book project.
If I write, I eat breakfast.
If I eat breakfast, then I memorized some playing cards.
If I memorize some playing cards, then the computer goes on.
Does It Always Work Out That Way?
Close, but not always exactly. For example, sometimes I eat before I meditate. Other times, I write before I study Chinese.
The actual elements of the chain are interchangeable except for the last one.
It’s the last one that matters the most because the computer is the great destroyer.
Why? Because …
We All Have Limited Discipline
Once the machine goes on, emails blast into my eyes. Friends and family Skype text me. Uploads fail. Shiny new objects glitter and grab my attention.
That’s why the important things must get done first.
Why I Grab Adult Coloring Books Last Thing In The Day
The evening ritual unpacks and reinforces a lot of what the morning ritual established and follows the same pattern.
Although I’ve painted a picture of constant interruptions while the machine is on, I’m still quite productive. I make videos, write email, work on editing books and do all kinds of things during the day.
But everything proceeds towards a final computer curfew. That curfew rule states that the computer should go off at 9 p.m., but can stay on until 10 p.m. at the latest. I leave that window open because I’m a Realist and know that sometimes I’ll need the slack.
Plus, being draconian with the rules often just paves the path for breaking them. As I once heard it put, all too often, it is the law that creates the crime. States of exception are necessary and trying to fight against them often only makes them the norm.
Overall, the chain unfolds in a new equation. Instead of an “if this then that” pattern, it’s more like a “when this then that” sequence.
The “When-This-Then-That” Variation
For example:
When the computer goes off at nine, then I read.
When I finish reading, I use one of my adult coloring books to color and practice Magnetic Memory Method Recall Rehearsal.
When I practice recalling words in one of my adult coloring books, I recall the words I memorized earlier in the day first.
When I practice these words, I always try and jot them out in the form of a sentence. I don’t worry too much about accuracy. I focus on the practice of doing. Fearlessly and for fun.
And guess what? It truly is fun, and you get to sleep a lot better knowing that you’ve covered your primary goals for the day.
Why You Need More Creativity And How To Ethically Steal It
That covers time. It’s a simple affair to get it under control and direct its power at your goals instead of being its slave. That only leads to dissatisfaction. Worse, not having time under your control builds up guilty feelings that destroy self-confidence. It’s a devil’s circle that only gets worse and worse as time goes on.
Creativity is the next issue you need to tackle. Fortunately, it’s even easier to control than time. You just need to make the time for exploring it.
Why do you need creativity?
First, if you’re going to use memory techniques, it’s essential because all Mnemonics rely on the ability to associate information you already know with information you don’t know. I like to think about it like magnetizing one thing so that it sticks to another.
It’s kind of like rubbing a balloon against your shirt and then letting the balloon hug up against the wall. It completely defies gravity, and it only takes a second to make the magic happen.
Creativity Solves Problems
You also need creativity to solve problems in the world, which is perhaps why adult coloring books seem like a weird way to get more of your creative faculties.
But when you’re completing a design in one of your adult coloring books and revisiting a Memory Palace journey using the Magnetic Memory Method, you’re not just exercising your memory. You’re developing your creativity and even your critical thinking abilities.
This growth occurs because you’re matching Memory Palace locations with images and playing a fun game of comparisons. Plus, you’re using rules in much the same way that Shakespeare used constraints to write amazing plays and sonnets.
And when you think about it, adult coloring books are an easy way to submit to the constraint of rules too. After all, you’re looking at a series of pre-designed lines and simply filling them in. This “submission” to formal constraints provided by others leaves your mind free to wander.
Why Information Is Like A Balloon And Your Memory Is Like A Wall
And when it comes to using adult coloring books, you free yourself to yet another level of constraints.
I’m talking about the friendly and helpful rules of the Magnetic Memory Method.
As you know, the MMM allows you to create your own systems of powerful Memory Palaces you can use to quickly learn, memorize and recall anything you wish. And that’s just the beginning of the brain exercises I share.
And units of information really are just like balloons that you can rub and stick to the walls of your Memory Palaces.
Yes, sometimes you have to go back and rub a bit more static into them, but that’s a minor issue. It’s just like going to the gym to pump a bit more muscle into your arms. Do it right and it’s so good for you. Kind of like when you use The Freedom Journal for language learning and memory improvement.
As for adult coloring books, they’re kind of like the weights in your gym of effortless learning. Just get in bed, pop one onto your lap and let the creativity begin to flow.
Say Goodbye To Stress
As far as I’m concerned, we as adults succumb to stress because we’ve left childhood behind. Adult coloring books are a great way to get the stress-free wonder of childhood back, even if just for 10-15 minutes at a time. Add in the Magnetic Memory Method Recall Rehearsal process and you’ll be sailing along.
To make it even more powerful, meditate first and throw in some breathing and muscle relaxation exercises. The more I practice these, the more profound my experience of commanding time and enhanced creativity grows. All from spending just a bit of time every day with adult coloring books.
And this is coming from a long-haired Heavy Metal bassist who previously wouldn’t have been caught dead doing sissy creativity exercises!
In sum, if I can take these steps to learn more, remember more, experience higher levels of creativity and enjoy much more relaxation in my life, anyone can. And the benefits reach out into so many areas of life, you just can’t imagine how profoundly happy you can become.
My recommendation:
Get yourself some adult coloring books. There are oodles out there to choose from and I’d be delighted if you’d add Creativity Kickstarter: The Magnetic Memory Method Coloring Book to your collection. If you do, there’s a special link inside where you can get a video that shows you more about how to connect the process of coloring in adult coloring books to memory improvement.
No matter which of the many adult coloring books you choose, don’t turn your nose up at this unusual, but amazing activity. Hardly a day passes when someone doesn’t email to tell me how impressed they’ve been by one of the kids they’ve heard on the Magnetic Memory Method podcast. If you haven’t heard Alicia or Imogen talk about their experience, check out:
You can also tune into How To Teach Your Kids Memory Techniques in case you’re not already sharing these skills with the young people in your life. And why not spend some time coloring with them too in one of your adult coloring books while teaching them about memory? Helping young people learn and remember information with greater ease is one of the best things you can do for the world.
Why?
Because the more you learn, the more you can learn.
And the more you know, the more information you have to associate with, creating growth spurts in your smarts that lead to spontaneous eruptions of knowledge that truly can take you from wherever you are now to genius levels of intelligence.
Yes, all by adding adult coloring books to your current learning and memory practice.
Sound like fun? Great! Send me a pic of yourself doing some coloring or one of your completed designs. I’d love to see it, just like some of the images I’ve already received from people who have been using Creativity Kickstarter that have been featured on this page.
You’ve read a book or two, maybe even taken a video course. And yet …
You’re Still Scrambling To Recall Information!
If that sounds like you, then here’s the sad truth: You’re suffering from “memory improvement randomness.” That’s what happens when people read a book on mnemonics, take a stab at the techniques and then … give up … only to pick up another book by someone else and try all over again.
Fortunately, there’s a cure.
In fact, there are 7 of them.
Why Most People Are Allergic To Mnemonics
First off, let’s look at one big problem.
The word “mnemonics” isn’t all that sexy, is it? And it sounds an awful lot like “pneumonic,” in the singular “mnemonic” form, which makes it sound even more like this beautiful art relates to pneumonia.
“Mnemotechnics” is nicer, and definitely won’t make you sick. But the “technics” part makes the whole thing sound like hard work.
That’s no good.
Because the truth is that mnemonics are not only easy, but they’re the most exciting activity in the world.
And that’s the key to falling in love with this special field of personal improvement.
How To Find Excitement In The World’sOldest Mental Art
To locate and embrace the excitement of using mnemonics and memory techniques, you first need to get rid of the notion that any of this is “hard work.” It isn’t. Never has been. Never will be.
Unless you decide that it must be. That’s all mindset and this podcast on developing better mindset will help you with that.
Bookmark those resources for later as we dive into the 7 Eternal Laws Of Memory Improvement. Follow each of these laws of mnemonics and you will quickly find the fun in using memory techniques and never forget what a wild ride the art of memory can be.
1. You Have The Duty To Go Insane With Your Mnemonics
The trick to remembering anything is association. You take a piece of information you don’t know and associate it with something you do.
For example, I had no idea the word 感到 (gǎn dào) meant to feel. But I do know of a character named Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. And in my imagination, I know how to hurt his feelings.
So that’s what I did. In the craziest way possible. Then, using the drawing skills I have, I got it down on paper to make the learning process even faster and easier.
Of course, the trouble with teaching mnemonics is that I can’t exactly show you exactly what the imagery looks like in my mind. I would need a Hollywood film crew and a Spielberg-sized budget for that.
But rest assured that what happens when Gandalf feeds the Tao Te Ching to that black horse isn’t pretty. But it helps me remember not only the sound and the meaning of the word, but also its tones in Mandarin.
2. Every Building You’ve Ever Been In Is Infinitely Valuable
To get the most from mnemonics, you need to locate the crazy images you come up with in a Memory Palace.
Unfortunately, a lot of people think that Memory Palaces take too much work, and that’s probably my fault.
You see, I’ve used the phrase “build Memory Palaces” when talking about mnemonics thousands of times. What I really mean is “create” Memory Palaces – or whatever word you need that involves spending 2-5 minutes creating a fantastic tool you can use to organize and store your mnemonics.
If you don’t already know how to build create a Memory Palace, I suggest you register for my Free Memory Improvement Kit right away. If you’re already a pro when it comes to this realm of mnemonics, then kudos to you. Send me a scan or picture of one of your Memory Palaces by email. I’d love to see it.
The important point is that you have learned the Memory Palace skill. It is the ultimate form of mnemonics because it lets you use every other kind of memory technique inside its walls.
And since the most efficient Memory Palaces tend to be based on actual buildings you’ve visited, that means you can increase the real estate value of them all. Instead of just handing over your rent or paying down a mortgage so you can store your stuff while working, why not store your memories their too? It’s a great way to make every building you’ve ever known invaluable using mnemonics.
3. Always Begin With A Clear Picture Of The End In Mind
One thing that trips up just about every beginner with memory techniques is planning. Each memory project is unique, which means you need to take stock of the situation and work out a few things in advance.
For example, if you like to learn languages online as opposed to from a textbook, you’ll have different amounts and kinds of material to memorize.
When I work with a Chinese teacher, for example, I have different Memory Palaces than I do for Spanish. When I’m memorizing music, my use of mnemonics differs a great deal, and in that case, the Memory Palace is the instrument itself. See Memorize Bach on Bass for some preliminary music memory explorations and my discussion with John McPhedrine for his current music mnemonics ideas.
But no matter how you approach mnemonics (and even when you learn without mnemonics), you need a plan.
4. Know Your Passion Inside And Out
It breaks my heart when people struggle with learning.
The problem usually isn’t with them, however, and it’s never with the information.
It’s always THE COMBINATION of the two.
Let’s face it: some people just don’t like some of the things they wind up studying.
Yet, for various reasons, they feel stuck with a topic or simply have to fulfill a commitment.
For most of us, most of the time, we can skip the problem altogether by finding topics to learn that we’re truly in love with.
Because when times get tough – and they always do eventually – passion will pull you through.
5. Believe In The Natural Abilities Of Your Imagination And Nurture Them
If there’s on thing that gets newbies and old pros with mnemonics in a rut fast, it’s a sudden drop in self-confidence.
It happens to the best of us. Even I avoided tackling Japanese and Chinese for a long time because I worried mnemonics wouldn’t help with these languages.
The solution for when confidence dries up?
Certainly not dinky software brain games to which some people run.
No, we want to nurture our mind with simple creativity exercises at which we cannot fail. For example, the Creativity Kickstarter is a great way to return to the basics by coloring while recalling some information you’ve already confidently memorized.
For example, when I go to the Creativity Kickstarter when I find a current Memory Palace and its mnemonics too challenging. This happened a lot with my Chinese C Memory Palace – probably because of the Memory Palace I chose for it.
To reduce my frustration, I got out the Creativity Kickstarter and while working with it, I practiced Recall Rehearsal by firing off the mnemonics in Chinese Memory Palace B. My success in that Memory Palace boosted my confidence back up to the top and the C Memory Palace no longer felt so challenging.
6. Close The Deal By Knowing Your Numbers
Can you remember the 3rd Eternal Law of Memory Improvement? If not, scroll back up and take a peek.
If you do remember it, good work! What mnemonics did you use to memorize it?
The point is this: A huge part of knowing where you’re going is determining how you’ll know if you got there.
For me, I currently have a goal of memorizing 3 new Chinese words every morning before I turn the computer on. Why only 3?
It’s because Chinese is different than other languages I’ve tinkered around with. Whereas a German word is just sound and meaning with spelling so intuitive it makes my Macbook Pro ashamed, Chinese vocabulary involves:
* Sound + correct tones
* Meaning
* Characters
In my mind, each word is actually 3 words and each requires 3 mnemonics. (Or more. At the moment I’m using the Major Method for the tones.)
How do I know if I’ve successfully memorized 3 words at the end of the day?
Easy. I test.
If I can recall them at the end of the day and the next morning and correctly use them in a sentence, then I’ve memorized them.
In other words, I don’t leave recalling what I’ve memorized to chance. I test as a matter of course to ensure that when the time comes to use the word or phrase in actual context, the mnemonics are there for me.
Skip this Eternal Law at your own risk.
7. You Must Keep Going
Unused talents die and turn to dust with alarming speed. Once you join us mnemonists who practice the art of memory and make mnemonics a way of life, you have to keep going. Like any skill you can hone, to keep it sharp, you’ve got to use it.
How? Easy. Make sure that you’re follow all 7 of the Eternal Laws of Memory Improvement. Each feeds the other, making a bullet proof shield that no sword of forgetfulness can penetrate. Not only will you be able to learn, memorize and recall anything, but you’ll accomplish goals that have evaded you and feel amazing.
Never forget that memory and confidence connect at the hip. The more confident you are in your memory, the more confident you’ll be in all areas of life. This leads to rich new experiences that give you more exciting memories.
And the more experiences you have to draw on in life, the more associations you can make when using mnemonics. Isn’t that exciting?
Quick Recap
7 Eternal Laws of Memory Improvement When Using Mnemonics
1. You must create insane associative-imagery that is impossible to forget.
2. You must locate that imagery in specific and easy to find Memory Palace locations.
3. You must have the end goal in mind. Knowing where you’re going will ensure you have as Memory Palaces as you need (or at least keep you creating them as you go along so you never run out).
4. You must be passionate about what you’re learning. If you don’t value the topic or the larger topic it belongs to … what on earth are you spending time on it for?
5. You must believe in the natural abilities of your imagination and nurture them.
You’ve thought about getting fluent in at least one other language, right?
In fact, you’ve already imagined yourself speaking fluently with native speakers. You even feel a wave of pride wash over you. And you want to feel that wave of pride wash over you.
But you can’t travel at the moment and the idea of commuting to a class and sitting with strangers horrifies you.
The good news is that you know you can learn languages online. You’re just not sure how.
3 Rock Solid Reasons To Learn Languages Online
Before I tell you about how to use Skill Silo, let’s take a quick look at why learning language is a smart move.
1. Learning a language is the king of all brain games.
A lot of people look for mental exercise, but nothing pays off more than packing your mind full of foreign language vocabulary and phrases.
2. You make back your investment in droves.
Learning a language costs three things: time, money and energy. As you develop fluency, over time you get an amazing return on your investment. Memories that last forever. Greater chances at meaningful employment. Boosts of energy-creating confidence.
3. You make new friends.
People love it when you can speak their language. Not only that, but you can be a better friend. You can teach your monolingual friends cool words, phrases and elements of another culture.
You also get to introduce the friends you meet in your new language to aspects of your mother tongue and culture. It’s win-win and you get to be the hero.
And if you’re a parent searching for ways to learn languages online for kids, your children will not only make friends through language learning online programs. They’ll also find mentors who teach them how to learn. Plus, language learning is great memory exercise and you can use the language learning environment as an opportunity to teach your kids memory techniques.
Why Most Online Language Platforms Are Distressingly Bad
There are dozens of places you can learn languages online. Some are really awesome and I still use them. Italki.com, for example, has oodles of great features. With some sift-sort-and-screen skills under your belt, you can find really great teachers.
But a lot of places have confusing payment plans. It’s not clear why their teachers have the privilege of teaching online and there seems to be no standard. Plus, you get a wash of language learning materials that you always have to hunt for.
3 Things I Love About Skill Silo
Skill Silo solves a lot of the problems I’ve just mentioned. I’m a big boy, for example, so I like when I see the cost of my language learning sessions clearly expressed in a real currency. I don’t have to translate money in my head so I know exactly what I’m paying.
This transparency helps me evaluate the value of the teacher I’m learning from as well because it feels like real cash I’m spending, not Monopoly money. On other platforms, I’ve felt like the payment structures are deliberately obscure so that I don’t really know how much I’m spending or how much I’m getting for my investment.
I also like that I can choose whether I want one hour or 30-minute sessions. On some other platforms, it’s up to the instructor what length of classes they offer. However, I like to vary the session lengths each time depending on my goals with different teachers. When I do “vocab-en-masse” blitzes, then an hour is great. But for theme-based lessons for developing skills with a verb and some nouns, 30-minutes is plenty to get the jist and do the homework myself.
One Textbook In One Place
Skill Silo also has the advantage of providing you with a textbook. This feature has saved me a lot of time. Yes, I’m a memory expert, but I work sometimes with dozens of language teachers in the space of a year and when each one has their own worksheets and file-naming styles … It can be a real mess. I love that Skill Silo offers a central textbook.
When the teachers do offer supplementary worksheets, they are just that: supplements to a core textbook I can access anytime online through my Skill Silo account. Having access to the textbook in full also means I can pace ahead and think about what I would like to focus on during the next session.
This feature helps maximize the value of the time, energy and money invested because the best learners are self-directed learners. But on some other platforms I’ve used, it feels like the teachers use their learning materials like a gateway drug. It’s as if they imagine that if they dole it out once dose at a time, you’ll keep coming back for more. Not necessarily.
Mistakes To Avoid When You Learn Languages Online
At the end of the day, no matter what platform you use, the teacher can only be as good as the student. That means you need to come prepared to your lessons.
The question is … how do you do this?
It’s a bit of a puzzle to figure out because when you learn languages online, the answer involves having the right teacher. In order to find the right teacher, you’ve got to dive in and try a few out. In fact, it might be necessary to have more than one teacher. Both Olly Richards and I tend to meet with several teachers in rotation and you can hear Olly’s reasons why along with his crazy language learning goals and mastering motivation secrets.
Just pick a teacher who looks good and book a session. Far too many people hum and haw over this step. But that’s just an evasion tactic. You want to learn a language, so you need to dive in somewhere. And don’t let perfectionism stop you. Chances are you’ll need to try at least two teachers before you find a match.
2. Invest in screen recording software.
I use Screenflow, a software which lets me review each session if I wish. I’ve cut my voice out of the recordings and made audiobooks of lessons so I can listen through them quickly, make notes and use the Magnetic Memory Method to memorize the material.
A lot of people don’t think to record their language learning sessions, but doing so is golden. If things get overwhelming or you zone out, it’s never a problem. You can go through the lesson again as many times as you like.
3. Come to the session prepared.
Always come with the material from last week ready so you can quickly review before diving into something new. Even if you haven’t memorized all of it, you should have your homework ready to share with the teacher so you can go over it.
4. Think ahead.
As you work on new material, consciously use what you already know from the previous week.
For example, if you learned about aunts and uncles last week and you’re doing fruit this week, talk about how your uncle likes strawberries. Your teacher might not think to make the connection, but you can.
And to succeed, you must. Ultimately, you’ll be the one out in the world speaking, so it’s great exercise to already have in mind what you want to speak about prepared for each lesson and make connections during the sessions. You’ll be doing that in real life too, so consider it training ground.
5. Mind your manners.
Always be on time, always say thank you and speak as little in your mother tongue as possible. It’s good to be able to ask questions in your mother tongue, but move to the language you’re studying as soon as possible.
6. Schedule multiple sessions in advance.
If you book sessions in bulk, you create milestones that help you organize your daily language learning activities. If you don’t have a daily learning ritual, check out these morning memory secrets.
There’s a science to keeping your energy and enthusiasm high, so don’t feel like you have to slog through the process. Also, learn to balance the level of challenge. As James Clear discusses, The Goldilocks Rule is the key to success in life and it works in the business of language learning too.
8. Make a blog that documents your journey.
Have you ever noticed how often I talk about my language learning stories on this blog? Well, it’s not by accident. When you talk about what you’re learning, you process it through different representational channels in your brain. Writing about your language learning experiences sinks what you’ve learned into deeper channels.
I remember 办公室 (bàngōngshì) better than a lot of other words, for example, because I took the time to teach other people how I learned it. I’ve talked about it on the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, written about it and even shared a drawing of what I saw in my mind so that I could instantly memorize the sound, meaning and tones of the word:
If blogging isn’t for you, simply tell other people what you’re learning and explain why you’re remembering it so easily thanks to the Magnetic Memory Method. As you’ve heard me say a zillion times before, when you teach others what you’ve learned, you learn it better yourself.
My poor roommate, friends and fiancé have to listen to endless explanations of the bizarre imagery I use to create mnemonics that work, but it’s part of getting the highest possible levels of success. Fast.
And that’s an important point. Even though you can learn languages online, you also want to speak what you’ve learned at every possible opportunity – even with people who aren’t studying your target language.
If you don’t have any friends, explain the mnemonics you’re using to your teacher. I’m sure they’ll be amused and enthused that you’re remembering the lessons and love knowing more about how you’re pulling it all off.
9. Never stop learning.
Fluency is not a destination. It’s a way of life.
To this day I work on improving my best language, including memorizing German phrases. Just as you need to keep doing pushups to keep your muscles strong, you need to keep speaking with people in order for fluency levels to remain high. When you can learn languages online, there’s no reason not to keep up this practice for the rest of your life.
Free Online Language Courses Are A Supplement To Speaking (Not An Alternative)
It’s tempting to think you can learn a language by playing around all day with language learning apps. There are many out there and they do help get words and phrases into your long term memory.
However, with some of them, you’re hearing the language spoken by a computer. They’re also often not giving you words and phrases that are even remotely useful to you. Finally, when it comes time to speak a language, you have a human in front of you. Not a mouse and keyboard.
You might also think you can get to fluency with a “learn languages online chat” mission. Chatting certainly can help, but the same principle applies. You need to speak and you need to speak often.
But if you are going to chat online, then with whom better than a dedicated language learning teacher? They’ll know a lot about your current situation, have spoken with you and if you’re using Skype, you’ll have an easily accessible track record of your discussions.
Just make sure that you actually speak about what you discussed during your online chat. Get the words and phrases into the muscle memory of your mouth, not just your fingers.
When Will You Make The Leap From Dreamer To Speaker?
Learning a language involves making a lot of mistakes. The sooner you get started the better.
The cool thing about how we can learn languages online in today’s world is that you can make those mistakes in the comfort of your own home. Only one other person has to know – and that person can be a trained professional.
Or you can be a bit more public and share words you’re learning on YouTube, like I do with playlist on how to improve vocabulary with mnemonic examples:
No matter how you proceed, now that you know why you should be learning a language and have some solid tips for getting started on solid footing, there’s really only one mistake you can make:
Not getting started.
But if you’re ready right now, Skill Silo offers lessons in:
Arabic
Chinese
English
Farsi
French
German
Hebrew
Italian
Japanese
Russian
Portuguese
Spanish
Their teachers are professional, dedicated and the system is easy to use. If you’ve ever wanted a simple way to book instructors, a brain-dead simple means of accessing one core textbook so you’re not swamped with learning materials and sessions you can record and refer to again and again.
Why not schedule your first free session now? This is what you’ll see when you visit Skill Silo now to book your first session:
If you’re ready to experience live sessions with language teachers in the comfort of your own home, then then I know you’re going to love learning your dream language with the help of Skill Silo. Just click the image above, select your desired language and you can easily get started right away.
Before you dump another moment of your life into searching for brain games that improve your memory, please realize one thing:
Your Brain Exercises Need To Be About Something …
Here’s the deal:
A lot of memory games and other brain-enhancing apps try to help improve your memory by giving you abstract or arbitrary memory tasks.
For example, you might be asked to remember the locations of a detective’s cap, magnifying glass and a detection kit behind a set of tiles.
The Sherlock Holmes theme is certainly clever, but exactly what kind of memory skills does this exercise train? The answer is easy:
General memory skills.
That’s it and nothing more. Or …
… maybe even less.
After all, general brain games help you get good at remembering the location of imaginary objects hidden behind squares on a tiny computer screen. And you have to ask yourself …
Does That Sound Like A Useful Skill To You?
Is there anything wrong with this kind general of brain exercise?
Not necessarily. This Scientific American article finds no harm in playing them (few demonstrable benefits either).
But if you want to get better at remembering the information that matters …
Play Games With Information That Matters!
Seriously. If you want to harness the power of neuroplasticity, give your neurons toys that are congruent with your end goal.
Yes, a basketball player completes some training drills that don’t involve a basketball for general fitness.
But when it comes to developing skills and having the REAL fun basketball offers as a game, you need the ball itself in your hands. You need to practice navigating it around the court and sinking it through the hoop.
The Benefits Of Brain Games Do Not Last
First off, have you looked into any of the studies to which many of these software companies refer? Chances are you won’t even find any because they often don’t exist. This was the finding of one major FTC case that led to a $2 million lawsuit again sellers of a popular brain training program.
Look:
No one is saying that these games don’t have some effect.
But exactly how they provide measurable benefits is far from clear. Nor can it be clear. The skills one develops in the games, apart from concentration, rarely, if ever, appear in real life.
This lack of necessity for the “skills” supposedly developed by brain games again brings us to one important fact. To get long lasting effects, we need more than games. We need to link the brain games we play with the information we want to get better at handling.
Which Of These Information Types Do You Tend To Forget Most?
Foreign language vocabulary
Names and faces
Facts
Numbers
Equations
Lyrics
Dates
Recipes
If you want to get good in any of these areas, the best thing is to play brain games that involve these kinds of information. That way, you associate the information with fun while you get better at learning, memorizing and using it in practical situations.
Plus, you’ll get long-lasting effects because the more you know about a particular topic, the more you can know.
For example, if you’re studying history, knowing that the important memory artist Giordano Bruno died in 1600 creates a hook upon which you can hang other pieces of information.
Would you like to know that Hamlet was (probably) written or being in written in 1600?
No problem. Just imagine Kenneth Branaugh or another actor you associate with the role of Hamlet strangling the Bruno statue in Rome.
Would you like to know that the Bruno statue in Rome is specifically located at Campo de’ Fiori?
Again, no problem:
Just add an image like a Ferrari digging ore from beneath the statue using a camping tent.
In this fascinating brain game, we’re compounding information by linking one thing with another. You can make a tower of knowledge using just that one location in Rome. There’s so much more you can add because knowing one thing enables you to know yet another.
Here’s How To Make Your Own Brain Games
I get it:
You look to software and apps so you can instantly download games to your device. You want to immediately start enjoying the benefits of memory improvement right away. You’re probably also looking to improve focus and concentration too.
If the brain games on the market only improve your memory on a general level (if at all), then you’re only going to get general results.
And if the game doesn’t involve information that’s even remotely interesting to you, finding hats and magnifying glasses behind rotating tiles is going to get boring fast.
To create your own games, ones that will make an impact on specific areas where you’re weak, you may have to create your own.
Let’s say you’re learning a language and keep forgetting words and phrases. To make a game that will help you improve, you need only a goal, some rules and an antagonistic force.
Good News: The Enemy In Your Brain Games Comes Built In
Time. Everybody has too little, so when time deadlines appear in games, it’s a metaphor for real life.
But in this case, the real antagonist is forgetfulness. And that’s the beast we’re going to beat.
Here’s a game you can try. All it requires is one Memory Palace. If you’d like to learn how to make and use one, there are a number of full memory improvement training options in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass.
Using a Memory Palace, take 5-10 words you want to memorize.
Put on a timer and start memorizing using the tools of associative-imagery. Again, you can register for my The MMM Memory Improvement Kit if you don’t know how to create associative-imagery.
Some of the basics were demonstrated in the example with Hamlet and Bruno given above.
Very briefly, using Magnetic Imagery is part of the art of memory that involves taking something you don’t know and attaching it to something you do.
For example, if you want to memorize German vocabulary like “abartig,” you could see an image of Abraham Lincoln tossing a piece of art like the Mona Lisa into the washing machine where Tigger is doing something … abnormal. (It’s up to you what that weird thing is!)
Already Sounds Fun, Doesn’t It?
Associating the “Ab” in Abraham lets you remember the beginning of this word and the painting reminds you of “art” and the “Tig” in “Tigger” helps you recall the end of the word.
Ab + art + Tig = Abartig.
Remember, Tigger is doing something abnormal in the washing machine and that’s why you know when you put the pieces of the puzzle together and say “abartig,” the word means “abnormal.”
Make Sure You Have The Right Tools
To play this brain game, have your Memory Journal open so you can see your Memory Palace as you play and write out the associative-imagery you create.
Just like you did with the first word, go as fast as you can. Create one tight and vibrant image for each word to leave at each station on your Memory Palace.
At this point, don’t worry about anything other than coming up with images for each of the words you’ve selected. You just want to see how long it takes you to create associative-imagery for 5-10 words. Once you have your baseline time established, you can start challenging yourself to break the record for new sets of words.
The Magic Happens During The Testing Round
Once you’ve made a pass over the information, make a two minute pause and then test how much you can remember.
Do this by going to each station in your Memory Palace and “decoding” the associative-imagery you’ve created and placed there.
Don’t worry about total accuracy or stress yourself out. It’s just a game and you’re only competing with yourself. You’re going to get better quickly and soon be breaking your own records. All while increasing your episodic memory.
And because the information you’re using is drawn from something you want to learn, you reach goals in addition to memory improvement. And when you share the rules of this brain game with others, you become a better human too.
Play This Game With Any Information … So Long As It’s Info That Counts
I’ve given German vocabulary in this example, but you could use anything. Song lyrics present a different kind of challenge, for example, because they involve full phrases. Song lyrics in a foreign language offer even more of a stretch. Either way, it feels so great when you walk away from playing games with your brain with the ability to create pleasure at any time by singing a song you’ve always wanted to learn.
You can play with information about geography, biology, literature, film studies and medical terminology. Or if you’ve always wanted to know the Kings of England and their historical dates, you can do that, along with the American Presidents and Canadian Prime Ministers. You can have fun learning, memorizing and recalling anything.
The Secret Sauce To Real Results From Real Brain Games
As we’ve asked today, how does getting better at finding objects you’ve been shown behind tiles on a memory game help in real life?
Who knows? That’s hard to quantify.
But when you spend your time playing brain games with the information you need to succeed, everybody wins.
Here’s the real way to get massive results: Go for small and consistent improvements using information that matters. Make sure that you can measure what you’re doing so that you see the results in tangible ways.
To accomplish this, play your newly minted brain game on a schedule. Believe it or not, it’s in human nature to establish daily routines and we respond well to doing the same things at the same time on a training schedule. Write down the nature of your game and the results using a dedicated Memory Journal. Involve your hands and colored pens and pencils to bring in more creative parts of your body and brain for best results.
How To Make Playing Mind-Nourishing Games A Priority
As I detailed in Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets, the best way to get in regular learning and memory fitness is to spend time playing with information first thing before the computer goes on.
Seriously, why risk squeezing your memory improvement in when you can make it a cherished part of your day?
Works For Highly Committed Learners Too
Please don’t make the mistake that the game I’ve just shared with you is only for beginners or for those who struggle to fit regular learning and brain exercise into their schedules. People already dedicated to using memory techniques benefit from playing self-made games for the mind too. In fact, this kind of activity can really help you avoid getting into learning ruts, so you can also think of them as a preemptive measure.
The Real Problem With Downloadable Brain Games
If you’re as excited as I am about getting real results from the time you spend training your brain, I invite you to make a public declaration below. Talk about the game you’re going to create for yourself and feel free to pop back often with updates on your results. I respond to every post.
But after you commit with your comment below, turn the machine off for awhile. The real problem we face in today’s world is the encouragement to be wired all the time. By taking a walk without your smartphone, you may already be giving your brain a massive advantage, even if you don’t play a memory game of the kind I’m suggesting.
Mental rest is just as important as mental training, so until we speak again, see if you can’t fit in less screen time, not more. You’ll feel Magnetic.
And if you have any questions about what puts the “Magnetic” in the mnemonic techniques taught here, here’s more about the Magnetic Memory Method.
Further Resources
I share an other brain game in this video “trailer” for the post you’ve just read:
Zoning out sucks, doesn’t it? You’re sitting there, wishing you can concentrate, wishing you knew how to improve focus … and yet … your mind is just dancing all over the darn place.
Well, if you want to know how to improve focus and concentration so you can finally get those important things in your life done, these ultra-fast tips from Joanna Jast will give you exactly what you need to succeed. Make sure to read the entire post and download the audio she narrated for your convenience. Enjoy this game-changing focus training!
Everything You Need To Know About Focus
Guest post and podcast guest host narration by Joanna Jast.
How would you like to skyrocket the effectiveness of your favorite memory techniques? Or, if you’re having trouble getting started, how would you like to develop rock-solid focus that will allow you to learn, memorize and recall anything?
Here’s the deal:
Without good focus, no matter how much time you spend using mnemonics or walking through Memory Palaces, very little will stick.
Why?
Because focus is to memory what a key is to a lock.
Yes, you can always force-open a lock. But it’s easier and smoother and faster with a key, don’t you think?
Most people get this point about focus wrong, but …
Here’s Exactly How To Stop Making Such A Focus-Killing Mistake
Most people get the whole focus improvement idea wrong. They think focus is a matter of motivation – and they keep digging into their ‘whys’, reading inspirational quotes and hiring accountability coaches.
Look:
These efforts all have their time and place. But they all take time, effort and cost money. Worse, they only work until the next motivational low crashes down on your head.
And then …
You Have To Start Over Again!
Yes, motivation fluctuates and it’s not your fault – that’s just the way it is.
But no matter what your motivation for improving your focus is, making some simple changes in your environment and the way you work can dramatically improve your concentration and your ability to memorize information fast.
The Fastest Way To Improve Your Focus
Meditation is great. Don’t get me wrong. Its benefits are multiple and well proven. It helps improve concentration, mental and physical health. Even better, meditation keeps you young and happy.
There is a downside to meditation though. It takes time to see the benefits. Plus, you need to commit to at least 4, 15-minute sessions per week. Well worth it, but not instantaneous.
You have more pressing questions:
What about that neuroanatomy revision for the exam tomorrow? Or the German phrases you need to memorize for your trip next week?
Meditation is great and you should continue practicing it if you’re already doing it, but for all those moments when you need a quick focus fix, here’s my trick:
How To Increase Focus With These Quick Environmental Hacks
I admit, I don’t meditate – I’ve tried many times and abandoned my efforts. Between my inner wriggler, uncomfortable back, tendency to fall asleep immediately when still and relaxed and a number of other effective strategies I use for my ‘mental powers’ – I’ve never been able to experience enough benefits of meditation to keep doing it.
Making changes to my environment, on the other hand, has been the quickest way to make an impact and offered the most bang for my buck.
What can you do with your environment to maximise your ability to focus?
First, check if your workspace is ergonomic. Make sure your desk and chair are at a comfortable height so you don’t strain your back. Often a simple thing such as a small cushion or a rolled-up towel to support your lower back is enough to fend off that back soreness interrupting your workflow.
Adjust the position of your computer and any other work tools you use. The optimal set-up for your desk space includes your monitor being at arm’s lengths away from your eyes and your wrists and hands on the keyboard straight at or below elbow level. These little tweaks will help your body stay comfortable at work. Check out this Mayo Clinic article for more info on office ergonomics.
Eliminating or minimizing noise in your environment can reap immediate benefits for your focus and memory.
You don’t need complete silence, but at least try to minimize/eliminate conversations and anything that resembles conversations around you. These are real focus killers, because our brain is wired to tune in to conversations (in case there are some survival benefits to it).
Conversations and fragments of conversations come from many sources, For example:
Colleagues
Friends
Family
Passers-by
Radio
Whether these tidbits of gossip and other verbal diarrhea float in through the window, an open door or thin walls, they will keep your brain busy trying to make sense of the fragments. As a result, your focus and memory powers will be affected.
Music needs special attention, because music evokes emotions, and emotions, positive or negative, affects the learning process. That’s why many people find music helpful in the learning process.
If you have found music that helps you memorize better, good for you. If you’re still looking for the right music, be mindful that evoking emotionally powerful memories can hurt your learning process, too. And if you like to listen to music with lyrics – just mind that conversation effect: don’t add any more work to what your brain is already doing by trying to tune into the lyrics and understand what they mean.
If you don’t have your own office/study room, don’t despair. There are a number of simple devices that can help. The easiest thing is to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones or earmuffs.
White noise may also provide a solution, albeit not a permanent one, as white noise can be tiring in the long run, too. I’m writing this post in our dining room (I don’t have an office at home) while my husband is watching Hunger Games in the living room next door. I’m generally sensitive to noise and get distracted and tried by it, but the fact that the dehumidifier is on and it’s loud really saves the day for me.
Before I finish talking about your environment, let me mention one more powerful trick to improve your focus immediately.
How To Manage Technology So That It Doesn’t Manage You
Turn technology off.
Yes, technology can be helpful when it comes to learning and work productivity, but if you don’t manage technology, it will manage you.
I’m not telling you to go ‘off the grid’ completely, but you can boost your concentration and ability to memorize by simply turning off all the notifications. Or, as Anthony suggests in Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets, don’t even turn any computers on until you’ve got your most important memory goals completed.
The Ugly Truth About Popups And Notifications
Here’s something that might shock you:
The purpose of those pesky popups and sound alerts? They’re not just about announcing that you’ve got a new email, text message, or your friend posted something on your favourite social media network – they disrupt whatever you’re doing, and they’re very good at it.
Every single time you let an ad or a message pull your focus away from your memory activities, you’re surrendering your time and energy to stuff that doesn’t necessarily help you progress to your goals of creating and living a knowledgeable life.
The solution:
Turn all notifications off.
If you can’t live without notifications (seriously?), set up ‘notification-free zones’ for when you’re learning, memorising and practicing recall. Turn them off for those periods of time and switch them on again only when you’ve reached specifically identified goals or milestones.
These are all simple strategies that take minutes to set up and can bring considerable improvement to your ability to focus.
Body First And A Focused Mind Will Follow
Now that I’ve told you about fixing your environment, it’s time to talk about fixing your brain, right?
Nope.
I’m sure you’ve heard about all sorts of exercise to improve your brain powers.
But did you know that one of the best strategies for a sharp mind has nothing to do with those ‘mental workouts’?
I can’t emphasize this enough:
Two years ago, I was struggling with focus. My memory was shockingly bad and I was constantly fighting tiredness.
At that time I was doing research for one of my online courses and discovered a book by John Medina called Brain Rules. This is an excellent book, well written and full of useful, evidence-based stuff.
Among many other strategies, Medina emphasises the immense mental benefits of sleep. Anthony covered the benefits that sleep brings to our memory, but it bears repeating that sleep deprivation affects also your ability to concentrate, think, problem-solve and many other tasks. One sleepless night impairs your performance as much as having 0.1% alcohol in your blood (which is above legal driving limits even in the most liberal countries).
So if you want your mind to be sharp, your wit quick and your thinking top-notch, don’t skimp on your zzzz …
And if you happened to sleep badly last night and you can feel the effects of it – take a power nap. Power naps are 15-20 minutes long naps aimed at ‘resetting your brain’. You may need to find your own sweet spot, but generally it is recommended not to exceed 30 minutes, so you don’t enter the deep sleep phase as this can make you feel groggy and sluggish. Set the alarm, sleep in a quiet, dark room or use an eye mask, make sure you warm and comfortable.
Why Movement Is More Important Than Meditation
On top of keeping you physically well and happy, exercise can also improve your mental performance. And it happens in two ways:
By increasing the flow of oxygen into your brain.
By boosting the creation, survival and resistance of your brain cells.
In a nutshell, exercise is the cheapest and easiest mental enhancer available.
If you’re still hesitating if you should go for a walk or work out tonight – just get on with it. Do it for the health and happiness of your precious mind and memory.
The Most Obvious Way To Fight Your Inner Procrastinator (Most People Ignore This!)
Procrastination is a massive killer of productivity. From bills unpaid on time, to Christmas gifts bought at the last minute, to time spent on playing games, or watching stupid programs/videos instead of preparing for tomorrow’s exam or that crucial presentation.
We all procrastinate. But do you know, what your favorite procrastination monster is?
I don’t mean what you do when you procrastinate, but why you procrastinate in the first place?
If you don’t, I recommend next time you procrastinate, explore the underlying issue.
Once you understand that, you can apply a targeted solution..
I’m going to make it easy for you. Here are the 7 most common reasons why people procrastinate:
Fear of failure or success
Perfectionism (which is usually p.1 in disguise)
Feeling overwhelmed by the task
Lack of /insufficient interest or motivation to do the task
Skill or knowledge gap
Disorganisation
Internal (thoughts or emotional state)
Explore your underlying reasons for procrastination by asking yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing instead of working on what you should be doing. Keep asking why (usually 5 times is enough) until you get to the bottom of the problem – or until you reach one of the reasons listed above.
Why should you investigate the roots of your procrastination?
Because, the better you understand your problem, the more targeted solution you can put in place to address it. And this is the point many people miss, jumping from one ineffective/partially effective anti-procrastination strategy to another. Don’t waste your time and energy on strategies that are unlikely to address your problem. Diagnose your problem and apply the right strategy.
Forget Motivation And Remember To Do This Instead
Remember what I said at the beginning? Motivation is flimsy. Get over it and get on with your life.
But, hang on, Joanna. Your tricks are clever (hopefully that’s what you think :-)), but surely, we need something more substantial to carry us through all those days, weeks and months filled with stuff to do? If not motivation, what should I rely on then?
Well, let me get this motivation bit straight.
If you want to get somewhere where you want to get – not to a random anywhere, you need motivation.
But since you’re listening to Anthony’s podcast, you already have motivation. Motivation to improve your memory, your mental performance and probably – also your life.
Because these are all self-improvement goals. And that’s awesome.
You know what you need, you’ve done some research to identify what may help, you’re listening to Anthony’s podcast, reading, digesting it and maybe even implementing.
That’s a lot, actually.
So in my books, this means you’re motivated.
And even if you haven’t started implementing any of the advice Anthony and his guests have shared with you – it still doesn’t mean you need to ‘motivate yourself’ to get there.
No.
We’re all driven by some type of motivation, whether extrinsic, like money, praise or avoidance of punishment, or intrinsic – autonomy, mastery or purpose.
Most of us have a mix of things that make us tick, but often there is a dominant one – one motivational driver that lights your fire.
I suggest you find out what it is. Because, honestly, if you know what lights your fire, you’ll be always able to put the right fuel into your motivational tank and get where you want to get without having to ‘motivate yourself’ again and again.
It’s awesome to always feel motivated to do what you need to do, but sooner or later you’ll end up feeling like you’d rather play your favorite game, watch silly cat videos, or clear your desk.
The best way to prevent it from happening is to create a system that runs on autopilot.
This is the way I get my writing done – my book(s), guest posts, emails, etc. Even this podcast was written using my system – a system that makes me do what I need to do even when I don’t feel like it.
Systems are reliable, repeatable and run on autopilot.
They require some time and effort investment upfront, but once set up, they run automatically, without fuss and extra cost.
I can talk for hours about building productivity and habit systems, but let me give you a few juicy tips.
How To Make Achieving Your Goals A No-Brainer
Want to focus on revising German vocabulary for that trip next week?
Make the revision the only or the easiest thing to do. Prepare your workspace the night before, so what you find on your desk first thing in the morning – is exactly what you need for your revision and nothing else. If you revise without your computer – turn it off before you go to bed.
If you use language software, before you go to bed, log out of your email inbox and any other sites you check regularly, close your browser and clear your favorites, but have the application you use for revisions open.
When you open your browser in the morning, you’d have to find all those websites and log back in again – too much fuss, too hard to do first thing in the morning, isn’t it?
But hey, your language software is open – why don’t you just get on with revising?
The Sneakiest Way To Increase Focus On The Planet
Don’t stop at making it easy to do what you want to do. Go further. Make it hard not to do it.
If you tend to procrastinate by browsing the Net, turn off your connection at the modem/router, and lock the router/modem away, so you’d have to get up and walk there and get it out to turn it back on again. That’s a lot of effort.
Or, if you keep walking away from your desk on various irrelevant errands – chain yourself to the desk. Well, maybe not literally, but find a way to sit at your desk so that getting up and walking away is a nuisance.
I have a system where I sit to write behind a table, stuck in a corner, with a large table in front of me and another chair to the side. To get up and walk away – I need to push away my chair, the other chair and squeeze behind it. Just like with turning your Internet back on again, it takes time and it’s so much fuss, and that’s exactly what I need to reconsider my decision of walking away so I just stay put, extend my attention span and keep writing.
Want To Put These Instant Focus-Boosting Strategies To Work In Your Life?
You now know why you want your focus to be laser-sharp. This insight will fast-track your journey to your memory goals and help you become a powerful learner. Whatever the dreams you’re pursuing, laser-sharp focus will make it easier and faster to achieve.
It may seem like focus is a skill that takes a long time to develop and a lot of effort to perfect – and yes, traditional approaches, like meditation and motivational strategies indeed take time and practice before you can reap the rewards.
But with a bunch of smart tricks, you can quickly turn your overwhelmed by distractions and defeated by procrastinations mind into a powerful machine that you can turn on with a flick of a button.
Ready to get started?
Great! Pick one of the strategies you’ve just learned and implement it this week. Sorting out your environment is always good and easy thing to start with.
Whichever focus-improving technique you choose, take small, determined steps and you’ll quickly realise your focus is sharp and ready, available at your service, whenever you need it.
For more tips on how to get rid of those procrastination problems once and for good, grab my Laser-Sharp Focus Quick Action Guide now. This guide helps you identify the best strategies for your specific situation, depending how much time and energy you can afford to spend on fixing the problem at the given time. I deliberately separate longer term strategies that address the underlying problem(s) from quick fixes that can help you get jobs done on the spot. Click the title at the beginning of this paragraph now and let your mind powers shine.
Tired Of Struggling To Learn Memory Techniques For Language Learning On Your Own?
Sometimes all it takes is a powwow with a good friend.
I know, I know …
Your friends think you’re weird when you talk about your favorite Memory Palace and the crazy images that you use to memorize information like German phrases or other parts of language learning.
That’s why I was so excited when John McPhedran and I started hanging out to talk about our shared passions:
Heavy Metal …
Movies …
… & Mnemonics!
You Don’t Have To Memorize Vocabulary And Phrases Alone!
At least two cool things happen when you share your adventures in memory:
1) You learn how to use the techniques better yourself.
2) You come up with completely new approaches.
Or you learn to use the Major System for memorizing notes:
All of those things happened when John and I started hanging out, and so I’m excited to share with you our wide-ranging conversation about memorizing German, music and even a bit of Mandarin. (It’s funny to listen back to this interview because since then, my approach to Chinese and how much Chinese I now know has thoroughly grown!)
Here’s the full transcript of our discussion. To make it concrete for you, I’ve extracted 16 principles from the discussion you can start using right away. We’re confident that you’ll learn a lot and urge you to find a person to chat about your memory projects with. For starters, you can join the Magnetic Memory Method Facebook Group after downloading and listening to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.
Method Number One: Invest In Memory Training
Anthony: This is Anthony Metivier. You’re listening to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and today we have a real special treat John McPhedran. Did I pronounce that right?
John: Yeah.
Anthony: It’s pronounced just the way it’s spelled which is awesome. Well John, how do we know each other?
John: It’s quite a funny story. About just over a year ago, I’ll tell the whole story.
Anthony: Yeah, tell it all from the beginning.
John: Just over a year ago, I’m from New Zealand, and I have married a lovely German woman. I was in Germany last year, so this is my third time now, but I was here last year and I was about to fly home to New Zealand. Me and my wife, we were in a hotel in Prague, and I was just looking on my Kindle for stuff to buy on Amazon. I was always looking at German language books, things to learn German and better ways to do it, and I came across the Magnetic Memory Method mnemonics system for learning vocab.
I bought that and started reading. It just sounded really cool. It wasn’t something I dove into straight away. I knew that it would take a while before I got around to doing it because I had some other priorities, but I always kept it on the back of my mind. Six months after that, I came back to Germany to live, and I knew that I had to sharpen up my German skills, so I looked further into the Magnetic Memory Method and ended up buying the product on Udemy. Through the message system there, I just start typing Anthony just questions that I had.
From reading his books, I knew he lived in Berlin, which is where I’ve moved to, and I knew that he also was a heavy metal bass player. So I thought it would be cool if I just put it out there just to you know just poke the fire I guess you could say. Just to see if he was close to where I was and just make the first step into maybe meeting because he seemed like an interesting guy. We just started talking back and forth and I kind of dropped that I was a heavy metal guitarist. That kind of sparked Anthony’s interest. Basically, from there we just kind of messaged back and forth and ended up jamming together.
Then the real funny part of the story I guess was that we ended up living a fifteen minute walk apart from each other. So coming from the other end of the world, from New Zealand to Berlin, to actually live fifteen minutes apart from this dude that I was learning all this cool stuff from was you know pretty awesome. So we’ve kind of just been friends since and have been recording music together and just talking about memory stuff. I’ve kind of come out with some memory things that sparked Anthony’s interest. So it’s why I’m here today doing this.
Anthony: Yeah, and not any kind of memory stuff, but grammar and music which is, well, some very rich and detailed things to be memorizing. I’m really glad that you did email me and now you’re coming to my birthday party. So things are getting real serious.
John: Yeah, I’m looking forward to that.
Anthony: So that’s the end of the week. But in any case, one thing that I really admire is that you’re actually taking these approaches and doing what I have suggested, and we’re trading notes. We’ve both got Excel files open or documents, and we were looking at our process. It’s so exciting to see and hear what you’re doing, and how you explain your mnemonic images just put so many pictures in my mind, which I can tell why they’re so memorable for you. So maybe we start with German. Do you remember the first word that you actively memorized using mnemonics?
John: Well I first got into mnemonics and it wasn’t through using Memory Palaces. Like I knew the technique of using mnemonics. I learned quite a lot of vocab before coming to the Magnetic Memory system. The first word, I can’t remember the very first word, but maybe one of them that was within the set of words that I learned using mnemonics, not German in general, but mnemonics was der Balkon, which is balcony, and you know you don’t really need a mnemonic for that.
The first one that was really to help me learn something kind of hard was die Behandlung, which is like treatment. I imagine a woman with a big puffy hand because she’s being stung by a bee, just the bee and she needed treatment for a sting in the hand, Behandlung. I can’t remember where the lung came into it, but a lot of mnemonics are like that. Not every single detail is there.
It’s really just a thing to kind of instantly click your mind. That’s what it was. I mean I’m still like that with my mnemonics. I don’t even really necessarily go into all the details when I’m imagining them. I kind of create them, and I drill them for a bit, and then after while it is just something that really triggers your mind. Ah, that’s what it was and I’m able to know what the word is.
Anthony: Before we go further, you said now twice “the Magnetic Memory system.” Is it really a system to you? The reason I ask is because I’m always very clear about saying this is the method. You’ve got to adopt it for yourself. Systems are, I mean not to correct you, if you find it so systematic, but –
John: No, and I’ve heard you say that. No, well it’s a method if that’s how you describe it as a method. It really is. You have really got to try and make your own thing out it. It’s the only way it will really work. It all depends on how you process things.
I feel personally that I’m kind of lucky. In your book you said, you’ve got a decent imagination I guess or imagery in your mind if you can imagine water flowing. Do you remember writing that?
Anthony: Yeah.
John: So I thought, yeah, I can actually imagine a river and water flowing. Cool, I might be able to do this. I mean the first questions that I asked you were about the crossing your path. Because I want to try to have everything perfect. I am quite a perfectionist like that. So I was asking you those kinds of questions because I didn’t really want to leave any stone unturned. Then just the way you replied to me, I was like yeah, I have just got to try to make this my own to see what works.
I find that, in particular, the crossing the path doesn’t really even matter to me necessarily because I can just be anywhere in my palace and you know I can look behind. You know what I mean, like my spacial, I don’t know, spacial recognition or I don’t know what that kind of word is. I should put it in a palace and learn it. But you know what I mean, I can kind of just instantly be in the center of a building and just imagine in my mind where all these places are around the things. The crossing my path doesn’t even really matter.
Method Number Two: Make The Memory Methods Your Own
I kind of felt that you know I’ll just make this my own. So it’s not a system if you describe a system being rigid because it definitely is not rigid. You’ve got to have a bit of creativity to it. It does take effort, as far as coming up with the mnemonics. The thing is it does take effort to come up with those things and you are using your creativity to try and create these scenarios that actually represent some kind of abstract information you’re trying to learn.
But, on the backend the amount of time you save not having to repeat over and over and over and forget stuff, you are saving all that time at the backend. That’s why I love it so much for that. You write these mnemonics and then you go back through the palace again, or what I like to do is just put them in Anki.
Method Number Three: Ditch Boring Learning Methods
Like you, I hate using Anki to rote memorize stuff. It frustrates you. As you say, once you start getting frustrated, it makes it harder to learn and that’s when you’re just like, man, am I ever gonna be able to do this. To me, using Anki just for the testing, to actually just give you these words and instantly be able to go to my palace. It doesn’t always work that I instantly know it. Sometimes I’ll write a mnemonic that was from a couple of days before and I’ve never revisited it and I’ll get this word, but you kind of remember where it was supposed to be in the house, and it takes a little bit. Sometimes I do have to bring out my sheet again just to remember what I wrote down. But I mean, that’s about as much as I have to do. After that, you know the word.
Anthony: Just to clarify for people, you’re essentially doing the memory work first, then importing or creating Anki slides and using those, what do you call them? Slides or index?
John: Cards.
Anthony: Cards, digital index cards to look at the German word in German?
John: Yeah.
Anthony: And then you go into the Memory Palace to look at the imagery to help you decode the sound and meaning?
John: Yeah, I guess that’s what’s happening behind the scenes, but as I said, if it is something really new – like one word that I learned recently that kind of gave me a little bit of trouble was das Aufputschmittel like stimulant, and I could remember my bridging character for auf is Alf, and I had the little fluffy alien. I had him putting stuff in the middle of a plant stem and the stem represented STIMulant but that’s the only information for word stimulant. That’s quite often what I’ll do. It will just be some little bit of information that triggers the rest. I remembered the word Aufputschmittel but I couldn’t remember what the meaning was. That was one that when I got the word, I knew where it was in the palace but I couldn’t remember the word. So I had to go back and open my Excel file. But I only do it once.
If you forget it, which is five percent of the time, most of the time you don’t forget it and you do it and you drill it and you’ve got it. Then, honestly, after a few times doing it, two or three times of going through these cards – you don’t even have to decode the information. You know you get it. I actually think I read it in English. I don’t read them in German for this. I read them in English for this. The word and I translate the word from English to German.
Because I find when I’m trying to speak German if I don’t know a word, you search for the word you want in English first anyway, and then if you’re really stuck for words, if you don’t know a word to use, and you know English, you’ve got to try to find the word in English and then translate it from there.
Anthony: Right.
John: So yeah, I’ll do the English word first.
Anthony: I would challenge you though to start doing it with the German word first because you want to train your mind to not go to English first.
John: Yeah.
Anthony: So that’s why I always do the native language first. Because everything is so heavily linked on the sound of the word, using the mnemonic imagery to recall the sound and the meaning of the word in the same blow, then what I basically want to be able to do is have my mother tongue as a kind of ghost that is banished by the instant recall of the sound and the meaning of a word.
Of course, I don’t really use cards. So when I started with Chinese and 对 不 起 which is part of “Excuse me, may I ask” all I just see is in the Memory Palace is Mark Twain kneeing a Chi master in the face. I don’t even really have anything to indicate “Excuse me, may I ask” because that’s just so rude of him to do that in that context. I don’t know why I don’t need it. But if I were to have some sort of indicator of “Excuse me, may I ask,” that to me, that trips me up from going in my mind directly to the actual Chinese. Now that may not be your experience. So I’m not suggesting that you do anything other than as you please, but that’s my rationale for that.
John: Yeah. Oh, it’s the same with me. If I’m not drilling with the cards, if I’m just going through the Memory Palace they are like a unit like that.
Anthony: Okay, I see.
John: I don’t have an English word sitting there. It’s just an image that you just remember, oh that’s what it is. And then when I’m trying to talk German, like I’m definitely well aware that you don’t want to try and translate first. You do start getting better at just talking. We had a little conversation before, it was a basic conversation but I didn’t translate. Unless it gets hard and I can’t think of what I’m actually trying to say. If I can’t kind of go further than what I just know without thinking of English then I’ll have to resort to some kind of English word to actually think of the nest step. But it’s really just to kick start the next step. I’m really trying not to think in English when I’m talking.
Anthony: Right. Well, let’s move this to grammar. You were telling me something really fascinating about working with the tenses.
John: Most of my German I learned the hard way. When I first started learning it was in 2012. I had moved to Erlangen, my wife was studying there and I lived there for a year, and I spoke nothing of German or any other language. I knew nein and scheiße which most people do, maybe ja, das ist Gut. That kind of stereotypical stuff.
My teacher was lovely. She was a real nice woman. I started learning quite good at the start. She was obviously a native German speaker and we started with the normal things. Like du, ich, sie, er, those kind of nominative cases of all the pronouns and basic conjugation of the verbs and it started quite good with those real basic sentences. Then within a little while, it just went from 0 to 100.
I never knew anything about English. I knew how to speak it or I know how to speak it. I knew what a verb was. I knew what a noun was. But I didn’t know what a subject was of a sentence. I didn’t know what the direct object or the indirect object was. It was only through learning German that I’ve actually learned all these things and they actually relate a lot to English.
So the teacher had started laying all this grammar on me and I got this big list of irregular verbs. She gave me this list and she goes you’ve got to remember this. And I’d only just come across the whole case system just a few weeks before which if you’re an English speaker just throws you out because you’ve only one way to say “the.” So I got all these lists of stuff to learn. I’m just like how do I learn this. It’s one thing to say I have to but how do I do it? She was like I don’t know. You just have to. I was like that’s not an answer.
It put me in a kind of bad mood with it. To be honest, it wasn’t a priority of mine. I never thought that I would actually come and live here. At the time, music and playing guitar was what I really wanted to do. I had all my music that I wanted to create and had these other things.
German was turning into just rote memorization. I remember my wife made this curriculum up for me for studying. It was just rote memorization of all these words that I just had to try to remember from scratch and just all these grammar concepts and I though how am I going to learn this? I didn’t have a good attitude. It wasn’t until after, when I got back to New Zealand after a year. I was just really disappointed in myself that I hadn’t gone harder at learning.
Method Number Four: Learn How To Learn
That’s when I started on just how to learn. You know, how to learn German. That’s when I first came across mnemonics for the first time. I learned a lot of words. It worked really well but I was using other people’s mnemonics. One thing I’ve found is that it doesn’t work as well as your own. Because you remember your own creations a lot easier.
The things that tripped me up most in German other than not knowing the right words to use is prepositions because they don’t always translate directly as you would use them in English, and I find there is no real set rules to use them. That comes through just being exposed a lot. Like the word zu Fuß, to go by foot. In English it is “to foot.” The other thing was verb tenses. I used to try and talk to my wife when we would sit down and try and practice and I would try and say these things.
Because when you start you’re always in the indicative active present tense. Like ich gehe and that’s how you start. Then you’ll move on to the indicative active. In conversation you’re going to go to the present perfect tense. You get quite good at using those tenses. Then if you want to express something like “when I’m here I would have done this.”
Anthony: Right.
John: That’s when the tenses get quite complicated in German, because what I was explaining before, the verbs work differently. When you are using the passive voice like the future perfect Ich werde gehört worden sein. I will have been heard. I thought that was the thing I always got tripped up on. I was trying to say something or try and express these things and my girlfriend would say no. It’s expressed like this this. I realized that I just didn’t know enough. I don’t know if it is spacial. Just the whole timeframe of things like when you’re talking about future and past.
So that’s where I devised this one here. It’s exactly using the same system that you give. I have basically, its’ just an upstairs office block that has offices. Again, it depends on what people want to do to make it their own. I just found I knew this place that had three rooms down one side, three rooms down the other. Down the left-hand side is all the active voice tenses and moods. Down the other side was all the passive voices. The two offices up the front, they are opposite each other.
At No. 1 that was all the indicative mood. The next set of offices down which was two opposite each other. That was Subjunctive 1. Then the next ones down were Subjunctive 2.
So that covered all the moods and all the voices. Then within each of those palaces, there were little mini palaces inside one kind of hallway which is its own palace. In each of them I just have each tense. Some of them are really simple.
I’ve got in this office here, this is the indicative mood for the active voice. So the present tense. It’s my mom’s office. I have my mom unwrapping a present. The present just represents present tense. I didn’t need a mnemonic to tell me the conjugation of verbs in the present tense.
Anthony: Right.
John: And the same, simple past is not as hard. I’ve got me, that was my desk sitting in old clothes. I just imagine like any old clothes you want. I kind of imagine like old blazers or something, old English kind of styles, sipping a cup of tea. Because the tea represents like ich spielte. Like “I played” and that’s what the tea represented there.
Then the storage room was the future tense –
Anthony: But just for people. Why does the tea help you remember spielte?
John: Because you add a “T”.
Anthony: Ah, you add a “T”.
John: In the simple past you usually add the “T” to regular verbs.
Anthony: Ah, perfect.
John: But I didn’t need it. I already knew that. But I just wanted to be thorough and have something representing each kind of station here not really just miss anything.
Method Number Five: Be Illicit In Your Imagination
Here we get probably a bit illicit. But in the future tense werden is the verb to represent something happening in the future. So I’ve got Leigh who was our receptionist. She is in space clothes. Space clothes all I mean it represents future to me. I just imagine just silver. So it’s not like astronaut suits. Just something silver and shiny because it just seems a bit futuristic to me. It’s easy. She passes a joint; weed represents werden to me.
When you you’re trying to come up with mnemonics, you go with the first thing that means something. That’s what came up with me. This is probably a bit illegal but she’s passing a joint to an infant. To me, an infant represents the infinitive verb. Ich werde spielen.
Then moving on. Once I get to the perfect tenses, you know present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, I imagine a prefect. I did a year in a boys’ school where prefects, they had the flash blazers and that. I just think of the prefect. A “prefect watches over Hamlet” represents sein. And Habibi. I was trying to think of a name that was like haben. Habibi represents haben. I imagine them playing with old game parts. The old game part, I just imagine a box of old chess pieces and I thought of parts = past participle, that’s where the parts comes in and the game, I put the game in there for ge, because unless it has a prefix that is inseparable, we have the ge. So that’s for that.
Then again with the future perfect, I have the same thing but because in future perfect you have werden again because you have got to represent the future in this. I’ve got a prefect wearing space clothes while smoking weed hands out old game parts to Hamlet and Habibi. Sort of like ich werde gespielt haben or ich werde gegangen sein.
Anthony: Oh yeah, because you’ve got to have it in “to be.”
John: When it’s a verb using sein. So that’s why I have Hamlet and Habibi. The helping verb will either be sein or haben. Then, obviously, the passive voices you only have sein.
So the most complicated one, I’ll give an example of because they are all just repeating after that, they kind of have a similar concept. So this is the future perfect in the indicative passive voice. A prefect in space clothes and smoking weed. So “prefect” represents future perfect, “smoking weed” is the werden, old game parts to a traffic warden who then gives it an infant Hamlet. So it means that sein will be at the end. Ich werde gehört worden sein. I will have been heard.
Anthony: A lot of people ask me, don’t you get confused if you’re repeating stuff. So you’ve got Hamlet several times. You’ve a prefect several times. You’ve got an infant in different contexts. Do you find that this is difficult to manage or –
John: Yeah. If I just left it and didn’t come back to it, I would never remember it. This one was kind of quite hard in that respect, because sometimes you forget what’s happening at certain stations, but that’s just where the drilling comes in. Then after a while, once you get into especially the subjunctive, it just repeats themselves.
Anthony: How much time would you say that you spent on putting this together and then how much time in the actual review of the mnemonics before it gets into your long-term memory and what would you say is the payoff, the value of it compared to another approach.
Method Number Six: Stop Fooling Yourself That You Don’t Have Time – You Do!
John: The time it took, when I do any of this stuff, I really don’t spend that much time on it. Like I can’t sit down and just come with heaps of mnemonics. I mean maybe if I forced myself to I could.
I come up with these goals. Here’s my spreadsheet. I know that if I have all these little things that I want to do, if I just plan them instead of thinking I’ve got one massive task. It’s that whole eat an elephant thing. I’ve got this one massive task. Instead of thinking I’m just going to sit down and do it, I kind of think well if I just do a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow and I plan out tiny little chunks, I know that by this time it’s going to be done. It’s not going to feel like too much effort.
To be honest, when it comes to writing these mnemonics, maybe ten minutes a day. So maybe it took me ten minutes to come up with this one indicative mood active voice, just that one station with all those tenses may have been ten minutes. Then I would have just put it away for the day. So you’re looking at six days, seven days.
Anthony: Right, and then in terms of actually reinforcing it using mnemonics.
John: Well at the moment, I’m doing it now.
Anthony: So this is a work in progress.
John: Yeah, so I’ve got these mnemonics down. So now, basically, I have just phrases that I’ve got in my Anki that I just translate using the correct tense and knowing what mnemonic I’m using with.
Anthony: So you were saying before that these particular memory palaces, they just worked out perfectly. Did you seek them out or they were very convenient let’s say, did you seek them out intentionally to use for this purpose or they just came to mind.
John: Not for this purpose. It was just when I was doing the Magnetic Memory Method, coming up with a big list of like palaces. Where’s my vocab one? Again for those that are listening I’m just going through my sheet. So it was when I came up with all my A, B, C, D, I kind of had a stockpile of leftovers. I had some leftover that I didn’t use for any houses.
Method Number Seven: Think And You Will Find The Solution
I don’t know why I used that one in particular. It just kind of made sense. It took thinking. I just thought of trying to think in my mind how am I gonna come up with some way, because I knew that with the tenses in particular, I knew that this was one block. I knew the indicative mood active voice was one block that had present, simple past, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect. I knew that that was one block and that was one block. So I was just thinking of the building in my mind and then the imperative at the end which you don’t really need a palace for that.
I was just kind of thinking for something in my mind that would be contained enough but have separate compartments in it that would separate these different things. Each building is right next to each other and across the hall. It was just really convenient for that.
Anthony: Well, I’m really excited to be sitting here watching this because you’ve got it nailed. I mean you made your Memory Palace key which is a list of memory palaces organized alphabetically and so forth. I get lots and lots of email all the time and some people just say this is crazy. This is overwhelming. I look at some of the reviews of my books and there is one person who said this book came from the twilight zone. I recognize that it seems like it’s over the top and just a crazy amount of work to do this, but –
John: It doesn’t all happen in a day. I mean just listening to your podcasts and like throughout the course like people who have trouble coming up with places. Pine Hill is my Memory Palace for “F.” Forgive me for swearing but the reason I put it beside “F” was because that house was fucking cold. That’s why I associate it with “F.”
Anthony: Right.
John: Prenzlauer, that’s my place I live in now. That’s Z, there’re not many streets with Z but Prenz has a Z in it so I put it Z. Here like Jacob, my cousin Jacob, he had a house in Hunter Crescent and just up the road there was a big empty lot of land that had this old car in it that we managed to play around in one day when we were young. It was a real funny day and the car represents that house to me. So that’s what C is. So the first name of your house doesn’t have to match up but just has to spark. It’s not until you start doing it that you remember what these houses are.
It’s not like you have to write this key out and then instantly commit to memory what all these houses are. You have the spreadsheet. You have the record. If it is recorded, you’re less likely to forget. It is through just returning to it that you remember that. Once you start putting the mnemonics in the houses, you don’t forget them then because the mnemonics, the words you’re learning, they start with the letter. So like when I’m doing A, I put the German word starting with A in the A house. I don’t put the English word starting with A. So it’s German orientated.
Method Number Eight: Use Technology Intelligently
Anthony: Well it’s very cool. And you’re just using Excel file with multiple tabs?
John: Yeah. If you look here, I mean I have a vocab load sheet. Stations – so I have a separate sheet for stations. A is the A-framed house on Plantation Road, then I have 1, 2, 3 all the way to 17 at the moment because that’s the amount of words I have in there. I kind of went for the micro.
Anthony:Micro stations.
John: Yeah, kind of straight away. I started off with macro stations but then I just kind of felt that I had a good memory of these places and I felt that I could easily put multiple words in a room. Again, with the room, you don’t have to remember it exactly. My brother’s room in this house. I know where it is. I have a memory of it but I can’t remember what he had in there. So I’ve got like by the door, I’ve got a corner in the left. Then I just put a chest of drawers there. I don’t know if he had one there. I just put a chest of drawers there. And then the other corner. The corner and then a bed, corner and then by the door again. And for most times that’s all I have in a room. Unless it was my room, or unless I’m really intimate with all the little things in a room, most rooms are going to have a chest of drawers and a bed. Maybe a TV or something. It’s not hard to add that stuff in if you can do it.
Anthony: So you don’t have any trouble juggling say like a virtual element that you’ve just invented.
John: No, because you drill it. Again, if you were to write these out and never come back to it, it’s not going to stick in your mind. You drill it, and then as you drill it you remember it.
One thing I did, I took a bunch of words out like the verbs that use dative, that take dative and the verbs that use sein like ‘ist gefahren’ that use sein instead of haben for the helping verb when using the past and the perfect tenses. So I ended up taking all those words out of my palaces and putting them in a separate one because I thought it would be more helpful just to have those particular categories of verbs in their own thing. Because when I was talking to Sina and she would always correct me that I used haben instead of sein or something like that. So I decided to put these verbs on their own. So when you’re talking and same with dative, like when you call someone dich when they should have been dir because the verb is dative.
Anthony: Right.
John: But other than that, I take these verbs out and then it’s not that hard. I just put another one in there and then with drilling you forget that other one was even there. The new ones are in there now.
Method Number Nine: Just. Do. It.
Anthony: Well, that’s amazing to hear. Because you are answering so many questions that I get all the time. People say well can I reuse Memory Palaces. What happens if I need to renovate something? It sounds for you pretty nontheatrical or nondramatic. You just do it.
John: Just do it and it really is just the drilling. I can’t emphasize that enough. You just walk through them. You have got to revisit them, walk through them and, if you want to, drill them on Anki. Because being able to do it like that, you get a word and you’ve got to instantly got to try, without tracing steps, to instantly know where something is sitting in a certain Memory Palace. It gets to the point you don’t need the mnemonic. It happens kind of quickly.
Anthony: That is one thing that people either criticize or don’t want to do. They say I’m going to set up all this stuff just to not even need it anymore. I wonder if you have thoughts on that. Do you feel like, okay now I’ve got it and I spent all that time just to get these words? Is there remorse or any kind of issue around that?
John: Remorse? Because I did it?
Anthony: I’m just speaking the voice of what I’ve read from people and their feedback is they just think this is so much work to create mnemonics that they are ultimately not going to use.
John: But it’s not work. If you’ve tried to learn stuff by rote you are putting all that – I always think I’m a really lazy person. I don’t really feel like I’m a full of energy person that really wants to do heaps of stuff all the time. I’m probably disciplined more than anything.
So when it came to this, I watched your course, I went through it and it was effort to just have to sit down and start because it’s creative. You’ve got to think. I think when you’re drilling – you can get on Anki and you can get all other people’s flash cards and it probably seems easy because you’re not putting any work in to do this. This is sweet. But the amount of mental energy and the time it takes to learn the stuff by rote, and then just to forget it anyway – there’s a good chance. I mean it’s not always the case.
I learned quite a lot of words through rote memorization, but I hated it. I couldn’t stand it. It was boring and made me not want to do it. It wasn’t exciting.
So, yeah there is the work up front, but again it’s the eat an elephant. Maybe you would sit down and you would come up with all your houses. I think I might of come up with all my houses in a day. I didn’t really think that was too hard. It is effort. I kind of went above and beyond. I’ve categorized all my stuff. Especially in like the nouns and stuff. I put all the extra information like plural information and like if a verb is strong and uses sein or whatever. So I kind of went above what you talk about for my own personal thing.
Method Number Ten: Know Where Your Time Is Really Saved
To me it’s the amount of time you save on the backend. That’s where the time is saved. I’ve learned thousands of words using mnemonics and drilling with spaced repetition. Just to drill, not to learn, but honestly I think – is it a horse and cart metaphor or chicken and egg. What comes first? It is a bit of effort and coming up with mnemonics takes effort but it’s not that hard. Like ten minutes a day. If you want to learn thousands and thousands of words really quickly, then of course you’re not going to learn that through osmosis or through flash cards. You are going to have to put in a lot of effort to learn that anyway. Just do it every day. You have ten minutes. You have fifteen minutes. If you don’t have fifteen minutes, then something is wrong.
Anthony:Well I think so yeah. I mean I was just talking about my Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets because I’ve recorded it and I don’t know if it is going to come out before this one or after. I think it will come out this week about how for myself I make sure that I get this stuff done. If you go in my room right now, you’ll see that there’s a book on how to write Chinese characters. There’s all my little colored pens there and so forth. The computer doesn’t go on. The smart phone or stupid phone or whatever phone I have doesn’t get looked at until that book is in my hands and I write down, I practice writing eight characters, and I practice writing eight characters eight times each. Now this where I get into systematic thinking. It is eight characters eight times each and then I go and I do my memorialization stuff working with Pimsleur.
John: That was in your email.
Anthony: Yeah and I just do an entire page. That’s just the rule and that’s a systematic sort of thing. What I’m trying to get at is that this is first thing in the morning and it’s a very small investment of time but it compounds so hugely.
John: Yeah. It compounds. Definitely, it builds up. I think that’s the problem with learning in society in this day and age. People want the magic pill and who doesn’t? Wouldn’t you like to be fluent in a language like that? You know it doesn’t work like that. I always thought anything worthwhile is gonna take effort. You can’t get around having to put in effort.
Maybe this isn’t for everyone. Maybe some people are real awesome at rote learning. Rote learning wasn’t my thing and I wanted a better way of doing it. First it was mnemonics and then once I coupled mnemonics with the palaces, it was just was like bang. Having mnemonics floating around in space, it was good, but I’ve forgotten a lot of them now too. Whereas having them in a palace, it is just boom, boom having them there. It is really awesome.
Anthony: Somewhere in my slush pile of research there is an article that I read that they did some studies with polyglots. And they said that in their research that polyglots are actually very, very good at rote learning because they spend sometimes decades doing it. But I think it is the discipline. It is the consistency of consistent effort applied. Even polyglots have what is often called in that world the stubborn quintile. That is the 20 percent or whatever number percent of words that no matter what they won’t stick. That’s when mnemonics are a go-to method because there is really no other way. There is another way, which is just to not learn them. It is really exciting. If we can switch gears.
John: Well put it this way. If you want to learn heaps of vocabulary and you think you haven’t made a start at all on this and you think I’ve got up with all these houses and then I’ve got to come up with all these stations after that, then don’t think of it like that. I’m a big fan of writing my goals down. I put them into chunks and put them on a calendar and I know if I spend 20 minutes today doing that and it’s going to be done and I cross it off and go through all that.
But if you’re coming at this thinking this is a lot of work. Well yeah, it kind of is. You’re learning a language! It is a lot of work but don’t think that. Say today I’m going to write from A to J. I’m going to come out with those houses. It doesn’t take very long. Then you do the rest. Then you do the same with the stations. You just go through.
Method Number Eleven: Ditch Overwhelm
You even say don’t overwhelm yourself. Just go through and put your first ten stations in and then do that with all your things. Once you have the houses, the palaces and once you have a few stations, and you have it set up kind of like this, it is really quick. If you put it in perspective to learn one word, and not all words need mnemonics. I don’t need to put that in the palace. It is valuable real estate as well. When you’re putting these things in there. Some words you are just like I don’t need to put that in there. I can remember that, and if I forget it, I mean I’m going to come across it again. I’ll know what it is. To learn one word, to come up with a mnemonic shouldn’t take more than two minutes.
Anthony: I’m glad to hear you say that because I’m always trying to communicate exactly that.
John: They don’t have to be awesome. I think this probably where people trip up because it is creative. You’re using something inside yourself to create something. It’s just a tiny little piece of an image and that’s exercising parts of your brain that feels like work. It shouldn’t take more than two minutes.
Then to actually really drill that and to know it, it shouldn’t take more than going back to it. On a hard word, I don’t think more than five times. I think to go back to a word five times would be a really hard word. You are looking at learning one word maybe five minutes. Whereas to learn a word through rote memorization is it going to take longer than five minutes? Probably. If you keep forgetting it. When you break it down, I reckon maximum one word from start to being right in your memory would take five minutes from start to finish.
Anthony: People are going to think that I’m paying you to say this.
John: No.
Anthony: That’s basically what my experience is. I was talking with this girl on Skype, and she basically was I think making a kind of suggestion that I learn how to say husband and wife in Chinese if you know what I mean.
So I said all right teach what they are. It is 老公lǎo gōng for husband and 老婆lǎopó and my tones may not be correct there. I kind of hope that she was suggesting something there. I just said okay, you know how I’m going to do this. I’ll tell you Laozi who is like a famous figure in the history of philosophy and so forth. He is hitting a gong. He’s right here at this corner of this room and then he’s kissing a girl on the butt for 老婆lǎopó. You may not know this yet, but “po” is German slang for butt. So he’s just kissing her on the “po – poa.” And know there’s a kangaroo there who is punching because that’s my mnemonic for the rising tone.
Then I just visited it a couple times. She said I’m going to ask you a month later if you still remember that. I’m just like no problem. I just memorize it a few times. I take every opportunity that I can to tell people what husband and wife is in Chinese to reinforce it. With my speaking partner I put it in sentences. She totally butchered me and it was like no that is not how you would say it in a sentence. Here is how you say it in a sentence.
The point being is that I have established that probably for the rest of my life those words are never going to go away because of visiting it maybe five or six times, I don’t remember, but then making an actual effort to go and say it and to try to put it in a sentence and make it part of your life and then you’ve got it.
John: To me, I’m finding the tenses harder because there’s more moving parts. You’re putting them in structural format. But again that’s just drilling. If you can take one word, like one verb and go through all those tenses with one verb, then you’re going to know that verb. To learn just words on their own, the lifespan of starting it to having it in your memory I reckon five minutes.
Anthony: Yeah, I agree. There are certainly some words that are a bit more challenging. What I find, and you’ve already touched upon it, is to limit the amount of time. Like when I’m going through Pimsleur, sometimes I’ll hit a point where they’re bridging from one set of words to another set of words. If I happen to hit that change over in the middle of a session, then it will get a bit overwhelming. Because now all of a sudden you are shifting gears and so the words for “let’s have dinner at your place” then you start going to the words for money and amounts, then you have to scale back and take the amounts and the numbers on a different day altogether. That, I find for me, can get a bit too much.
It is just amazing to me how much you can do in such a little period of time. Then you reinforce it with speaking.
How do you find it speaking in German? You’ve already touched upon it, but do people help you out, correct you?
Method Number Twelve: Practice What You’ve Memorized Out In The World
What I find is that there is no such thing as German. I’ll get in a taxi in this neighborhood and the guy will speak to me completely different than if I’m in a taxi that I get in in Schöneberg. You just start to develop a skill for decoding what that must mean. This new pronunciation and this new slang and this new keitzdeutsch and this new regional dialect whatever the case may be.
John: I’m in no way real fluent in German. I start the integration course on Monday starting at B1. I’ll be doing five hours a day, five days a week.
Anthony: Mine was four hours.
John: Four hours a day, 1:00 to 5:00, four hours a day, five days a week for about three months. I’m really looking forward to pushing a bit more and really talking every day like that.
Going around and out and about asking for stuff, I usually do, especially in the East as well, because obviously back in the day people weren’t brought up learning English like they probably were in West Berlin. I find when I have to do things, like I had to get my driver’s license and the people don’t speak English, or I had to go to the hospital one day and you quite often find that people aren’t speaking English. They might know real basic English, but they won’t speak English to you. In that sense, I can get around. I have to ask them to speak to me slower. Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut, können Sie mir langsam sprechen. They will speak slow and dumb it down a bit and I’m like yeah, yeah. I can understand. I can talk back.
As I said, busting into the middle of a real technical conversation, I’m not going to be doing that at all, but just getting around is sweet. The other thing as well is trying to decode what people are telling you. A prime example. I’ll always use German when I go out. I won’t resort to using English because I want to do it German because I’m in Germany. I asked if there was any pizzas or something like the frozen pizzas. Honestly what came back to me was just (incomprehensible) but I heard Vorne and Kasse. Those two words. I was like sweet.
Anthony: They’re up the front by the cash register.
John: Yeah, that’s really how most of it works is that you pick up. When you’re learning, I guess when you start learning through a teacher and if you start reading, like when you’re reading books, you come across so much of the common vocabulary that once you build enough of that up, you can pick up those when people are talking to you. They are kind of like the anchor points of a sentence you know that when people say that you’re like yeah.
I’m definitely not at the stage where I can translate like boom and instantly narrow down to the fine point of what they’ve told me but I’ll hear enough words and be able to decode it quick enough to actually know what they’ve told me. Sometimes you know, I’ll walk in the wrong direction. And they’re like no, no.
Anthony: I should say though, for people who don’t know the course system. You’re being a bit modest because starting at B1 is actually quite something. So that you’ve developed this on your own to start at B1. Because I didn’t get in that B1. I had to start at A1. So there’s A1 and A2 and then B1. I did half of B1 before my program was over. I got into it relatively quickly but nonetheless the fact that you’re starting at B1, and what I’ve heard when we’ve talked German it’s pretty impressive.
John: Thanks.
Anthony: I just wanted to let people know because I don’t think that they use that in North America and the audience is primarily North American for this podcast. Just what B2 means as opposed to A1. Basically there is three levels, A, B and C and you’re just under halfway there. Once you’re done B1 you’re under half way there. That’s interesting and good and great. You are also a musician.
John: Yes.
Method Number Thirteen: Apply The Techniques To More Than One Area Of Interest (Like Music)
Anthony: And this to me is absolutely fascinating because today you told me something that I think cracks the code that I have been trying to figure out and so maybe say a little bit about that. Because we have talked about how you are a systemic thinker and you showed this chart that you made to help you be able to do rhythms.
John: The sequencer.
Anthony: Later you had something also for notes that was a similar chart that had to do with scales.
John: I just came up with those charts. That’s too hard to explain on this if you’re not a musician. Just from sequencing drums and using a sequencer. I’m a guitarist first and foremost. I don’t produce electronic music. I play heavy metal. In order to get drums because I pretty much haven’t got a band or anything, I’ve had to learn how to create drum beats from using a sequencer program and programing them.
I’m not someone who learned to read music. I wanted to come up with a way that I could write music without having a computer or without having my guitar with me. I came up with different charts. I’ve got one for like arrangements where I can write about what I’m feeling. Because a lot of it comes through like either a beat or some kind of feeling you’re wanting. Is it going to be fast and slamming or is it going to be a bit more subtle. Because it is tension and release. You can kind of write notes.
I’ve got a chart where I can write in English about certain aspects of the song. I’ve got a chart for writing drum beats. It’s just kick, snare, hi-hat where I can just like on a computer where I would put in a kick. I can just write it out with a marker and I will know the beat in my head. I can basically write out a beat and play it. There’s a song there. You can start writing a song.
Then the sequencer thing, I just went overboard. I had access to a laminator. I have them all so I can write on them with wipe off markers so I can keep reusing them. Instead of having a staff where you would write notes on, I thought well I’m more used to seeing a sequence window where you have the piano roll up the side. It’s keeping with the same divisions of the beat. Like the drum thing is that I showed you so I just basically wrote a grid where I can write melodies out using this. If I was to write it out I could go and then put it straight into the sequencer and hopefully it would sound like what I had in my head. I use the drumbeat thing quite a bit and try and come up with beats and then just play them on my hands and knees to try and get the feel. Other than that, that was just something I did and haven’t really touched back on that. When I start writing my next batch of songs I will probably go into doing that a bit more.
Anthony: About memorizing music, one of the things we had talked about is I was just telling you what I would consider a quick fix when I’m studying music which is just use the major method, and I think it’s relatively manageable for quick fixes and with four strings on the bass. I never have bothered doing this with the fifth string. I play five strings but in any case that approach was major method. Each fret has a number and then creating a word for each number. The E string is Ernie, A string is Al Pacino, D string is Dracula and the G string is Grover. If I needed to remember something on the 12th fret of the G string then it would be Grover getting a tan. Because in major method 1 is T or D, 2 is N so tan. It could be a ton of bricks was falling on his or whatever. Just so it has that TN sound. What you’ve done is going the distance as you’ve shown that you do. But explain that a little bit and you’re thinking behind it.
John: With the notes?
Anthony: Yeah.
John: With the fretboard. I’m kind of going back I think memorizing music. I kind of sidestepped up there because this is kind of memorizing the notes on a fretboard. Not necessarily remembering music per se. I found when I first started playing guitar, the way I memorized, I’m definitely not a savant or those dudes who can imagine the music really clearly in their head. I can imagine certain things in my head but I definitely couldn’t write it down. I don’t have that real good ability to instantly play what I hear. But as far as like basic rhythms and things like that, I can imagine songs in my head.
When I first started, probably even before I even started playing the thing that really helped me was learning the lyrics to songs. This obviously only works with songs that have lyrics. It wasn’t something I thought about. I would listen to music when you used to buy CDs and then used to sit there and you’d listen to it and you would just read along and I’d just learn lyrics to songs that I really liked. What I’d do I would just run through my head. Smells Like Team Spirit was the big one. I’d already know the lyrics so I would sing these in my head and then instead of just doing bits and pieces and I would just try and do the whole song. Again, I’m only talking from my own experience. I don’t know how easy that is for other people or if it’s simple or if it’s really hard. This is something I did and used to do whenever I was bored.
Method Number Fourteen: Practice The Art Of Concentration
One time we went on this school trip. We were camping when I was 15, and I was really tired and just trying to put my mind somewhere else and I imagined the whole Never Mind album from start to finish. From Smells Like Team Spirit to Something in the Way. I played the whole thing in my head because I knew all the lyrics. I guess it’s just concentration. I used to do it with Jimmy Hendrix. I remember like Purple Haze. It is how I used to put myself to sleep. I would imagine the songs in my head. Once the lyrics kick in you kind of just imagine singing them out. I found that real invaluable. I think that was a real good skill that helped me a lot with learning structures of songs and I just think that was a really valuable thing to do.
As far as what we’re doing here, the notes on the fretboard. There is so much stuff in music that is rote memorization especially once you start getting into theory and stuff like that. Again, I’ve just learned so much of it through rote memorization. One thing, and it’s probably a divided line between guitarists. You don’t need to know the notes on the fretboard but I’m sure the virtuoso players probably beg to differ. I want to be able to play really well. I’ve tried to learn the notes on the fretboard and it’s hard.
Just like rote drilling and even doing things like playing the scales and trying to learn them through playing scales and stuff. I thought there must be some way to learn music with mnemonics. Like this kind of stuff. Again, just after meeting you and talking about it, it kind of fires up those things and you start thinking. I thought well if I can at least understand the fretboard.
A little backstory. If you are a musician you might understand that, pianists learn to sight read and the reason it’s good for pianists is because there’s only one way to play a note on a piano. You might get like E at different times on a keyboard, but they are different pitches. They vibrate slower. On a guitar you can have that same E like three times, that exact same pitch three times on the fretboard. So it’s like a more three-dimensional instrument.
Because of this, guitarists seem to be very visual and a lot of time it comes from playing patterns of these things. But, you can’t escape it. The guitar is a visual thing. What happens is you end up with all these different scales. On a piano, a scale has a certain sequence of notes to it but it’s that same kind of sequence: tone, tone, semitone, tone if you are playing the major scale.
Whereas guitar can work like that if you’re playing along one string. But once you start going across the fretboard, across the strings, it’s still if you’re playing the scale one note after the other, it’s still that, but if you’re playing three notes per string, every three notes your breaking that pattern and you have to have it on the next string. I kind of started with that before I got onto learning the notes.
I thought everything is based from learning the notes. I thought if I could learn the notes of the fretboard using mnemonics, the next thing would be, and I’ve already started thinking about it, I haven’t put anything to paper yet, the next thing would be learning the scales, the different three note per string scale patterns. Once you know them, if you know what I’m talking about, it is kind of like you can go up, down and across. Once you learn them. They all kind of fit into each other really nicely. I’ve kind of started on an idea for using that.
Then on top of that, I thought well if you can go there, then you can start learning the triads. Which is the next set of kind of like shapes that would sit on top of all of that. I think if you can do those three things using mnemonics, you would have a very good visual representation of the fretboard that you can imagine really well in your head instead of just being arbitrary dots on a fretboard.
My first thing was well the foundation would be learning the notes. It is going to be hard to learn all these other things if you don’t actually have the map of the fretboard and at the very basic the map is the notes of the fretboard. It really is just an extension of the Magnetic Memory Method. I’ve used one whole building. From the nut of the guitar to the 11th fret, so it is twelve different stations in this one big building.
If you can’t think of a big building, I think you could probably cut it after the 5th fret. You could go from the nut to 5 and then 6 to 11 you could probably have two palaces that could take up those parts and then if you really can’t find buildings that’re big enough for that, you’d probably be able to do it into fours. Like from the nut to the 2rd fret. From the 3th fret to the 4th fret. Kind of that.
But I basically chose one big building because it was big enough and I had a good enough memory of it. It was an old tavern we used to own, my family. For anyone, that doesn’t know the guitar, once you get to the 12th fret, it’s just the same. It’s the same as from the nut to the 11th fret. So I don’t really worry about that. All I’ve done is I’ve basically created twelve different stations inside this one palace and they represent each fret on a guitar.
So at the nut, I’ll just read it out. It’s the bottle store that is downstairs in this tavern. I’ve got the corner window by the spirits. The beer chiller, the shop counter, the front office and the wine area. I’ve got some kind of mnemonics in here that probably aren’t real appropriate for a podcast.
Anthony: You already forced me to put the explicit sign on this one.
John: I’ll try my best. This is at 5th fret. And my mnemonics are – this is the dining area next to the kitchen. I have the salad bar, the toilets, the window overlooking the car park, the table overlooking Caltex, and the cutlery station. What these are, at the salad bar that’s the bottom E string. So at the 5th fret at the bottom E string, at the toilets string five. The window looking at the car park is string four. The table is string three and the cutlery station is string two, and on a guitar the first string and the sixth string are the same. So I don’t bother putting a sixth micro station in there.
Anthony: Right.
John: By the salad bar I’ve Ace Ventura just dishing up some salad. So that’s A. By the toilets I’ve Donald Duck walking in. These are basic mnemonics because I’m not trying to remember any information in them. It’s just to represent a note. I’ve Ace Ventura. Then I’ve got Donald Duck. Then I’ve got Gandolf overlooking the car park. I’ve Captain America sitting at the table with his shield eating food. Then I’ve got Elvis Presley by the cutlery station getting some forks. So with that you’ve got A, D, G, C, E and then A again. So that’s all your notes at the 5th fret on the guitar.
Anthony: Just so it’s clear for people, Captain America is C because of Captain.
John: That’s pretty basic. The only thing with music is that you have what are called enharmonic notes. What that means is it’s like the alphabet you have A to G: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, but in between those notes you can go A, A sharp. However, A sharp can also be B flat. That one pitch can represent either an A sharp or a B flat, then C sharp/D flat, and then between E and F it just goes E, F. Then F sharp/G flat, G sharp/A flat, A sharp/B flat, B, C, C sharp/D flat.
For the enharmonic things, I have two people or two characters usually battling each other. One example is at the second string of the 2nd fret C sharp/D flat and my mnemonic there is I have Cat Woman for C but I don’t have the Penguin, I have Danny DeVito as the Penguin in Batman Returns, and it’s by a freezer. So it’s interacting with the freezer there. He’s basically taking fish out, slipped up on the fish and the Cat Woman is trying to scratch him so he’s D flat and she’s C sharp. She’s got the sharp claws. She is in the dominate position trying to scratch him who is the sub-dominate position. I don’t know. Because he’s going down.
I have others. Like for example I’ve got for A sharp/B flat I’ve got Axl Rose with a switchblade for A sharp trying to slash up Bret Michaels from Poison. So it’s A sharp/B flat.
Anthony: Okay. So on A string you have C sharp/D flat like at the 4th fret if I’m correct.
John: Yeah.
Anthony: On the A string. Do you use the same characters on the E string where that appears?
John: No, every single note has its own character. Like at the 4th fret, I haven’t drilled this so like it takes me a little bit to fully remember. But if I remember right, C sharp/D flat I’ve got Dave Navarro going down on Carmen Electra.
Anthony: Now I’m never going to forget that.
John: C sharp, so C Carman Electra. Dave Navarro going down, D flat.
Anthony: Oh, so you even incorporate that.
John: Yeah.
Anthony: Nice, nice. Well, you know, it might be explicit but it’s not entirely unpleasant. Actually I don’t know. We’ll have to ask Dave Navarro what he thinks about that. Now let me see, Dave Navarro was the guy from Jane’s Addiction. I was just thinking about that. I was looking here at my roommate.
John: He was in Chili Peppers
Anthony: He was in Chili Peppers. But not that album. It was –
John: One Hot Minute.
Anthony: One Hot Minute. Man that was good. I really like his guitar playing. Anyway, I’m not going to forget that very soon. But that’s it. Right? What do you think about this whole topic of, because it’s one thing that scares a lot people off is that I don’t want my head filled with sex and violence.
John: You’re already thinking about it anyway. I mean the world is full of it man. You put on the news. This is not real violence. So what, Axl Rose is switch blading up Bret Michaels. It’s not that violent. They probably do it in real life.
Anthony: Well yeah, if you watch their You Tube videos where they are snipping at each other. They’re definitely not kind in real life at all.
John: No. It’s not real violence and it’s not stuff you wish upon people. But it does help you remember stuff.
Anthony: So take it into practice. Let’s say that you manage to use mnemonics to accomplish all these three levels that you talked about, how do you think that that’s going to translate into playing ability in the short and long term?
John: It’s hard to really know at the moment. I know it’s really important to understand. Like I don’t really use notes so much. I don’t sit there going this A. If I’m coming up with a solo or even trying to improvise on something you have your go to patterns. It is really pattern based. You try and use your ear as much as possible.
My forte really is writing music. I can improvise somewhat over like backing and stuff and kind of like jam over stuff. But there’s so many layers involved. It’s like mnemonics aren’t probably the be all or end all. I think the best things mnemonics would work for when trying to memorize music would be trying to memorize the theory. Like if you’re trying to memorize all the key signatures and stuff like that. Obviously trying the memorize the notes on the fretboard.
I’ve still got to drill that. I basically have just written this out and haven’t really come back to it. But knowing the scales. In particular I’m talking about three-note per string scales. There is already the cage system which if you’re a guitarist you might know what that is. Playing pentatonic scales like in those box positions I kind of find it all right but for the kind of stuff that I like to do, that metal kind of lead playing, I like three-note per string a lot better because you can go across the neck and then across the strings.
Method Number Fifteen: Combine Acronyms With Imagery
It’s really hard to explain over just audio but they are like Lego pieces that really fit nicely together. I’ve already started thinking about mnemonics. With that stuff you’re just dealing with the diatonic system like you’re dealing with seven – well there’s six different patterns, two of them repeat. But you’re dealing with kind of like seven patterns that all lock together. For one pattern, people call them by the modes. They’ll call this one pattern maybe like the Phrygian mode where the one and the second note are like right next each other. You’ve got that flattend second while technically the context will define what mode it is, but as far as recognizing these patterns people will name them like Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, Locrian.
There’s another thing I’ve made a mnemonic for IDPLMAL. That was my mnemonic for remembering the order of the modes. So basically the Phrygian shape, know Phrygian is context not necessarily the shape. It’s not a shape at all but it’s a musical context, but that particular shape with the one before it, to me I’m kind of thinking the Phrygian one kind of looks like a snake. So I already know there’s going to be a snake for that pattern and then the one before that kind of like to me I imagine kind of like Bruce Lee doing a big kick like that with a straight leg. That big kind of flying kick. I kind of imagine him kicking the snake. That’s the first one I’ve only ever really thought about it.
The visualization thing is really important. If you’re memorizing pieces of music, you don’t necessarily need to know the scales you can really just go over where your fingers go. But if you’re trying to improvise then you really need to know these patterns and being able to connect your ear to them is even better. Being able to know and anticipate what is coming up.
I think if you can lay these scale patterns out and have a really good mental visualization in your head, you’re going to be able to go to them a lot quicker. Sure there’s different elements. You’re going to have to have good technique which is a physical thing that you have to practice. Mnemonics aren’t going to help there. But to be able to just go to these patterns really well through mnemonics it will be a lot better I think being able to remember mnemonics than just shapes.
Then on top of that the triads. I’ve always thought all the different versions and inversions of triads, I always thought that would be a really important thing to be able to visualize really well and even Joe Satriani even says it himself. He says a lot of people learn arpeggio shapes all over the guitar. He says it’s probably better to learn where all the three-note triads are because the arpeggios are all based around those anyway.
Anthony: Right.
John: And so I think application wise if you can have a real instant grasp. If you can say you’ve got the scales and you’ve got the arpeggios down, you can just instantly in your head memorize and visualize where you’ve got to go and what shape you’re playing, that’s when knowing the notes will come in because that’s when you go I’ve got to play an A minor arpeggio in second inversion here. That’s when you’ll probably be able to holistically use all those three things together.
But I mean this is not tested or anything. As I said, I’ve only started with the notes and the next things will follow. I feel confident with it. I’ve always thought those three things together as far as good fretboard visualization to have a fully rounded visual comprehension of the guitar I’ve always thought those three things together would be very important. They are something that you can definitely do with and make it easier with mnemonics. You’ve just got to sit down and do it.
Anthony: Well that’s really what it comes down to. It is sitting down and doing it. I really want to thank you for all your insights and sharing your experience because it’s fantastic. Also for just leaping on the microphone with me to record an episode of the podcast.
John: Interrupting the drum session.
Anthony: Is it cool with you we’ll end this episode with one of your songs?
John: Yeah.
Anthony: The one that I was learning with you. Is that cool?
Anthony: It’s brutal. Actually it’s kind of funny we ended up doing a different project because I don’t want to have to memorize this song because it is so intense and detailed.
John: It’s a lot to learn.
Anthony: Not because I didn’t want to learn it. Actually what I wanted is for you to just tab it out for me.
John: I will once I finish recording the songs, I will tab my music out.
Method Number Sixteen: Publicly Admit When You’re Just Being Lazy
Anthony: Yeah, that’s really what my laziness was. Also I’m a bit tone deaf. So when I have to try and learn by ear. If it’s in standard E I can do it okay. Are you in C sharp or B.
John: Well it’s a transposed instrument I guess because my guitar is tuned half a step down. So I’m a half step from standard tuning. But I’m playing in – so it would be A flat minor but it switches. This is where the modal stuff comes in. If you go a fifth up from A you get E. It switches between A minor and E Phrygian dominant which is basically the same scale. If you play the A harmonic minor where you hit the raised 7th, and E Phrygian dominate you’re using exactly the same notes. It’s exactly the same. It’s just instead of A being your home base E becomes your home base. When it cranks into the chorus that’s when it switches.
A minor becomes the key, the home base for the key then. So it sounds a bit different, but it’s really E flat and A flat because I’m tuned half a step down.
Anthony: Well any case, down tuned makes it more of a challenge for my ear to pick out the differences. I always had that problem with The Outside. I was like come on, just tab it for me.
John: I will tab them. Once I finish. All my songs are written and I’ve got to re-record the guitars and do some work on the bass and then do the final mixing and kind of mastering of it. And then I’ll have them for my website. I’ll probably sort out something final for that. I’m still contemplating whether to charge or not. If I do it won’t be much. It took a lot of effort to do them but I kind of want to cross-pollinate with the Fretfury Guitar Tuition thing. Kind of like niche myself in that whole guitar tuition thing. Kind of niched in that hard rock metal kind of genre and then the music is the credibility to get people in and then I can kind of do all the other teaching based around that and so I will tab the songs out because I want to be able to put them on You Tube; my video is teaching people how to play my stuff. Then who knows. If they want to learn more then there might be some kind of membership deal. The idea is that I’d give all those songs away. Not the fully finished recorded songs, but backing tracks and have all the tabs and have all the stuff there and then the videos on You Tube so people can actually learn how to play all those things. That is the ultimate goal. They will be tabbed.
Anthony: I’m really looking forward to that on multiple levels. What’s your website? I’ll link to it.
John: I’ve got another one. But there’s nothing really on it just yet.
Anthony: And you also have videos that walk people through some of your production techniques.
John: Yeah, First In Charge are some basic videos of just how I did the drums. How I did the bass. It’s all home recording and with technology these days you can get pretty good results from doing it. I just wanted to show that you can do it on a real tight budget. Everything is done on the cheap but at the moment I’m pretty happy with the results. I still have to re-record guitars but other than that, just very brief overviews. I don’t go in depth how to program drums because then you have got to learn how to play drums a little bit to understand the concept behind them. But just a walkthrough of the drums, bass guitars and vocals at the moment.
Anthony: Well it might be homemade but when I first heard it, it just sounds like totally in a studio so we’re gonna roll Objective Decimation. For everybody out there, and even you don’t like metal listen to it anyway because you’re about hear some super talented from John McPhedran and so thanks again for being on the show. Listen to this episode a couple times. Because this is just action packed with all kinds of stuff that you can get using no matter what language you’re listening to or what instrument you’re playing and tell us how that you did and until next time, keep magnetic.
How I Memorized German Phrases Every Day For A Year
Guest post by Richard Gilzean
Note: What follows is a deconstruction of the steps I took (and continue to take) to improve my German. But rest assured, these same steps will work for memorizing phrases in any language.
Sound good?
Regardless of whether you’ve been learning a second or third language for a while, or just starting out, this approach to memorizing foreign languages will help you.
In the beginning was the Word SENTENCE.
You might be wondering: Why learn German phrases and not just individual words?
Good question. The answer is that we all read, write, listen and speak in sentences, or fragments thereof. The sentence is at the core of any language and learning to master the sentence should be considered. Even the most basic language guide book for travelers teach simple German phrases that follow syntax.
Don’t get me wrong. Words are beautiful in their own right. We all should invest in the time to learn what a word means and how to best use it. And this is achieved by working those words into sentences as you work on your bilingualism.
How I Built My “Internal GPS” (And You Can Too)
Before launching into memorizing my first German phrase, I designed the Memory Palace system that would store them. I’ve been interested in the art and craft of memory training and self-improvement for a couple of years. But I only really started to study it closely after coming across Anthony’s book How to Learn and Memorize German Vocabulary which, in turn, led me to the Magnetic Memory Method website.
Anthony’s approach to teaching anyone how to learn, memorize and recall vocabulary, names, mathematical formulas and pretty much anything that can be memorized is both well-structured and comprehensive. So I’ll just highlight the essential components as they relate to learning languages and all of you who have been following Anthony’s site will be familiar.
Have a store of real locations to house your sentences.
Imagine real concrete / tangible objects or people that are creative, vivid, colorful and zany. Therefore, not just an elephant, but a pink pygmy elephant with Dumbo-like ears and with a runny trunk.
Schedule time for practice so the sentence can work its way into your long-term memory.
You’ll need to draw from your own personal memory bank a real location in which to store your sentences. It can be a place you know well, like the house you live in, or the place where you grew up that holds its own strong memories. It can be a route you follow regularly, such as a park or your daily commute from home to work.
With a little practice you can come up with more than enough Memory Palaces. While there are some general guidelines about how to make your Memory Palace effective, there is a lot of divergent opinion on how to make best use of your own Memory Palaces because no two thought processes are alike.
Because I knew I would need a large location to hold my expanding sentences, I chose a route that ran from the front door of my house, along the street, through a local park and over to my son’s local primary school – some 400 meters in total.
From AA to ZZ: Where I Keep My Memorized German Phrases
But before you set off on your journey, you’ll need to figure out your memory anchors. Think of the process like mental orienteering where you go for a jog in your mind along a set trail and arrive at control points along the way.
To help, I created an excel spreadsheet with an index of initials for names of famous people, friends and cartoon characters, running all the way from AA to ZZ. This process took a little time to work through and I made some compromises along the way. In particular, I left out the letters Q – X – Y (just too hard to come up with names).
I ended up with a list of 600 names running from Andre Agassi to the bearded rockers from the band ZZ Top. Six hundred names means, in theory, I am able to memorize at least 600 foreign language sentences.
Running alongside my list of names I also have a separate list of 100 what I refer to as my memory tag words. These words use the well-established mnemonic Major Method which is a technique used to aid in memorizing numbers and has been used in memorize shopping lists, the sequence of a shuffled pack of card and memory competitions. The Major Method works by converting numbers into consonant sounds, then into words by adding vowels.
How To Choose Which Phrases To Memorize
Armed with my list of 600 names and 100 Major System tag words, I now have the memory anchors in place to hold my German sentences. I also have the memory route from my house to my son’s primary school. There is a smorgasbord of foreign language sites out there to choose from, but the question is, which phrases should I memorize in order to get the best results for building fluency in German.
I subscribe to the German Flashcards section of a website run by Learn With Oliver for collecting many German phrases. It contains an easy to navigate database of material to assist you in learning several of the most common languages.
The site produces a daily e-letter with a word and phrase of the day, an audio recording of the text plus a whole bunch of other useful resource material. From this site I have taken almost all of my German phrases.
Once I have material to work with, my approach is to review the phrases I want to memorize and make sure that I am comfortable with the grammar and etymology. I then copy the sentences and the English translation into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is made up of the following columns:
Initials running from AA to ZZ
The English sentence
The German sentence
My mnemonic interpretation (this is explained below)
The full names of my AA – ZZ group
My 100 tag words
Here’s an example:
Here’s how I’ve adapted my practice from memorizing single words to whole German phrases.
As you can see, I’ve front-loaded three of the components into the sentence. They include the initials of a well-known/memorable name (Michelle Obama), the English translation (no problem) and the tag word (hail).
By splicing these three components into the sentence I’ve built an imaginative cross reference for whenever I need to recall the German phrase “Keine Ursache!” the rest of this mnemonic interpretation follows some established mnemonic guidelines.
German sayings like this are powerful to have in memory – just make sure to also include funny German phrases as you learn the language.
Personally, however, I suggest avoid learning German insults – you might wind up blurting them out at inopportune moments! If you’re stuck on finding any material to learn and memorize at all, one tip for finding good German phrases is to search Google for “German phrases PDF.”
Carrying on: For the word “keine” I thought of Keyser Soze, who some of you may recall as the evil dude Kevin Spacey played in the film “The Usual Suspects”.
For the word “Ursache” I broke it down into two images, one for “UR” and one for “SACHE” and came up with Keith URban (well-known country singer) + SACK.
I then imagined Keyser (rhyming with kaiser and which just happens to be a German vocabulary word) shoving URban into a SACK. Don’t forget to take the time to imagine this scenario with crazy, vivid, memorable images. Gimpy-legged Keyser shoving guitar-wielding URban into a big smelly potato SACK works for me.
If You Can Imagine A Castle, You Can Use Memory Techniques To Boost Your German Fluency
Let’s take these ideas and incorporate them into a more challenging sentence. Is it worth visiting this castle? = Lohnt es sich diese Burg zu besuchen? Jacques Tati is king of a CASTLE in a MoVie starring Lindsay LOHAN playing the role of ESther who is throwing up SICK over DIESEL (a musician I know) after eating a BURGer served by ZUlu armed with a BAZOOKa.
In this case I’m using some mnemonic shorthand. Again, I’ve loaded three of the components at the front of the sentence Jacque Tati / Castle / Movie. Jacque Tati (famous French film actor and director) is my famous name and CASTLE is a single image I want to use represent the entire sentence. It’s a concrete image that is easy to visualize. (Is there anyone who can’t imagine a castle?)
The third component is the word “MOVIE” which is number 38 in my 100 memory tags. For the rest of the exercise you should be able to make the connection between my sentence and the similar sounding words in the German phrase.
How To Make The Most From Mnemonic Shorthand
Regardless of whatever foreign language you want to master, you’ll soon figure out the high frequency words and syllables and will want settle on some shorthand images to help you form your mnemonic sentences.
For example, I’ve settled on the following shorthand for these common German words:
es = it. For this word I use an image of a family member whose name is Esther.
ich = I. Here I just imagine “ItCHy”, the mouse from The Simpson’s cartoons.
der = multiple meanings including:
the (masculine definite article)
(definite article for genitive and dative singular feminine and genitive plural)
who
which
that one, this one
I found some mnemonic shorthand harder to imagine than others. In what is probably an understatement, the German language has many words with the prefix ‘ge’. After much trial and error, I settled on an image of GoethE as my go-to guy for the ‘ge’ words.
But if GoethE doesn’t make sense to your imagination and you encounter an issue Anthony talked about in his Remember Names At Events podcast,
you might think that Agent Maxwell Smart from the GEt Smart television series works better for you. Or perhaps someone more contemporary comes to mind.
The important thing is that you learn to link figures with information so that you can recall it at will. This skill comes in handy in many ways, particularly when trying to memorize German genders. For example, in all instances of “der” I use an 80’s television character DERrick from the popular German detective series.
How To Get Ikea To Optimize Your Memory Palace
Now, you may be thinking: Do I really need to be able to recall all of my mnemonic sentences? Answer: No. I’ve found that once a schedule of recall practice is established you’ll be able to rely on the processing power of your mind to summon the sentence.
The next problem I had to solve concerned mental real estate. I now had in place my daily practice of learning and memorizing new German phrases and placing them along my chosen route. But I eventually realized I was running out of stations along my route and I wanted to get more benefit out of the site of this Memory Palace.
My solution was to use a system of alphabetical modular shelving – think Ikea wall units – in which to place my mnemonic imagery.
So when it came time to assign German phrases to my prepared list of EA to EZ letters, instead of using up 23 separate places (remember letters Q, X and Y are out) along the route, I imagined a rather large E-shaped white Ikea wall unit with 23 compartments at the next station along the path.
And in each compartment I would place my mnemonic interpretation of whatever German sentence I was learning that day. Kind of like the dioramas I used to help my son make for his school projects.
Forging The Memory Chain Using Recall And Difference
The main advantage I’ve found with using what I call my double-bind memory link strategy (i.e. initials plus memory tag words) is that if I happen to forget one when practicing my recall I can usually rely on the other one to help me out. Take up this practice and you’ll see quick results too.
Memory Palaces do not have to be photographic / perfect representations – they just need to be consistent with how you recall them in your mind. Once I’ve memorized a batch of 23 sentences to the point where I can mentally recall the sentences forwards, backwards and in some random order, I use a simple spaced repetition system that involves setting a date in my Google calendar with a title like – “LA – LZ 1 week”.
I then mentally run through my recall, check my responses on the spreadsheet and, if I get them correct, will reset the next recall for two weeks, followed by 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months. If I’m not happy with my recall practice I’ll review the mnemonic sentence I’ve constructed and practice again a few days later.
I recommend you rehearse your phrases out loud because you need to hear the sounds your voice makes. Make a practice of writing them out by hand as a way of reinforcing the learning. For extra bonus points you might like to record the sentences and listen to them when you’re out and about.
That pretty well sums up what I’ve achieved in a short period of time. This method takes the key features found on Magnetic Memory Method site and tweaks them to get the best value out of your Memory Palace. Try creating warehouses in your own Memory Palaces using the alphabetical system outlined. My German phrases continues to swell and grow. So far I’ve gone from Andre Agassi to Van Halen. That’s about 500 sentences.
Sprechen, Lesen, Schreiben und Hōren (Speak, Read, Write & Listen)
As I mentioned at the start of this post we all write, listen, read and speak in sentences and German phrases. Learning to speak and understand any foreign language with fluency requires application to all four components in equal measure. The method of memorizing sentences I’ve described ticks all four boxes.
Of course, you’ll need to get out there and road test your German phrases (or those in the language you’re studying) in real world situations to become comfortable with your newly acquired knowledge. All good language learners say so, including polyglot Luca Lampariello when he describes language as a kind of net.
If you’ve found this training on memorizing German phrases helpful, or you’d like some clarification on the points, please contact me at richard@richardgilzean.com.
Viel Gluck!
Richard Gilzean is a writer and blogger specialising in creating content for small business owners, entrepreneurs and corporate clients. He has thirty years of writing, research and training experience in corporate and government sectors. Whether you want to create great content to boost traffic to your website or you’re looking for a professional writer who can tell your story in your voice, Richard can help. Check out his freelance writing website here.
Wish you could remember names? I know I’ve often wished that memorizing names was easier (it is). After all …
Forgetting names sucks, especially at events where you’re meeting important new contacts. Business cards are fine and dandy, but you want to be looking that new person in the eyes and connecting, not constantly peeking at the sweaty lump of cardboard stuck to your palm.
Instead, you want to hold each person’s name with the certainty that can only come from mastering your memory.
Or You Can Keep Living The Nightmare
You know the one. You hear a name and then just a few seconds later … it’s gone.
The good news is, it’s not your fault. There’s a reason your brain doesn’t grasp onto names and hold onto them like treasure. (Yes, treasure. Every name is as valuable as a rare coin.)
The better news is that, even if it isn’t your fault that you can’t remember names, you can eliminate the problem. With practice, you can remember the names of as many people as you want. Even if you make a mistake from time to time, even slip-ups can become powerful assets.
3 Key Reasons We All Forget Names (Including Memory Champions)
You can help yourself stop forgetting names by understanding why it happens.
First, names are abstract. Unless you’re a philologist, most names will hold zero meaning for you. Though there are some ways that the meaning of names can be manufactured to help your memory.
Despite the fact that names are often abstract, however, get this:
As Lynne Kelly demonstrates in The Memory Code, memorizing even the most abstract names is a skill that has helped the human species survive for thousands of years. We wouldn’t be here without memory skills.
Second, when we meet people, we might hear names, but we’re not paying attention. We’re either dazzled by their good looks or horrified by the food dangling off their faces. Worse, we’re thinking about what we’re going to say next. Our concentration is directed inward instead of outward.
Finally, we’re bombarded by stimuli. The room is filled with noises, we may be drinking alcohol, suffering jet-lag. or moving around the meeting space. All of these elements distract us.
You know how you sometimes go into the kitchen from the living room and then forget why you’re in the kitchen? This problem happens because the instant you leave the living room, the movement and change of locations floods all of your senses. Your intention isn’t so much forgotten as it is suddenly pushed out to sea like a message in a bottle.
The same thing happens when you’re introduced to a person. You hear the name, but then you ask where they’re from and what they do. In combination with all the activity in the room, it’s the same effect. Waves of information push that bottle out to the margins of your mind and the new name you just learned falls out your ear.
The Super-Simple Mechanics Of Memorizing Names
Let me tell you a story.
A few weeks ago, my friend Max Breckbill of Starting From Zero held one of his great entrepreneur dinners in Berlin. A bunch of people get together to network and just chill out in a relaxed restaurant. His dinners are amazing.
Max always begins the evening with a round of introductions. As each person said their name, I created a crazy image to help me recall their names. For example, there was a guy named Lars, so I saw Lars from Metallica playing drums on his head.
For Lukas, I saw Luke Skywalker using his Light Sabre to carve an S onto Lukas’s chest so I would remember it was Lukas with an S instead of Luke as in Skywalker.
A bit later, I saw a guy named Jeremy in a fistfight with Eddie Vedder with the Pearl Jam song of the same name playing on the soundtrack.
There were 20 other names and in a very short period, I created a wildly explosive image for each. I did not connect the names in any particular way with a story, however.
For me, the linking method would not be helpful because Max rotates the tables. Plus, at many events, you won’t see people in the same place twice. The constant shifting means that each individual needs their own vignette, a mini-story that requires no connection with any other name.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t use the building as a Memory Palace and store that image with the location of the person when you first encountered them. You most certainly should.
What you don’t want to do is be looking at a person and trying to see where their imagery fits in with Mickey Mouse time bombs as Taylor Swift razors through Wolverine’s dandelion claws in a showdown. You just want one clear and distinct vignette per person that can travel with them wherever they go.
And this is important: These vignettes must be INSANE. The good news is, it’s easy make images that really pop in your memory. Just …
Make Them Brighter Than The Sun And More Colorful Than The Joker
When I saw Lars, it wasn’t just a humdrum image I thought about. The Metallica drummer was exploding with light and color, almost like a neon sign wrapped around a disco ball.
Keep in mind that I “thought” about this, which is quite different than seeing. It’s not like memory wizards have HD television in their minds.
You can develop visually so that you do see things better in your imagination, but you don’t strictly need to be a visual person. You can get started with nothing more than verbal associations. And then ask yourself, “what would this look like if I COULD see it?” Often a simple question like that will move you toward the ability to see in your mind.
Next …
Use Explosive Sounds, Epic Sizes And Ripsnortin’ Physical Force
When I saw Luke Skywalker carving an S into Lukas’s chest, I felt the burn and imagined how it must smell so vividly that I almost felt like puking. I even imagined that I could see the smoking embers on his shirt from the searing motion of the Light Sabre.
When I saw Jeremy fist-fighting Eddy Vedder, it wasn’t music-video sized Vedder the way I’ve seen him on YouTube. Vedder was massive and his fists pounded down with enormous force. Plus, the song Jeremy was blasting at top volume, as if screamed by Vedder with volcanic energy.
Again, this happens both in words and visuals with as many other sensations involved as possible. The images feed the verbal descriptions and the words going through my mind amp up the sensations so that everything is tangible, memorable and downright Magnetic.
How long should this creative process take? With practice, mere seconds. You’ll be surprised by how quickly you can pick up this skill and do it at a very high level. I’ve seen teenagers learn the skill in under an hour and win competitions on the same afternoon.
How To Practice Memorizing Names
Since the stakes are high when it comes to memorizing names at events, try practicing at home before taking your new skill out in the field. It’s easy: use Wikipedia to get a list of names and use the tools you’ve just learned. You’ll also want to use the Memory Palace technique that you can pick up from my Free Memory Improvement Kit.
Instead, choose names that you would like to have memorized. These names for memory exercise might include:
Composers
Scientists
Poets
Other names that will make a difference to your quality of life either professionally or in connection with a hobby or personal interest.
One of the biggest failings with learning memory techniques is that people practice with uninteresting material like shopping lists – information that they’ll never really use. (Sheesh, who can’t remember what they like to eat?)
No matter what kind of names you choose to practice with …
Start Small!
Although you will soon be capable of memorizing dozens of names at rapid speeds, don’t overwhelm yourself at the learning stage. Start with 5-10 names. Developing the ability to learn, memorize and recall names isn’t a competition. Your goal is to learn the technique so you can master it, not frustrate yourself into giving up a skill that amounts to real magic. Memorizing names is, arguably, the most important skill in the world because of how important it makes other people feel.
Once you’ve associated crazy images to each name, go through the list a couple of times and make sure you’ve really exaggerated each.
Next, remove yourself from the list. Take a notebook and head off to a cafe or at least to another room. A lot of people make the mistake of recalling a word and then checking right away to see how they’ve done. Unfortunately, this bad habit amounts to rote learning and will not serve you in the long run. You need delayed gratification so that you’re really exercising your imagination and memory.
As you sit in that cafe, write down each and every name you associated an image with. If you come up blank, place a question mark and move on. Give yourself space and really hunt for the images. Then, as you head home, go over the list and fill in any blanks you manage to excavate.
Test Test Test, Rinse And Repeat … And Then Test Some More
You don’t have to give yourself a score when you get home, but do take careful note of where you made mistakes. Analyze what went wrong and work on making the associative-images that didn’t help you recall a name stronger.
Repeat this practice until you’re confident that you can memorize names at an event. Once you’re out in the world, don’t feel like you have to give demonstrations or show off. This skill can be private, though you will find people noticing your talent and you should teach them how to do it. They’ll thank you forever.
More Hot Tips For Memorizing Names At EventsWithout Stress, Strain Or Embarrassment
If you’re at an event featuring a round of introductions, try to be the one who goes last so you don’t spend the entire time worrying that your introduction could have been better.
Plus, if you go last, people will remember you better thanks to the recency effect. If there isn’t a circle introduction at the event, you can be the one who suggests it. This strategy is an excellent way to engineer your position.
Regardless of when you go, have an elevator speech prepared so that your mind isn’t clogged up. If you’re dreaming up your introduction on the fly, you won’t be focused enough on memorizing the names.
Always Be Cool
Relaxation is essential when memorizing any kind if information, especially in real time. Daily habits like meditation and fitness help a great deal.
You can also deliberately manufacture comfort using invisible techniques at the event such as Pendulum Breathing and Progressive Muscle Relaxation. No one will know you’re doing anything and you’ll be as relaxed as a sleeping YouTube kitten. Nothing will rattle your cage.
Don’t Drink Or Smoke
If you want to have a strong memory that works on command, cut out alcohol and stop smoking. I used to get away with it when doing memory demonstrations, but alcohol seriously messes with your working memory and nicotine withdrawal makes concentration difficult if not impossible. Better never to have smoked at all.
Let Go Of The Outcome
Wanting to succeed trips a lot of beginners up. But when you put all thoughts of success out of your mind, your memory is free to percolate the images you feed it.
Plus, you can play with the names in high spirits. Since you’ll want to go through the names a few times throughout the evening to massage them from working memory into long-term memory, you want the entire process to be fun.
But if you’re racing through the list motivated by the fear of making a mistake, you’ll only damage the results.
Speaking of mistakes …
Don’t Get Stressed When You Flub
I struggled with a few names at Max’s event and it’s all Brian Dean’s fault. Seriously, I needed to go through the list of names at least once to ensure I could remember them all, but he kept asking me all these questions about memory.
Brian Dean is the guy behind backlinko, which is a site you need to check out if you run a website or blog.
But it really isn’t his fault that I wound up reaching hard for a couple of names. As I explained to Brian while we were talking, there’s a reason I struggled:
Because I had my fat lips motoring away instead of going over the names a few times, I was not working against the forgetting curve. I predicted that I would lose 40-60% of my potential for total recall every ten minutes that passed without making a quick pass over the names.
It turns out my numbers were off, though. That’s thanks to these 4 easy ways to learn faster and remember more. I only struggled with 2 of the names later, but didn’t entirely forget them as I’d predicted I might. With a bit of a push, the images popped up and I was able to retrieve them. Annoying, but passable.
However, there was one name I got completely wrong, but in that’s only because I misheard it. (Remind me to one day tell you the story of Jonathan Levi and his experience mistakenly understanding that someone’s name was “Laura.” That mishap made for quite an evening here in Berlin!)
Anyhow, the point is that despite my dark prediction of failure while speaking with Brian, I had consciously released the outcome. Yes, everyone in the room knew that I was a memory guy, and that created some high expectations (if only in my head), but mistakes are an opportunity to talk about how memory works. And in many ways, mistakes make for better illustrations of how and why the techniques work or fail to work.
Avoid Mystifying Abstractions
For example, “Pascal” was one of the names I struggled with. Because things were going fast, I picked an ineffective image for him. The philosopher Pascal had famously turned from atheism to religion, so I saw an image of God halfway putting a noose over his head and halfway slitting his throat.
Although I did get this name back eventually, it took a fight for a few reasons. First, I don’t know how Pascal the philosopher looked and I’ve never seen God. In retrospect, I could have used Michaelangelo’s God from the Sistine Chapel, but that still doesn’t exactly help get back to “Pascal” at speed.
Second, I tried to see two actions instead of just one. And neither hanging nor throat-slitting have any direct relationship to atheism. I created so many vague elements that I could barely remember the hurdles I’d placed between myself and the target information.
But I didn’t let myself get stressed out about it. I simply noticed the outcome and knew I would use it as a talking point and teaching tool if called upon to give a memory demonstration. I have given demonstrations, I have made errors and I have won respect simply by keeping my cool and sharing what went wrong.
You can too, so I recommend you follow the Always Be Cool principle while taking time to analyze your mistakes and thinking about how you can do better next time. And share the process so that others can learn too.
You Don’t Have To Remember Names In Order Every Time
Let’s say that you’re called upon to give a demonstration and you can’t recall a couple of names. Instead of giving up or getting frustrated, just move on, the same way you would in practice.
As you’re finishing the other names, you’ll often be pleasantly surprised at how the ones you forgot suddenly spring back. And if not, you wind up with an opportunity to explain what went wrong and demonstrate troubleshooting on the fly.
Whatever you do, don’t let yourself get frustrated. You don’t want to blow your momentum over what amounts to nothing in the long run. Always be cool and your memory will serve you well.
Prepare To Be Admired
People will be super-impressed, especially if you’re humble and can handle any mistakes gracefully.
By the same token …
Prepare To Be Forgotten
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run into someone and called them by name. They’re always shocked and amazed that I remember them.
But more often than not, they can’t do the same. This lapse in their memory can create an awkward moment, but don’t let it. Just make a joke or otherwise blow it off and offer to teach them the skill. You’ll be able to use their name as an example and personalized teaching is often the best.
And assuming you get yourself a list of names and get practicing, you now have a skill that will serve you for a life. You never have to be at an event in a sea of strangers again. When you can remember names, you will always be surrounded by friends.
How about that dumpy feeling that comes when winter takes hold? Not the greatest of friends, is it?
But just stop and ask yourself …
What If Suffering Like This Could Be Reduced Or Eliminated?
In my brief experience with an amazing new invention, I believe that it can. It’s called Human Charger and this is my story using it.
As a Canadian currently living in Germany, I’ve spent more than a few days in the miserable dark. Winter temperatures rarely stand a chance, but gray days take a lot out of me, especially since I have Bipolar Disorder.
But no matter where a person lives or what conditions they might face, there are solutions to the winter blahs.
And if you’re a frequent flyer, the very same solution applies to jet lag too. All you need is light.
As always, the science is divided. In general, light is essential to the creation of Vitamin D, though it’s not entirely clear that Vitamin D plays the role we think it does. Nonetheless, light definitely affects mood and energy. And since it takes a feeling of well-being to tolerate long, dark winters, arguably, more exposure to light will ease that burden.
The 3 Best Ways To Get More Healing Light
I’ve tried a number of ways to get more sun during the winter in Berlin.
Travel is the simplest: Pick a sunny place and go. Travel is great because you not only get more light, but you can challenge your mind by learning a language and enjoying the culture. In addition to getting more “happy rays,” here are another 15 Reasons Why Learning A Foreign Language Is Good For Your Brain.
Definitely chase the sun if you can. I’ve enjoyed warmer temperatures, boosts in fluency and warm sun in places like Greece, Spain and most recently in China where I shot a video course and did some research on the great mnemonist Matteo Ricci.
While at home, my trainer Lars Rosenbaum at Ignite Fit recommended one 15-minute session per week in what he called the “assi-toaster.” That’s a Denglish (German/English) word that combines asocial with toaster to joke about the anti-social activity of laying in a tanning bed.
I’ve found that he’s right. That small blast of light once a week helps keep the blues away. It’s not enough to create much of a tan, but a sufficient amount for creating the desired effect.
Just Like Storing The Sun In Your Pocket?
Even before the package arrived, I was skeptical. After all, the idea of shooting light into your ears sounds a bit fantastical. I also worried about burning holes in my eardrum or developing tinnitus.
Not only that, but I had no upcoming trips with flights long enough to merit trying the Human Charger. So I let one of the most miraculous technologies I would ever use just sit there.
Then Jari got in touch to ask if I’d given the Human Charger a try. I told him that I had no reason to do so but might the following year. He suggested giving it a try, citing its use for dealing with Seasonal Effective Disorder (SAD). My interest peaked and so I finally opened the package and gave it a try.
It’s simple to use. About the size of an iPod, it comes with two earbuds that you pop into your ears before switching it on. It makes a beep and soon after you feel warmth inside your head.
Eureka … It Works!
After the session, I immediately felt different. I felt better. And of course I figured it was probably a placebo. Nonetheless, I stuck with the device and still use it every day during my meditation sessions.
The device is set at 100% power when you get it for a 12 minute session. That felt too much for me so I reduced it to 75% for 9 minutes.
The 9 minutes matches almost exactly how long I like to meditate and gives my meditations a frame without having to set an alarm. It’s also pleasant to meditate with the warmth in my head, something definitely worth experiencing.
I also enjoy using Humancharger when completing The Freedom Journal, which is another great Memory Improvement Tool.
Imagine Flying Halfway Around The World Without A Shred Of Jet Lag
For me, the real test would be an international flight. So when I finally went to China, I followed the instructions precisely and flew with anticipation of a jet lag free experience.
To my pleasant surprise, I got it. More precisely, I felt like my body wanted to go into jet lag, but it couldn’t. There was just a whisper of that holiday-destroying condition that didn’t disrupt a thing.
I wasn’t the only one surprised either. People kept asking me why I was so chipper, which gave me the opportunity to share the good news about the Human Charger.
Like others, I too felt skeptical.
Nonetheless, both during and after my visit to China, the post-flight experiences created amazement in myself and others as I strutted around with my usual impenetrable energy.
The Best Meditation Hardware On The Market
With respect to overall well-being, the best part of using the Human Charger apart from solving jet lag is the experience of using it during meditation. Many people use apps to help keep them focused as they practice and I’ve certainly tested my share.
At the same time, I’ve always felt that using sound-based apps weakens the mental effects one is trying to create. After all, shouldn’t we work to meditate unassisted by anything? Isn’t that where the real power of creating concentration at will lies?
I still think so, but the Human Charger is different because it’s not software. It enables light to reach a place inside your body light normally doesn’t get to go. There are no sounds, no fantastic strobe effects, nothing more than a steady blast of exposure as if your ears had opened up and let the sun in.
The reason the Human Charger adds so much to meditation is not only that the device adds a time frame to the experience.
It also creates a physical sensation that you can focus on. I find kinesthetics more beneficial than sound during a meditation because touch is always happening anyway. Your body touches the floor and itself. You can create physical effects with your breath and the temperature can be noted and focused upon.
Warmth in the ears then becomes another tool of physical immersion that further cements you in the moment. Computer-generated sounds, on the other hand, usually have a transportive effect, immersing you in the technology rather than the world as it is unfolding around you.
Yes, you can argue that the technology is part if the unfolding world around you – but you know what I mean! …
But … Does It Help With Memory?
That’s obviously the most important question, right? We’re here for astonishing memory tricks, after all.
The answer is simple:
Any time you can remove suffering from the equation, you help your memory. Simply having the ability to pay attention better already gives you an advantage. And when using mnemonics, having a clear head and energy makes the entire process much easier.
Along with meditation, the Human Charger is a Light Saber that cuts through the darkness and gives your imagination a boost so that you can better learn, memorize and recall anything. Check out the Human Charger for yourself today.
About This Episode Of The Podcast
When you download this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll hear an interview with one of the Human Charger’s founders, Timo Ahopelto of Lifeline Ventures.
Timo has worked in several industries, ranging from biotech to apps, digital media and process technology. He earned his entrepreneur MBA from CRF Health, a software and services company that he co-founded, developed into a global market leader and successfully exited in 2015. Timo spends his free time with family, ice hockey, iron and in Lapland skiing-hikes.
Timo is also an author. He published his first book in 2013 (in Finnish). The books is called “Sand Hill Road” and is an action-packed report based loosely on the true story of two Finnish entrepreneurs who moved to Silicon Valley to make their mark.
My favorite parts of the interview involve our discussion about Zen Robotics, the fact that jet lag is not classified as a disease in the US and the ways that startups now have the ability to give medical technology to regular people instead of locking it up in medical buildings.
Be sure to look up Timo on Twitter and let him know what you think about his work in technology and medicine!
You know all about the dangers of smoking, right? Bronchitis, emphysema, vascular disease … Heck, the Demon Nicotine has even been linked to cancer.
But did you know that smoking also poses risks to your intelligence and memory? Some experts disagree, but common sense in combination with evidence tells us that …
Smoking Murders Your Memory!
Never fear. If this post doesn’t spook smokers out of lighting up ever again (it probably won’t), it’ll at least educate them. Plus, I’ll give you some ideas for how to quit with minimum suffering in record time. If you’re not a smoker yourself, you can at least pass the tactics on.
But if you’re one of those who prefer cocktails of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen cyanide, abandon this post right away because it’s basically a rant from a guy who cares for both you as a person AND for your mental abilities. So buckle up if you’re going to stick around, because here comes some tough love from your friendly neighborhood Warrior of the Mind.
A Brief History Of The World’s Stupidest And Stinkiest Habit
There may be earlier accounts, but history tells us that Columbus witnessed Native Americans huffing and puffing on rolled dried leaves starting in 1492. They “drank the smoke” as he put it.
Later, ships brought some of those Natives with them to Europe, leading to tobacco seeds being left at each and every port of call. The Dutch brought tobacco home from the Hottentots, the Portuguese introduced it to the Polynesians and people soon planted nicotine anywhere and everywhere it would grow.
Even Kings Failed To Stop The Spread Of Smoking Across Their Kingdoms
We often think of royalty from the 1600s as slovenly pigs stuffing their faces with mutton and mead, but not King James. When he wasn’t busy developing the Bible, he was writing hate mail to smokers. Check out this rant in which he says smoking is …
“… A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian of the pit that is bottomless.”
King James wrote those words in 1604, but his rage was nothing compared to the Russian czar who banned smoking and said that “offenders will be sentenced to slitting of nostrils.”
Ouch!
Nonetheless, demand exceeded supply all over Europe, and tobacco prices soared. As a result, some people got mighty wealthy.
How Smoking Formed A Global Superpower … Almost Overnight!
By the 17th Century, smokers had become aware of nicotine’s addictive powers. But it was already too late, and, much worse, tobacco had become central to the development of an emerging economic and political powerhouse.
For example, the tobacco industry bolstered the success of the Virginia Settlement. Farming the plant became the backbone of slavery and the southern plantation practices overall. The weed stood behind the Louisiana Purchase and is still considered America’s oldest industry (not to be mistaken with prostitution, which belongs to the entire world).
By the 1930s, smoking had entered the world of advertising. Printed images of sexy women and dapper men enticed people around the world, not to mention Hollywood movies, which were entering the era of sound. Now you could even hear the sounds of beloved celebrities puffing their way into early graves.
If You Think Trump Is An Idiot, Get A Load Of This
Some people admire Theodore Roosevelt and perhaps for good reason. But he’s the same dude who classified tobacco as an essential crop and had the stuff shipped overseas to America’s servicemen. Thanks to him, they could get their limbs blown off and memory-destroying pulmonary diseases too.
Not only that, but in 1945 alone over 267 BILLION cigarettes were sold domestically in the US. The military draft legislation was changed so that enough people could stay home to work on the tobacco farms to supply the domestic and overseas markets.
Science Fails To Come To The Rescue
Although people had long been aware of tobacco’s addictive properties, medical research didn’t pick up the issue in earnest until the 1940s. But it wouldn’t be until 1957 that a Public Health Service report called for sales restrictions, health warnings and advertising regulations.
Those not afraid to speak out against smoking gained some traction, but the tobacco industry retaliated by introducing filtered cigarettes to allay the fears of current and future smokers. Congress continued to favor the industry and to this day, celebrities romanticize the disgusting habit by either smoking themselves or pretending too. (Some actors even pick up the habit after playing the role of smokers!)
Smoking Destroys Your Body And Mind At The Same Time
Despite different conclusions, most studies link smoking to diseases that involve the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. Tamper with these and your ability to concentrate and remember plummets.
Why? It’s because smoking:
Causes peripheral blood vessels to restrict
Reduces capillary flow
Deposits toxic fat in blood vessels
Prevents oxygen from reaching the heart and brain
Decreases lung capacity and elasticity
Lessens the amount of carbon dioxide your body needs to expel
Lowers the ability of your macrophage cells to kill invading microbes
… and much, much more!
And if all that wasn’t bad enough enough, these effects of smoking …
Utterly Smash Verbal Intelligence And Intellectual Functioning!
Okay, I’m probably exaggerating, but a lot of evidence supports this claim. Sure, smoking tricks your adrenal medulla into blasting out a bit of dopamine and epinephrine, but for the average smoker who sucks in nearly half a cup of tar a year …
Smoking Is Suffocating Your Cognitive Functioning To Death!
At this point, you might be asking …
So what? What’s so great about being intelligent and mentally capable anyway?
I’m glad you asked because intelligence and memory work together to form your entire personality. In short, you need memory and intelligence to:
Act with purpose
Think rationally
Deal effectively with your circumstances and environment
I think you have to agree that ruining your memory with smoking is complete madness.
The Biggest Lie Smokers Tell Themselves About Concentration And Memory
Of course, smokers love to claim that smoking helps them in each of these areas. But in reality, even just a few hours without nicotine has been shown to severely damage verbal and visuospatial memory. This state is called withdrawal and many nicotine addicts may need nine weeks or more without smoking to sail beyond the torrid waters of depleted intelligence.
Of course, the extent to which any individual experiences these pains depends on a lot of factors, including baseline indicators of intelligence, including:
How much they educate themselves formally or informally
The amount of social and cultural experiences they pursue
Diet and other lifestyle choices
The amount smoked
The style of smoking (quick puffing, deep inhaling or not drawing smoke into the lungs at all)
Other factors such as genetics, gender and even how much a person engages in random acts of generosity
All this means that …
It Only Seems Like Smoking Helps Improve Your Memory
In reality, smoking stops withdrawal from messing with your concentration and memory, specifically working memory.
By working memory, I’m referring to Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch‘s model. They described memory as a Central Executive System with three structures:
1. Phonological loop
2. Visuospatial sketchpad
3. Episodic buffer
When nicotine withdrawal gets rolling, it interferes, it messes with each of these bigtime.
So even though some evidence shows that using mnemonics may combat the effects of withdrawal, you’re better off not smoking at all.
7 Super-Difficult Ways To Quit Smoking
I’m not going to sugar coat this or make elaborate promises. Getting off the Demon Nicotine ain’t easy. But as a former working hypnotists, I think these tips can help you if you want to quit.
1. Hypnosis
Hypnosis, as Kreskin once defined it, is nothing more than the acceptance of a suggestion. If you take this definition to heart, then you instantly realize that we are all hypnotizing ourselves and others all the time. The real question is …
How do you get yourself to accept the suggestion not to smoke.
The answer is:
You Don’t!
Instead, the hypnotist or self-hypnotist helps raise the ego to overcome the effects of withdrawal and resist the temptations of addiction. Hypnotists harness the power of the imagination to achieve this feat by eliciting the language of their clients, adopting their body language to create rapport and using relaxation inductions to increase trust and the acceptance of suggestions.
A hypnotist might hear that you hate spending money on cigarettes above all and then have you imagine setting stacks of cash on fire after feeling the weight of your hard-earned wealth in your hands. Or if you mention disliking wheezing and coughing, the hypnotist might help you exaggerate that suffering in your mind and then replace that experience with the bliss of physical reaction.
The hypnotists then compliments these states with ego boosting statements that help the client keep feeling empowered over the next 72 hours, which tend to be the hardest when a person quits.
2. Drink Tons Of Water And Devour Acres Of Fruit
It helps to detoxify during those first 72 hours, so many hypnotists will send you home with the instructions to keep hydrated and get your sugars from natural sources instead of candy and pastries.
You might gain a bit of weight from the fructose, but not as much as you would from refined sugars. And chocolate bars and other sweets will only make you antsy, impulsive and thereby more likely to pop a cigarette in your mouth and light up.
3. Rest
It might be hard sitting still, let alone getting to sleep, but with The Ultimate Sleep Remedy, you at least have a fighting chance. I can’t reproduce the entire book here, but one technique you can try is Shavasana. In its simplest form, this practice involves nothing more than laying on your back and practicing total stillness for as long as you can.
4. Fitness
Go for a walk. Do pushups. Even just working at a standing desk provides beneficial exercise. You can also hang out with non-smokers and visit smoke-free places like art galleries and museums.
These activities follow the powerful “don’t go where it’s slippery” principle. If you make it impossible to spark a cherry, you won’t wind up inhaling junk that ruins your body and mind. It’s that simple.
5. Breathing Exercises
Lately, I’ve been using the Wim Hof Method and a few other techniques. These exercises fall under physical fitness, but belong to their own category because they strengthen your lungs, improve oxygen circulation and develop your concentration while hopefully distracting your mind from nicotine cravings.
6. Meditation
Sit just to sit and also combine meditation with breathing exercises and even do both while walking.
7. Practice memory techniques
Although you might feel too fidgety to memorize playing cards or foreign language vocabulary (LINK 15 reasons), this technique pays off.
Why?
Because the more you experience success with mnemonics while distracted, the more successful you’ll be when using them post-addiction. That’s just a hypothesis of mine, but I think it’ll prove true. When I’ve practiced card memorization in noisy places, for example, I wind up getting crazy better results later when I do the same drills at home.
Are You Ready To Serve Your Memory By Quitting Smoking?
In sum, you can stop smoking. When you do, you’ll not only improve your physical health, but also the strength of your mind. Even better, you can use the art of memory and mnemonics to help you get through it in combination with self-hypnosis or with the guidance of a good hypnotist who doesn’t BS you about what’s really going on.
No matter how you quit, I know this general information and these tips will serve you and I look forward to hearing about your success.
In the meantime, stomp this habit out of your life and get busy using memory techniques to help keep the cravings at bay using my FREE Memory Improvement Kit starting right now.
Remember when you were in middle school? How boring it was?
Wouldn’t it have been great if you had not only the ability to make it the most exciting time of your life, but also memorize everything you learned?
Here’s The VERY Good News About Helping Middle School Students Remember More
Even if it’s too late for you, it doesn’t have to be for your kids or any young person for whom you buy books in your family or social circles. US Memory Bronze Medal Champion Brad Zupp has an exciting training book just for youth.
Unlock Your Amazing Memory is a great book and in this post, I’m going to try and sell you on buying and reading it. Heck, even if school is far behind you and your hair has gone gray, you’re going to learn a lot from Zupp’s book.
Not Being Able To Remember Does Not Make You Dumb
Unfortunately, schools tend to set things up so that we think intelligence is linked to performance on tests and exams. But this couldn’t be further from the truth and Zupp shows how any student can break the pattern of institutionally-forced failure.
Zupp’s book is easy to read for the advertised grade level, as well as anyone. This aspect of Unlock Your Amazing Memory really makes it shine because all too often, books on technical skills like mnemonics can also make you feel stupid. Zupp’s clear writing style and progressive organization of the basics makes it impossible to misunderstand the techniques.
The More You Practice Your Memory, The Better It will Be
Learning memory techniques can take time, but the payoff later is incredible speed that MORE than pays off the initial investment. The best part is that it pays off for life.
To motivate readers, Zupp recommends visualizing yourself impressing friends. This is okay, but I would add visualizing just taking the first steps. For example, research has shown that people who visualize themselves putting on their running shoes get more fit in a six-month period than those who see themselves with an excellent physique.
When it comes to memory techniques, you can start by visualizing yourself creating a Memory Palace. To make that even simpler, picture yourself getting a memory journal and picking out a special pen or pencil that you will use exclusively for that journal.
Taking this small step is more likely to lead to actually creating a Memory Palace than visualizing yourself as a memory hero in front of your friends. Heck, just picturing yourself reading the book from beginning to end and then actually reading it will already make you a modern Hercules amongst your Internet-addled friends.
Remembering Involves 3 Steps So Simple You’ll Wonder Why SchoolsDon’t Save The Alphabet For Later
Zupp breaks his approach to memory techniques into three distinct movements.
The first seems obvious, but how many people actually do it? For Zupp, it’s called remembering to “get” the info, or what Harry Lorayne often calls “paying attention to it in the first place.”
You Can’t Remember What You Haven’t Learned
So if “paying attention” to the target information is the first key to “getting” it into memory, how do you accomplish this feat?
First up, Zupp says you’ve got to sit up straight. I remember this principle well from learning music. Slumping not only breaks the flow of oxygen. It also reduces concentration. You’re going to need focus if you want to learn well over the long haul.
Speaking of air, breathing is an incredible stimulant for memory. An oxygenated brain has more resources for creating the physical connections needed to form memories.
Guessing Games Make Memories Fast
Another of Zupp’s suggestions involves thinking ahead. For example, when you’re listening to a lecture, try figuring out where the lecturer is headed in advance of his current line of thought. By doing this, you increase the attention you’re paying to the speaker. The intensified focus makes the material more memorable almost by default, even if your assumptions are wrong.
In fact, the information becomes more memorable when you are wrong because your mind loops back to the part of the thread where you took your wayward turn.
The game of guessing “what’s next” reminds me of a meditation approach suggest by Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now. When meditating, Tolle suggests pretending you are a cat perched in front of a mouse hole. But instead of waiting for a mouse, you wonder instead, “What thought will I think of next?”
This activity keeps you focused both on the present moment and ready to capture new thoughts when they appear. In the case of meditation, the thoughts don’t distract you. Instead, they create even more focus because you’ve attuned yourself to their appearance.
The same applies to keeping your mind on what the professor might say next. You’ll be wide awake to the present moment and carefully attuned to whatever comes next.
Counting Uhms, Ahems And Other Human Hesitations
To increase focus, Zupp suggestions counting the uhms made by your teacher. But is this particular strategy reasonable? You might wind up juggling the wrong info in your mind. Answering “uhm” and “ah” won’t get you far on many exams – unless they involve demonstrating radical knowledge about contemporary sound poetry.
When I’m in need of concentration, I prefer repeating what people are saying in my mind, deleting the uhms. This practice creates laser-like focus and helps form memories. That said, Zupp’s method is worth trying.
When You Know How You’re Going To Memorize It, All Information Gets Stickier
Another means of focusing and paying attention involves asking yourself how you’re going to remember the info. This activity offers a great deal of value because you can practice mnemonics directly in response to the question.
For example, in a class on literature when you’re asked to learn the definition of a simile, you can ask yourself how you’re going to remember it and start formulating an answer. You could ask this simple question and say, “Eureka! I’ll see a simian ape tearing Lee jeans in half as he shouts ‘like!'”
Make Multitasking An Endangered Species We’ll All Be Glad Left The Planet
Finally, Zupp urges us to avoid the multitasking myth. If you want to focus, limit yourself to one task at a time. When it comes to memory skills, for example, this is why I have created a deliberate three-day memory routine to maximize your results. So long as you can devote all of your attention to just the three recommended tasks on the three recommended days, you’ll get results beyond the extraordinary.
Don’t Forget To Press Save!
Another key takeaway from Zupp’s book is that you need to focus on storing the information. Imagery, especially exaggerated imagery, is the most powerful mnemonic tool we have for making information stick. In combination with a Memory Palace, it’s the closest thing in the brain to a “save” button.
One great feature of Zupp’s work is explaining how to deal with abstract information. In the Magnetic Memory Method, we call the process word division, which involves taking information with no concrete correlative and breaking it down into smaller units that can be paired with tangible imagery.
The only problem, as Zupp points out, is that too few people know how to make the needed imagery vibrant and exciting. The imagination literally needs a smack across the face to get your memory working and anything less makes the information boring. And and as we all know from many boring hours in school, that which makes you drool gets lost fast.
If You’re Looking For Mnemonic Examples, Here Be Dragons
Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t ask me to tailor them a series if images to help them memorize information.
I never do it. My books and video courses are light on mnemonic examples because I focus on the nuts, the bolts and the detailed mechanics. It’s what I do and I’m proud to be the only one in the field who concentrates this deeply on mastering the Memory Palace.
That said, some people benefit from seeing a lot of examples from the mind of a mnemonist. For that reason, Zupp’s book is becoming one of my go-to recommendations.
I’m leery about sending people off to example-land, however. I always have been and we’ve talked a lot about the dangers of mnemonic examples on previous episodes of the Magnetic Memory Podcast.
A recent experience makes me even more certain that making your own mnemonic examples based on our own understanding of the core mnemonic principles enforces my conviction.
Why You Must Learn To “Pack Your Own Parachute” As A Student
Out in the dunes of Gran Canaria, I found myself spending a delightful afternoon with Peter Sage. We were there shooting a variety of videos for some courses with Jimmy Naraine and Peter told an incredible story about getting an upper-level parachuting certification.
In order to earn it, the parachuter has to personally pack his or her parachute. Not only is the task detailed and requires great care. The stakes are also high.
Why?
Because you have to dive wearing the parachute you packed yourself.
And as Peter told the story, he said that the smoothest opening he ever experienced as a parachute popped out above him was from the bag he packed himself.
It’s Exactly The Same With Mnemonics!
Sure, a few examples help and no doubt we all need them. But if you want a smooth experience using memory techniques, you need to leave the mnemonic examples of others behind as quickly as possible.
The other problems with mnemonic models is that authors of memory improvement books often use information that readers could care less about. Sure, some people might like to have all the US presidents and state capitals in mind. But it’s the 21st century and globalization requires less Americancentric examples to appeal to the needs of much wider audiences.
In no way do I mean this brief soapbox lecture with its politically correct tone as a criticism of Zupp’s book. He explains his example images in solid language and includes a lot of fun illustrations. Nonetheless, over half the book contains these examples and I would have liked to see more detail on Memory Palace creation and the art of recall.
All the same, I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age. Complete the exercises, supplement Zupp’s work with other memory training books and programs and you will be delighted with the progress you make.
And listen, if you enjoy the book, leave a quick review for Brad on Amazon. Even the shortest sentence of support helps memory trainers continue helping you. Pitch in with some star ratings with your candid feedback and help make the world a better place. You can help spread the good news about memory techniques and Zupp’s audience of students in grades 5 to 8 are amongst those who can use his help the most.
You’ve read about browser control software, right?
You know. The kind that blocks ads or logs you out after you’ve procrastinated too long.
All fine and dandy, but not the solution. Here are some low-tech things to try instead:
Get The Important Stuff Done Before You Switch The DumbPhone On
“Yeah right,” I hear you say. “My computer IS the important stuff!”
Really? What about learning a language, or even just developing motivation for learning one? Believe it or not, people have learned languages for a long time without the aid of machines.
But even if you still need software, you can model what I’m doing for Mandarin Chinese. Technically, it still involves using a machine, but I use it like an ugly old Walkman.
Which leads us to:
Stop Carrying The Internet With You Everywhere
Sometimes I worry about becoming a Luddite. I do not have a single device that accesses the Internet unless I find wireless in a cafe. And even then, I’ve designed my life in a way that I rarely need it.
Friends and strangers alike ask me how I survive without it, a question that perplexes me. From ages four to twenty-four, I managed to meet people all over the world without having an email address or a cellphone.
Heck, I even used to arrange meetings by post.
The point being is that if you can’t figure out why you’re not achieving your goals, look to the roaming Internet first. And then consider the following life-changing activities:
* Use an app like Plain Text to write a book, blog post or article (like I’m doing right now) instead of scrolling through Facebook and clicking the Like button. That’s a fast path to nowhere.
But all wealth comes from writing, including social, intellectual and financial wealth. I guess the occasional “LOL” might add to the pool, but I’m certainly not counting on it.
* Create a mind map with (gasp!) pen and paper while using your spayed or neutered DumbPhone to listen to a podcast or lecture. You’ll remember more and come up with incredible ideas as you work.
* Meet a human being and have a conversation with no devices on or near the table. Switch it off so it doesn’t buzz, beep or otherwise bang its way into your attention from within a bag or pocket.
And above all, learn and love this phrase: “I’ll look it up later.” Then use your to-do list to create a Memory Palace that helps you do so.
Speaking of which:
If You Create Them, Use Them
Many people tell me they’ve created one or more Memory Palaces. They even send me excellent drawings that demonstrate substantial knowledge of the Magnetic Memory Method.
The only problem is … They never use them.
Regarding today’s topic, failing to use your inner mental technology opens you to more information pollution because you’re not spending time massaging the right stuff into your memory.
Stuff like:
* Facts that build general knowledge.
* Names and dates of historical figures and events that develop your understanding of how and why we got here.
* CriticalInformation from a textbook so that you can ace exams.
* Poems, quotes, plots and jokes so that you always have something interesting to say. Heck, if you’ve got good poems, stories or philosophical ideas memorized, you’ll always have something fascinating to think about even when you’re on your own.
* Passwords and credit card numbers so that you’re not pouring time down the drain looking stuff up.
Memorizing These Things Could Make The Difference Between Being A Mouse Or A Millionaire
But if you’re tootling your time away consuming and creating blasts of info pollution, good luck making it to the top.
But … How? How do we avoid all this nonsense and the digital amnesia it brings?
Frame Your Day With Time Boundaries
It’s not just about doing the important stuff before you switch on the computer. It’s about spacing out time across the day.
Luckily, this is easy to do. It’s called “setting a timer.” How it works is this:
1. Decide how long you want to work on a high margin task. When it comes to your memory work, that might mean the design, memorization or recall parts, as described in this video:
2. Set the timer.
3. Work until it rings.
4. Take a computer-free break to avoid noise pollution. Do push ups, take a walk or, dip into a Memory Palace.
If you can’t develop the discipline needed to do this on your own, find a co-working team. My friend Max Breckbill hosts the most amazing group sessions and serves as the MC. He starts and ends each session and manages a spreadsheet that lists the activities of each attendee to help create accountability.
Set Activity Boundaries And Hold To Them
At the beginning of 2016, I performed a life assessment with the help of my friend Jonathan Levi. One of the huge gaps I found involved the withering of my music life. Somehow I just wasn’t playing bass often enough anymore. Same thing with my language learning and memory experiments.
So then I did a severe time analysis and found that I’d unconsciously slid away from my tried and true time-tracking technique. Once I got that back on track, I quickly spotted the culprit.
Because blaming software, hardware and online platforms for siphoning our time amounts to technological determinism. The truth is that the machines don’t make us spend our time on them. We determine our own way onto them and into their forests of noise pollution all on our own.
And it’s tremendously exhausting both psychologically and physically. Those dopamine boosts feel good, but that’s just because there’s sugar on the blade. We’re oozing precious lifeblood each and every second we spend in states of media-induced excitement.
The solution?
Use The Simple Power Of Arithmetic Rules To Set Yourself Free
At the ThinkBuzan memory training I attended, Tony Buzan said something very important that applies to many things in life: “Rules set you free.” When it comes to eliminating information pollution to your life, try setting these into action:
Starting tomorrow, count the number of times you find yourself on Facebook. If you use browsers exclusively, you could use the history function at the end of the day, but if the FB app doesn’t track it, you’ll have to do it manually.
Yes, yes, I know that there are apps that show you graphs of where you spend your time. But I don’t think graphical readouts spit out by the same machine you’re trying to avoid will create quite the same shock ad awe as the graph you create on your own.
Once you know your numbers, set a rule. For example, you can cut the number in half and use a Memory Palace and the Major Method to track the number of times you’ve popped in.
Everybody Knows That The Dice Are Loaded
Or roll dice and subtract that number.
Better yet, go for broke and determine to visit your favorite noise pollution sites once a day. Maximum.
That’s ultimately how I got mounds of time back into my life. At first, I didn’t know what to do with it all, even after reinserting bass practice and language learning. But I soon found ways, such as reviving my passion for reading novels and even created my own coloring book so I could dive into a form of guided creativity so many of us have lost since childhood.
To seal the deal …
Journal Your Progress And Tell Others About Your Accomplishments
“Hell,” Sartre wrote, “is other people.” And when it comes to getting tied up in information pollution, this might be true. Especially when the excuse for multiple exposures comes down to not wanting to lose touch with friends.
Frankly, if you can’t keep up with friends by visiting Facebook just once a day and scanning their feeds, then you need to find a way to get paid for the labor of liking their posts.
Instead, use the power of mathematical rules to set yourself free and then report on the experience.
Encourage others to do the same.
Fight The Noise Pollution
Get your power back.
Learn, memorize and recall more.
Trust me, if you implement what you’ve read in this post, you’ll not only reduce the info pollution in your life. You’ll win back the time you spent reading it back in droves and become one of the smartest human beings on the planet.
Did you know that your ability to be a moral person directly connects to the quality of your memory?
At least, that’s according to Albertus Magnus and I think he’s right.
Why?
A few reasons. First off, forgetfulness is an unnecessary evil. Let it run your life and you’re automatically living on the Dark Side.
Second, you learn, memorize and recall less than you’re capable of. That’s not only an act of self-cruelty. It’s a crime against humanity.
Finally, if you’re not on top of your ability to memorize the information you need to achieve maximum success in life, you’re not able to pass the skills on. It doesn’t get any more immoral than that.
Memory Is The Sensitive Part Of The Soul
Born sometime around 1200 in the Duchy of Bavaria, Albertus Magnus spent a fair shake of time writing about memory skills before dying in the year 1280. He was influenced by Aristotle, who also wrote about memory, and left his mark on Thomas Aquinas, who also filled a few pages on the art of memory.
For his part, Magnus was fixated on ethics and what exactly makes good things good.
For example, he nailed down four cardinal virtues:
Fortitude
Temperance
Justice
Prudence
Memory, or memoria, belongs to prudence for Magnus, along with intelligence and providence.
Magnus breaks prudence down even further by saying it has a rational part and an emotional part. We should be using memory to live useful lives based on both of these aspects. As he writes:
“Memory can be a moral habit when it is used to remember past things with a view to prudent conduct in the present looking forward to the future.”
Calling up positive things from the past to guide your behavior in the future is fine and dandy. But what about mnemonics?
Guess what?
Using Memory Techniques Is Also A Virtuous Habit
Magnus called mnemonics “artificial memory” after the conventions of the time. We know better now, however. Using the power of your imagination to make Memory Palaces is the most natural activity on earth, especially compared with spaced-repetition software. That’s the hammer of memory that deserves the term “artificial” more than anything else.
The 5 Magnus Rules For Creating Top-Notch Memory Palaces
Plus, Magnus was a lot like me. He wasn’t into using virtual Memory Palaces. He advises using only real locations and especially recommends churches because of how they can move the soul.
It’s an interesting suggestion because often the more meaningful the building, the more powerful the Memory Palace will be. Keep that in mind when creating your next Memory Palace and avoid basing any on buildings that may suck your enthusiasm.
With this point established, Magnus offers five rules.
1. Use Quiet Locations
Makes sense, right?
Maybe.
I can understand wanting to base your Memory Palaces on locations prone to silence. It kind of makes sense for them to mimic the intense concentration needed for creating powerful associative-imagery inside the Memory Palace.
However, if you’re using a bustling cafe, you don’t need to do the memory work in the cafe. And when you are using the Memory Palace, you can be in a quiet space. In fact, no matter where in the world the building you’ve sourced for your MP happens to be, it’s always a good idea to learn, memorize and practice Recall Rehearsal in quiet places.
But if you want to use the stage and stadium of a memorable Kiss concert, do it. If for any reason your memories of the excitement do get in the way, simply move on to another place.
2. Your Memory Palaces Should Neither Be Too Large Nor Too Small
Many beginners get excited by the possibilities of making massive Memory Palaces. They draw diagrams of shopping malls, airports and try to use each and every floor of New York skyscrapers.
There’s no doubt that with practice you can use enormous Memory Palace structures. But Mangnus is right. You want to find a comfortable size the works for you.
In my case, I max out at 50-60 stations per Memory Palace. In many cases, I stick with a mere 10, using proper Magnetic Memory Method form to get the into long term memory so any given Memory Palace can be put out of rotation for a while and then reused.
That said, it’s good to stretch once in awhile, so keep working progressively to extend your abilities. The trick is to make sure that you’re getting your desired outcome. Sure, creating a Memory Palace with 5000 stations would be cool – but can you get measurable results from it?
Probably not.
3. Avoid Using Overly Similar Memory Palaces
Here’s another rule where it really depends. But in principle, you sure can confuse the heck out of yourself if you can’t distinguish one Memory Palace from another.
In my experience, this isn’t such a big deal. Here’s why:
It’s the difference in information that matters.
For example, I like to use the Ross Building on the campus of York University. I start on the seventh floor where the Grad Pub used to be and work my way down.
The levels are nearly identical, as are the journeys through them. The key difference is how the information itself “tags” each floor.
For example, the seventh floor has been reserved for words that start with “se” spellings or sounds. Likewise, the sixth floor for “si” sounds. The rest of the similarities in the Memory Palace divisions don’t matter because the information itself marks the territory.
As ever, your personal experimentation will make the difference. If it’s too much for you, scale back. When you’re ready to expand, add gradual challenges that will help you grow your memory and memorization management skills.
4. Not Too Bright And Not Too Dark
I don’t know what was up with medieval dudes like Magnus. Even up to Giordano Bruno, mnemonists were bonkers about the level of light in their Memory Palaces.
The issue may stem from the lack of electric lighting. Just as they wanted to use quiet places to maximize concentration, they figured it might be useful to see the Memory Palaces.
Of course, we know now that you don’t really need to “see” anything in your mind. You need only a conceptual approximation.
I think another reason the light issue crops up throughout the history of mnemonics is that so many people built upon the Ad Herrenium. In Magnus’s case, Francis Yates figures he probably had a corrupt copy.
All the same, the dogma about light strikes me as just that. You really need to explore this issue for yourself and see what happens. I predict you’ll do just fine, even if you’re a bat.
In fact, probably especially if you’re a bat, since echolocation is a powerful metaphor for how you can navigate a Memory Palace efficiently without seeing a single thing in your mind.
5. Leave 30 Feet Between Stations
Now here’s a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. If your Memory Palaces aren’t supposed to be too big, how does one leave this much space between stops along the path?
Hansel and Gretal would have been in big trouble if they’d done that with their crumbs, and so, I reckon, would you. I know this has created issues for me. For example, in one of my Aristotle Memory Palaces for my dissertation on friendship, I had some waaaaaaay too far distances between stations.
The reason long distances creates problems is because your mind spends time and energy scanning the territory. Whether you see the Memory Palace or merely conceive it like stars in a constellation, you’re still using spatial memory.
To reduce drag, try keeping your stations as close together as possible without creating issues for yourself. Cramming is the inverse problem and without breathing room, your associative-imagery might not correctly consolidate.
As ever, it all comes down to your personal experimentation. In this case, you’ll need to work on a case to case basis since, with the rare exception of places like the Ross Building I just mentioned, there are no uniform Memory Palaces.
Memory Palaces Are As Physical As A Brick Wall
One of the coolest ideas Magnus brings to the table involves the notion that both the memorizer and the Memory Palaces are physical bodies. In fact, the entire world is physical and so anything you imprint on your mind essentially resembles tattooing.
Magnus’s concept here is complex, and I’m still pondering it, but he seems to be pre-envisioning the world we live in today. For example, you can think of information as ethereal stuff that has no physical form.
But that would be incorrect. Not only does all information require physical storage in order to be receivable, your brain either uses or creates new chemicals and structures to perceive it.
When you read a book, for example, the information has been physically stored using ink on paper. Read the same book on a computer and the information is stored both in the physical chips and wires, but also in the electricity itself.
This info then enters the physical bodies of your eyes before entering the gazillion roller coaster rails of your brain.
Anyhow, Magnus’s point appears to be that by focusing our concentration on the physical reality of both the locations and the information, we can create much more powerful sense impressions.
And if all of these points from Magnus don’t make your memory more poignant, perhaps a previous or future episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast will. Until that time, by moral by using your memory and always, always keep Magnetic.
You probably think you can get all the memory training you need from books, right?
Maybe. Ben Pridmore certainly did (reportedly just one) and worked miracles at the World Memory Championships.
But Those Kind Of Results Don’t Happen To Everyone
The truth is that most of us (including me) need more than one memory training resource.
In fact, as I mentioned in The Story Of How To Learn And Memorize German Vocabulary, I studied dozens of memory improvement books, audio programs and video courses. The Magnetic Memory Method simply wouldn’t exist without years of relentless research, experimentation, documentation, reconfiguration and teaching.
The Art Of Memory Is A Way Of Life Defined By Multiple (Super-Exciting!) Duties
To this day, I still study. To develop as a mnemonist, a journalist of memory and a lifelong devotee to teaching the art of memory, I consume all the wisdom about memory improvement I can.
That’s why I recently attended the ThinkBuzan Memory Training at the Henley Business School in Henley-On-Thames taught by Phil Chambers and Tony Buzan himself. To keep getting better and contributing to the solution.
Because there is a solution to forgetfulness and if you apply yourself …
You Never Have To Forget Information That Matters Ever Again!
Seriously. If you’ve read more than one book or taken more than one course and still aren’t getting results, there are probably only two reasons:
1) You’re not studying the right stuff.
2) You’re not taking the right actions.
And even if you’re already equipped and running memory circles around your friends, here are 13 reasons you still really ought to get trained at the Summit of Memory.
1. You Learn More About The History Of Memory
I’ve encountered the story of Simonides of Ceos countless times. However, never have I encountered it so thoroughly and elegantly expressed as when Phil Chambers took us through it.
The best part of the story is that it contains all the elements of good mnemonics: strange events and colorful characters. Massive, visual action. A Memory Palace in ruins that, albeit utterly destroyed, still stands in the minds of millions nearly two thousand years later.
2. You Learn About The Science Of Memory
There’s history behind memory research too, so getting both the past, present and future of memory science makes ThinkBuzan memory training a tremendous asset.
MIG, also known as The Most Important Graph In The World, shows you the most cutting edge elements of memory science. It is a Masterplan for engineering any information into your memory forever.
You learn The Most Important Graph in the world effectively too. It’s presented in stages so that you understand each part. The ThinkBuzan teaching approach also uses the science underlying the graph to get it into your long term memory.
Speaking of which …
3. You Learn How To Teach Memory Skills Right Away
You’ve heard me talk about the importance of educating others about memory skills before. I always talk about how and why you must do it immediately in order to get the best results from what you’ve learned and memorized.
For example, in Language Learning For Introverts, I suggest that you explain to anyone who will listen the Memory Palace and mnemonic imagery you use to memorize new words and phrases. It’s partly self-serving for how it drills the information into your memory, but more importantly …
Teaching Others Creates Enthusiasm For The REAL Magic Of Memory
Not only that, but by demonstrating what’s possible with your memory through teaching the core skills, you’re also getting better at using your memory. You’re practicing what you preach and getting better every time you do.
4. You Create A Group Memory Palace On The Spot
Nothing enthused me more about the ThinkBuzan memory than creating a Memory Palace together as a group. Phil Chambers had us memorize all the member countries of the European Union in alphabetical order.
But even better, Phil tricked us into doing it outside of our awareness. I won’t tell you exactly how, but it’s similar to how I teach people to memorize the alphabet backwards.
To really let you have your cake and eat it too, Phil then shows you how to compound the countries with the capitals of each. This quick exercise means memorizing 40 pieces of information inside of 20 minutes. Using The Most Important Graph In The World (and with a bit of stretching, maybe even without), this is information you can get into long-term memory for the rest of your life.
Again, you get all this amazing memorization in less than 20 minutes, plus sufficient review over a week or two. At most, that will total another 20 minutes, likely much less.
Plus, while you’re completing the live memory exercise …
5. You Create Lifelong Friendships With Other Memorizers
ThinkBuzan makes sure that you get to know your classmates from the moment their memory training starts. But the real time group Memory Palace exercise deepens the relationships beyond belief.
This bonding occurs not only because you share the amazement of instantly recalling the information learned throughout the exercise. It’s also because you travel together throughout the Memory Palace as you create it.
As the dating gurus often point out, if you want to create the feeling that someone knows you better, have them share time with you in multiple locations as quickly as possible. Do this while deliberately creating a Memory Palace together, and those locations become infinitely stronger.
And who knows? You might just develop a romance out of it or deepen a current one. A married couple took the training I was in and I saw them strengthen their bond before my very eyes.
And although my girlfriend wasn’t there, one part of that couple convinced me to finally propose, so the magic of taking a memory training really does go beyond the skills of recall. It touches and makes all areas of your life more exciting.
6. You Get To Challenge Yourself And Confront Your Memory Fears
I did not go to this ThinkBuzan memory training as an initiate. I’ve been a mnemonist now for more than fourteen years.
However, there’s a massive divide between what I can do privately and publicly. Sure, I took a hard loss when I competed against Dave Farrow half on a whim and only then in support of my favored charity.
By the same token, I’m proud of my results given the circumstances (jet-lagged, suffering arthritic joint pain, unkempt, unrested and moronically hungover from the last time I ever touched alcohol).
I’m also proud of my results given that I’d never memorized and recalled information with cameras in my face and a countdown clock running.
On top of that, as a renowned memory trainer – heck, there’s even a Wikipedia page about my work in memory and other arts of the mind – I had a reputation to uphold, and I think I did so given the circumstances. But …
Not so during the tests at the ThinkBuzan training. But here’s the thing:
7. Sometimes Falling Flat On Your Face Is The Best Thing In The World
Why?
A few reasons.
First, I got a taste of embarrassment that I did so poorly. I should have scored 100%.
Second, I learned SO much about what happens to me when someone turns on the clock. I start thinking about what strategy I’m going to use and then switch them up mid-stride. By the time I’ve finally settled on my approach, the clock has run out.
Third, but far from least, I learned that …
8. Transparency About Your Memory Produces Pearls Of Wisdom!
I could have avoided the issue and said nothing, or kept my internal reflections private. Instead, I swallowed my pride and the throat-constricting desire to bury my head in the suffocating sands of Phil’s official World Memory Championships digital hourglass.
That’s right, I sat in front of the entire group and Tony Buzan himself and fessed up.
Here’s what I learned in return for my honest revelation:
9. Discover The Surprising Reason Why ”Time Management” Is The Deadliest Circus Stunt In The World
We exhaust ourselves silly trying to control time. But this essence, this substance, this engine that has driven the world since, well … the beginning of time, needs no management and cannot be managed.
No, the clock isn’t a venomous snake. It’s not going to bark, bite or explode. The world’s not going to end when it rings.
Regardless, when there’s a deadline, the muscles in your mind cramp. The pace or your breathing collapses in on itself and your palms bleed sweat.
The problem? You’re trying to manage time.
Can’t be done. Casting Yoda a bit differently on the issue of time, there really is no try.
10. We Can Only Manage Ourselves And Our Memory Abilities In Time By Understanding And Using The Clock
As Tony describes time, our perception of its speed changes based on our psychological states. It can feel like it’s burning like a lit wick races to a bomb. Or it can move like a slow, placid wave when you’ve got nothing going on.
I’ve been practicing this approach to thinking about time ever since. I plan on going back for more training and fully expect I’ll get 100% next time if I can just settle on a strategy first and get my thinking about time unwarped and humming. After I’ve served at least once as an arbiter, I may even compete at the WMC myself.
That said, I also learned that …
11. Not Wanting To Compete In The World Memory Championships Is Totally Okay
Maybe you’ve had this feeling too. You learn about mnemonics and soon discover memory competitions exist around the world. That makes you feel like no matter what you use the tools of recall for in your private life, it won’t amount to much if you cannot win a prize.
The truth, I learned, is that most competitors aren’t after the medals. They attend the World Memory Championships to compete against themselves. They’re stretching their abilities.
Plus, they’re making friends with other mnemonists and talking shop about the art of memory. They’re doing what we discussed before in an international setting: learning AND teaching in one fell swoop.
But if none of this interests you, no problemo. You can be a perfectly amazing memorizer and teacher without ever throwing down the gloves.
And if your results are nothing to brag about, that’s no problem either. We all know the coaching phenomena. People have led sports teams to glory without ever touching the ball themselves.
As a story consultant, like others in the movie plot improvement industry, I’ve improved screenplays and seen them made into films. To this day, I’ve never completed one myself, let alone had a movie from my imagination made. Maybe I never will.
When it comes to memory, I’ve memorized thousands of words and bits of ultra-valuable information. But more importantly I’ve helped thousands of people memorize many thousands more. Just check out this email I for the other day:
“Here I am seated below my arbiters after memorizing 29 and then 34 shuffled cards at five minutes each. The first try beat the existing provincial record; the second try bested that.
Would not have done it without your impetus. I am registered to compete in the Canadian Championships in Montreal, July 2.
Thanks, Anthony!”
And get this:
Tony Buzan, co-founder of the Wold Memory Championships has never himself competed in them. But he’s still helped millions of people get more from their memories and their minds overall.
And when you attend one of his trainings …
12. You Might Even Get To Meet The Man Himself
To tell you the truth, I didn’t even know Tony Buzan was going to be at the training. The ticket named Phil Chambers as the instructor and I went more than content with that.
But sometimes Tony does attend these memory trainings and I was so delighted that he did.
And I don’t know how to tell you this without stepping outside my usual Canadian-bred modesty, but I’m going to lay it out because it may inspire you and it doesn’t feel right to keep something so monumental a secret amongst only a few.
You Might Be Knighted A Warrior Of The Mind
Tony and I had shared some Tweets a few years ago. There was instant resonance, maybe because we’re both named Anthony, perhaps because we’ve both spent loads of time under the stars of Vancouver, British Columbia.
For whatever reason, the resonance continued, and when the event was over, I offered to help breakdown the classroom. I was asked to carry some paintings to the main building for safekeeping as Tony prepared to leave.
These were by Lorraine Gill, the woman who inspired to include images in Mind Maps in the first place. Once we had the paintings safely stowed away in a back office, we chatted a bit with the secretarial staff and …
Then IT Happened
Tony pulled me aside and said, “Anthony, you are a Warrior of the Mind.”
Next, THE Tony Buzan removed a pin from his lapel. Yes, THE famous pin Joshua Foer mentions in Moonwalking With Einstein.
Tony stepped forward and reached for my collar. The next thing I knew, I was wearing the beautifully executed rendering and holding back tears. Tony gives the pin, I learned, for Outstanding Contributions to Global Mental Literacy.
It is a tremendous honor to hold the title “Warrior of the Mind.” Above all, to own and proudly wear this symbol, given by the hand of a man I first read in high school from books that first truly taught me the boundless power of the human mind and how to release the floodgates on its potential.
Frankly, if I didn’t talk so much for a living, I’d be utterly speechless.
13. Learn, Memorize And Recall Anything
In sum, if you want to continue your education in memory and feel the rapture of memory improvement as can only be offered by the best on the planet, booking your seat at the next training is a must.
In addition to all the magic I’ve been yappin’ about, you’ll learn how to efficiently and expertly memorize:
Names
Vocabulary
Passwords
Numbers
Facts
Addresses
… Anything else you want to remember!
Plus, even though the course isn’t about mind mapping as such, you’ll practice this revolutionary technique and get a massive preview of this powerful art or organizing your mind the way it works on the page.
And you know, people often ask me about how Memory Palaces and mind mapping could work in tandem. I’m not yet 100% equipped with an answer, but I’m now well on the way and I’ll be attending the ThinkBuzan mind mapping course as soon as possible.
How about you? You’re convinced by now, right?
Of course you are! So …
Here’s How To Get Royal Treatment When You Take Any ThinkBuzan Training
Simply mention my name when registering for your seat at any training and you’ll get an incredible percentage of the tuition lopped off.
Listen, even if you forget to mention my name and claim this generous discount so you too can become a world class practitioner and teacher of memory techniques, you’ll never regret making this choice. Do it now and let me know all about what you learn.
Seriously. Teaching others what you’ve learned – including me – is the best way to learn. And the more you learn, the more you CAN learn. That’s my wish and hope and dream for you because we are nothing more than our memories and their quality shapes everything. Make the world a better place a.s.a.p. and you’ll see for yourself just how profound learning and memory can be.
Buckle up. It’s going to be a very Magnetic ThinkBuzan experience for you indeed.
It’s no secret that students want to succeed. They really do.
Even a former dropout like myself dreamed of getting all A’s during all those years goofing off took precedent over serious study. I just didn’t have the guidance and strategies talented young people need to get the most out of their education.
So pay attention, because whether you’re in high school, college, university or taking training for certification …
Every Student In The World Can Be The BEST Student In The World!
But first, you need to overcome a few problems, such as …
The Failure To Make A Cozy Little Study Nest
Far too often, students all over the map. They try to read The Canterbury Tales in cafeterias, do math at the mall and even work on programming logo-rhythms in the loo.
With rare exceptions, none of these places support extended concentration (more on that topic in a bit). But even if you do study well in a variety of noisy places, having a dedicated and protected area can work miracles for your memory.
Why?
Humans are creatures of habit, and none of us are stronger than our habits. But when we consistently engage in powerful practices, they guide us to amazing places.
How To Find Your Comfort Zone
In truth, I don’t know. You’ll need to experiment. And you may need more than one,
For me, one of my best study places was Joanne’s closet. She was my main squeeze during my BA years, but for a long time, I was her best-kept secret.
One day I didn’t leave her place in time to miss the people who weren’t supposed to see me, however. The only solution in our intellectually intelligent but emotionally immature minds was to hide me in her closet.
And that’s where I stayed for a very long time after she threw in my backpack, a blanket and a few pillows. Later, she brought me a flashlight so at least I could read.
Over the course of the day, Joanne kept me fed and watered and facilitated the odd trip to the washroom. (Very unusual trips these were indeed!)
The Most Unusual Productivity Hack In The World
Anyhow, the whole ordeal turned out well because not only was I very comfortable, but I wound up reading a challenging book from cover to cover and getting key points down on index cards. I didn’t know how to memorize a textbook (infographic) back then, but getting that work done in a focused place was such a boon, I’ve been reading in and even writing in closets ever since.
Heck, when I was in Gran Canaria, I even recorded two episodes of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast in the closet of my hotel!
The point is, you can find a perfect place to snuggle in and get stuff done. If that means hiding from the family of your lover in a dark place, by all means do it. You’ll be pleased by the results that your regular homework, writing and study space brings.
Next, don’t fail to …
Rack Your Study Schedule Shotgun
I know. That’s a slightly violent image.
But the reality is that we as students and lifelong learners often fail to follow a planned schedule. And went that happens, it’s impossible to set ’em up and knock ’em down.
I’m talking about writing essays with enough time left over to edit them. I’m talking about giving yourself enough time to take a warm up exam before sitting for the one that counts. I’m talking about planning time for fun, relaxation and rest so your brain consolidates all you’re learning.
The problem is, so few know …
How To Create A Bulletproof Action Plan And Consistently Implement
The best tip I know to help you with this one involves two simple sentences.
Well, I didn’t invent that strategy just for studying Chinese. I’ve been using morning routines for years to get the most important tasks out of the way first.
But You’ve Got To Know What Your Most Important Tasks Are!
To do that means identifying and setting priorities. If your teacher is any good, you’ll have these loud and clear.
For example, with the Magnetic Memory Method, it’s simple: organize the target info, create Memory Palaces or select existing Memory Palaces, encode the info and then use Recall Rehearsal to place it in long term memory.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
But not all teachers know how to help you understand your priorities, so you must make sure you …
Stop Failing To Communicate With Your Instructors
I know, I know. They’re the teachers and it’s their responsibility to guide you.
But in reality, that’s only 50% correct. Every top-notch student needs to meet their instructors halfway. You need to observe where they are failing you and get what you need.
Avoid This Student Plague … Like The Plague!
Have you ever sat in class with a burning question and yet … you didn’t raise your hand?
If so, you’re in the majority.
Don’t feel bad. It’s part of the human condition not to want to stand out, or feel stupid or be the first to say something. You might also be wrongly assuming that the teacher will get to what you want to know later anyway. Or maybe you fear that the teacher might be annoyed.
Maybe the teacher will show some agitation, but who cares? Their position obligates them to serve you and if you’re worried about the opinions of other students, stop. They’re worried about your opinion of them too. It’s a vicious circle and will get you nowhere.
If nothing else, talk to the teacher after class or by email. This low-profile tactic was my favorite and always served me well. It made sure that I never suffered …
The Failure To Ask For Special Treatment
It’s a little-known fact that you can influence the course of your education and tailor much of it to your needs.
For example, one of the most exciting third-year courses I ever took was also … dreadfully dull!
It was called Shakespeare’s Contemporaries and the professor taught with such passion, that I couldn’t wait to hear him speak about weirdo playwrights like John Webster and Thomas Kyd. I admired him so much that I asked him to serve on my doctoral defence committee many years later. To my honor, he did.
The only problem during that seminar course was … the other students. I’m sorry to say this, but many were duds. They showed up unprepared and didn’t interact with this most excellent professor. As a seminar course, there were no lectures as such and the purpose was to have student-driven discussion.
Anyhow, as much as I loved listening to the professor, it also pained me to see him wrestle with my unprepared peers. One day after class, I approached him with trembling hands and asked him one of the most important and powerful questions of my academic life:
May I Have Alternative Assignments?
Instead of showing up for class to get my participation grade, I wanted to write extra essays to make up for the missing marks. Otherwise, I would need either to skip class or drop the course altogether.
Well, the professor seemed to understand exactly my needs and I wound up completing most of that course on my own. I even passed with an A+.
I went on to ask that question of professors again and again, ultimately customizing my entire undergraduate and graduate programs entirely to suit my needs – such as spending hours of study time in dark closets.
Speaking of talking with your instructors, you also need to avoid …
The Failure To Speak With Other Students About Your Studies
Yes, I know. Most of the time, the last thing you want is more of the same after a long session in class.
But if you do it right, you can learn more by revisiting your topic with others in some pleasant and exciting ways.
For example, after I dropped out of high school and returned, I had my first study partner. We took the advanced literature course instead of normal English 12 and it had so much reading, we split it between us.
Leslie would read, for example, John Donne and unpack it for me. I would read the extract from Paradise Lost and lay out all the cool things Satan says when he first lands in the pit.
That way, when I finally got around to reading her half of the load and she to mine, we knew exactly what we were looking for. It was kind of like seeing a movie again for the first time after many years. Plus, we had notes from class to round out our studies and guide our discussions.
When it came time to take the tests and write the in-class essays, we were both in top form. We knew the material inside and out. In the years since, I have done this with study groups large and small and we teach each other the key points from books we read.
Heck, it even happens in a certain way through the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, such as when people tell me about the best parts of books they’ve read and I zip out my own study notes. You have heard The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci episode, right?
Without Study Groups, Students Fail To Encourage And Motivate Each Other
Look, you don’t need to exaggerate it. But if you’re not meeting with other students outside of class, it’s impossible for you to notice when they’ve explained something really well in a relaxed environment. Of course, you can pat each other on the back for things said in class, but it’s not the same thing.
Plus, there’s power in generating ideas together. You also get to frame time by meeting on a predetermined schedule and using something like Roberts Rules to control the flow.
Study groups can also help you avoid …
The Failure To Be Clear And Realistic
Yes, it sucks cold beans, but when you’re a student, you’re being measured. And whether you pass or fail, the metrics make a mark and condition your confidence.
In this world, you need all the confidence you can get!
But by studying together, you’ll also be talking about deadlines and the conditions of the game. This process will keep your eye on the ball and guide you to the target. You just need to avoid …
The Failure Of Letting Worry And Stress Rule Your Mind
If you’ve been following along, you’re already way ahead on this one. You’ve got a cozy study place, the shotgun of your schedule racked, your teachers in the palm of your hand and a powerful study group.
These conditions themselves will reduce stress to a bare minimum. You probably won’t even feel it.
But why not take preemptive measures to make sure stress can’t rise up unnoticed? It’s easy if you’ll just meditate, sleep and eat a memory friendly diet.
Speaking of diets, to help you sleep, eat better and have way more time, don’t fall prey to the …
Failure To Hit The Kill Switch
Do you want to choose how to live your life? Or would you prefer to have it chosen for you?
Keep watching TV and farting around on social media and you’re giving up your right to be free.
I know that sounds harsh, but all appearances suggest that TV, social media and other digital delights like video games and instant messaging create dopamine spikes in the brain. Unfortunately, we get addicted to these, which can reduce concentration and create impulsivity that makes it difficult to get things done.
The best way around this?
Put Borders Around Your Mind Candy Binges
Here’s a simple trick:
Just as you should get all the most important activities finished before you switch on the computer and get tossed by the sea of email messages and social media, vow to stop all of it by a set hour.
My preference is 9 pm with 10 pm as the absolute maximum outer limit. Sure, I break this rule once in awhile of something needs to get done, but rarely by more than 30 minutes. The rule itself helps to contain any attempts at breaking it.
Plus, I watch programs with limits and check Facebook only once a day. Email gets a bit more attention, but even that I try to limit to three sessions per day.
Not only that, but my iPhone doesn’t receive calls, receive or send texts or have roaming Internet. It is simply for writing, reading and language study. It truly is a smartphone and I have a tiny old Motorola for handling the rest.
You may not want or need to be that extreme, but please, above all, avoid …
The Failure To Realize That Focus Is Your Number One Asset As A Student And Lifelong Learner
More than that, focus is the future. As more and more things compete for our attention, those who can avoid all the failures discussed in this post will rule the world. Those who sink in the mire of unproductive lives and disorganized confusion will be their slaves.
That’s why the penultimate failure is so important to avoid.
The Failure To Be Mentored
Most students chase after tutors – or get forced into having them by well-meaning parents. Sorry to break it to you, bit most tutoring is a waste of time, money and energy.
Why?
Because most tutors look at your work and explain it to you. Or they babysit you while you complete tasks you should be able to do on your own.
A mentor, on the other hand, doesn’t bother with any of that. A mentor shows you how not to need a tutor at all by modeling effective study skills, lifestyle habits and teacher management. A mentor lives the way you want to be and will never be caught dead lapping up a pay check to tutor others. A mentor is too busy modeling others higher up the ladder and helping those a few rungs down.
How do you find a mentor? Well, that’s a topic all on its own, but I recommend taking (Jimmy’s course with Martin). That’ll put you in good stead, and if you execute, you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams with the help of a carefully identified individual who has the qualities and accomplishments to which you aspire.
All these things said, above all you need to avoid the most tragic failure of all:
The Failure To Develop Your Memory Abilities
The most shocking thing in the world is that the simple memory skills that help students the most are taught in schools the least.
One can go on and on about why, and perhaps it really is a capitalist conspiracy.
But at the end of the day, what matters is that memory improvement help exists. And you can get it right, right now and right here from this website with my FREE Memory Improvement Kit.
So what do you say? Are you ready to take action and stop failing as a student?
Of course you are. Start using the tips you’ve just learned and achieve the success you deserve. I’m rooting for you!
Further Resource
What If I Wanted To Memorize Entire Chapters From A Textbook
Have you ever gone through a phase that forced you into starting over from scratch?
Don’t worry. It happens to everyone.
Luckily, we can learn from those who have gone before us. In this guest post from Jeffrey Pickett, you’ll learn how to minimize the suffering that comes from rebooting your life and how to get back on your feet in the best possible manner.
Three Reasons Why Starting Over Is So Painful
Starting over can be painful. You’d love to blame others, but after close analysis, you realize it all points back to the person looking at you in the mirror.
Our careers, like cars, were meant to go forward most if not all of the time. No one likes to go in reverse. It takes more attention, more focus and more detail. Starting over means you need to back up before you can go forward.
Finally, starting over sucks because self-doubts creep in the back door, playing with your mind. The sky is no longer blue, the chirping birds are dead, and someone pulled the chain, diminishing the once bright sunlight.
Take heart, my friends, because it just so happens I am the self-proclaimed big deal in the world of starting over. Allow me to prove it to you…
Why You Should Forgive But Don’t Forget
In a previous relationship, well perhaps several, the occasion to try and make things work occurred a few times too many. The bottom eventually fell out and I beat myself up for letting things go on as long as I did.
That guy on the street with the “The End is Near” sign was right all along. I just wouldn’t listen.
When you make mistakes, learn from the event, forgive yourself and move on. Looking in the rearview mirror only serves to cause pain. Learn the lesson and move forward.
Forgive while you’re at it. Holding anger or resentment towards another only sets you up for failure. Let go of the attachment to anger.
Wouldn’t It Be Cool If You Could Be Superman?
I think I’d ditch the cape myself, but having superpowers and flying around would be awesome, right?
Well, back in reality-world, that doesn’t work. You can only be yourself.
That’s not totally correct.
Humans have this unique ability to recognize who they are and change. We can go back to school, join a gym or even seek therapy if necessary.
With effort, we can become a better version of ourselves.
An important facet to starting over means you have to be willing to change any aspect of your life that no longer works. Ultimately, you can only change yourself; you have no power to change anyone else.
That common definition of insanity (dare I repeat it?) is accurate – to avoid more mistakes, change that which is in you versus what you have no control over.
What To Do When The World Turns Upside Down
Whenever your world upside down, forcing you to start over, a vital lesson should be at the forefront of your brain.
The way we see things may not be the best perspective.
You can’t mold the world to your point of view, but you can shift your perspective.
Recently I went hiking with my wife. Just when the trail appeared to dead-end, I’d take one more step, and my perspective changed.
The opening was there all along; I just needed a few more steps.
How To Get More Done With Less Effort
I love running. I used to train five to six days a week, running up to 15 miles on some days. But I could never improve my race times.
One day, a friend of mine introduced me to running sprints instead of running long distances. I did as he suggested and my race times came down even though I ran shorter training distances.
Another example involves my garage that needed some fix-up. A friend offered to help, someone with a lot more experience than I. But my pride got the best of me. I thought I’d do it myself.
You can guess what happened.
I ripped up most of my work, I cut my thumb open, and my kids learned a new curse word from my repeated frustrations. If only I would have invited the help and pushed away my pride…
See the difference? I just needed to change my approach.
I Lied – You CAN Be Superman!
You just have to do one thing before you begin starting over.
You have to learn a new skill. Maybe you need a better memorization technique…
A potential reason you are in need of starting over is that as hard as it may sound, you may lack the resources to get the job done. Before starting over, research your topic of interest or situation, gain the extra knowledge and get back into the fight.
The Real Reason It’s Better to Give And Not Deceive
The world operates differently these days. You used to be able to ask for favors. But now it’s all about, “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”
That’s not all bad.
Instead of looking out for good ol’ #1, start over with an effort to provide value. Do things for others. Show the world you want to add versus subtract. Don’t provide something with the apparent reason you just want something in return.
Give with the intention of helping. If you’re lucky (and genuine), then the gifts will come back. Give your work away.
Giving is good for the soul. It’s good for your health, too.
Speaking of giving, I have a self-titled website where I give as much of my experiences as I can write down. I’m focusing on health these days, so if you’d like to improve your health and lose some weight in the process, check out my free guide.
Well, now you know of my experiences in starting over. I’d love to hear yours. I’ll bet they are the type of stories Jimmy Fallon/Kimmel would feature! Share what happened and what you did to get over it and I’ll see you in the comments.
Alex Stone Shows You How Magic And Memory Can Heighten Your Sense Of Reality
Go on, admit it. The idea of being a magician has haunted you since childhood. Who hasn’t at some point wished they could perform miracles and win the admiration of the masses?
The truth is, anyone can, but not everyone has the time, energy or discipline.
But the good news is that in Fooling Houdini, magician and outstanding author Alex Stone takes you into the world of Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind. And the best part is that you learn about using your memory better too.
So tune in to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and enjoy the full transcript below.
Anthony: Alex thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It’s a real honor and exciting because I myself have a relationship to magic and the whole world. So I hope to touch on that a little bit. The book Fooling Houdini is an absolute marvel I think. Not just because of my interest in magic, but it’s about learning as such.
One of the themes, and you can correct me if I’m wrong about this, seems to be self-acceptance as being kind of the best thing we can do for ourselves, and that going through the process of self-acceptance is kind of like “fooling” around with yourself a little bit as if life is kind of a game. Would that be a fair assessment?
Alex: I think that’s a wonderfully nice way of saying it, yes.
Anthony: With all that said, what’s your first memory of being interested in magic?
Alex: It was definitely when I was 5 years old and my father went on a trip to New York for an academic conference of some sort. He was a professor and he bought me a magic kit at that famous store FAO Schwartz. It’s like a famous toy store, which closed, I believe, recently.
It was just like one of these little kids kits, but he brought me back, and I was 5 years old in just remember like being enchanted by it. I couldn’t stop playing with it, and I learned all the tricks and went around just showing them to everyone every time. We had guests over and to my friends.
Honestly from there on, I was interested in it and it became like a thing that my father and I kind of bonded over and did together. But that was very vivid memory. Gosh, come to think of it, it probably is up there with some of my earliest memories actually. Because I was only 5.
Can Kids Be Fooled?
Anthony: One group of people that tend to be very difficult to fool is young people because they don’t know the cues of Mr. Action so to speak. So it’s kind of a fascinating age. What experience do you have doing magic for kids?
Alex: You are absolutely right. I learned that at my first show when I was 6. It was my own birthday party. I performed for my friends and it was a disaster. They were trying to touch everything and yelling at me and heckling me. I remember crying and going to my room and being really upset.
But you know, it’s a fact that children are very difficult to perform for. I mean not just because, I mean obviously they have a hard time sitting still and they can be rambunctious. It’s hard to do anything with kids because of that, but they’re also, I talk about this a bit in the book, psychologically I think quite good at figuring out magic tricks. You know there could be a lot of reasons behind that, but I think part of it is that they don’t have quite so many assumptions going in.
They have a way of thinking about things where they’re kind of testing out new ideas, and on some level, they’re better at figuring out tricks than adults are. I’ve seen this time and again. If you talk to magicians, they’ll say the same thing that kids can be remarkably difficult to fool. They often figure out tricks that fool some of the smartest adults.
Anthony: It’s always interesting performing for kids. I wonder, you started at a young age with that interest. How did you manage to combine throughout your life and particularly once you got into university and so forth, physics and magic and journalism. Is there a common thread between all those three things that the more you see a connection or is it just happenstance?
Alex: Well the short answer is yes. I absolutely think there’s a nice connection. I was very fortunate because I had these three interests of writing, journalism, magic, which I’ve been into since I was 5, and physics and science, which I’d also been into for years and was studying. It was this wonderful moment of realization when I sort of saw that, well first of all as a writer, this world, these concepts and ideas hadn’t really been written about.
Secondly, that there were all these beautiful connections between magic and science. Especially psychology and neuroscience, but also mathematics and physics. To see that there was this science to the magic and that a lot of the literature in psychology were essentially applied to magic tricks and to see all these connections, that’s what really kept me fascinated and took me along this kind of quest, if you will, to understand magic.
That’s the basis of the book. It is exploring, not just this great world with amazing characters and amazing stories, which as a writer was you know just a wonderful gift to be able to share this world with other people that I’d already been immersed in. But then to also be able to incorporate my love of science, my interest in in scientific mysteries and to see all the overlap and to see all the magicians who are interested in science and all the scientists who are interested in magic, that to me was just this blessed confluence of all my geeky interests. It was just like a nerd trifecta.
Anthony: I think one of the things that I also really loved about your book is that it, kind of for me, is the magician version of Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein, where he takes you deep into the world of memory competitions and memory techniques. You’re doing that with the magical community. I wonder, for people who aren’t familiar with magic and this world of circles, brotherhoods, personal mentorships and the lineages, how would you describe the magical community?
Alex: Well, first of all thanks for that comparison. A great book Moonwalking with Einstein and a wonderful story. I’ve always loved those kinds of books where it takes you and pulls aside the curtain and takes you behind the scenes.
Magic, I think like a lot of subcultures, is filled with brilliant obsessives. People that really are single-mindedly devoted to this craft. I think magic in particular because it’s so wrapped up in secrecy, by definition you’re not supposed to tell how it’s done, etc. It lends itself to an even more extreme version of this kind of hermetic community of people.
You have these societies with these initiation rituals and these codes of secrecy. You have a very curious form of information exchange. Whereas, like with the memory book Foer wrote, he went into this fascinating subculture, and I think it was probably easier to learn these techniques than it might be if you are a newcomer to the world of magic where not everyone wants to share. You have to become much more imbedded to then benefit from this exchange of ideas and information. So that’s part of it too.
Magic Is Weird …
Then I think it’s just a very weird place. Magic is weird. A lot of people who do magic are kind of nerdy and bizarre and wonderfully so. But it’s honestly like the kind of thing it is almost hard to believe that it’s real in some cases when you meet some of these people and some of these characters. Then the fact that magic also has all these sort of hubs, or whatever, that connect to the science, but also there are connections to crime and scams. Then you have branches mentalism which ties into psychics. You have all of these overlaps with other kind of allied groups and that is something pretty incredible.
In many ways it’s a fairly narrow thing because it’s just magic, but just in the way that I imagine that the memory community ties into mathematics and public speaking or whatever various other pursuits, so does magic and it’s intersections are fascinating. You are able to kind of go between these different worlds. It grants you access to all these other kind of worlds or communities. It is just incredibly rich and it’s filled with wonderfully interesting and often very brilliant people. Like nothing else I’ve ever encountered.
Anthony: Absolutely. There is a bridge with memory and magic as well on multiple levels I can think of such as memorizing tricks, like the actual routines, memorizing the scripts, memorizing the moves in performance and then remembering to execute certain moves while you’re performing. So I wonder if you have any thoughts on how those things are part of magic as you have had in performance, in studying with a mentor and in actually competing as part of your career as a magician.
Alex: Yeah, I mean that’s a great question. So you’re absolutely right. There is quite a bit of overlap. In fact, there are magicians in the past who have used the mind power, the memory power as a kind of magic or as a kind of performance technique. More specifically, there are a lot of magic tricks that rely on memory techniques and memory and memorizing decks. I mean some of my favorite tricks, honestly, are tricks that require you to memorize an entire deck of cards.
If I can just make a little tangent. If I can just rewind for a second. Probably the most famous or one of the most famous magicians who was also kind of a memory expert was Harry Lorayne. He was a magician but he did these memory shows and these mind power shows. He was the kind of the embodiment of this this connection between magic and memory. He was a memory training specialist, he wrote books on it. He would perform on the Johnny Carson Show and do these remarkable mnemonic demonstrations. You know he’d go to parties and memorize everyone’s names. He was also a magician who pioneered some wonderful tricks and sleight of hand and whatnot. So that’s kind of the embodiment of this connection.
But more broadly, they intersect throughout magic, and just know, you’re not the first memory person I’ve talked to. Actually, through this book I’ve met a lot of people in this community. In terms of my own practice, I would say that some of the most beautiful tricks out there, card tricks especially rely on being able to memorize strings of cards and numbers. Juan Tamariz –
The Most Important Book On Card Magic Published In Decades
Alex:Mnemonica is, I believe, probably the greatest, most important book on card magic published in in decades. It’s absolutely revolutionary. I mean my favorite tricks are from that book. Honestly, that stuff is incredibly powerful. You know, you combine memory techniques with a few other basic magic techniques like false shuffles, card controls, and double lifts, it’s almost like you can do anything.
I’ve also created another trick that relies on also memorizing a deck that’s organized in a very special sequence that is basically a binary code that allows you to determine what order of the cards, where you are in the deck based on the color configuration of like a group of six cards. It’s a little bit hard to explain. That also required me to memorize the entire deck. In particular for that one, because I had to learn to map a six-card configuration of red and black to a number that corresponded to the first card in that sequence, I had to use the Memory Palace, the method of loci – is it loci or loci?
Anthony: I’ve just replaced it entirely with “station.” A station in a Memory Palace.
Alex: A station in a Memory Palace, that’s better. So anyway for this trick, which is one of my favorite tricks of all time, it was really first developed, the idea was first developed by Persi Diaconis, a guy at Stanford, for that I use the Memory Palace technique. Like Joshua Foer actually kind of explained to me. I also use that technique where you assign letters to numbers. What is it called again?
Alex: The Major Method. That’s right the major system, right. So for this trick what I do is I have six people take cards. I figure out what the red black configuration is, that’s a binary number, which I can turn into a digit, a regular base ten number. I use the major system to turn that into a word, that word corresponds to a station, an image in my Memory Palace, which in turn corresponds to the first card in that sequence. Because I memorized the deck, I then just walk through my Memory Palace, and I see all the cards so I know where I am.
It sounds very complicated but using the memory techniques it was actually fairly easy because I was able to memorize the deck quickly and it’s so robust that it just sticks in your head for a long time. All you to do is revisit it once in a while and it’s there.
I was really shocked when I did this. I’d never done this kind of technique before and I was so impressed by how powerful it is. There’s not, when you’re kind of a grown up, there aren’t too many times when you continue to amaze yourself at what your mind is capable of. You have kind of seen it all at that point. This was one of those rare instances which I was like wow I didn’t know that I could do that. That’s pretty cool I think.
Memory Techniques Are Real Magic
Anthony: I think it’s one of those things that really borders on, if not entirely, is real magic. If I can put real beside magic, because there’s lots of things that are real magic, but this is almost alchemy in some sense in terms of creating knowledge and reliably so
Alex: Yeah I agree. I think that’s why people like Harry Lorayne you know he used it in his shows because it really felt like, wow, this guy has superpowers.
Anthony: I’m really glad that you mentioned Lorayne and Juan Tamariz. There’s a Penguin Live lecture where Darwin Ortiz talks about how he worked for Harry Lorayne, teaching in one of Lorayne’s schools or programs that he had. I guess it would have been in New York.
Alex: I didn’t know that.
Anthony: I’m not sure if he’s done more than one Penguin lecture, but if he’s just done the one then that’s it where he talks about it. He talks about the importance of like memorizing the names of your participants that you use in routines. He tells quite an amusing story of working for the Harry Lorayne. Lorayne is not really well known as a magician, but he was a huge contributor in terms of literature. Publishing other magicians apparently giving them work has memory trainers. It is kind of fascinating. About Tamariz, did you ever try his suggestions for memorizing the deck?
Alex: Yeah, I did. In fact, when I memorized Mnemonica the first time around, I used the technique that he recommends in the book, which is to basically draw faces on the cards if I recall. At that time, I didn’t know the Memory Palace technique so I used his technique.
For the other trick since then, whenever I’ve had to memorize a deck, I’ve used the Memory Palace technique. I thought about going back and making the Mnemonica into a Memory Palace, but I have it now and I use it so often that I’ve got it. Also, his technique is nice because it’s really easy, it’s very bidirectional. It’s very easy to remember the card and then say oh that’s number fourteen, or if you hear fourteen oh that’s this card. Whereas the way I had memorized this other deck, I didn’t index it.
But yes, so I used his method up front, which was, again, I mean really based on the same concept right? Which is to turn it into an image to make it visual. Each card you draw some image of something fanciful and it links it to the number in an interesting way, in a visual way. So what you’re basically doing is you’re linking the card and the number in an image. I didn’t install it the Memory Palace at the time because I didn’t know that. But it seems to me like it’s kind of the same idea, right? It’s turning numerical or verbal memory into visual memory which we know is far more powerful.
Anthony: I think too, if you don’t mind me inserting this, for anyone who’s listening to this and they don’t know Tamariz, they should not just think of him necessarily as a guy who can teach you to memorize a deck of cards and do all kinds of routines with them, but he’s also a very good person to read for things you should be remembering about how to be a memorable performer. Five Points in Magicis one of his great books.
Alex: That’s a great book. He’s a wonderful mentor and also he’s talks about so much more than magic. How to become kind of a complete performer and a complete person. He’s got so much insight and wisdom.
Anthony: You have a really interesting discussion of shuffling which you sort of have mentioned just now. It’s one of the, I think, most fascinating parts of the book and you make the math very clear. But could you say a few words about the mysteries of shuffling, and what it means to shuffle a deck of cards from a mathematical sense?
Alex: Yeah sure. I mean shuffling stuff is pretty cool I have to say. There’s two basic ideas that I talk about. The first is the question of how much you have to shuffle a deck for it to become truly mixed. So what does it mean when you shuffle a deck? You basically, and I’m talking here about a riffle shuffle, you basically split the deck roughly in half, then you sort of riffle them together and the cards mix.
So there’s the question of how many times do you have to do that before the decks are truly random. Meaning you can’t really recognize the original order. The more formal definition, actually, would be – well let’s just leave it at that – to where they’re perfectly random.
So anyway this question was posed in a formal way by Dave Bayer and Persi Diaconis. Dave Bayer is a professor of mathematics at Columbia and Persi Diaconis is now at Stanford though at the time I believe he was at Harvard. Persi was also a magician who trained under Dai Vernon, the great master of sleight of hand. The man who fooled Houdini. Persi was interested because he’d read about a trick that would been published in a magazine or journal in an obscure place and suggested that someone could shuffle and then find a card even after it’s been shuffled.
Anyway, a long story short they did an analysis. They found it takes about seven shuffles to completely mix the deck, to fully randomize it. Which is surprising in a way because it’s a lot or it seems like a lot. More interesting was that it’s not a very linear process. It doesn’t really happen incrementally. You don’t really get much randomness out of the first four or five shuffles, and then right around six and seven is what you could call a phase change. So it very rapidly becomes random. Basically it’s an exponential decay, which is pretty cool.
So that’s an interesting result, and it had implications for casinos and whatnot stuff like that. It also means you could do some pretty cool tricks where you have someone pick a card and put it back in, shuffle and still you can find their card because there’s still patterns that are recognizable sequences.
Now that’s a shuffle that randomizes the deck. The reason why shuffling works is because it’s sloppy. When you shuffle you don’t cut the cards precisely in half. You riffle the cards together but it’s not one after another you know you get groups of two and three and four. That’s what introduces the randomness. It turns out that if you shuffle perfectly, and by perfectly I mean you cut the deck precisely in half and then you interleave the cards so they thought they mesh exactly one, one, one, one, one, that isn’t random at all and after eight of those shuffles, they’re called pharaoh shuffles, the deck returns to its original order.
What’s perhaps even cooler is that this is true for any number of cards. Only the number of shuffles required is different depending on how many you have. There’s a simple mathematical formula that tells you given N number of cards how many shuffles you need to do in order to get the deck to reset itself.
This is tied to something in mathematics known as group theory which is essentially is a language for symmetry. Group theory underlies the standard model of physics. Granted those are very different types of groups, but it’s a similar mathematical structure. To me that relationship, that connection is very beautiful. Something very beautiful and rich. Also, when applied, can create some of the coolest magic tricks you’ve ever seen.
Anthony: It’s quite incredible to think about, and, again, I highly recommend reading your book because of that entire passage. Actually, it’s more than a passage. It’s quite an adventure. It’s one of the show pieces of the book I would say, the discussion of shuffling. You mentioned practicing remembering names. Persi Diaconis was it?
Alex: Yeah that’s right.
Anthony: That he was a student of Dai Vernon. I have never know – sometimes it’s Dai and sometimes it Dai Vernon. I know he was a Canadian which, of course, gives me lots of pride being a Canadian myself. For people who don’t know the story, who is Dai Vernon and how did he fool Houdini.
Alex: Dai Vernon is widely considered one of the greatest sleight of hand magicians of all time. His influence is a towering influence on magic. He was a Canadian. That’s exactly right. Although he came to the states and cut his teeth in Chicago. He rose to become this master of close up magic and sleight of hand. He eventually became sort of the dean, sort of the patriarch of the Magic Castle, lived there for a long time and died in his ninety’s. He was this legendary figure who fooled Houdini.
The story behind that, it’s a true story. It’s kind of grown into almost mythology. But the gist of that was that he was – well Houdini had this very famous bet. He said no magician could fool him three times with the same trick. Because in magic you’re famously not supposed to repeat a trick. The saying is once it’s a trick, twice is a lesson. Because magic relies on surprise, right. If we’re watching it again you know you might notice certain things.
Anyway, apparently as the story goes Houdini his bet or his boast was out there for a while and no one had beat him. Finally, one night at a dinner, I believe it was in Chicago, in Houdini’s honor, it was at the Society of American Magicians dinner, which Houdini was president for a while, Dai Vernon does a version of the ambitious card, which is this classic trick where you put a card into the deck it rises to the top over and over again.
Vernon did a version of it for Houdini, and as the story goes, he did it seven or eight times and Houdini was totally stumped. As a side note, he was actually using a gimmick that was invented by Hofzinser, an Austrian magician. That sealed his fame as the man who fooled Houdini and the ambitious card, or this version of it, as the trick that fooled Houdini.
But even if it weren’t for that, Dai Vernon deserves his station because he was a great master who invented dozens and dozens and dozens of moves, and not only that, pioneered this philosophy of magic that emphasizes naturalness above showmanship. Dai Vernon grew up on reading Erdnase, and because of that, because of his connection to the gambling rooms and to the card tables, for him it was all about being understated and not revealing a great technique or flourishes, but really just being natural and making it look like nothing is being done. That magic is really just coming out of nowhere. So anyway, that’s the long winded version of the story.
Anthony: Well it’s a very good one. For anyone listening to you have got to check, if you’re interested in magic, check out Dai Vernon on YouTube. There’s some great footage of him performing that is exactly as you describe very natural, and he’s quite a character. Speaking of repeating things seven or eight times, one of the tragic comedies in your book is something that I’ve certainly experienced, which is going to lead into a question, which is why do girlfriends hate our magic so much after the first trick or two?
Alex: Yeah, right. Well I think, that’s a good question. Man, I wish I had a good answer. That would have saved me a lot of heartache. I think the thing is this. Like anything if you’re obsessed with it, well let me say one thing. First of all the thing with magic is you can have to practice it on people. I mean you can practice a trick on your own a million times and you have to, but eventually the only way to practice magic is on someone else.
Unfortunately, those closest to us are the ones that are hit the hardest by that. So I think often, whether it’s your family or friends, in my case it was definitely my friends and my girlfriend, were at first you know this is great. Some magic tricks and then after a while it was like wow there’s a lot of magic tricks, and then eventually for the love of god no more magic tricks. I think it’s partly that.
I also think, you know let’s face it, magic is kind of geeky. I mean that in the greatest way possible. You know nerd power, but it is a little nerdy. Maybe if you’re not into that that, that could also maybe get old for some people. I think magicians are obsessive people often. Very much so in the way that anyone, whether it’s music or magic or whatever, standup comedy, you know you have to practice it. Doing the same thing over and over again and become very obsessive about it. That might not be the easiest thing to live with all the time.
Also once you figure out how it’s done, it’s not always this fun for ten more times. At this point my girlfriend knows pretty much how everything is done, and she now thinks like a magician. So it’s very hard to fool her. I really have to figure out something, because she knows all about horses and double – like she knows all the techniques. So even if I do a new trick and it’s based in techniques that she understands and she can figure it out, reverse engineer it. So I really have to try hard to fool her. That’s actually fun to do, but you know I think that might also be part of it.
Anthony: In my experience if I could fool a girlfriend that I’ve had for a year and a half, then I think I’m on to something.
Alex: That’s right. No, it’s absolutely true. It’s kind of, in some ways, the best audience.
Anthony: One thing that I find really interesting is the nature of competition. I was watching an older lecture from Shawn Farquhar. He said that he’s met some of his best friends at magic competitions. I was just wondering what your experience has been like that when it comes to friendship and competition, and also in the context of mentorship because another big part of the book is your relationship with a mentor and how that develops.
Alex: Yeah that’s a good question. I mean I was amazed when I first discovered that there were all these magic competitions, national ones, local ones and then there’s international ones like FISM. The world championships also known as the Magic Olympics every three years, which Shawn Farquhar won. He’s probably one of the great living competitive magicians. He’s won at everything basically.
When you go to these competitions you definitely see the same faces over and over again. In terms of mentorship, a lot of the magicians who compete have mentors. In some cases, not so much in the in the US, but in like Korea, for instance, there are coaches really at magic schools. So the mentorship relationship there is very strong. But it’s true everywhere. In Spain too, there is a kind of a legacy of students and teachers. So that’s very big and competing for your country is very big in these places.
I mean the end of the day, magic is still a fairly small community. It’s not like musicians you know. It’s magicians. I mean it’s maybe bigger than you would expect and that it’s everywhere. It’s in every city, there are these magic societies and they have hundreds and hundreds of local assemblies, but it’s still the kind of place where after a while everybody kind of knows everybody. Which is one of the things that I think makes it so charming.
At these competitions you definitely see, I mean I probably have been to a dozen of them or so, the same people over and over again in the audience and also on the stage. I think it lends itself even to these very friendly rivalries were people know each other. They also worked in the same industry from a more business standpoint. Everybody knows the challenges of that. So I think there is this camaraderie in the business itself. Yeah, you definitely see people who are just lifelong friends in the art. I think that’s pretty cool
Anthony: I’m wondering given your interests in physics and journalism and in magic, I wonder, just as some rapid fire questions, what would you say is the most important thing to remember about each of those fields about journalism, about writing as such, about magic and about physics and math?
Alex: If I were going to try to make a generalized statement, and again, this is only as true as it is general. It’s only as true is that a very general statement can never be. That’s what I really meant to say. To me there’s this underlying mystery to it all.
What attracts me to all of them is this thrilling sense of mystery. What I mean by that is in physics you’re dealing with the most fundamental mysteries in science. Really you’re looking at the irreducible bits of matter. You’re looking at the nature of space and time, the origins of the universe, the end of the universe. These to me are, I’m not a religious person, but they are almost spiritual questions.
They’re so profound that I don’t know what’s deeper than those. It’s so mysterious when you start to study physics, and obviously when you get into quantum physics and relativity, when you realize how far from common sense and from what we’re used to nature behaves in this incredibly magical mysterious way. I think Einstein said the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it’s comprehensible. So I love the mystery of that. That just blew my mind from the moment I learned about it.
Obviously, magic is the same way. I’m not going to suggest that doing a card trick is this lofty is studying the big bang, but when you see a magic trick and you don’t know how it’s done there’s this wonderful beautiful sense of mystery. The kind of mysteries that you have experienced all the time when you were a kid, and you were seeing the world for the first time.
That is a pleasure to me. It’s something that the never gets old. Even when you know how it’s done, there is this mystery to how the mind works and why we’re able to be fooled by these things. That taps into the mysteries of the brain and these foibles that we succumb to that are really innate. The way our brain works and what makes us human and what makes us so adept. That’s beautiful so it gets into the mysteries of the mind.
Then writing too. Writing is a way to search for meaning and to find meaning and to essentially capture meaning and put it down on the page and to communicate. Writing is such a mysterious process because so much of the time you really don’t know where it’s going. It’s just digging and you’re really just feeling around in the dark. The creative source is just ineffable. You hope it’s going to come.
You work really hard at all of these things. It’s work, work, work, work, work. You sit down and you do the work. Then you hope that the mystery and the inspiration comes to you. But in the end there’s just this unknown. It’s just these very bizarre and mysterious things that underlie them. I guess that to me is what’s the most exciting. Maybe that a little cheesy but that’s sort of how I think of it.
Anthony: The book ends with you finally getting a bit of a smile from the from one of your assessors after you complete your journey and it’s a great ending to the book. But I wonder, outside of competition, is there one magician living today, maybe other than Penn and Teller, who you would be over the moon if you could fool that particular magician. Who would that be?
Alex: This is probably the cheesiest answer I could probably give. But I would love to fool David Blaine. I’m sorry. I know that’s terrible.
Anthony: I don’t think that’s cheesy at all. Say more.
Alex: I think we maybe could. I don’t know. I mean he knows a lot about magic. He does. Sometimes he gets a bad rap, but he’s actually an expert. He knows a ton. So I think fooling him would be tough but fun. His street magic, his earlier stuff was inspiring to a whole generation of magicians. I really appreciate that about him. So I think that’s cool. I guess if I had to pick another person it would probably be Tamariz just because I think of all the magicians in the world he’s the one I find to be the most inspiring. If I could fool him that would be like epic.
Anthony: That would be amazing. I’ve never understood the, whatever you want to call it, the Blaine bashing because I think he’s really quite a character and very good at what he does.
Alex: Yeah is he really is.
Anthony: Well so Fooling Houdini is an excellent book and thank you again for being on the show and for writing such a such a great exposé of your experience in that world and tying it together with math and all these other elements of the of the human psyche and your own personal journey.
Alex: Thanks, Anthony. I appreciate it. It was a pleasure.
You’ve dreamed about it for years. Opening your mouth and fluently speaking a foreign language. You know just how deeply that ability would fill the wide open gap in your soul.
You may not be fully aware of why your monolingualism hurts so bad, but in this post you’ll discover 15 reasons to find out what you’re missing.
Let’s explore each of these and see how each can inspire you to get started learning a language today. There’ll be some powerful tips and action steps for you at the end so you can get started today.
Learning A Language Exercises Your Brain
Do you ever feel like your mind has gone a bit soft?
Chances are it does feel a little doughy. The good news is that learning a language is one of the best long-term workouts you can get. Working with new words and grammar rules gets multiple areas of the brain working together.
And because you get to think familiar thoughts from a completely new angle, your perspective stretches more profoundly than looking at an M.C Escher painting ever will.
Language Learning Develops Discipline
Languages are fun, but also require consistency of exposure and effort. Luckily, access to languages has never been easier thanks to the Internet.
However, you do have to click over to the right websites and invest your time optimally. Sites like Duolingo and Memrise offer some help, but you’ll also want to find resources that capture all of the “Big Five Musts” of language learning:
Memorizing
Reading
Listening
Speaking
Writing
The good news is that you can get each of these done in the first half hour of your day with an additional one hour or less in speaking practice with a tutor per week.
Covering The Big Five Of Language Learning is especially easy if you develop the discipline of consistently getting your language learning in before you even switch on the computer. There’s more information about making sure you get all of these done within the first 15-30 minutes of your day in my case study Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets.
After you’ve covered your daily language learning activities first thing in the morning, you’ll never never suffer the dreaded Zeigarnik Effect which creates intrusive thoughts when we’re not focusing on things we need to get done.
For the rest of your day, you can check in on your language periodically by stocking up on podcasts, watching some Youtube videos in your target language and by using the technique taught at the end of this article.
Finally, work on understanding motivation in the context of language learning. Master your motivation and you’ll make steady strides toward fluency in no time.
Language Study Deepens Your Appreciation And Understanding Of Your Mother Tongue
You rarely ponder it and yet it’s in front of your eyes and on your mind all day long. It even dominates your dreams. Yes, your mother tongue is that prevalent.
But just imagine understanding the ins and outs of your mother tongue at a higher level. The benefits are wide reaching and knowledge of how and why we speak as we do will enrich many aspects of your life.
Your mother tongue is also downright amusing when you realize how many weird things we say. And as I suggest in this video…
You won’t get this level of silent education and amusement while walking down the street in any other way, so pay attention to the odd nature and quality of the phrases we speak. Ezra Pound called this element the logopoeia of language and it is profound.
New Languages Exercise The Muscles Of Your Mouth And Ears
There are spots on your tongue that you didn’t know you have. Lots of them.
And that’s not to mention the backs of your teeth and the terrain of your palette. When learning a new languages, these places suddenly become a vast world ready for exploration.
Your ears develop exciting new abilities too. You’ll automatically start picking up on variations in sound and your attentiveness to detail will improve. All languages are musical and syncing your ears with your mouth makes you both the player and the instrument. Prepare to bloom.
Your Cultural Knowledge And Understanding Expands
Want to know why some people tick as they do? Learn about their culture from the inside looking out instead of trying to peer in.
Whether it’s history, politics, cinema, literature, theater or music, the ability to study and experience these aspects of a culture from within its language is inspiring. Even sculpture and painting take on new dimensions when you can read the plaques in your target language.
The best part is that your interest in the culture will expand. When you start learning the language of a new culture you’re interested in, prepare for your curiosity to increase twelve-fold (or more).
Numbers And Math Concepts Will Grow Your Logical And Conceptual Abilities
Learning to count and perform basic math operations in another language can feel a bit like learning to tie your shoelaces all over again.
Different languages express numbers and the time of day in unique ways that can be puzzling to the point of frustration. But push through and you’ll be delighted by your ability to think backward, sideways, upside down and in some cases completely opposite to your norms. Win in this department and you’ll enjoy one of the highest forms of mental triumph you can experience.
Learning Languages Boosts Self-Esteem And Confidence
You’ve seen the word “baker” thousands of times. But how about “Bäcker”? You recognize it in principle, but it looks weird with that extra letter and the umlaut, right?
It sure does, though no more or less than “baker” looks to a German-speaker who can also probably figure out what the word means in English thanks to the similarity in spelling.
It’s a beautiful thing when you’re able to see connections between languages, but it takes training. And you’ll often do a Homer Simpson-forehead smack when you figure out similarities that should have been more obvious. That’s just part of growing.
Then there’s the matter of completely new character sets. Few languages will challenge your ability to recognize patterns and associate sounds with symbols than Japanese or Chinese.
Yet, once you’ve got your foot in the door, you’ll grow by leaps and bounds and get to explore yet another dimension of logical arrangements you previously could not understand.
One Or More Extra Languages Widens Your Job Prospects
Even if that job you’re dreaming of doesn’t require proficiency in another language, what boss or hiring committee won’t recognize your discipline and enhanced thinking abilities as an advantage?
You can position yourself better and even open a company up to new opportunities that were previously closed to them when they hire you.
If you’re a freelancer, your pool of possibilities is also broader, as is your potential for networking.
New Languages = New Friends Lots Of Them
It’s not that people who speak only your mother tongue bore you. But you are a curious person with multiple interests and you don’t want to get tapped out or caught in the hamster wheel of friendships that cannot grow.
That’s why meeting new people you can speak to from within their culture can be so profound. You get the benefit of learning about their world and expressing details about yours. You can then bring new things back to your old friendship circles. This sharing breathes new life into everything and creates a perfect circle between the old and new.
Just make sure you don’t tell your friends any of these 5 Lies About Language Learning. They not true and only drag everyone down, especially you.
Location. Location. Location.
What better way to enjoy what you’ll learn from your new friends than to visit their homeland?
Not only that, but you’ll be able to hold conversations with the locals, order in restaurants with confidence and even complain in hotels about the water temperature if you wish.
Language Learning Slows You Down
This feature of learning language might sound like a minus, but in our sped-up world, nothing could be healthier than taking the time to learn deeply at a slower pace.
Just like you don’t want to abandon the training wheels on a bike too soon, learning a language requires you to master a number of fundamentals. Gain traction with these and you can tackle the next level (and the level after that) with consistency, clarity and the certainty that you’re getting it right.
Learning A Language Teaches You A Ton About How To Learn
Learning languages requires strategies that apply to learning anything. You can bring outside tactics to help you as you explore a new language, but more importantly, you’ll take a lot of new approaches away for other kinds of learning.
For example, you’ll learn how to assess what you don’t yet know how to say and find resources to fill in the gaps. You can transfer this ability to any communication-based activity. You’ll spot missing words and note the need for clarity when writing or editing, for example.
Learning Vocabulary And Phrases Exercises Your Memory
Retention and recall advance you through the levels, and even in your mother tongue, it’s impossible to plateau. There are always more words to learn and memorize.
How To Learn And Memorize Any Word Or Phrase In Any Language Fast
The great thing about consciously using your memory while learning vocabulary and phrases is that you don’t have to rely on painful rote learning. Although index cards and spaced-repetition software certainly have their place, the ancient art of memory, or mnemonics, offers powerful techniques for boosting your vocabulary in record time.
The Memory Palace is one of the most effective memory techniques for language learning because you can group related words together.
For example, a Memory Palace is an imaginary replica of a place you know, ideally a building like your home, school or workplace.
If you can imagine the journey from your bedroom to the kitchen, then you’re already well on your way to creating your first Memory Palace. If you need more help, you can use the Magnetic Memory Method Masterplan.
To do it right, draw out a floor plan of your chosen building. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just recognizable enough for you to recognize a distinct route. Try to move from the inside out and avoid crossing your path.
How To Use The Magnetic Journey Method For Learning Your Foreign Language
Then choose a number of “Magnetic Stations” along the route you’ve created. Attempt to have at least ten in your first Memory Palace, using spots like the corner of each room, tables, chairs and doorways.
Next, get together the vocabulary you want to memorize. It can be random words or a list based on themes like travel. You can also memorize lists of verbs, nouns, adjectives or all of the preposition.
Finally, you create a “Magnetic Bridging Figure.” Base your Magnetic Bridging Figure on a real person or an actor for best results.
Cartoon characters also work well. The easier it is for you to see this character interacting with different objects the better. And if you can associate the figure with the sounds of the words, you will be memorizing at the highest possible level.
For example, let’s say you’ve got a short list of German adjectives:
Bockig
Dunkel
Weich
To get started with memorizing German vocabulary, you could imagine James Bond in your bedroom. “Bockig” means “stubborn,” so you could see Bond stubbornly whipping a block of ice with licorice. If you take a few seconds to exaggerate this weird image, you’ll find that it’s hard to shake from your mind.
Plus, when you revisit the image in your bedroom later, it will remind you that the word you’re looking for starts with “bo” thanks to James Bond.
The “ck” sound in “block” will help you recall the “ck” sound in the target word and the liquorice in the image will help you recall the final “ish” sound. The more “stubborn” Bond looks in your image and the more exaggerated you make the action and colors, the better you’ll be able you recall the sound and meaning of the word.
The description you’ve just read may sound complicated, but that’s because you’re reading a mnemonic create by someone else. Once you start using this technique on your own, it will soon become second nature to you.
Here’s another example:
Let’s say that James Bond is now in your kitchen. You’ve got a basketball net in there and you see Bond slam “dunk” the letter “l” through the hoop. If you see the hoop as a dark black hole, then it will be simple to recall that dunk + l = dunkel, which means dark.
To give a final example, “weich” means soft in German. By the door leading out of your home, you could see James Bond squeezing a viper between the jaws a soft and furry vice. Make it exaggerated and funny so that the imagery leaps out at you and the details make it easy to decode both the sound and meaning of the word.
Again, these examples only demonstrate the guidelines of how mnemonics work. You’ll need to experiment and create your own images based on the words you want to learn and memorize.
In whatever language you’re using, avoid getting stalled by looking for one-to-one correspondences between the images and words. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how easily your mind brings it all together based on near-associations.
All that remains is to rehearse the Magnetic Journey Method in your mind a sufficient number of times until the words enter long-term memory.
You can speed up the memorization process further by writing sentences using the words and speaking those sentences in a conversation. Casually mentioning to people what you’ve memorized and how you did it using mnemonics is also a great way to solidify new vocabulary and phrases.
Finally, you can follow these steps for every letter of the alphabet. For example, here are some Hindi Alphabet Memory Palace secrets from a Magnetic Memory Method student.
There Are No Magic Bullets In Language Learning (And That Is A Beautiful Thing)
It’s normal and natural to look for shortcuts. But when it comes to language learning, there aren’t any. In fact, shortcuts, like SMART goals, aren’t necessarily desirable.
Why? Because you benefit so much from the learning process. You develop patience, stamina and the ability to juggle many moving parts. In today’s age when computers are bearing so much cognitive load on our behalf, more than ever we need to have this kind of mental activity to keep our brains fit and our mental lives stimulating.
Above all, by not seeking shortcuts and just getting down to learning, you learn to deal with imperfect communication. This process teaches you to come at problems from different angles until you’ve made things clear.
And not seeking shortcuts is easy… So long as you’re in the G.A.P.:
In a world with over 7000 languages, getting in the language learning G.A.P. and staying there is a skill worth having. In every tongue.
You want your children to remember what they learn, right? You’ve probably even hoped that they’d learn enough to succeed in life.
Maybe even change the world.
It’s a great aspiration. And an important one.
And yet …
Here’s Why So Few Children Fail To Make A Mark As Grownups
Memory.
Think about it. Every test your child will ever take relies on memory. And every gatekeeper your child will ever pass on the way to fulfilling their dreams hinges on the ability to recall details. Thoroughly and accurately.
And since we know that the ability to succeed has everything to do with what you know (and who you remember that you know), the question is …
How do you get your children started towards a superior memory so that they can succeed?
I’m glad you asked because you’re about to find out.
The Simple Way To Use Rhymes And Your Family Home To Learn, Memorize And Recall Anything
The best memory techniques all use buildings and other fixed locations. Why? Because the human mind has the unusual ability to remember the layout out buildings. For this reason, location-based mnemonics has lasted thousands of years.
Go ahead and try it. Have everyone in your family draw a map of your home. You’ll be amazed by the accuracy each of you brings to the game.
Here’s an image of a simple drawing from a young person who did precisely this activity to give you ideas and inspire you. She took the layout of her home from the drawing stage to rebuilding this floor plan in her mind so she could memorize a poem.
The Special Structure Anyone Can Use To Learn, Memorize And Recall Anything
Anyone of any age can build one and use it to memorize anything.
But please don’t use Memory Palaces to memorize any old thing. The trick is to use these wonderful mental structures for memorizing important information.
Not just any information. I’m talking about the kind of information that makes a direct impact on the quality of your child’s life. In the present and the future.
So location is the first power of memory. The second power of memory is association.
To use this power, you associate information with a location. And to make the information really magnetic, you create crazy images that makes it easier to recall. Usually these images will come from visual sources you already know, such as movies, paintings, famous figures and the like. You can also turbocharge the images you create by using stock images placed in the Memory Palace.
Here’s An Easy Way To See The Second Power Of Memory In Action
Imagine that your house has five rooms. Kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom and playroom. You’ve already drawn them out and can walk in your imagination from room to room. And your child can do this too.
Next, use the following rhymes to place an imaginary object in each room.
1 is a bun 2 is a shoe 3 is a bee 4 is a door 5 is a hive
You don’t have to use these rhymes. It’s great fun to come up with your own as a family activity. But these are standard and you can find a full list of these mnemonic examples and a full explanation of this mnemonic peg system here.
But keep in mind that we’re going to take things one step further than rhyming. We’re going to combine this technique with a familiar building like your home.
Now pretend that your son or daughter needs to learn the names of the first five vertical entries on the Periodic Table of Elements. The following suggestions are examples only. The method will work best when young people come up with the images on their own.
Hydrogen goes in the first room. They see a bun saying “Hi” to a drone reading Genesis.
In the second room, they see a shoe with a huge L on it. It’s drinking tea and saying “um.” Lithium,
The third room has a bee. He’s also saying “um” while drinking soda. Sodium.
The fourth room has an enormous potato with a door from which donkeys are entering the room with small potatoes in their mouths. Potassium.
In the fifth room, we have rubidium. Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz is knocking on the hive.
You can help everyone in your family use this location and rhyme-based memory technique to learn and memorize anything. From facts and mathematical figures to foreign language vocabulary and artifacts from Ancient Egypt. Being able to recall these in a snap make a huge difference for kids in school. And bilingualism is very health for young brains.
The Minimalist Guide To Making Memory Improvement A Family Event
If your young person is struggling to learn, retain and reproduce information, here’s how you can help. If you’ve already used your home as a Memory Palace, visit a relative or friend. Make a Memory Palace based on their home. You can literally walk the journey between the actual rooms with them, encouraging them to come up with the memorable images on their own.
You can also use a walk through a simple park, a movie theater, a church or a library. But please do start with simple structures before introducing anything more complex. Mastering simple buildings makes mastering multi-detailed environments much easier.
Teach Your Kids How To Paint Like Picasso In Their Minds
If your child struggles with creating images to associate information with, help them to become more visual by looking at art together. If you can visit art galleries, all the better. These buildings can become Memory Palaces too.
You can also help your children become more visual by encouraging drawing more than just Memory Palaces. Characters from movies they’ve enjoyed and especially representations of people from books they’ve read about but never seen work well. They will get the visual imagination flowing.
It’s also useful to look at an image and then have your child “remake” the image in their imagination. Seeing in the mind is a skill you can develop over time and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Mentally “copying” the great masters is perfectly fine. Great and original artists do it all the time.
Use World Class Examples To Inspire Your Child To Memorize
One way to make these memory skills more interesting to young people is to tell them the story of their origin in Ancient Greece. Simonides of Ceos was giving a speech at a banquet when the building collapsed. Because he had memorized where everyone was using the location principle, he could help families identify their loved ones.
The Simonides story also perfectly demonstrates the principles of exaggerated imagery along with location. The vibrant image of a building collapsing is just of the reasons the story has lasted the centuries. The image is as hard to forget as is the promise of near-miraculous memory ability.
Your kids will also find Matteo Ricci‘s life as an international mnemonist inspiring. He sailed from Italy to China and could memorize books forwards and backward. His life included a great deal of drama and even tragedy.
You can also share with them the stories of how ordinary people have learned memory techniques and used them to accomplish extraordinary feats. Read Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein for a particularly compelling story to pass on.
You can also listen to the Magnetic Memory Method interviews with Dave Farrow, Mark Channon and Alex Mullen for many inspiring stories of ordinary people learning memory techniques and accomplishing great things for themselves and others. Nelson Dellis, for example, has done a lot for Alzheimer’s research and you can contribute to it by taking his Extreme Memory Challenge.
Show All Children The True Path To Memory Mastery With One Simple Tool
We double what we’ve learned every time we teach. Teaching is the simplest tool for learning something better ever invented. All you need to do is learn something and then share what you’ve learned. Merely by doing this you will have learned it better yourself. It’s also great memory exercise.
Encourage your child to share what they’ve learned with others so that they absorb the skills with greater depth. Teaching others also follows the principle of contribution. Your child feels like she or he has given something great and also made the world a better place. Reciprocity will be a natural result.
You can also ask your child to teach you what they’ve learned directly from their memory. Ask them to “decode” the images they’ve created without revealing them. Focus on the core information first and then share the weird images if you wish.
At the end of the day, these images are nothing more than training wheels on a bike. They prompt or trigger the target information. But it’s the memorized information they should reproduce first.
Having your child repeat what they’ve memorized at home also gives them practice in a low-stress environment. (Your home is low-stress, isn’t it?) That way, when the time to take a test arrives, they can access those comfortable feelings about memory created at home. This certainty will help them cope with the pressure of performance at school. Imagination and memory abilities soar much higher when we’re relaxed.
Are Memory Techniques The Ultimate Learning Solution?
Yes and no. Memory techniques are a supplement to how schools teach, not a replacement. Some kids take to it more than others and for some, taking pleasure in the technique is necessary. But if the images are sufficiently funny and fascinating, it’s hard to imagine the Magnetic Memory Method as boring.
As a final tip, avoid perfection. Just have fun with the art of memory and let go of the outcome. At its core, all we’re doing is looking at information that needs to be learned and retained in a new and likely more interesting way.
But it’s important not to associate this technique with the same pain and frustration given to rote learning. Your child will always be learning the information, but if something truly won’t stick, move on and come back to it. You increase the pleasure and chances of success by not forcing it.
And if you as a parent would like more information about using Memory Palaces to learn and memorize information that can make a positive difference in your life, I’ve got a Free Memory Improvement kit for you. It comes with four free videos and will teach you everything you need to know about improving the memory of everyone in your family.
So what do you say? Are you ready to start changing the world? All it takes is teaching memory skills to one young mind at a time.
Could This Man Be The GODFATHER Of Memory Techniques Of The 20th & 21st Century?
(Seriously. The dude has memory courses on vinyl.)
Although memory training has been around for millennia, it has seen a huge resurgence in modern times. There are now countless books and materials about memory improvement, not to mention video courses, audio programs and, yes, resources like the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.
But if there is one name who stands behind the explosion of mnemonics in the 20th and 21st century, that name is Harry Lorayne. Through his voluminous work as an author and presenter, Lorayne spawned and popularized the modern industry of memory training. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in terms of sheer visibility and quality, I think it’s safe to say that Harry Lorayne is the Mnemonic Godfather of modern memory training.
How To Survive A Terrible Childhood And Create A Memorable Career
But the future didn’t always look so promising for Lorayne. Judging from his childhood conditions during the depression-era, it seemed that the odds were firmly stacked against him.
“I had an awful childhood. I’m a depression kid.” Lorayne shares in his 2012 interview with Michael Senoff. “I remember having a potato for dinner.”
He was also affected with dyslexia, which he only identified as such years later. This learning disability caused him to struggle and fail while in grade school.
But Harry Lorayne’s life took a different course when he discovered books on memory improvement. As he told me in the exclusive interview he gave for Masterclass members, he discovered memory techniques in a dramatic way and after learning these methods and drastically improving his grades, he started teaching his classmates on how they too could become memory masters.
From there, Harry Lorayne progressively became more and more successful. Lorayne has managed to emerge as one of the most famous and published magicians and memory experts of the century. Now in his late 80s, Lorayne is still at work teaching the world about memory, success and perseverance.
The Secret Ingredient That Made Harry Lorayne And His Memory Techniques Go Viral
Harry Lorayne was born of Jewish parents in 1926 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, right near the East River. Having come to the world only 3 short years before the Great Depression, Lorayne’s childhood was spent in impoverished and difficult circumstances. Most everyone was poor, and Lorayne was amongst the poorest of the poor.
Poverty colored all aspects of Harry Lorayne’s childhood, including his play. He recalls how with his childhood friends he would play in a garbage dump near where he lived. Lorayne recounts: “The garbage became a petrified hill. They were long, petrified mountains of garbage, and that was our playgrounds. That’s what my friends and I played on when I was a little boy.”
School also proved to be difficult Lorayne. Due to his undiagnosed dyslexia, Lorayne received failing grades as a young boy. To make matters worse, his father had a heavy-handed way of dealing with his son’s school performance.
“I got the paper [test] home to my father to sign, and he would look at the failing grade, and he would punch me,” remembers Lorayne “I was scared. Not of getting failing grades, but of getting hit by my father.”
How Fear Created A Memory Solution That Would Help Millions Of People Improve Their Memory
Pushed to find a solution, a stroke of insight struck Lorayne one day on his walk to school. “I just realized that at that point in my life, all you had to do was remember the darn answers to the questions, and then you’ll get a passing grade. And then, more importantly, your father won’t punch you.”
In other words, Lorayne understood that school was more about a test of how well you could memorize than a test of ‘intelligence’. As he says repeatedly in many of his interviews “There is no learning without memory.”
Lorayne soon headed to the library where he asked the librarian to show him where the books on “how to memorize” were kept. There, he immersed himself for hours in how-to books on memorization. These included books from the 17th and 18th century, and works from modern memory trainers, such as David Roth.
Much of the material was not comprehensible for him at his young age. However, he understood enough to teach himself how to memorize things quickly and effectively using mnemonics techniques.
From that point on, he aced his tests at school, surprising his teachers and sparing him from his aggressive father. His classmates took notice, and started to ask Lorayne how he managed to have improved his memorization so drastically. That marked the start of his career teaching others on how to memorize effectively.
Later, Lorayne would even have other people teaching his techniques for him. For example, the magician Darwin Ortiz talks about teaching for Lorayne in his Penguin Magic Live Lecture.
But long before being a teacher and helping others become teachers of memory techniques, Lorayne became a dropout during his first year of high school. To make an income, Lorayne started performing memory tricks for small to medium sized audiences. He would impress crowds by memorizing magazine pages, decks of cards or large lists of names. His original intention in doing these shows was to attract students to hire him for memory training. He found little success in doing so, but his shows led him to be noticed by an agent.
The agent started Lorayne on a path of presenting to larger and larger audiences. By 1958, Lorayne was presenting on national television, including shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show and Good Morning America. Lorayne performed on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson no less than 24 times.
One of his most famous memory feats include memorizing each of the names of crowds of up to 1500 people. As much as 20 minutes later, he would be able to name each of the audience’s names when prompted. He is also known for having memorized an entire phone book.
But Lorayne didn’t make his name off of entertaining others with memory tricks alone. Instead, he became famous by teaching others how to use these techniques and improve their own memories.
This Memory Improvement Solution Could End Your Memory Troubles Forever
Harry Lorayne has sold millions of copies of his many books teach people around the world on how to replicate his memorization ability. Many actors and other public figures have publicly acknowledged using Lorayne’s methods. These include New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg, Secretary of State Colin Powell and actor Alan Alda.
Harry Lorayne’s method is based on image associations. This is where the memorizer associates an image with the piece of information that they’d like to remember.
Lorayne’s methods are based on the idea that all memory can be broken down into associations of two entities. As Lorayne puts it “That’s what I teach, how to make one thing remind you of another.” Lorayne’s method also extends the technique to non-physical and non-visual concepts, such as numbers. His teachings guide students on how to visualize numbers physically so as to remember them.
He does this by teaching students to associate numbers 1 through 9 with specific letters (a technique known widely as either the Major Method or Major System). With this technique, any number can be connected with at least one word. By associating numbers with a physical word, numbers are given a physical quality. As compared to the abstract concepts that are numbers, physical qualities can more easily be used as mnemonics.
Lorayne also underlines the importance of paying attention. His method includes teachings on how to concentrate and focus on the information students are trying to memorize. “We are all born with the same capacity for memory,” he says. “It’s a question of having a trained memory, or an untrained memory”
One thing that many note about Lorayne’s work, however, is that his teaching seems not to cover the Memory Palace Method technique. No one is quite sure why, but my feeling is that in some integral manner, memorizing the names of each person in a large crowd must use location in one way or another. Unless the individuals change location, a mnemonist performing a feat like this most certainly taps into the power of a repeated location, if only unconsciously. There is a link between the where the information was memorized and where the mnemonist goes to recall it.
What Will Harry Lorayne’s Contribution To Helping You Create Instant Memories Will Bring To Your Future?
The answer is: Success.
In addition to his immense contribution to memorization training, Harry Lorayne has made significant contributions to the field of magic. For example, he’s written over 30 books on card tricks. As a world recognized magician, Lorayne has invented and refined techniques which are now widely used by current-day amateur and professional magicians.
Lorayne’s life and career shows us how even barriers which many would consider insurmountable can be overcome. His landmark contributions to memory training is an essential tomb in the library of memorization techniques. At 89, Harry Lorayne continues to work and give seminars to large corporate audiences. He has even recently completed an autobiography.
Harry Lorayne, living legend of memory mastery, proving what Winston Churchill said: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”
There’s No Way Of Learning Chinese With A Messy Mind!
Or …
Is there?
Actually, yes. There is.
No matter how manic, no matter how depressed, no matter how much I’ve got on my plate, ALMOST every day, I fit language learning into my schedule.
One of my best tricks is this:
Win The Morning, Win The Day
Do you reach for your cell phone first thing?
And are you making the mistake of using it as an alarm clock so that you have no choice but to check it first thing?
If you’re serious about learning a language, checking your messages and farting around on social media first thing in the morning is a big no-no. That’s true even if you want to learn languages online.
Think about it. How many times have you gotten caught up in the “Twilight Zone” of Facebook only to notice that 15 minutes … 30 minutes … even an entire hour has slipped past.
For nothing!
So don’t do it.
Here’s How To Get Language Learning In First Thing So You Feel On Top Of Your Progress All Day Long
I hate having that feeling throughout the day that I’m neglecting what I love: memory and language learning.
So in addition to winning back oodles of time by not looking at my “dumb phone” and not turning on the computer, here’s what’s going on right now:
It’s a book written in German that teaches how to write the Chinese characters. Tucked inside the book is the notebook I’m using to draw the characters.
I don’t get out of bed until I’ve spent as long as it takes to practice drawing 8 characters 8 times.
Why 8?
No idea. That’s just the number that came to mind. It’s just part of what I’ve learned from Olly Richards:
You Must Have A Language Learning System!
Seriously. You must. Languages don’t get learned Helter Skelter. They get learned based on consistent efforts executed consistently.
That’s the first part of my system and a huge part of The Big Five Of Language Learning.
Next, I pop in my Human Charger and meditate. I do this for exactly 9 minutes.
Why 9 minutes?
Because that’s how long it takes for the Human Charger to shoot its light into my ears. You may have heard me talk about other, more relaxed meditation approaches in the past, but I’m experimenting with this one and it works really well.
Next, I knock off another of The Big Five language learning activities:
Spend Time Listening To Your Language Every Day
Listening to Pimsleur language learning programs (Pimsleur for Mandarin Chinese no less) used to bore the snot out of me. Sorry to be vulgar, but it’s true.
Think about it: You listen to this guy promoting you in English to say stuff in the language you’re studying again and again and …
… again.
It’s Like Pounding Nails Into Your Head!
But then I had an idea:
What if I “fuse” listening to Pimsleur recordings with the Magnetic Memory Method.
Oh ho ho, Magnetic friend. That’s when Pimsleur started to get really interesting.
This might sound complex, but it works.
Get a notebook. Reserve it for your MMM Pimsleur experiment. Then get out a pen and pop on your headphones.
Next, make a couple of columns:
English (or mother tongue) Homophonic transliteration Mnemonic Imagery Words Notes
Also, leave space to draw a Memory Palace on the page. Draw one out using all the principles of the Magnetic Memory Method you’ve learned from one of my books or video courses.
If you don’t know how to make a Memory Palace, get this:
It’s all very easy peasy and, yes, even lemon squeezy (as one MMM student once put it).
Now you’re set. Keep the pause button handy and then press play.
When the man introduces how to say: “Excuse me, may I ask?” pause the recording and write this down in your English column.
Then, after you hear the native speaker say it in your target language, write out what you hear in your own spelling. Say it out loud and spell it in whatever way seems best to you.
Don’t Make The Mistake Of Overthinking This For Mandarin Chinese (Or Any Other Language)
And don’t worry about standardizing your homophonic transliterations. You’re just helping your mind understand the sound and meaning of the phrases using multiple senses and muscles.
Seriously. I can’t tell you the dozens of different ways I’ve spelled different phrases and it doesn’t matter. I can speak them in the target language, in this case, Chinese.
Next, think up some imagery that helps you memorize the words. Whatever comes to mind.
And if you’re following along, the brief meditation will have you calm, relaxed and juiced up with creativity.
Once you’ve got that whipped up, stick it on, at, beside or even under your first Memory Palace station.
Finally, press play again and carry on.
What Will Happen To You Next Is A Language Learning Miracle
Soon the Pimsleur guy will ask you to say that phrase for which you just created mnemonic imagery.
Press pause and then look into your imagination (not at the page!) and “decode” the image you placed on your Memory Palace station.
Got it?
Of Course You Get It!
Because the reality is that if you know mnemonics, there is never any problem with them.
Never.
Anyhow, I do this until I’ve filled out one page of my notebook.
Can You Guess How Much Time This Costs Using Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics So Far?
Go on, have a guess.
Nope.
Still no …
Getting closer.
Oh, all right, I’ll tell you.
15-20 minutes, more or less.
All thanks to cutting out morning social media and 3 little systems:
8 x 8 characters 9 minutes meditation 1 page of MMM-ified Pimsleur
Do this for a month and you’re further along than most people will get in a lifetime of starting and stopping.
But Wait! There’s More About Memorizing Mandarin Chinese I Want To Teach You!
So far we’ve covered 4.3 of The Big Five. We’ve got:
Writing
Reading
Listening
Memorization
… and a touch of solo speaking.
That’s where my Mandarin Chinese speaking partners come in.
You Can’t Expect To Learn A Language Without Actually Speaking It
Now, sometimes what I do with my Mandarin Chinese speaking partners is rather elaborate. More on that in a minute.
The important thing is that I speak with these people. Plain and simple.
Doesn’t have to be perfect. Doesn’t even have to be right. It just has to be time spent speaking.
I do this at least two times a week, ideally three.
This Approach To Learning Mandarin Chinese Is Almost 100% Introverted!
Yes, okay, talking with speaking partners online is technically communicating with other human beings.
Technically.
But it’s still too solitary.
This is why I propose that there’s a sixth component that needs to be added to the Big Five:
Socialization
Think about it.
Are you going to go through all the work of learning a language just to speak with people online?
Of course not.
You want to be able to strike up conversations with the locals when traveling. Order a memory-friendly drink in a restaurant, either in a local restaurant or abroad. Flirt with cute members of the opposite sex, maybe even find the partner of your dreams.
I know I do. So please stay tuned for more language learning for introverts and socialization secrets coming soon.
Further Resources
In the meantime, check out some of these previous Magnetic Memory Method podcast episodes with other great language learners for in-depth tips and training:
Can This Incredible Memory Champion Teach You How To Memorize 52 Playing Cards In 17 Seconds, Ace Med School And Get The Upper Hand On Learning A Language?
Have you ever wondered how the world’s top performers manage to pull off their tremendous feats?
I’ll bet you have. I’ll bet you’ve even felt jealous, and all the more so when it comes to memory champions.
But as Alex Mullen reveals in this exclusive Magnetic Memory Method interview, you can build your memory skills to epic levels with a shockingly small budget of time.
For an hour a day or less, Alex demonstrates that you can learn to memorize a deck of cards in 17 seconds.
You can win a Guinness World Record for memorizing the most digits in under an hour – Alex clocks in at 3029!
And the best part is that you use the powers of memory you develop to sail through your studies. As a John Hopkins University grad with degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Alex is living proof that you really can squeeze it all in and have an excellent memory too.
Currently a medical student at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Alex is not only a two-times World Memory Champion. He currently holds the record for scoring the most points since the competitions began 24 years ago.
So what are you waiting for? Tune into this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. Download the audio and transcript to your desktop and follow through on the suggestions in this action-packed session with one of the world’s greatest living mnemonists.
Episode Transcript
Anthony: Alex, it is really great to have you on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, and actually a real honor because you have achieved so much and really at a young age. Maybe tell people what age you are here in 2016 and a little bit about your first memory of being interested in memory.
Alex: Sure, well let me say first of all, I am happy to be here. It’s nice to be talking you. I got interested in memory back in March 2013. That was sort of the first time, at least that I can think of, that I was introduced to the techniques. At that point, I think I was either a sophomore or junior in college. Up to that point, I had done things like using acronyms and some basic mnemonic stuff, but I really didn’t know about Memory Palaces. I didn’t know about any visual mnemonic strategies, anything more advanced than that.
How To Get Your Foot In The Door With Mnemonics
My first exposure was this TED talk by Joshua Foer called Feats of Memory Anyone Can Do. It was a short TED talk but that just really got me hooked. I was blown away about what he talked about in that talk. I ended up reading his book. He had this TED talk and then he wrote this book, a pretty famous one called Moonwalking with Einstein where he goes into his journey as memory athlete, learning the techniques, competing at the USA Memory Championship. That was really what got me interested.
I tell you, in terms of what was going on in my own life, like I mentioned, I was a student at the time and I probably, and it’s hard to remember ironically, but I’m pretty sure I probably felt like I was struggling with my own memory in school. Not really feeling like I was learning in the most efficient way, forgetting things all the time. Seeing these techniques, obviously as many people do, it struck me as something that I could use to improve my academic life. That was really the original motivator for me using memory techniques. I didn’t really think about competitions. I didn’t really think about memorizing numbers and cards. I really just wanted to use it for school, and that was my initial sort of entry into the world.
Then, once I read his book I got interested, and I figured why not make a system for numbers, make a system for cards, and then at least even if I don’t compete, I can use those to practice techniques and get comfortable with them. That’s what I did. I ended up reading a few more books: Dominic O’Brien‘s Quantum Memory Power, Ron White‘s Memory in a Month. I got through those and just made my systems. I started making a PAO system for numbers, a PAO system for cards. Then I just kind of started practicing and doing the events at the competitions and then trained for about a year. My first competition was the 2014 USA Memory Championship.
The Minimalist Guide To the PAO (Person Action Object) System And Beyond
Anthony: There is so much to talk about with what you just said but maybe if we just jump into the bolts and the mechanics and so forth. When you’re talking about systems and PAO, what are you referring to? I think one thing that is supper important in what you’re saying is you’re talking about creating systems. A lot of people look for a system in someone else’s mnemonic strategy, but you’re talking about creating your own. Why is that important? What do you mean by system? What does it mean to create your own?
Alex: Right, well, when I say I created a PAO system, I was just looking to, as most memory athletes do, create a system that translates numbers or cards into a predetermined image. PAO stands for “person, action, object,” and that means, for instance, for numbers you take every 2-digit number and associate it with a person, an action and an object. When you memorize numbers, you take like say 6 digits at a time, you look at the first 2 digits and you would say who is the person associated with those 2 digits. You move to the second 2 digits and you would say what is the action associated with those 2 digits. Then finally the object for the last 2 digits and then you would string them into this story of this person doing this action or an object. Then that would represent a 6-digit string.
That’s not something I invented. That’s a technique that was around since something like the 2000s or something like that of people the using in competitions. When I say I created my own system, I didn’t invent the system. What I did do is choose which people, which actions, which objects I was going to use in my systems. That’s something every memory athlete or person who wants to use systems to memorize numbers or cards or whatever has to make themselves, because they need those associations to be personal and strong for them.
Like I said, I didn’t I didn’t invent the system but I had to make these images, and I had to choose things that will be personally strong for me. Just talking about systems in general I think is a pretty interesting thing. One thing I do think that I’ve sort of learned, through memory sports, competitions, etc., is that systems can be somewhat complicated to begin with. Then, once you put enough work into them, they really sort of pay off in the end.
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I’ve since moved on from the PAO system. Now I use a 3-digit system to memorize numbers where every 3 digits becomes some sort of image. If you think about that, having to think of an image for every single 3-digit combination, that’s a thousand images, you know that sounds really complicated. I would not advise that many people to do that unless they want to compete, but it’s something that, with enough practice, works really, really well for me. I think it’s an interesting lesson that if you put in enough work up front, it can really sort of payoff down the line even if it seems complicated up front.
Anthony: Yes, I think that’s an important distinction that there is a lot of self-creation even if you’re adopting preexisting models or whatnot. What I wonder is, I mean this is certainly the case for me, I have certain characters that are relatively fixed for cards, for example, but there are times when actually I need to switch between two symbols that I have for the same card. So I use major method for cards. In other words, the queen of clubs can be either a chain or it can be like the queen of clubs literally with a chain, or it can be Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies because of all his double chins, or it can be, you know there’s a couple other variations. Are you really fixed, or do you have some wiggle room in case it just doesn’t work a particular thing that you’ve created for three digits or cards or whatever the case may be?
How To Reduce Luke Skywalker To The Basics And Remember Anything
Alex: That’s a good question. I’d say it’s relatively fixed. I don’t think I personally really do anything that similar to what you said where you have kind of two separate actual things. I mean the furthest I would go I think is, let me think of an example, for me 570 is Luke Skywalker from Star Wars obviously. Like for him for instance, that pops up you know sometimes I might picture Luke Skywalker using his blue lightsaber and you know doing something with it. If it works better, occasionally I’ll just use the lightsaber itself, and he won’t even be part of it.
I do make sort of adjustments in the moment like that just depending on how it fits into the story, but it’s not quite what you’re talking about I think. That said though, when I am using memory techniques/Memory Palaces for learning things in school, I’m a medical student right now, and I will sort of have sometimes occasionally, I try not to do this too much, but I have two different images for certain things. Like sometimes, I am trying to think of an example, sometimes I’ll represent like a white blood cell, this is kind of a weird example, but a white blood cell could be Luke Skywalker actually, and then sometimes depending on just, I guess it’s sort of hard to explain, but sometimes if it’s a little better I’ll use Stephen Colbert, and he also would represent a white blood cell, but I do kind of use one or the other sometimes just depending on what which fits better to the story.
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Anthony: What interests you in medicine and what brought you to that particular field as opposed to any other course of study?
Alex: I’ve been interested in medicine for a long time since high school really. Part of the reason was pretty simple. I just like science. I was kind of a science nerd. I like the kind of problem solving aspect of it. I didn’t like the fact that it was sort of more practical and you could sort of directly influence people rather than being like an inventor. How do people use what you invent but not really having that personal connection.
I mean, yeah, those main things were sort of what got me interested, and then when I was in college, you know I did some shadowing. I followed some doctors around. I did some other things too. I tried to do research, things like that and medicine was just sort of, you know, being a physician was sort of just what struck me as most interesting.
Why Memory Techniques Are Something Everyone Should Learn
Anthony: Intuitively we know there’s so many ways that memory techniques can help physicians. I wonder if in the future you think that there may be a possibility at some point that in a program like medicine, or any program in law school or whatever the case may be, there might be a place for mnemonics as a course of study or an elective that people could take while there while they’re studying a big subject like that?
Alex: Yes, I mean I think, obviously I’m a little biased here, but maybe we both are. You know I think that memory techniques is something that everybody should learn. You know medicine, medicine or not, but medicine especially just because there really is just so much information that you know you have to memorize. I mean obviously the best way I think most people would argue to learn information is to really understand what’s going on. If you have a really deep understanding, you will remember it.
I mean, unfortunately, that’s just not the case in medicine. There’s so much information that you can’t possibly try to find some sort of root understanding in everything. There’s just not enough time in a day. You have to memorize things, if that makes sense. I think memory techniques are something that really can make students learn more efficiently to be able to retain the information longer.
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You know just like cramming and forgetting is such a huge thing for the average med student’s life. They cram for tests. They forget it in two weeks, that kind of sucks you know. It’s not a very good model. I think that memory techniques can definitely help with that. I’m certainly trying my best to use them in my own career to do that, to learn, to keep things more long term. Yeah, I do think that medical students should learn about memory techniques.
Actually, there are already programs out there. There are web sites or courses for instance that incorporate mnemonics that a lot of medical students use that are actually already very popular. For instance, there’s this program called SketchyMicro [now called Sketchy Medical] that uses sketches. So like drawings of places and then they will images, you know mnemonic images into things to teach you about different bugs in microbiology. It is visual learning and it does incorporate pieces of Memory Palace ideas even though you aren’t really using your own personal Memory Palaces per se.
Those have already become quite popular in just a few years. You know I think it is starting to take a little bit of a foothold already. It’ll be very interesting to see where that goes.
Anthony: Cool. I wasn’t aware of that program but I’m always kind of amazed at the requests that people have for ready-made mnemonics as such. You know images that are created by someone else. I wonder what your genuine take on that is. Is that a is that a winning long-term strategy?
Alex: That’s a good question.
The Question That Plagues All Teachers Of Mnemonics (Solved)
Anthony: Is it a point of entry that is legitimate someone could take so long as they develop the ability to create their own images or are you better off, you know, from your own pedagogical opinion, are you just better off just learning the nuts and bolts of making images right from the get go?
Alex: You know that’s a question that I really struggle with a lot. I’m not sure what the answer is. There have been many people that I’ve you know tried to teach memory techniques to for learning specifically, and you know it’s just sort of a fact that a lot of people will try it, probably hit a few road blocks and then just sort of give up. I mean, obviously, myself I’m a “memory athlete” and so it was a little easier for me to just be able to do it, and then also to kind of kick myself in the rear enough to keep trying it to make sure it works.
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In that sense, my point is that maybe it is better to give people these pre-made mnemonics. That’s what SketchyMicro [Sketchy Medical] does. That’s what these other programs like Picmonic do. People really seem to respond to those because they are very low barrier to entry type things.
You can still get a lot of benefits of mnemonics, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them without really doing much upfront work yourself. It doesn’t have to be a very active process. You just watch these videos and they sort of come to you.
That said, like you said, obviously there are benefits to making your own palaces. There are benefits to making your own images. The personal connections are stronger. You can use memories from your own life which make things more memorable.
Even myself, I sort of do a combination of both actually. I personally use SketchyMicro to learn microbiology. Then I use my own images and palaces for the other courses that I’m taking right now like pathology or pharmacology. Then I also do certain things to still take what is happening in the SketchyMicro world and incorporate into my own personal palaces. SketchyMicro has videos for all these different say bacteria or a video for this type of bacteria or this type of virus or whatever. Then I use my own Memory Palaces. I take the images from those videos and put them in like sort of an organizational palace.
I use my own palace and say okay here are all the gram-positive rod bacteria. Here are all of these. I can sort of see the whole structure using my own Memory Palace. I guess my point is that I’m sort of using a hybrid of my own images and their images. This is my roundabout way of saying that I think there are benefits to both. I think definitely it helps in a sense to get people through the door, so to speak, to give them premade images like SketchyMicro, because it is, in my experience at least, it can be difficult to get people to use the techniques because it is a very off the wall, sort of unintuitive – you know it’s intuitive when you’re using it, but it’s an off the wall thing and people struggle. People run into roadblocks. Hopefully that answers the question.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean it’s something I struggle with just how to teach it, how to actually make it palpable for people because so often it sounds like you’re giving the instructions for how to build a jet engine.
Alex: Right.
Anthony: But I think that you and I both know and other mnemonists know that it is so elegant once you know what you’re doing. There’s like an artistry to it, hence art of memory, but it’s kind of ballet. It is just sort of like a kid with a remote control who is up, down, left, right, right, whatever that was – A, B, B, A on the old Nintendo Select Start routine – and there’s just a kind of fluidity to it once that you get rolling and so I think that one of the hallmarks and one of the things that I admire about you is that you’re not just using these, you’re actually teaching them and you have videos now.
Alex: I’m trying to yeah.
Anthony: Well they are excellent and one video in particular, if it’s cool with you, to put it on the page for this interview.
Alex: Sure, yeah.
Can’t Keep Up With Language Learning? Get Hold Of These Crazy Memory Secrets (That Go Way Beyond A PAO System)…
Anthony: You talk about one of the biggest things that people struggle with in memory in general, apart from medical school, which is foreign language vocabulary acquisition. You can watch that video, but what’s your key strategy there?
Alex: I just use sort of the same Memory Palace (a.k.a. Mind Palace) technique that I use for medicine or whatever. Generally, I should probably look into more of some of your stuff. I don’t think I have palaces organized quite the way you do. I just sort of do it haphazardly. What I do is I’ll start in a Memory Palace, choose one and then for vocabulary I’ll just choose locations along the way. I just sort of do the standard mnemonic thing. Create an image for the foreign language word. Create an image for the definition in English, and then have them interact in some way on that locus. That’s really it.
Personally I used mnemonics to learn Spanish and also to learn Chinese. Every language obviously presents with its own unique set of challenges. Chinese is obviously much different than Spanish. I do a couple of different tweaks and nuances to learn the Chinese things. It’s still all pretty much the general idea of palace images, same idea.
Anthony: Are you doing Mandarin or Cantonese?
Alex: It’s Mandarin.
Anthony: All right, we can trade notes because I’m doing Mandarin now too. It’s really fascinating.
Alex: It’s challenging.
Anthony: There is this absolute relationship between what you can do with Spanish and what you can do with Mandarin, but one thing, and maybe you can add your insight, that I find so fascinating, is I actually find Spanish harder with mnemonics than I do Mandarin because there’s so many cognates and I want to get lazy with the cognates and there’s an overwhelming amount of them.
Alex: Yeah, that’s true.
Anthony: And then there’s the 11 cognate rules and it’s just like, “Oh my goodness, do I really have to go through all this?” Whereas there is something so fresh about Mandarin and the tone challenges and so forth that just almost makes it like putting a knife through warm butter. It’s not as resistant because it’s so different.
Alex: Let me ask you this. So for Mandarin are you learning the characters also?
Anthony: Yes.
Alex: Okay. I’m curious how you would do that. When you do the pronunciation and the character do you sort of have it all in a similar location?
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Anthony: Well I’m sort of “inventing” the process as I go along. One of the first things that I did, and I actually started this with Japanese and then I switched to Chinese, but I memorized the radicals in the Hanzi. That was four Memory Palaces to put together. I’ve got some repairs to do because it’s actually quite a challenge, but I didn’t do any sounds associated with any of them whatsoever, but this practice allows you to see the actual Hanzi characters in a very different way. There are sometimes often logical relationships. Like words that have to do with cooking that will have for example the fire radical in it, often you can even tell how that word is supposed to be pronounced, or you can make really educated guesses.
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Alex: I definitely found that to be the case with Chinese (learning the characters, building the radicals) a lot of it makes logical sense.
Anthony: It’s weird. It’s like learning how to see more than it is learning how to read in some way. So there’s different levels of procedure. So there’s that, and then I never thought I would do this, but for the characters in and of themselves it’s really useful, just hard rote with, with memorize. I haven’t quite figured out how to add a mnemonic component because I just ignore the mnemonics that other people use. I just really don’t connect with them.
I just sort of, partly as an experiment, I just resist using them to see what happens and the character recognition builds really nicely. Then for the actual mnemonic strategy, what I’m doing, and I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but I got Pimsleur for Mandarin Chinese 1, 2 and 3 (much better than Pimsleur Spanish), and so I went to a cafe and I started to write out by hand my own homophonic transliteration as I call it, which is just to spell it the way I want to spell it, and made lots of mistakes. I was saying like tway-bo-chi when it’s supposed to be more like dway sound with like a “D.” But who cares about that initial error. You can’t correct yourself if you don’t have it in memory. You need it to be in memory to even make proper mistakes.
So then I would just would write a Memory Palace beside that in an Excel file. I’ve got columns. I’ve got a column for the English. I’ve got a column for my homophonic translation. I don’t bother writing down the meaning and then I make a little Memory Palace. I draw the Memory Palace. One case it was the city library here in Berlin or the Stabi as it’s called, the Staatsbibliothek and just go from there.
Then, listening to those repeitions in the dialog from Pimsleur is not using rote learning to pound stuff into your brain. It’s atually, like I press pause after each sentence, I produce the information from the imagery, I decode the imagery, so I’m actually practicing the art of memory as opposed to using it for rote learning. I’ve memorized now 11 dialogs and it’s really fast and it’s cool.
Alex: That’s great.
Anthony: It’s Pimsleur-speak but it’s something. I know this is your interview, but just sharing with you.
Alex: That’s okay I’m thrilled.
Anthony: The next thing that I do is I have two different speaking partners and I record the calls and they write the characters. One of them just writes characters. One writes Pinyin numbered and so I have those and I watch them typing this on the screen and it’s recorded and I go back. Then I just make Memory Palaces and memorize the vocabulary that came up. Like we did the months which is never on Pimsleur and we did things like, “I’m going to the park” and “I’m going to this with a friend” and then we do substitutions. “I read Shakespeare.” “Every day I read Shakespeare.” “I love to read Shakespeare.” These kinds of things work and it really builds quite quickly and then the next speaking session we go through what we did the last time and I produce it from memory and then get the corrections in pronunciation and it’s beautiful.
But I have to apologize! I completely skipped off what we were talking about. What are you doing with Mandarin?
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Alex: Yeah, so I wrote like a blog a while ago about it. I’m sort of ripping off this technique from a guy I found online. That’s just sort of what I do. I rip off people’s techniques. It was an interesting strategy and I didn’t really think too hard about it.
It sort of appealed to me at the time. I originally saw it a few years ago and I didn’t really put it into practice until sort of recently. The technique is different from the Spanish for me in a sense because when I do Spanish I sort of just look at the words and then I sort of just think of the first thing that comes to my head.
Like for instance, and this is an example I gave in some of my videos, if the Spanish word for apple is manzana, I sort of look at that. Maybe I would break it down and it kind of sounds like “man sand.” I might think of a man with a bag, like a big sand bag or something like that. That’s what I do for Spanish. I just look at the word and think of something that will remind me of the Spanish sound.
But for Chinese, I found that to be, at least personally, difficult. Because it’s very dissimilar to English and a lot of the sounds will trigger English words, but then I’ll very easily forget the nuance of the Chinese word. There’s just sort of all these like these different sounds that are very distinct in Chinese obviously, but sort of when I try to translate them to English words, it doesn’t really work quite as well. At least, that was my personal problem.
To get to what I’m actually doing, the technique takes advantage of the fact that Chinese words are monosyllabic and there’s sort of this finite set of beginnings and endings to words. What the technique does is it takes a person and there’s a predetermined person to represent every possible beginning. So for instance, one beginning sound is a ja sound and so for me that’s George Costanza from Seinfeld. Another one is the ba sound and that’s James Bond for me.
Then there’s endings, like for instance “a” or “i”, so then you can put the “ba” and the “i” and get “bi.” The endings I represent with places.
Then the way I do the tones is I sort of pick four different areas in those places. To be more specific there are 12, assuming I got this technique right, there are 12 different endings and so I have 12 different palaces for each of those endings and then within each of the 12 palaces there are four regions. The first region within Palace 1 will represent that ending and it will be the first tone for the first region if a person is in that region.
For instance, let me see if I can think of a good example. Okay, let me see if I can get this right, for instance so “bank” in Chinese is (loosely transliterated) “yinhang” I think, if I’m remembering it right. For the “yin” part the first sound is a “yi” sound and so for me that’s my grandmother. I call her Grandmother Eddie and so the “ed” kind of sounds like “yi” in Pinyin so that “yi” and then the ending is sort of an “n” ending. So it’s “in” and that “n” ending for me is the Old Miss campus which is in the town where I grew up. The second tone, because it is “yinhang,” is this sort of sports complex area. So I have my Grandmother Eddie for “yi” in this sports complex and that’s the “n” ending with the second tone and then she’ll be doing some sort of bank related thing in there.
This kind of goes back to what I’m was saying about systems. Because this sounds very complicated, it took a little while to set up, but I find that I’m able to do that relatively quickly. I can the “yi” think of my Grandmother Eddie and, see the “n,” think of the place, think of the region for the tone and it works pretty well. That’s one example, but hopefully that makes sense. That’s sort of the technique that I use.
Anthony: That’s cool. I’m going to get tons of emails asking me for the link to that blog post or that site that you are referring to. Let’s make sure to link to that (see the resources section below).
Alex: Yeah, I’ll send it to you.
Anthony: That would be cool.
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Alex: I don’t know if it’s the best technique. I don’t know if it’s the best technique for me. It seems to work so far. Yeah, I just wanted to add that qualifier.
Anthony: I always tell people that it’s the best technique relative to the outcome that it gets you.
Alex: Right.
Anthony: Is medicine a foreign language would you say?
Alex: In a way, yeah. I mean there’s certainly lots of terms to know. One thing I always try to be careful about is, and this is something I’m guessing other people struggle with and I certainly struggle with it myself. When you’re using a lot of mnemonics, you just need to be little careful, a little wary about not, I guess, losing the forest for the trees in terms of focusing too much on the memorization and sort of maybe missing out on some of the underlying concepts going on.
I don’t think that’s too big of a problem. I think it’s relatively easily combated just by forcing yourself to actively think about it. For instance, whenever I’m trying to recall something from a palace, I will always try to prompt myself by asking, “Okay, what’s going in real life?” Not in the palace, like visualize what’s happening in the body for instance and then just sort of always trying to ask myself why is this happening, what’s going on, how can I explain this in terms of cause and effect, I guess.
I think that to me is sort of the difference. I mean, obviously, there are concepts and grammar and things to learn for foreign language, but I found myself needing to be more careful about the understanding in terms of learning medicine.
Anthony: This leads me to something interesting that we haven’t talked about yet which is you mentioned being a memory athlete. The reality is that you are more than a memory athlete. You’ve won the World Memory Championship. Right? (Update: Since this interview was recorded, Alex became the 2x World Memory Champion!)
Alex: Right.
Anthony: We all appreciate modesty and that’s fantastic but I mean that’s the World Memory Championship and we’re talking about a deck of cards in 17 seconds. What does that feel like first of all?
Alex: Yeah, it feels good. It’s hard to say. I’ve been a memory competitor for a long time, about 3 years going back to the time March 2013. I had progressed a lot, obviously, and I felt good about where I was at, but even going into the competition last December, I didn’t feel like I was going to win by any stretch of the imagination. I knew that I could kind of compete for the sort of top couple spots if I really did my absolute best in everything, but I didn’t that was going to happen. It sort of was what happened, luckily for me. Definitely, the whole thing was surreal experience and it just felt like things kind of were going my way the entire time.
When it actually ended up happening, and I ended up winning on the last event, I didn’t even really know how to react because I hadn’t really mentally prepared for it. It feels great and I love the fact that hopefully it gives me a little bit of credibility in terms of being able to spread the techniques. I love competing but that’s really where my passion is at I think. I want to help people use the techniques especially for learning applications and for students or people in daily life as well to learn languages, etc. I personally like to focus on students, because there are so many inefficiencies with the way learning is done today, and I just think it needs to be done.
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In terms of cards, cards is my favorite event. I love them because I like the sort of manual feel of the cards. It’s kind of random but that’s really one of the reasons I like it. Just being able to sort of speed through the deck by using your hands very quickly. I just like how it’s a fast event. That speed cards event, just memorizing one deck of cards as quickly as you can, has really kind of been like a big part of me doing memory sports. Because it’s very easy to just pick up a pack of cards and just go through it quickly, take a pack of cards with you on the train, the bus or in the car or wherever. I really like that event. Hopefully that answered the question.
Anthony: Yeah, it’s amazing. I’ve gotten just over the 3-minute mark myself and to me that’s really, really amazing.
Alex: Yeah, it is.
Anthony: The most I’ve done in competition, and I only ever competed once, but that was I did 14 cards in 2 minutes. So 52 in 17 seconds! But in my particular case, having never competed before, I didn’t even know we were going to play rock-paper-scissors and then alternate the cards. It just totally blew my brain that I had to sort of compensate for what the other person was doing and track whether they made a mistake or not. It was really kind of juggling. The recall was on the clock also. Very fascinating experience and so I can only imagine what that must of been like to be able to pace through a deck that fast. Take us through how you prepared for that. What’s an average training day like?
Alex: I try to keep my training sessions pretty short. Being in med school obviously I don’t have a whole lot of time to train a lot. I do my best to make each session as efficient as I can. I try to train sort of throughout the day. I mentioned maybe bringing a pack of cards while you’re going somewhere or doing it in sort of these transitional periods. That’s how I try to get some training in to not really add the extra time to my day.
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On a daily basis I would say I train somewhere between 0 and 60 minutes a day. It tends to be in that range. Then I like to do a lot of speed drills. I will take a deck of cards and sort of go through it and see my images, like visualize my images but not actually put it in a palace and try to recall it. I just sort of see it and try to go as fast as I can. To get to something like 20 or 17 seconds, you need to be able to see the cards and translate the images pretty much instantly. That’s really the essential skill in terms of getting fast. That’s personally what I train a lot of.
I try to keep it pretty short on a day-to-day basis and that I think helps because I don’t feel like I’m spending a whole lot of extra time training. I don’t really feel like I’m getting tired of training. It doesn’t ever feel like a slough, because every day it’s kind of little burst of training I can do and it’s always very exciting for me.
Alex: I do. I have sort of a weekly schedule that I try to adhere to, trying to get through all the events in these competitions out of the way. It would be something like cards every couple of days, numbers every couple of days, names and faces, words every couple of days, just something like that. I sort of spend some of the time each day doing speed drills, just going through cards or going through numbers and just try to see my images. Then part of it is just doing the actual events in the competitions, spending 5 minutes memorizing numbers and then another 10 or 15 minutes recalling it. I try to stick to that schedule.
Anthony: I think scheduling is really powerful even just for memorizing like knowledge, for example, for studies and so on to have a sift and sort pattern so to speak. You offer coaching on your site. What would a person expect if they came to you for coaching as ground zero or Session 1?
How To Know That You’re Doing It Right
Alex: You always are sort of wondering, “Am I doing this right?” Like okay, is there something or is there one little thing that I’m sort of missing that’s going to be the difference between getting it to be really successful versus not. I think just being able to talk to somebody else, hopefully somebody more experienced than you about it, is very helpful. But in terms of the ground zero student, I would just start with the basics. Try to go through Memory Palaces, the basic ideas of creating images and how doing certain things can really do a lot to make those images stick better in your palaces. Going through the importance of review schedules or like using spaced repetition. I think that’s very important obviously in terms of learning. I just sort of try to cater to whatever the student’s needs are. If they’re interested in competitions, if they’re interested in learning, I would started with those basics and sort of move forward depending on what their questions are.
Anthony: I would imagine that by going to these competitions, you get coaching by default because you’re around all these great people who have this similar interest or is it completely the opposite? The reason why I’m thinking that is I was watching a lecture by a magician the other day, and he said that going to like FISM (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques), which is a magic organization with a competition, is one of the best things that he ever did because all his best friends he met at the competition, and they actually help each other get better at magic. I’m just kind of curious about that.
Alex: Yeah, I definitely think that’s the case for memory. Most people, for sure, are willing to talk about the techniques they use, discuss their strategies, their ideas for what works and what doesn’t. I’ve definitely found going to competitions to be very helpful to learn personally. Also, just the memory competition sort of community in general has been very helpful, because you meet some of these people at competitions or you just meet them online and you can communicate online very easily and I do that a with different people. That’s always very helpful.
Anthony: You know one thing that I think that is really key, and I’m sure you have insight about this, is that a lot of people get this. They understand it. They don’t feel like they’ve had a jet engine described to them. It just snaps. They are like okay make a Memory Palace, location dependent mnemonic, we put this image here, we go back, we recall it, and decode it. This is not rocket science to them whatsoever.
Alex: Yeah.
Anthony: However, they find it really boring. They’re not in love with it so to speak. Is there a way to fall in love with mnemonics? Is there a way to become so passionate about it that even if they don’t want to go compete, they are able to apply it to the information that makes a difference in their life, or just something that creates pleasure, which also makes a difference to your life?
How To Crush Boredom And Make Memory Development The Most Interesting Activity In The World
Alex: Yeah, I think so. I think that’s the case. I think the great thing about mnemonics is you can really make them as personal as you want to. So whatever you’re interested in, you can sort of adapt your images or your stories to sort of match that.
I think one thing that’s important, for myself and for others, is to really try to focus on making something that’s interesting to you. Sometimes I’ll get a little bored at memorizing numbers or whatever, and then I always try to take it back and force myself to think about, “What can I do to make these stories more interesting?” I always sort of see two images together on one locus when I memorize numbers. I always really try to do my best to make it seem interesting and doing that and just sort of focusing on making something funny or interesting in that way is enough to kind of keep me interested even if I’m having a bad or a boring day.
My advice really is to think about what you find interesting and really try to capitalize on that when you’re using mnemonics.
Anthony: Now to take this from the other angle, what about somebody who really is interested in this, but they don’t get it all? They are just hearing all this stuff about Memory Palaces, crazy images, PAO, numbers, three digits per, –
Alex: Yeah it’s a lot to process.
Anthony: You mentioned Dominic O’Brien’s book and Ron White’s book and so forth, what would be your go to manual besides your website which I actually highly recommend to everybody to go check it out. It really is awesome and the videos that you put together are very clear and distinct. Let me ask this a different way. Who is your hero in the world of memory?
Alex: I really admire a lot of different people. I guess one of them would Nelson Dellis from the U.S. He’s done just a huge amount just to promote the techniques here, and he’s obviously a very talented memory competitor. In terms of the world, I guess if you ask me in terms from a memory competitor standpoint it would have to be the German guy Johannes Mallow because he’s the No. 1 ranked memory athlete in the world right now. The way I created a lot of the systems that I use now for cards and numbers, I sort of stole from him and adapted to my own benefit. In that sense, he’s definitely my idol because I really tried my best to copy him and emulate him.
Anthony: I really want to thank you for being on the podcast today. It has been incredibly inspiring.
Alex: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Anthony: It’s been insightful and I hope to speak again. So you’ve got your website and a lot of great trainings there. What else is coming up next for you and how can people connect both on your site and perhaps elsewhere with social media and the like.
Alex: One thing I guess I wanted to mention was you talked about how for some people having the experience of it being something like putting a jet engine together. Talking about my site also, the way I’ve sort of found is the best way to combat the problem is to sort of just have them do it themselves. Just go through one example and have them do it and see what it’s actually like to do it. On my website I have something I came out with called the 20-word challenge, that’s I call it. It’s just memorizing a list of 20 random words. What I do, it’s a video, and I’m in this place that we’ll use as the Memory Palace and then I go through 20 different locations in that palace and memorize a list of 20 words.
That’s something I like to do with people who struggle initially just to show them that they really can do it and it gives them some confidence and also just an idea of what the techniques are actually like. I just wanted to bring that up real quick.
In terms of contacting me, a lot of the content that I put out is on my site, on the tutorials. A lot of what I focus on is trying to explain the basics but then also give people some examples of how to actually use techniques of learning. That’s something that I sort of couldn’t really find when I was trying to learn these techniques and use them in my life. I wasn’t really able to find a lot of learning examples or people explaining how to use them in medicine effectively for instance.
If people want to go to my site, that would be great. There’s a contact page on my site. They can always contact me and ask any questions that they have. I’m also on Facebook or Twitter at Mullen Memory, you can contact me there as well. All those places are good places to get in contact with me.
Anthony: Very cool. Well thank you so much and thank you for being a leader in the field of memory techniques.
Alex: You as well.
Anthony: One last question. Are you going to compete again and can you beat 17 seconds?
Alex: I would love to compete again. I’m still training right now. I took a little bit of a break after the competition but I’m back in it again. I couldn’t put it down for too long. I want to keep competing as much as I can. I haven’t beaten it yet, but I would love to break 17.
Anthony: That’s awesome. Nelson has been on the show twice and he told me one of the best things that you’ll ever do is go to a competition. I didn’t believe him but almost by accident I wound up at one, and it really was the greatest way to learn so much.
Alex: Yeah, it’s a good experience.
Anthony: Thank you again for being inspiring on that account and I hope that people listening will go and check out Alex’s website and really take the time to study your approach and learn from you and listen to this interview again because it is just filled with great information.
Alex: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Further Resources, People and Items Mentioned in the Podcast
Amazing Language Learner Olly RichardsPulls Back The Curtain On Exactly How He Learned 8 Languages In Record Time – With More Than A Full-Time Job Crowding His To Do List … Tune In To Learn How You Can Do It Too!
This call is pre-recorded, so you can register anytime. I’m on the call as both moderator and student advocate, so you won’t want to miss a moment of this call. We go deep into what it takes to learn a language and you’ll take away a lot of actionable tips.
After registering for the call, come back and listen to each and every word of this special podcast and you’ll learn:
* How to find words and phrases that you ACTUALLY want to speak when learning a language.
* The power of setting a “crazy goal” for motivating yourself to take action and make targeted strides, even if the language you’ve chosen is difficult.
* How to elevate your thinking about the art of language learning so you get maximum results in minimum time.
* The best ways to “wrangle” your speaking partners and tutors into shape so they help you study what you need to study instead of wasting time on willy-nilly activities that won’t get you anywhere.
* The essential questions you should prepare yourself to answer when studying your dream language.
* How to develop a list of topics that you’re likely to talk about so that you’re not chained to the next page of your textbook.
* The new – and BETTER – way to think about rote learning for getting traction when learning a language.
* Why memorizing is just one part of language learning and how to identify and isolate the other parts to boost your success.
* The one thing that keeps Olly up at night when learning a language. Solve this one worry for yourself and you will never run out of steam.
* The scheduling secret Olly uses to “oblige” himself to attend lessons. You can uses this approach too – even if you’ve got a zillion things to do. Heck, the dude even shipped himself to Thailand when he wanted to learn to speak Thai.
* The absolute best time of day to study your target language so that you always feel like you’ve made progress and build your sense of accomplishment.
* How to avoid letting the great get in the way of the good so that you can start from a place where speaking practice is always good not matter how unprepared you might be. Use this approach and you can literally get prepared on the fly.
* The ultimate motivation secret for getting yourself through multiple lessons and find language teachers you will genuinely love learning from.
* The untapped power of hypothetical questions and role play in your language learning practice that you’re not using – but should be!
* Olly’s take on using mnemonics for individual words and when you should be focusing on them instead of entire phrases. In fact, you should be encountering them inside entire stories. Here’s an example from Olly from his Spanish Short Story collection:
* Textbook tactics for shopping and getting the most out of every resource you buy.
* How to avoid tourist-speak so that you aren’t limited to ordering food and asking directions to the hospital for your cat (yes, you will be led into these dead ends if you don’t take Olly’s advice).
* Exactly how to deal with introversion so that no matter how shy you might be, you can eliminate random social unknowns and learn in a safe and practical environment.
* … and much, much more.
This is the kind of episode you’re going to want to save and keep returning to again and again. And if you interested in memorizing the key points, How To Memorize A Textbook will help you master this simple skill and put you in a position to memorize vocabulary and phrases at a higher level thanks to your practice of the art of memory.
The picture above is from the May 2015 Polyglot Gathering in Berlin. From left to right you see myself, Olly, Richard Simcott, Kris Broholm, Brian Kwon and Jan van der Aa.
From the same event, Benny Lewis, myself and Olly. Somehow they manage to just look crazy. I took first prize for psychotic.
Mark Channon discusses memory techniques and the good habits needed to make massive strides with them at Magnetic Memory Live in London 2015.
Olly’s Memory Palace based on his apartment in Cairo. Top notch work and it was very cool that I could see the place with my own eyes more than a year after he sent me this drawing.
The list of words in Egyptian Arabic Olly used the Memory Palace to memorize.
In Egypt, Olly introduced me to the Nile in style. A sushi bar.
My last day in Cairo, we played with hiragana and katakana and Olly drew a diagram of exactly how languages get learned at the highest possible level. I won’t mentioned the memory-unfriendly Guinness we were swilling – because we truly weren’t.
Quick Summary Of Things Olly Taught Me
At the 2015 Polyglot Gathering in Berlin, Olly noticed the benefits, but more importantly, the deficits of my flirting around with multiple languages. Talking about this issues, we were talking along a street in Prenzlauerberg when he gave me the excellent idea of directing the Magnetic Memory Method back at just one language.
But this time, instead of starting from scratch with a new language, he suggested I focus on using mnemonics to dramatically improve my relatively advanced German skills.
And so that’s exactly what I did. Here’s how:
First, I immediately hopped on italki and found a German speaking partner. I’ve had a few since then, and each has been a blessing. Olly’s guidelines for getting the most out of a speaking partner are golden, and he talks about them in detail in the episode of the podcast you can download at the top of this page.
To maximize the value of the sessions, I always ask my speaking partners to use a Google spreadsheet for each lesson. This lets me isolate the new vocabulary, arrange it and even drop in a scan of the Memory Palaces I use to rapidly learn and memorize the sound and meaning of each word I’m encountering, often for the first time.
Then, I write sentences around the words after pulling them from my memory – away from the source of the spreadsheet. Only later, do I check them against the record and troubleshoot when necessary.
A second trick I learned from Olly is to record all my sessions. That way I can go back and hear exactly how the speaker pronounced the words. I can also hear my own pronunciations. This process is super-painful, but it helps immensely.
Third, I follow Olly’s advice to forbid (as much as possible) the speaking partner from using any English. This practice can be frustrating, but stick to it and you’ll be amazed by how quickly you outpace yourself.
Caution, however. This is advice Olly gives for when you’re at an intermediate level with a language. At the beginning stages, it can be very useful to have your instructor explain certain features of a language to you in your mother tongue. Just don’t let that be an excuse for not diving in to the language. You also shouldn’t get in the habit of using it as a crutch. Learn how to say, “I don’t understand” and “please say that in other words” a.s.a.p.
Fourth, I begin each new speaking session with a review of everything I memorized from the last one. But I don’t cheat. The original spreadsheet is on another tab and I honestly work from memory. This allows me to benefit from any mistakes I make. And again, this is recorded so that I’ll be reviewing the process again later.
You might be thinking that hearing mistakes made grounded on false moves with the Memory Palaces would just lead to confusion, but it’s quite the opposite. The entire process only gets stronger.
Finally,here’s a fun – but rigorous – technique I added on my own:
As part of my reading practice, I choose three new words from each page. Never more and only less when I don’t find a max of three new words on a page. Then I memorize them using the room I’m in as the Memory Palace and follow up by writing sentences around them. A book with an average of 300 pages read over the period of 6 – 8 weeks = 900 new words inside of two months. With an 80% retention rate, the results are impressive.
The only problem I’ve found in the past is that I wind up learning a ton of words that no one uses. However, that’s an interesting problem to have, fun for my philological yearnings and thanks to the practice I’ve found an interesting solution that puts a bit more bang behind this unusual outcome:
I read books written only in first person and in one of the Berliner dialects. This choice increases the chances that I’ll learn words that people use around me and teaches me a lot more about one of my favorite cities in the world and the people who call it home.
Thanks again to Olly for the solid lessons and for being on the show – see you soon!
It’s a curious thing that human beings, and most other animal species, are driven to regular periods of inactivity and unconsciousness. What could be less evolutionarily beneficial than a stretch of eight hours during which you can’t hunt, defend yourself, or reproduce? Not to mention working on your memory improvement.
All jokes aside, the fact that we are driven to sleep is an indication that sleep has an important purpose in our biology.
And yet, the precise mechanisms of sleep remain largely mysterious. The exact reasons why we require sleep, and what happens during sleep, are areas of current research.
One thing is for certain: lack of sleep leads to an array of social, financial, and health-related costs. Indeed, the fatality rate of sleepiness-related car crashes is similar to that of driving under the influence (Goel et al 2009). What’s more is that prolonged sleep deprivation leads to death for many studied species (and presumably humans) (Cirelli et al. 2008).
Despite these realities, a full 20% of adults are not getting enough sleep (Goel et al 2009). It’s a common practice in our culture to praise those who can work the most and sleep the least.
However, research indicates that this attitude is misguided. Lack of sleep has important negative implications for cognition. Sleep deprivation puts pressure on your entire cognitive apparatus, and has the potential to affect your memory.
After this article, you may be convinced that a nap is in order.
What Exactly Is Sleep?
Over 85 years, an average person will sleep 250,000 hours, which is equal to 10,000 full days (Scullin et al 2015).
But what is sleep, really?
It is commonly believed that sleep is a continuous period of a complete loss of awareness. But in actuality, sleeping is not one continuous state and a sleeping person does not lose total awareness. Instead, they alternate between reduced awareness of the external world and a complete loss of consciousness (Gudberg et al 2015).
From here, sleep is typically classified into two categories. The first is non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep and the second is rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep (Bryant et al 2004).
NREM sleep happens during the early moments of falling asleep. As the name suggests, there is little to no eye movement during NREM sleep. Dreams are rare during this stage, your body is not paralyzed as in REM sleep, and mental activity is still “thought-like” (Bryant et al 2004). This is the stage during which some people will sleep-walk.
The role of NREM sleep is to conserve energy, cool the body and brain, and promote immune function.
Following NREM sleep, a person will fall into REM sleep, where rapid eye movements can be observed. This is where the majority and the most vivid dreams occur. Your body is paralyzed, which is an adaptation to prevent you from acting out your dreams. You will periodically wake up – which some researchers feel serves as a way to survey the environment (Bryant et al 2004). These mini-awakenings are typically not remembered.
The Devastating Consequences Of Sleep Deprivation On Memory Revealed
As you sleep, you will cycle between NREM and REM sleep four to five times during the night.
By understanding our sleep patterns, it becomes evident that there is much more that happens during sleep than simply being unconscious. The broad overview given here just scratches the surface of the complex world of sleep.
For all of its complexity, sleep serves essential functions. For example, a sleep-deprived person suffers from many ailments, including:
A weakened immune system (Bryant et al 2004).
Reduced wakefulness – microsleeps during wakeful hours after sleep deprivation (Cirelli et al. 2008).
Compromised cognition.
The compromised cognition experienced during sleep is all too familiar for many of us. We all know that after a poor night’s sleep, we are groggy and we tend to think more slowly.
When it comes to memory, the essential role that sleep plays is more pervasive than most realize.
Sleep Plays a Key Role When it Comes to Your Memory
There are three basic memory stages.
The first is called acquisition or encoding. This is the process of collecting the information or processes that you’d like to memorize. An example could be re-reading the dates and prominent figures in a history book. This is called “declarative” memory, and is the memory of facts and information. Another example of memory is procedural memory. This is memory of how to do something. This could be anything from learning how to ride a bike or learning how to play the piano.
The second step is consolidation, where the information you’ve absorbed become stable in your mind. It is at this stage that memories are formed in your mind.
Finally, you must be able to recall memories for them to be useful. Thus, the final stage in memory is remembering something during your waking hours.
Numerous studies have indicated the importance of sleep for the second stage, memory consolidation. A good night’s sleep can help you recall facts and information, as well as solidify skills that you’re trying to learn.
Under the current scientific understanding, sleep is absolutely essential to memory. We require sleep to file information collected during our waking moments, in our minds. In doing so, we are able to recall newly acquired information (Ellenbogen et al. 2006).
For example, learning the guitar requires that you memorize hand movements as well as notes. This is called procedural memory. Long term sleep has been specifically found to help with procedural memory formation (Diekelmann and Born, 2010).
Sleep Shifts Info Around In Your Brain
Sleep also serves to reorganize new memories. During sleep, the brain will access new information and make links with previously absorbed information. This helps segment and associate relevant parts of a complex memory to previous memories. While solidifying new information in your mind, this aids in the creativity process. This is because the brain will sometimes associate new information with old information in unexpected ways, thereby leading to novel insights (Diekelmann and Born, 2010).
Scientists also believe that we “replay” our previously learned information and skills during our sleep. Experiments have been conducted on animals and humans after they have been trained on a particular task. During sleep, the same parts of the brain that were active during the training exercises, were active while sleeping as well. This is because the brain will repeat the actions during your sleep (Diekelmann 2014).
Sleep is essential to memory. One study not only found poor memory recall in sleep deprived individuals, but also found that they recalled false memories. That’s right, you are more likely to remember untrue information following sleep deprivation (Diekelmann 2008).
In other studies, those that slept, recalled more and performed better on cognitive tests than those who stayed up. Looks like those all-nighters weren’t the best idea after all.
How to Use Sleep For Memory Enhancement
Getting a good eight hour sleep has been shown to benefit memory (Diekelmann and Born, 2010). But what about sleep that occurs outside of your regular nightly routine, such as power naps?
Good news nappers! Research has also pointed to memory improvement even for shorter naps.
In a study of 29 undergraduate students, one hour naps were found to benefit factual recall. However, the memory of procedures, that is, memory of how to perform actions, was not improved. The study concluded that more complete periods of rest were necessary for the proper learning of memory (Tucker et al 2006).
Even more stunning is that even very short naps seem to have a positive effect on memory of facts and information. A study compared different nap durations, as well as staying awake. They found that even a micro-nap of six minutes enhanced memory recall. The study concluded that although longer naps improved recall more than very short naps, very short naps still have significant benefits (Lahl et al 2008).
Ultimately, it seems that if you’re looking to improve your memory of facts and information, naps are in fact helpful. However, if you are trying to learn the keyboard, a longer sleep time is what you really need.
In terms of the optimal or minimum amount of sleep that you’d need, that is still unclear. More research is needed.
However, if for whatever reason you can’t afford a full-night’s rest, a nap might help to keep you going.
How to Get a Good’s Night Sleep
Now that we know the importance of sleep, you may be wondering how you can get the absolute best sleep possible. After all, most of us do not have the benefit of being able to sleep and take naps whenever we’d like. That’s why it’s important to learn how to get the highest quality sleep during the time you have available.
Here are some tips to improve your sleep and help you get to sleep faster:
Only use your bed for sleeping and sex. Try to avoid using electronics, watching TV or eating in bed. This might associate these activities with being in a bed and prevent you from being able to fall asleep.
Avoid long naps during the day. Although I’ve mentioned that naps can enhance memory, it’s important to restrict napping because they can also prevent sleep. Take no more than a 25 minute nap during the day, or avoid them altogether.
Remove all lights and sounds from your bedroom. Buy light-blocking curtains if necessary. Use a regular alarm clock instead of your cell phone.
Do not drink or consume caffeine for at least six hours before bed. Be careful, coffee isn’t the only substance that contains caffeine. Tea, soda, and even chocolate contain caffeine that you should avoid before trying to fall asleep.
Memory enhancement is a tricky business and there are a myriad of ways you can do it. Whether it be food, meditation, or drugs, everyone has a preferred method.
Regardless, everyone needs to sleep. Since sleep plays such a key role in memory retention and recall, you might as well make the best of it. Make sleep a priority in your daily life.
Contrary to popular belief, sleep isn’t for the weak. Sleep is for those with great memory improvement goals.
Bryant, Penelope A., John Trinder, and Nigel Curtis. “Sick and Tired: Does Sleep Have a Vital Role in the Immune System?” Nat Rev Immunol Nature Reviews Immunology (2004): 457-67. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Diekelmann, Susanne. “Sleep for Cognitive Enhancement.” Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 8 (2014): 46. PMC. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Diekelmann, Susanne et al. “Sleep Loss Produces False Memories.” Ed. Jan Lauwereyns. PLoS ONE 3.10 (2008): e3512. PMC. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Ellenbogen, Jeffrey M, Jessica D Payne, and Robert Stickgold. “The Role of Sleep in Declarative Memory Consolidation: Passive, Permissive, Active or None?” Current Opinion in Neurobiology (2006): 716-22. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Goel, Namni et al. “Neurocognitive Consequences of Sleep Deprivation.” Seminars in neurology 29.4 (2009): 320–339. PMC. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Gudberg, Christel, and Heidi Johansen-Berg. “Sleep and Motor Learning: Implications for Physical Rehabilitation After Stroke.” Frontiers in Neurology 6 (2015): 241. PMC. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Lahl, Olaf, Christiane Wispel, Bernadette Willigens, and Reinhard Pietrowsky. “An Ultra Short Episode of Sleep Is Sufficient to Promote Declarative Memory Performance.” Journal of Sleep Research J Sleep Res (2008): 3-10. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Scullin, Michael K., and Donald L. Bliwise. “Sleep, Cognition, and Normal Aging: Integrating a Half-Century of Multidisciplinary Research.” Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 10.1 (2015): 97–137. PMC. Web. 18 Jan. 2016. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11, 114-126 (February 2010)
Tucker, M., Y. Hirota, E. Wamsley, H. Lau, A. Chaklader, and W. Fishbein. “A Daytime Nap Containing Solely Non-REM Sleep Enhances Declarative but Not Procedural Memory.” Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (2006): 241-47. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Supplements, both legal and illegal, have been used for centuries to enhance cognitive performance.
For example, Sigmund Freud used cocaine to prevent fatigue. In fact, he is reputed to have written some of his most popular psychoanalytic works while under the influence.
Entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss is also known for his experiments into so-called “smart drugs”.
Today, caffeine is a popular choice, used as a cognitive stimulant and is often consumed in very high doses. The widely consumed regular size Starbucks coffee contains five times the amount of caffeine of a normal coffee (Mehlman 2004).
Yet another common cognitive enhancer is nicotine, most commonly ingested through inhalation. It’s been found that nicotine has the ability to improve cognition in areas such as attention, memory and motor skills (Heishman et al 2010).
The reality is that most of us are not open to experimenting with unhealthy or illegal drugs to enhance our cognition.
But with the aging population and increase in age-related memory deterioration, many are turning to out-of-the-box solutions (Mehlman 2004). Discovering a quick-fix pill that protects and even enhances memory would be both beneficial and exciting.
This lusty market for an easy memory solution has been quickly filled with many drugs claiming to have amazing brain-boosting potential. Known as Nootropic supplements, these cognition-enhancing drugs make bold claims about their ability to increase their user’s memory.
In comes science to cut through the marketing hype and give us real answers about whether these pills really work.
Before we continue, here’s an important disclaimer: By offering this information in written form and by including videos of various people explaining or supporting the uses of supplements for memory, I in no way intend to validate, support or recommend the use of memory supplements. Please see your doctor before taking any substance and always, always use mnemonics.
That said, if you’re ready to experience the Matrix of memory supplements, take the red pill and let’s get started.
Huperzine A
As people start to live longer, the potential for memory loss grows higher. In fact, 11% of people over the age of 65 live with Alzheimer’s. As current treatments have limited effectiveness and come with severe side-effects, scientists are scrambling to find better treatments (Guoyan 2013).
In their quest, a supplement called Huperzine A has been tested for potential benefits.
Huperzine A is a dietary supplement. This supplement is made from an extract of a plant called “toothed firmoss”, also known as Huperzia serrata. Toothed firmoss is native to India and Southeast Asia. In traditional eastern medical practices, it has been used to treat bruises, muscle strains, colds and to improve blood circulation.
As with most cognition-enhancing supplements, firm conclusions about whether Huperzine A can enhance memory cannot be made. There are not many studies completed on the supplement, and those that have been conducted only included a small sample size (Yang et al. 2013).
Nonetheless, the findings thus far seem promising.
A recent 2013 research paper reviewed all available evidence on the efficacy of Huperzine A to improve or correct memory deterioration. The paper found that Huperzine A demonstrated positive effects on memory recall for those with memory issues. In some studies, Huperzine A even out-performed traditional treatments for Alzheimer’s (Yang et al. 2013).
But what are the effects for younger people without formal memory impairment?
A study looked at treating self-reported memory problems in otherwise healthy adolescent students. . In total, 68 students were given either a placebo or Huperzine A.
After four weeks, the student who took Huperzine A showed signs of significant memory improvement, with no side effects reported (Sun et al 1999).
As data on Huperzine A is still too scant, you won’t find a doctor commonly prescribing this drug just yet. What’s more, the evidence is pointing primarily to Huperzine A’s usefulness for short-term memory improvements (Yang et al. 2013).
But don’t go running to the drugstore to pick up these supplements quite yet. As with any drug, it’s best to consult with your pharmacist or doctor before taking the supplement. Although Huperzine A appears to be well-tolerated in short durations, side-effects such as nauseous, epilepsy and slow heart rate have been reported. Currently, no studies have been conducted on the long-term side effects of Huperzine A.
Acetyl-L-carnitine
Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) is a hormone that is naturally produced in the body. Unlike many supplements and compounds, it is able to cross the brain-blood and directly affect the brain. It’s function in the body includes improving neuron cell health and preventing excessive brain cell death. For this reason, scientists have considered its potential for improving cognition and memory. However, marketers have skipped a step and have gone directly to selling the supplement as a cognitive enhancer.
A major review of the use of ALC on improving cognition in Alzheimer’s patients was performed by Cochrane Journal in 2003. It reviewed all of the studies which had investigated the effects of ALC on declining memory.
The results were sobering.
Many measures of cognition were tested and the review only found a slight improvement on a single measure of cognition. This measure was not directly related to memory. What’s more, the review cautioned that even this small positive effect may be due to chance (Hudson, Sheila and Naji 2003).
This review casts serious doubt on ALC’s ability to improve memory, despite marketing claims.
Since 2003, more studies have explored the effects of ALC on memory and cognition improvement. For example, a 2011 study analyzed ALC’s effects on those with severe hepatic encephalopathy, a disease that impacts brain function. For those assessed, the study did show some improvements in cognition including memory (Malaguarnera 2011).
However, this evidence is preliminary and did not directly mirror the effect of ALC on memory.
Overall, the evidence for ALC is weak. More information is needed before the cognitive benefits claimed by ALC manufacturers can actually be proven.
Phosphatidylserine
Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a naturally-occurring compound that is consumed as part of a normal diet. It can be purchased as an over-the-counter supplement in many grocery stores and pharmacies.
PS is a supplement with a long history. Initially, there was great interest and many scientific studies were conducted on PS derived from cow brains. After fears of mad cow disease became more prevalent, this supplement fell out of favor (Zchut et al. 2013).
https://youtu.be/ZcPFpx-WrPQ
In the mid-1990s, soybean-derived PS became available. This safer alternative once again garnered attention from the scientific community (Zchut et al. 2013).
So far, findings from both the cow-derived and soybean-derived PS have shown promise for improving memory.
For example, in a study of over 388 cognitively-impaired older adults, PS was effective in improving word-list recall.
What’s more is that positive effects have been observed for normally-aging adults. In a study of 149 normally aging adults, PS was compared against a placebo in a variety of memory tests. This study found that the PS-taking adults were better able to coordinate face recognition tests as compared to the placebo group. However, their results were comparable to the placebo-taking participants for various memory recall tests (Villardita et al 1987).
Despite the appearance of a few well-designed studies demonstrating positive results, the overall picture seems less exciting. A review produced in 2003 found that the effects of PS on memory were inconsistent and modest, at best (McDaniel, Maier and Einstein 2003). In the same review however, scientists did underline that the results were positive enough to warrant further research.
As a result, since 2003 more studies have been conducted.
Most recently, a study published in 2014 investigated the efficacy of a omega 3/PS combo supplement on memory enhancement. They recruited 122 healthy seniors who voiced complaints about their memory (but not memory deterioration, such as dementia).
After 15 weeks on the drug, the study found a significant improvement in the memory of its members. This memory improvement was identified by participants and was measured objectively through a memory test (Vakhapova 2014).
A definite bonus for PS is that it seems to be a safe supplement. In the same 2003 review cited earlier, no adverse effects were reported (McDaniel, Maier and Einstein 2003). As always however, it’s best to consult with a pharmacist or physician, especially if you consume other medications or substances.
Bacopa
Bacopa is also known as Brahmi and is a natural herb in India. It is a small plant with oblong leaves and light purple flowers. It has a long history of use in Indian medicine. Traditionally, it has been used in the treatment of disorders including anxiety, intellect and poor memory.
Bacopa is currently marketed in Western countries as a memory enhancing supplement. Until recently, the only published studies on the effects of Bacopa had been tested on animals. Since the early 2000s, more studies on humans have been conducted.
One of the earlier human studies included 84 volunteers, who took either a placebo or Bacopa. These volunteers were healthy and between the ages of 40 to 65 (Roodenrys et al. 2002).
The participants were given three months worth of Bacopa supplements (or placebo, depending on their group). They were tested on multiple occasions during these months for various tests of memory (Roodenrys et al. 2002).
It was found that Bacopa-taking volunteers did not show any improvement over their placebo-taking partners on most memory tests. However, those who took Bacopa did experience a significant improvement in their ability to retain new information (Roodenrys et al. 2002).
This study has been followed up by more research exhibiting positive results. For instance, a study conducted in 2008 compared the effects of Bacopa versus a placebo over 90 days. Included were 62 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 to 60.
When compared to the placebo group, takers of the Bacopa supplement saw significant improvements in their working memory performance. Much like PS, the drug was also well tolerated without many real side effects (Stough et al. 2008)
With positive evidence mounting, a systematic review of Bacopa studies was published in 2012. The review pursued all randomized controlled trials on the cognitive effects of Bacopa. This meant that they only included trials with a placebo, which neither the researchers nor the patient knew about (Pase et al 2012).
The results showed that Bacopa was beneficial for improving cognitive function related to attention, and especially, speed of attention. The paper suggests that Bacopa can reduce the time needed to complete a task by around 18 ms (Pase et al 2012).
The researchers were hesitant to say that the evidence strongly favored Bacopa for memory improvement. Although individually, studies do show improvements in different aspects of memory, the overall significance of those effects were unclear.
However, since Bacopa seems to lack any severe side-effects, it might be worth a try – with your doctor’s approval of course.
Vinpocetine
Ever see a periwinkle flower? It’s that cute flower with that dazzling blue hue. You might be surprised to hear it’s also the plant from which another commonly marketed brain-booster is derived.
Vinpocetine was developed in Hungary, and is currently used in mainstream medicine. However, it’s use in medicine is not directly related to memory. Instead, it has been scientifically proven to increase blood flow to the brain (McDaniel, Maier and Einstein 2003).
But can it increase the memory juice flowing through your mind?
What seems to be certain is that the improved blood flow to the brain does have positive effects on overall cognition. For example, in a study conducted on dementia patients, 87% of vinpocetine patients improved – as compared to only 11% of placebo patients (Manconi et al. 1987)
However, experiments on the effects of vinpocetine directly on memory are lacking. In one of the only studies looking at the effects vinpocetine on Alzheimer’s, no benefit was observed (Thal et al. 1989). Therefore, the jury is still out inasmuch as the benefits of vinpocetine are concerned.
However, vinpocetine seems to have minimal risks associated with it as well.
In Conclusion
As you can see, definitive research into the link between supplements and memory enhancements is still in its infancy. Despite bold claims made by these supplement marketers, this article demonstrates that overall evidence is far from complete and decisive.
The number one thing that people can do to enhance and protect memory is to follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly.
However, for those looking for an edge, above and beyond diet and exercise, some of these supplements may be worth considering.
As amply repeated in this article, it is very important to seek medical guidance when trying new supplements. Although most of these supplements have not shown severe side-effects, they may react with other medications.
What’s more, none of these supplements have been studied for their long term effects. For all we know, these may actually lead to memory degradation with years of use. Any use of these supplements should be restricted to no more than three months at a time.
At the very least, these supplements offer a fruitful field of research. There is at least enough evidence to show that these brain-boosting supplements deserve more research.
It’s up to you to decide if you’d like to take part in the experiment.
Further Resources
Chan A, Remington R, Kotyla E, Lepore A, Zemianek J, Shea T “A vitamin/nutriceutical Formulation Improves Memory and Cognitive Performance in Community-Dwelling Adults without Dementia.” The journal of nutrition, health & aging 14.3 (2010): 224-30. Web. 4 Jan. 2016
Hudson, Sheila A, and Naji Tabet. “Acetyl-l-carnitine for Dementia.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Reviews (2003). Web. 4 Jan. 2016.
Heishman, Stephen J., Bethea A. Kleykamp, and Edward G. Singleton. “Meta-Analysis of the Acute Effects of Nicotine and Smoking on Human Performance.” Psychopharmacology 210.4 (2010): 453–469. PMC. Web. 1 Jan. 2016.
J.K. Blusztajn, U.I. Richardson, M. Liscovitch, C. Mauron, R.J. Wurtman. “Phospholipids in cellular survival and growth” I. Hanin, G.B. Ansel (Eds.), Lecithin: technological, biological, and therapeutic aspects, Plenum Press, New York (1987), p. 85 Web. 4 Jan. 2016.
Mcdaniel, Mark A., Steven F. Maier, and Gilles O. Einstein. ““Brain-specific” Nutrients: A Memory Cure?” Nutrition (2003): 957-75. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Malaguarnera, Michele, Marco Vacante, Massimo Motta, Maria Giordano, Giulia Malaguarnera, Rita Bella, Giuseppe Nunnari, Liborio Rampello, and Giovanni Pennisi. “Acetyl-L-carnitine Improves Cognitive Functions in Severe Hepatic Encephalopathy: A Randomized and Controlled Clinical Trial.” Metabolic Brain Disease Metab Brain Dis (2011): 281-89. Web. 4 Jan. 2016
Mehlman, Maxwell J. “Cognition-Enhancing Drugs.” The Milbank Quarterly 82.3 (2004): 483–506. PMC. Web. 1 Jan. 2016.
Pase MP, Kean J, Sarris J, Neale C, Scholey AB, Stough C. The cognitive-enhancing effects of Bacopa monnieri: a systematic review of randomized, controlled human clinical trials. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2012; 18(7): 647-652. [PubMed]
Sun Qing-Qi, Xu Si-Sun, Pan Jian-Liang, Guo He-Ming, Cao Wang-Qi. “Huperzine-A capsules enhance memory and learning performance in 34 pairs of matched adolescent students” Acta. Pharmocol. Sun. (1999) 601-603. Web. 4 Jan. 2016.
Vakhapova V, Cohen T, Richter Y, Herzog Y, Kam Y, Korczyn A, D, Phosphatidylserine Containing Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Improve Memory Abilities in Nondemented Elderly Individuals with Memory Complaints: Results from an Open-Label Extension Study. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2014;38:39-45
Villardita C, Grioli S, Salmeri J, Nicoletti F, Pennisi G “Multi-centre clinical trial of brain phosphatidylserine in elderly patients with intellectual deterioration” Clin Trials J, 24 (1987), p. 84. Web. 4 Jan. 2016
Yang, Guoyan, Yuyi Wang, Jinzhou Tian, and Jian-Ping Liu. “Huperzine A for Alzheimer’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.” PLoS ONE (2013). PLOS ONE. Web. 4 Jan. 2016.
Zchut, Sigalit, Yael Richter, and Yael Herzog. “The Effect of Soybean-derived Phosphatidylserine on Cognitive Performance in Elderly with Subjective Memory Complaints: A Pilot Study.” CIA Clinical Interventions in Aging (2013): 557. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Auguste Deter was only in her late 40s when she started showing signs of dementia. Her husband Karl, cared for her for some time.
Eventually, he could not cope with her hallucinations and forgetfulness that often kept him up all night. When Auguste was 51, Karl placed his wife into a psychiatric institute.
There, she spent the rest of her short life, eventually dying at the age of 55.
Auguste is now acknowledged to be one of the most well known patients in medical history (Muller et al. 2012). The doctor who examined her, Dr. Aloysius Alzheimer, named the disease for which she is acknowledged as the first identified patient. At that time, he called it “presenile dementia,” but later his colleague Emil Kraepelin gave the condition the name by which we know it now.
It’s been over 100 years since Alzheimer’s disease was first described, and yet, no cure has, as of yet, been found. However, with an increasingly aging population, it has become more pressing than ever to find effective treatments (Giacobini and Becker, 2007).
In the absence of a definitive cure, this post and podcast will provide important information about Alzheimer’s. The disease can be all-consuming for those afflicted, as well as their caregivers. Understanding how it works and how to care for that person may help to relieve stress for those trying to cope.
Who Does Alzheimer’s Affect?
Alzheimer’s is a disease of old age, and generally, affects those over the age of 65. However, a rare variation of the disease, early-onset Alzheimer’s, will affect those as young as 35. The prevalence is higher in females than males, although females do tend to live longer, which may explain this trend (Keene, Montine and Kuller 2015).
It’s important to realize that although Alzheimer’s affects older adults, it is not part of normal aging.
Right now, the overall prevalence of Alzheimer’s is between five to seven percent throughout the population (Keene, Montine and Kuller 2015). As we age, the likelihood that we will be affected by Alzheimer’s nearly doubles every decade. That is, by the ages of 95-99, your chances of having developed Alzheimer’s increases by 50%.
What Causes Alzheimer’s?
The cause of Alzheimer’s is, as of yet, not completely understood (Ginter et al. 2015). We do know that genetics plays a role in early-onset Alzheimer’s. This form of the disease is rare, and affects people under the age of 65. What genetics fails to fully explain is the prevalence of Alzheimer’s in aging adults (Keene, Montine and Kuller 2015).
The links between risk factors and Alzheimer’s have not fully been proven. However, in studies the following has show to possibly increase our risk of Alzheimer’s:
Hypertension (high blood pressure) during midlife
Having Type 2 diabetes
Obesity
Living an inactive lifestyle
Having had a brain trauma
Having had exposure to secondhand smoke
If you have a family history of dementia and Alzheimer’s, the chances of developing it yourself is much higher. People with a first-degree relative (parents or siblings) who developed dementia after 65, but before 85, have a higher risk factor. In fact, they are 10 to 30 times more likely to develop dementia themselves (Keene, Montine and Kuller 2015).
Alzheimer’s and Memory
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, which is a degeneration of cognitive function. One of the earliest and most distinctive aspects of Alzheimer’s is its affect on memory.
The first warning signs a doctor and other caregivers will look for is memory impairment (Wolk and Dickerson 2015). The patient will typically go through selective losses in short-term memory.
For example, a person suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s may find themselves getting lost on familiar paths. They may forget recent events and repeatedly ask for the same information.
It’s important to keep in mind that normal aging does accompany some memory deterioration. However, unlike normal aging, the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s comes in the way of normal daily activities.
The table below compares normal memory loss associated with aging to memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s (Leifer 2006).
Family members may notice these types of memory declines and others, such as repeatedly asking for the same piece of information.
As the disease progresses, memory becomes severely affected. Memories of the person’s life are impacted. A patient will forget important life events, occurring at a particular time and place early on in their disease (Wolk and Dickerson 2015).
Moreover, factual memory, such as the words used for objects and concepts, deteriorates as time goes on.
A doctor may test memory by asking patients to learn and recall a series of words or objects. Recall is asked for both immediately and at a delay of five to ten minutes. They may also ask them about important historical events or artifacts in popular culture (Wolk and Dickerson 2015).
The brain of a normally aging person will compensate for the memory loss due to normal aging. The cognitive decline of a normally aging brain will not be severe enough to affect their ability to complete everyday tasks. Nor will the cognitive decline affect a person’s ability to live independently (Wolk and Dickerson 2015).
However, a brain with Alzheimer’s will decline quickly. This can vary, but the average survival rate after diagnosis is between eight and ten years. Some survive for as long as 20 years after the diagnosis (Wolk and Dickerson 2015).
What Alzheimer’s Looks Like
As Alzheimer’s progresses, the afflicted person will become more and more disoriented. Alzheimer’s patients will increasingly be unable to:
Speak or write coherently. They will have trouble finding the right words for the right situation.
Understand what is said or written.
Recognize familiar places.
Plan how to take multi-step actions.
Carry out multi-step actions, such as cooking.
Concentrate.
Make logical choices or decisions. For example, dressing in a outfit with oddly matched colors and patterns.
As the disease progresses into later stages, the person will start to exhibit more personality and emotional changes. These can be particularly stressful. They may include:
Increased hostility or increased passivity.
Hallucinations or delusions.
Disorientation.
Incontinence.
These changes might be due to chemical imbalances in the brain. They may also be due to the individual’s increasing fear and confusion because they do not understand their own surroundings.
Eventually, an Alzheimer’s patient will literally forget the more fundamental tasks, such as how to move. They will become immobilized and require assistance for bathing, eating and dressing.
Treatment options
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s. Current drug treatments only slow the disease in the short-term, for no longer than a year. However, for patients with early stages of the disease, medications can improve their cognitive function. These benefits may need to be weighed against the medication’s side-effects as the disease progresses.
In addition to medication, there are behavioral treatments available. For example, speech therapy can be combined with medication to help patients with troubles in this domain.
Caring for an Alzheimer’s Patient
Caring for people afflicted with Alzheimer’s is a very cumbersome task, and difficulties range from financial to emotional stress. In a study carried out in the UK, nearly two-thirds of people caring for Alzheimer’s patients were family members (Beinart et al. 2012).
When dealing with Alzeheimer’s, it’s important to seek support from extended family members, friends and your community.
Many changes will need to occur in an afflicted person’s home and life due Alzheimer’s. They will likely be unable to drive, and will need monitoring and help with basic tasks. These include things such as cooking and taking medications (Alexander and Larson, 2015).
Other tips for helping people with Alzheimer’s include:
Simplifying choices, such as wardrobe choices, to reduce their indecisiveness and confusion.
Having familiar objects or photos may help with a patient’s disorientation with time and space.
Keep distractions and noise to a minimal so as not to agitate the patient.
Speak clearly, with short and concise sentences to increases your chances of being understood.
Encourage daily exercise, such as daily walk, to maintain physical health and tire the patient out. This will help prevent them from wandering and getting lost.
Avoid major changes in their environment.
Try to be patient when waiting for responses and actions to be performed.
Employ safety measures in the home, such as locking medicine cabinets, removing electrical appliances from the bathroom, installing grab bars in the bathroom, and setting the water heater below 120ºF
Install locks on the outside of the doors, so the patient cannot unlock and leave the house.
To prevent the person from getting lost, employ the use of a “safe return program” provided by the Alzheimer’s Association. They offer 24-hr assistance.
Try to implement a daily routine, but remain flexible.
In the mid-to-late stages of the disease, it may become impossible to care for the person at home. They may require skilled health care attention and placing the patient in a nursing home may be the best option.
Most importantly, remember that as a caregiver, you require care as well. Using respite services, such as adult day care and hiring home aides when possible is a great way to recharge. Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to ensure that your mental and physical health is tended to.
Emotionally and mentally, it’s important to try to focus on the positive. Try to enjoy the remaining qualities and activities with your relative instead of only remembering what you’ve lost. Remind yourself that you are doing your best in moments when you feel overwhelming guilt or fatigue.
Future Hope for Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a tragic sickness, and poses an enormous financial burden on society at large. Paying to care for patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s is predicted to cost 1.2 trillion dollars by 2050.
The good news is that there is increasing evidence that Alzheimer’s may be more of a lifestyle disease than previously acknowledged. Except for rare cases of early-onset Alzheimer’s, which have a strong genetic component, lifestyle may determine your likelihood of developing it. That is, maintaining a healthy diet and doing regular exercise can decrease your chances of developing Alzheimer’s. Due to the strong link between blood-sugar levels, some scientists have even started calling Alzheimer’s “Type 3 Diabetes” (De la Monte and Wands, 2008).
Not everything in life is within our control. However, living a healthy and balanced life are ways to counteract the effects on cognitive function, especially as we age.
For our purposes, the question is …
Can Mnemonics And Memory Palaces Help?
It’s too soon to tell, but I highly recommend watching this TEDTalk with Kasper Bormans for an introduction to what might be possible:
Further Resources and Reading
Nelson Dellis spoke on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast about his experiences with Alzheimer’s and his efforts to combat the condition. Check out Extreme Memory Improvement to learn more.
These memory tips from Dr. Gary Small may not be the ultimate prevention against Alzheimer’s, but they are going to serve you well. Give it a listen.
And for more information, follow-up on the following articles:
Alexander, M., Larson, E. B., Patient information: Dementia (including Alzheimer disease) (Beyond the Basics) Up To Date (2015). Online.
Beinart, N. Weinman, J., Wade, D., & Brady, R. “Caregiver Burden and Psychoeducational Interventions in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review.” Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders EXTRA 2.1 (2012): 638–648. PMC. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
De la Monte, Suzanne M., and Jack R. Wands. “Alzheimer’s Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed.” Journal of diabetes science and technology (Online) 2.6 (2008): 1101–1113. Print.
Keene, C. D., Montine, T. J., Kuller, L., H. “Epidemiology, pathology, and pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease” Up To Date (2015). Online.
Müller, Ulrich, Pia Winter, and Manuel B Graeber. “A Presenilin 1 Mutation in the First Case of Alzheimer’s Disease.” The Lancet Neurology (2012): 129-30. The Lancet. The Lancet. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
Leifer, B. P. “Alzheimer’s disease: Seeing the signs early.” Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners(2009) 21: 588–595 Web. 13 Jan 2016
Ginter, E., V. Simko, D. Weinrebova, and Z. Ladecka. “Novel Potential for the Management of Alzheimer Disease.” Bratislava Medical Journal BLL (2015): 580-81. Online.
Giacobini, E and Becker, RE. One hundred years after the discovery of Alzheimer’s disease. A turning point for therapy? J Alzheimers Dis (2015): 12, 37-52
Wolk, D. A., Dickerson, B. C. “Clinical features and diagnosis of Alzheimer disease” Up To Date (2015). Online.
How would you like permission to skip school for the rest of your life as a student?
Or how about the ability to quit your job and do whatever you like for the rest of your career?
Well … I’m not sure I can help you with that.
But what I can do is give you some tips on how to live an interesting life. Here are six of them:
1. Be The Driver Of Your Education
There are two main forms of education:
* External Driven
* Self Driven
The first is the kind of education where you show up when you’re told and sit where you’re told. You even eat when you’re told.
Sounds kind of like prison, doesn’t it?
Prison? It Might Even Be Worse!
Not only do you have all kinds of pressures on your time. You’ve got people telling you what to learn.
Think about that:
What. To. Learn.
Oh no, no, no.
No and a thousand times no. That’s not the path to an interesting life.
What you want instead is to …
Be The Boss And Manager Of Your Own Intelligence
Let me tell you a story:
I dropped out of high school in Grade 12.
There’s a lot of detail surrounding this decision and some of it ain’t pretty.
But sticking to the facts (and just the facts), I thought school was such a drag that I decided to stay home and read Collier’s Encyclopedia.
Each morning I would leave home. But instead of getting the battered yellow school bus into town, I would hike up into the mountains. For months I experienced the Fall transform into Winter and then Spring from up above the highway where I would wait for my mom’s car to pass by.
It sounds like something out of Hitchcock’s Psycho, I know, but as I was watching the highway waiting for mom to go to work, I was listening and learning.
No, not listening to Heavy Metal. Not pop. Not even soft rock.
Instead, I was listening to the CBC on my fat yellow Walkman. At that time, Peter Gzowski, a.k.a. Mr. Canada, was the host of Morningside.
Over the course of the year, I got virtually a Ph.D. in Canadian culture, history, politics, literature and the arts. I also heard interviews with important people from around the world.
True, a bear might have mauled me while I was up there, and I did have a few close encounters with moose and deer. But the danger was worth it.
And after a few hours of Morningside, I would head down the mountain and make hot chocolate. With a steaming cup beside me on the coffee table, I would sit in the same rocking chair I was nursed in and read the Encyclopedia.
It was like being nursed all over again, this time by the knowledge my parents had invested in when they ordered the Encylopedia one volume at a time.
These days we have Wikipedia, but back then, if you wanted to know about the world, it cost a lot of money. I remember my mom talking about saving for the Encyclopedia year after year. She cut dozens of coupons from the newspaper so she could save more and complete the set.
It took about three years and after that, she kept up with the yearly updates for at least another three.
And this was all before I was old enough to read anything more complicated than Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Come to think of it, that story is rather complex …)
It was a lot of fun reading through Collier’s Encyclopedia.
And educational.
When I finally did return to complete high school, I knew so much about the world that …
School Was EVEN MORE Boring!
But that was fine. Because I knew about all kinds of books I wanted to read.
So whenever I could, I would still skip school and take out a notebook I’d kept and look for all the books I’d learned about in Collier’s.
I would go to the Kamloops Public Library and check them out. While everyone else was spending weeks struggling through A Separate Peace by John Knowles, I was reading:
The point of all this is that I was practicing, without even realizing it, the art of self-driven education.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that anyone quit school, skip school or do anything like that …
But I am suggesting that you won’t get nearly as intelligent as you deserve to be if you learn only what you’re told.
So What Can You Do?
If you’re told to read a Shakespeare play, read the play and follow it up by reading another.
Or look up a book about Shakespeare and read a play by one of his contemporaries (I recommend the zany John Webster).
If you find math difficult and boring, find a book on mathematics that has mostly words. See if you can tackle the idea of math from another angle. Khan Academy has math courses you can take as well, something I couldn’t enjoy. But you can.
And when you find an author or an online teacher you like, stick with them. You can learn a lot by seeing how people develop over time.
You’ll also learn a lot about successful people, which brings us to …
2. Reverse-Engineer People You Admire
(Just So Long As They Aren’t Creepy Weirdos Or Serial Killers)
The world is filled with people who have either lived or are living exciting lives.
That doesn’t mean they led easy lives. There’s no such thing and living without challenges would probably be even more tedious than high school.
What you want to look for when studying the biographies of other lives are:
* How they explained their desires, goals and wishes
* What actions they took to do great things
* How they coped with suffering
* What they did to keep themselves expanding
* How they dealt with their historical circumstances
* Who they knew and what they did with their friendships and relationships
There’s so much more to pay attention to, but these are a good start.
Why Do This?
Because life starts to get serious when you act and think about who you are and what you want to do.
And to truly develop a unique profile and create the space needed in your mind to become whoever it is you’re going to become …
You Need The Ability To Think And Feel The Ideals And Sorrows Of Others And Dream Up Your Preferred Version Of The World So You Can Make It Real
When you study others, you’ll experience a diversity of ideas that will train you to pay attention to what everyone around you is doing.
It will also help you get past the negative habit so many have of rejecting differences.
Remember, there are no differences as such. Everything is part of the world. And as long as that is true, everything in the world is part of you. And that means everything and everyone applies to you and your life.
If you don’t like reading or care to develop a re-reading strategy, you can also watch biographies. And for a super-interesting exercise, you can pick a single actor and watch as many films starring that person as possible in chronological order.
You can choose actors who are good at portraying different characteristics and actors who just seem to be playing themselves over and over.
Either way, you’ll notice patterns of consistency and difference. And like a wine expert, you’ll start experiencing all kinds of different shades of flavor you never noticed before.
Next, move from hanging out with books and movies to …
3. Toss Social Inertia From Your Life Forever
Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, it’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing the same people all the time.
That’s no way to revolutionize your life and keep it revolutionizing.
So as you’re finding interesting biographies and adapting ideas to your life, HUNT for advanced people with whom you can share an environment. (But not in a creepy way …)
Find the people who have the characteristics you want and enter their circles. Don’t be creepy about it. Just identify someone and ask if you can have 20 minutes of their time to ask some questions. Then ask them who else you should talk to continue your education.
Do this and you’ll have an unending stream of new contacts and interesting people around you. As a result, you’ll experience SO MUCH MORE in your life. And you’ll always have interesting things to say to the new people you continue to meet.
Plus, if you visit these people in their homes, you instantly have more Memory Palaces. You can also meet them in cafes or restaurants you’ve never visited to increase your awareness of your city and its offerings.
All this will help you develop …
4. The Most Important Skills In The World
Communication, for example. There’s no point in being more interesting if you’re no good at speaking. At some point, you’ve got to learn to control how words come out of your mouth. You get that practice by … (gasp!) speaking with people.
You can also attend Toastmasters meetings, start a podcast, speak your mind on YouTube and develop yourself as a writer.
To get good at writing, start with the high school newspaper, writing letters to the editor, regularly updating a blog or just by posting on Facebook to explore your ideas.
By studying all those successful people and learning to communicate with them, you’ll also be orienting on success.
This will help ensure that your life isn’t controlled by external circumstances. You won’t fall prey to the strange idea that certain times are good and particular periods of history are bad.
Here’s the only thing about time you need to now:
Times Change …
Your job is to adjust.
To be flexible.
To be adaptive.
To be agile, aware and if necessary, defensive.
Above all, you want to develop awareness of everything around you that you possibly can.
Because at the end of the day …
The way you succeed has little to do with the ways of the world. It has to do with how you react to the way the world changes.
And you always want to ask …
What advantage can I take of the present state of change?
It’s a compelling question and the best way to prepare for the times when you’ll need to ask it is to …
You can measure everything down to what you do to be productive and make good use of your timeTOR’s Post, to measuring your testosterone levels.
Measuring your activities will help you see where you’re strong and where you need to improve. The best part is that, because you’re studying so many other people, you’ll see how you can do more of what works, and how you can do things differently.
Track everything in a journal, diary, Google Spreadsheet, in Evernote or whatever you prefer. Use whatever tool makes it easy for you to see where you are, where you’ve been and where you’re going.
By doing this, you can develop processes and systems for your life.
For example, I have systems that tick along no matter what happens on CNN:
* Writing every day
* Putting out a weekly podcast
* Emailing Magnetic Memory Method members 1-2 hours a day
* Theatre group once a week (when in season)
* Other regular courses
* Monday and Friday mornings at the gym
And the best part of all this activity and tracking is that …
It’s Easy To See The Holes In The System
For example, my activities are all fine and dandy, but looking them over, it’s clear to me that I’m missing out on music. Now I know that I’ve got to schedule more time for my memorize Bach on bass habit. Popping Bach into my memory used to be a huge part of my week, and now it’s faded almost to nil.
The important point here is that you want to develop “sticktoitiveness.”
The ability to stick to it is pure gold. So many of us (including me) get so distracted by the next bright shiny object that we need systems to keep ourselves on track.
Sticking with the program is important because without consistency, we never wind up doing anything long enough to see results.
And at the end of the day …
It’s All About The Results
That’s why it’s so important to stop and check in with yourself and your stats.
And stop searching for the easy path. That’s one of the quickest ways to fail. In reality, finishing a course you’ve started or completing a project from beginning to end IS the easiest way to get from point A-Z.
Success happens when you bring precise implementation to the game. I’m talking about dedicated practice, which is as true to memory development as it is to any task.
Stick with whatever you’re doing. Experiment with it. Study every angle and explore every corner.
Do that and you won’t need memory techniques. The stones will be set and the things you’ve learned will be impossible to forget.
Finally, there is one point that rules supreme:
6. Have Confidence In Yourself
Not only do you need to have confidence in yourself. You need to have confidence in the things you’re doing. This is why, for example, completing courses and finishing books you’ve started is so critical.
We live in memory. We thrive or fail by what we’ve done in the past. The more good things we’ve done, the more positive experiences we have to build upon.
That said, if you have weaknesses in your past, perhaps even terrible experiences …
There Is No Reason To Let The Darkness Control Your Future
If you just make the shifts needed to put yourself in alignment with others, your unique desires and the habits and patterns needed to achieve success, all the pieces will fall together.
You’ll see the patterns you noted in the lives of others emerge in your own life. You won’t let yourself get bullied out of accomplishing your dreams. You’ll be a transformer. An influencer. A true human being who cannot help but live an interesting life.
If you’re looking for how to improve concentration and memory, this may be the most important blog post you ever read.
Why?
Because there are few things more frustrating than not knowing how to improve concentration!
Well, okay, there’s also the frustration of forgetting important details. Especially when you’re in the middle of something as important as recalling a person’s name, an important fact, or even a hilarious joke.
Or worse:
When you’ve prepared the perfect anecdote, yet, you can’t retrieve the single most important part from your memory.
Here’s where the real frustration sets in:
You can remember the newspaper where you read the information. You can even remember the look of the page where the information was found, including images and other small details.
And yet, in your mind’s eye …
That One Piece Of Information Is Painfully Out Of Reach!
Don’t worry.
You’re not losing your memory.
Your inability to remember is likely related to the level of concentration you used at the time you read the passage.
This is because concentration is key to memory recall. (In case you want to look it up on Wikipedia, concentration is also known by the slightly less sexy term, “attentional control.”)
And how to meditate for improving concentration and memory is exactly what you’ll learn in this post.
But first, a demonstration of just how easy it is to sit and meditate:
And now, an important question:
What Exactly Is Concentration?
Good question, especially when it comes to memory.
Why?
Because concentration is necessary for creating complete memories.
Lack of attention to detail leads to difficulty remembering crucial and important pieces of information.
Although having excellent concentration may not necessarily lead to better memory, concentration is essential to well-formed and useful recall of information.
But in a time with so much valuable information at our fingertips, there are more barriers for our concentration than ever. The notification-saturated world of the the internet constantly attacks our focus.
This reality has led some teachers to worry that students are growing up with decreased attention spans.
Thankfully, there is a powerful and scientifically proven method to improving concentration using meditation for concentration and memory. What’s more, this method has been practiced for thousands of years.
Best of all, it’s a simple practice anyone can take up, at no cost, with no fancy equipment, and no extensive training.
This 3,500 Year Old Technique Will Improve Your Concentration And Memory
The mind is a powerful thing.
Perhaps no other group of minds demonstrates this more strongly than experienced Buddhist monks.
These monks dedicate their lives to following the Buddhist 8-fold path to enlightenment. The path involves doing good, serving others, and extensive meditation.
Enlightenment is the ultimate state of mind. When enlightened, a meditator finally achieves a complete stillness of the mind and inner peace.
A Short History Of The Research Into How To Improve Concentration And Memory
Although meditation has existed for over 3,500 years, the scientific community has only been studying meditation for over 50 years (Thomas and Cohen, 2013).
Every day people have studied meditation too and discovered a lot about how it helps memory:
For both scientists and lay people, meditation has demonstrated impressive memory improvement and even helped stunning feats of long term retention and recall.
In one mind-defying example, Buddhist monks have been recorded controlling their body temperatures through a meditative practice called “g-tummo”. In controlled scientific tests, experienced monks were able to dry cold and moist sheets (Kozhevnikov et al. 2013).
These sheets were placed around each monk’s body, and were dried within an hour.
This meditation process was made possible through body heat produced by the monks while in their meditative state of “g-tummo”. Some witnesses of similar experiments report seeing steam emerge from the sheets while they dried (Kozhevnikov et al. 2013).
Researchers also measured the monks’ body temperatures, which rose by as much as 17 degrees Celcius.
How Is This possible?
No one quite understands the biological mechanisms behind meditation just yet.
But study after study demonstrates that meditation has far-reaching benefits – including for concentration and memory.
Indeed, meditation is perhaps the only mental exercise with so much evidence of its ability to improve cognition and focus.
And you don’t even have to be a monk to start using this tool to better your own mind, body, and soul.
The Long way To Better Concentration
As with everything, there’s an easy way and a hard way. Science doesn’t skip over the hard way and investigates everything (crazy right?).
Looking for links between meditation and cognition, researchers from the University of California, Davis, recruited 60 people for a study. Half were assigned to a meditation retreat to practice mindfulness meditation for an average of five hours a day for three months.
These participants were committed. Not only did they volunteer three months of their time t, but they also paid $5,300 to attend the retreat.
The other 30 were used as a control group and placed on a waiting list. This was to rule out that the passage of time alone was not to blame for any differences between the groups.
Both groups were asked to watch a series of lines flash on a screen. Participants were to click a mouse when they saw a line that was shorter than the others.
This detail-oriented test forced participants to focus intently. Researchers found that those who meditated were significantly more likely to see increasingly small differences in the lines (Maclean et al. 2010).
In other words, the meditation group were better able to focus in on small details through their improved concentration (Maclean et al. 2010).
But not everyone has the time to undergo a three month meditation retreat. So, where’s the shortcut for the majority of us who want the benefits without the commitment?
Science has a solution.
The Easy Way To Better Concentration
As benefits to cognition had been observed for longer-term meditation, researchers were curious to see whether less effort could be effective (Zeidan et al. 2010).
In a study conducted at the University of North Carolina, a group of 49 students volunteered for a meditation study. None of them had prior experience meditating.
24 participants were randomly assigned to meditation, while 25 were assigned to listening to an audiobook. Each group performed their activity for 20 minutes, four times a week, for one week under laboratory supervision.
At the end of the one week experiment, the meditation group experienced significant improvements in concentration compared to their audiobook counterparts (Zeidan et al. 2010).
Are There Any Limits To Meditation And Improvement To Concentration And Memory?
It’s important to note that this research has a few limitations. These results were seen in college students and may not extended to older adults. Also, there is no indication that this is as effective as longer-term and longer-duration mediation (Zeidan et al. 2010).
However, it is encouraging that immediate benefits to practicing short-term meditation were observed. This means that you don’t have to wait a few months before you can start benefiting from your practice. Within a week of consistent meditation, you can start to experience improved concentration.
But Will It Really Improve Your Memory?
If the meditation-to-concentration-to-memory link seems shaky to you, don’t abandon meditation just yet. The link is more direct: meditation has also been shown to improve memory.
A randomized controlled test studied the effects of meditation on the working memory capacity in adolescents.
Around 200 teenagers were recruited and assigned to either a mindfulness meditation practice, yoga, or were waitlisted as a control group. The groups meditated or practiced yoga once a day for 15-30 minutes. These were accompanied by two formal teaching sessions twice a week.
By the end of the study, teenagers participating in the meditation group had significantly better outcomes than their yoga counterparts. Particularly in terms of their working memory capacity (Quach et al 2015).
But Meditation Doesn’t Just Improve Memory For The Young!
Another study looked at the effects of mindfulness training in adult-aged college students studying for their GRE tests. Sure enough, the meditating participants experienced less mind-wandering and increase working memory capacity. This result was achieved with only two weeks of meditating ten minutes per day (Mrazek et al 2013).
By now, you must be getting excited about meditation’s potential to super-charge your cognition. Calm your mind for now and read on about how to get started on your practice.
How To Meditate For Better Concentration
There are as many ways to meditate as there are Buddhist monks.
By stripping away the religious practices, a secular, simple, and one-size-fits-all solution to meditation is available.
To start meditating, just follow these steps:
Find a quiet spot, empty of distractions.
Set a timer for the amount of time you want to meditate. Start with five minutes and move up from there.
Sit on a chair or on the floor, whichever is more comfortable.
Close your eyes and focus on your breath; on where it feels the strongest. When thoughts enter your mind, don’t reject them. Simply acknowledge them and gently return your attention to your breath.
If meditating in silence is too difficult, you can try a large variety of guided meditations. These include phone apps, such as Headspace and Breathe.
No research has been done showing any benefit to meditation less than four times a week. To get the most out of it, aim to meditate as consistently as you can, at least a few times per week.
Improving your concentration is a step towards improving your memory. Meditation is a powerful tool for improving concentration and bettering your cognition.
The best part is that meditation can help you use a Memory Palace.
Especially in an age of endless distractions and heightened stress, incorporating practices to re-focus your mind is important.
For some, daily meditation might seem like an impractical use of time.
However, think about the time you waste, lost in thought, unfocused, and scatter-brained. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand how meditation yields impressive dividends for a relatively small investment in time.
Results are not instantaneous, but you can be sure that they’re scientifically backed.
Carve out ten minutes today for your first meditation session. Your mind will thank you.
Kozhevnikov, Maria, James Elliott, Jennifer Shephard, and Klaus Gramann. “Neurocognitive and Somatic Components of Temperature Increases during G-Tummo Meditation: Legend and Reality.” PLoS ONE (2013). Pubmed. Web. 28 Dec. 2015. <pubmed.com>.
Maclean, K. A., E. Ferrer, S. R. Aichele, D. A. Bridwell, A. P. Zanesco, T. L. Jacobs, B. G. King, E. L. Rosenberg, B. K. Sahdra, P. R. Shaver, B. A. Wallace, G. R. Mangun, and C. D. Saron. “Intensive Meditation Training Improves Perceptual Discrimination and Sustained Attention.” Psychological Science (2010): 829-39. Upaya. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
Mrazek, M. D., M. S. Franklin, D. T. Phillips, B. Baird, and J. W. Schooler. “Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering.” Psychological Science (2013): 776-81. Sage Pub. Psychological Science. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
Quach, Dianna, Kristen E. Jastrowski Mano, and Kristi Alexander. “A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effect Of Mindfulness Meditation on Working Memory Capacity In Adolescents.” Journal of Adolescent Health. Science Direct. Elsevier. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
Thomas, John W., and Marc Cohen. “A Methodological Review of Meditation Research.” Frontiers in Psychiatry Front. Psychiatry (2014). PMC. PMC. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.
Zeidan, Fadel, Susan K. Johnson, Bruce J. Diamond, Zhanna David, and Paula Goolkasian. “Mindfulness Meditation Improves Cognition: Evidence of Brief Mental Training.” Consciousness and Cognition (2010): 597-605. Print.
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If you’re looking for how to improve concentration and memory, this may be the most important blog post you ever read.
