Bill Riddell

The Memory Secret

Want to know a little secret to help you remember peoples names, phone numbers and the capital of Uruguay?

This idea was taught to me by two of my favorite teachers. To me their is little doubt that this secret is the reason why I did so well in their classes and years later can still recall what they taught me with ease.

That secret was the number eight, yes ‘8′.

Quite simply to ensure the information you want to remember stays in your brain, just repeat the information 8 times. Simple reinforcement.

But were going to take things a little beyond that, to make this secret really work at its optimum you need to be aware of the different ways we learn and retain information.

The primary ways that we input and re-fresh knowledge are by Writing, reading/seeing, hearing, speaking and visualizing.

Next you need to understand that everyone has their own optimum way of learning.

You may notice you recall things you have read in a book, newspaper or a blog far better than when you hear the same message in a speech, conversation or on the radio.

Or perhaps if you say out loud the message in a speech or while discussing it with a friend your recall is greater than if you had written the message as a note, email or blog post.

I initially relied largely on writing and reading to store new things in memory. However over the last few years I have improved in the other methods and believe that using a mix of thos primary ways is the best solution.

Now lets put this secret to work with an example - to remember someones name.

Imagine you meet Anna in a coffee shop and count through the 8 steps to make sure you remember her name.

1. She introduces her self by name, you hear it.

2. You say her name back to her, “So tell me Anna, what do you do for fun?”

3. You ask her number and write Anna in the entry of your phone book.

4. Say “it was nice to meet you Anna…” as you part ways, again repeating her name back to her (people love hearing there own name, it wont seem annoying).

5 & 6. Later that night, run back over what happened during the day, including meeting Anna, visualize her and say her name.

7 & 8. Call her a few days later to arrange coffee, say her name and again visualize her.

By following those steps you will remember her name and also be able to ‘put a name to the face’ by visualizing.

This simple act of repeating the information you want to remember 8 times will greatly improve your recall.

**Bonus Round**

I found this great article by 8 times World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien that will give you some more tips on how to further improve your memory.

Yesterday I was one of 8 million people to set a world record for most software downloads in a day. Setting a world record is one of my goals, however I don’t think sharing it with 8 million other really counts.

Ohh, the capital of Uruguay is Montevideo. More importantlly, how many times did I include that special number 8 in this post? Yes, I repeated the basic message 10 times so you would recall its importance - I bet you dont forgt this lesson in a hurry.

Tags: 8, advice, memory, memory secret, recall