Memory Techniques-Secrets of memory champions

The Memory Palace

 At the World Memory Championships, top competitors memorize the order of 20 shuffled decks of cards in an hour and more than 500 random digits in 15 minutes, among other events. Think you have what it takes? Believe it or not, almost everybody has the capability to perform such amazing feats. Competitive people who memorize don’t necessarily have “better memories" than the rest of us; instead, they learn and perfect a variety of mnemonics (memory aids) to improve their ability to quickly learn and recall just about anything. One of the most useful and widely used mnemonics is the memory palace, a place or series of places in your mind where you can store information that you need to remember. With time and practice, anyone can build a memory palace, and they are useful for far more than just memory competitions and trivia. Here’s how to build your own:

Basically the idea is simple, first, envision a place that you know well, your house, or grandma's house, etc. Create the route you are going to go through within the house, and give yourself weird pictures to remember it better. 

Presidents of the United States

For instance, if you want to memorize the Presidents of the United States in order, first, envision Washington chopping down a cherry tree at your front door, then John Adams shaking hands with Thomas Jefferson etc. This works best with rote memorization of items, such as presidents, shopping lists, digits of pi, etc. However, you can also use it to help you learn formulas for math, phrases for languages, etc. etc. 

It takes a TON of preparation to actually perfect this and use it to advantage (usually around a year), but believe me, once you get good at it, it's a skill you can use for a lifetime. 

The Method of Loci

Final Thoughts:

You can use these tips to remember the presidents, a grocery list, or even a phone number. These are helpful tools when you're in the stock market, allowing you to memorize patterns and charts. Hope this article helped, Chao.