Hameister said:
Holy mackerel, after reading that wall of text, I think I'll just keep asking my wife to remind me of things.
I agree it does seem like a lot when written down, but it has helped me immensely. For instance over the past few months I've used it to keep track of the date. Before I would have looked at a watch or my phone, and tbh it was never really a problem. The only difference now is that I can recall the date instantly.
Anyway, before I go on to my next technique I would like to show anyone that's reading this (probably massive) post that you may have a better memory than you think you do.
Here's a list of 20 random objects and words, but before reading them I want you to give yourself a minute to read them. After that minute, go and write down as many as you can remember on a bit of paper:
1-Telephone
2-Sausage
3-Monkey
4-Button
5-Book
6-Cabbage
7-Glass
8-Mouse
9-Stomach
10-Cardboard
11-Ferry
12-Christmas
13-Athlete
14-Key
15-Wigwam
16-Baby
17-Kiwi
18-Bed
19-Paintbrush
20-Walnut
What did you get? I'm willing to guess that you didn't get many, but if you did then the rest of this post may not be as helpful for you.
Before you read on, make sure you have enough time to read the rest of this. It isn't something which can just be skimmed through.
Here's the method I'm about to teach you in a nutshell: take each word and find a visual link with the word next to it. The picture however, must meet a certain criteria:
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It should be vivid, so take a moment to imagine it. If it is amusing, look at it and find it funny. If it is disgusting, actually find it repulsive.
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The elements of each picture should interact.
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The picture should be unusual. For example, when linking a man to a cup, don't imagine the man drinking form the cup, but rather a man being trapped inside a giant cup trying to escape before the tea is poured in.
Now lets do the same for our list. This is the section which cannot be rushed through, otherwise you'll have to read it again. You don't need to read them all at once though, you could read through the first 5 or 10 if you don't have the time (or patience) to read them all.
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Telephone/Sausage - Trying to dial an old fashioned phone with a wet, uncooked sausage. It feels revolting and cold to your fingers and is completely impractical to work the dial
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Sausage/Monkey - Watching footage of a wildlife documentary of a monkey, in a jungle, cooking a sausage over a barbecue. These monkeys are very rare and it's the first time they've been captured on film (Sir David Attenborough narration optional)
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Monkey/Button -You no longer need to spend your valuable time doing up buttons, as you now have a trained monkey to do that for you. Mind you, you still need to stand there in your socks while he does up the buttons with his little fingers
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Button/Book - A book entirely about buttons, and in order to open it you must unfasten a line of buttons down the side, varying in size, shape and colour. Hugely impractical marketing gimmick which soon becomes really irritating
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Book/Cabbage - Opening up your favourite book to have a quick read, only to find that the pages have leaves of rotten, stinking cabbage stuck to them. The stench is terrible and the pages are ruined.
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Cabbage/Glass - A beautiful but enormous cabbage, realistically designed out of glass. The artist is proudly showing it off, 'pinging' it with his finger. Personally you think that it's ridiculous and ugly
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Glass/Mouse - You go to drink a glass of wine, but find the wine has gone and there's a mouse in the glass. It's clearly drunk and is wearing a party hat, while slowly hiccuping bubbles
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Mouse/Stomach - Unfortunately I can only picture one image: A stomach full of squeaking mice which then stream out of your navel like the rats out of Hamelin.
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Stomach/Cardboard - A pregnant lady, covering her stomach with cardboard from old cardboard boxes. Taping it around her until she is enormous: now she feels safe
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Cardboard/Ferry - Image of a big P&O ferry sinking into the sea due to a spectacularly misjudged attempt to save money: the entire boat was made of cardboard. As the ship sinks people try to escape on the life boats, only to find that they are made of paper.
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Ferry/Christmas - A little ferry sitting atop a Christmas tree. Perhaps some fishing lines to replace tinsel and some fish inspired bobbles too
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Christmas/Athlete - It's you and all your family you would usually spend Christmas with, running round a race track in the snow, wearing part hats, trying to beat Kelly Holmes to the finish line. Your nan is doing superbly well, giving the double gold winner a run for her money
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Athlete/Key - The winning athlete is given a four foot long golden key on a ribbon as their prize. They try to hold it up to show the audience but its extremely heavy: they wish they could just have been given a regular medal instead
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Key/Wigwam - A key hangs unnoticed from the headgear of a Native American Indian who is unable to get into his wigwam to go to the loo. Hugely frustrating for him: you can picture him quickly going all red-faced while the key glints in the sunlight.
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Wigwam/Baby - Latest New Age fad: Put your baby to sleep every night in a wigwam, dream-catcher included. Imagine a giant baby asleep inside, snoring, making the sides of the the wigwam suck in and blow out.
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Baby/Kiwi - A baby shoving a green furry kiwi fruit into its mouth. One after another. A huge pile of them, waiting to be eaten. He loves kiwis, regardless of the kiwi vomit he's throwing up.
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Kiwi/Bed - Tucking a little kiwi in for the night in a king sized bed. You read it the story of the Little Kiwi until it falls asleep
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Bed/Paintbrush - You've just decorated your room, but your bed no longer matches. Rather than buying new covers however, you decide just to paint them the same as the walls. Sloshing paint over your bed, watching it go hard and uncomfortable.
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Paintbrush/Walnut - You love walnuts, but its a shame you don't own a nutcracker: so how are you going to eat it? By smashing it open with a paintbrush of course. Trouble is that your using the brush end and paint is flying everywhere. It's a real mess, but you really want that walnut.
Now that you've (hopefully) read all of that, go through the list in your head, starting at telephone. You'll find that the images will come to your head quite easily and you should be able to list most of them in order. If you can do that, try going through the list backwards. You'll find that that is just as easy. Also, try remembering the list at some point tomorrow, if you've spent enough time on each picture then you'll still remember it.
NB: Anyone who has read this deserves a four foot long golden key (see what I did there?
). That took for ages to write, but I hope you found it useful.
Edit - I sure am glad there isn't a limit on the number of characters you're allowed to post XD
