3 steps to better remembering according to a 2000-year-old method

3 steps to better remembering according to a 2000-year-old method

Translate the following text into these languages.

3 steps to better remembering

according to a 2000-year-old method

Translate the following text into these languages (en: English, nl: Dutch, zh: Mandarin Chinese, es: Spanish):

I was fortunate that learning came relatively easy to me. However, when I got to university, I realized that my way of remembering was not sufficient.

I wish I had these steps during my studies. This would have definitely saved me a couple of years.

This article presents a method that has been used for 2000 years to memorize information, so that it can be recalled later.

Do you want to skip the part about how your brain works,

click here.

Translate the following text into these languages (en: English, nl: Dutch, zh: Mandarin Chinese, es: Spanish):

How do you remember things better?

To remember better, you need to understand how your brain stores information. Then, you present what you want to remember to your brain in a memory-friendly way.

To remember better, you need to know that you have a short-term memory and a long-term memory.

If you study now, you will forget about 70 to 80% of what you learned within 24 hours. Within a month, that increases to 97 to 98%.

Short-term memory

Memories in your short-term memory are of an electrical nature.

Have you ever experienced being in the attic and needing to grab something from the kitchen? And as soon as you get to the kitchen, you completely forget what you were there to get?

And as soon as you enter the kitchen, have you totally forgotten what you came for?

That was your short-term memory: when you thought of something else, what was in it got erased.

Long-term memory

The long-term memory can be compared to a gigantic warehouse or storehouse.

Unfortunately, the warehouse is completely dark, and a scout has to search for a while to find something again.

Have you ever experienced walking down the street and someone greets you enthusiastically, but you have no idea who they are?

The first question you probably ask yourself is 'who is that?'.

Then you ask yourself 'where' you know that person from.

Your long-term memory loves locations!

If you have a location, your brain can create many connections and you can find things more easily.

Therefore:

If you know where you recognize the person saying hello from, then the scout can search much more specifically. It’s as if a light goes on, and your scout quickly runs towards it.

Good memory is not insight

Better remembering does not mean that you have any insight into the subject. However, factual knowledge is much more important than people think.

For example: Learning a new language. Imagine you want to learn a new language and you do this by studying the language, and after months of studying, you know exactly how the grammar works.

Then you go to that country and you can't speak the language at all. You don't even understand what the people are saying. For that, you need factual knowledge, or vocabulary.

Conversely, it is exactly the same. If you know all the words in a language but have no insight into how the sentence structure, present or future tense works, then you will not be able to speak the language.

Techniques for remembering

The most well-known techniques for remembering:

However, there are even more possibilities, such as the techniques used by the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

When you want to remember information through repetition, you repeat it in your short-term memory until the brain forms a chemical connection from it.

You will need to repeat everything you want to remember for the rest of your life at least 300 times; you must distribute this over 7 different moments.

Memory techniques to remember

You can also make use of memory techniques. Here we look at how long-term memory retains information.

That means: If I ask you what you had for lunch yesterday, your brain goes back to 'where' you were. There is a connection between 'where' you were and 'what' your lunch was.

But: That thread is not very strong and can easily break.

Repeating again to remember better?

If you don’t think about the information for a long time, your brain will clear out that large warehouse. Everything you need a lot will be kept at the front so you can access it easily and quickly.

Things you don't use often are put somewhere at the back, and then you have to search for a long time. If you want something to be current, you'll need to use it once in a while. Then your brain keeps it at the front so you can easily access it.
Don't force it, just activate it by thinking about it once in a while.

Have you ever experienced seeing someone on television and not being able to recall their name? Then your explorer goes searching in that big warehouse, opening all the cabinets and drawers. A few days later, you’re walking down the street and suddenly remember the name again. That’s the moment your explorer opened the right cabinet in that big warehouse and found it. If only he had known where to look, you would have found it much faster.

What is a memory palace?

A memory palace is a 2000-year-old method for perfect recall.

The memory palace goes by several names:

Fear of paper: When the use of paper to write things down became popular, Socrates (an ancient philosopher) was afraid that this would mean people would remember less and eventually wouldn't know how to remember at all.

He wasn't far off, but fortunately, paper (nowadays computers and the internet) also has incredibly many advantages. We trace the history of the memory palace back through two people: Cicero and Simonides.

Cicero
In ancient Rome, Cicero was a statesman. He is one of the few ancient Romans whose many written texts have survived. So we are fortunate to have the writings (sorry, Socrates).

Cicero could tell stories for hours and knew all the facts by heart. He used the memory palace for this purpose. In one of his texts, he wrote about its origin. He credited a Greek poet named Simonides of Ceos for this.

Simonides of Ceos
Simonides was invited to recite poetry at the banquet of a very wealthy man. Everyone was seated at the table eating when Simonides began his poetry reading.

The Greek Gods:
As usual, Simonides was here with the Greek Gods, and the owner of the house thought it was nonsense. After reciting various poems, the rich man stated that he would not pay Simonides anything. If he wanted to be paid, then those gods should pay him.

Be careful what you wish for!

Then a servant came running and told Simonides that someone was at the door for him. When Simonides went outside, there was no one there, but behind him, the sturdy house suddenly collapsed without any warning.

Simonides had received the payment from his gods...

This is, however, not a story about religion, but about memory:

The memory palace was born

This is how a memory palace works:

Because Simonides had linked the person to the place (Loci), he was able to remember exactly who each guest was.

And thus the Roman Room System was created, also known as the use of a Memory Palace.

In each memory palace, one made use of:

And scientific research then…?

Recent scientific research on the brain has shown that using a memory palace is indeed the way to remember much more easily.

I have combined this ancient memory technique with recent insights into the functioning of the brain to make remembering even easier.

Why would you use a memory palace?

When I first learned about the mind palace, I wondered why I would want to create a mind palace at all.

This meant that I had to choose locations, make sure I know them well, come up with routes, convert everything I want to remember into images, and then put that back on the route.

That seemed like an absurd amount of work, and why?

Therefore: If you only want to remember a few things, you can easily get by with some repetition.

But let's say you want to memorize thousands of things. You want to do that quickly and remember them for a long time, then you need a memory palace.

Johannes Mallow managed to perfectly memorize 132 data points within 5 minutes at the championships in 2011.

Various memory techniques

There are various memory techniques, and you do not always need a memory palace.

A photographic memory

What you absolutely do not want is a photographic memory! However, do not worry, it does not actually exist. Many people also believe that an eidetic memory is a photographic memory, but you should not want that either. In a "photographic memory," your brain cannot distinguish between what is important and what is not, which means it also does not forget the unimportant. You would literally go crazy from all the millions of pieces of information that bombard your brain every second.

Remember via linking

When Frans Duijts taught Katja Schuurman to remember names for her television program Katja’s Bodyscan, no memory palace was used. That is also completely unnecessary and would have been an unnecessarily large amount of work.

It was sufficient to associate the name with the person's appearance.

Katja Schuurman perfectly remembered 48 first and last names of 50 people during the test.
Similarly, Katje Retsin in Belgium linked the names to appearances. She was able to perfectly recall the first and last names of the visitors during a live television broadcast.

I taught Niek Roozen how to remember words for the program Britt and Niek on Topic. This time, we did not use a memory palace. Out of all the words (German, French, English) he had to remember, he only made one mistake on the test.

Translate the following text into these languages (en: English, nl: Dutch, zh: Mandarin Chinese, es: Spanish):

Translate the following text into these languages

When do you use a memory palace?

When you want to do one of two things:

In remembering names, the face was the 'trigger' for the person's name. However, if the Katjas had to remember who was present at the test and list them without seeing anyone's face... then they would have had to use a memory palace. That is where we would have stored all the names.

What can you remember with a memory palace?

In principle, what you can store in a memory palace is limitless. But just for your imagination, here are some examples:

But just for your reference, here are some examples:

How to create a memory palace for better recall

The creation of a memory palace consists of 3 components.
The last component is the construction of the palace itself.

Step 1.
Create your memory routes

Step 2.
Create memory cards

Step 3.
Placing pictures on your route

Step 1. Create your memory paths

A memory route is nothing more than a route you take in your mind from one place to the next.
This can be inside a house, outside on the street, or a combination of both.

Create your own memory route now

First, determine what you want to remember. To create a good memory route, you must first know what you want to remember.

If you know what you want to remember, you need to know how you want to activate it. In other words, in what order do you need to know it later or what do you need to think about to bring it back.

We associate a name with a face, because the next time we see that person, we want to remember the name again.

We associate the sound of a foreign word with the Dutch meaning, because in a test you get one of the two and have to write down the other.

Choose a location now

Based on what you want to remember, choose a location you know. Rest assured, you already know thousands and thousands of locations.

Imagine you're reading a booklet about first aid and you want to remember a few steps.
Then you choose a location based on the subject. This could be, for example, a hospital.

This is essential!

If you have a location, you determine a starting point from where your route begins. I do this by asking myself where I would meet a group of people at that location.

At the hospital I have in mind, that would be the revolving door of the entrance. How much do you need to remember? Before you start remembering, first check how much it is. We are working with a route and you need to know how long that route should be.

Let's say we have a conversation about first aid and what you want to remember consists of 6 steps. Then there are 6 steps that you want to remember.

Now you create the memory route yourself

You now have a location with a starting point, and you know how much you need to remember. Now you can easily come up with a route with just as many places.

So back to the topic of first aid:

I place the specific topic at the front. Afterwards, I follow with the facts/steps that I want to remember. This means that I need 6 more spots after the revolving door.

For example:

This way, you'll soon have plenty of spots! Each spot is called a Loci. You pronounce it as 'loki'.

Step 2. Create memory cards

When you have a memory route, you can place the information you want to remember anywhere. Of course, we do this in a way that is memory-friendly.

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Not everyone agrees with that, but in the world of memory, it is incredibly true.

Translate the following text into these languages.

Think in images

Many things we want to remember are very abstract.
That's why we convert them into a tangible image.

What is a memory chip?

A memory picture is nothing more, nothing less, than a tangible image that you create in your mind of what you want to remember. Imagine you meet someone named Jasper, and you need to turn his name into a picture; you can do that by making it a 'jacket.' This memory picture then reminds you of his name.

How to make a memory card

If you need to make pictures from the words in the following list, it is very simple: shoe, television, lamp, car, carpet, brick, colander, grass, sock, banana, and carnival. These words are already very vivid.

It is more difficult when the words or facts you want to remember are abstract. For abstract words, you create a picture by:

The name Bella means beautiful, but the word beautiful is still not tangible. However, the name also contains the word 'bell,' and you can easily create a tangible image from that.

The name Ramchandra is very abstract, but we can translate it in the same way. If you know someone named Sandra, you can imagine that she rides a ram (just like horse riding, but then a ram).

To create good memory images, you need creativity! That is also one of the most important components in my training sessions.

Note: We want double encoding!
This means that each word evokes an image, but that the image also evokes the correct word in return.

Imagine you have to remember the word 'truck driver,' and you create an image of it; then it's likely that when you think of the image, you want to say a truck or lorry driver.

Make the pictures bright enough, because you don't want what happened to me: I excitedly called someone Jack while his name was Jasper. Mnemonics are not the same as a memory image. Mnemonics are something entirely different from memory images. However, you can turn them into a memory image.

Many students remember the Wadden Islands through TVtas. However, during a test, they wonder what the mnemonic was again.

Imagine you make a memory tag that you connect to a location; then it's super simple. You're on an island, you trip, and your TV bag falls into the water.

Bring your memory cards to life

Storytelling is very popular these days, and many books are being written about it. The ancient Greeks and Romans were well ahead of us, as that is exactly what they did.

Organize it logically

What makes sense depends on you and what you want to do with the information.

If you want to give a presentation, you first need to structure it in a way that makes sense to present. Only then do we move on to the memorization route to remember it by heart.

How much information can you store per memory chip?

You can easily store multiple pieces of information on one memory card. For example, I make one memory card out of 6 digits. With just 3 memory cards, I can already remember 18 digits in order.

If you want to combine images, it is my experience that you should keep a maximum of 5 images. Fewer is fine, but with more, you will forget things.

A completely fictional example with 4 pieces of information:

Step 3. Place images on your route

You now have a location and your memory cues. Now you just need to place them on your memory route.

Place memory cards on your memory route

By placing it in one spot, we stretch a thread from that spot to the image we are putting down. Simply placing it will help you remember a few things better, but you'll quickly forget the rest.

What you want is that thick steel wire so that your explorer can easily access it. You do this by adding emotion.

Imagine the first of the 6 first aid steps is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and you start with balloons, then you add emotion. You can then make it funny: Someone is giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because he thinks the person is choking, but it turns out to just be a balloon he is resuscitating, and everyone around him now thinks he is kissing the balloon.

Of

You want to remember who is in your class, and Bella is one of them. That's why you chose your school, and at the school gate, you see Bella standing. She wants to open the gate with her foot and is wobbling on one leg while blindfolded, holding a Bosche Bol in her hand and…

Can you still remember the rest of the story? 😉

So use lots of emotions to LINK the picture to the location (loci) on your route and remember it better. This way, you turn it into a memory palace.

One tree is just a tree. If you have many, then it's a forest.
One memory route is just one route. If you have many, you can turn it into a memory palace.

You have two options to make it a palace:

1. Madurodam / Efteling:
With this option, you are essentially creating models in your mind. For example, the hospital or your school. You group the models of the locations and assign them a place in your thoughts.

Just like Madurodam has gathered various buildings from all over the country.

2. Teleportation:
I personally use the teleportation style. Why? Well, I just find it more enjoyable.

Example: I have two bank accounts. One personal and one business account. I mentally noted the numbers on my bank card at the reception of my bank (subject and location).

If I now imagine walking through the door behind the reception, I am mentally standing at the entrance of my business bank. I have also linked to other routes:

If I pick up the phone at the counter, I suddenly find myself in the Town Hall and I go from the theme of 'money' to 'personal data', or in other words, to my ID card.

Don't you know what I mean by teleporting and the example with the phone? Then watch the movie The Matrix!

Better remember to put into practice

Once again: do you dare to challenge yourself to remember perfectly? Perhaps I should ask you better: are you willing to put in the work to create your own memory palace so that you can remember everything perfectly?