A Templeton Finn Coaching Article:

VISUALISATION FOR EXCEPTIONAL MEMORY

Remember this list of words in the correct order:

Watch, snake, gun, toad, water, motorbike, tree, parrot, football.

Not that easy or interesting?

Now imagine you are lying in bed about to get up and start your normal morning routine...

You reach over to grab your watch from your bedside table but your hand brushes against something that moves! Aarghh!

You feel something muscular coiling quickly around your arm. You look over and a robust-looking snake has wrapped itself around your forearm.

Your partner yells, grabs a gun from the other bedside table and shoots at the snake.

You are a calm individual so you tell your partner to cool off and gently remove the snake so you can get out of bed.

As your foot touches the ground, you feel something soft under it.

Somewhat unsettled by the snake incident, you snatch your foot back in alarm and when you look down, there is an large annoyed-looking toad on the floor. What's more, the rest of the bedroom floor is covered in water. (It's a very odd morning!)

Never fear, your partner says I have my motorbike in the bedroom we can ride through the water.

You are an adventurous soul and no longer surprised by anything so the two of you get on the motorbike and ride out on to your landing.

You are stopped short by a huge tree growing up the stairs, and in the tree is a big white parrot, shouting "Do you want to play Football?"

Your brain remembers visual images

You might not find the above story works well for you, but for the vast majority of people, using visual imagary massively improves recall.

For some people, you also need to incorporate sounds and/or feelings to make the ideas really memorable.

These are the techniques used by the world memory champions and the people who get evicted from casinos.

For more information see our article Top Tips for effective learning and any of the books by Dominic O'Brien.