Improving your memory will help you in so many ways. It may be memorizing information for a final exam that counts for a large portion of your grade, you have to give an important presentation at work, or you are just tired of forgetting things so often. While it may seem at times that it’s impossible to improve, there are many methods and techniques that can help improve memory. This post will provide you with a few strategies to help you on your journey to improving memory.
1. The Memory Peg System
This is a really helpful tool for memorizing lists. It works by memorizing a list of words that easily associated with the numbers they represent; these words are the memory pegs. When having to memorize a list of arbitrary objects, each object can then be associated with the appropriate peg. For example, a word to associate with number “1”, you might choose “fun” since it sounds similar. Then look at the list you need to memorize. Peg the first item on the list to “fun”. Perhaps you are memorizing a grocery list and the item on your list is cake mix, you might envision everyone having fun at a party. You can go along creating pegs as needed. Try to tell yourself a story involving all of the items on the list. The more vivid the story of these pegs, the easier it is to remember them.
2. The Method of Loci
This technique focuses on associating things with a place or location (loci means “places”). The loci method aims to piggyback information you need to remember on top of the information you can recall easily. For example, we all know the layout of our home. You might select several locations in your home and use these as landmarks to remember the items on a list you are trying to remember. The goal is to create a story where items on your list affiliate with a section of your home. For example, the prior example discusses cake mix. You might walk into the kitchen and remember it’s your spouse’s birthday and that you forgot to buy the cake mix. Off to the store you go!
3. The Dominic System
The Dominic System is a mnemonic system invented by Dominic O’Brien. This system allows you to memorize long sequences of numbers by associating numbers with people and actions. For example, you might associate the number “four” with a four-leaf clover. The action then associated with that clover would be St. Patrick’s Day and celebrating with friends. For every number in the sequence you need to memorize, you would associate it with some sort of person/group or action.