I speak to call centres alot.

And today over 2 separate call centres I spoke to 4 different people.

Now that is a quiet day because it was only a computer and internet connection problem I had today.

If I have to speak to the bank, check an insurance policy, deal with a utility problem or chase up the phone company (which seems to be quite a lot just lately) then I might be dealing with 4 or 5 different call centres and possibly double that amount of operators (given that inevitably I get put through to the wrong department).

I wouldn't want to do their job and I take my hat to each and every one of them, especially the tech support folk who keep me connected via the internet and telephone networks.

They do a vital and difficult job dealing with idiots like me (and you too?) on a daily basis.

I would imagine that in the course of their work they must have the best handle on the how society is these days from the huge range of different people who they deal with.

It doesn't matter if you are unemployed and pulling a fast one on the social security, a stay at home parent bringing up a young family or a high flying executive managing multi-million pound accounts because when you have to talk to the bank about your account, you have to talk to the bank.

And so these wonderfully resilient people on the end of the phone will certainly get the full spectrum of the social experience.

I don't know about you but I want a swift response and great service from them and in return I think they deserve respect and politeness from us.

And if both sides of that bargain are kept then we are all happy.

So one thing you can do when you are on the phone speaking to someone locked away in a dark and dingy call centre somewhere (don't believe the white walled, red carpeted, acres of room myths you see on TV) is to remember and use their name.

But what usually happens?

Well we are so impatient to have our issue sorted out and sorted out NOW that we forget the pleasantries and dive straight into demands.

A good call centre operator will tell you who they are when they answer the phone so the information is there to use.

So why don't we use it?

Well the reason is we forget it because we never heard it in the first place because we were not listening.

It is so easy in those circumstances to simply continue the conversation to this faceless operator and get what we want.

These are real people with real lives just like you and I and so why not try and use their name.

You will be amazed by the results you get.

To use their name you have to know it and you will only know it if you listen at the start of the conversation.

But there is also more you need to do.

When you get the name, repeat it, check you have got it right and then use it.

Example:

Them:  "Hi this is XYZ company my name is Naveed, how can I be of assitance to you today?"

You:  "Hi.  I am sorry I didn't catch your name could you repeat it please?"

Them:  "Sure it is Naveed"

You:  "Hi Naveed - did I say that right?"

Them: "Yes sir you did, how can I help?"

You: "Well Naveed, I am having this problem with……"

And then throughout the conversation, you use their name and then at the very end you say something like:

"Naveed thanks for you help today"

It is that easy and not only will you have remembered their name for the duration of the conversation, you will have made someone feel that little bit more special than the average caller and guess what, you are more likely to find them favourable to your cause.

You could of course write their name down to help you remember it.

That would work, but you would be denying yourself the practice of getting people's names the first time you meet them for real because the number 1 reason people forget the names of those they have just met is that they never got the name in the first place.

So here are the steps:

1.   Listen for the name

2.  Hear the name

3.  Repeat the name

4.  Clarify the name

5.  Use the name

6.   Use the name again

7.   Keep using the name

So practice on those poor call centre operators, get your name remembering skills up to scratch and who knows you may even start getting better service from those valient guys and gals.

26 competitors will attempt to memorise lots of cards, numbers dates, images and other seemingly rather meaningless data over these two days with winner going on to compete in the World Championships in Bahrain later this year.

"Why?" or "What's the point?" I hear you ask.

The more cynical and maybe hard-nosed of you might remark "No friends eh?" or "Should get out more!"

So let's look at the point of competition.

When someone discovers they can do something really well (or indeed learns to do something really well) it is only natural to show off their talents to others.

Others watching might see what is being done and they may think "I'd like to try that, let me have a go".

So they try it out and discover they too can do it.

The competitive gene in our make up naturally encourages people to compare their abilities and so these get into competition to see "who is the best".

At the moment the Olympics in Bejing is probably the most developed set of competitions that pitches the best in the world against each other.

So can and should there be a memory championships?

If you do a quick google for obscure sports you will find there are some very strange ones indeed.

How about the Extreme Ironing World Championships (!), or the Underwater Hockey World Championships or perhaps the recent Sudoku World Championships?

How these sorts of competitions start is that a group of friends discover a new skill or sport, compete against each other and agree to do it all again next year.

The more enterprising start to take it a little more seriously, give the sport a title, rally those interested and if they are the only ones doing it on the planet, call their regular competition the "World Championships"

That is pretty much how it started with Memory competitions.

In the early 1990s, a few followers of Tony Buzan (the inventor of Mind Mapping) inspired by his revelations on memory decided to try out the ideas and see who could memorise the best.

A quick look around and they realised they were the only ones doing it and so the World Memory Championships were born.

Ever since they have grown and developed, stuttered a little in the early part of the millenium and now are a well established albeit somewhat niched event.

In the early days the World Championships were essentially a UK based competition but now as interest has grown around the world with more and more national events, this is probably the first true UK national championships.

It still begs the question though…why would anyone enter this sort of competition and what sort of people take up the challenge?

Well there is no simple answer to the first part of that question because each competitor has their own unique motivation.

According to the Times Body and Soul supplement this weekend, Katie Kermode, a translator from Cheshire, does it for the mental challenge of expanding her mind and the buzz of the competition.

Dominic O'Brien, 8 times World Memory Champion, does it because that is his profession - a memory expert who runs courses and writes books - he is quite good at it too.

I did it twice (The World Championships that is) and my motivation was to demonstrate what could be done with training (I historically had a poor memory) so I could then help business people develop their thinking abilities across a wide range of skills to improve their performance.

Having the Silver medal from the World Championships does bring a certain degree of credibility when you are helping people to discover what is possible for them too.

There are a mix of people who do enter competitions like this and in my experience the numbers who do are still too small to stereotype them into any distinct group.

Yes there is the odd geek or two but there are many more "normal" people from a variety of of different backgrounds who give these competitions a go.

What is clear though is that these people have taken the time and energy to discover how to train their memory and have done so to a very high standard indeed.

The effort and dedication required to perform at this level requires mental toughness, physical and mental stamina and a desire to succeed.

Whilst not as glamourous as the events in Bejing, there is as much spirit and dedication for those who excel in this sport and just like those pounding the streets of China, pedalling past the Great Wall or throwing themselves across the finish line in the Olympic Stadium, this competition offers hope to us all that we too can improve what we do in that area of our lives.

So many people think their memory is poor and much of that is because they are ignorant of what they can easily do with it to make it perform much better for them.

Now you might not want to learn how to memorise hundreds of numbers in one sitting or commit a shuffled deck of cards to memory in less than 30 seconds (yes that is possible and you could do it too if you were committed enough) but if you want to sharpen your memory , learn things faster and retain them for longer, then the strategies being employed in Simpson's in the Strand this coming weekend can and will help you too.

It really depends what mood I am in, the needs of the person asking the question and specifically what they want help with.

The trouble with most people who ask the question is they only have a general and vague notion that they want their memory to be better.

They rarely come to me and say "Michael I want to be able to meet 17 people only once, spend less than 15 seconds with them and then remember their names and what they look like for the rest of my life….and I want to do that 3 times a week with 3 different groups".

Now to get something that specific would indeed be a rarity and I usually have to dig a little deeper to get anything even closely resembling something specific.

So many of the requests are quite general.

And so over the years I have developed a set of "general" things that anyone can do to help improve their memory.

Things like a good balanced diet of healthy and brain friendly food, regular exercise, lots of mental stimulation are regular answers.

More recently, and one I have been exploring myself is that of meditation.

At the weekend there was a feature in the Sunday newspapers about a teenage girl, stranded at a Bhuddist monastery in Thailand, who was forced to meditate (by circumstances I hasten to add rather than actual coercion).

Initially she rebelled and struggled with it but after a few days she settled into it and began enjoying the process.

She also started to notice many improvements including being happier, less stressed, peaceful and an improved memory.

Her increased abilities to recall the Bhuddist chants were the most notable feature of her improved memory.

So what is it about meditation that gives an improvement in memory?

Well first of all lets look at the wider benefits of a good dose of meditation.

It really depends on the meditational practice you subscribe to but a general slow down and deepening of the breathing will be one of the first effects.

This will slow down the heart rate and induce a greater feeling of relaxation.

Now if you are like the majority of highly active and stress threatened individuals in this day and age, just that process alone will create a better mental environment for your memory to function.

But in addition, that state will also start to induce more alpha brain waves - the relaxed alert state that in accelerated learning terms, is the ideal learning state.

So the relative effects of starting to meditate will be the transition from a stressed and agitated state to a more relaxed and calmer condition that is more conducive to proper memory functioning.

But what of the longer term effects?

Well a continued practice of meditation will induce greater clarity of thought and a calmer mind with an increased capacity for concentration.

If you read my post on short term memory loss you will see that poor concentration is often one of the conditions that creates events we call "memory lapses" when really it is not a problem with recall at all.

I am sure there is a wealth of research on this somewhere, but my experience and the anecdotal experience of others seems to point to meditation being a good thing for the memory.

So how do you meditate?

Well I am no expert on this and a good Googling on "meditation and concentration" will give you better advice than I can offer but seeing as you asked, here is what I do:

1.   I kneel on the floor (because I can - you might want to sit in a chair) with my hands cupped in my lap, eyes closed, facing east (seems like a good thing to do - rising sun and all that)

2.  I then focus on my breating trying to smooth it out and slow it down, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth

3.  Slowly I consciously relax all my muscles and body parts working from head to toe

4.   Once relaxed I count down from 20 to 1, breathing slowly all the way and imagining a sinking and melting sensation throughout my body with each number

5.   Once I have counted down to 1 I then bask in the glory of spiritual enlightenment and ponder on the majesty of the creation of the universe…….NOT

6.  Whilst trying to focus on my breathing I keep trying to shut out the everyday thoughts that keep cropping up and if I get a millisecond of peace, it is a good result.

7.  After an indeterminate time, I count back up from 1 to 20 becoming more aware of my surroundings as I get closer to 20.

Then it is the groan of stretching my legs after crushing my knees for 20 minutes and then off to do my daily efforts.

Does it work?

Can't remember …oh if only I had £1 for every time I hear that sort of joke!

Seriously I feel much better in myself when I meditate (and exercise, and eat well and think positive thoughts and stimulate my mind etc etc) and do notice a clearer state of mind which does contribute to me thinking far better which includes a sharper memory.

So try that out and let me know how you get on or if you have any suggestions from your own practice.

Well that is not strictly true because I don’t get asked that very often but I do get TOLD that is the reason why people’s memory is getting poorer.

1.  Keep physically active and take some form of moderate exercise to oxygenate your blood (medical advice always recommended before starting any exercise regime of course)
2. Eat a healthy balanced diet (use your commonsense to choose the foods but my rule of thumb is that the fresher and greener it is, the better it will be for me).
3. Stay appropriately hydrated
4. Challenge yourself to learn something new – a foreign language, a musical instrument, learn to dance salsa
5. Stay mentally active by reading, doing puzzles, playing chess etc
6. Stay socially active and surround yourself with stimulating people
7. Start thinking positively about your memory
8. Set learning goals to focus your attention
9. Learn a few memory techniques to help with those day to day things like lists, phone numbers and peoples names

Many of the people I speak to would love to have the ability to see something once and then remember it for the rest of their days.

The ability to be able to absorb everything that we have ever read, every conversation we have ever had and everything we have ever seen or experienced seems to be the Nirvana of memory improvement.

And to be able to do that effortlessly would make our lives so much easier.

I am sure you have heard of people who have that ability and have marvelled at their achievements.

My late step-father's mother was able to recall the weather from any day in her life from the age of about 3 (which is when she had her ealiest memory).

Now unless you are a meteorological historian, that is hardly a useful skill to have however it is still a feat to be admired and indeed respected.

So how is it that some people can have that ability and most of the rest of us can't?

Well there is an assumption in that statement that it is an acquired ability - you either have it or you don't.

I personally believe that we all have a photographic memory…what we don't have is perfect recall.

There are a number of accounts of people exhibiting out of character photographic memory abilities under extreme conditions.

One story I read told of a woman who was having a particular form of brain surgery that required her to be conscious throughout the procedure.

The surgeon accidentally touched a part of her brain that was not being operated on and the woman suddenly had a rush of sensations and memories from a time when she was a small girl.

The experience was so vivid across all of her senses that it felt to her that she was actually reliving that particular moment as though she was there again.

Probably the more popular stories regarding photographic memory are those told of people recalling events from the past whilst under hypnosis.

Taking that one stage further, I have even heard of people being given a book, asked to flick through it so that they at least "see" every page and then under hypnosis being able to recall the entire contents word for word.

So I think that it is safe to conclude that it is just possible our amazing brain might store absolutely everything.

So why can't we access it all then?

That is probably the million dollar question.

However, whilst we might not suddenly be able to develop that ability of recalling EVERYTHING, we can develop our skills to the point where we can remember things that are important to us.

Memory development techniques, of which I am an exponent, can be used to produce seemingly remarkable feats of memory.

I say they are remarkable because by comparison to what is considered "normal" they are indeed amazing.

But the key thing is to have absloute clarity on what it is you want to remember and then use a technique appropriate to that.

But aside from that, are there any things we can do to get closer to having a photographic memory?

Well often the desire to have such a thing comes around when your memory has let you down in some way.

So one thing we can do is look at the causes of the so called "memory failure" because often it is nothing to do with memory at all.

Often it is the fact that we were not concentrating (see my last post about short term memory loss).

So perhaps being more in the moment is one way of getting towards having a perfect memory.

There are other things we can do too that are related to our diet and exercise regimes, how much we use our memory and stimulate our minds and of course what we believe about our memory's ability.

However I would question whether we really need to get to the level of a perfect photographic memory.

Do you have any experiences of either having or wanting a photographic memory?

If so add a comment to this post to let me know your experiences.

Their profession has just implemented a process of Continuing Professional Development and so they wanted so help with their studying strategies and how to improve their memory.

We had a great session and at the end of it I was surrounded by people who wanted to ask me questions.

Hanging back from the group was a young woman who clearly wanted to ask me a question but didn't want to do so in front of the rest of the group.

After 20 minutes or so, I finished answering the questions and then got on with packing up my things ready for the long drive home.

It was at this point that the young women approached me.

She seemed a little embarrassed but wanted to share something with me about her memory.

She explained she used to be a notoriously bad speller, that her handwriting was dreadful and so as a result she always typed anything she wrote.

What she wanted to know though was whether or not there was something wrong with her!

I wasn't sure what she meant so I asked her to explain.

She said that although her spelling over the years had improved to the stage where it was no longer a problem, she could not remember how to spell longer and more complicated words unless she was sat at a keyboard.

"If someone asks me to spell an unusual or difficult word, I simply cannot remember how to unless I am sat at a keyboard"

She went on…

"The only way I can remember the word is if I put my hands on the keyboard and pretend to type it out…then it is easy"

"Is there something wrong with me?"

 I had to laugh at her suggestion because this poor woman felt that it was a handicap that she had to do this.

I quickly apologised for my apparent insensitivity and explained that what she was doing was perfect for her because a) she was able to remember the spellings and it doesn't matter how we get there and b) she was just harnessing her natural tendencies for thinking.

Let me give you a quick lesson in learning styles.

If we take our five senses, what we see, what we hear, what we feel, what we taste and what we smell we have the different ways that we "make sense" of the world.

These five senses are the inputs to our brain that also allow us to learn.

If we discount taste and smell for now, the main ways we learn new skills and knowledge is through sight, sound and touch i.e. what we see, what we hear and what we do.

In learning style speak these are called the visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles.

In a simple world, each of these senses would be evenly balanced with each as strong and as powerful as each other.

However this is not always the case and what we find is that the majority of people have a preference from the three styles.

For some that preference is slight, for others it is so strong that information coming via the other two learning modes is pretty much a waste of time.

So in this woman's case, her kinesthetic sense was so strong in her that to remember spellings of words, she needed to rely on the mechanical movement of her fingers on a keyboard in order to recall that information.

I went to great length to explain to her that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her and complimented her on being able to use her unique thinking style to help her address the spelling challenge that we all face.

Now different people will use a different blend of the three styles to recall spelling. 

I myself will listen to the sound and of the word AND I will try and visualise it.

Once it is written I will know if I have got the correct spelling if it LOOKS right to me.

So I use an auditory approach and a visual approach to come up with what I think the spelling is and then confirm it visually.

This woman's approach was used her kinesthetic preference to achieve the same aim.

Some people also remember telephone numbers in the same way because the unique pattern their thumb makes (if using a cell phone of course) helps them remember the number.

I told this woman that I bet that was how she remembered numbers and she was amazed at my insight and seemingly superior intuitive powers.

Unfortunately for me, whilst basking in this artificial glory, I tripped over my bag and looked like a real idiot…

That will teach me  

If the answer is a loud and clear "Yes I do!" then I have some news for you….

It might not be a memory problem…it just seems like one.

Let me explain.

In my work helping people improve their memory and develop their skills to be able to remember and recall just about anything they want, I am often confronted by people who are convinced that their short term memory is not working very well.

Now there are medical conditions and injuries that affect people's recall of recent events, but though I do get the occasional enquiry from people suffering from those, the majority of my work is done with normal healthy people.

This post is not about those sorts of challenges because I am not qualified in those matters, I merely help people by showing them a variety of memory improvement techniques that I have found work for me.

So when I am approached by someone who claims to have a problem with their memory, I always try to get to the bottom of exactly what it is they are struggling with (identifying the problem is a good two thirds the way towards a solution).

What I have found is that someone who is struggling with their memory often cites occasions where they have "forgotten" where they have put their keys/wallet/bag/car (yes even the car!).

Common is the challenge of walking into a room only to have completely "forgotten" what it is they went there for.

Now it is very easy to jump to the conclusion that a problem with memory is what has caused this.

And so what happens is the person believes their memory to be poor and that they are suffering from short term memory loss.

And then every time they cant find their keys/wallet/bag/car (I know you were surprised first time but yes, even the car)  they have ANOTHER reference point to why their memory is no good….

Their belief that they have a poor memory strengthens….they start forgetting more stuff…..and so on.

But if we have a look at what has probably happened it is not really a memory problem at all.

To understand what is behind these sorts of occurences (which must happen millions of times a day around the world), we need to understand a little bit about the subconscious mind and how we learn.

I will assume that you drive a car for this explanation.  If you don't you can relate what I am about to tell you to some other skill or activity you do regularly that you do so well, you hardly have to think about it.

When we learn we go through the following stages of mastery:

• Unconscious Incompetence - We do not know that we do not know
• Conscious Incompetence - Now we know we do not know
• Conscious Competence - We now know, can do it, but we have to think really carefully about it
• Unconscious Competence - We now know it so well we can do it without thinking about it

If we relate this to driving a car then Unconscious Incomptence is us not knowing that we don't know how to drive. 

As kids we see our parents drive the car, cars go past driven by other people and whilst we have probably never really thought about it we don't know that we don't know how.

Then there comes a point at some time in our lives when we are more conscious of the desire to get around ourselves without the need for relying on Mum and Dad Taxi and we realise it would be great to be able to drive.  At that point we enter Conscious Incompetence because now we know we can't drive.

Then that fateful day arrives when we start taking our first driving lesson and it reallly hits us that we definitely DON'T know how to drive.

Then after a few lessons we begin to get the hang of it and then all of a sudden we are driving (albeit under supervision).

However although we are driving ourselves we still have to think about using the pedals, changing gears, indicating to turn etc.  So now we are Consciously Competent.

We stay at this stage through our driving test and beyond.  So even though we might have got our license, in the early days we still have to think really hard about what we are doing when we drive.

But over time and with practice, the actions required to drive the car start to become automatic…we don't have to think about them…they are done almost unconsciously.

That is when we become Unconsciously Competent.

Now if you have been driving for a while and you are in the Unconscious Competence mode you may have had the experience of arriving at home or at work on a journey you do often and know really well and arrive not remembering going through a particular set of lights or turning at a particular junction.

You have no conscious recall of that part of the journey yet you must have passed that way otherwise you wouldn't be where you are right now!

Everyone who has been driving for a while has had this experience and here is what is happening.

Because you are in the Unconscious Competence mode, you don't have to think about what you are doing.  Your subconscious does it for you.

This means that you can consciously think about something else while the rest of your mind is in automatic.

So when you have finished a journey and can't remember parts of it, it is because you weren't "Conscious" at that stage in your travels.

No you weren't asleep, your conscoius mind was elsewhere which is why you have no conscious recall of the journey because you were in "automatic".

Your subconscious has its memory of what went on, but you try accessing that without delving into hypnosis!

Now don't let this worry you because if something out of the ordinary happens en route, your conscious mind would kick in straight away.

So how does this relate to short term memory loss?

Well when you walk into your house you have probably got a hundred and one things on your mind as you arrive home…

…things about your day at the office…

…what you are going to do about the garden…

…getting ready for dinner….

and so on.

Whilst you are thinking about all those things you go into the Unconscious Competence mode of arriving back at home (something you are likely to have done hundreds if not thousands of times) and whilst you are not "consciously" thinking about it, you put your keys (or bag or wallet) down.

Now occasionally you will put them in a strange place without thinking about it (because your rational mind is not involved with the process).

So when you come to look for your keys later on you can't "Consciously" remember where they are because you were never "Consiously" involved in the process of putting them down.

Your subconscious knows where they are but your conscious mind does not.

And of course when this happens you instantly jump to the conclusion that you have "forgotten" where your keys are and that your memory must be getting worse.

If you have a few incidences of this in quick succession, you start to tell more people about your "poor memory", it becomes a belief which moulds your identity and then you start having more examples to confirm your belief and the downward spiral has begun.

So whilst you may think you have a short term memory loss problem, all you really have is a concentration problem.

Learn to live in the moment and be more in the present and you will experience this less and less and you won't need to look for memory improvement techniques.

Do tell me what you think and if you have any really funny examples of supposed "short term memory loss" then do share them in the comments section below.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

If you take the first letter of each planet (now I know Pluto has been de-categorised so just imagine it is still a planet for now) and then create a new sentence with words starting with those letters, but in the same order, then we get something like:

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets

Most people can remember what the planets are but struggle with the order. A simple sentence like this (or similar variants using the same first letters) allows us to recall the order much easier than simply reciting the planets over and over again.

Now just recently, Lyndsey (a medical student) contacted me to tell me how she used a mnemonic to help her remember some information concerning anatomy. She had to remember the 12 cranial nerves which are:

Olfactory, Optic, Occulomotor, Trochlear, Trygemenal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulocochlear, Glossopharangea, Vegas, Acessory, Hypoglossal Now I don't know what this lot does or its importance but I do know that medical students have to remember this because I have had to work with people before to help them remember this information. I once worked with the daughter of a very wealthy family and we ended up creating a wacky visualised story that involved the pump room of their swimming pool, a large nose and the towels in their sauna (don't ask). Anyway, Lyndsey like all good students (not!) was revising in front of the television (now I won't go into detail here but Lyndsay, really, do you think that is a good idea - OMG! I am sounding like my mother!) Anyway Lyndsey tells me she was watching Oprah at the time, the episode about soldiers returning from Iraq and was inspired to come up with a mnemonic to remember the 12 cranial nerves which was:

'Old Oprah Occupies Troops Trying Abnormally Fast Vessels Going (to) Vegas (with) Accesories (in her) Hair'

Nice one Lyndsey - and it works too. She said at the end of her e mail:

"Helped me in the exam anyway!!Who said T.V was a distraction to studies!!Ha ha… Hope you let other Anatomy students know about this one!"

Well I have shared it and if you are a medical student I hope this helps you too.

A mnemonic is an "artificial way" of remembering something.  When you remember something just because you remember it you are relying on natural memory and recall.  When you need to do a little mental trickery to put it into your memory then you are using a mnemonic.

The term mnemonic comes from the Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory and refers to any artificial device that you use to assist your memory and help you remember anything.  When you park your car in a very large car park and you remember that you have parked it next to the lamp post with the big number 4 on it then technically that lamp post is a mnemonic.

All memory devices such as the journey technique, any of the peg systems and tools like Mind Mapping are all forms of mnemonics because they are artifical aides to memory.  However these days when someone refers to a mnemonic, they are generally referring to little tricks that are not quite memory techniques in their own right, but do go beyond just repeating something over and over again to remember it.

One of the most common examples is how to remember the order of the planets in our solar system.  Now that poor Pluto has been downgraded from a planet (so I am told) and that Sedna may be a new planet in our Solar system this following example is probably a bit out of date:

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets

This easy sentence helps us remember that the order of the planets from the sun is:

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

And the way this works is that the first letter of each item we want to remember is then used as the first letter in each word of an easier to remember phrase.  Of course this relies on remembering that the "M" in "My" means Mercury so the main use for this particular mnemonic is to remember the order assuming that we know what the 9 planets are.

So that is the principle at work here.  Many people will probably remember that mnemonic (or one very similar) and may have considered them useful for stuff at school but have probably not re-visited the concept since their days sat in the classroom.

But today we still have to remember lots of stuff and lets make it easy for ourselves by using techniques like this.  I am always impressed by good teachers and the ones that stand out the most are those that not only put their topic across really well so that it is accessible and understandable but also that they do it in a way that helps their students remember.

Just recently I came across an example of such a teacher in the internet marketing industry.  This industry is all about helping business promote and sell their products and services more effectively on the Web.  One of the principles of good internet marketing is writing good "Copy" which means all of the sales literature that we read that persuades us (or not as the case may be) to buy a product or service.

It really is an art form and one of the best copywriters on the internet is a chap called Michel Fortin.  He has just written a post on his blog about how to remember the essentials of copywriting and he uses mnemonics to teach his students how to remember the key points.

I will share with you one of his mnemonics and recommend that you do read his entire post to see how he creates his to make it more memorable.  Like the example above, he takes the first letter of what he wants to put across to his readers, but he makes a word rather than another sentance.  For example:

Universal picture words or relatable, descriptive sentences."  becomes UPWORDS where "Up words" are picture words, mental imagery, metaphors, analogies, examples, etc so that all people in a given target market can easily relate to and understand, in their minds, your message and its meaning.

It is a very simple approach but it does work.  Using other people's mnemonics is powerful but the ones that have the greatest impact are those that you create yourself.  I still remember the categories of levers from my engineering apprenticeship 23 years ago because I created my own mnemonic for it.  I could give you a dynamic and engaging presentation on the three categories of levers if you want all from stuff I learnt 23 years ago and have not covered since.  It is not one of my most requested keynote speeches for some reason but at least I am prepared if ever my agent is asked for that topic

Do you have any mnemonics that you use?  If so let me.

Happy Star Wars Day

After that wonderful orchestral intro at the start of every 20^th Century Fox those immortal words “..A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… and then the Star Wars logo comes rushing to the front of the screen with the music that will forever conjure up image of Imperial Stormtroopers and light sabres. As that subsides the scene is set for us by the scrolling words that fade into the distance telling us about evil empires, beautiful princesses and secret plans.

 And then as the music fades, the camera pans down and first there is a small moon and then you realise you are sitting above a huge planet.  On the big screen this was massive but then a small spaceship appeared from the top right of the screen being fired at by an as yet unseen adversary.

 And then the mother of all spaceships appears from the top of the screen and we are looking up at the underbelly of this monster.  I can still remember as an 11 year old gasping at the scale of this huge spaceship and feeling the vibrations of the engine noise resonate in my small chest.  It was like being there and was unlike any movie experience I had ever encountered.

 The rest of the film had all the ingredients of an amazing story/film – incredible effects, beautiful princess, handsome hero, rugged bad-boy, love story, good overcomes evil, magical powers, evil warlord, overcoming struggles …. I could go on but I think it is safe to assume that the film had a massive impact on me and I can remember those experiences just like it was yesterday.

 So what was it about all of that which made it so memorable?  Well first of all as an impressionable 11 year old who read war and sci-fi comics, Star Wars was like a dream come true for me.  My strong interest in science fiction at that time meant that I was always going to be interested in the film, especially with the amount of hype that there was at the time (nothing changes there then although these day s I think much of the hype about the majority of supposedly “great” films is sadly unfounded).

Another reason that the film was so memorable was at that time no other film had ever used special effects to the extent that you actually believed what you saw was real.  Many previous films and television series were laughable at the way they used special and not so special effects.  I can always recall having to consciously extend the use of my imagination when I used to watch Flash Gordon (not the film with the Queen soundtrack, but the black and white, spaceships on string, cardboard set version).  So Star Wars was both unique and outstanding compared to its peers (although you could argue that it had none!)

 However probably the main reason that the film and especially the opening scenes were so memorable was that it engaged both the emotions and the senses right from the start.  So not only did I see and hear this incredible spaceship, the scale of which I had never even imagined before, but I felt the throbbing of the engines in my body as though I was actually sat on the craft itself.

 And from there on in I was hooked and it was then riding the roller coaster of emotions and experiences as I lived the life of a young Jedi, discovering his purpose and then finding his way and so on.

And can I remember his journey?  Of course I can.  Not least because since then as my favourite film I have watched it many times.  So my Star Wars Experience reveals some age old truths about why we are able to remember certain things:

1. If you are passionately interested in something then you are going to be likely to remember it.
2. Anything that is unique, unusual or stands out from the crowd will also last longer in your memory
3. When your senses are fully involved and you have a strong emotional connection with something, that too will create a far stronger impression on your memory.
4. The ebb and flow of a good story is much easier to remember
5. Repetition is the mother of skill and when it comes to being able to recall something, that is true too.
   

So once again happy Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you and if you need to remember something, think like a Jedi.