Memory techniques - can you improve your memory and remember more with them?

Do you sometimes wish you had a better memory? With memory techniques you can completely change your ability to remember information and improve your memory greatly. Memory techniques are especially useful for students and people who need to remember lots of things every day.

Today memory techniques are very important because there is so much information to remember. By using memory techniques you can remember long numbers, names of people, foreign words, passwords, tasks, meetings, speeches and anything you can think of much better, faster and easier

Using memory techniques to remember information eliminates the need to take notes. They help you make your life organized, to have less confusion and more free time. They aren’t complicated and you can apply them easily to be more effective at remembering information. The best part is that applying them is easier than you think.

Memorize states of America in 20 minutes?

Here you will learn about memory techniques and how to apply them to improve your memory. Memory techniques are really simple and some of them can be learned in less than 10 minutes although it takes some time to practice them. But the more you practice memory techniques, the better your memory will be.

Think of them as a more structured way how you try to remember and arrange information in your mind. You’ll learn that it’s really no rocket science.

I once thought that I will never be able to remember all states of America in alphabetic sequence. I didn’t considered my memory that good. Boy I was wrong! Using one of the memory techniques that I learned from Memory Success course I was able to memorize all states of America in 20 minutes and it was easier that I thought possible.

Are memory techniques brand new?

It’s an interesting fact that ancient Romans used memory techniques. Since they didn’t have any note taking devices they had to rely completely on their memories. Roman orators often delivered lengthy speeches that went for hours and were well prepared. How do you think they could remember them? They used memory techniques to do that.

Memory techniques were also used in middle ages by monks and other saint. In this time memory techniques were considered very mysterious and people that used them were considered sacred.

Then came the late middle ages and everybody that used memory techniques were considered magicians and often burned. All the books about memory techniques were destroyed. Then came the time when memory techniques were forgotten but in the eighteenth century they were again brought back to life by some wise men.

Who is using memory techniques today?

Not everyone uses memory techniques today but they aren’t unknown either. They are used by memory experts to perform memory stunts that seem impossible to people with "ordinary memory". Memory experts rely completely on memory techniques since it is the only way how to remember massive amounts of information instantly.

It’s an interesting fact that the memory expert Harry Lorayne admitted that he once thought he had the worst memory in the world. Things changed when he memorized the New York phone book solely by using memory techniques.

It’s actually a quite sad fact that a rather small percentage of people use memory techniques even though it is so easy to use them to improve their memory many times. An average memory technique can be learned in less than 5 - 10 minutes. It only takes some time to practice it a bit.

Situation when memory techniques can be used

When you go shopping there are list of items that you need to buy. When you have 20 items in your buying list then it is really hard to remember them without taking notes. With memory techniques it is actually quite simple. What you do is associate each item in the list to the previous one.

There is one rule though. These associations you form in your mind should be unrealistic, ridiculous or out of shape. That is because your mind is much better at remembering unusual things than meaningless and vague things that happen every day.

Here’s how you remember a list of items

Let’s pretend that the first 3 items that you need to buy are orange, milk and bread.

You already know that orange is the first item. To remember that you also need to buy milk you form a ridiculous association in your mind where you are peeling an orange and there’s a container of milk (or a cow) inside it. To remember bread you form an association where you are milking a cow and slices of bread instead of milk come out.

Now when you think about orange you instantly remember the ridiculous association you made with it in your mind and that reminds you of milk. When you think about milk you instantly remember the ridiculous association you made with it and it reminds you of bread.

This way you can remember a list of any length. Even when you think about that list a week after you memorized it, you will still remember it because the associations you made in your mind were very strong and you made your mind to actively think about things you tried to remember.

When can you use memory techniques?

What you learned was memory technique for remembering a list of items. There are memory techniques for remembering literally everything. Below are some of the things that you can memorize much faster using memory techniques:

Long and unknown words, appointments, errands, shopping lists, speeches, foreign and english vocabulary, names and faces, long digit numbers, style numbers, prices, telephone numbers, weekly appointments, anniversaries, the Zodiac, historical dates.

You can also remember advanced information like symbols of stock market, music that you have to play, shapes of countries on the map and shapes of any other objects, whether you have done certain things like locked the door, and so much more. Memory techniques can be applied to every memory task.

Discover how to learn a foreign language the easy way

Do you want to talk with people around the world? Are you interested in foreign cultures? Speaking foreign languages is a great thing - only if it wouldn’t be so exhausting and wouldn’t take such a long time to learn them.

Traditionally people have learned foreign languages the hard way. People have learned new foreign words by repetition - by saying the word in their own language and the foreign language time and time and time and time again. It’s boring and takes too much time.

It also limits you to learning certain number of words per day because you can’t overload your mind with too much information without taking a break.

Fortunately you can improve on this tedious way of learning words in foreign languages by using memory techniques. They take the drudgery and hard work away from learning foreign languages and make it more exciting instead.

Eliminate the effort it takes to learn a foreign language

Foreign languages are the ideal subject area for the use of memory techniques. Learning vocabulary is often a matter of associating a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in your own language.

Without memory techniques it takes a lot of effort and time to learn vocabulary but with memory techniques you can remember foreign words in a much easier way.

Not only it is an easier way. It is also more fun and interesting. Learning foreign words with memory techniques is exciting and makes you want to learn more. You are also not limited to the number of words you can learn in one day because you aren’t exerting your mind with them.

The secret technique to remember foreign words

One of the secrets on how to remember words in foreign languages is to substitute the foreign word with an english word or phrase that sounds similar to the foreign word. Then you associate this similar sounding word or phrase to the actual meaning of the word.

Here’s the illustration of this process:

You want to memorize Portuguese word for clam (the delicacy you eat at restaurant). Portuguese word for clam is "amejues", pronounced "ah-mezz-you-iz".

Now picture in your mind a gigantic clam approaching you, all drippy and dirty, and you say to it, "What a mess you is!".

Now each time you will think of a word clam in English you will remember the ridiculous association that you made in your mind and will remember the foreign word.

Eliminate the need for boring repetition

This was just an example. You will need to come up with your own associations for each foreign word that you learn.

By making these association you are making your mind concentrate on the foreign word and that way retaining information much better.

When you apply this memory technique to learn foreign words, you are remembering the word the first time you hear it. This memory technique lets you eliminate the need for constant repetition of the word to make sure that it stays in your mind.

This technique can be applied to any word in any foreign language. There are always words and phrases in English that you can come up with to substitute the pronunciation of the foreign word.

Learn a foreign language in a breeze

You can be very successful with this memory technique and learn hundreds of new words every day. Memory expert Harry Lorayne learned the phone book of New York in a few days with a similar memory technique. He could have learned basics of new foreign language instead of New York phone book.

There are memory techniques that you can apply to quickly learn grammar of foreign language and expressions like "What time is it?" or "How are you?".

With memory techniques you can learn all these expressions the first time you hear them and remember them almost forever. Of course it will seem a little hard to apply these techniques in the beginning but when you practice them, they will become like a second nature to you.

Mnemonics - what are they and can they
improve your memory?

Mnemonics (pronounced "ne-mon’-ics") is the art of assisting the memory by using a system of artificial aids - rhymes, rules, phrases, diagrams, acronyms and other devices. All to help in the recall of names, dates, numbers, facts, speeches, words or any other basic information that can sometimes be difficult to recall.

You can also think of mnemonics as ways, "tricks" or methods to help you recall information. Mnemonics are simple and they help you remember by associating new information to information that you already know. The basic principle of mnemonics is to use the best functions of your brain to memorize information.

When there is something to remember you can put mnemonics to use. By doing it you are memorizing information better, faster. You are also strengthening your memory by using mnemonics and increasing your confidence in your memory.

Strengthen your memory with mnemonics

Everyone can use mnemonics to strengthen memory in various situations. When someone names you 5 words that you are expected to remember, you can make a new word from the first letters of the 5 words. Now each time you think about the new word you made, you will remember the 5 words.

Using mnemonics is useful each time you read, see or hear something that you want to remember. What you are doing with mnemonics is associating new information to something that you already know or something that is easier to remember.

Today everyone has to remember much more information than 20 years ago so it’s important to strengthen your memory with any means possible. Mnemonics are a good and simple way how to strengthen your memory.

Can you master the art of using mnemonics and strengthen your memory? Yes! You can even do much more than that. By using mnemonics you can remember basic information much faster and better than without them.

Remember complicated information quickly

Mnemonics are powerful memory tools but it’s hard to find good information about how to use them. Most information that can be found is biased and instead of educating you about mnemonics, it rather confuses you.

This page doesn’t overcomplicate things and doesn’t make using mnemonics look harder than it is. Mnemonics are after all tools to help you remember not to confuse you. Here you will learn how mnemonics can be used to remember words and numbers and you’ll also learn how to expand your knowledge about mnemonics even further.

You can be really good at applying mnemonics to remember information that you need to remember every day. You just need to practice using them. By practicing you can soon find yourself memorizing complicated information without even noticing that you’re using mnemonics.

Memory experts use mnemonics when performing memory stunts since they need a memory tool that allows them to effectively remember new information instantly. What they do is associate new information to information that they already know or convert new information to something that is easier to remember.

How to remember words with mnemonics

When someone names you many words that you are expected to remember you can use mnemonics to strengthen your memory. What you could do is forming a new word from the first letters of the original words. Now when you think of the new word you formed you instantly get reminded about the five words you needed to remember.

Students use this technique by picturing homes on a great lake to help themselves remember that the five Great Lakes are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. Others picture a quartet being stabbed (stab gives you the initial letters of soprano, tenor, alto and bass).

How to remember numbers with mnemonics

We use numbers every day and they are very important but they are also one of the hardest things that we have to remember. Using mnemonics you help your memory to remember numbers.

Here you will learn how to memorize first 15 digits for number Pi - which is the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. You will remember it with mnemonic called "word-length mnemonic" in which the number of letters in each word corresponds to a digit.

The first 15 digits of Pi are 3.14159265358979. You can easily memorize this number by memorizing the text in quotes:

"How I like a drink, alcoholic of course,
after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics."

Another good mnemonic technique to help you remember numbers is substituting each digit of number with a one of 3 letters that are written on the phone digit buttons.

Discover the truth about mnemonics

While mnemonics are good to remember basic information there are many limitations with them and they are not effective for more complicated memory tasks. They can also sometimes be pretty cumbersome to use and you can’t apply them to many memory tasks.

There are much better and advanced memory techniques than mnemonics that you can use to remember complicated information much better and faster.

By using mnemonics it would not be easy to remember a list of 100 words but using other memory techniques it can be done in less than 5 - 10 minutes. One gentleman, Hiroyuki Goto, recited over 42,000 digits of Pi from his memory in 1995. It took him 9 hours and he did that by using some of the more advanced memory techniques.

Easy ways to improve memory quickly

Good memory brings you many benefits. Improving your memory is one of the best things you can do because by improving your memory you can do better in just about anything. Good memory lets you cut your study time, be a fast learner, be organized, be more effective and much more.

Today we are overwhelmed with information that we need to remember. Being able to effectively remember important pieces of information - like names, numbers, facts, figures, directions, quotations, daily tasks, and other vital information saves you time and gives you many other advantages.

There are many ways to improve your memory and many books have been written on how to do this. People have been trying to find ways to improve memory for centuries and they have succeeded. Here you will learn about effective ways to improve your memory.

What you should do to improve memory

Best way to improving your memory when trying to memorize new information is to connect it to information that you already know. Each time when you learn something new, associate it to what you already know by picturing the association in your mind.

Use your imagination and picture things that you are learning. Involve emotions in these pictures since the most powerful memories are those that include emotions. Try to involve positive emotions and avoid negative ones since mind excludes negative emotions over time.

Always motivate yourself to learn new information. When you are motivated you pay attention and concentrate, your mind gets sharper and more adaptable to new information. All these things help you memorize new information much better.

Repeat and rehearse new information frequently. Rephrase it in your own words and always be sure that you understand everything properly. What you can’t learn the first time, you can be learn the second time or third time.

What else would help you to improve memory

Learn information with a clear mind. It is harder to learn something when you are tired, stressed, anxious or angry. Reduce distractions as much as possible. If there are things around that distract you from learning try to remove them or learn elsewhere.

Having some spacing between learning sessions is a good idea because this way you reinforce memory traces. You don’t have to learn all information at once when you can learn everything much better by taking breaks between learning sessions.

Plan ahead and allow adequate time to re-learn new information. Set alarms and timers as reminders

How to improve your memory even more

What you learned were simple memory tips on how to improve your memory but there are more effective ways, too. You can learn new information much better and faster than you are doing it now. You can do that by using memory techniques.

Memory techniques are very effective tools for learning new information. They let your mind learn new information in a more structured and systematic way. Every memory stunt is performed using them and you can apply them to virtually every memory task. Since they are simple and easy to learn everybody can learn them.

You can apply memory techniques to memorizing numbers, words, lists of items, foreign languages, daily tasks, speeches, quotes, and much more. You can apply them to any memory task. Even the advanced tasks like learning locations on maps, shapes and music. Whenever there is a memory task you can make it simpler with them.