Effective Memory Strategy

Do you have a good memory? Most people would say ‘no’ immediately if you ask them. If you forget things easily, it is not because you lack of ability to remember, it just you haven’t master the memory strategy. I just learned an effective memory strategy from the book ‘Master Your Mind Design Your Destiny’ by Adam Khoo. Let’s do an exercise taken from this book now!

Take a look at the list below and do your best to remember it in sequence. Give yourself a minute to do so.
1. Eggs
2. Cow
3. Fork
4. Bikini
5. Banana
6. Fan
7. Hair
8. Glucose
9. Policeman
10. Zoo
11. Michael Jackson
12. Ear rings
13. Frisbee
14. Planet
15. Rainbow
16. Numbers
17. Crown
18. Fish balls
19. Clocks
20. Claws

Now do your best to write down as many words as you can remember. So, how many words did you manage to recall in sequence? Most people properly get 7 to 10 words correctly.

Let’s try something new, using your imagination, make a visual image of each word and associate it to the next word in a humorous way. At the same time, say the word out loud!

Use your mind and visualize an egg. Now, imagine that egg cracks and out pops a cow’s head. See that cow has forks on its head. Imagine that the fork is wearing a pink bikini. Suddenly, the bikini drops and bananas are exposed. Imagine that the skin of the banana peels off and becomes fan. The fan blows all your hair away. Your hairs flies and gets glued to a ghost (sound like ‘glucose’). The glue ghost (glucose) chases a policeman into the zoo. Inside the zoo, imagine seeing Michael Jackson wearing ear rings. He then takes the ear rings and throws it like a Frisbee. See the Frisbee spinning around the planet. A rainbow appears. Then see that there are numbers dancing on the rainbows. These numbers then join to make a crown. On the crown you see fish balls which contain small clocks. On the hand of the clock are claws.

Now, do your best to write down as many words as you can remember. If you followed the strategy above, you would able to write down all 20 words in sequence without any problem. This is because you used the strategy people with exceptional memories use whereby they make an image of the word in their mind and then associate the images together in an emotionally outstanding way.