How to increase your memory power

Have you been in a situation where, while eating in a restaurant, you bumped into a prospective client whom you met in a new business pitch a week ago, but can’t seem to remember the name? Or you can’t recall where you left the car key when you are already late for an appointment? Or you go blank when asked a very critical question by your superior in a status report meeting? A state of panic envelops you during these times. You lose the mental power that makes you remember faces, facts, figures, experiences and encounters in the past. It creates an annoying and embarrassing predicament. Your memory fails you. You are labeled careless, absent-minded, out of focus, forgetful, amnesiac, or worse, a likely candidate for Alzheimer’s.

Memory is a basic ingredient for success. It’s a confidence booster, and a great motivator. People with strong memory leave a positive impression on others, since they can dish out information with better accuracy. But what is memory? How does it work? How can it be improved? Memory is the ability to store endless amounts of data in your memory bank that can be recalled when needed later. To understand what memory is, you should appreciate how it functions. Experts say that it works in four stages – recognition of a thing through the five senses; development and storage of an impression; retention of the impression; and recall of the data retained in the mind when triggered or stimulated.

Here’s a simple illustration. You are meeting a new person for the first time in a seminar. She either introduces herself or she is introduced to you. You look at her with your eyes, and hear her name with your ears. You get to know the person, and whatever impression you have of her is entered into your mental storehouse. And after some time, when you meet her again, you either recall or completely forget her name depending on how your notion of her during the first encounter has been imprinted in your mind.

Memory retention can be enhanced by two factors–interest and review. Interest on a thing, a person or event is a vital element in your ability to remember or forget. If something or someone is of special interest to you, the process of remembering will be easy. Otherwise, your tendency will be to forget. Human memory does not stop in grasping fresh ideas and experiences from outside. Constant review of past events and experiences can make past memories fresh, and if you do not revisit them, the impressions on your memory fade out like tabularasa.

Memory decline, on the other hand, can be an aftermath of interference and suppression. When you get distracted in the things you do, the process of data storage gets negatively affected. The distracting elements can interfere in memory recall later on. The brain also has a memory lever which helps you to shut on or off. The lever, once suppressed, voluntarily or otherwise, can make your memory blank out.

If you are in your midlife, memory loss can be your worst fear. Don’t fret. Recent studies indicate that early diagnosis and treatment of age-related memory impairment may delay, and possibly prevent, further deterioration. Lifestyle changes, such as fitness and exercise, lifelong learning, regular mental challenges, continued socialization, right diet, and adequate sleep can keep mental decline at bay, while sophisticated imaging technologies can identify the start of a more serious atrophy.

World Memory Champion

Memory decline can be arrested. You can learn from and get inspired by the story of Dominic O’Brien, who at the age of 43 became World Memory Champion for an incredible seventh time. Many people who have followed what O’Brien has achieved assumed that he is either endowed with some powerful mental ability or a freak of nature. Truth to tell, neither is the case. O’Brien rigorously self-trained his memory to the extent that he can memorize 2,000 digits, answer 7,500 Trivial Pursuit questions after reading them through only once, or recall the order of 52 cards in 35 seconds, among other astounding memory feats. He was an average student, a college dropout, and surprisingly, a dyslexic. His success was really a product of a dogged determination to succeed. He keeps getting better with age and is convinced that he can still be a memory champion at 95.

O’Brien in his book The Amazing Memory Box offers techniques and tricks to boost your brain power. It is an all-inclusive kit that reveals the author’s memory-stretching-secrets and demonstrates how to put them into practice using innovative and fun-to-use tools. The Amazing Memory Box tells the what, the why, and the how of proven memory techniques. It also has three entertaining exercise components to help hasten memory improvement. The Memory Party Wheel provides more than 2,000 combinations of names, faces and attributes to train yourself never again to be lost for a name. The Memory Journey Mapbook, a magical memory concertina with four colorful and imaginative memory journeys of distinct stages, allows you to memorize up to 100 items or objects. The Memory Deck has 100 memory cards, with pictures of 100 random objects on one side, and the numbers 0 to 99 on the other, which you can shuffle to test yourself, build your memory power and keep track of your improvement.

Mnemonics

One of the memory devices O’Brien strongly suggests is the use of mnemonics, defined simply as a "design to aid the memory." The word was derived from Mnesmosyne, the Greek goddess of memory. Essentially, mnemonics are codes or strategies that work by linking new or abstract information with something more familiar, concrete or interesting. Groups of names, subjects or numbers can thus be coded into more memorable words, phrases or sentences.

Mnemonics come in various forms. Reciting a rhyme like this one reminds you of the number of days in each month of the year– Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November;

All the rest hath thirty-one except February alone;

Which hath but twenty-eight, is fine,

Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.

The use of acronyms is certainly one of the most popular technique. ROYGBIV for the colors of the rainbow, VOT FOR D CHAMMP for the candidates of a political party, AIDA to define advertising objectives, or 4Ps to denote the four elements of the marketing process. ASEAN, SEATO, NATO to abbreviate names of country organizations. Mnemonics can also take the visual form. The "cowboy on his horse" immediately conjures Marlboro. "Stars and Stripes" relate to the American flag. The "swoosh" connects to Nike. "Colonel Sanders" associates to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The "Bee" links to Jollibee.

You have seen how established mnemonics can be very useful, but O’Brien believes that the most effective memory aids are those that have personal meaning. Mnemonics are fun, and the time spent finding or making up your own will help to imprint them in your memory. If you need inspiration, try looking through magazines and popular broadsheets, where you might come across suitable catch phrases that you can adapt.

Remembering Names & Faces

One of the biggest challenges that you can have with your memory is the ability to remember names and faces of people. Putting a name to a face is not so easy, but this is not surprising. Your encounters with most people, whether you are in business or politics, are so fleeting that the brain does not store their images in your long-term memory which makes it difficult for you to remember someone you meet in passing.

The main reason for the difficulty in recalling someone’s name is that you probably never heard it correctly in the first place. Often, introductions are hurried affairs, particularly if there are several people you get to be introduced to, and everybody’s attention is focused on saying their own name or shaking hands with just the right grip. So if you never got the name accurately, how can you expect to remember it? In his book, O’Brien offers the following tips:

As you are introduced to people, take a good look at their faces to clearly impress their images in your mind.

When someone offers her name, repeat it back to her saying something like, "Becky, it’s nice to meet you."

Clarify the spelling and pronunciation of any unusual names.

During the course of the function that you are attending, mentally review the names of the people that you have met and study their faces.

In conversing to them, use their names as you address or refer a question or comment to them. You could say, "Well Marilyn, what are your views on that?" or "That was an interesting point you made there, Lucy."

After the function, make notes about the people that you have met.

A good memory, O’Brien explains, gives you confidence–the confidence to know that you will remember the names and faces of people you meet; the confidence to be able to call upon information or arguments when you need them; and the confidence to be able to recall telephone numbers or important dates without having to refer to an address book or diary.

It’s never too late to develop an amazing memory. Pick up the techniques, and experience life more keenly.

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For comments and suggestions, e-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsand grey.net.