[Daily Knowledge Blast] : Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley

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Our memories fail us. I'm sure we've all been in the position where we've forgot somebodies name who we just met the week before. Some of us are clever and we can find a way to get the name out of them without the person ever noticing, others don't care enough to get awkward over the situation and just ask outright for the name again. But wouldn't it be nice if it never had to come to that?

After you've finished this post, I hope you'll have the tools to never have to worry about forgetting something important again.

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Mental state

There is an awful lot of people who find it hard enough concentrating on details, let alone remembering them after the fact. The truth is that most of us live in a constant state of conflict and distraction.

Do you constantly switch between your phone, the computer, your emails? Is there a notification on Facebook, a like on Instagram or an Upvote on Steemit?

We are all similar. Everyone has distractions, so don't think I'm calling out anyone in particular. We just have to learn how to minimize the multitasking and learn to focus so we can concentrate more.

Consider this. You chat on the phone while your driving. It takes you half a second longer to react. You are driving at 70 MPH. If you need to hit the brakes that half a second longer reaction turns in 15 meters. I don't need to spell out how much tragedy and pain can occur in 15 meters.

Learn to concentrate, your focus is important when taking in information and it's also crucial when moving onto the next step.

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Bring the information you need to life

Have you ever turned a piece of valuable information into a picture or movie in your head? It takes a bit of practice to think like this but when it comes to memorizing handfuls of information, this is the way to start.

SEE Method

(S)enses - Information enters our heads via our senses. Creating multisensory images when remembering certain words makes it much easier than remembering a specific word.

(E)xaggerate - Ordinary words or images will slip out of our minds far to easily. You have to imagine something ridiculous and make it stick.

(E)nergize - Add some energy to the image in your head. Throw logic out the window, you want to have something that's acting or doing something.

Lets try. We want to remember the word CROCODILE. Firstly, imagine it's touch. What does it's skin feel like. Ever eaten Croc before? Whats it taste like?

Now, this Crocodile is bright yellow. It's wearing a bathing suit. Hot stuff.

How're we going to energize it? I'm imagining him diving into a swimming pool.

The bright yellow Crocodile wearing a bathing suit diving into a pool. That's vivid, easy to remember and one fresh looking gator.

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Organizing the info you've learned

We've learned how to bring words to life in our heads but we need a way to organize it all. What we are going to explore is the loci method, also known as the route method. This is where we combine new information with something that is already familiar to us.

For example, if you needed to memorize and practice a speech you would start by imagining a certain route you could walk around your home. Your aim is to string together locations throughout your house and use some prompts to bring information to your head as you go.

Your first paragraph is your introduction and you are starting in your bedroom. You are at your bedside table and you have a snowglobe on it. This is a loci. Something that links an image to the info you require.

To use our exciting crocodile as an example, your first paragraph could have the word 'crocodile' in it. You could picture the crocodile dancing inside of the snowglobe.

The word that is in your next paragraph is 'Space', you walk out of your bedroom and on the back of your door is a dressing gown. Dressing gown, astronaut. Astronaut wearing a dressing gown. You can see how this works.

The reason why this method works extremely well is because we are experts at remembering specific routes and the order of them. Just take your journey into work in the morning as an example. If we can internally structure our route to have multiple objects and cues per room, then we walk around our whole house, imagine the amount we could string together with a little practice.

It doesn't need to be your house either, you could use your body, a certain journey or anything that is familiar to you.

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Heard of the Four C System?

Lets go back to the introduction of the post, we were talking about forgetting names. I touched on the main reason for not retaining information. A lack of concentration.

You'll never forget another name if you can recall the Four C System; concentrate, create, connect and continuous use.

• Concentrate - Listen. Say their name out loud, repeat when you can and ask for the right pronunciation if you need to.

• Create - Use your SEE Method, create a mental image to help you remember. Take the name Barbra for example. You could imagine a Lion stuck in barbed wire, roaring in pain. BARBraaa.

• Connect - Connect it to the persons face. You need to do this so that when you see them, the name pops back into your memory. If they have a striking feature like bright red hair, imagine their hair was on fire.

• Continuous - Repeat the name where and when you can. If you are saying goodbye, use their name. If you are talking to others, repeat the name. Do whatever you can to continuously use the name to make it stick.

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Review to keep it in your head

If we don't review what we have learned, we will never be able to keep it in our heads. Think back to school, can you tell me all the information you learned about over the course of time you were at school? Of course not.

We need to review.

Reviewing is massively important. The trick to effective revisions though is about the amount of time you leave between your review sessions.

You've learned something new, your first review is the day after tomorrow. Then in 3 days time. Then a week. Two months. Then finally get back onto it after another 3 months. These breaks in between are important, as each time you review, the impact of the information in your head increases.

Don't forget the techniques for memorizing the information. By using the SEE Method, you have clear, vivid images at your disposal. These are extremely useful for reviewing what you've learned.

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The round up

Learning is important in all walks of life, but what good is learning new information if it's going to be forgotten in a couple years time? We want to learn and learn how to remember.

Our brains are magical instruments. We have the ability to create and imagine anything that we want. Using the brain this way, is the way we can remember information beyond our wildest dreams.

Fun fact about the author of this book, he used the methods described here to remember the first 10,000 digits of the number π (pi).

So... can you tell me what your phone number is?

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Hope you've enjoyed the post, let me know if you can elaborate on any of these techniques or if you have found them helpful. Also, feedback on my writing is much more important to me than Upvotes and payouts right now, don't be afraid to hurt my feelings with criticism. I need to grow.

And also don't forget...

Shake your tits its friday!