Learning how to memorize something fast isn’t about working harder—it’s about using the right method. I don’t think I can. I’m sure I’ll fail the exam this time. I can’t memorize anything.
If the problem is memorization, then it’s better to learn from a memory champion. Joshua Foer, a journalist. In 2006, he memorized a deck of 52 cards in just 1 minute and 40 seconds.
This is a new record. For this achievement, he won the US Memory Championship.Today I will share some important techniques from one of his popular books.
This book discusses the techniques of memorizing in a smart way, not by working hard. The book’s name is “Moonwalking With Einstein.” So let’s start the main discussion.
Idea number 1: Baker / Baker!
If I give you two situations. First, I took a person in front of him and said, the person’s name was Baker. Now, bringing another person in front of you, I said, this person’s name is also Baker.
But he makes bread. Now, if, after a few days, you are brought in front of the first person and asked, who is the person? You might say the person looks familiar.
But I can’t remember correctly. Now if you are brought in front of the second person and asked, you might say, “The person looks familiar! This person makes bread!” Why did this happen?
A person’s name is not remembered as a name. But the other person’s profession is remembered. The reason for this is that when we only hear the name, no image is created in our brain of the person.
But when I say” the second person makes bread”, then various images of that person have been created in your brain. For example: bread made in the factory, or any kind of bread.
We then connect those images with that person. Then a connection is created. But the chances of a connection being created are less just by saying the name.
Similarly, when we are reading a difficult lesson, we have no connection with any image. So our job is to make a little effort to create a connection while studying.
For example: after hearing the name of the first person, if you imagine, “The person used to eat a lot of bread as a child, so maybe his name is Baker.”
As a result, a connection would easily be created with the person and his name would be remembered.
Idea Number 2: Chunking
If you were given these numbers to memorize: “13893526308270808252“, it would certainly take you some time. But if you study these numbers by arranging them in chunks, memorizing them will become much easier.
For example: 1389/ 3526/ 3082. Studying in this way makes it much easier to memorize a large and difficult lesson. What if I told you to remember these letters: “t y e o l u i e u b v o”?
You might be able to remember them. But if it can be made easier by using a technique, then the letters can be remembered very easily.
For example: if you arrange the above letters, it will be, “I love YouTube”.
Idea Number 3: Memory Palace
“1. 2 half pants 2. 2 kg tomato 3. 12 bananas 4. 20 sweets 5. 1 soap 6. 1 hit spray 7. 1 toilet cleaner 8. 1 towel 9. 2 eggs 10. 2 kg fish 11. 1 kg carrot 12. 1 kg radish 13. 2 cadburys 14. 1 pepsi 15. 1 pillow”
Many of us need to work with lists in our academic or professional life. Sometimes, there are presentations. There is a need to memorize lists.
But how do you memorize a long list? In this case, the memory palace technique can be very useful. Let’s see how it works. I am telling you a story.
One day you come home from the office and see two people in half pants in front of your house. They ran away laughing at you. You felt surprised when you saw this.
Then, when you came in front of the door of the house, you saw that someone had thrown 2 large tomatoes at your house door. The tomatoes are still stuck on the door.
You thought, this is definitely the work of those two people in half pants. You opened the door of the house angrily. As soon as you opened the door, you saw your son sitting on the sofa eating a banana.
You were even more surprised. Then you go up the stairs to your room. As soon as you go up the stairs, you see that 1 sweet has been placed on each step.
And the juice of those sweets has stuck to your feet. Now you go to the washroom to clean your feet. There you saw a lizard biting your soap. So you chased the lizard away with a hit spray.
But instead of cleaning your feet with soap and water, you clean them directly with a toilet cleaner. Then, while reaching for a towel to dry your feet, you saw that your wife was wearing that towel and making food for you.
You then went closer and saw your wife boiling two eggs without any water.Just then, surprisingly, two fish came out of the eggs! And the two fish jumped out the window and into the drain next door.
Seeing such an event, the carrots and radishes in front of you started laughing. To stop their laughter, you gave them two Cadbury chocolates to eat.
Annoyed by all these events, you went into the room and took out a cold drink from the refrigerator and drank it. Then you fell asleep, put your head on the pillow on the bed and you fell asleep!
Now your task is, after you finish reading my writing, you will try to remember how many items you can recall.
So, what we learned from today’s writing is,Our brain prefers to imagine with images rather than words when it comes to remembering something.
Therefore, to remember any information, a relevant connection must be made with that information. If a difficult piece of information or a list can be connected with a fun technique or story, then remembering that information or list becomes much easier.
Today, the topic we are discussing was followed by the people of Greece 2500 years ago. Because there was no writing system at that time, people relied on memorization.
But in the present era, due to the presence of smartphones, computers, Google Drive, etc., people do not emphasize memorization. Is memory only useful for exams? Of course not.
If all the memory is erased from your brain, you will not be able to recognize yourself. The brain and memory take care of many things. Improved memory helps in a better lifestyle.
