We know for a fact that most of you occasionally forget simple things, whether it’s the name
of people you’ve been introduced to or when you’re asked the capital city of a country
and even though you know the answer it just won’t come to you.
Or what about when someone gives you a set of numbers to remember, you walk away, and
then it’s gone.
Well, today we’re going to give you some tips on how you might remember things better.
We’ll give you a little test at the end to see if it worked.
Ok, so who’s been asked the capital city of a country and although you know you’ve
heard it before you’ve just forgotten?
You might have forgotten it because you haven’t associated that city with something else.
To remember stuff we often require a visual cue for it to stick.
A word is easy to forget, but not when it comes with a picture.
Ok, so imagine your life depended on it, and some sadistic fella who’s obsessed with
capital cities has a gun to your head and he asks you the capitals of these following
countries.
If you get one wrong it’s game over for you.
The countries are: Angola, Estonia, Fiji, Qatar and Ukraine.
Who already knows the answers to all of these?
We are guessing most of you don’t know them all.
If you do, give yourself a pat on the back and relax.
The capital of Angola is Luanda.
The capital of Estonia is Tallinn.
The capital of Fiji is Suva.
The capital of Qatar is Doha.
The capital of Ukraine is Kiev.
Yep, these are not capitals you might talk about every day, so no one expects you to
know them all.
The way you’d usually memorize these is just by looking at the words and hoping they’ll
come back to you later, but with a gun to your head that method, for want of a better
expression, sucks.
You have to visualize something that reminds you of the answer, so when someone says Angola
you have to imagine a picture in your head.
We can give you some examples.
Ok, Luanda.
That’s a strange word and it may not be related to anything you know of.
But did you know some Brits might call the bathroom, or restroom, the loo?
So, with this word you have loo-and-her.
It’s a picture of a woman sat on the toilet bowl.
When you think of Angola you are going to see this woman in the bathroom.
You are going to remember this woman is British.
Woman on the toilet equals Loo-and-her, or Luanda.
You can come up with your own visual cues, but whatever you do this is a great way to
remember stuff fast.
Try it for a test if you’re still at school or university.
For Tallinn in Estonia you could imagine a really tall guy in a pub, because an old word
for pub is inn.
Estonia equals some guy at a bar who is very tall.
Tallinn.
For Suva think of something very soothing, like a back massage.
When in Fiji’s capital you like to get a massage, because it’s called Suva.
Qatar is easy, just think of Homer Simpson.
What does he like to say?
You got it, “Doh!”
A picture of Homer should come to you when we say Qatar.
Homer equals Doha.
As for Ukraine, we are sure you’ve eaten a chicken Kiev in your life.
Ukraine equals chicken in breadcrumbs with some garlic sauce.
Kiev.
Don’t try and just remember words, give them associations and images.
Ok next.
We are going to talk about names, because who gets introduced to a group of people then
immediately forgets the names of everyone?
It can be embarrassing.
To remember names one thing you should do is focus on one feature of that person.
Now we’ll show you five people:
Here is Bill, John, Liz, Oliver and Sharon.
Now look at Bill.
He’s the only one wearing glasses.
Bill wears glasses, and he has beady eyes behind them.
That’s Bill.
John, he has a small scar on his forehead.
You imagine he fell out of a tree.
John is clumsy and he has a scar.
Liz, easy, she is really tall and thin.
Oliver has a mean face and never smiles.
He looks angry, unfriendly, you are not sure about Oliver at all.
Sharon has dimples.
She looks like a hamster, a cute hamster, and that’s how you know Sharon.
Moving on.
Let’s say someone gives you a number to remember.
It might be a phone number or a password.
Let’s say the number is 7814921945.
That’s quite a lot to remember in its whole.
But if you break it down it becomes easier to remember.
You can create something called a word tree.
On the bottom branches there are the numbers 781, and on the next level there are the numbers
492 and on the top level there are the numbers 1945.
Now, you’ll need this password ‘cos your staying at your friends house and you want
to be online.
You have no phone on you and you can’t write it down.
You need this tree.
The last part is the year the second world war ended, so you know you won’t forget
that.
WW2 ended in 1945, that is stuck in your head.
Now you just need to remember the other parts.
Say to yourself, “781 is on the lower branches.”
Say to yourself, “492 on the middle branches.”
So, you have 781 and 492 and the year when WW2 ended which is 1945.
If that is still too hard you can convert numbers to words.
So, you know the last part of the number is the date world war two ended, but what about
781?
If we take A as 1 and so on, 7 must be G and 8 must be H and as you know one is A. That’s
GHA.
That’s on the lower branch.
You can make a phrase out of that, such as Girls Have Antlers.
Imagine that, if all girls had antlers.
You can put this image of a girl with antlers on your bottom run of the tree.
As for 492, alphabetically we have DIB.
Hmm, what can we make of that?
What about Devil Is Bad?
On your second rung of the tree you have a bad devil.
Now you have girls have antlers, devil is bad and the end of the second world war which
is…do you remember?....1945.
Alternatively you could also try and remember GHA and DIB.
GHA is something babies say and DIB is when you informally reserve something.
Now we bet you don’t remember the full number, but we also think if you look at your tree
in your mind you’ll get it.
You can also use what are called mnemonics, which are kind of hacks to remember something.
Who not from North America can tell us what the names of all the Great Lakes are?
Maybe even in North America some folks don’t know.
The answer is Ontario, Michigan, Huron, Superior and Erie.
Will you remember that forever?
We doubt it.
But what if you make the initials an acronym, meaning an abbreviation that makes another
word.
You know what you can make of these initials?
Think about that for a second…
You can make H.O.M.E.S.
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.
Every time you think of the great lakes you think of the word HOMES.
This will help.
Right, now we are going to distract you a bit by showing you a clip of a monkey on a
bicycle chasing a polar bear down the street to the sound of music.
Did you enjoy that?
Ok, so here’s the test?
What is the capital city of Angola?
…. Need a clue?
British toilet?
…. What about Estonia?
….. Clue: pub
…. Fiji?
…. Clue, massage.
….. Qatar?
….. Clue, Homer Simpson.
…. Ukraine?
…. Clue, chicken.
…. Did you get them all?
Next.
Here are the five people we introduced you to.
What are their names?
…. And that phone number, what is it.
Remember your tree and what you put on the branches.
Do you remember girls and devils and WW2?
…. Lastly, what are the names of the great lakes?
Remember the word you formed, the acronym?
To be fair, that’s a lot of stuff to remember in one go, so we might have overloaded you
there.
You get the picture, though, these are great ways to remember things fast?
How well did you do on the test?
What other tricks do you have for remembering things?
Tell us in the comments.
Now go watch “How To Lucid Dream in Your Sleep In 3 Minutes.”
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.