Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0349: Using triggers to remember everything at the right time

Episode Date: July 9, 2015

I talk about using the “trigger” concept to make sure that you can remember things at the right time. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit:��Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 349. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Jonathan submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Jonathan says, Hi Timothy, I'm really enjoying your podcasts, tutorials, and the potential to learn facts, languages, and poetry, etc.

However, I have a more mundane issue with memory that maybe you can advise me on. Basically, both at home and at work, I'm often told things I mean and need to remember, but just forget. I know it sounds strange, but it seems I can hear an instruction, for example, don't say who, say whom, but 20 minutes or so later, I will still make the same mistake despite trying to remember it. My mind seems to just let it slip even though I consciously know I should remember it. This has been an issue with me throughout my life with people having often to repeat instructions to me unless I'm very vigilant in recording the instruction in some way and regularly reviewing it. However, this takes a lot of energy, and I don't always even remember to do this to record what I need to remember. This has led to accusations of me in the past

lacking common sense as I don't easily remember things despite having been just told them, often multiple times. In the past, it was bearable, but for my current job, my new manager has noticed. They're sympathetic, but even so, I would like to make improvement and would really welcome any advice you can offer. So Jonathan, you're not unique in this. I think that all of us have this issue to some extent, and it's very, very common. Really, the issue isn't so much a memory issue as a trigger issue. So this isn't really a memorization question, because if you were asked, should you say who or whom there, you would be able to remember, I should say whom. Or if someone stopped you in the road and said, what are you picking up on the

way home? You would be able to remember, oh yeah, I'm picking up the bacon. So it's in your memory, but the fact is nobody's stopping you and saying that thing, so there's no trigger for you actually to pull out that thing that is in your memory. You can even remember something and then review it several times and just know it by heart, but when the time comes for you to implement it, you can simply forget to pull that information out and implement it. So what you really need is not to think of this so much as memory as triggers. You have to think about triggers. For example, if you had to remember to bring a book to, let's say, bring a book to work tomorrow morning, then there are a few ways you could do that. You could try to remember by reminding yourself over and over and over and telling yourself over and over, I need to bring a book to work. I need to bring a book to work. But actually, the best trigger would be your front

door or maybe your car door to pick up that book and bring it with you. So that let's say you're walking out your front door, you start opening your door and it hits the book because the book is lying on the floor. That'll remind you at the right moment, that'll be a trigger for you at the right moment to remember to take that with you. As an example with the who whom thing, you could make the word who your trigger. So anytime you're about to say the word who, you could remember an image perhaps

of both a he and a him on two sides of an owl because of the word who. And all you have to remember is you use who in the case that you use he, or you use whom in the case you use him. You probably already know this, but you want to make sure that the trigger is vivid so that every time you are going to use the word who, you remember to think first whether to use who or whom. So think about that trigger. This trigger concept will apply to all areas as long as you can find the moment at which you have to remember something that's going

to remind you of that thing that's in your head, you just have to apply it at the right moment. So start looking for ways to put triggers in place. Start with perhaps the easiest, like anytime you have to bring something somewhere, you have a way of remembering at the moment that you have to go what it is that you have to bring, and then move have a way of remembering at the moment that you have to go what it is that you have to bring. And then move on to the most important or the most frequent, the one thing for you to remember that'll make the most difference. Then you can get into more trivial things. Perhaps the who whom thing would fall into that category and start to put triggers in place for those based on your success from the triggers you've already put in place for other things. For people who want to apply this to learning as well as just to general everyday life, the fact is the trigger concept is the same in learning languages or in taking tests or

whatever. Because if your test asks you, how many centimeters are there in an inch? The trigger is centimeters and inch. And so the ratio of centimeters to inches is going to remind you, it's going to trigger a number for you. Or if you're meeting someone, their face is a trigger for you to remember their name. Or if you're talking in a foreign language, the meaning of the word you're trying to say, let's say it's people, is going to trigger the word that you need to remember. You have a trigger, what you're trying to say, and that leads to your mnemonic, which then leads to the result, the thing that you're trying to say. So for most learning, the triggers are everywhere,

and it's just a matter of connecting those triggers to the intended result. But in cases like Jonathan is talking about, you have to put those triggers in in the first place. Now, like hundreds of other listeners, you may be wondering how you can support Master of Memory and keep it free for the world, particularly if you don't have a lot of time or any money to spend. So right now, I'm going to tell you that, believe it or not, right now, at this moment, the number one way that you can support the show doesn't require any money of you, is very easy, and will only take a few seconds, and it requires nothing but your smartphone in your hand

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