Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0366: How to learn Gregg shorthand very quickly

Episode Date: August 3, 2015

Crystal asks about learning Gregg shorthand. How many of the brief forms need to be memorized for effective shorthand writing, and how quickly can it be done? I talk about which forms to start with and how to use mnemonics to learn Gregg shorthand very quickly. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. […]

Master of Memory 366. 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. Crystal submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Crystal says, I'm a college student who has committed herself to learning Greg's shorthand both for taking fast notes and for personal fulfillment. Crystal says, I'm a college student who has committed herself to learning Greg shorthand, both for taking fast notes and for personal fulfillment.

The key to learning Greg is learning the brief forms which summarize a word into a few characters. There are around 30,000 brief forms, and I was wondering if using the methods described in the Greek alphabet episode would be the place to start. So, Crystal, you can use the methods from the Greek alphabet episode would be the place to start. So Crystal, you can use the methods from the Greek alphabet episode, which is basically to see, to relate the shape of the words with their sound somehow. That's one way you could do it, but I think that your biggest task here with so many forms to learn would be to start with exclusivity. Now, I don't really know if you actually have to learn 30,000 forms. From what I've gone and researched, you could start with just the 181 forms of the Gregg shorthand simplified system, and that'll get you quite fast by itself,

and you might expand from there to learn all of the other forms. The big thing here is you don't want that large number to hold you back. You want to start with something that's very simple, and in general, not just accelerated learning, but just from a life standpoint, a productivity standpoint, the more that you can reduce a task to a checklist where you always know the one thing that you need to do next, the more success you'll have because the simpler your task is

and the more likely you are to do it. So with that in mind, I would recommend going within that and actually just learning the 10 most frequently used forms within the Greg shorthand simplified system, and then practice writing out sentences with lots of combination of those forms. So for example, some of the most used forms will be the form for the, obviously, and then the TNDN form, which represents things like ton and done and things like that. That'll be very frequent. And then the NDNT form for and, end, ant, not, and things like that. So again, find the maybe five to ten forms that'll give you the most words for each form, and just practice writing some things out

with just those. After those are second nature, begin expanding based on what you think are the most frequent, and then once you're at a point where you can, think of a text that you have memorized by heart. It could just be a quote or, you know, a little speech, something short, not longer than a paragraph, but practice writing that one text out in shorthand until you can write it almost as quickly as you can say it. That'll give you practice with the most common forms really quickly, and it'll make it kind of enjoyable because it's a game. You can keep seeing your results over and over for the same thing over and over, and you can measure your results. Doing something you have memorized will also eliminate the factor of having to listen to something new. You know exactly what it is

you're writing. It's just working up the speed of writing the forms themselves, knowing what the sound is that you're needing to create. And then from there, you can practice with more forms and with listening to something you've never heard before and transcribing that. But again, start as simple as possible because you want to make it the most likely that you'll succeed, not give yourself an impossible task. I hope that gives you a starting point, Crystal, and if you want to develop some mnemonics for shorthand, I'd love to collaborate with you on that and put some out at masterofmemory.com for other people to learn from. For anyone listening, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon.