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How to Memorize Faster a quick guide?

It depends on what you want to memorize faster. So, here is a list of 4 scenarios that talk about how to memorize faster in those cases

Memorizing names faster – This one might be great if you are a teacher or a business person who has to network all the time.

FOCUS: To memorize faster, you need to focus. Does this happen often? You meet someone new, and you introduce yourself, as the person across you is introducing themselves. What’s happening here is, both people calling out their names at the same time. Neither you nor the person across you heard what the other person just said. So, wait off a second let the other person call out their name first. Listen to what they’re saying, and then introduce yourself.

Repeat: Repeat their name back to them. Say “Hi John nice to meet you, I’m Jane” This has two benefits:

  1. If you got their name wrong they will fix you. Which gives you another chance to hear them say their name.
  2. You have just recalled and information which you just leaned, so you practiced it, reinforcing what you just learned.

Images for Names – This one is better for teachers because you want to learn a whole class’s name ASAP right? Come up with images for names. For example, if you were to come up with a picture representing “Brian” what would it be? No rush… think about it for a couple of seconds… For me, the image for Brian is a “brain”. Let’s do another one… What if I said the name Steve, what image would you come up with? For me, Steve is a “Stove” (apologies if your name is Steve). The good part is once you come up with an image for name, you can use it over and over again!

What do you do with those images?

You combine them with your student’s faces. Literally. Look at your student’s face and pick out a distinctive feature on their face. Let’s continue with Brian. Let’s assume that you have a student whose name is Brian and he has a large nose. Obviously his feature is his nose. Combine the image of a brain (image for Brian) with his nose. Be as absurd as possible! For example: Imagine brain parts dropping out of Brian’s nose. Grose…yes it is… But the weirder the image, the better it sticks to your memory. Next time you see Brian and if you forgot his name, just search for the distinctive feature on his face. Ask your self what happened to that feature. Oh yeah, there was brain parts coming out of his nose, his name must be Brian!”

Memorizing Study Material faster – This one is not limited by study material. It can be a shopping list, the specifications of a product which you are representing / selling, or any string of information you want to memorize. (like the natural predators of a bumblebee?)

  • Start by Turning names into images: There might be a ton of things you want to memorize faster. Let’s start with a grocery list since it is much easier to imagine. Eggs – Tomatoes – Flour – Rice – Coke – Diapers – Toothpaste. Normally to memorize this list, you either need to write it down or repeat it many times. But give this a go. We are inherently great at remembering stories. So, we are going to create a storyline with these objects.
    • Imagine: You get out of the door to head to the store to pick up the stuff on the list. But a bunch of neighbor kids starts throwing Eggs at your car. These are no ordinary eggs though, when they crack, instead of the yolk, Tomatoes fall out. Hundreds of mini Tomatoes fall out of the cracked eggs. You start your car but you have to wipe your windshield. Although you press the water button, Flour comes out and spreads all over the place. You say the hell with it and decide to take your bike. The bike takes you to the store but just when you are about to reach there your bike crumble into Rice. You don’t have a bike now but just a pile of Rice. Mad as hell you go in the store, and what happens!? All the Cokes in the shop have been shaken and all of the bottles explode, flying around spraying sugar water everywhere. You grab a bag of Diapers to protect yourself from the flying Coke bottles. Finally, you use Toothpaste as an adhesive for the diapers, creating a shield from Diapers & Toothpaste. You get out of the store safe and sound.
    • It might initially seem like a long process but once you get into the habit of creating these mini-stories, you will get extremely efficient. The up part is you can apply this method to any field. Trust me, if you really visualize these events happening, you will remember it for a long time.

Increase your brain speed – To memorize faster you need an instrument we call BRAIN. You have to take good care of it, otherwise it will slow down.

  • Eat well – I can’t stress this enough, FEED YOUR BRAIN RIGHT! Stay away from alcohol and sweats. If you find yourself asking “Should I eat this?” 90% of the time the answer is NO, otherwise, you wouldn’t be asking that question. Eat more blueberries and fish. They contain great brain nutrition.
  • Exercise – Exercising keeps blood flowing in your body, which means there is more oxygen being pumped to your brain. Exercising also has many benefits including reducing stress (which might slow your brain), pumping happy hormones (a better mood is a faster brain), increasing memory, and attention.
  • Sleep – Sleep deprivation is directly linked to loss of cognitive abilities. When you don’t get enough sleep, you can’t focus as well, therefore, reducing your memory power. Also since your brain requires rest, you can’t think as fast. Try to get enough sleep!

This one is for the crazy – If you are familiar with the concept of Mind Palace keep reading. So, you can memorize a string of 50 digits, but how do you get faster?

  • Improve your system – Imagine you have 50 locations in your mind palace and you want to memorize 50 digits of data. If you have an image for each digit, such as 1 is a pencil, 2 is a swan. You need 50 images to place to those 50 rooms. What if you had an image for every 2 digits? For example, 52 for me is a Lion. You just got x2 faster. Try exploring new systems and adapt them to your practice.
  • Master your system – Now that you have a great system, master it. If you spend 2 seconds to remember what 52 means, you have to make that 1 second. Because if you have a line of 50 digits. That is 50/2=25 seconds lost just there, thinking about the image. The same goes for your memory palace files. Know them very well. Practice them to a point which you can imagine being “The Flash” and zooming in the Mind Palace.
  • Trust your brain and Challenge it – First, let’s determine your base speed. Take a metronome and try to figure out your speed. Adjust the speed until every tick matches you memorizing an item. Let’s say its 30 BPM. You memorize an item every 2 seconds. Push your self to 45 BPM. That is a 50% increase and at first, it will be fast. Really fast. Try to keep up with it. As you push yourself to become faster your brain will catch on. The reason we go slower is that we want to make sure the information is there. But trust your brain, if you have a solid technique, it won’t fail you.

Bonus tip:

Play Ping Pong – There are some experiments that show that playing ping pong can improve your brain speed. Find yourself a partner and start pinging that pong. Your reflexes will improve with your processing speed.

Book on memorization:

Moonwalking with Einstein was a great book by Joshua Foer explaining how he went from having a regular memory to becoming the US memory champion in a very short time. He not only gives a detailed review of the steps he took to better his memory, but he also provides a narrative that flows.

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