7 Ways To Make Your Memory Swiss Army Knife Sharp

11/01/14 • 33 min

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn the 7 best ways to make your memory sharper than a Swiss Army Knife.

MacGyver, in case you’ve never seen the show, is a secret agent with a background in science. He’s always building bombs and troubleshooting problems.

His favorite tools?

Duct-tape and a Swiss Army Knife.

He also had a cool boss who was also his best friend.

How many secret agents can say that?

But what has MacGuyver got to do with the Magnetic Memory Method?

A lot, actually.

When you use the Magnetic Memory Method, you’re transforming your mind into a Swiss Army knife and duct-tape at the same time.

Your mental Swiss Army knife extends just the right associative imagery at the right time. And your mental duct-tape (your Memory Palaces) makes those images stick.

They stick for as long as you want to keep the information memorized.

And there are a lot of tools that go along with it.

Here are just 8 of those tools in your Swiss Army knife-brain that you might not have spent enough time on yet.

Listen to this episode of The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and read the following to learn how.

1. Sensory

Whether you’re building your Memory Palaces or filling them, it’s important to be aware of your five senses.

The more of the main senses you activate when working on your language learning goals, the easier it will be to recall your vocabulary.

2. Intensity

Your mind has the amazing ability to make its contents more vibrant, hilarious, and strange. This will help you memorize and recall information.

And it’s easy to do. You need only focus on the associative-imagery you’ve created and then amplify it. Make it even more colorful, large, vibrant and strange.

3. Distinction

This point relates to intensity. But the difference here is that you focus on differentiating the images in your mind.

One way to do this is to focus on the borders of the images you create.

For example, let’s say my image has Fred Flintstone kissing a frog in a tutu. I can make the image more outstanding by taking a few seconds to really see the edges of the image and strengthen them.

You can pretend that you are tracing over them with a black marker like you might do in a coloring book if it helps.

It’s kind of a weird thing to do, but once you try it, you’ll find that your images are at least 10x more memorable. All because you’ve focused on making them distinct.

It doesn’t have to be black lines either.

Try silver, gold, red, the color of duct-tape – any color will do.

4. Emotion

Believe it or not, there’s a little pea in your brain called the amygdala. It deals with emotional content, both positive and negative, and ...

You can hack it.

Just by presenting it with crazy imagery.

This works because the amygdala is designed to sense emotions and literally scream, “pay attention to this! It’s important!”

And so you can supercharge your associative images, and the Memory Palaces themselves, by giving them strong emotional elements.

5. Survivalist impulses

Our brains come with some heavy duty wiring to ensure that we have the necessary drive to survive.

And it’s not just a physical thing. We need to survive – and thrive – emotionally, mentally, financially, nutritionally, etc.

In other words, if you want your memory to work better, make sure you’re well-fed, well-watered and well-rested.

6. Personal connections

I’ve had some people tell me that their life histories interfere with their Memory Palace language learning work.

I find this surprising, because I think it would be just the opposite.

Part of the mnemonic principle that underlies the Magnetic Memory system is association. Normally associations to things that you’re already familiar. Things that need zero memorization (because they’re already in memory).

To each a zone, of course, but do experiment with increasing the personal importance of the images you use. It will make everything more memorable.

And it only stands to reason that your favorite TV shows, actors, musicians and movies are personal connections that you can draw upon with ease. It doesn’t just have to be family and friends.

7. Repetition

A lot of people have told me that because I’m against rote learning, I’m against repetition.

This is absolutely not the case.

There’s smart, useful and results producing repetition that takes less time and effort. Like using Memory Palaces and the Method of Loci in your work with mnemon...

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn the 7 best ways to make your memory sharper than a Swiss Army Knife.

MacGyver, in case you’ve never seen the show, is a secret agent with a background in science. He’s always building bombs and troubleshooting problems.

His favorite tools?

Duct-tape and a Swiss Army Knife.

He also had a cool boss who was also his best friend.

How many secret agents can say that?

But what has MacGuyver got to do with the Magnetic Memory Method?

A lot, actually.

When you use the Magnetic Memory Method, you’re transforming your mind into a Swiss Army knife and duct-tape at the same time.

Your mental Swiss Army knife extends just the right associative imagery at the right time. And your mental duct-tape (your Memory Palaces) makes those images stick.

They stick for as long as you want to keep the information memorized.

And there are a lot of tools that go along with it.

Here are just 8 of those tools in your Swiss Army knife-brain that you might not have spent enough time on yet.

Listen to this episode of The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and read the following to learn how.

1. Sensory

Whether you’re building your Memory Palaces or filling them, it’s important to be aware of your five senses.

The more of the main senses you activate when working on your language learning goals, the easier it will be to recall your vocabulary.

2. Intensity

Your mind has the amazing ability to make its contents more vibrant, hilarious, and strange. This will help you memorize and recall information.

And it’s easy to do. You need only focus on the associative-imagery you’ve created and then amplify it. Make it even more colorful, large, vibrant and strange.

3. Distinction

This point relates to intensity. But the difference here is that you focus on differentiating the images in your mind.

One way to do this is to focus on the borders of the images you create.

For example, let’s say my image has Fred Flintstone kissing a frog in a tutu. I can make the image more outstanding by taking a few seconds to really see the edges of the image and strengthen them.

You can pretend that you are tracing over them with a black marker like you might do in a coloring book if it helps.

It’s kind of a weird thing to do, but once you try it, you’ll find that your images are at least 10x more memorable. All because you’ve focused on making them distinct.

It doesn’t have to be black lines either.

Try silver, gold, red, the color of duct-tape – any color will do.

4. Emotion

Believe it or not, there’s a little pea in your brain called the amygdala. It deals with emotional content, both positive and negative, and ...

You can hack it.

Just by presenting it with crazy imagery.

This works because the amygdala is designed to sense emotions and literally scream, “pay attention to this! It’s important!”

And so you can supercharge your associative images, and the Memory Palaces themselves, by giving them strong emotional elements.

5. Survivalist impulses

Our brains come with some heavy duty wiring to ensure that we have the necessary drive to survive.

And it’s not just a physical thing. We need to survive – and thrive – emotionally, mentally, financially, nutritionally, etc.

In other words, if you want your memory to work better, make sure you’re well-fed, well-watered and well-rested.

6. Personal connections

I’ve had some people tell me that their life histories interfere with their Memory Palace language learning work.

I find this surprising, because I think it would be just the opposite.

To each a zone, of course, but do experiment with increasing the personal importance of the images you use. It will make everything more memorable.

And it only stands to reason that your favorite TV shows, actors, musicians and movies are personal connections that you can draw upon with ease. It doesn’t just have to be family and friends.

7. Repetition

A lot of people have told me that because I’m against rote learning, I’m against repetition.

This is absolutely not the case.

There’s smart, useful and results producing repetition that takes less time and effort. Like using Memory Palaces and the Method of Loci in your work with mnemon...

Previous Episode

On Math, The Science Of Mnemonics And Memory Modalities

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we discuss visuality, science and a new book on memorizing numbers and math.

Note:

If you are visiting by no later than Sunday, October 27th, then How to Learn and Memorize Math, Numbers, Equations and Simple Arithmetic is free on Kindle.

If you don’t own a Kindle, you can get a free app for most devices on the US Kindle Store.

I want to thank you kindly for visiting and look back to this page soon for a full discussion of the episode, the Method of Loci, mnemonics, creating a Memory Palace network and all of that good stuff that we tend to talk about.

Here is the correspondence I received as referred to in this episode of the podcast:

Hi Anthony,

I have a question I would like to ask. Using mnemonics what have you committed to memory?

I’m interested in using mnemonics to educate myself, to learn and be able to remember a vast sum of knowledge, that I find enjoyable, and I find it inspirational to hear, what others have achieved using such techniques.

Kind regards.

This is a great question, and answering it helps me describe just how versatile the Magnetic Memory system – and mnemonics in general – happen to be.

Over the years I have memorized:

Foreign language vocabulary

Musical notation

Dates and facts

Seat numbers on airplanes and trains

Poetry

Famous quotes

Randomized decks of cards

To-do lists (which as Derren Brown points out, Memory Palace to-do items are for more likely to get done)

Philosophical concepts

Names of people I meet

Street and city names

Addresses

Phone numbers

Film and book titles

Recipes

Call numbers at the library

Appointment times

... and I’m sure there’s much more.

For me, the ultimate trick has always been to use locations. Some people toss their visual associations “into the void” of their minds without locating them some place.

And for some people, that’s just fine.

But I’m an advocate for localized organization.

Why? I’ve talked about this a lot before in other editions of the Magnetic Memory newsletter, the key idea being that we have an unconscious fear of losing things (especially our minds).

Thus, when we create a visual image to help us remember something and then stick it in a clearly visualized mental location based on an actual location with which we are intimately familiar, we eliminate the fear and anxiety we naturally have a losing things and can focus on embedding that information instead.

Just a theory?

Perhaps.

But the theory is irrelevant.

This stuff works.

And there’s science behind it too.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have very limited patience for anything that can’t be empirically demonstrated in front of a council of disinterested men and women in lab coats.

That’s just the way my Magnets roll.

Further Resources:

In Praise of the Mnemonic Peg System

How to Memorize Numbers with the Major Method

Method of Loci article on Wikipedia

The post On Math, The Science Of Mnemonics And Memory Modalities appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Next Episode

5 Ultra Fun Ways To Super Boost Your Fluency

Program Notes

As you all know, I focus on memorizing vocabulary. I also share some ideas about memorizing poetry and decks of cards. And other ways to awaken the possibilities of your mind. Lots of other ways.

But above all, my goal is to help people succeed in their target language studies. Or within their profession so that can excel with sophistication and ease.

The method I teach involves creating many Memory Palaces based on the alphabet. Each Memory Palace features a journey, some long, some short.

But memorizing vocabulary isn’t the whole story when it comes to becoming fluent in a language or profession. So in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we talk about 5 other ways you can get a superboost of fluency.

So let’s get started:

1. Expand your fluency by studying the background of your language or profession.

If you’re studying French, turn to books on the history of the language. Read up on the countries where French is spoken or its influence has been felt. Look at how it has shaped cultural customs, political structures and its speakers.

The same is true for reading about, say, medicine. Look at the history of the field and its cultural impact. You can look at how medicine has influenced art, theatre, literature and other aspects of culture.

2. Read within the language itself.

This means not only children’s books. In fact, as discussed in the episode, these can be more destructive than helpful when learning a language. They often have non-standard words that can be hard to find in a dictionary.

Try online magazines and newspapers instead. You can find a breaking news story in your mother tongue and then look for it in the language your are studying. Write down some of the words and phrases you’d like to learn and use the Magnetic Memory Method to memorize them.

3. Test what you’ve memorized.

This is critical. Recall Rehearsal not only tells you how accurately you’ve memorized the material, but it also does at least two things:

a) It improves your memory abilities b) It depends your familiarity with the target information

In sum, the Method of Loci and Memory Palaces are best used by ...

Using them.

4. Seek, develop and use motivation.

As discussed in this episode of the Podcast, motivation is a slippery fish. You don’t want to visualize goals that you can’t achieve. At the same time, you don’t want to encourage yourself to be an underachiever.

It’s kind of cliche to suggest this, but choose SMART goals. But the fact of the matter is that they work.

From Wikipedia, courtesy of Peter Drucker, SMART goals are:

Specific. This means that they target a specific area for improvement.

Measurable. You need to be able to quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.

Assignable. You have to be able to assign the goal to yourself. If you can’t do it, who will?

Realistic. If it’s impossible to achieve, the goal will be of limited use.

Time-related. You should specify when you expect the results.

Using SMART goals will help you a great deal as you continue your fluency development.

5. Teach.

As people often say, something taught is something learned twice.

And it’s true.

If you haven’t externalized a subject you’ve learned, you haven’t really internalized it. Without teaching it, you haven’t fully processed it. Like good coffee, knowledge needs to be percolated and then shared.

The same goes for everything, including mnemonics and other work with memory techniques. into place and the theories lose their complexity.

As always, thanks for listening to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. If you’re looking for information about the Masterclass, it’s currently open. If you’re already a member, please login now to continue learning about how to improve your memory and the quality of your mind. You really can learn and memorize anything.

The post 5 Ultra Fun Ways To Super Boost Your Fluency appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.