Hi! I'm a beginner here, and I'm looking to learn a memory technique for one specific purpose: when I'm talking to someone, I'll sometimes agree to do something, or hear something I want to make sure I don't forget. I'd like to have a technique for filing those pieces of info so I can pull them back out shortly after and get them written down.

From what I've read, a small collection of pegs would work fine for this, but I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a specific resource or version of the method. I want to be able to:

1. Encode things very quickly, without taking too much concentration away from the conversation

2. Hold info that can be abstract and multipart (eg, "ask Michael if he noticed a problem with the report," not just "Report" or "Michael")

But the method doesn't need to be good for:

1. Holding information for a long time

2. Holding more than about 5 pieces of information

3. Holding items verbatim or in order

Any specific recommendations?

I've researched memory courses and the only one with a live component that I've found is Tony Buzan's. But the website doesn't say much about the nature of the live course. The instructors in the US appear to be few and a couple have defunct websites or mainly engaged in a different occupation. I don't feel I have enough information to embark on a course based on just that.

Anthony Metivier has a YouTube channel with some paid tiers, but again it's not clear if there's live instruction in any of them.

I would appreciate thoughts about any memory courses with a live instruction component, which could be a group setting. I have ADHD and I find it hard to learn without human engagement.

Thanks!

Hello, I recently saw this sub reddit and I was interested in it. I have a few questions what are the best ways to remember information for tests on Math and Chem. Is there any exercises I should do to improve my memory and are there podcasts I can listen to to help better learn these techniques? I saw many of you post about a memory palace, I was just going to ask what that is? Thank you

If anyone needs to practice The Major System, I made a site that can hopefully help!

themajorsystem.com

I think they are reliable.

So let's say each memory image is a token (just like in Large Language Models).

Has anyone figured out the highest level of compression? Most information you can possible compress into a single memory token?

Here's an idea.

We could simultaniously compress:

• Name of a person

• Number

• Foreign words

We could create

Has anyone done detailed research on this?

My own conclusions:

• Encoding works better when it's a living being (preferably a person you know) than an object. That's because human brain memorizes living beings better.

• It's better if it's something weird or non-standard.

Any other insights?

Let's say you acquire high level of memory mastery. Practically speaking, where could this be used to advance most in career or just earn a lot of money?

I know this is as stupid and primitive question, but if you like memory stuff and want to choose to focus on one discipline, which would make sense where the memory skills would come most in handy?

For example, you could become an expert on topic. Like that one guy who knows all the facts about Tolkien and Lord of The Rings. Then work as consultant.

Just as example.

If you are able to chain items in a story, it will allow you to memorize easier. Since you may forget the item for the number, but if you know adjected numbers, you will be able to recall quite easy.

Example: 30 - mouse 31 - meadow 32 - moon

Let's say you memorize them individually. You recall 32 and 30, but forget 31.

If you instead conjure a story of mouse scuttling around a meadow illuminated by full moon, then when you try to recall 31, even if you don't know it immediately, you have high chances of recalling either 30 or 32, which will immediately allow you to recall neighbors in story.

So if you know mouse is 30, you will immediately be able to recall story of mouse in meadow (31), illuminated by moon (32), thus cementing these pairs or triplets in your memory.

So when you do recall exercises, always imagine the item being tied to the neighbors in a story.

I found suitable encodings for 0 to 110 or so, but after that it gets harder and harder to find encoding for every word.

I use pinfruit site, but still some words never contain all three required letters.

Are there any memory systems out there or modifications of major mnemonic system that could be used to effectively encode items from 101 to 1000?

I feel like I'm ready.

Let me know if not the best what are you doing to improve.

Reminds us of Jesus - flesh and blood and forgiveness and resurrection.

Definitely a powerful recall mechanic where we attach an event to food that gets recalled daily.

I wonder if this is a good model for everything else.

Let me know

What is the first thing you do when you forget something important?

Lmk

What do you think could be better about the ebooks on amazon, audible from some of the popular memory coaches?

Thoughts

Regards.

Do you think memory is taught in schools a lot? personally I don't think such.

Let me know.

Regards

Hi everyone

What would you do if you forgot important information in your day?

Hello everyone,

As I am still quite inexperienced in using mnemonics, I wanted to ask if anyone with more experience could help me to develop a suitable mnemonic technique for a specific application. I would be infinitely grateful:

I would like to create a small plant database in my head, wich I can use to clearly identify the common wild flowering plants of Germany, and also have some facts at hand, such as the flowering time and the habitat.

So far I have already taken a few steps to prepare:

I have memorised a list from 1 to 524, using the major system, with the names of those plants that occur more frequently in northern Germany, and which I want to remember accordingly.

I'll briefly illustrate this on the bellflower genus. The following bellflower species are on my list:

436. nettle-leaved bellflower

437. creeping bellflower (germ.: Acker-Glockenblume = engl. ‘field bellflower’)

438. peach-leaved bellflower

439. rampion bellflower (germ.: Rapunzel-Glockenblume = engl. ‘Rapunzel bellflower’)

440. common harebell (germ.: Rundblättrige Glockenblume = engl. ‘round-leaved bellflower’)

My mnemonic words (using the major system) and my corresponding associations are:

436 = germ. Ramsch (= junk, trash) -> Someone throws nettle leaves into the trash can, while a bell rings -> Nettle-leaved bellflower.

437 = germ. Raum-Ecke (= corner of the room) -> In the corner of the room is a field and in its centre a church with a bell -> Field bellflower.

438 = germ. Ur-Möwe (= prehistoric seagull) -> A primeval seabird (with teeth) wears a necklace of peach leaves with a small bell dangling from it -> Peach-leaved bellflower.

439 = germ. Rampe (= ramp) -> The prince from the Rapunzel fairytale sits in a wheelchair and uses a ramp to get up the tower to his beloved (instead of climbing up by her hair). She lures him with a bell -> Rapunzel bellflower.

440 = germ. Roh-Erz (= raw ore) -> Round chunks of unprocessed iron ore with engraved bells -> Round-leaved Bellflower.

So far I haven't had any problems. But now I would like to fill the list with information so that I can easily find a particular piece of information within the resulting image, i.e. know where in the image to look for the flowering period, and where to look for the identification features.

This is roughly what the information on the five bellflower species that I want to store in my head would look like:

436. Nettle-leaved Bellflower:

Flowering time: July-August        Habitat: Woodland edges        Lifespan: perennial

Identifying features:

• Leaves heart-shaped, clearly serrated, long stalked

 - Flowers 3 - 5 cm, standing upright

• Stems sharp-edged, stems and leaves bristly and hairy

437. Field bellflower:

Flowering time: June-September        Habitat: Fields, roadsides        Lifespan: perennial

Identifying features:

• Leaves heart-shaped, clearly serrated, long stalked
• Flowers 2 - 3 cm, nodding, in a long one-sided raceme

438. Peach-leaved bellflower:

Flowering time: June-September        Habitat: Forest edges, gardens        Lifespan: perennial

Identifying features:

• all leaves (including the lower ones) narrowly lanceolate, with entire margins
• Corolla 2.5 - 4 cm, bell-shaped, shallowly 5-lobed

439. Rapunzel bellflower:

Flowering time: June-August        Habitat: dry grassland        Lifespan: biennial

Identifying features:

• all leaves (including the lower ones) narrowly lanceolate, weakly serrated
• Corolla approx. 2 cm, funnel-shaped, clearly 5-cleft
• Flowers in a long racemose panicle (not spread out)
• Bracts at the base (not in the centre) of the flower stalks

440. Round-leaved bellflower:

Flowering time: June-October        Habitat: dry grassland, heaths        Lifespan: perennial

Identifying features:

• Stem leaves narrowly linear, with entire margins
• Basal leaves rounded and long-stalked
• Flowers small, in a multi-flowered panicle, flower buds erect
• Stem round (not angular)

Now the following considerations would be decisive for me:

1. How do I construct a system within a picture (e.g. the one with Rapunzel and the prince) in which I can systematically organise the information?

2. How do I encode the individual pieces of information?

I already have some ideas for the latter, e.g. I could write the start and end month of the flowering period as a number and make a small picture from both numbers, which I incorporate into the whole picture in some way.

Example: July-September = 7-9 = cap; June-September = 6-9 = ship, etc.

I probably don't need to remember ‘perennial’ separately for the lifespan, as this applies to most plants. So here I would only need markings for the rarer cases of ‘annual’ and ‘biennial’.

For the location/habitat I don't have a good idea.

But the most difficult thing is the identification features. I really have no idea how to encode them and, above all, how to integrate them into the overall picture in such a way that I can find them all again and that they don't interfere with the flowering time, location etc. pictures/markings.

Another point is that the identification characteristics are based on a dichotomous identification key (a key in which you have to choose between two combinations of characteristics several times in succession). As a result, the identification characteristics are duplicated in the different species. For example, the characteristic combination ‘leaves heart-shaped, clearly serrated, long stalked’ applies equally to the nettle-leaved bellflower and the field bellflower. This means that all three of these characteristics would have to be stored in both the image with the field and the image with the rubbish bin, which would mean storing the same information twice. With a list of 524 total images, this adds up to a lot of junk data. Does anyone know a more skilful method for dichotomous keys that could possibly avoid this duplication?

Here is a simplified version of the key on which the notes above are based (start with 1/1* and see which of these two combinations of characteristics applies, then continue with either 2/2* or 3/3*):

1 All leaves heart-shaped, clearly serrated -> 2

1* Stem leaves narrowly lanceolate to linear, entire to weakly serrated -> 3

2 Flowers 3-5 cm, upright -> Nettle-leaved bellflower

2* flowers 2-3 cm, nodding, in a one-sided raceme -> Field bellflower

3 basal leaves roundish, long stalked -> Round-leaved bellflower

3* Basal leaves narrowly lanceolate, like stem leaves -> 4

4 corolla 2.5 - 4 cm, bell-shaped, shallowly 5-lobed -> Peach-leaved campanula

4* Corolla approx. 2 cm, funnel-shaped, clearly 5-lobed -> 5

5 flowers in a long racemose panicle, bracts at the base -> Rapunzel bellflower

5* flowers in a spreading panicle, bracts in the centre -> Meadow bellflower

If you can only help me in parts, I would be grateful too. I am particularly interested in question 1 (roughly in the middle of my message) and ideas for coding the locations and identification features. Maybe you also have other general tips on what I should consider before learning.

Thanks and best regards

Erik

I'm currently studying laws and administrative procedures, and I'm struggling to memorize the more than 500 deadlines and dates in my notes.

An example of what I'm talking about: The administration must issue an express decision and notify it within 3 months. However, in sanctioning procedures, they must resolve the matter within 10 business days from...

The most common deadlines I have to study are in hours (12, 24, 36,48 and 72) in days (3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60) months (1, 3, 6, 9) and years (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15).

I'm thinking about using mnemonic techniques to help me retain this information, but I'm not sure where to start and right now I keep mixing all the numbers because they feel too similar to me.

Some of the deadlines I need to memorize also include prison sentences for crimes like murder, manslaughter, fraud, and other offenses, as well as time limits related to visa durations, obtaining citizenship, and similar matters.

Please give me some ideas, I've thought about making comparison tables or giving each number a meaning, but can't think of anything.

What is the worst thing about not remembering? mine would be having to pretend to forget something you know you don't want to do

Let me know in the comments.

What is your favourite thing about remebering well? it can be anything.

Hi all,

What do you find the most frustrating about any memory Ebooks you read?

Down in the comments.

I have a couple of anti-nausea drugs whose names I couldn't remember until I came up with mnemonics for them.

• Ondansetron: I think of Santa's reindeer ("On Dancer") plus the movie "Tron."
• Meclizine: I think of a French journalist based in Mecca and publishing for French readers. So "Mec: Le Zine."

I have just recently started putting together a PAO system to memorize card decks mainly to be able to keep track of card games.

To put in some exercise I started shuffling my deck of cards and putting the weird images in my memory “palace”, which, up to now, consists of my flat and a few golf courses. The more I practice, the less space I have left to place the new card deck PAOs. Since this system is so effective (which is amazing!) I do find it very hard to overwrite the same loci with new information as the older images still stick to me so much. I am afraid to mess up and interchange the images by accident.

How do memory athletes or people also trying to keep track of played cards handle this? I don’t want to keep coming up with new places to put the decks into which end up not being needed any more after one memorization/game.

Does anyone employ one? I'd find it really useful day to day as I've been using the phonetic alphabet but it becomes very repetitive for things like product models, post codes, number plates and abbreviations — so I though about some kind of Dominic method — I started that approach and gave up on (too many combos of tricky q/x/z etc) e.g.

• AA - AA Milne
• AB - ABBA
• AC - AC Cobra
• AD - Anno Domini
• etc...

So I thought maybe PAO would be the way so have drawn up a draft — but want to know if I should be using that method or perhaps something else? What I've done so far, is create a set of reusable PAO + animals + foods (being careful not to confuse/reuse any with my PAO number system)

1 = Person/Character, 2 = Action, 3 = Object, 4 = Food, 5 = Animal

A

1. Alf (Alien)
2. Adjust
3. Armchair
4. Avocado
5. Alligator

B

1. Bart Simpson
2. Baste
3. Boot
4. Bacon
5. Bee

etc

So AB-BA would be Alf Basting - Bart's Armchair

BABBA would be Bart Adjusting a Boot made of Bacon with an Alligator

I figure I could easily add an adjective column - like colour or some other descriptive before the animal to get to 6...

Thoughts? Am I reinventing the wheel? Totally impractical in reality?

Hi, i'm a student trying to major in law and art History at the same time. As a result of that, I have a lot of informations to learn.

• How can I learn (french )law with the use of a memory palace ? If it's possible to make my understanding easier, how would it be possible ?

Is here anyone who uses mnemonics for learning foreign language vocabulary? Something like:

chair (English) - la silla (Spanish)
I got up from the chair and said: "see ya!".

Good evening everyone, I would like to know if you have any techniques for memorizing your passwords. For my part, I use a mental palace that I initially created for geography. The content already present serves as a basis for memorizing my passwords, and I also encode numbers associated with the content of each location to complicate them further. And you, do you have a method, any ideas?

1. Basic 26 Letters

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

 2. Greek Alphabet

alpha - ɑ

beta - β

gamma - ɣ

delta - ð

epsilon - ɛ

zeta - ʒ

eta - ɧ

theta - θ

iota - ɾ

kappa - ɤ

lambda - ʎ

mu - ɱ

nu - ŋ

xi - ɜ

omicron - ɵ

pi - ɲrho - ʁ

sigma - ç

tau - it’s lef-”tau”-t

upsilon - ʊ

phi - ɸ

chi - χ

psi - ɰ

omega - ɯ

3. The Other Alphabet

a - æ

b - ɞ

c - ɕ

d - ɒ

e - [see a]

f - ɟ

g - ɘ

h - ħ

i - ɨ

j - ʝ

k - ɮ

l - ɬ

m - ʍ

n - ʌ

o - ø

p - ɶ

q - œ

r - ɹ

s - ʃ

t - ɺ

u - ʉ

v - ʋ

w - ⱱ

x - ɫ

y - ɥ

z - ʑ

4. “Ace”

a c e

ɐ ɔ ə

5. The Four Hooks

ʔ ʡ ʕ ʢ

6. deeznuts_irl

ɖeeʐɳuʈʂ_𝼈ɻɽɭ

7. Hillbilly Ring

ʜɪʟʟʙɪʟʟʏ ʀɪɴɢ

8. A to H without “Ace”

a ɓ c ɖ ᶑ e ʄ ɠ ʛ ɦ

9. “0, 1, 2, 3!”

0 - ʘ

1 - ǀ

2 - ǁ

3 - ǂ

4 - ǃ