Anthony Metivier's Blog, page 33

Music Mnemonics For Guitar And Piano

[image error]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.

Bottom line:

I will be exploring its every nook and cranny, however. And when I do, I’ll make a course about how you can use the method. 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.

[image error]

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 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 is as a tool for drilling the scales, music theory material and song passages into long-term memory for performance from information that has now become part of you in ways that go beyond just recall.

This should be your goal for language learning too, which I mention because language learning and music learning share many similarities. 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. This 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.

Moving forward, I’ve ordered Dean Vaughn’s Vaughn Cube for Music Theory.

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!

The post Music Mnemonics For Guitar And Piano appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - Memory Improvement Made Easy With Anthony Metivier.

Adult Coloring Books For Memory Improvement

[image error]You’re probably sick to death with the adult coloring books craze, right?

I was too. Until I realized one thing.

Adult Coloring Books Are A Great Way To Practice Memory Improvement!

 

But before we get into the magic of that …

There are a few huge problems people who use the Magnetic Memory Method and other mnemonics face.

1. Not enough time.

2. Not enough creativity.

3. Not enough relaxation.

Let’s deal with each of these in order and see how adult coloring books can help.

 

How To Wrestle Time Into Submission

And Win Every Time

 

The problem of time is easily solved.

Stop telling yourself you don’t have enough time. That’s the first step and an important one.

The more you tell yourself that time is running out, moving too fast and not on your side, the more you’re pushing it away.

Please understand one thing:

Time is your servant, and you are its master. You just have to take the reigns and maintain control.

How? Well, as I talked about in Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics and Morning Memory Secrets, you need to let go out of the concept of discipline.

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.

 

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, those being 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 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.

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.

[image error]

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.

[image error]

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:

Tap The Mind Of A 10-Year Old Memory Palace Master

Memory Improvement Techniques For Kids

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.

[image error]

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.

Mnemonics And The 7 Eternal Laws Of Memory Improvement

[image error] Please note: Right now I’m holding a “Declare Independence From Forgetfulness” offer where you can boost your memory and save hundreds of dollars. This deal expires for good tomorrow, Friday July 8th at 11:59pm. Click here for all the details before this disappears for good.

On board? Great! Now let’s get started with today’s post:

Be honest about your experience with mnemonics.

You’ve read a book or two, maybe even taken a video course. And yet …

 

You’re Still Scrambling Around 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’s Oldest 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.

[image error]

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.

If you’d like to get better at making crazy imagery in your imagination, check out the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode called Mindshock: How To Make Amazing Visual Imagery And Memorize More Stuff.

 

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.

6. You must test and track your results.

7. You must keep going.

The post Mnemonics And The 7 Eternal Laws Of Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - Anthony Metivier.

Learn Languages Online With Skill Silo And These 9 Fluency Tips

[image error]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.

There are many more reasons why you should learn a language. You’ll find another 15 Reasons Why Learning A Foreign Language Is Good For Your Brain here.

 

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

 

[image error]

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.

[image error]

 

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.

Here are some general tips:

1. Don’t delay.

As this Guardian article points out, the question “Can I successfully learn a language online?” puzzles a lot of people.

Don’t let it.

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.

[image error]

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.

7. Understand and use the power of motivation.

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:

[image error]

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.

And 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:

[image error]

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.

The post Learn Languages Online With Skill Silo And These 9 Fluency Tips appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - Anthony Metivier.

Brain Games: The Truth You Need To Know For Memory Improvement

[image error]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?

[image error]

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 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 them. 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 see 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? No problem: just add an image like a Ferrari digging ore from beneath the statue using a camping tent.

[image error]

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.

But 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, get my free Memory Improvement Kit for a full training.

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 FREE 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. But very briefly, using associative-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.

[image error]

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.

[image error]

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.

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.

[image error]

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.

The post Brain Games: The Truth You Need To Know For Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - Anthony Metivier.

How To Improve Focus And Concentration: 4 Ultra-Fast Tips

[image error]Zoning out sucks, doesn’t it? You’re sitting there, wishing you can concentrate … 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! 

German Phrases: The Ultimate How To Memorize Them Guide

[image error]How I Memorized A New Foreign Language Phrase 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 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 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.

 

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.

[image error]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 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. 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:

[image error]

Here’s how I’ve adapted my practice from memorizing single words to whole 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.

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 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 f[image error]amous 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.

[image error]But if GoethE doesn’t make sense to your imagination and you encounter an issue Anthony talked about in his 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 sentences 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.

[image error]

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 sentences 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 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.[image error]

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.

If you’ve found this training 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.

Remember Names At Events: Quick Start Guide

[image error]Wish you could remember names? I’ll bet you do. 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.

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.

[image error]

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.

[image error]

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.

[image error]

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.

But this is important:

Don’t make it a list of just . Choose names that you would like to have memorized: composers, scientists, poets, 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 Events Without 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, 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. 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 Them 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 To Remember Names At Events And Never Forget Them

[image error]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.

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.

[image error]

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.

[image error]

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.

[image error]

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.

But this is important:

Don’t make it a list of just . Choose names that you would like to have memorized: composers, scientists, poets, 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 Events Without 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, 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. 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 Them 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 To Beat Jet Lag And The Winter Blahs

[image error]Do you hate that slump you get after flying?

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.

 

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. As I was, many were skeptical, but 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?

[image error]

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! …