Be Amazed at What You Can Do

Impress Your Friends

Using the phonetic alphabet and linking your images together, you can easily memorize PI to 100 digits.

3.141592653
 5897932384
 6264338327
 9502884197
 1693993751
 0582097494
 4592307816
 4062862089
 9862803482
 5342117067

Linkwords I Used

matter, tall-ape, hinge, lime, love-bug, bombin’ mover, chain, jar, mummy, foamin’ cables, knife, fart, booked ship, mob, bomb-killed, sail, fans, poker, beer, rail, piano, moose, gift, shares, chain, fishin’, save pipe, fishin’, vase, marvin, lemur, window, dogs, check

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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Q & A

In today’s post, I want to give you a chance to ask anything you like about the topic of memory improvement. I’m not an expert, but I’ve spent a lot of time studying memory tricks and I know where to go for answers, so throw it at me! Here are some ideas to get you started:

• What do you have trouble remembering?
• Are you looking for a specific mnemonic device to help you recall something?
• Do you have questions about any of the tips I’ve posted this month?
• Do you think it’s all a waste of time since we have computers to remember for us?
• Have a story or link you want to share?
• Want to share your own memory tricks you’ve used?

Let me know by posting a comment. If I get some good comments I’ll feature them in another article so put your URL if you want a link back to your site.

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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Mr. Jon Keith, The Memory Trainer, on remembering names and faces.

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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The Keys to Our Digital Lives

You probably have to use passwords to access at least half a dozen systems on a regular basis. I entered a password to log into my desktop at home. Then I had to enter a password to access WordPress and enter the text of this article. I have passwords to check email, view bank account information, upload photos to flickr, manage my 401K, read RSS feeds, and on and on. When I go to work in the morning I will have to enter yet another password that I’m forced to update regularly for security purposes.

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The English language is full of words that are tricky to spell. Simple mnemonics can help you remember once and for all how to spell that devilish word that constantly trips you up. YourDictionary.com has a list of 100 Commonly Misspelled Words along with a simple mnemonic device to help you recall the correct spelling. Here’s an example:

restaurant - ‘Ey, you! Remember, these two words when you spell “restaurant.” They are in the middle of it.

How many of these do you struggle to spell?

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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The Problem

You’ve got some URL you want to remember but it’s insanely long. You’d like it to be something you not only can easily remember but also give to someone audibly in a few seconds. How quickly do you think you could memorize this one?

http://amazon.com/gp/product/1569246297/ref=s9_flash_asin_
image_3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=
15BSYX6FJBH9KENYXC3C&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=292859101&pf
_rd_i=507846

There are plenty of services for reducing the length of a URL, but they often are not all that memorable themselves. http://tinyurl.com/2cg7e6 is certainly easier to remember than the above, but “2cg7e6″ is still a seemingly random string of alphanumerics.

The Solution

Try memurl. You enter the URL and it produces a shortened version that will redirect to the original long URL. In addition to shortening the length, memurl produces something that is actually remarkably easy to remember. For example:

http://memurl.com/suromi

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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If you haven’t quite mastered the phonetic alphabet system for remembering numbers, here’s another method that might work for you. Go to PhoneSpell and enter your phone number. The service will generate interesting word combinations that your phone number spells based on the letters found on the phone dialing buttons. One of my old phone numbers generated these combinations:

seven-letter mnemonics:

mig-fur-a oh-get-pa oh-gets-a 6-gift-pa 6-gifts-a oh-I-fur-a
oh-he-up-a oh-he-us-a oh-id-up-a oh-id-us-a oh-if-up-a oh-if-us-a
6-I-get-pa 6-I-gets-a 6-hi-fur-a 6-hid-up-a 6-hid-us-a 6-I-I-fur-a
6-I-he-up-a 6-I-he-us-a 6-I-id-up-a 6-I-id-us-a 6-I-if-up-a 6-I-if-us-a

eight-letter mnemonics by adding an extra digit to the end:

oh-he-trag oh-he-tram oh-he-trap oh-he-tray oh-he-tsar oh-id-trag
oh-id-tram oh-id-trap oh-id-tray oh-id-tsar oh-if-trag oh-if-tram
oh-if-trap oh-if-tray oh-if-tsar 6-hid-trag 6-hid-tram 6-hid-trap
6-hid-tray 6-hid-tsar 6-I-he-trag 6-I-he-tram 6-I-he-trap 6-I-he-tray
6-I-he-tsar 6-I-id-trag 6-I-id-tram 6-I-id-trap 6-I-id-tray 6-I-id-tsar
6-I-if-trag 6-I-if-tram 6-I-if-trap 6-I-if-tray 6-I-if-tsar

Nothing super catchy, but I’m sure I could remember “6-hid-trap” easier than 644-3872.

Incidentally, using the phonetic code, you could remember that number as “chair ram fig hen” or “cheerier muff gun” or “shearer move can,” etc.

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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I’m tired, so this is going to be a short post. This one goes out to all those medical school students out there. Medical Mnemonics maintains a database of tips for memorizing all aspects of medicine from anatomy to urology.

An Example: When to Hospitalize a Pnemonia Patient

ABCD:
Age greater than 60
Blood urea greater than 7 mmol/l
Confusion
Diastolic BP less than 60 mmHg

Hospitalise the pneumonia patient if 2 or more of these criteria are met.

Memory Month Introduction & Table of Contents

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photo by ralphunden

A System for Remembering Playing Cards

How would you like to be able to memorize the order of a pack of cards? You will also be able to recall the exact position of any card in the deck. This doesn’t have any real practical application that I’m aware of, but it makes a terrific stunt. And the system could be applied to just about any game in which knowing what cards have fallen is advantageous. The system is simple enough, but requires a fair amount of practice and dedication in order to master it.

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It’s easier than you might think to calculate the day of the week for a date from September 14th, 1752 (the day the Gregorian calendar was made official in America and England) to the indefinite future.

The days of the week are numbered as follows:

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