Russell Roberts - 10 Days to a Sharper Memory

WARNER BOOKS EDITION

Copyright 2001 by Philip Lief Group Inc.

All rights reserved.

Warner Books, Inc.

Hachette Book Group,

237 Park Avenue,

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: September 2009

ISBN: 978-0-446-56475-5

Also by The Princeton Language Institute

21st Century Dictionary of Quotations

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Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus

Every book is a collaborative effort. I'd like to thank Jamie Saxon and Eileen Koutnik of The Philip Lief Group for their guidance and life-saving editing skills; my wife, Patti, for helping me when things seemed impossible; and my daughter, Megan, for her constant reassurance that yes, I would get this done on time.

Do you have a bad memory? Do you consistently forget appointments, addresses, directions, names, and a multitude of other things? Do you constantly misplace keys, glasses, important papers even the remote control for the TV? Is your forgetfulness having a negative impact on both your personal and professional life?

Would you like to stop forgettingand start remembering?

If the answer to some or all of these questions is yes, then you've come to the right place. 10 Days to a Sharper Memory helps turn you from absentminded and forgetful into a Memory Marvel. Unless impaired by illness or injury, a poor memory is often the result of inadequate listening skills, inefficient attention spans, and other long-ingrained bad habits. This means that your so-called bad memory can be improvedall you need are the right tools.

10 Days to a Sharper Memory introduces and explains classic memory-improving techniques, such as visualization, linking, and pegging, and then shows you how to apply them to all kinds of everyday situations, such as how to remember names and faces in a professional setting. The book also offers lifestyle tips, such as how sleep and diet affect your memory, and provides fascinating insights into the latest research as to how memory works.

Taking a step-by-step approach, 10 Days to a Sharper Memory banishes those bad habits by showing you how to unlock the hidden power of your memory through the use of a variety of memory tools. Each day builds on the lessons and information presented in the previous day, so there is a cumulative effect in which you steadily increase your knowledge and memory tool proficiency.

So if you're tired of getting the cold shoulder from your wife and kids because you always forget their birthdays, or if you have a hard time remembering the names of people in a large group, then let 10 Days to a Sharper Memory show you how to stop hiding from the worldand start living up to your full potential.

The Basic Tools of Memory

E veryone can use a better memory. Each day you're called upon to remember countless pieces of information, from where you left your wallet in the morning to a business associate's name to the key points of a report you're going to present to a new client.

Improving your memory reaps benefits in your professional, social, and personal life. Here are just a few of those benefits:

• Increase your personal success. Imagine how great it would be if you could recall facts, figures, and other important information needed at work at the drop of a hat, or rattle off financial figures from the company's last quarterly report.
• Become more successful socially. Just think, no more calling people buddy, honey, kid, or sweetheart. Remember the name of virtually everyone you meet, even in large groups.
• Become more reliable. How would it feel to remember to bring the cranberry sauce to your mother's house for Thanksgiving dinner, rather than having to tell your mom you forgotagain. Be the one who remembers important dates, deadlines, and other information others forget.
• Save time. You actually arrive at work on time, rather than thirty minutes late, because you didn't have to spend all that time searching for your car keys. You become more efficient at work, because you don't waste time trying to remember tasks, facts, details, or paperwork.
• Learn new material quickly. With a better memory, that thick report or course textbook becomes putty in your hands, rather than a pillow for your head.

Take the following yes or no quiz to get an accurate gauge of your memory skills:

1. Do you hit your steering wheel on the drive home from work because you forgot to make a key telephone call or to follow up with your manager on essential information she was expecting from you?
2. Do you automatically greet your spouse at the end of each day with the words I'm sorry, I forgot to _____?
3. Do you enlist others to help you find your keys, wallet, sunglasses, and numerous other items throughout the day?
4. Do you go through each day with the horrible feeling that you've forgotten something?
5. Do you go to the grocery store to buy milk, bread, and cheese, only to come back with soda, spaghetti, and ice cream? (Bonus points for buying ice cream; that's never wrong.)
6. Have you ever gone into a room to get something, only to forget what it is, and then tried to retrace your steps, only to forget where you just were?

If you answered yes to more than one of these questions, your memory needs work.

The good news is that you don't have to be forgetful. Unlike your shoe size or height, a bad memory is not something you're born with and can't change. Unless illness or injury has affected it, you can improve your memory through trainingand even have some fun along the way. By learning new behaviors and techniques, you can remember better. It's as simple as that.

Before you shake your head and say you've had a bad memory all your life and nothing can change that, consider that improving your memory hinges on just four core concepts: association, visualization, imagination, and organization. These are the building blocks of memory training. Although each is covered in greater detail in subsequent chapters, I'll introduce them briefly now so you can start thinking about them. They are the basic tools to a sharper memory for you.

• Association. The ability to link something that you already know with information that you need to remember. For example, taking the first letters of each of your co-workers' first names and arranging them into a common word, such as PINK (Paul, Ingrid, Nick, and Kelly).
• Visualization. The ability to summon a vivid, colorful picture in your mind's eye. If you need to remember to go to your hair-cutting appointment, think of Marge Simpson's huge column of blue hair stuck under a styling dryer.
• Imagination. The ability to let your mind roam free, thus enabling it to make outrageous associations (yes, the more outrageous the better), distinct visualizations, and a variety of other aids to help memorization. Say you have to buy spaghetti, chicken, and fresh basil at the grocery store; to jog your memory, think of the strands of spaghetti fighting the chickens in an epic battle, using the basil leaves as weapons.
• Organization. The ability to logically and systematically categorize information in your mind's eye. If you have trouble remembering errands, appointments, and so on, simply writing this information down in an everyday planner goes a long way toward helping your memory. But there are also ways to do this mentally.