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How to Memorize Anything Fast
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If you want to memorize information
fast, and I mean, who wouldn't? You need
more than hope, you need proven
techniques that you'll learn about in
this video, each of which have been
tested in the real world. And if you're
listening on the Magnetic Mary method
podcast, welcome. And if you're new, you
might be thinking, who am I to talk
about this so authoritatively? Well, as
someone who's trained memory
competitors, I've taught university
students of many, many topics all on the
strength of having explored the depths
of ancient and modern memory techniques
and memory science. I've not only used
these techniques myself to accomplish
big goals, but I've just answered just
about every question that I can imagine
about how to increase memorization
speed. I've also given hundreds of
demonstrations of how fast I can use
these techniques. I'm certainly not the
fastest, but I have talked with many of
the people who are the fastest, and so I
can share those insights with you
because a lot of those people are busy
and they're not exactly passionate about
teaching you how to develop long-term
retention, at least not as passionate as
I am. So, if you're ready for the no
fluff, no gimmicks answer to how to
memorize anything faster, let's dive in.
This is Dr. Anthony Metivier from
magneticmemory method.com. Hit that
thumbs up. Get subscribed if you're new
here. And here's the thing. If you want
to memorize fast, above all, you have to
learn the most powerful memory technique
ever invented. I don't know of an
exception to this rule. So, that's where
we're going to start. I want you to
embrace the memory palace technique. And
I want you to consider doing it even if
you don't like it, even if you don't
think it'll work. And there's one simple
reason why. I don't like it either.
Okay? I don't like a lot of things in
this world. But at the end of the day,
the like dislike monster does not rule
me. And everything gets faster once you
commit to using proper memory palaces
correctly. It's a discipline. You don't
have to like it. And the way it works
basically is that all information is
spatial and all information can be laid
out in space. Just think of a book.
That's what it is. It's a memory palace.
All information is spatial. Every letter
has a spatial characteristic. And all of
those letters are laid out in space. And
probably part of the design of books is
just based on how that people used space
to help them remember things in the
ancient world of memory techniques. So
in the Aboriginal tradition, for
example, song lines, they would have
songs that were linked to particular
areas and the content of the songs would
help them remember which po plants were
poisonous, which were healthy. And then
when a drought came and they couldn't
exactly see any foilage to find their
way back to where they needed to go to
find the good stuff, well, they could
study the landscape and remember the
songs and you know, things of that
nature. I don't think we know nearly
enough about how it all worked, but
nonetheless, it's in the tradition and
it is the proof that the information is
spatial and in space. So noticing what
the plants look like involves a spatial
recognition and knowing where they are
involves spatial memory. And scientists
have shown that the use of roots to help
you remember is the ultimate path to
superior memory. And you can read the
study yourself, but I would encourage
you to just get started with the
technique immediately. And here's how.
Select a familiar location such as your
home or your workplace. Identify
distinct areas and craft a clear and
logical mental journey through the
location. Assign what you want to
remember along the journey and pair each
item with an appropriate pneummonic
device, what I call magnetic imagery. So
that's a lot, but let me just give you a
quick example. If I need to memorize a
name like Peter Burke, and he's an
author of this book right here, the
polymath, which is a very good book that
I recommend, Peter Burke, I can think
about Peter Pan, and I can have burrs
attached to his leg. And now that's in
this space right in front of my
bookshelf. I think back to the
bookshelf, and I think about Peter Pan
struggling to tear burrs off his pants.
And you can increase your memorization
speed just by simply developing memory
palaces properly in a well-formed way
and then learning to train your mind to
come up with those associations very
very quickly. If you ever want to see me
do this, I did a case study about using
memory techniques while listening to
subliminals for better memory. They
actually reduced my speed of encoding in
memory palaces. But you'll see the proof
of concept because my five minute record
is not bad for someone who doesn't
practice that much with just random
words. I normally study Sanskrit or
names of authors and the book titles and
so on. So you can see how it all works.
You can see me do it in that
demonstration and it's really really fun
and powerful. And the key to get into
our second point is to yes watch
examples of people doing it, but put in
the time to design your own pneummonic
tools by understanding the theory. From
crafting catchy tunes to using rhymes to
help you remember to assigning
associations like I just shared with
Peter Pan pulling burrs off his pants.
This is how you train and you're going
to get faster if you put aside too many
examples and you learn the various
techniques that we use to derive those
examples very very quickly because I'm
using a strategy and in this case the
strategy is what is like Peter and it
turns out there's lots of Peters that
are like Peter but if it's a new word
that you don't know that you are trying
to learn then you still use the same
principle but like being like like so
what I mean by that is if it's a word
like inantio droia which means the
tendency of things to turn into its
opposite I'm going to think about what
is like ent right and there used to be a
band called extreme noise terror and you
know this is why the theory matters
because you might be thinking I don't
know this band at all uh there's other
things like entertainer so you could
think of enya as an entertainer and more
people will probably know Enya than
extreme noise terror. But the point is
is that inantio dia has this e n and
then a hard t sound in there. So that's
why I would get something like n t. But
anything that's en will work. That's
called the double alphabet system. And
it's a very very powerful system to have
pre-built associations that are based on
just the first letter of words but then
also the first two letters. You can
develop your systems very very simply
with a tool like a pen and a piece of
paper. And all you do is you write down
the alphabet A, AB, A C, A D, etc. And
you end up with ZZ. I don't know if
there's Oh, yes, there's Thomas Zaz. So
there's an image for ZZ if it ever comes
up that you can instantly have. So
that's your exercise. Please complete it
thoroughly, complete it well, and come
back to it again and again. And I do it
a couple times a year just to keep
fresh, just to keep sharp, to keep fast.
Now, speaking of Thomas Zaz, he's not
just an image for ZZ, but for me, he's
also an image for Zero Zero. And that
brings us to the major system. And the
major system is one of at least four
pegword systems. And if you invest your
time in developing your skills with
these systems, you're going to be faster
because they help you pre-install
associations in your memory without
having to think for more than a second
or two when you come across numbers. So
you have an alphabet system where you
have either an image for every letter of
the alphabet or every two letters of the
alphabet. And then you have a number
system for every individual digit and
every two digits. Yes, this takes a bit
of setup and there's more to be
discussed in terms of each and every
nook and cranny of these techniques, but
once you have them working, you'll be
able to memorize anything faster. That
is the answer. You want to get faster,
have memory palaces, have alphabet
systems, have number systems. The next
thing is to learn to use chunking. So,
I've already shown you a bit of chunking
with an
antio. The tendency of things to become
their opposite. Well, how chunking is a
breaking down of information into its
individual parts. So, taking just
enable. Well, now I go and I get Ant-Man
involved in there. So, there's Enya, an
entertainer, an ant. And they are
fighting over a game of tic-tac-toes and
antio. So, I've chunked down all those
various syllables and now given a kind
of story to it. All of which is taking
place in a memory palace. But it's
chunked down. Now, here's the problem.
So many students over the years have
told me, I just want it all immediately.
I want to have one image for one word.
It's got 18 syllables in it. And that's
well let me just say an all or nothing
attitude like that will slow you down.
So if you want to go faster less is
more. Break it down. Break it down.
Break it down. It's humbling to be sure
but the reality is I memorize all kinds
of difficult
things for consistent. You know this
means choose wisdom above all things
because in the choice of wisdom is the
form of goodness itself.
Expedendorm was very challenging. I had
to just start with X in order to get it
done. Now why do I do that with such joy
chunking down? Well, it's because the
scientific studies show us that chunking
as a memory strategy is one of the most
powerful things you can do to remember
more. Chunking helps you because it
strategically breaks the information
down into manageable units. I made my
TEDex talk easier and all the Sanskrit
phrases in it, all the quotes that are
in it from other people by just working
sometimes one syllable or one word at a
time. So, think of it like this. It's
the tortoise versus the hair principle.
And you know, you're going to have
surprises along the way. Sometimes you
will memorize long words with just one
image, but those things you can't rely
on. So instead of trying to memorize 154
59 87 48 55 or whatever, break it down
into little units of three, 1 545, etc.
And this method harnesses your brain's
ability to recognize patterns. And as a
result, you're going to harness greater
efficiency in your brain and ultimately
you'll move faster. So whether it's
words or numbers or any large unit of
information, you want to break it down.
Now, breaking things down through
chunking has another benefit, which is
that you'll have an easier time using
what scientists call elaborative
encoding. And what is that? Well,
basically, when I have Peter Pan over
here, I'm not just having Peter Pan over
there. I've in this case I haven't
really used junking because Peter Burke
is small enough. In the case of
remembering that name for the long term
though I'm going to encode it
elaboratively and I'm going to imagine
Peter Pan doing things according to a
model I call cavecogs which engages most
of my senses. And as scientists have
demonstrated, the benefits of
multiensory learning are profound when
you correctly apply as many senses as
you can. And I do this when I memorize
names at demonstrations. So what exactly
am I talking about with caveco? Well,
it's kinesthetic, auditory, visual,
emotional, conceptual, olfactory,
gustatory, and spatial. And within a
couple of seconds, if there's a Peter
there, I will imagine what it feels like
to be flying around as Peter Pan. I will
hear these burrs ripping off of my
pants. I will have the visual idea of
what that looks like. I'll feel some
emotions around it like being really
frustrated and then I will have the uh
conceptual mode. This is sometimes very
difficult for people to understand but
it basically comes down to thinking
about the genre. So in this case it's an
animated movie or a old fairy tale that
sort of thing. And I'll apply that just
lightly in my mind and that's part of
the elaboration. Then smells and tastes.
Well, these burrs are coming off. Some
get in the mouth, smell what they're
like. And then the size spatial is just
imagining everything big and
exaggerated, super large. Even if it's
in the small space of a bookcase, still
exaggerate the size. Make it huge. I've
used this for playing cards, for
numbers, for speeches, for poetry, for
historical dates, for the phrases that
I've used today in antio. and the one
that starts omnium exped all of this is
elaborated and you know as a quick plug
you can learn more about all this in the
magnetic memory method master class
which makes this memory strategy
something that you can do as a
discipline so much faster by taking you
through exercises and it's an intricate
approach and the key is just to engage
all of your senses and one of the
benefits of my teaching is I go into
what I learned from the ancient
tradition people like Jordano Bruno who
have 20 more of these magnetic modes.
And so that's all available anytime for
you. Now, as a tip for you, I prefer
cave cogs, but you should definitely
explore developing your own multi-ensory
model if that particular arrangement
isn't right for you. The thing is is to
study the multiensory models that are
available. Absorb them deeply through
exercises and then think about how
you're going to make your target
information stickier by not just
following someone else's system but
building your own. That's the principle
of the magnetic memory method. It is a
method by which you learn to develop
your own systems and you have guidance
in doing so. Let's talk about the next
strategy which is the idea of spaced
repetition but not just the idea the
optimization of the actual strategy
because a lot of people know about space
repetition but they don't know how to
optimize it so it will work better and
so I highly recommend that you
ultimately go through my full guide on
space repetition but the big picture
overview is this you want to first bring
the information that you've started to
memorize to mind first and then write it
down by hand. This will give you plenty
of what's called active recall. And the
studies show that this exact process
works very, very well. Bring what you've
remembered to mind, write it down. Now,
alternatively, you can perform active
recall like this from within a memory
palace. And so what you do is you bring
to mind Peter Pan and then you think
what he's doing and then you go, "Oh,
Peter Burr." And then you go, "No, that
doesn't sound quite right." But if
you've written it down at least once
first, then you can check the record. So
I always write down stuff when I'm
memorizing it in order to check the
record. And basically what I do is I
draw my memory palaces at the beginning
of my memory journal and then I test at
the back. And this is just a powerful
way to bring together the memory palace
technique and recall rehearsal. The key
is to have a space repetition strategy
so that you can just follow it. That's
going to make you faster. And then also
schedule your reviews so you don't
forget to show up and review. And then
after that, you know, just show up. And
you know, I like to schedule my reviews
manually. And if you were at my recent
workshop, I also just have trained
myself to do it automatically because I
started to remember some lines to
demonstrate how it works in the
workshop. And then later, someone was
asking me a question and I was listening
to him. But at the same time, I was
starting to do recall rehearsal or
spaced repetition. And I just said,
"Hey, by the way, I just recited these
lines and it was something like whenever
Helen feels these stresses, she
trembles. She frets." I believe that's
actually accurate. But it just starts to
happen to you is my point. And so I
think it's a tragic mistake to use
software and give it, you know, the
ability to notify you, now it's time to
rehearse. How dreadful to have a machine
remind you what you could just manually
do for yourself, to train yourself to be
your own person, to not be mechanized by
an external device, but to be
disciplinized by you training yourself
to show up. Now, the memory journal is
an external device and this does remind
me to rehearse, but it's organic, so to
speak, and it's on my body. It's
precious and it doesn't beep at me. I do
it because I want to. And I found when I
was using notifications, I would just
dismiss. It's too easy, right? Oh, you
know, Anky is telling me to rehearse
next. So, I don't want that, right? And
I think that most of us don't want and
researchers have shown that the
consequences of not getting enough
cumulative reviews which is what happens
to a lot of people when they relegate
their reviews and their schedule to
machines they've shown that it just
actually ends up reducing your
discipline reducing your memory. So
memory journal is the key and it also
stimulates reflective thinking and you
get a lot of metacognitive recognition
of what you're doing and you get clues
on how to improve your practice. Okay,
so let's recap how to remember anything
faster. You now know how to create
memory palaces. You know how to learn
the main tools of the pneummonic
association tactics like multiensory
elaboration based on chunking based on
having really really good associations
and you know about space repetition.
When you combine these approaches you're
going to rapidly enhance your ability to
memorize information quickly and
effectively and it's for most of us
going to be a lot more fun because it's
deeply engaging. Now, some people will
say, "Ah, but this just takes so much
time. I'd rather just do wrote
repetition, which will take less time."
I have seen so many examples where I can
just say, "I think you're wrong." You do
need to have some setup and then you do
need to practice
consistently. But if you will just keep
going, you're going to get faster. And
then you'll look back and say, "I wish I
got started sooner." At least that's
been the experience that I've heard from
thousands of people over the 15 years
plus that I've been teaching these
techniques. Now, in terms of practice,
there is a principle called deliberate
practice. I've written a lot about it on
my blog, and I'd be happy for you to
have that. So, you know, just search
that up, deliberate practice and
magnetic memory method, and it's going
to help you get more information about
how to practice so that you can speed
up. And if you need more help with
memory palaces and other pneummonic
tools, please go to
magneticmemorymethod.com, look at the
magnetic memory method master class, and
it's going to help you improve the speed
of your memory through exercises and
more detail on everything we talked
about today. So, what do you say? Are
you ready to start using what really
works in order to committing information
permanently to memory fast? Let's do
this thing. And if you want more detail
right now, stick around and watch my
video on the memory palace technique for
studying
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