The clock is ticking down. It’s almost midnight and the important semester final is tomorrow. You have to remember ten important facts, in order, and you are having trouble. You can get the first two or three, but the rest are getting scrambled. This grade is really important for your scholarship requirements… so money is on the line.
You remember something about a memory tag system that you read about in a book a while back. You go to your bookshelf and pick up, “The Memory Book,” by Harry Lorayne. It’s chocked full of great memory ideas and you skim the chapters looking for a technique that might work for you.
You find all sorts of interesting ideas and techniques for remembering numerous items, but the peg system in chapter 11 appeals to you. You give it a try and it seems to work. The idea is to tie the things you need to remember in with familiar items that you can quickly relate to a number. You take these items and add action and make a sequence in your mind. The examples in the book list ten different items that rhyme with the number they represent. The items are a little confusing so you come up with your own list of rhyming words. Bun rhymes with one, shoe rhymes with two, tree rhymes with three and on and on. You come up with a complete 10 item list…
Rhyming word list (Each word rhymes with the corresponding number)
- Bun: Visualize the first item being put in a bun
- Shoe: Visualize an association between the 2nd thing and shoes
- Tree: Visualize the third item growing from a tree
- Door: Visualize the 4th item associated with a door
- Hive: Visualize the 5th item associated with a hive or with bees
- Bricks: Visualize the sixth item associated with bricks
- Heaven: Visualize the seventh item associated with heaven
- Plate: Visualize the 8th item on a plate as if it is food
- Sign: Visualize your 9th item on a sign
- Pen: Visualize the 10th item being written with a pen.
For example to remember the following grocery list of 10 items:
- Steak: Picture a steak between two buns
- Eggs: Picture an egg wearing shoes
- Coffee: Picture cans of coffee hanging from a tree
- Bread: Picture a door made from bread
- Catsup: Picture bees flying from a catsup bottle
- Soda: Picture a brick house with soda cans as bricks
- Apples: Imagine apples with angel wings and a halo
- Soap: Picture a bar of soap on a plate
- Dog food: Picture a large sign with dog food advertised on it
- Baby food: Picture a baby writing with a pen on a baby food jar
This technique seems to work for you. You note that the crazier you make each visual the easier it is to remember. You wish there was a way to quickly take this system with you so you could practice on the go. Hmmmm…
Enter the Five Minute Memory Flash Cards System. Ten memory cards that you can print quickly and easily on Avery Business Card Stock. You break them apart and list your memory items on each one. Improving your memory power now becomes much easier as each card has a picture of a rhyming peg of the numbers one through ten. You just write down the items you want to remember one by one on the cards.
Now you can easily lay them out in order on your desk and quickly come up with an action sequence in your mind. Each card has a graphic box where you can list the actions or sketch them out. Since the cards are flexible, you can gather them up and clip them together. They fit easily in pocket or purse so you can take them with you. You can use them as flash memory cards to help you develop a photographic memory of each item.
Each of the cards has a word line and a corresponding box with a number in it. You just write your word on the line and make notes or draw a picture in the corresponding box. Since each card has a number in the background they are easy to put in order. You can lay them out on a table from left to right or from top to bottom.
You peruse the cards like a storyboard, visualizing an action sequence, one card after the other. Once you have formed the action movie in your mind, you can gather up the cards and shuffle the order. You turn them upside down in a stack and draw one at a time. Using them as flash cards gives you a way to test each item to make sure you have trained your short term memory on each one.
The next morning you wake up, review your cards and double check your action. You grab a mini clip and clip the cards together in a stack. You slip them in your pocket and head out the door for school. As you pull in to the school parking lot you sit quietly in your car and review your cards. All 10 things are coming back easily now. You test them out of order and find that the rhyming words make it easy to figure out what number each item should be.. plate equals eight.. etc.As you enter class the teacher hands you a test booklet. The test goes well and when the questions come up about your ten items, you quickly remember the answers. Even the trick question about item seven brings back your memory of heaven. This little card trick has really helped you get a good grade on the exam and now you are assured of more scholarship funding in the future. The few dollars you spent on the business cards seems miniscule now.
Memory Flash Cards Instructions:
- Download the Five Minute Memory Card Template
- Open MS Word and load the template
- Print the template out on Avery Business Card Stock
- Break the cards apart.
- Use a pen to enter your words and details
- Arrange the cards in a storyboard fashion on a table.
- Create an animated sequence in your mind of the actions
- Use the cards as flash cards to test your memory.
- Create advanced techniques to improve your memory power
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