Self Improvement - Improve your Memory

As most of you are aware the word "kaizen" is a Japanese
business philosophy advocating the need for continuous
improvement in a person's personal and professional life.

In this edition of Instant Improvement I'd like to share a self improvement technique to help improve your memory!

As the quote below explains having a good memory is important.

"Memory is what tells a man that his wife's birthday was yesterday"

The technique I'm going to take you through comes from Tony Buzan in his very short but useful book "Brilliant Memory"

You can get it here:- 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0563520337/ref=nosim?tag=leankaizen-21.

You'll be glad to hear that I'm going to keep my explanation very short.

The technique is very simple so you should be able to implement this idea straight away!

Now let's try a little experiment.

Look at the list of the following items quickly.
Once you've looked at them , try to recall the ten items in the correct order and write them down.

No sneaky cheating !

The list

1.Telephone
2.Palaeontology
3.Carrier Bag
4.Zoo
5.Trousers
6.Flip Chart
7.Fake Tan
8.Hat
9.Motor Vehicle
10.Red felt tip pen

Did you get all ten ?

Did you get them in the correct order ?

If you did well done. You can stop reading as you probably don't need this technique as you have a good memory already !

If you didn't then read on.

How to remember a list of 10 items with ease using key number images

This is what you need to do

1.Get yourself a piece of A4 paper and a pencil.

2.Draw 10 boxes onto the piece of paper.

3. In each box draw a picture to represent the numbers 1 to 10.

It is important to create images that you are comfortable with.

The idea is that as soon as the number is mentioned that the image you have associated with it immediately comes into your brain.

In my own list of 1 to 10 I've used the following images to represent the numbers.

one : a drumstick
two : a swan
three : a two tunnel railway bridge on it's side
four : a yacht
five : a fishing hook
six : an old fashioned bomb with a fuse
seven : a cliff
eight : a racing car track
nine : a large comma
ten : a bat and ball

These images work for me .You need to create your own.

Take your time to come up with images you can recall easily and then lock them into your brain
and never change them.

4.Associate the images in an exaggerated fashion with the items you are trying to remember.

Let's use our previous list by way of an example

1.Telephone
2.Palaeontology
3.Carrier Bag
4.Zoo
5.Trousers
6.Flip Chart
7.Fake Tan
8.Hat
9.Motor Vehicle
10.Red felt tip pen

Item 1 - Telephone

To remember this I would create an image of a telephone being hit by the drumstick to make a
ring ring sound.

Item 2 - Palaeontology

To recall this one I'd imagine a huge swan the same size as a T.Rex.

Item 3 - Carrier Bag

To recollect this I would imagine the train announcer coming over the tannoy to say that the
next train has been delayed not by "leaves on the track" but by a huge carrier bag blocking
the tunnel.

Hope fully you get the idea!

The more vibrant , colourful , simple and outrageous you can make the association with
your number key images the better.

Summary

There are many ways to "improve yourself" and this is one I particularly like.

If you would like to read more about this you can get Tony Buzan's excellent book "Brilliant Memory" here.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0563520337/ref=nosim?tag=leankaizen-21

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Graham Ross

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