Improve Your Memory  

Overview

The aim of this section is to give you a good solid grounding in mnemonic techniques. All of the following information and more is contained in our on-demand seminar, Developing Your Mind. This seminar is probably the quickest and fun way to gain a very strong understanding of mnemonics and how to use them. The following pages will act as either a great reference to Developing Your Mind or an introduction into how to start putting memory techniques into practice straight away!

Want to get up to speed quickly? Take our on-demand seminar, Developing Your Mind!

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are the key to improving your memory but they are more than just a set of techniques. Mnemonics are a way of thinking that not only helps you to improve your memory and creativity but also enhance your ability to comprehend information. The challenge with mnemonics is not in learning the various techniques but more about the way to apply these techniques to remembering information and overcoming real life situations.

To get the most out of mnemonics it's good to have an understanding about what is going on in our mind when you are using them. In the simplest terms it all comes down to combining logical and creative skills. These two factors don’t just relate to mnemonics, they are core concepts in many self-development tools and systems – NLP, hypnosis, meditation, creative visualization, speed reading, rapid reading, photoreading and mind mapping. Combining logic and creativity doesn't stop there it also encompasses martial arts, dancing, acting and sports. For some reason though when it comes to learning information, facts and figures these concepts fly out the window and we tend to rely on our logical mind to deal with remembering information, using repetition to make it sink in.

When you have memorized something in the past there is a fairly high chance that you read it over and over again until it eventually sank in!. By doing this you are mostly using left brain logical skills; linearity, analysis sequence etc. now these are all good skills, and they help us comprehend what we are reading, yet they are not enough to help us remember quickly and retain information over a long period of time. By adding right brain skills to the equation; colour, dimension, daydreaming, rhythm, imagination, spatial awareness etc. we are making use of all our cortical skills and therefore using our brain in a more productive way, the results are - we perform better. When I talk about mnemonics, what I am actually referring to, is this way of using your mind that combines both your logical and creative skills.

In a practical sense you can use mnemonics to gain a quick and thorough understanding of any subject by creating a complex network of mental notes that contain main topics, core elements and detailed information, thus improving memory and comprehension.

In the beginning

In the beginning mnemonics will feel unnatural, however with enough practice the 'techniques' that you learn will become second nature and part of the way you think. When something becomes second nature its no longer a technique its just something you do. In the same way a martial artist learns forms and techniques to defend themselves, with enough practice those techniques become part of his or her 'instinct'. The same goes for a sports person or dancer, once you have achieved a high level of skill, you no longer think about the steps, they just happen. I say this from personal experience, being an actor/singer/dancer for many years. On one particular job, 'Tap Dogs', I spent the first 2-3 days struggling with picking up the steps as there was a lot of stuff I had never come across before. They were completely foreign to me, however because there was a combination of logic and sequence to the steps as well as rhythm, emotion and physicality, things naturally fell into place and I started getting a feeling for the various steps and combinations. They became natural and second nature.

This is what you are eventually aiming to achieve with mnemonics.  Use creativity, senses and emotion and combine it with your logical and analytical skills, to improve your memory in every sense. Natural mnemonics happen to us all the time; a smell triggers off a memory of a holiday, you enter a room which reminds you of someone from your past or something you've forgotten to do, you see a kids toy and memories of childhood come flooding back to you. These are all mnemonics. The idea of Memory School is to take what you already do, build upon it and maybe find some completely new ways of doing things.

Basic building blocks

Visualization

Visualization plays a major part in not only utilizing your memory but also in achieving your goals, so it’s good to have a firm grasp of 'how to visualize' before leaping into the world of mnemonics. We are all very different, some people find it very easy to see images in their mind and some find it more difficult. I have found that the key to visualizing is just to imagine the thing you are seeing, instead of actually trying to see it. If you are quite physical then imagine what it feels like, if you are more of an auditory person say the word aloud while imagining it or give it a sound.

Try this simple exercise

• Take a deep breath and as you breath out just feel yourself relaxing. Choose a pleasant memory from your past, it may be a holiday or something similar, now just remember what you were doing at the time, how did you feel? What were your surroundings like? Spend a few minutes, close your eyes, relax and just remember everything you can about that time.
• Now remember the same scene and this time imagine that a huge 6 foot pink rabbit appears out of nowhere and starts tap dancing in front of you. Close your eyes and do this now.

Whether you realize it or not, by remembering this scene and then making a pink rabbit appear in your memory, you are using your visualization skills. So just think of visualizing as remembering only you create your own memories. You don’t necessarily have to see the scene in front of you, although some people do. It’s different for everyone, some can just feel it somewhere in their head, while many feel they are actually there right in the middle of it. There is no right or wrong, with some practice and experimentation you will find which works best for you.

Improving visualization

While you are sitting in a room, look at an object, let’s just say it is a TV. Close your eyes and remember the TV, as you remember it imagine that it suddenly grows arms and legs and a big smiley face,maybe it starts juggling. Open your eyes and see if you can re-create that scene. Just experiment and make up different situations in your mind. This may seem kind of crazy, but it will go a long way to improving your visualization and creative skills.

The Mnemonic Formula

This is where it all begins. To memorize any kind of information and retain it for a long period of time, you apply a very simple formula:

Imagination + Association = Excellent Memory

The Mnemonic formula follows these very simple steps:

• Combine your logical and creative skills by converting information you wish to remember into images and then associating those images together in your mind.
• Since we all have excellent visual memories, especially when there is a strong association, we remember the images therefore we remember the information.

The mnemonic formula is the basis for improving your memory.

Rules Of Memorization - ROM

To fully utilize the mnemonic formula, you need to use as many of your cortical skills as possible. For this reason I have created the Rules Of Memorization or ROM for short (other books/courses will refer to these by different names, orders etc. but the principle is always the same, I just like to keep things as simple as possible). These rules combine your logical and creative skills. There are 4 steps to ROM, use them whenever you are memorizing information:

1. Organization – arrange the information in a logical order so that it makes sense and is easy to understand.
2. Relaxation – when in a relaxed state of mind you are more likely to remember and recall information than when you are nervous or panic.
3. Imagination – convert your information into images.
4. Association – associate the images together in your mind.
   • Senses – see the image as clear as possible, hear any sounds and speak the information out loud, smell any smells, taste any tastes and finally get your touch involved.
   • Emotion - make your images, funny or surreal or sexy, give your images arms and legs, put yourself in the picture, By involving your senses and emotion the images will become real in your mind.
   • Exaggeration - you must exaggerate all of your images if they are to stay locked in your mind. Making things bigger or smaller, exaggerate their emotions and actions.
   • Action – the action is what really connects and associates items or bits of information together, it is the driving force in our associations.

A simple mnemonic to remember the Rules Of Memorization would be O.R.I.A - sounds a bit like ARIA - Imagine yourself memorizing something while singing an ARIA but say to yourself out loud as if you were an opera singer "O.R.I.A", do this several times. Next relate the letters to the words and again repeat out loud:

"O.R.I.A"

"O - Organization"

"R - Relaxation"

"I - Imagination"

"A - Association"

The Rules of Memorization should be applied to all kinds of memorization. If you were to think of you brain as a computer, ROM would be the software which allows you to input and store information.

Your first taste of mnemonics

In a moment you are going to put the Rules Of Memorization into practice by memorizing a bizarre story. The story itself makes no sense, its purpose is to connect and associate 15 unrelated main items. By going through this example you will be flexing your imagination and association skills – it doesn't matter how well you do, it’s not a test. Just relax and imagine the story in your mind as clear as you can. Take a few seconds focusing on each main item of the story; it will probably help to close your eyes while doing this. Each main item has been written in bold.

Big Ben Story

Find yourself a comfortable position, take a deep breath in, hold it for a second then breath out, repeat this 3 times then start reading and visualizing the following scene…

Imagine Big Ben. He is wearing a fur coat and bouncing up and down on a spring board. He dives into a large pot of honey and disappears. Our of the honey jumps a giant dinosaur, wearing a red baseball cap and swinging a baseball bat. He uses the baseball bat to bash up a Ferrari. Driving the Ferrari is Tom Cruise, smoking a huge cigar. He takes the cigar and stubs it out on top of a bald headed man. The bald headed man is eating a big sticky mars bar. Wrapped around the mars bar is a slimy snake who is drinking a cold bottle of Budweizer. It uses the budweizer to play a set of drums.

• Go back over the Big Ben story, visualizing clearer images in your mind and adding in more of the Rules of Memorization. Get your Senses involved, taste the honey, feel the baseball bat, smell the cigar and so on. By adding your senses into the picture you are making the story seem real in your mind and therefore more memorable. Get your emotions involved; the fact that Big Ben is wearing a fur coat is funny and surreal at the same time! Exaggerate your images, see a huge Big Ben, a massive mars bar a large pot of honey, or a hundred set of drums. Finally make sure there is lots of action driving the story and helping connect it together.
• This time say each of the main items out loud as you run through the scene in your mind.
• Now run the scene forwards in your mind and then run it backwards, forwards and backwards, repeat this about 10 times as quick as you can. This will really lock the images in your mind.
• Finally write down as many of the 15 main items as you can remember.

If you managed to get 15 answers correct, fantastic, if not, don’t worry it’s only because you need to apply more of the Rules Of Memorization. This will come with practice!

Next learn about association techniques.

Association

Our whole life is built up of associations, be they physical, mental or emotional.

When we think of a memory from our past we remember details associated with it. We remember Christmas’s past, birthdays and holidays, because they have had strong associations, they are emotional and have excited our senses. In the same way our personalities are moulded through association. Events that happen to us in our life make us what we are. We create positive or negative associations from these events, which affect the way we feel. This in turn will make us react a certain way in a particular situation.

So natural things that happen around us, affect what we feel, how we act and what we remember. Association is a very powerful thing, when we realize this, and understand how it works, we can then use association to our own advantage. We can create positive associations to make us feel differently about a situation that has happened in the past and that may have had a negative effect on certain aspects of our life. It can help deal with rejection by creating positive associations which allow you to bounce back quickly and move on to the next thing. It can help create a confident state of mind, deal with a difficult person or overcome a fear we have had for many years.

What I am about to teach you has had a few different names in the past, the main ones being the Link System and the Chain Method. It was called this for the simple fact that you link items together to form a sort of mental chain. I prefer just to think of them as associations, rather than give them a name. It helps create a different mind set. With this mental imagery you will not feel confined in what you think you can achieve but rather have a more expansive and dynamic feeling.

Our objective here is to improve your memory using the Rules Of Memorization and in particular your association skills, focusing more on speed rather than accuracy at this stage. The reason for this is to loosen up your mind to this new way of thinking, otherwise when things get more complicated, you will end up thinking too hard about how to associate, rather than just letting it happen.

The Big Ben story is an example of how you used ROM to remember 15 unrelated items.

On the information to follow I have given you 4 lists of simple items that will help increase your associative powers. You are going to memorize each list by applying ROM. Let me walk you through the process step by step again:

1. Organization – arrange information in a logical order. In these exercises its already done as they are simply a list.
2. Relaxation – for the moment just take 3 deep breaths and gently breath out, feel yourself becoming more relaxed with each breath.
3. Imagination – convert your information into images. For these exercises simply imagine the information in your mind.
4. Association – associate the images together in your mind. This is the rule we are really interested in, in this lesson.
   • Senses – see the image as clear as possible, hear any sounds, smell any smells, taste any tastes and finally get your touch involved.
   • Emotion - make your images, funny or surreal or sexy, give your images arms and legs, put yourself in the picture.
   • Exaggeration - make things bigger or smaller, out of proportion, exaggerate their emotions and actions.
   • Action – the driving force in your associations; here are some ideas of the kinds of actions you can use: jumping on each other, dancing together, eating each other, running, flying, spinning around, stuck together, fighting. Finally, run the images forwards and backwards in your mind as quick as you can. This will lock the information in your mind.

Before you start find either a clock or a stopwatch, get into a comfortable position and make sure you have the next 20 – 30 minutes free.

Some more things to note before memorizing; associate your items together as quick as possible, it doesn’t need to make sense, connect them using the first idea that comes into your head - remember it’s not about how many you get right, you need to coach your brain into this 'new way of thinking'. Secondly, you don’t have to see all the images at once, you will only ever concentrate on two or three at a time, the action will keep one moving into the next. Thirdly never go back to the beginning while memorizing, wait until you have completed the whole list and then start again. You need to trust yourself and believe that you will remember.

Here are the first 10 items you are going to memorize:

• Eggs
• Ketchup
• Milk
• Chicken
• Rice
• Wine
• Corn on the cob
• Soap
• Lightbulbs
• Magazine

To help you with this first list I've given an example below. Time limit 4 min – start the clock when you're ready.

Imagine a huge egg. It cracks open, yoke fly’s everywhere and out jumps a bottle of ketchup who is drinking several cartons of milk. He throws the milk at a tap dancing chicken. The chicken dives out of the way and lands in an enourmous pan of rice and disappears to the bottom. At high speed you pour several bottles of wine into the rice and stick a corn on the cob in the top of each. The corn on the cob starts washing himself with a bubbly bar of soap. It takes the soap and sticks it to a huge light bulb in the ceiling. The light bulb spins wildly and smashes over a dancing magazine.

Now that you have linked your images together, you need to reinforce them with more of the Rules Of Memorization. With practice you will automatically add in senses, emotion, action and exaggeration when you first create your associations, enabling you to memorize at a greater speed. But for the moment go back to you first image, work through your associations adding in more of these 4 attributes. Do this twice and then run them forwards and backwards as quick as you can, imagine your watching a movie on fast forward and then rewind. This will lock the information in your mind.

I know some of these things may sound bizarre and to be honest they are, but to improve your memory you need to start working these mental muscles. Look at things from a different point of view. As a side effect you will find by practicing these skills your creativity will naturally improve along with your ability to solve problems.

Practice your association skills

1. Apples, butter, smarties, wine, cheese, flour, pepper, washing liquid, dog food, light-bulb.
2. Book, curtain, ring, lanp, car, chair, chocolate, clock, knife, paint, carpet, glass, tree, brush, statue, pencil, coal, plant, rope, glove.
3. Sun, stingray, chicken, jaws, key, monkey, water, rat, dam, spider, plate, duck, rat, dam, spider, plate, duck, spaceship, net, soldier, mat, horse, map, elephant, rain.

Association skills reside at the core of mnemonics. They facilitate us to create memories and recall them. At the moment you are at the tip of the iceberg, with practice you will soon be associating and remembering items with ease. In the beginning you should always make a conscious effort to apply all the Rules Of Memorization when memorizing, if you do this, in time it will start to happen naturally. By working in this way you will build a good, solid foundation, allowing you to easily progress into the more complex world of mnemonics.

Next learn about filing systems.

Filing Systems

In ROM the first rule is Organisation. Organisation is there mainly to satisfy our left brain needs. However the left and right brain need to work together in order for it to work properly. This is why we use filing systems, they allow us to take information and structure it in our mind in the same way you would structure information in a network of folders on your computer.

To file information in our mind we use a visual image, in some systems this is often referred to as 'Peg', or 'Location', my preference is to call them all 'files'. On these files you store information. These files remain constant and follow a specific order; to remember information we simply associate it to a file.

Here is an example of what would be called a Filing System:

Feet, knees, thighs, behind, waist, chest, neck, face, hair, ceiling

It uses different parts of the body as its files (visual images). So to remember lets say, eggs, rope and ketchup, you would associate eggs with feet, rope with your knees and ketchup with your thighs using the Rules Of Memorization. By doing this you can recall information in a specific order.

After many years of working with mnemonics filing systems have become part of the way that I think and remember. My goal is for them to become part of the way you think.

You are going to learn 3 basic 'filing systems', which allow you to memorize information in a structured order. They can be used for memorizing information at high speed.

Let us have a look at how these systems work, the best way to learn them, and how to put them into practice.

Body System

You have already had a glimpse at this one. We use different parts of our body as our mental files. To each one of these visual images we can associate information. Here is the list again:

• Feet
• Knees
• Thighs
• Behind
• Waist
• Chest
• Neck
• Face
• Hair
• Ceiling

To memorize the Body System is fairly easy, because when we start with our feet it is pretty obvious as we work our way up the body what is coming next.

Memorizing the Body System

1. Take a deep breath in hold it for a second and as you breath out just feel yourself relaxing.
2. Imagine your first image in the Body System which is feet, close your eyes, and out loud say the number “1”.
3. Repeat this process for each image of the Body System up to 10.
4. Work from 10 down to 1, imagining the image in your mind and repeating the number out loud.
5. Repeat the whole thing 1 to 10 – 10 to 1 three times.
6. Finally run through the whole system, forwards and backwards in your mind as quick as you can, just seeing the images as if you were fast forwarding and rewinding a movie. Do this until you are sure of the order of each image.

Now that you have memorized the Body System you are going to put it into practice by remembering some simple information.

Here are the 10 simple items you are going to memorize using the Body System:

• Glass
• Phone
• Light bulb
• Candle
• Boat
• Ice cream
• Spanner
• Statue
• Spaghetti
• Plant

To memorize these items - associate each one to one of your files, try and create your own associations, don’t worry if you get stuck there are examples below.

Associate your images together as quick as you can, then go back and add in senses, emotion, exaggeration and action – in time this will happen naturally. When you have finished run them forwards and backwards in your mind as quick as you can, remember this last step falls into the category of action, so from now on I will just remind you to incorporate action.

Here is an example of how to use your first filing system:

• Imagine growing huge feet that turn into glass.
• Imagine a red shiny phone tying your knees together and ringing loudly.
• Imagine light bulbs attached to your thighs flashing on and off.
• Candle associated with your behind? ( ... leave that one to you I think!)
• Imagine an elaborately designed boat sailing around your waist.
• Ice-cream and chest? Remember, get your senses involved!
• Imagine a big metal spanner attaching bolts to your neck.
• Imagine your face is made out of marble like a statue.
• Imagine your hair is made out of spaghetti, with lots of sauce.
• Imagine tropical plants growing from the ceiling.

Notice how I have used ROM in these associations, your feet are not just made of glass, they are also huge and exaggerated, I imagine how the glass feels, involving my senses, it’s a bizarre image and therefore gets my emotions drawn in, and I see them growing and turning into glass relating to action. The same with the phone, I have made it red, shiny and ringing loudly, the light bulbs are flashing on and off and so on…

This simple filing system can be used to memorize items at high speed, with practice someone could literally real off ten items one after the other with no break in between and you could recite them in any order. Its limiting factor is that you can only memorize 10 items; however it is useful for remembering things on the spot, or simply showing off your techniques. With this system you wouldn’t keep anything on it for any length of time, it just isn’t big enough.

The Item System

The second filing system we are going to look at is often referred to as 'The Item System' as it uses various items as it visual files. These are great for remembering information at high speed

The Item System is on of my favourite filing systems as it is very easy to create. In the past I have used it to memorize various lists, dance steps, speeches, showing off to friends in the pub (and taking their money) and games for the World Memory Championships; with it I was able to memorize a pack of cards in 1min 24 sec, which is still not as fast some, but not a bad effort all the same. It is basically my general system for things that need to be remembered quickly.

To create an Item filing system, you first need a building, the easiest one would be your home. From your home you are going to choose 20 different items to represent your visual files. To make these items easy to remember you are going to number them in an order. The easiest way to do this is by following these two steps:

1. Pick 4 rooms from your home, in the same order as you would come to them as you walk through your front door. So if the first room you come to is your living room that will be number 1; the second room you come to might be your kitchen, that will be number 2; the third may be the bathroom, number 3 and the fourth might be the bedroom number 4.
2. Pick 5 Items from each room, starting on your left hand side as you walk in the door and going round the room in a clockwise direction (try not to duplicate any items – 2 TV’s for example, if you do make sure they a visually distinctive). So if the first item on your left as you walk in the door is a table that will be number 1, if the second is a lamp that will be number 2, if the third is a TV that will be number 3, if the fourth is a bookshelf that will be number 4, and if the fifth is a sofa that will be number 5. From each room you will choose 5 different items.

Item System Example

Memorizing the Item System

1. Take a deep breath in hold it for a second and as you breath out just feel yourself relaxing.
2. Imagine your first image in the Item System, close your eyes, and out loud say the number "1".
3. Repeat this process for each visual file up to 20.
4. Next, run through files 1 to 5, repeating them out loud. Then work backwards 5 to 1 repeating them out loud. Do this 3 times.
5. Repeat step 4, for numbers 6 to 10; 11 to 15; 16 to 20.
6. Now run through the whole system from 1 to 20 then 20 to 1 repeating them out loud.
7. Finally run through the whole system, forwards and backwards in your mind as quick as you can, just seeing the images as if you were fast forwarding and rewinding a movie. Do this until you are sure of the order of each image.

Test this filing system out by associating 20 different things you would like to remember to your visual files.

You can create as many Item Systems as you like. It doesn’t have to be in your home, you could use your office, a bar or restaurant – as long as you have a room all you have to do is select items from that room in a clockwise order as your visual files. Don’t worry about knowing what numbers they are, just remember the order they come in. By doing this you can create a larger number of files.

The Location System

The location system can be used for either temporary information or long term information. Its advantage over the systems you have learned so far is that it is much larger and you can encapsulate more information in one visual file. Yet still memorize at high speed.

Let us take a look at how it is constructed:

It is based on the principal of selecting different locations as your visual files along a particular journey. You pick a starting location and a finishing location, and then choose as many locations in between as you can think of. The locations themselves can be anything – a room, a hallway, a garden, the corner of a street, a bus stop, a bus or a tree in a park; basically your location is any area of space that you can instantly recognize.

An example of a location system might be a journey from your home to your work. You don’t need to remember what the numbers your files are, just the order they appear - numbering them just makes it easy to see how many you have got. I find it best to create at least 50 per journey. Let’s take a look at a hypothetical illustration:

living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, hallway, stairs, garden, car, corner, fence, postbox, chemist, island, tesco, tube entrance, inside station, tube stairs, platform, tube train, platform at oxford circus………….50. Office

This is the first 20 locations of a journey. It will finish at 50 which will be the office.

I find that the best way to create a new Location System is to choose the starting point which in this case would be living room and an ending point, which is the office. The living room is numbered 1 and the office 50. The next step is to fill in as many locations along the way as you can think of.

Now, chances are you might end up with less than 50, in which case you would go back and look at your system and if possible add in a few more locations you might have missed out. For example, there may have been a newsagent in between ‘inside station’ and the ‘tube stairs’, so you could add this in. You could continue to add in as many as possible until I came up with the number 50.

If there simply were not enough locations then another alternative would be to extend your journey – so if the office was number 38, you would add another mini journey onto the end of it to bring you up to 50. This might go from your office to the gym. By doing this you create a nice round number of files which help you feel more organised. Remember though, the numbers don’t really matter it is just the order the locations appear that is important.

Creating a Location System

Make sure you have the next 30 minutes free, grab yourself a clock or a stopwatch, a pen and paper or open a blank document on your computer. Okay, start your stopwatch or start timing yourself now.

Your first task is to name your Location System – so if it is a journey from home to work, call it home/work.

On your piece of paper or word document write down your starting location at the top and the finishing location at the bottom.

Take no more than 10 minutes to write down all the locations in between. Try and make your locations fairly close together, this makes it a lot easier to remember. You can use the example I gave above as a reference. Make sure you create at least 50. If you find you don’t have enough locations, take another mental journey from your work to say the gym or shopping centre, it doesn’t matter, as long as you end up with 50 locations. You may also find there are a lot more than 50 locations from your home to work. That’s fine, if there is a hundred, create a hundred. Whatever the number is just make sure it is a multiple of 10. Okay your 10 minutes start now.

Here is the fun step! Try to spend no more than 15 minutes on this section. It is time to memorize your Location System. To do this you follow, a slightly different procedure than you did with the item system, because with the locations you don’t need to memorize their numbers, just the order they come.

1. Take a deep breath in hold it for a second and as you breathe out just feel yourself relaxing.
2. Imagine your first location in your mind as clear as you can, and repeat, out loud the name of that location.
3. Repeat this process for each visual file up to your last location, (do not spend more than 5 seconds on each one). Since this is a journey you know, and the locations follow a sequence, it will make it easier to remember.
4. Next, work backwards from your last location to your first.
5. Repeat this whole process 3 times.
6. Finally, run through the whole system, forwards and backwards in your mind as quick as you can. Just seeing the visual files as if fast forwarding and rewinding a movie. Do this until you are sure of the order of each location.

Now that you have learned your Location System try putting it into practice and memorize 20-50 items or objects. Follow exactly the same procedure for memorizing them as you have done in the past. Making sure you apply all the Rules Of Memorization. So your first object is space shuttle, you will associate space shuttle with your first location. If the first location is your living room, you could imagine the shuttle flying around the room.

Try and complete this exercise as quick as possible, blast through the list of objects, taking no more than five seconds to associate each object. When you are done, run through it once adding in more of ROM, and run through it a second time as quick as you can. Then get a blank piece of paper and write down as many of the 50 objects you remembered as possible. This whole exercise should take no more than 15 minutes. Okay start the clock!

You can create as many Location Systems as you like – use mental journeys that you have taken from any point in your life – to your school or college, to the train station, the airport, a restaurant, places on holidays or to the beach, it really doesn’t matter. There are literally thousands of visual files you could create to aid you in memorizing information

NOTE: To create more files a good idea is sometimes to combine the Item System and the Location System.

Next learn about advanced association.

Advanced Association

You are at the stage now in mnemonics where you should have a good grasp of how to associate information and structure it in your mind so that it can be easily remembered and recalled. We have seen in our previous lessons how important the Rules Of Memorization are; Organisation, Relaxation, Imagination and Association. Let's see how we can take ROM a step further and memorize more complex information using advanced association. In the examples you have been working through so far you have been memorizing some fairly straightforward items; cup, banana, rocket etc. These are all words that instantly bring, not only an image to your mind, but perhaps an emotion, sound, smell or taste; making them very memorable and easy to associate, either with each other, or to one of your filing systems. However, what do you do when you get information that you don’t instantly have a mental image for? Something a bit more complex?

At this point you have to start opening up your creative mind and finding more lateral ways of applying ROM and associating information. There are two methods for doing this; that with practice become second nature. With both methods the meaning of the word can play an essential part in creating an image for your information.

• Natural associations - images sparked off by a memory, sense or emotion.
• Sound-alike associations - images which sound similar to the information you are memorizing

Sometimes you will combine them both. Like everything else in mnemonics the best way to understand is to experience.

Natural association

The following are my personal associations, so I will give you examples of how these words relate to myself, chances are you would have a different image.

Awesome – the first image that comes to mind for me is an awesome tidal wave. So I would use tidal wave as my image.

Fearless –  a fearless lion or someone you know who was fearless in the past.

Scary – Freddy Kruger, or a similar kind of scary image.

Sound-alike association

Madagascar – if you have been here then you may have an emotional association. If not we need to look at how the word sounds. A Mad – gas – car, could represent Madagascar.

Capitulate – the first part of the word is cap, so your image could be a cap. The meaning of capitulate is to surrender or give up. So you could imagine a cap kneeling down with his hands clasped together, surrendering, giving up. This way you remember the word and also what it means.

Accentuate – the first part of this word sounds like axe, so your image could be axe. Accentuate also means to emphasise, highlight, make more noticeable. So you could imagine your axe in a spotlight, emphasising his tap dancing skills.

Speaking the information

An important point to notice in ROM is when you look at your mental image you speak the word out loud; the more obscure the word the more important this is. By doing this you are making the image become one with the word and therefore helping to lock it in your mind. I have often had the question asked in seminars – wouldn’t it be quicker just trying to remember the words rather than taking time making up images? To this I usually hand out a list with 30 words and ask them to try and memorize the words without the use of mnemonics. This usually makes the point. Obviously memorizing like this will seem strange at first but then again what new thing we learn doesn’t? Like I said before, practice something enough and it will eventually becomes second nature, when its second nature it feels the natural thing to do. This segment of mnemonics is particularly important; you need to get enough practice and feel comfortable and confident with it before moving on.

I have listed 10 words below. Use natural and sound-alike associations to convert each of these words into images and then file them onto an Item System.

• Give yourself no more than 5 minutes.
• Use the first image which pops into your mind.

Twenty Words

1. upgrade
2. ecstatic
3. priority
4. jovial
5. stern
6. obstreperous
7. crotchety
8. order
9. compromise
10. adjudicate

Now write down the 10 words you remember on a separate piece of paper. Check your answers and see how many you get right.

This is the biggest step to get your head around with memory improvement techniques, however it doesn't take long to get up to speed.

Next learn how to remember numbers.

Memorising Numbers

Imagine what you could achieve if you could memorise any number with ease. Stop imagining read on…

After you have completed this section try out our Number Memory Game

Instructions for the Number Memory Game

Launch the Number Memory Game

You are about to learn a way of thinking about numbers that make them more memorable. It works on the principal of taking numbers and converting them into memorable images. To achieve this you are going to use a phonetic system which goes back hundreds of years. This phonetic system is based on the principal that the numbers from 0-9 has a sound or sounds associated with them - from these sounds we create words, which we use as our images. The end result is that you build up a vocabulary of images for the numbers.

Before we can turn a number into an image we first need to learn the code used in the phonetic system. From this code we can figure out the sound that each number from 0 – 9 represents. Once you have matched up the numbers with their sounds, you can make up words (the words will be your images).

The Phonetic System

It is very important to understand that is the sounds of the words created that determine what numbers they are. For example the sounds k, g and ng represents the number 7 so the C in Cat would be the number 7 because C sounds like K. This rule stands throughout the code. It is not how you spell the word but rather how it sounds.

IMPORTANT: The letters A, E, I, O, U. W, H, Y have no value. This allows us to create words.  

As with memorizing anything, to remember the code we apply ROM. Sometimes you have to memorize a number at high speed for this we need to build up a vocabulary of pre-determined images to represent our numbers. Using the code we can easily create a separate image for each two digit number from 00 – 99 this will be our number system. Below I have set out a table with 100 words. Each of these words (images) represent a number from 00 – 99. Each one is created using the phonetic code, let us take a look at a few of them:

These are not the only images you can use. Using the phonetic code 65 could just as easily be Cello (sounds like chello) or agile (sounds like ajile). Remember it is the sound the words make that is important along with the fact that A, E, I, O, U and W, H, Y have no value, this allows us to create words. Have a look through the images below and make sure you have an understanding of how the phonetic code is being used to create these images. If there are images that you would prefer to use instead of the ones listed below just go ahead and substitute them.

Number System - example

To help speed up the memorization process use ROM to associate the images from 00 – 09 together, 10 – 19 together, 20 – 29 together and so on up to 90 – 99. This way you can run through them in your head at speed. Once you have completed this there is a 100 digit number below I want you to memorize. This will help to really familiarise you with the code, while being quite an impressive feat at the same time. Remember you are only really memorizing 50 images.

Use your location system to file each one of your images, so if your first location is your living room and the first 2 digits are 92, you will associate bin with your living room, the next 2 digits will be associated on your next file and so on throughout the rest of the number.  

Give yourself no more than 30 minutes for this exercise.

Once you have memorized the number write down as many digits as you can remember and see how many you get right.

9201982547 3847509377 5419152430 9607927152 1725079576

9372637485 6102293856 5564709708 9781162534 9685789875

This exercise is really more to do with learning the code than remembering the number but as you can see by thinking about numbers in a different way there is almost no limit to how many you can remember.

Next learn how to remember names.

Remembering Names

If you remember someone’s name, they remember you.

This is probably the memory technique everyone wants to learn, and also one of the trickier ones. The main reason is because it can be quite a hard one to practice. I usually start my seminars by memorizing everyone's name, however I don’t initially draw attention to it. I meet everyone individually and introduce myself, then after about the first 10 minutes of introduction, start directing thoughts or questions to people in the class using their name. After about 10 minutes there is always a small buzz going around the room 'he knows all our names!' This has the effect of giving everyone confidence in the course and in me, which is essential when you are teaching a class of 30 and upwards. I have tried many different variations on memorizing names and so far I have found the technique I am about to teach you works best. Most of this will sound like common sense and to be honest it is, but like many things in life, there is no point just talking about it you have to do it.

Creating the proper mindset

Memorizing names is slightly different from other kinds of memorising as you don't tend to have time to prepare for it in the same way you could prepare for let's say an exam. Meeting new people is often unexpected, so remembering their name is sometimes the last thing on your mind, in this case it's not so much as remembering who they are, as not getting their name to begin with. Sometimes you meet a large group of people at once and believe there is no way you will remember everyones name so there doesn't seem any point trying, and even if you do try, you get the first 3 or 4 and then forget them within seconds. To deal with this challenge you need to construct a specific mindset that will help you instinctively remember names. This involves creating a set of steps to follow when meeting new people, you will be able to put these steps into practice straight away.

Before running through your mindset steps there are a few points to note when memorizing names. The first is not to be too hard on yourself in the beginning. Personally I have always been more instinctive at memorizing words, facts and figures than names, but with practice it is more than possible. Secondly, you won’t necessarily remember everyone's name who you meet for years to come, but you will definitely remember them for a much longer period of time than you ever thought possible. And finally - practice, practice, practice, there are times when you won't instantly recall a name, with practice those times will get less and less.

Mindset Steps

Pay attention and observe people

How do people look; the shape of their head, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, forehead and chin. Their hair and skin colour and type, is it smooth, rough, freckly etc. Do they instantly remind you on any kind of animal or famous person that would help you create an image of them? On the bus or on a train, start noticing people, not only when you are about to meet them but in general. This will coach your mind into creating a clear image of the people you meet.

Mentally exaggerate prominent features.

As you meet someone notice their most prominent features and mentally exaggerate them. Create a clear mental image of that person in your mind.

Notice your surroundings

If you can recall the location you meet someone, this will help in remembering their name if you meet them in the future.

Listen out for their name

If you don’t catch their name first time, just say so and ask for their name again. When you hear their name, repeat it back to them out loud to make sure it is the right one. There will be some situations where this may seem awkward; being introduced to a group of people could be one of them. In this case there are two things you can do:

• Firstly take a chance and memorize their names as quick as you can, by doing this you should pick up the majority of them, if there is any you can't remember simply ask them again when you start to have a conversation with them. If you do this make sure you ask their name early in the conversation.
• Secondly, listen to the names being said once and then say to the group as a whole, 'I just want to make sure you have everybody's name', and start running through each one out loud. People will realize if you haven’t got it the first time round and will tell you their name again. By doing this simple act and taking an interest in who people are, you will find that everyone will make sure they know your name.

Create an image for their name

In the beginning this will be the difficult part but you will soon get into the swing of it and start to build up a vocabulary of set images which represent names. For first names, if you already know someone called john and he likes to draw, you could use an image of a pen or paint brush, or maybe choose an image that represents one of his hobbies. By doing this you will always use the same image for John, making them easier for you to remember. You can also start to group all the Johns that you know together in your head making them more memorable. If you don't know anyone with the same name as the person you are meeting then use a sound-alike image. For second names, there maybe an immediate association, for example; butcher, wood, taylor etc. If not then again use a sound-alike image.

Mentally associate the person with your image using ROM

Use their most distinctive features and link your images to it using ROM, exaggeration is particularly important here.

Create a strong belief in your ability to remember names

Tell your self that you are good at remembering names, if you can't immediately recall someone you memorized, ask yourself the question 'what is their name?' and mentally repeat 'their name will come to me shortly'.  As you say this, expect to get an answer. These may sound like simple steps but they can make a huge difference.

Mindset Summary

• Pay attention and observe
• Mentally exaggerate prominent features
• Notice surroundings
• Listen
• Create image for name
• Associate person with name using ROM
• Belief

This takes us to the end of our introduction to improving your memory, to learn more check out our Developing Your Mind e-class which covers everything here and more!