7 Ways To Make Your Memory Swiss Army Knife Sharp
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In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn the 7 best ways to make your memory sharper than a .
, in case you’ve never seen the show, is a secret agent with a background in science. He’s always building bombs and troubleshooting problems.
His favorite tools?
Duct-tape and a Swiss Army Knife.
He also had a cool boss who was also his best friend.
How many secret agents can say that?
But what has MacGuyver got to do with the Magnetic Memory Method?
A lot, actually. Â
When you use the Magnetic Memory Method, you’re transforming your mind into a Swiss Army knife and duct-tape at the same time.
Your mental Swiss Army knife extends just the right associative imagery at the right time. And your mental duct-tape (your Memory Palaces) makes those images stick.
They stick for as long as you want to keep the information memorized.
And there are a lot of tools that go along with it.
Here are just 8 of those tools in your Swiss Army knife-brain that you might not have spent enough time on yet.
Listen to this episode of The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and read the following to learn how.
1. Sensory
Whether you’re building your Memory Palaces or filling them, it’s important to be aware of your five senses.
The more of the main senses you activate when working on your language learning goals, the easier it will be to recall your vocabulary.
2. Intensity
Your mind has the amazing ability to make its contents more vibrant, hilarious, and strange. This will help you memorize and recall information.
And it’s easy to do. You need only focus on the associative-imagery you’ve created and then amplify it. Make it even more colorful, large, vibrant and strange.
 3. Distinction
This point relates to intensity. But the difference here is that you focus on differentiating the images in your mind.
One way to do this is to focus on the borders of the images you create.
For example, let’s say my image has Fred Flintstone kissing a frog in a tutu. I can make the image more outstanding by taking a few seconds to really see the edges of the image and strengthen them.
You can pretend that you are tracing over them with a black marker like you might do in a coloring book if it helps.
It’s kind of a weird thing to do, but once you try it, you’ll find that your images are at least 10x more memorable. All because you’ve focused on making them distinct.
It doesn’t have to be black lines either.
Try silver, gold, red, the color of duct-tape � any color will do.
4. Emotion
Believe it or not, there’s a little pea in your brain called the amygdala. It deals with emotional content, both positive and negative, and �
You can hack it.
Just by presenting it with crazy imagery.
This works because the amygdala is designed to sense emotions and literally scream, “pay attention to this! It’s important!�
And so you can supercharge your associative images, and the Memory Palaces themselves, by giving them strong emotional elements.
5. Survivalist impulses
Our brains come with some heavy duty wiring to ensure that we have the necessary drive to survive.
And it’s not just a physical thing. We need to survive � and thrive � emotionally, mentally, financially, nutritionally, etc.
In other words, if you want your memory to work better, make sure you’re well-fed, well-watered and well-rested.
6. Personal connections
I’ve had some people tell me that their life histories interfere with their Memory Palace language learning work.
I find this surprising, because I think it would be just the opposite.
Part of the mnemonic principle that underlies the Magnetic Memory system is association. Normally associations to things that you’re already familiar. Things that need zero memorization (because they’re already in memory).
To each a zone, of course, but do experiment with increasing the personal importance of the images you use. It will make everything more memorable.
And it only stands to reason that your favorite TV shows, actors, musicians and movies are personal connections that you can draw upon with ease. It doesn’t just have to be family and friends.
7. Repetition
A lot of people have told me that because I’m against rote learning, I’m against repetition.
This is absolutely not the case.
There’s smart, useful and results producing repetition that takes less time and effort. Like using Memory Palaces and the Method of Loci in your work with mnemonics.
And then there’s the other kind.
I call this the ..
Blunt Force Hammer Of Rote Learning
The fact of the matter is that the Magnetic Memory Method lets you recall on demand based on associative imagery.
But you perform the repetitions based on what you’ve memorized, not as an attempt to memorize in the first place.
Sounds like a winning formula to me.
That’s all for this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method, dear Memorizers.
Until next time, get out the duct-tape and then teach someone else what you’ve learned about Memory Palaces.
Teaching a skill is one of the best ways to learn it and helping people improve their memory is one of the best ways we can make the world a better place.
The more we remember, the more we can remember. And the more we learn, the more we can learn.
And if you want to learn more, then feel free to check out the .
