Developing a Razor Sharp Memory (Part 4) 

By Daniel Theyagu 

 In the last part we learned the Numerical Pegging system up to the first 10 pegs. If you want to go beyond the first 10, all you need to do is to replace the number with a word or thing that looks like the number, sounds like the number or associated with the number.  For instance, my numerical peg for 11 is SOCCER (11 Players in the team).  Number 12 peg would be CLOCK (think this is obvious) and Number 13 is FRIDAY (considered as unlucky).  It is best that you should create your own as that way you will find it easier to use the peg to remember information since you’ve personalized the numerical peg. 

 

The disadvantage that you might have with this system is that after some time, it would be difficult to find a word association with the number.  You may create a numerical peg perhaps up to the first 20 numbers.  After which it would become increasingly challenging.  This is when you might consider using the Alphanumerical System.

 

The Alphanumerical System

This system involves the replacing the number with a letter from the alphabet that represents the number either by its pronunciation, shape of number or some form of association.  For instance;

Number 0 is represented by the following:  s, z, ce, se  (this sounds like zero)

Number 1 is  either T or D (both got one line coming down)

Number 2 is N (looks like a two from the side)

Number 3 is M (looks like a 3 from the side)

Number 4 is R (there are four small R in the number 4 if you observe carefully)

Number 5 is L (the top part of 5 looks like L)

Number 6 is represented by: J (upturn six), soft G (as in girl) CH, SH

Number 7 is represented by: hard G (as in garbage), K (there are two 7 in K) and C (sounds like K as in the name Katherine and Catherine)

Number 8 is F (cursive writing of    f  looks like an 8), v (as v sometimes replaces f)

Number 9 is P or B (looks like an upturn nine if observed from another perspective)

 

Now that you’ve got the letters to represent the numbers note that the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) by themselves have got no meaning.  Further consonants such as (q, w, x, h, y) also have no meaning by themselves.  These letters are used as fillers to help create a word that will represent the number.

 

For instance, the number 15 can be represented by 1 (T or D) and 5 (L).  What you need to do is come up with a word that has got these two letters in them.  Something like TAIL.  There are two vowels in TAIL and these have no meaning.  Therefore T and L represent the number 15.

 

Number 16 can be replaced with the word TOUCH – T is 1 and CH represent 6. 

Number 17 is DECK – D is 1 and K is 7 (in this case the C is silent thus does not represent anything)

Number 18 is DOVE – D is 1 and V represents 8.

Number 19 is TUBE (can you figure this one out)

Number 20 is NOSE

 

With this system you can continue creating your own peg and using that to remember information as was shown to you in the last part.

 

In your business and personal life this system can be used to remember many things with a bit of imagination and creativity.  Let’s say that you have a friend call Mary and her phone number is 95404848.  How can you remember this?

 

I will use what I’ve shared with you in the previous parts and create a journey in my head that will allow me to recall Mary’s number easily.  This is how to do it. 

 

Every time I think of Mary I visualize (remember the visual association technique) her carrying a bunch of Blue roses and I tell to myself that “Blue Rose Are Very Few”.  If you look at the phrase, you will notice that you could replace some of the words that represent the number of her phone.  Namely:

Blue – B (9) – L (5) – U & E (no meaning since they are vowels)

Rose – R (4) – O (no meaning –vowel) SE (0)

Are – A (vowel) R (4) – E (vowel)

Very – V (8) – E (vowel)- R (4)

Few – F (8) – E (vowel) – W (no meaning)

If you look at it carefully you have 95404848! And that’s how you do it.

 

This method requires confidence and patience.  As mentioned in the first part, developing a razor sharp memory is not going to occur overnight.  You need conscientious practice and consistency to achieve this.  The important thing is not to over do it such that you lose interest in working out your memory. 

 

Keep your objective small.  Perhaps for a start you could take out the phone numbers of the 10 most favourite people you know and see whether you could link them in the manner I demonstrated above.  Once you can do this, add another 10 to the list and so forth.  After all, if you have time to work out your physical self, make some time to work out the grey matter in your head.

 

This conclude the series on Developing a Razor Sharp Memory

 

Developing a Razor Sharp Memory (Part 3) 

By Daniel Theyagu

In part II, I showed how to remember a series of items in a linear sequential manner.  However there may be occasions when you may have to recall information in a random order.

 

If you want to be able to recall information in a random order you need to use a system called the Numerical Pegging System.

 

The Numerical Pegging SystemLet’s say that you want to remember a list of Food stuff rich in Vitamin A: 

1.         Egg 2.         Milk3.         Green vegetables4.         Banana5.         Pumpkin6.         Sweet Potato7.         Carrot8.         Tomato9.         Papaya10.       Liver  

If you use the Creative sentence system (covered in Part I), you must find a long enough sentence to remember the above items. Further, if I were to ask you what the number 5 item is, you might have a problem giving an instance answer. 

This is where the Numerical Pegging system becomes useful. This system is quite simple to formulate. All you have to do is to replace the number with something, which looks like the number, sounds like the number or associated with the number. The reason why you have to do this is because; your right brain doesn’t understand the concept of numbers or letters.  So by replacing the numbers with something which looks likes, sounds like or associates with the number, you are allowing your right brain to recognize the number and help you remember the word. 

This system is very much like hanging your laundry out to dry.

 

Imagine that you’ve just done your laundry and are hanging them out to dry on the bamboo stick.  In order to ensure that the clothes do not fly away in the wind, you will put pegs on the cloth.  The purpose of the peg is to keep the clothes in place.  Likewise, the numerical pegging system works in a similar fashion. 

 

Just imagine that you have ten different pegs each with a number written on it and or a shape, which is associated with the number. And you are hanging the ten items given above.Let us now create the Numerical Peg to help us remember the words given above.1          -  SUN (sounds like one)2          -  SHOE (one-two buckle my shoes)3          -   TREE (sounds like three)4          -   DOOR (three-four shut the door)5          -   FINGER  (sounds like five)6          -   STICK (five-six pick up stick)7          -   HEAVEN ( sounds like)8          -   SPIDER (looks like eight and has got eight legs)9          -  FLAG POLE (a flag fluttering in the wind looks like a nine)10        -   HEN (as in: nine-ten a big fat hen) 

If you want to remember the items rich in vitamin A as shown earlier this is how you do it. You just have to imagine: 1 is a SUN and visualizes the sun is shaped like an EGG.  

Number 2 is SHOE and imagine that you poured some MILK into your shoe and drank it as you had no glass (I know it sounds disgusting, but you won’t forget what number 2 is now will you?)  

Number 3 is TREE and you look at the tree which was growing GREEN VEGETABLES. See yourself picking these vegetables from the tree. 

Number 4 is DOOR and you open the door and a great piece of BANANA fell on you.  

Number 5 is FINGER and imagine you digging your fingers into a huge PUMPKIN. 

Number 6 is STICK and you were using a stick to dig out the SWEET POTATO from the ground.  

Number 7 is HEAVEN and in heaven you saw a lot of CARROT. Make it big carrots so that you won’t forget it.  

Number 8 is SPIDER  and see a spider building a web inside a TOMATO.  

Number 9 is a FLAGPOLE and see a huge PAPAYAS on top of the flagpole.  

Number 10 is HEN and see the hen running away from a cleaver which sounds like a LIVER.

Now stop reading this article and see whether you can remember the 10 food items rich in vitamin A.

 

If you were able to do it, Congratulations! If you had difficulty recalling any particular item, this could be because your mental connection for that item was not strong enough to hold the information.  It’s like you pegged your clothes loosely and a strong wind blew it away.  What you need to do is make a stronger connection.

 

This technique is useful especially when you have to recall things at random.  All you’ve got to do is to link the word you want to remember to the number peg.  It is not necessary that you need to follow what I’ve given above.  You could use other words to represent the numbers as long as you are able to associate the word with the number.

 

In the office environment you will find this technique useful to remember information that you receive randomly and which you have to arrange in a structure manner.  The important thing is to ensure that your peg is powerful enough to allow you to make an effective mental link so that you could recall the information at ease.  Go ahead and try using this technique.  You might try with your shopping list, or your ‘To-Do’ list.  It is only when you make a concerted effort to unleash the true potential of your brain power that you can develop a razor sharp memory.

 

This part only covers the numerical pegs for the first 10 numbers.  If you want to remember beyond 10 items you need to add on new pegs.  However, finding words that can ideally replace the number might become more tedious as you go beyond 10.  This is when you need a variation of the numerical pegging system called the alphanumerical pegging system.  I will show you this in the next part of the Developing a Razor Sharp Memory.

 

Developing a Razor Sharp Memory Part 2

Developing a Razor Sharp Memory (Part 2) 

By Daniel Theyagu 

In the last part I shared with you on the different types of memory we have.  Here are some ways you can improve your memory.

 

 Forming Creative Sentences 

One method of remembering things is to form creative sentences.  An example to illustrate this is how you can remember the different classifications of length which are:

 

Kilometre, Hectometre, Decametre, Metre, Decimetre, Centimetre and Millimetre.

 

You can remember this by taking the first letter of each word above and make it into a simple creative sentence that the brain can remember.  Like: 

 

King Henry’s Daughter Makes Deadly Careless Mistake.   

This is easier to remember as the sentence will trigger your brain into remembering the unit of measurement of length.  You may have learnt this technique in school to remember the colours of the rainbow.  This can be recalled with a creative sentence like this:

 Richard Of
York, Gave Birth In Vain. 

By taking the first letter of each of the word above, you will have

R.O.Y.G.B.I.V 

This can be translated into: Red –
Orange – Yellow – Green – Blue – Indigo – Violet.

 

You can use a variant of this technique in the office to remember vital information such as a password to open a computer program.  Let say you have a password like:

 

db45yrfm 

By forming this into a creative sentence you will find it easier to recall the password.  Something like:

David Bought 45 Yellow Roses For Me 

Naturally this is easier than trying to remember db45yrfm!

 

Another example – there are four oceans in the world, they are: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and
Arctic.  Again, you can take the first letter and make a creative sentence to help you trigger your memory into recalling the four oceans.  The one I have in mind is:  Pigs Are Intelligent Animal!

 

The important thing to note here is that the sentence you create must be funny and abstract such that your right brain registers it effectively so that you can recall it anytime.

 

 The Visual Imagination Technique 

In this technique you need to visualize the things that you want to remember.  Note that developing a razor sharp memory is all about improving the power of your observation. 

 

Suppose you need to go to the supermarket to buy the following items:

Ham – Egg – Calendar – Cottage Cheese – Newspaper – Chicken Breast Fillet – Tomato Ketchup – French loaf – Spinach – Yogurt – Dish washing liquid. 

You may write all these down on a piece of paper or spend a few minutes memorizing this list.  It is not hard to do this.  All you’ve got to do is to translate the information into something abstract and silly such that your brain can remember and recall.  This is how you can do it!

 

Visualize yourself making a journey and along the way someone threw a Ham and Egg at you.  You had to wipe this off with a calendar (now that does look silly).  As you are doing this you notice that the calendar is made of cottage cheese.  Since you were feeling hungry you decided to eat the cottage cheese with some newspaper.  Later you still felt hungry and decided to eat a large Chicken Breast Fillet with some tomato ketchup.  As you were doing this someone took a French loaf and hit you over the head, you turn around and saw Popeye the Sailorman with the French loaf and eating spinach.  You offered him some Yogurt which tasted like dish washing liquid.

 

 How could you apply this technique in the office?

  Let’s say that you have ten things you have to do in the office today.  They are:

 

ü     Photocopy minutes of meetingü     Call Air Con maintenance for servicingü     Book airline ticket for the bossü     Order water for coolerü     Meet Jane for Lunchü     Send watch for repairü     Collect parcel from Post Officeü     Pay phone billü     Interview new job applicantü     Return library book 

To remember this here is what you should do.  Visualize that you are dreaming and in the dream you saw a huge photocopier machine (this will remind you to photocopy minutes of meeting); and you notice that the photocopier machine was feeling hot and you decided to install an air-con to keep it cool. When you do this you will remember to call the air-con maintenance. 

 

Now go on to make a story to link the remainder items.  Your story might come up something like this – The air-con maintenance man complains that the air con was not working because your boss’s airline ticket was stuck in it.  Therefore you had to pour some water from the cooler into the air-con to extract your boss’s ticket.  This was when you realized that you had an appointment with Jane for lunch.  You miss this appointment as you forgot to send your watch for repair.  You went to collect your watch and pass by a Post Office when you remembered to collect a parcel and also to pay your phone bill.  As you are paying your phone bill, your phone was ringing to remind you of the job applicant interview and as you rush to your office you trip over the library book that you were suppose to return.

 

The visual imagination technique is excellent to remember huge chunks of information.  All you need to do is to link the first item to the next like one long chain and soon you will be able to work out you memory.  The more you engage yourself in this activity the more active your brain becomes and you will realize that you can have a razor sharp memory.

 

In part III  I will show you how you can remember things in a random order.

 

Article contributed by:D Theyagu is a keynote speaker and seminar leader for many conferences and training program.  He runs Lateral Solutions Consultancy which designs and conduct competency based training for organizations.   To engage his services please contact:dtheyagu@singnet.com.sg; www.lateralsolutionsconsult.com; Fax: 67522160 

 

Developing a Razor Sharp Memory Part 1

DEVELOPING A RAZOR SHARP MEMORY 

By Daniel Theyagu 

 

You’ve so often heard it!

 “I’ve got a bad memory!”

“I’m not good at remembering names!”

“I always forget what I want to do!”

“My memory is failing!”

 

These are all just superb excuses to the one undeniable fact that we all have an excellent memory.  The trouble is that we are not using it well enough.  As such our memory begins to atrophy with time.  Your memory works like a muscle.  When you work on your muscle you get fitter and well toned.  Likewise when you work on your memory you will get your memory to work effectively for you.

 

You can develop a razor sharp memory at any moment in your life as long as you are a normal human being.  However, it’s not going to happen overnight nor is it going to be a simple process.  You need commitment and constant practice to keep your memory intact.  Many of us spend lots of time trying to keep our body healthy and fit.  I think that some of that time should also be spend on keeping your brain in good working order.  The best way to do this is to work out your brain’s wonderful ability to remember and recall information. 

 

There are several ways in which you can develop a razor sharp memory.  For a start you need to understand how your brain works.  Putting it simply, our brain consists of three types of memory – Sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory.

 

 

Sensory Memory

This memory helps us remember things that we need to survive. Like feeling hungry or feeling cold or warm.  The body will respond to these stimuli appropriately.  Like if you are feeling too warm, you will start to perspire.

 

Short Term Memory

Short Term Memory or STM is like the RAM (Random Access Memory) of your computer.  If you have a small RAM in your computer and run many programs your computer system crashes or ‘hangs’.  Likewise, when we try to store too many information in the STM, we start to ‘forget’ these information as the storage capacity of the STM is limited.  Our STM can remember information for a period of seven seconds to a maximum of 48 hours.  In fact within the first 24 hours we forget up to 80% of the information we are trying to remember unless this is transferred to the long term memory (LTM)

 

Long Term Memory

The transfer of information from STM to LTM requires you to re-configure the information in a manner that allows the LTM to remember.  The LTM is situated more to the right part of the brain and thus it remembers information in a unique manner very unlike the STM which is situated more to the left hemisphere of the brain. 

 

Put simply your LTM only remembers three kinds of things.  If you want to develop a razor sharp memory, you need to change whatever information that you want to remember long term into any of these three modes. 

The first of the three kinds of things are survival skills like eating, walking or swimming.  Silly as it may sound, can you ever ‘forget’ how to walk or swim?  The second is events that remind us of something sad that had happened in our lives like a bad experience or an accident that we had.  Such information automatically gets stored in the LTM and often we are triggered into remembering it. 

 

The third kind is those things that are funny, silly or stupid.  Just to prove this point, see whether you can answer the following questions:

i.                 What was the fruit that Snowhite ate?

ii.               At 12 midnight what did Cinderella leave behind?

iii.             What is Popeye’s favourite food?

iv.             Who was Little Red Riding Hood visiting?

 

If you can answer all these questions it just goes to show how much you’ve retained such information from your childhood days.  And why so is because these stories are funny and sometimes ludicrous such that your brain seems to enjoy it. 

 

Now think for a moment what you were doing this time last week!  Unless you’ve been doing something very interesting, chances are you need to refer to your diary or crack your head a little to try to figure out what you were doing.  Mundane activities are processed in the STM and soon forgotten. 

 

The key to having a razor sharp memory is to engage more of the right brain and make information creative and exaggerated such that the right brain will want to remember it.   This may sound difficult however you will notice that with practice it is easier than you think.  

 

Tomorrow I will share with you some techniques that you can use to help you develop a razor sharp memory.

 

 

Article contributed by:Daniel Theyagu is a keynote speaker and seminar leader for many conferences and training program.  He runs Lateral Solutions Consultancy which designs and conduct competency based training for organizations.   To engage his services please contact:dtheyagu@singnet.com.sg; www.lateralsolutionsconsult.com; Fax: 67522160