Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0472: How to practice the most difficult pegs in your number system

Episode Date: December 29, 2015

Gretchen is working on her mnemonic number peg system, and she’s having particular difficulty with a specific item. I describe a process for practicing difficult pegs in situations like this. 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 472. 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. Gretchen said in an email, For some reason, I've had a hard time remembering harp as my object peg for 4.9. I can't figure out why harp has been such a problem. So to give listeners context, this is referring to the issue of turning numbers into memorable objects. For example,

the number 32 might be a menu for the 3 and 2, which look like an M and an N. So you have menu. The number 22 or 22 might be onion for the two Ns because you can turn a two into an N. And the number 33 might be a mummy because of the two Ms. But anyway, you do run into this type of issue that Gretchen is describing here where there are certain objects that just aren't sticking for you. So a harp for four nine or RP can be difficult because of the h at the beginning and the fact that the four and nine are together there in erp. Gretchen, one thing that you might do is imagine what the four and nine physically look like rather than just depending on the sounds

r and p in the major system, but actually go, you know, it looks like the nine is using its tail to pluck the four, which looks kind of like a harp. But of course, if you use that kind of logic, you want to try to use that consistently among other numbers that you have a little bit of difficulty in learning. So you're not just using the sounds, you're actually using the way that the number physically looks. But I'd like to use this episode to talk a little bit more about a review process that you can use for making sure that you take these numbers that are difficult for you in your object system and actually rehearse them in a meaningful way.

So this is what I recommend that you do. Take your 100 objects and go through all of them, and then for any that are particularly difficult, maybe they take you more than two seconds to recall as you're starting to review them. Take those specific numbers, maybe the 10 most difficult numbers, and then no matter where you are, look around you and quickly divide your surroundings into a 10-part memory palace. Then shuffle up these numbers either by actually mixing a group of cards or by dropping them into random.org into the raffle ticket system and just shuffling them up one way or another. Get these numbers in a random order and then see how quickly you can create a memory palace with each

of these numbers in a unique location. So you could drop the harp on the door next to you and then the menu on the globe above you and then the mummy in the book under the globe. You know, you're just trying to imagine each of these things in its location. And then once you've done that, see if you can review that palace and how well these objects come back to you, including the numbers that these objects represent. So you've created a temporary palace with your most difficult object pegs in random order. And then don't do it again, actually. Just leave that palace the way it is and then go off throughout your day, and once in a while, see if you can remember all of those things from that. I actually did this exercise recently, not just with my object pegs, but also with cards as I was memorizing them. I memorized an entire deck of cards for the first time by turning those cards into, not just turning them into the memorable characters that they represent but actually creating a temporary palace of

a shuffled deck of cards and looking through that palace at all of my characters that represent those cards. This does multiple things. It doesn't just force you to focus on the most difficult, you know, object pegs or whatever it is that you're memorizing, but it also gives you real-life experience with putting them in a palace and seeing how quickly you can create memorable imagery based on these objects, and then also how well you can recall the number, or the card in my case, from the objects that you've stored. Once you've created this temporary palace with your most difficult object pegs,

you will find that these object pegs are really yours because you've made them yours. You've put them into a personal memory palace, a temporary memory palace, and you've tied them temporarily to a location, and then you're recalling the number from those object pegs. Now, for everyone listening, I would strongly encourage you to do what Gretchen is doing and create some objects for the 100 numbers. These will apply to almost any learning project, and there's basically an infinite number of ways you can apply these object pegs to learn almost anything faster than ever. If you want to get a head start on creating this object peg system, go to masterofmemory.com start, and you'll find a guide for creating these 100 memorable objects

in your mind. You don't have to come up with your own. I've actually created 100 objects based on the major system. And you can just go ahead and create 100 objects for the 100 numbers and apply those to any project that you're working on. Meanwhile, 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.