This last week or so I’ve been reading Tony Buzan’s “Use your memory”. Buzan, creator of the World Memory Championships, speed reading competitions and much, much more, shares many techniques on how to make best use of our brain’s amazing ability to remember stuff.
At a basic level, the theory for improving your memory is based on Gardner’s Theory of multiple intelligences. That is, to engage your imagination in the creation of a list. The more vivid the imagination, the easier it is to recall. The book gives a lovely example in the first couple of chapters which is so impressive, that to this date I can still remember a list of 10 shopping items in the book that are completely unremarkable. And that is without using any of the systems that are given later on.
This isn’t really a book to read cover to cover. This is because it is essentially a toolbox of memory techniques and exercises to move on to progressively as you master each one. The techniques are very powerful. After about a quarter of the book you will find remembering a list of 100 items fairly easy, and by halfway through the book a thousand is achievable. Moving on from that you can learn some cool tricks to memorise a pack of cards and pull off quite astounding feats of memory that could earn you good money in wagers at a BBQ this summer. (more…)
