How to Memorize Anything (18 page)

Points to note:

• If you did not get the name first time, don’t hesitate to ask again.
  
• It is not necessary to associate a person’s name only with his facial feature. You can relate it with other things like a person’s manner of speech, speech defects, character, type of walk, clothing style or the kind of work he/she does.
  

9

HIDE-AND-SEEK METHOD

I
n the memory world, this method is known by different names—
loci method, journey method, placement method
,
roman room method,
etc. I like to call it the
hide-and-seek method
because the method is like a hide-and-seek game being played in our mind since it involves firstly hiding information to be memorized at the identified places and then seeking them while recalling from our imagination. This is probably one of the oldest memory techniques, used more than 2,000 years ago by Roman orators to remember the key ideas of their lengthy speeches.

This method can be used not only to memorize points of speeches, but any list of information in sequence, like checklists, shopping lists, long sequences of numbers, lengthy answers, etc. It has many benefits over the chain method which you will under-stand once you learn the technique.

In the ‘
Hide-and-Seek’
method, we choose a familiar location or a route in which we identify or mark some stops or places in a sequence. Then we associate the first item of our list (to be memorized) with the first stop or mark on our route. I call it hiding that item in that particular stop in my imagination. While progressing along the route, we place or hide each item one by one.

For example, if I choose
my drawing room
, then I can decide
some 10 stops in it
in a sequence like this:

1. Lamp Shade

2. Sofa set

3. Window

4. Painting

5. Door

6. Plant

7. LED TV

8. Book Rack

9. Carpet

10. Centre Table

These 10 stops are now my hiding places that I can use to memorize my required information having up to 10 points.

MEMORIZING POINTS OF SPEECH

Do you have the fear of public speaking? If yes, then you are not alone! In fact, it is rated as number one fear of people around the world.

A speech leaves a better impact if the orator presents the points in a flow. Most people prepare for their presentation/speech well and are confident until the time they reach the stage. But once they are up on stage, the situation changes completely.

They become aware of hundreds of eyes looking at them and the fear of forgetting important points seeps in. They usually become quiet or start mumbling, messing up a well-prepared speech. Unfortunately, this leaves a bad impression on their psyche and they feel more tense the next time they face an audience. Luckily, there’s a simple fix. All you need is a little time and the right technique!

Now let’s say I have to memorize a
speech
on ‘
Qualities of a Good Leader’
, and the points to remember are:

• Honest
  
• Disciplined
  
• Healthy
  
• Dedicated
  
• Punctual
  
• Good Communication Skills
  
• Cooperative
  
• Caring
  
• Motivating
  
• Encouraging
  

Now to memorize the above points, just try to visualize them by using the PNN method and then associate these qualities with each of the stops in the drawing room in a sequence. Let’s see how you can do it:

1. Honest:
   Visualize a
   nest
   (honest) on the
   lampshade
   .
   
2. Disciplined: A sofa
   set is loaded with lots of flying discs (disciplined).
   
3. Healthy:
   Packets of
   healthy food like oats
   cereals are hanging from the
   window
   .
   
4. Dedicated:
   I am praising a
   painting
   of
   daddy
   (dedicated) on the wall.
   
5. Punctual:
   I am giving a solid
   punch
   (punctual) to the
   door
   to break it open.
   
6. Good communication skills: A plant
   starts
   communicating
   with me.
   
7. Co-operative:
   An
   operation
   (co-operative) is being done in the
   TV
   show.
   
8. Caring:
   Many toy cars (caring) are placed on the
   book rack.
   
9. Motivating:
   A
   moti
   (fat woman) is weighing herself standing on the
   carpet
   .
   
10. Encouraging:
    An
    anchor
    (encouraging) is standing with a mike on the
    centre table
    .
    

Now after visualizing the points like this, while delivering the speech, just imagine the stops of drawing room sequentially in your mind and the points can be recalled very confidently.

Checking Point:

While visualizing the stops of a drawing room in your mind, try to recall and write all the qualities of good leader in the same sequence in the table given below:

There are many locations, routes, and places in your mind from which you need to look for some hide-and-seek places that you will require to memorize information.

RULES TO IDENTIFY OR CREATE HIDE-AND-SEEK PLACES

While creating the list of ‘
Hide-and-Seek
’ places, remember the following key points:

• The location should be a familiar one, like your own room or house or a familiar route such as the route to your school/office, or a route you take for a shopping mall, etc. It should be a route that never changes and that is already present in your memory.
  
• While making the list of stops in a particular room, take distinct items as stops. For example, don’t take 2 paintings on the same wall or two chairs in the same room as 2 different stops. The hiding places should be unique so that when we try to seek (recall) the information, we should not get confused.
  
• The stops or places must be in a sequence, otherwise we might lose some information while recalling, if we miss any of the stops.
  

Let’s create another
hide-and-seek
route keeping the above points in mind. Suppose following are the stops in sequence when you enter my office building:

1. Gate
   
2. Guard room
   
3. Parking
   
4. Biometric reader
   
5. Reception
   
6. Conference room
   
7. Lift
   
8. Accounts department
   
9. Manager’s room
   
10. Secretary’s room
    
11. My own cubicle
    
12. Cafeteria
    

This is a list of stops in sequence at my office. You can create your own list according to your route.

MEMORIZING ZODIAC SIGNS IN A SEQUENCE

I really had a hard time in my teenage years memorizing all 12 zodiac signs in the right sequence. But now it’s all so easy. You can do it on the first reading. Here is the list of zodiac signs.

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

We will associate each zodiac sign with the above hiding places (of office) using the PNN method:

Though these things are actually not present at these places in reality, you can think as if you have hidden them in these places in your imagination. So whenever you pass a manager’s room it will remind you of him disguised as a sage, which will further remind you of the zodiac sign Sagittarius.

Similarly, when you will visualize the lift in your imagination, a picture of a big library in the lift will come to your mind, which further will remind you of the zodiac sign Libra. As soon as you visualize the next place, i.e. accounts department, you can easily see the scorpions jumping over the accountant’s head in your imagination, which will help you recall that the next zodiac sign is Scorpio.

In this way, when you will visualize your hiding places in office in that particular sequence in your mind, it will help you to recall all 12 zodiac signs in sequence.

MEMORIZING A CHECKLIST

Now, make a sequence of hiding places in any one of your familiar route with at least 10 stops. Name the route first, i.e. the location you chose, and then write 10 places or stops in that route. The route can be the way you take to your school or office or your own house or it can be the route from your house to your office or to a local market, where different shops can serve as hiding places as well.

Repeat it once in your mind.

Now try to remember the following
list of things you require
for checking before going on a vacation.

• Gas and all lights switched off
  
• Tickets
  
• I-cards
  
• Passports
  
• Medicines
  
• Food items
  
• Money
  
• All luggage
  
• Mobile and charger
  
• House keys
  

Now associate your list items one by one with the hiding places in your route and memorize them by visualizing them.

Visualizing your journey
(of hiding places)
, try to recall your checklist.

I am sure you will be able recall the above information using your new journey.

After practicing the above exercises, you can easily remember 10 things by associating them with 10 places in your room or route. But what if you have to memorize a list of 20, 30, or even more words or items? In that case, either you can find more places in the same room or you can use three or more rooms to create a list of 30 or more hiding places if required. You can always add more locations on your route or journey.

I am sure you will be able recall the above information using your new journey.

After practicing the above exercises, you can easily remember 10 things by associating them with 10 places in your room or route. But what if you have to memorize a list of 20, 30, or even more words or items? In that case, either you can find more places in the same room or you can use three or more rooms to create a list of 30 or more hiding places if required. You can always add on locations on your route or journey.

This method is the most reliable one among all memory techniques and is mostly used by memory champions all over the world.

I also made my
national record of memorizing 210 binary digits
in just 146 seconds using this technique along with the number peg system that we will discuss in the following chapters.

One of my students,
Ekta,
also made a
national record of memorizing 507 words
in a sequence after hearing them just once using this technique.

BENEFITS OF THE HIDE-AND-SEEK METHOD

• The beauty of this method is that you can have unlimited hiding places using which you can memorize unlimited amount of information. You can create new hiding places wherever you go on a daily basis.
  
• This method scores more over other methods as even if you are not able to recall information on any one of the stops, you can still continue recalling from the next stop. The sequence is not disturbed.
  

C
HAPTER AT A GLANCE