Brad Zupp - Mastering Memory: 75 Memory Hacks for Success in School, Work, and Life

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Contents

Im so bad at remembering.

DO YOU OFTEN find yourself walking into rooms and forgetting why youre there? Do you misplace your phone, glasses, or other important items? Do you forget what your friends and family tell you? Do you have difficulty remembering facts and figures? If so, you arent alone; I can relate. I have never had an exceptional memory; I have always had trouble remembering names and numbers. As I got older, my ability to remember things has gotten worseuntil one day I had enough. Can an ordinary guy actually improve his memory? I wondered. I decided to find out.

I researched, read, and experimented with everything from meditation and exercise to taking vitamins and getting more sleep. Some strategies worked; others didnt. But overall the result was that my memory improved! Surprisingly, learning memory strategies was fun. It wasnt like the drudgery of schoolwork and rote memorization that Id expected. I found tools and techniques that were not only easy but enjoyable to use.

Being able to remember more information was so enjoyable that I started to dabble in memory competitions. Yes, there are people in the world who have made memorizing a competitive sportand I became one of them! As in any sport or endeavor, the more I practiced, the better I got. Eventually I was competing at the international level.

At one event I broke the record for the United States that year. The following year, I broke my own record. I could perfectly recall a list of numbers spoken at the rate of one per second for over two minutes. I could also memorize the order of a deck of shuffled playing cards in less than 60 seconds, the order of 1,200 binary digits in 30 minutes, 11.5 decks of playing cards in an hour, 117 names and faces in 15 minutes, and more. Of course, my day-to-day memory improved as well. I remembered more of what my wife said, I did better at work, and I could even remember the names of people I met. My memory was better and my life was, too.

What I found more interesting than my success at these competitions was that almost everyone else I met at these events had a similar story to mine: They were concerned about their poor memories, decided to improve their minds, and... it worked! They were able to train themselves to remember more.

As a memory athlete and coach for thousands of students, from as young as grade three to adults and senior citizens, Ive proven again and again that these techniques work. If you follow the simple steps in this book your memory will improve, too. Each part of this bookhas 25 practical memory hacks. I encourage you to read the book straight through to get the most out of it, because foundational techniques are included with many of the hacks. However, if you have a pressing need, feel free to go directly to that solution.

The techniques are different from the type of rote memorization many of us have used in the past. They may even seem weird, time consuming, or unbelievable. Its common to find a technique strange until you try it. So dont just read this book. Pick a technique and put all your effort into practicing the hackyou might be surprised at how well it works for you! You can have a good memory. Using these techniques will help you work with your mind instead of against it. You can do this! Your memory will improve... and so will your life.

T hese first 25 memory hacks lay the foundation for more complex methods and techniques to come. The techniques in this section are incredibly powerful and will help with many common situations where we struggle to remember. To begin with, as you read through this part, choose one or two hacks that interest you and put them into practice.

MOST PEOPLE THINK that remembering happens during a moment in time: We hear something and then we either remember it or we forget it. But memory is more complicated than that. Remembering anything requires these three essential steps (FAR):

Focus on the information.

Arrange the material in your mind.

Retrieve it when you need it.

To go FAR with your efforts to improve your memory, you need to follow through on all three of these steps. If you skip one, you wont be able to recall what you want to when you need to. The starting place for improving your memory is to identify which of these steps may be tripping you up. Once you have identified your problem area, you will know where you need to concentrate your effort as you work through this book.

THE TECHNIQUE