The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

You've heard people throw the word serotonin around, right? But do you know what serotonin is and how it connects with the quality of your memory? Well, if you want to experience a better life, it's time to pay attention. Serotonin is not only essential to having healthy memory abilities. It also helps you feel good, sleep better and works magic on your mood when you're feeling down. In fact, as a neurotransmitter derived from tryptophan … Serotonin May Be The Most Important Anti-Depressant In The World! Actually, there's a lot of controversy about whether or not serotonin levels create depression. It's only known that many people with depression show low levels of this chemical. But here's the real question: How can you actually use the information you're about to read? Easy: If you can get your serotonin in order, you'll not only feel better, but you might not need SSRIs and whatever other pills you've been taking to regulate your mood. I've taken a lot of those pills myself, and although none of what you'll read in this post should be taken as medical advice … I can't emphasize this enough: Healthy Serotonin Levels = Better Learning And Memory Why? Because there are seven distinct receptors with different densities. When things get messed up with your serotonin, you're much more likely to experience the aging of your memory and fall into risk for Alzheimer's and other issues. In order to understand exactly how serotonin is connected with memory, we need to look at how it interacts with other neurotransmitters. These include: Acetylcholine Dopamine Glutamate y-aminobutyric acid (GABA) Basically, all of these elements hang together and require precious balancing in order for you to be able to learn and remember. When it comes to serotonin, scientists have found that by using serotonin reuptake inhibitors like alaproclate and oxotremorine, they can improve memory retrieval. Moreover, its believed that with more research, they'll be able to use related chemicals to suppress the retrieval of addiction-primed memories. Sounds Like A Mouthful, Right? It's actually easy to understand: When it becomes possible to treat addiction-associated memories, that drug addicts might experience decreased cravings. That means fewer destructive behaviors to themselves and others in society. The reason serotonin plays such a huge role in this area of memory is that its connection to different receptors involve reward-based learning, something that can be helpful, so long as negative drugs like tobacco aren't involved. (By the way, stop smoking.) But it's not just all about addiction memory. Serotonin is also involved in: Boosting Spatial Memory If you're serotonin levels are in check, you have much better chances of remembering locations and the relative distance between objects. This means that you can use a new place you visit as a Memory Palace with greater ease. Mastering Emotional Memory It's well known that we tend to remember things with greater accuracy and vividness when emotions are involved. But if you're low on serotonin, you might not be experiencing emotions properly. Lower emotional capacity also means that you may not be paying attention properly. You cannot encode information into memory that you haven't registered either in part or whole. This explains why depression and other mental illnesses are so devastating for memory, especially since emotions are often so short-lived. Luckily, however, we can generate emotions at will. By using mnemonics, we can supercharge every piece of information we meet so that it is more memorable. But it sure helps if we have healthy serotonin levels. You Can Forget About Fearful Memory Fear can either create new memories or inhibit their formation. Either way, if your serotonin is out of whack, your brain can't properly manage fear to any advantage. Having your serotonin out of balance leads to memory errors and contributes to the fearful part of depression. With certain mental illness, for example, you can learn to be afraid when there's nothing fearful in the environment. Proper serotonin levels can correct this problem, however. But … What Exactly Does Serotonin Do? Research shows that serotonin influences memory by increasing the ability of different neurons to get excited by various kinds of stimulation. Too little response to stumili and you're depressed. Too much and you might go manic. Either way, without the maintenance of serotonin, it's difficult to pay attention, form new memories and learn. Poor serotonin levels messes with memory consolidation. Not being able to consolidate memories can lead to forgetting names, new information you've struggled to learn and even entire years of your life. What Interferes With Your Serotonin Levels? Unfortunately, scientists and doctors don't always know. It can be that brain lesions create issues, along with some of the mysteries that create Alzheimer's Disease. What is known with relative certainty is that serotonin levels are linked to the quality of your sleep, diet and fitness. The problem with the hypothesis that serotonin levels are connected to diet is that serotonin isn't found in foods. It is, however, synthesized from tryptophan. This is an amino acid found in many foods, some of which help create a healthy brain and memory. Salmon is a big one, and it's hard to go wrong with eating this fish. Other ways to get more serotonin include exercise, sunlight and creating positivity in your life. Memory friendly activities such as meditation have been shown to help. Although there is no clear cut route to boosting serotonin, the important thing is to try without the use of pharmaceuticals. One reason is that taking drugs to feel better might have this positive effect, but it can also make you fee worse. After all, you now need a crutch to function, something that can crush your self-esteem. It shouldn't, but the stigmatism has harmed me in the past. Plus, now that I'm living free from lamotrigine, I feel better and going solo has prompted me to live a healthier lifestyle overall. When it comes to light exposure, it's no secret that I've been using the Human Charger. Steeped in controversy though it may be, I've noticed a positive effect. I've also been switching on the lights I use to make my videos in order to get more light exposure. You can also get more light when you … Spend More Time Outdoors People used to spend 30-40 hours outside a week. Nowadays, that's the number of hours people spend inside at work. Quite frankly, that's insane and the health of our culture shows it. Frankly, I believe that becoming an entrepreneur with a strong brand is one of the ways to escape the fate of sitting in an office and helping make someone else rich. As I talk about it in the Self-Improvement Supercharger, I like to walk from cafe to cafe to do my writing, which gives me not only more light, but more air, more exposure to people and much more fitness than I would get sitting at my desk. I believe it's the combination that matters: For example, just walking around and getting more light and fitness is helpful. But I don't think it would be nearly as good without going up to people and asking them for help with German phrases I'm learning. I also go to my friend Max Breckbill's co-working groups as often as I can to get more exposure to other people for the brain chemical benefits it creates. And heck, some of them even wind up using memory techniques too after I talk about them. In sum, people have put a lot of time, money and energy into researching serotonin. Although the link serotonin shares with tryptophan can make it difficult to study, countless experiments have shown that mice and humans alike cope better in life with regulated serotonin levels. They experience less stress, recover from depression with greater speed and remember more with greater accuracy. Of course, further research is necessary, but my belief is that you are the ultimate scientist. If you'd like to experience better memory, organic brain games might be just what you need. And when you use Mnemonics And The 7 Eternal Laws Of Memory Improvement, you have the basis for tracking your results. You don't have to have your DNA extracted in scientific experiments or undergo the horrors of serotonin depletion in order to experience better memory. Get more exercise, eat properly, sleep well and use memory techniques. Track your results using some of the tools linked to in this post and you'll notice an impact. And if you're sitting on the fence about training your memory, here are 9 Signs You Need Memory Training, Memory Techniques And Mnemonics that will convince you of the truth. Bottom line: Your serotonin levels are important and almost guaranteed to go up if you'll just take care of these few areas. That means more memory and a better life. Sounds good to me. How about you? The post Serotonin: The Truth You Need For Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Do You Know Your Learning Duties And Obligations? Put some thought into that question. It could well change our entire life. Because, yes. YOU are obliged to learn. And even though learning takes time, energy and can even cost a bundle of bones you'll never see again … You Cannot Lose When You Learn The Right Ways Download the MP3 of this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and have a blast reading the transcript below. And if you've got something to say, we'd love to hear from you in the comments below! Anthony: This is Anthony Metivier. You're listening to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, coming to you live from Tel Aviv with my good friend Jonathan Levi. Jonathan has been on the show many, many times before. You know him from SuperLearner. This is a universe where you can learn how to learn faster with greater comprehension, greater memory of what it is that you want to learn. Every time that we speak, he's been on the Magnetic Memory Podcast so many times, it's just absolutely incredible what I learn. It is incredible what you can learn from Jonathan Levi. We're going to freewheel it a little bit. We've got some background noise and so on. But it would be a lost opportunity if we didn't just jump on the fact that we're together hanging out in Tel Aviv and have a talk about how you can learn and memorize more information, do so in a way that feels great, is a load of fun, reduces stress from your life and just makes everything better so that you can make the world better, which is what this is all about really. What would you say to that? Jonathan: Yeah, I would say that I really like – I was actually editing a video today from the last time that you were in Tel Aviv and it resonated. You said something that I often say, and I think a lot of people in our very fortunate position to help people and educate people for a living often say. I think Tony Robbins says it a lot as well. He says you have a unique gift and it is your duty and obligation (we say it in Branding You), it is your duty and obligation to figure out what that gift is a soon as possible and then arm yourself with the tools that allow you to deliver that gift. I think the sooner you do that the more quickly you realize your potential in life then you realize your purpose. I mean it ties all the way back to Viktor Frankl. Like all you need in life to be happy is a purpose, a worthwhile purpose, and then that just sets your trajectory in life of what you're going to do, skills you're going to acquire, the things are going to learn about, the people you're going to be with, it all comes from that purpose. Anthony: So then riddle me this, if I can quote the old Batman movie. Why is it that some of us know our purpose and some don't? For those of us that do, what's like an example from your own life that got you to know your purpose, and how did you take that knowledge of knowing your purpose and turn it essentially into a self-sustaining engine that just drives you towards doing what you've accomplished? It's the fire that burns itself, or you know the burning bush. We're here in the land the burning bush. Jonathan: We are in the land of the burning bush. Anthony: How does that work? Why You Need To Seek If You Want To Find Jonathan: That's a tough question. Why do some people know and some people not know? I think the first question is why do some people seek and some people do not seek? I think a lot of people go through their lives not seeking more. I call it the prefix approach when what you really want is the a la carte approach to life. I think in order to really be seeking and searching for your purpose, your mission in life, you have to take the approach that my life is a la carte in the sense that I can pick and choose from certain things. I can pick and choose if I want to have kids. I can pick and choose if I want to work in an office. I can pick and choose and so on. I think that's a big component of why people struggle to find their purpose. Why The Cost Of Stability May Be Killing You But I think the other thing is we somehow along the way through the industrial era have kind of all settled on this stability over excitement mentality. A lot of parents raise their kids go get an education, get a good stable job, and that's wonderful. Stability is great especially if you're raising a family, but I think we need to get over this mentality that stability comes at the expense of excitement. You can have both. I know a lot of people who have super stable jobs, who are working at a very stable corporate job, and they're doing their life's purpose. They're really excited about what they're doing. So I reject the idea that you have to give up on a purpose and just go to a 9:00 to 5:00 that you hate. Anthony: Right. Now let's make this even more localized to a particular memory subject because a lot of people that say they want to learn a new language right. They think well I work from 9:00 to 5:00. I am with my kids until whatever time late night, I have six hours to sleep, then I get up, and then I go to shave and shower and go to get in the car, and so on and so forth. They have endless reasons why that they can't not only just spend time learning language, but use the memory techniques that I teach and that you teach in order to be able to get the components of language into memory. Like where do they just begin, given what you said? Like where's the entry point to getting started and then keeping going so that you have a different mindset for it and actually execution of learning given the situation they're in? Jonathan: Learning anything, well learning kind of in the direction of your purpose you mean? Anthony: Yeah I mean if your purpose is to say you know you need to learn a language in order to fulfill a particular purpose. The Best Way To Know When Something Isn't Right For You Jonathan: Sure. So a few different thoughts there. One is I find when you work on things, when you find that right thing, the resistance goes away right. Like you can drag your feet on projects for years, and you and I know we've dragged our feet individually on projects. That's a pretty good indication if you have to like force yourself to do something, it's a pretty good indication that's not you're calling and not your purpose. I think you need to listen and be true to yourself and ask yourself what your motives are to do certain things. With that said, I mean there are pragmatic considerations and concerns around generating time which you know I talk about a lot in my productivity course. Exactly How To Make More Time Magically Appear In Your Life How do you make time? I think for most people the psychological boundary of busyness and how much time they actually have is much more significant than the actual pragmatic realistic constraints on their time. How many of us waste that twenty minutes waiting for the bus? How many of us waste that time sitting on the bus? How many of us, while our kids are brushing their teeth for school, are sitting there like flipping through Facebook instead of reviewing whatever it is. In your case, memorizing a deck of cards because that's part of your purpose is empowering people with memory. I think we need to be realistic actually about how busy we are and actually how well we're using our time. I'm well known for tracking everything I do, and I can tell you on any given day how productive I am in percentages because I track how my time is being spent on my computer. Once you start doing these things, you start looking at yourself and your life through an optimization mindset. What you discover is quite surprising. Like those five-minute breaks that you spend on Facebook amount to an hour and a half of time, and unless and until you track you have no insight into that. That would be my advice is like be honest with yourself. How busy are you really? The first thing where I was trying to get is like why is it that you're not making time for these things, because that's also a good indication. When I decided I want to learn piano, which is part of my mission, right. I want to inspire people to learn anything. I can't do that if I don't play musical instruments. It's amazing how much time I make Anthony. It's amazing. Like I put off breakfast some mornings, because I'm just like you know, I'll have like a quick breakfast and a smoothie, so that I can use my hands to like play piano while I wait for my first call in the morning because I love it, and I'm so passionate about it. And the first thing I wanted to talk to you when you came to Tel Aviv was like dude how are you memorizing this? How can I figure out these chord structures? The night you came, we talked for two and a half hours on the beach about mnemonic techniques for music. That's a pretty good sign that that's like serving my purpose and my mission even though I'm not a musician. I'm pretty damn excited about teaching other people and empowering other people to lean learn musical instruments, or whatever. Anthony: All right, well let's talk about that because I'd been talking about it on the podcast with John McPhedrine a few weeks ago who has just brilliant ideas about it of his own accord so forth, and I thought you know I am not done with these ideas. I haven't fully gone through it and everything, but I'm going to get this off my chest because I'm so excited about it. I'm going to do it partially as like a tribute to you, a gift to you. Jonathan: Thank you. Anthony: And with deep acknowledgement to John for his contributions to music mnemonics, and also just to get something out that I've been thinking about working with and so forth. By the same token, you were yes I get it. You understand exactly where I'm coming from. But at the same time, you are deeply unsatisfied by it, and you said you know, I think it the there has to be a better way kind of thing. So take us through two things. First, you know what is it from a SuperLearner perspective that you've been doing, like the top two to three things that have gotten you where you are with music. I sat and watched you play which is amazing. Then what is it you know, either with specific or just general references to what I told you that night, that sort of deeply unsatisfied you, and what you found maybe interesting about it or whatever. I mean just jam on it. Jonathan: So first, I have to say, I've spent so much time with you in the last few days in person, I haven't listen to the podcast episode. But I feel like I got a pretty good idea based on what you explained to me. There were a few things that I thought were absolutely brilliant like using the major method for notes and stuff like that I think is really clever. Like on the fretboard, I think it's really clever. It's a lot of work but then memorizing all the notes on the fretboard is going to be a lot of work. I'll first say my difficulty, and then I'll say what I'm doing. The Raw Truth About Methods Versus Systems My difficulty is, and this is at the core of how you and I teach differently, I like systems because I'd rather be 80 percent to 100 percent of the people, and you like methods because you'd rather be 100 percent flexible to 80 percent of the people. I think I cater to an audience who wants to know precisely. Students ask me all the time how often should I pause in making markers or visual symbols, we call markers. How often should I pause? Every paragraph, every two paragraphs, they want exact specific numbers. The truth is it depends. It depends on you. It depends on your working memory capacity. It depends on what you're reading obviously. It depends on how long the paragraphs are. But my students seem to want systems, and they want things nailed down very, very specifically. I'm of the belief that you need to know the rules really well before you break them. Like for example, a non-native English speaker could never start a sentence with and, but for Gary Halbert and Anthony Metivier, who have a perfect command of copyrighting an English speaking can, and know how, even though that's wrong technically. It's like you need to know the Magnetic Memory Method really well to break the rules. But I would believe that your approach is make your own rules. It's a method, not a system. I think that was my difficulty. I mean you've seen how I run my business as well. Like everything is a system. We know exactly how many characters are allowed to go into this title, and we know exactly what settings to use on every single blog post we do. We have the exact processes that are never deviated from. I think that would drive some people crazy, but that's kind of how I operate. It's the German passport, what can I say. Here's what I've been doing to accelerate the learning of music. First things first, I needed to do was memorize each of the keys as in the physical keys on the piano. I needed to know what each one of them were. So I came up with a nice little mnemonic technique where each one looks like a certain thing. For example, the "D" is in between two other white keys, which face inward towards it. So that, to me, as someone who speaks Spanish, was "dentro." "Dentro: in between, and the one next to it to the right was "E" which for me is it's facing backwards into the cluster, "espalda" which literally means back as in physical. You're back, not backwards and so on and so forth. You know the "F" key is facing forward into a cluster. So that's "F", and that's how I did that, and within you know two or three minutes I could look at any one and know exactly what it was. I mean that's easy stuff. I'm using essentially a very similar way that you are to memorize the songs essentially. I've been using that with guitar for some time. I'm still trying to figure out a lot of other stuff. I'm doing a lot of like brute force learning. Not just reading music, but also figuring it out on my own, and just understanding like what different intervals sound like. So one of the things we teach in our courses is this idea like brute force learning. A lot of people will just go to a piano tutor, and then just do the piano tutor's homework. I'm like watching YouTube videos, memorizing songs that I would never be able to read in sheet music to get familiar with the finger movement. I'm writing out sheet music as I hear it. I'm doing all different kinds of multifaceted approaches so that it's not just me, the book and the piano tutor. It's a holistic approach to learning. Anthony: Now how are you doing that systematically though? Jonathan: That's a big problem for me I haven't really conquered. I'm doing it kind of as I feel, and really what I'm doing is I'm using it as a frustration avoidance mechanism. Like when I get really sick of playing Jingle Bells, which is something I can actually read because it's very easy. Then I go to a really hard song that I know is going to take me about ten seconds to figure out each chord as it's written, because I haven't even started learning chords. That kind of breaks my frustration and creates a new frustration. When I get tired of that, you know maybe in the next session what I'll do is I'll just sound something out, or I'll watch a YouTube video, which just shows me which keys to press. Then later I'll reverse engineer it by looking at the music. Ironically, it's not a system. It's a method, and my method is go until I get frustrated, but if I still want to keep playing, jump from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing so that I am still getting hours, because I get really frustrated super fast playing Jingle Bells a hundred times. Anthony: Well, the reason why I asked that and it wasn't meant to be to be a nasty thing to do. One of the things that I think makes us interesting people to follow and listen to is we're one hundred percent transparent about the things that we do. We're out there. We've got our heart on our sleeves, and one of the things that I always say, when I talk about it being a method and so forth, is I also always say one is the most dangerous number in the world. You need multiple teachers. You need multiple exposure to how people do things in multiple ways. You don't teach how to learn music yet. But I'm really fascinated about how you think that you could turn what you're doing, exploring, your mixing system with method and so forth, how you could turn that into a systematic approach that matches what you already teach systematically in SuperLearning. Jonathan: Well I think the closest thing to a system that I've seen is your use of Major Method. Then I really like the idea, I know you're not huge on PAO (person, action object), but I really like this idea of you know much music is either three fourths time or four fourths common time, so I like this idea of having PAO for three fourths time and PAAO (person, action adjective, object). How To Make Metaphors Part Of Memorizing Music For example, C D G E, I would have C as PAAO. So C could always be Charles Manson chewing on crunchy capers. If C is the first piece in that, then it would be a Charles Manson. Then the next one is D, which would be David Bowie diving into deep dragons or something like that. Then I would use the diving. Charles Manson diving so on and so forth. Then you just create a visual symbol, which I'm sure your audience knows all about and then you put it into Memory Palaces. Now here's where you and I differ. Up until that point you and I somewhat agree. You believe that you should vary every single time the P, the A, the O. I say like let me just learn C, D, E, you know A through G, have one PAAO thing. That's a system versus a method. So for me it's always Charles Manson chewing on crunchy capers. So there is your system, and then again, where you and I would differ is I would want to system that says the first verse is always in this corner, and then the chorus is always in a corner of the room, and so on and so forth. The choruses are always, the refrain is always in the bathroom. I'd want something like that, so that if I ever just want to jump in at a certain point in the song, I think that would drive you nuts if I'm not mistaken. Anthony: Actually, I think that this is a good a good discussion point because I think people misunderstand what I mean by system versus method. Because the kinds of systematic things that you're talking about, and you know PAO, and I don't like PAO and all that sort of stuff. It's not so much that I don't like PAO, it's just that like when you're using major method, major method actually is not a system. It is a method right. Jonathan: Fair, yes. Anthony: So when you're doing something like what you're talking about, what I think is so exciting, and what my mind leaps on, and I would instantly adopt systematically, is you mentioned Charles Manson and David Bowie. Both of those guys have strong ties to the world of music. So what I would do in a systematic way is say to myself as I'm developing memorizing music, every character comes from the world of music. Now that's now you're getting into semantics whether that's methodological or systematic. But if you said that it must be someone from the world of music, then you are giving yourself an aid to recall because if you're searching for something, you instantly already have a hook. It must be someone from the world of music. So who could it be? Well it's there's only so many notes in the scale. So there are a lot of systematic things in the Magnetic Memory Method. But why I insist on the methodological thing is because a lot of the training out there comes from people who develop the techniques for competition. The material that you memorize in competition lends itself to systematicity. Jonathan: Right, it's always the same competition, the same events and stuff like that. Anthony: But foreign language learning does not lend itself to systematicity. Especially not when you learn languages online. Jonathan: That's fair. Anthony: There are, as far as I know, no real substantial language learning competitions and that's because the margin for cheating would be so high because one could pose as not knowing languages. Jonathan: That and it's so hard to test actual fluency. You know I mean. It's hard to define fluency much less test it. Anthony: I'm glad these things came up because I think that again it just sort of reinforces my pedagogical philosophy that one is the most dangerous number that you will ever know, and you need multiple teachers. That's why I like to go and study from you, for example, and be around you and study you because you challenge my assumptions and my presuppositions. I grow and I think and I apply and I implement and so forth, and I've gotten faster at certain things that I do. Also, you've broken down certain walls of stubbornness against all odds because I'm a cranky professor sometimes. I surprise myself. So I really encourage people who are listening to this you don't know Jonathan or you know you have come across him, but haven't dived in and just gotten into the SuperLearner way of doing things, to go and do that. My only caveat being that you implement. Because it doesn't matter how many people that you study from, if you're not taking action on what they're teaching you, then it's not going to go anywhere. Who is someone that you've recently learned something from where you went from this is a concept or an idea or a process and you leapt on it, and then you got a result. What comes to mind? Jonathan: Wow! Anthony: I mean maybe there are multiple things. Jonathan: You put me on the spot there. Let's think. Someone that I have immediately put something into practice and it is just worked. I am going to give a shout out to our head of marketing, Mr. Steven Pratley because I wrote out this whole webinar thing. I wanted to host a webinar or for my audience to educate them. Basically, my goal is to reach a million people if your audience doesn't know. I want to teach a million people how to learn more effectively. One of the best ways to do that and still be able to pay your bills is do a free one hour webinar which teaches them you know a lot of the basics and gets them up and running. I can get that in front of a million people and then at the end you offer them to join your premium training so I can also afford to advertise and send that out to a million people. I'd written like these slides. Steven was like look, this is good, but let me show you this webinar that, I think it was like Frank Kern did, one of the folks that you admire so much. He sends me this thing, and I just read through it I'm like whoa. This goes through, you as a story consultant will love, the whole story. Why this works this way and how this works this way and it's not you know that the hero's journey. It's brilliant. I put it in a place. The next day I just wrote out all the slides and boom, boom, boom, and I think we're going to be delivering a similar version of that to your audience very shortly here. Boy, did it work. People were in the chat. They were going nuts and they really appreciated it so much more than they would have if it were just my boring presentation. Like here are the top three tips that you could – so it worked really well. We were very fortunate to have a few people join also our premium training and they've been enjoying it really well because they've had this nice primer to get into it. That I think would be the example. How To Put A Knife In The Heart Of A Memory Expert Anthony: I'm glad that you raise that because one thing that I'm always itching and burning to talk about, and it's a very uncomfortable subject or at least it's often received very poorly, and it can lead to something that I find so extraordinarily paradoxical that I can't quite understand it. It's this. We are rewarded handsomely for the work that we do. When we do promotions, we do our best to help people understand the value that we offer and to compel them to take action so that they can get the kind of results to lead the lives that they want to lead. But to lead the lives that they want to lead, how that they want to learn at a higher level and be able to remember more, and do it in ways that are fun and so forth, the strangest things happen. I get multi-paragraph emails of people who say, "You know man, I was just so skeptical of your stuff and it's there's certain things about your marketing that just kind of you know rub the wrong way and so forth but I took a chance on this and it's just unbelievable what happened. You know, in six weeks I memorized a thousand words. I just finally am able to learn in a way that's fun, and I'm remembering stuff. It's just changed my life." On the other hand, emails come in from people, and I'm not going to quote this person, but you know someone swore at me. They basically said in a couple sentences that I'm completely out of my mind. That they hate me they wish that I would go to hell. Jonathan: That's pretty offensive language. Anthony: I don't want to give that person who may or may not be listening right now some feeling that they have power or whatever, but it puts a knife in my heart. The reason why is because that person obviously needs the same help that the person who succeeded needed. Why is it that some people that come to these webinars that we do, which have different levels of free training based on where you may be at, why is it that instead of turning the channel when it's not for them, they feel that they have to throw a stone, be filled with hatred and try to destroy as opposed to just turning the channel? Or, taking action and giving something a try. We give these extraordinary guarantees. What's going on here? Jonathan: That's interesting. You know what's funny is, I often have to be given the advice that I give. I'm going to give you the advice that you give which is great, that's awesome, because I think it's Gary Halbert who says, and you introduced me to Gary Halbert, who says if you're not pissing a couple people off then you're not being provocative enough. I would love for everyone to love me. I would love to never get an email that says hey you kind of look like a sleaze bag in this video. But the vast majority of people are getting impacted because it is out there, because I'm telling crazy outrageous stories and stuff like that. I mean also, you can learn so much from those folks I think because it just allows you to tighten up your game. Eventually, you take enough feedback, and the reason we have a master class is because I took enough feedback from people saying this is unclear, this was boring the way you recorded this and that's constructive feedback I guess. More constructive than like you know you look like a blank and blank in a blank and you probably blank your blank. But you take enough of that feedback, and you become airtight which is pretty cool. The Moral Obligation To Teach Memory Skills Once You've Learned Them Anthony: Another reason why I wanted to raise this topic is because I think, and I talk about it all the time, is that if you learn memory techniques and you use them you are morally obligated to teach them to other people. Jonathan: Agreed. Anthony: I think that a lot of people would like to be able actually to make a living out of a passion that they have. One thing that Dave Farrow pointed out when he was a guest on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, there are a lot of people out there who teach memory techniques who actually aren't qualified to be teaching them because they haven't gone out and actually accomplished anything from those memory techniques. I'm not a memory competitor, but I wonder if you would talk a little bit about what you're feeling is about that. How do you get to a point where you are satisfied that you could teach something that you've learned? You should become a SuperLearner to the extent that now it's time for you to become a super teacher. Jonathan: Sure. I struggle with this myself because I don't use a lot of the memory techniques that we teach. I mean I use them but I'm not going up to people and memorizing their credit card numbers and stuff like that, and I don't even memorize, to be honest, my own credit card numbers because I change credit cards every time there's like a new offer and it's just proven to be useless to me. But at the same time, I do memorize. Someone sold me a lock at the store the other day, and he was joking with because he asked what I do. I was like I teach memory. He's like okay, I'm taking out of the package. I'm not giving you the manual with the code. He like just flashed it to me, and I still remember it. I'm not going to say it now in case someone steals my bike again. I still remember it because I just created a Major Method system for it. I use the techniques but not maybe as much as I'd like to. I think my approach to that is why not. I should start using them just for giggles to learn music. That's why I've started piano. To learn languages, I do actually use them quite extensively, but I don't memorize cards. I think I should. I think I should because I talk about it and I don't use PAO as much. I think I should because I talk about it. But to answer your question, just to finish on that a little bit actually, but I do speed read quite a bit. I do learn quite aggressively. I do take on learning projects. I'm learning three instruments and two languages right now as we speak. I struggle with the parts of the course that I needed to put in there to be complete. Do I use them enough really to proselytize them? With that said, I believe in them. I know that they work, and when I do use them, they work extraordinarily well. So even though I don't have a Memory Palace for every single book I read, I do use spaced repetition and I do highlight in a certain way, which is kind of a SuperLearner way of doing things. When are you good enough to teach these methods? I think actually, and this touches on the brute force learning thing, something taught is something twice learned. One of my best techniques, do you remember what I was reading when we were in Berlin together? Anthony: I don't even remember observing what you were reading. Jonathan: We didn't have much time for reading, but I was talking your ear off about this book, Sex At Dawn. Well, I'm not even talking someone else's ear off, but whatever book I'm reading at the time, I'm usually talking people's ear off about it. I was recently talking to you about Stephen Hawking and like how you mind blowing all this stuff was. I think the same is true of learning memory techniques. Like you not only have an obligation, but you're highly incentivized to share everything you learn. I try to talk with you as much as I can about different things that I'm learning. I try to talk with all my friends. We talked about mnemonics for music as I mentioned. The thing is you learn something, you go out that night and you happen to be chatting with friends, share that knowledge with them. First off, it is way more interesting than talking about Donald Trump or political gossip or whatever. It is way more uplifting than talking about whatever godawful event happened you know across the world in some terrible attack. You're spreading knowledge, you're spreading wisdom and you're reinforcing your own learning. I would hope that anyone who's taken my courses or your courses is going around and when people say, "Oh sorry. I forgot your name. I have a terrible memory," they stop and say, "You don't have a terrible memory. You don't know these powerful things called mnemonic techniques." Then explain because that's a way more interesting first conversation with someone than what do you do, and where do you live and all that junk that we're also tired of answering. Anthony: I've certainly had many of those interesting conversations. Without going a long spiel, but give the people listening to this podcast your assessment of what you've seen as me being someone who does practice these techniques and an honest one, given you see me make mistakes, you see me correct myself. Jonathan: Perfectly done. I will give you a glittering testimonial that you really do use this stuff. Anthony: But I want you to do like also give a portrait of the reality of what you saw. Jonathan: Yeah. Anthony: With like the self-correction and how I actually – Jonathan: Absolutely, you use the techniques. You use them in a different way than I would use them, which is you like to go back and correct and clean up because that provides – I mean there's merit in doing it both ways. You have these kinds of memorable, almost like slightly awkward situations where mispronounce a vowel and stuff like that, and then after that was memorable right. Once you have this like red face moment, it's memorable. With certain words, we've been like correcting the vowel pronunciations because we don't have an "A" sound in Hebrew. I think one thing that I've learned from you that's really great is knowingly or unknowingly you take really good advantage of social pressure in the sense that people ask can you tell them what you do and then you encourage them to challenge you. Tim Ferriss talks about this all the time like setting good stakes. I should probably advertise more often, and I try not to it because I don't like to be put on the spot too much. Then you're walking down the street and six months later you see someone who frankly just didn't impress you that much or wasn't that memorable to you, and oh you're the memory guy. But with that said, maybe I should be taking more advantage of that and I should be because it pushes you to use the techniques and social pressure is kind of a social accountability are kind really powerful things that I could use to improve my practice of memory. Anthony: I think you do have social pressure working in your favor and in other respects. My observation is, and it's absolutely incredible to me how that you can with we're talking about this or that subject, and the detail with which you go through the points that you want to make with names, dates, percentages. You have this laser-like accuracy in the things that you want to talk about, that I don't have like a mobile Internet thing where I can like check your accuracy or whatever. But it's so obvious to me that what you're reciting comes from something not that you've just memorized, but you've learned it so deeply that you've made it part of your knowledge base and that you're able to report on findings and inform other people from your mind unassisted. This is to me the demonstration that you l walk the walk and you talk that talk. Jonathan: Thank you, sir. I appreciate that very much. Anthony: I'm constantly impressed by it. Also just what you do in recorded settings on having your broadcast and so forth, because you refer to the people that you've interviewed on your podcast in ways that show me you've learned from what you've done using your own learning approach. Jonathan: You know what the craziest thing about it is? I think you can probably testify to this as well or attest to this as well, after a while you become so confident in your memory and your mind becomes so interconnected, I often don't need to use visual mnemonics anymore. I often don't even need to, because my brain is just like a hyper connected network and so like Ben Greenfield tells me something on the show, and I just connected it. I mean I guess maybe deep down intrinsically I do have a specific image that I remember from when he told me why he doesn't use gyms and he likes to work out of doors. I do have an image for that, but it's not like I'm sitting there and imagining it. I'm in conversations. I'm generating images as second nature and they're all just interconnecting to everything that I know. Ironically, we talked about this the last time we sat down with Jimmy and we recorded. I really want to figure out a way to get my brain tested because I have a theory that just everything has become so interconnected. Now one of the things that I want to talk about it that I want your audience to know is people are always like oh I well I learned Spanish and it pushed the Russian out of my mind. That is so not true. It's actually the more you use it, the more you have. The more I learn, the more I'm able to learn because I just have so many more connection points. Especially when you're learning about peripherally related things. The Ultimate Secret Weapon According To Jonathan Levi For example, when I started learning about hormonal balance, I knew more about weightlifting than I did about supplementation, but I was able to fill out clusters of neural networks because the more you learn the more you're able to learn, and the more you have as a basis. I would attribute I read a ton, I read a proper ton. I talk to a lot of people and I have a lot of conversations. I learn from many different sources, and I think that's like the secret weapon. Anthony: Well I know a way to test your brain. I'm going to create a hypothetical, and I want you to answer a question that I know is on a lot of people's minds. What do I do to get started on a particular thing? Like what's the first step that I need to take to learning a subject. What I'm going to do in this hypothetical is there's now something called the Magnetic Memory Method Memory Championships. That memory championship requires that you be able to memorize a deck of cards, and recall the order of that deck of cards that has been randomly shuffled in under twenty seconds. You have six months in order to develop the skill. The prize is $7 billion. I want to know what you're going to do as the first step in order to enable yourself to win that prize, knowing that you have six months to do it. Jonathan: Is the prize determined by speed or accuracy or what? Or it is just my ability to do it. Anthony: Just to keep it simple, anybody who can come and memorize a deck of cards. Now, let me condition this though, because the way it typically works is that they count the time that you spent memorizing. But I want it to be that within twenty seconds you can memorize it and recall it. I know that's totally hypothetical and totally impossible. Because it does take longer to do the active recall than it does to do the act of memorization, but just imagine that it is possible. That you could just go through a deck in ten seconds and then in another ten seconds you could say the order of what you saw. What is Hour 1 of what a SuperLearner is going to do to tackle this problem in order to win this prize? Jonathan: I think most people, especially if they read like some of Tim Ferriss' stuff would be like deconstruct the skill and understand. That would be probably in the first hour of work. The, first, first thing I would do is set goals. I need to know what my goal is, what do I need to be able to do. Then I would try to get in touch with my motivations, because adult learners as Malcolm Knowles taught us in 1955, there you go setting statistics, said that there are five adult learning requirements, and one of them is pressing need. One of them is a good learning environment. One of them is connection to prior knowledge, but another one is an understanding of why they're learning what they're learning. So I would connect with this $7 billion prize and ask is that why I'm doing it, am I doing it for pride or my doing it for whatever. Then I also need to know what do I need to be able to do? What are my deliverables? I would set goals. I would break those goals down into steps. They would be S.M.A.R.T. goals, specific, measurable, actionable, reasonable, timely goals: By this month, I'll be doing it one minute. By this month, I'll be doing it in thirty seconds, so and so forth. Then I get into all the accelerated learning stuff that people know me for. I would talk to you. I would talk to my buddy Nelson Dellis. I would read probably a couple hundred pages of different books on people who've done it. I'd read anything Ben Pridmore has come out with. I would not take this approach that many people do of like no, no I'm learning it this way not this way. I would learn it every possible way that I could, and then I would just build a training schedule around my a S.M.A.R.T. goals, and I would just get it done. Anthony: What would be a compelling reason to do something like that? Jonathan: For me? It comes down to like authenticity. The reason that I want to start playing around with memorizing cards is like I want to walk the walk to talk the talk. I speed read. So I'm cool teaching speedreading. I use memory techniques. So I'm cool teaching memory techniques, but I've taught PAO and I don't really use it that much. So I want to start using it more, even though I think it's important to give my audience like the full spectrum. On my show, I host people who talk about nutritarian eating and not eating too many animal products, and I don't really believe in that, but I think it's important to share the spectrum, expose people and let them create their own learning journey. This is something else that that Knowles tells us. You need self-directed learning. It's important. Kids will just do the homework because the teacher said, but adults will need to kind of feel that they have ownership and agency in the learning process. That's what I said when I said like an ideal respectful learning environment, a learning environment that respects their autonomous process. I'm starting to melt here. Anthony: We're going to hot and we're going to put this episode to rest, but I really appreciate everything that you've said. I think that it's always empowering to hear your perspective on things. I really appreciate that we could cover so much in this talk. I really hope that you will put time into memorizing cards because I'd love to pow-wow with you on it. I think that if we can walk away on one thing is that the power of your friendships with people has a lot to do with shared terrain and territory. The more you know, the more you can know and that means more people you can know and more people you can connect with, and you are a great connector. I really hope that people will find ways to connect with you by taking up your training as a first point of entry for sure, and getting on your podcast and mailing list and all the things that you do so that they're learning more and more from you. How can they do that? Jonathan: We'll put a link in the show notes, which you know Anthony is part of our ecosystem and stuff like that. If you guys want to support the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast then use his link, and you can check me out. My personal website is www.jle.vi. You can also check me out at Becoming A Superhuman if you want to download some free podcast episodes. Check out the show notes. I'm sure Anthony will have some resources for you guys. Anthony: We're going to have a transcript of this. I don't know if it's going to be available immediately upon publishing because we're going to hopefully get this out this week so that is in sync with what I said at the beginning, but thank you for tolerating the background noise. One of the things that I would point out is that we have and enjoy the success that we do because we jump on opportunity and when preparation meets opportunity, there is no ceiling. So until the time that we speak again, keep that in mind, keep it in memory, and keep yourself Magnetic. The post Jonathan Levi On Reducing Your Resistance To Learning appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could look at a piece of music once, instantly memorize the notes and then immediately start drilling it into muscle memory? The time you'd save using music mnemonics would be immense, and you'd experience much more pleasure learning music as a result. Here's the thing: You Can Memorize Music! But there's a catch. What I'm about to share is largely untested. I've completed some promising experiments, but haven't completed the full Memory Palace for any single instrument. That means I haven't used the approach I'll describe for you to its fullest potential. UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have made great strides. Here's a run down of where things currently stand with how to memorize notes on a guitar: Bottom line: I will keep exploring every nook and cranny of using mnemonics to remember music. And when I'm satisfied, I'll make a course about how you can use the method too. In the meantime, the concepts are far too exciting not to share. They're also so logical, coherent and mnemonically beautiful. It will be impossible for you not to grow in memory and mind if you choose to tinker with them. And who knows? You might come up with a cool variation that winds up in the forthcoming book and video course! Music Mnemonics: The Ground Rules First off, we need to establish some ground rules and guiding principles for music mnemonics. When talking about memorizing music, we need to be specific about what kind of music and for what instrument. Or, we need to focus on particular parts of music theory. To just throw around the term "music mnemonics" risks confusing everyone. If we're talking about musical terminology, that's easy. Just treat the terms like you would any professional material, like you would using the second edition of How to Learn and Memorize Legal Terminology. Since numbers might be involved, go in prepared with the Major Method. If you want to memorize notes on the staff, there are already well-established mnemonics for that. I don't have much to add when it comes to Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge for the treble stave and FACE for the notes between the lines. You can find lots more mnemonics for music like these all over the net, but in truth … You're Always Better Coming Up With Your Own Music Mnemonics Why does this matter? Because you're on the Magnetic Memory Method website to master music mnemonics and other memory techniques. Not goof around with yet another crutch of limited, short-term value. You're here to learn skills that will serve you for life and that means learning to make music mnemonics of your own. Here's how a thorough reading and re-reading of this material will help: What I'm going to cover in this post is the memorization of the notes on the fretboard of stringed instruments like the guitar and the keys of a piano. This material is a demonstration of what is possible if you combine a number of Magnetic Memory Method elements and see your instrument as its own kind of Memory Palace. To accomplish this, we need to know how to use instruments like guitars and pianos in terms of what note falls on which spatial position. I'll make a few suggestions about chords, but beyond that, I cannot currently say much. There are a lot of aspects to music and what I've got for you is just a piece of the puzzle. But Oh What A Piece! Let's look at guitar first. For some much earlier writing I put out on the topic, you might want to start with Memorize Bach On Bass. Or, just dive in. The fretboard of the guitar is a field that can be expressed using coordinates. In this way, the fretboard shares characteristics with the chess board (something I believe this approach will also help with when it comes to memorizing chess moves). For example, E appears several times in the fretboard. A string, 7th fret D string, 2nd fret E string, 12th fret There are several more appearances, including the open string noted and 12th fret positions on the E strings themselves. If we say that each open note is represented by 0, as it is in guitar tablature, then we can agree that each note has a numerically expressible geographical coordinates. This May Be The Simplest Unused Technique In All Of Music Learning Next, let's try and make each string more concrete. For example, I play primarily 5-string bass, so my strings all have an associated character: B = Bob (Played by Bill Murray in What About Bob?) E = Ernie from Sesame Street A = Al Pacino D = Dracula (As played by Bela Lugosi) G = Grover from Sesame Street Coming up with these figures took approximately 2 minutes. Probably less, but I didn't have a timer running. If you play any stringed instrument, be it a 4-stringed violin or a 21-string sitar, I recommend you name each string. It makes for great mental exercise. Next, since you're a clever fan of the Magnetic Memory Method, you already know the Major Method. You're set to get started. You'd Be Crazy Not To Have This Math Memory Weapon In Your Arsenal In case you don't know the Major Method, here's a simplified primer: The idea is to link consonants with numbers. Like this: 0 = soft c or s 1 = d or t 2 = n 3 = m 4 = r 5 = l 6 = ch, g, j, sh 7 = k 8 = f or v 9 = b or p From this point, you can make words when you pair two numbers together by inserting a vowel. The vowel you use is largely arbitrary, but the trick is to find a word that represents a concrete person or object that exists in the world. For example, we know that E appears in the 7th fret of the A string. Since 7 is a solo number, let's call it 07. That gives us "s" and "k" using the Major Method. The first thing that came to mind for me is the word "sack." Since the A string itself is represented by Al Pacino, having him do something with a sack tells us instantly that our target information is located on the 7th fret of the A string. All we need now is a sign to tell us that the note on that fret is E. Since we've already established that open E is Ernie, we can use him in the image. Therefore, the image of Al Pacino placing a bag over Ernie's head to strangle him let's us instantly decode the following information: The 7th fret in the A string is E. To take another quick example, E on the 12th fret of the E string itself could have the image of Ernie getting a "tan" from a "ton" of "tuna." It's bizarre and makes no sense, but is easy to remember. I'm compounding 3 words that have "t" and "n" to create words that mean 12 in the Major Method. E on the 2nd fret of the D string is 02, which lets us imagine Dracula pushing the "sun" into Ernie's face, again using the corresponding number-sound associations from the Major Method to create this word. In sum, where E appears on the fretboard, we can instantly know where it is by having a predetermined system that links: A string Bridging Figure with a note Bridging Figure to a sound-number spatial co-ordinate. If for some reason you needed to play E in these three positions and wanted to instantly remember that order, all you'd need to do is experience either visually or conceptually a story in your mind: Al Pacino pops a sack over Ernie's head, but he escaped to get tanned by a ton of tuna before Dracula shoves the sun in his face. It's A Mouthful To Explain … But This Technique Sure Packs A Punch! Just imagine: If you had a character for each note, a character for each string and the Major Method, you could memorize the sequence of any riff, solo, scale or notes in a chord. But There's A Problem! What if your instrument isn't tuned in E or you change tunings often? I'll admit that I don't have a solution for this, but I'm working on it. If you're set in C, B, or any other note, then you can create this system using the core principles you've just learned. When it comes to changing tunings ranging from a single string to placing them all in different tunings (in The Outside we played in C#), you at least have fixed relations to rely upon. For example, if your E string is in C#, the first fret on that string will be D. You can name your string Bridging Figures and still use the Major Method and your objects or actions accordingly relative to the position of the notes in the tuning environment. Column Theory Another music mnemonics idea I'm developing involves the frets as columns. For example, we've seen the 7th fret involve a sack, the 12th tanning and tuna by the ton, and the 2nd the sun. What if these fret Bridging Figures represented those frets for each string? The 2nd fret A note on the G string also involves the sun (Grover pulling the sun out of Al Pacino's nose.) The D on the 7th fret of the G also includes a sack (Grover putting a sack over Dracula's head). By operating in this way, you drastically cut down on the number of images and actions you would need to create music mnemonics for the entire fretboard. You also create a lot of repetition that could initially create confusion, however. You just need to dive in, experiment and see what works best for you. How To Apply The Major Method To Memorizing Piano In a similar vein, to get a similar spatial representation on the piano keyboard, you need only give each key a number. To make a word for each, simply assign a zero to each single digit, giving you nine words that start with s. Mine are: 01 = Sad tragedy face 02 = Sun 03 = Sammich (White trash pronunciation of "sandwich") 04 = Sartre (the French existentialist philosopher) 05 = Sal (character from Dog Day Afternoon) 06 = Sash 07 = Sack 08 = Savi (friend from university) 09 = Saab car covered in Maple Syrup I haven't done all the keys on the piano keyboard, but assuming I owned an 88 hammer Grand Piano, the 88th key might be the singer of Voivod or a Volvo. In each case, there's an extra consonant, but this would never lead to confusion because the piano I own would never have more than 88 keys. The cool thing here is that you'll always know not just where Middle C is, but also its number. And you'll be able to create a story to memorize any chord, which can also be used to help remember scales and useful for many other applications. The One Step With Music Mnemonics Nearly Everyone Forgets The tools you've just learned are exciting and will be game-changing for any musician who wants to learn them. You just need to sit down and do the preparatory assigning of the notes and numbers. However, in order to get the fullest possible benefit, you need to also rehearse the assignments you make in your mind with the instrument in hand. Then, when you look at sheet music and make up a story, you can quickly "translate" that story into practice. Following these steps will get the notes into long-term memory the fastest. In fact, you should not expect to or even desire to play music from the Memory Palace you've made of your instrument. The sole purpose of this music mnemonics technique? It's a tool. You can use it for drilling the scales, music theory material and song passages into long-term memory for performance. It's a tool for making any piece of music part of you in ways that go beyond just recall and music muscle memory. This should be your goal for language learning too, which I mention because language learning and music learning share many similarities. That's true even if you use something like Gabriel Wyner's Fluent Forever App. When it comes to spoken fluency, the number one mistake people make: is thinking that they need to go into their Memory Palaces to find imagery and decode words on the fly during conversations. This is not the case at all! Rather, you use the Magnetic Memory Method learning process for Recall Rehearsal. Recall Rehearsal means mentally revisiting the information a sufficient number of times to get the information into long-term memory. So whether it's foreign language words in a sentence or notes and chords in a musical phrase, use the mnemonics to drill the sequences into the muscle memory of your tongue or fingers. Even speed card memory pros take a long time reading the sequences they've memorized in their mind, far longer than it took to memorize the cards themselves. When it comes to music, you've got to play it in real-time according to an established construct of time. The tools you've just learned will help, but must be used in the service of placing the music so it ultimately comes from your body an soul with minimal involvement of your memory and your mind. Moving forward, I've ordered Dean Vaughn's Vaughn Cube for Music Theory. I'm a fan of Vaughn's book, How to Remember Anything: The Proven Total Memory Retention System. However, after using his fixed, 10-station Memory Palace approach a few dozen times, I don't find it as clean or practical as his work suggests and continue to prefer the flexibility of the Magnetic Memory Method. It's possible, however, that his approach to music mnemonics will give me insight into: * Better incorporating sharps and flats in the current method I'm developing. At the moment, I don't see this as a pressing need because I already know a sufficient amount about music. But it would be helpful for others to have music mnemonics and other strategies for memorizing which notes take sharps and flats and where they reside on the fret and keyboards. * Memorizing relative and minor keys quickly and permanently. * Recall triads in major, minor, diminished and augmented forms for any note at will. * Handle chord permutations with ease. * Complete mastery of all the scales in every key. * And much, much more! In the meantime, are you ready to give the current state of this exciting new branch of the Magnetic Memory Method a whirl? If so – Awesome! I'm excited to hear what you think about this approach to music mnemonics and look forward to your feedback on this preliminary description. Sincerely, Anthony Metivier P.S. Gracious acknowledgment is due to John McPhedrine with whom I've had many discussions about this approach to remembering different aspects of music using music mnemonics. This write-up is also dedicated to Jonathan Levi who has been pleasing the world with multiple instruments lately. Have fun! The post Music Mnemonics For Guitar And Piano [Amazing Music Memory Method] appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

You're probably sick to death with the adult coloring books craze, right? I was too. Until I realized one thing. Adult Coloring Books Are A Great Way To Practice Memory Improvement! But before we get into the magic of that … There are a few huge problems people who use the Magnetic Memory Method and other mnemonics face. 1. Not enough time. 2. Not enough creativity. 3. Not enough relaxation. Let's deal with each of these in order and see how adult coloring books can help. How To Wrestle Time Into Submission And Win Every Time The problem of time is easily solved. Stop telling yourself you don't have enough time! That's the first step and an important one. The more you tell yourself that time is running out, moving too fast and not on your side, the more you're pushing it away. Please understand one thing: Time is your servant, and you are its master. You just have to take the reigns and maintain control. How? Well, as I talked about in Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics and Morning Memory Secrets, you need to let go out of the concept of discipline. Seriously. People constantly tell me I'm such a disciplined person, but the truth is that I'm not any more or less disciplined than your average Manic Depressive alcoholic heroin-addict gutted with debt living in the gutter. The difference is that I use rituals and systems. And I do so in a way that minimizes the need to be disciplined. Such as not acting like a person who already has a memory implant. Can You Use My Daily Productivity Systems? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't believe you can carbon copy what another person does, which is why when it comes to mnemonics, memory improvement and creating your first rock-solid Memory Palace I teach you the Magnetic Memory Method. It's a method that teaches you how to create your own system of Memory Palaces. The same thing goes for learning how to control your time. You're never going to reproduce what anyone else does. But you can emulate their methods to create your own system. If adult coloring books become part of that, awesome. But it all begins with saying "Yes!" to making a change and replacing discipline with systems. Once you've got that under control, create an If-this-then-that sequence. How To Fire Off The Perfect Time Control Sequence Rules, as Tony Buzan said at a recent training I attended, set you free. Poets have known this for years. When Shakespeare submitted himself to the rules of the sonnet, for example, he managed to write X NUMBER of the most beautiful poems history has ever seen. That's not to mention the glorious theatre he produced following other rules and guidelines at the level of dramatic structure and the sentence. When it comes right down to it, constraints are not restrictive. They're productive. So my method is to chain together a number of "ifs" and then tie those to follow-up sequences to ensure that I'm living the life of my dreams. (Crazy, but yes, playing with adult coloring books while using memory techniques is part of my dream lifestyle.) My "If-This-Then-That" Revealed … Here's a sample morning ritual sequence: If I get up in the morning (which I always do), I meditate for 9 minutes. If I meditate for 9 minutes, then I start the day off on solid footing with The Freedom Journal. If I write in The Freedom Journal, then I study Chinese and learn 3 new words. If I study Chinese and learn 3 new words, I write a minimum of 1000 words on a new book project. If I write, I eat breakfast. If I eat breakfast, then I memorized some playing cards. If I memorize some playing cards, then the computer goes on. Does It Always Work Out That Way? Close, but not always exactly. For example, sometimes I eat before I meditate. Other times, I write before I study Chinese. The actual elements of the chain are interchangeable except for the last one. It's the last one that matters the most because the computer is the great destroyer. Why? Because … We All Have Limited Discipline Once the machine goes on, emails blast into my eyes. Friends and family Skype text me. Uploads fail. Shiny new objects glitter and grab my attention. That's why the important things must get done first. Why I Grab Adult Coloring Books Last Thing In The Day The evening ritual unpacks and reinforces a lot of what the morning ritual established and follows the same pattern. Although I've painted a picture of constant interruptions while the machine is on, I'm still quite productive. I make videos, write email, work on editing books and do all kinds of things during the day. But everything proceeds towards a final computer curfew. That curfew rule states that the computer should go off at 9 p.m., but can stay on until 10 p.m. at the latest. I leave that window open because I'm a Realist and know that sometimes I'll need the slack. Plus, being draconian with the rules often just paves the path for breaking them. As I once heard it put, all too often, it is the law that creates the crime. States of exception are necessary and trying to fight against them often only makes them the norm. Overall, the chain unfolds in a new equation. Instead of an "if this then that" pattern, it's more like a "when this then that" sequence. The "When-This-Then-That" Variation For example: When the computer goes off at nine, then I read. When I finish reading, I use one of my adult coloring books to color and practice Magnetic Memory Method Recall Rehearsal. When I practice recalling words in one of my adult coloring books, I recall the words I memorized earlier in the day first. When I practice these words, I always try and jot them out in the form of a sentence. I don't worry too much about accuracy. I focus on the practice of doing. Fearlessly and for fun. And guess what? It truly is fun, and you get to sleep a lot better knowing that you've covered your primary goals for the day. Why You Need More Creativity And How To Ethically Steal It That covers time. It's a simple affair to get it under control and direct its power at your goals instead of being its slave. That only leads to dissatisfaction. Worse, not having time under your control builds up guilty feelings that destroy self-confidence. It's a devil's circle that only gets worse and worse as time goes on. Creativity is the next issue you need to tackle. Fortunately, it's even easier to control than time. You just need to make the time for exploring it. Why do you need creativity? First, if you're going to use memory techniques, it's essential because all Mnemonics rely on the ability to associate information you already know with information you don't know. I like to think about it like magnetizing one thing so that it sticks to another. It's kind of like rubbing a balloon against your shirt and then letting the balloon hug up against the wall. It completely defies gravity, and it only takes a second to make the magic happen. Creativity Solves Problems You also need creativity to solve problems in the world, which is perhaps why adult coloring books seem like a weird way to get more of your creative faculties. But when you're completing a design in one of your adult coloring books and revisiting a Memory Palace journey using the Magnetic Memory Method, you're not just exercising your memory. You're developing your creativity and even your critical thinking abilities. This growth occurs because you're matching Memory Palace locations with images and playing a fun game of comparisons. Plus, you're using rules in much the same way that Shakespeare used constraints to write amazing plays and sonnets. And when you think about it, adult coloring books are an easy way to submit to the constraint of rules too. After all, you're looking at a series of pre-designed lines and simply filling them in. This "submission" to formal constraints provided by others leaves your mind free to wander. Why Information Is Like A Balloon And Your Memory Is Like A Wall And when it comes to using adult coloring books, you free yourself to yet another level of constraints. I'm talking about the friendly and helpful rules of the Magnetic Memory Method. As you know, the MMM allows you to create your own systems of powerful Memory Palaces you can use to quickly learn, memorize and recall anything you wish. And that's just the beginning of the brain exercises I share. And units of information really are just like balloons that you can rub and stick to the walls of your Memory Palaces. Yes, sometimes you have to go back and rub a bit more static into them, but that's a minor issue. It's just like going to the gym to pump a bit more muscle into your arms. Do it right and it's so good for you. Kind of like when you use The Freedom Journal for language learning and memory improvement. As for adult coloring books, they're kind of like the weights in your gym of effortless learning. Just get in bed, pop one onto your lap and let the creativity begin to flow. Say Goodbye To Stress As far as I'm concerned, we as adults succumb to stress because we've left childhood behind. Adult coloring books are a great way to get the stress-free wonder of childhood back, even if just for 10-15 minutes at a time. Add in the Magnetic Memory Method Recall Rehearsal process and you'll be sailing along. To make it even more powerful, meditate first and throw in some breathing and muscle relaxation exercises. The more I practice these, the more profound my experience of commanding time and enhanced creativity grows. All from spending just a bit of time every day with adult coloring books. And this is coming from a long-haired Heavy Metal bassist who previously wouldn't have been caught dead doing sissy creativity exercises! In sum, if I can take these steps to learn more, remember more, experience higher levels of creativity and enjoy much more relaxation in my life, anyone can. And the benefits reach out into so many areas of life, you just can't imagine how profoundly happy you can become. My recommendation: Get yourself some adult coloring books. There are oodles out there to choose from and I'd be delighted if you'd add Creativity Kickstarter: The Magnetic Memory Method Coloring Book to your collection. If you do, there's a special link inside where you can get a video that shows you more about how to connect the process of coloring in adult coloring books to memory improvement. No matter which of the many adult coloring books you choose, don't turn your nose up at this unusual, but amazing activity. Hardly a day passes when someone doesn't email to tell me how impressed they've been by one of the kids they've heard on the Magnetic Memory Method podcast. If you haven't heard Alicia or Imogen talk about their experience, check out: Tap The Mind Of A 10-Year Old Memory Palace Master Memory Improvement Techniques For Kids You can also tune into How To Teach Your Kids Memory Techniques in case you're not already sharing these skills with the young people in your life. And why not spend some time coloring with them too in one of your adult coloring books while teaching them about memory? Helping young people learn and remember information with greater ease is one of the best things you can do for the world. Why? Because the more you learn, the more you can learn. And the more you know, the more information you have to associate with, creating growth spurts in your smarts that lead to spontaneous eruptions of knowledge that truly can take you from wherever you are now to genius levels of intelligence. Yes, all by adding adult coloring books to your current learning and memory practice. And if you want to add more ideas to the pile, check out Jesse Villalobos' Magnetic Memory Method Review. We talk about turning your mind into a kind of coloring book. It won't look exactly like this though… Sound like fun? Great! Send me a pic of yourself doing some coloring or one of your completed designs. I'd love to see it, just like some of the images I've already received from people who have been using Creativity Kickstarter that have been featured on this page. The post Adult Coloring Books For Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Be honest about your experience with mnemonics. You've read a book or two, maybe even taken a video course. And yet … You're Still Scrambling To Recall Information! If that sounds like you, then here's the sad truth: You're suffering from "memory improvement randomness." That's what happens when people read a book on mnemonics, take a stab at the techniques and then … give up … only to pick up another book by someone else and try all over again. Fortunately, there's a cure. In fact, there are 7 of them. Why Most People Are Allergic To Mnemonics First off, let's look at one big problem. The word "mnemonics" isn't all that sexy, is it? And it sounds an awful lot like "pneumonic," in the singular "mnemonic" form, which makes it sound even more like this beautiful art relates to pneumonia. "Mnemotechnics" is nicer, and definitely won't make you sick. But the "technics" part makes the whole thing sound like hard work. That's no good. Because the truth is that mnemonics are not only easy, but they're the most exciting activity in the world. And that's the key to falling in love with this special field of personal improvement. How To Find Excitement In The World's Oldest Mental Art To locate and embrace the excitement of using mnemonics and memory techniques, you first need to get rid of the notion that any of this is "hard work." It isn't. Never has been. Never will be. Unless you decide that it must be. That's all mindset and this podcast on developing better mindset will help you with that. Bookmark those resources for later as we dive into the 7 Eternal Laws Of Memory Improvement. Follow each of these laws of mnemonics and you will quickly find the fun in using memory techniques and never forget what a wild ride the art of memory can be. 1. You Have The Duty To Go Insane With Your Mnemonics The trick to remembering anything is association. You take a piece of information you don't know and associate it with something you do. For example, I had no idea the word 感到 (gǎn dào) meant to feel. But I do know of a character named Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. And in my imagination, I know how to hurt his feelings. So that's what I did. In the craziest way possible. Then, using the drawing skills I have, I got it down on paper to make the learning process even faster and easier. Of course, the trouble with teaching mnemonics is that I can't exactly show you exactly what the imagery looks like in my mind. I would need a Hollywood film crew and a Spielberg-sized budget for that. But rest assured that what happens when Gandalf feeds the Tao Te Ching to that black horse isn't pretty. But it helps me remember not only the sound and the meaning of the word, but also its tones in Mandarin. If you'd like to get better at making crazy imagery in your imagination, check out the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode called Mindshock: How To Make Amazing Visual Imagery And Memorize More Stuff. 2. Every Building You've Ever Been In Is Infinitely Valuable To get the most from mnemonics, you need to locate the crazy images you come up with in a Memory Palace. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that Memory Palaces take too much work, and that's probably my fault. You see, I've used the phrase "build Memory Palaces" when talking about mnemonics thousands of times. What I really mean is "create" Memory Palaces – or whatever word you need that involves spending 2-5 minutes creating a fantastic tool you can use to organize and store your mnemonics. If you don't already know how to build create a Memory Palace, I suggest you register for my Free Memory Improvement Kit right away. If you're already a pro when it comes to this realm of mnemonics, then kudos to you. Send me a scan or picture of one of your Memory Palaces by email. I'd love to see it. The important point is that you have learned the Memory Palace skill. It is the ultimate form of mnemonics because it lets you use every other kind of memory technique inside its walls. And since the most efficient Memory Palaces tend to be based on actual buildings you've visited, that means you can increase the real estate value of them all. Instead of just handing over your rent or paying down a mortgage so you can store your stuff while working, why not store your memories their too? It's a great way to make every building you've ever known invaluable using mnemonics. 3. Always Begin With A Clear Picture Of The End In Mind One thing that trips up just about every beginner with memory techniques is planning. Each memory project is unique, which means you need to take stock of the situation and work out a few things in advance. For example, if you like to learn languages online as opposed to from a textbook, you'll have different amounts and kinds of material to memorize. When I work with a Chinese teacher, for example, I have different Memory Palaces than I do for Spanish. When I'm memorizing music, my use of mnemonics differs a great deal, and in that case, the Memory Palace is the instrument itself. See Memorize Bach on Bass for some preliminary music memory explorations and my discussion with John McPhedrine for his current music mnemonics ideas. But no matter how you approach mnemonics (and even when you learn without mnemonics), you need a plan. 4. Know Your Passion Inside And Out It breaks my heart when people struggle with learning. The problem usually isn't with them, however, and it's never with the information. It's always THE COMBINATION of the two. Let's face it: some people just don't like some of the things they wind up studying. Yet, for various reasons, they feel stuck with a topic or simply have to fulfill a commitment. For most of us, most of the time, we can skip the problem altogether by finding topics to learn that we're truly in love with. Because when times get tough – and they always do eventually – passion will pull you through. 5. Believe In The Natural Abilities Of Your Imagination And Nurture Them If there's on thing that gets newbies and old pros with mnemonics in a rut fast, it's a sudden drop in self-confidence. It happens to the best of us. Even I avoided tackling Japanese and Chinese for a long time because I worried mnemonics wouldn't help with these languages. The solution for when confidence dries up? Certainly not dinky software brain games to which some people run. No, we want to nurture our mind with simple creativity exercises at which we cannot fail. For example, the Creativity Kickstarter is a great way to return to the basics by coloring while recalling some information you've already confidently memorized. For example, when I go to the Creativity Kickstarter when I find a current Memory Palace and its mnemonics too challenging. This happened a lot with my Chinese C Memory Palace – probably because of the Memory Palace I chose for it. To reduce my frustration, I got out the Creativity Kickstarter and while working with it, I practiced Recall Rehearsal by firing off the mnemonics in Chinese Memory Palace B. My success in that Memory Palace boosted my confidence back up to the top and the C Memory Palace no longer felt so challenging. 6. Close The Deal By Knowing Your Numbers Can you remember the 3rd Eternal Law of Memory Improvement? If not, scroll back up and take a peek. If you do remember it, good work! What mnemonics did you use to memorize it? The point is this: A huge part of knowing where you're going is determining how you'll know if you got there. For me, I currently have a goal of memorizing 3 new Chinese words every morning before I turn the computer on. Why only 3? It's because Chinese is different than other languages I've tinkered around with. Whereas a German word is just sound and meaning with spelling so intuitive it makes my Macbook Pro ashamed, Chinese vocabulary involves: * Sound + correct tones * Meaning * Characters In my mind, each word is actually 3 words and each requires 3 mnemonics. (Or more. At the moment I'm using the Major Method for the tones.) How do I know if I've successfully memorized 3 words at the end of the day? Easy. I test. If I can recall them at the end of the day and the next morning and correctly use them in a sentence, then I've memorized them. In other words, I don't leave recalling what I've memorized to chance. I test as a matter of course to ensure that when the time comes to use the word or phrase in actual context, the mnemonics are there for me. Skip this Eternal Law at your own risk. 7. You Must Keep Going Unused talents die and turn to dust with alarming speed. Once you join us mnemonists who practice the art of memory and make mnemonics a way of life, you have to keep going. Like any skill you can hone, to keep it sharp, you've got to use it. How? Easy. Make sure that you're follow all 7 of the Eternal Laws of Memory Improvement. Each feeds the other, making a bullet proof shield that no sword of forgetfulness can penetrate. Not only will you be able to learn, memorize and recall anything, but you'll accomplish goals that have evaded you and feel amazing. Never forget that memory and confidence connect at the hip. The more confident you are in your memory, the more confident you'll be in all areas of life. This leads to rich new experiences that give you more exciting memories. And the more experiences you have to draw on in life, the more associations you can make when using mnemonics. Isn't that exciting? Quick Recap 7 Eternal Laws of Memory Improvement When Using Mnemonics 1. You must create insane associative-imagery that is impossible to forget. 2. You must locate that imagery in specific and easy to find Memory Palace locations. 3. You must have the end goal in mind. Knowing where you're going will ensure you have as Memory Palaces as you need (or at least keep you creating them as you go along so you never run out). 4. You must be passionate about what you're learning. If you don't value the topic or the larger topic it belongs to … what on earth are you spending time on it for? 5. You must believe in the natural abilities of your imagination and nurture them. 6. You must test and track your results. 7. You must keep going. 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You've thought about getting fluent in at least one other language, right? In fact, you've already imagined yourself speaking fluently with native speakers. You even feel a wave of pride wash over you. And you want to feel that wave of pride wash over you. But you can't travel at the moment and the idea of commuting to a class and sitting with strangers horrifies you. The good news is that you know you can learn languages online. You're just not sure how. 3 Rock Solid Reasons To Learn Languages Online Before I tell you about how to use Skill Silo, let's take a quick look at why learning language is a smart move. 1. Learning a language is the king of all brain games. A lot of people look for mental exercise, but nothing pays off more than packing your mind full of foreign language vocabulary and phrases. 2. You make back your investment in droves. Learning a language costs three things: time, money and energy. As you develop fluency, over time you get an amazing return on your investment. Memories that last forever. Greater chances at meaningful employment. Boosts of energy-creating confidence. 3. You make new friends. People love it when you can speak their language. Not only that, but you can be a better friend. You can teach your monolingual friends cool words, phrases and elements of another culture. You also get to introduce the friends you meet in your new language to aspects of your mother tongue and culture. It's win-win and you get to be the hero. And if you're a parent searching for ways to learn languages online for kids, your children will not only make friends through language learning online programs. They'll also find mentors who teach them how to learn. Plus, language learning is great memory exercise and you can use the language learning environment as an opportunity to teach your kids memory techniques. There are many more reasons why you should learn a language. You'll find another 15 Reasons Why Learning A Foreign Language Is Good For Your Brain here. Why Most Online Language Platforms Are Distressingly Bad There are dozens of places you can learn languages online. Some are really awesome and I still use them. Italki.com, for example, has oodles of great features. With some sift-sort-and-screen skills under your belt, you can find really great teachers. But a lot of places have confusing payment plans. It's not clear why their teachers have the privilege of teaching online and there seems to be no standard. Plus, you get a wash of language learning materials that you always have to hunt for. 3 Things I Love About Skill Silo Skill Silo solves a lot of the problems I've just mentioned. I'm a big boy, for example, so I like when I see the cost of my language learning sessions clearly expressed in a real currency. I don't have to translate money in my head so I know exactly what I'm paying. This transparency helps me evaluate the value of the teacher I'm learning from as well because it feels like real cash I'm spending, not Monopoly money. On other platforms, I've felt like the payment structures are deliberately obscure so that I don't really know how much I'm spending or how much I'm getting for my investment. I also like that I can choose whether I want one hour or 30-minute sessions. On some other platforms, it's up to the instructor what length of classes they offer. However, I like to vary the session lengths each time depending on my goals with different teachers. When I do "vocab-en-masse" blitzes, then an hour is great. But for theme-based lessons for developing skills with a verb and some nouns, 30-minutes is plenty to get the jist and do the homework myself. One Textbook In One Place Skill Silo also has the advantage of providing you with a textbook. This feature has saved me a lot of time. Yes, I'm a memory expert, but I work sometimes with dozens of language teachers in the space of a year and when each one has their own worksheets and file-naming styles … It can be a real mess. I love that Skill Silo offers a central textbook. When the teachers do offer supplementary worksheets, they are just that: supplements to a core textbook I can access anytime online through my Skill Silo account. Having access to the textbook in full also means I can pace ahead and think about what I would like to focus on during the next session. This feature helps maximize the value of the time, energy and money invested because the best learners are self-directed learners. But on some other platforms I've used, it feels like the teachers use their learning materials like a gateway drug. It's as if they imagine that if they dole it out once dose at a time, you'll keep coming back for more. Not necessarily. Mistakes To Avoid When You Learn Languages Online At the end of the day, no matter what platform you use, the teacher can only be as good as the student. That means you need to come prepared to your lessons. The question is … how do you do this? It's a bit of a puzzle to figure out because when you learn languages online, the answer involves having the right teacher. In order to find the right teacher, you've got to dive in and try a few out. In fact, it might be necessary to have more than one teacher. Both Olly Richards and I tend to meet with several teachers in rotation and you can hear Olly's reasons why along with his crazy language learning goals and mastering motivation secrets. Here are some general tips: 1. Don't delay. As this Guardian article points out, the question "Can I successfully learn a language online?" puzzles a lot of people. Don't let it. Just pick a teacher who looks good and book a session. Far too many people hum and haw over this step. But that's just an evasion tactic. You want to learn a language, so you need to dive in somewhere. And don't let perfectionism stop you. Chances are you'll need to try at least two teachers before you find a match. 2. Invest in screen recording software. I use Screenflow, a software which lets me review each session if I wish. I've cut my voice out of the recordings and made audiobooks of lessons so I can listen through them quickly, make notes and use the Magnetic Memory Method to memorize the material. A lot of people don't think to record their language learning sessions, but doing so is golden. If things get overwhelming or you zone out, it's never a problem. You can go through the lesson again as many times as you like. 3. Come to the session prepared. Always come with the material from last week ready so you can quickly review before diving into something new. Even if you haven't memorized all of it, you should have your homework ready to share with the teacher so you can go over it. 4. Think ahead. As you work on new material, consciously use what you already know from the previous week. For example, if you learned about aunts and uncles last week and you're doing fruit this week, talk about how your uncle likes strawberries. Your teacher might not think to make the connection, but you can. And to succeed, you must. Ultimately, you'll be the one out in the world speaking, so it's great exercise to already have in mind what you want to speak about prepared for each lesson and make connections during the sessions. You'll be doing that in real life too, so consider it training ground. 5. Mind your manners. Always be on time, always say thank you and speak as little in your mother tongue as possible. It's good to be able to ask questions in your mother tongue, but move to the language you're studying as soon as possible. 6. Schedule multiple sessions in advance. If you book sessions in bulk, you create milestones that help you organize your daily language learning activities. If you don't have a daily learning ritual, check out these morning memory secrets. 7. Understand and use the power of motivation. There's a science to keeping your energy and enthusiasm high, so don't feel like you have to slog through the process. Also, learn to balance the level of challenge. As James Clear discusses, The Goldilocks Rule is the key to success in life and it works in the business of language learning too. 8. Make a blog that documents your journey. Have you ever noticed how often I talk about my language learning stories on this blog? Well, it's not by accident. When you talk about what you're learning, you process it through different representational channels in your brain. Writing about your language learning experiences sinks what you've learned into deeper channels. I remember 办公室 (bàngōngshì) better than a lot of other words, for example, because I took the time to teach other people how I learned it. I've talked about it on the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, written about it and even shared a drawing of what I saw in my mind so that I could instantly memorize the sound, meaning and tones of the word: If blogging isn't for you, simply tell other people what you're learning and explain why you're remembering it so easily thanks to the Magnetic Memory Method. As you've heard me say a zillion times before, when you teach others what you've learned, you learn it better yourself. My poor roommate, friends and fiancé have to listen to endless explanations of the bizarre imagery I use to create mnemonics that work, but it's part of getting the highest possible levels of success. Fast. And that's an important point. Even though you can learn languages online, you also want to speak what you've learned at every possible opportunity – even with people who aren't studying your target language. If you don't have any friends, explain the mnemonics you're using to your teacher. I'm sure they'll be amused and enthused that you're remembering the lessons and love knowing more about how you're pulling it all off. 9. Never stop learning. Fluency is not a destination. It's a way of life. To this day I work on improving my best language, including memorizing German phrases. Just as you need to keep doing pushups to keep your muscles strong, you need to keep speaking with people in order for fluency levels to remain high. When you can learn languages online, there's no reason not to keep up this practice for the rest of your life. Free Online Language Courses Are A Supplement To Speaking (Not An Alternative) It's tempting to think you can learn a language by playing around all day with language learning apps. There are many out there and they do help get words and phrases into your long term memory. However, with some of them, you're hearing the language spoken by a computer. They're also often not giving you words and phrases that are even remotely useful to you. Finally, when it comes time to speak a language, you have a human in front of you. Not a mouse and keyboard. You might also think you can get to fluency with a "learn languages online chat" mission. Chatting certainly can help, but the same principle applies. You need to speak and you need to speak often. But if you are going to chat online, then with whom better than a dedicated language learning teacher? They'll know a lot about your current situation, have spoken with you and if you're using Skype, you'll have an easily accessible track record of your discussions. Just make sure that you actually speak about what you discussed during your online chat. Get the words and phrases into the muscle memory of your mouth, not just your fingers. When Will You Make The Leap From Dreamer To Speaker? Learning a language involves making a lot of mistakes. The sooner you get started the better. The cool thing about how we can learn languages online in today's world is that you can make those mistakes in the comfort of your own home. Only one other person has to know – and that person can be a trained professional. Or you can be a bit more public and share words you're learning on YouTube, like I do with playlist on how to improve vocabulary with mnemonic examples: No matter how you proceed, now that you know why you should be learning a language and have some solid tips for getting started on solid footing, there's really only one mistake you can make: Not getting started. But if you're ready right now, Skill Silo offers lessons in: Arabic Chinese English Farsi French German Hebrew Italian Japanese Russian Portuguese Spanish Their teachers are professional, dedicated and the system is easy to use. If you've ever wanted a simple way to book instructors, a brain-dead simple means of accessing one core textbook so you're not swamped with learning materials and sessions you can record and refer to again and again. Why not schedule your first free session now? This is what you'll see when you visit Skill Silo now to book your first session: If you're ready to experience live sessions with language teachers in the comfort of your own home, then then I know you're going to love learning your dream language with the help of Skill Silo. Just click the image above, select your desired language and you can easily get started right away. 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Before you dump another moment of your life into searching for brain games that improve your memory, please realize one thing: Your Brain Exercises Need To Be About Something … Here's the deal: A lot of memory games and other brain-enhancing apps try to help improve your memory by giving you abstract or arbitrary memory tasks. For example, you might be asked to remember the locations of a detective's cap, magnifying glass and a detection kit behind a set of tiles. The Sherlock Holmes theme is certainly clever, but exactly what kind of memory skills does this exercise train? The answer is easy: General memory skills. That's it and nothing more. Or … … maybe even less. After all, general brain games help you get good at remembering the location of imaginary objects hidden behind squares on a tiny computer screen. And you have to ask yourself … Does That Sound Like A Useful Skill To You? Is there anything wrong with this kind general of brain exercise? Not necessarily. This Scientific American article finds no harm in playing them (few demonstrable benefits either). But if you want to get better at remembering the information that matters … Play Games With Information That Matters! Seriously. If you want to harness the power of neuroplasticity, give your neurons toys that are congruent with your end goal. Yes, a basketball player completes some training drills that don't involve a basketball for general fitness. But when it comes to developing skills and having the REAL fun basketball offers as a game, you need the ball itself in your hands. You need to practice navigating it around the court and sinking it through the hoop. The Benefits Of Brain Games Do Not Last First off, have you looked into any of the studies to which many of these software companies refer? Chances are you won't even find any because they often don't exist. This was the finding of one major FTC case that led to a $2 million lawsuit again sellers of a popular brain training program. Look: No one is saying that these games don't have some effect. But exactly how they provide measurable benefits is far from clear. Nor can it be clear. The skills one develops in the games, apart from concentration, rarely, if ever, appear in real life. This lack of necessity for the "skills" supposedly developed by brain games again brings us to one important fact. To get long lasting effects, we need more than games. We need to link the brain games we play with the information we want to get better at handling. Which Of These Information Types Do You Tend To Forget Most? Foreign language vocabulary Names and faces Facts Numbers Equations Lyrics Dates Recipes If you want to get good in any of these areas, the best thing is to play brain games that involve these kinds of information. That way, you associate the information with fun while you get better at learning, memorizing and using it in practical situations. If you're finding you still struggle, please consider understanding the most important difference between memory loss and forgetfulness. Plus, you'll get long-lasting effects because the more you know about a particular topic, the more you can know. For example, if you're studying history, knowing that the important memory artist Giordano Bruno died in 1600 creates a hook upon which you can hang other pieces of information. Would you like to know that Hamlet was (probably) written or being in written in 1600? No problem. Just imagine Kenneth Branaugh or another actor you associate with the role of Hamlet strangling the Bruno statue in Rome. Would you like to know that the Bruno statue in Rome is specifically located at Campo de' Fiori? Again, no problem: Just add an image like a Ferrari digging ore from beneath the statue using a camping tent. In this fascinating brain game, we're compounding information by linking one thing with another. You can make a tower of knowledge using just that one location in Rome. There's so much more you can add because knowing one thing enables you to know yet another. Here's How To Make Your Own Brain Games I get it: You look to software and apps so you can instantly download games to your device. You want to immediately start enjoying the benefits of memory improvement right away. You're probably also looking to improve focus and concentration too. But here's the thing: You're just creating digital amnesia. Worse: If the brain games on the market only improve your memory on a general level (if at all), then you're only going to get general results. And if the game doesn't involve information that's even remotely interesting to you, finding hats and magnifying glasses behind rotating tiles is going to get boring fast. To create your own games, ones that will make an impact on specific areas where you're weak, you may have to create your own. Let's say you're learning a language and keep forgetting words and phrases. To make a game that will help you improve, you need only a goal, some rules and an antagonistic force. Good News: The Enemy In Your Brain Games Comes Built In Time. Everybody has too little, so when time deadlines appear in games, it's a metaphor for real life. But in this case, the real antagonist is forgetfulness. And that's the beast we're going to beat. Here's a game you can try. All it requires is one Memory Palace. If you'd like to learn how to make and use one, there are a number of full memory improvement training options in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. Using a Memory Palace, take 5-10 words you want to memorize. Put on a timer and start memorizing using the tools of associative-imagery. Again, you can register for my The MMM Memory Improvement Kit if you don't know how to create associative-imagery. Some of the basics were demonstrated in the example with Hamlet and Bruno given above. Very briefly, using Magnetic Imagery is part of the art of memory that involves taking something you don't know and attaching it to something you do. For example, if you want to memorize German vocabulary like "abartig," you could see an image of Abraham Lincoln tossing a piece of art like the Mona Lisa into the washing machine where Tigger is doing something … abnormal. (It's up to you what that weird thing is!) Already Sounds Fun, Doesn't It? Associating the "Ab" in Abraham lets you remember the beginning of this word and the painting reminds you of "art" and the "Tig" in "Tigger" helps you recall the end of the word. Ab + art + Tig = Abartig. Remember, Tigger is doing something abnormal in the washing machine and that's why you know when you put the pieces of the puzzle together and say "abartig," the word means "abnormal." Make Sure You Have The Right Tools To play this brain game, have your Memory Journal open so you can see your Memory Palace as you play and write out the associative-imagery you create. Just like you did with the first word, go as fast as you can. Create one tight and vibrant image for each word to leave at each station on your Memory Palace. At this point, don't worry about anything other than coming up with images for each of the words you've selected. You just want to see how long it takes you to create associative-imagery for 5-10 words. Once you have your baseline time established, you can start challenging yourself to break the record for new sets of words. The Magic Happens During The Testing Round Once you've made a pass over the information, make a two minute pause and then test how much you can remember. Do this by going to each station in your Memory Palace and "decoding" the associative-imagery you've created and placed there. Don't worry about total accuracy or stress yourself out. It's just a game and you're only competing with yourself. You're going to get better quickly and soon be breaking your own records. All while increasing your episodic memory. And because the information you're using is drawn from something you want to learn, you reach goals in addition to memory improvement. And when you share the rules of this brain game with others, you become a better human too. Play This Game With Any Information … So Long As It's Info That Counts I've given German vocabulary in this example, but you could use anything. Song lyrics present a different kind of challenge, for example, because they involve full phrases. Song lyrics in a foreign language offer even more of a stretch. Either way, it feels so great when you walk away from playing games with your brain with the ability to create pleasure at any time by singing a song you've always wanted to learn. You can play with information about geography, biology, literature, film studies and medical terminology. Or if you've always wanted to know the Kings of England and their historical dates, you can do that, along with the American Presidents and Canadian Prime Ministers. You can have fun learning, memorizing and recalling anything. The Secret Sauce To Real Results From Real Brain Games As we've asked today, how does getting better at finding objects you've been shown behind tiles on a memory game help in real life? Who knows? That's hard to quantify. But when you spend your time playing brain games with the information you need to succeed, everybody wins. Here's the real way to get massive results: Go for small and consistent improvements using information that matters. Make sure that you can measure what you're doing so that you see the results in tangible ways. To accomplish this, play your newly minted brain game on a schedule. Believe it or not, it's in human nature to establish daily routines and we respond well to doing the same things at the same time on a training schedule. Write down the nature of your game and the results using a dedicated Memory Journal. Involve your hands and colored pens and pencils to bring in more creative parts of your body and brain for best results. How To Make Playing Mind-Nourishing Games A Priority As I detailed in Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets, the best way to get in regular learning and memory fitness is to spend time playing with information first thing before the computer goes on. Seriously, why risk squeezing your memory improvement in when you can make it a cherished part of your day? Works For Highly Committed Learners Too Please don't make the mistake that the game I've just shared with you is only for beginners or for those who struggle to fit regular learning and brain exercise into their schedules. People already dedicated to using memory techniques benefit from playing self-made games for the mind too. In fact, this kind of activity can really help you avoid getting into learning ruts, so you can also think of them as a preemptive measure. The Real Problem With Downloadable Brain Games If you're as excited as I am about getting real results from the time you spend training your brain, I invite you to make a public declaration below. Talk about the game you're going to create for yourself and feel free to pop back often with updates on your results. I respond to every post. But after you commit with your comment below, turn the machine off for awhile. The real problem we face in today's world is the encouragement to be wired all the time. By taking a walk without your smartphone, you may already be giving your brain a massive advantage, even if you don't play a memory game of the kind I'm suggesting. Mental rest is just as important as mental training, so until we speak again, see if you can't fit in less screen time, not more. You'll feel Magnetic. And if you have any questions about what puts the "Magnetic" in the mnemonic techniques taught here, here's more about the Magnetic Memory Method. Further Resources I share an other brain game in this video "trailer" for the post you've just read: Also check out: 3 Memory Games You Can Play With Your Childhood 3 Effective Brain Training Exercises For Mental Illness Sufferers 11 Empowering Things About Memory You Probably Do Not Know The post Brain Games: The Truth You Need To Know For Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Zoning out sucks, doesn't it? You're sitting there, wishing you can concentrate, wishing you knew how to improve focus … and yet … your mind is just dancing all over the darn place. Well, if you want to know how to improve focus and concentration so you can finally get those important things in your life done, these ultra-fast tips from Joanna Jast will give you exactly what you need to succeed. Make sure to read the entire post and download the audio she narrated for your convenience. Enjoy this game-changing focus training! Everything You Need To Know About Focus Guest post and podcast guest host narration by Joanna Jast. How would you like to skyrocket the effectiveness of your favorite memory techniques? Or, if you're having trouble getting started, how would you like to develop rock-solid focus that will allow you to learn, memorize and recall anything? Here's the deal: Without good focus, no matter how much time you spend using mnemonics or walking through Memory Palaces, very little will stick. Why? Because focus is to memory what a key is to a lock. Yes, you can always force-open a lock. But it's easier and smoother and faster with a key, don't you think? Most people get this point about focus wrong, but … Here's Exactly How To Stop Making Such A Focus-Killing Mistake Most people get the whole focus improvement idea wrong. They think focus is a matter of motivation – and they keep digging into their 'whys', reading inspirational quotes and hiring accountability coaches. Look: These efforts all have their time and place. But they all take time, effort and cost money. Worse, they only work until the next motivational low crashes down on your head. And then … You Have To Start Over Again! Yes, motivation fluctuates and it's not your fault – that's just the way it is. But no matter what your motivation for improving your focus is, making some simple changes in your environment and the way you work can dramatically improve your concentration and your ability to memorize information fast. The Fastest Way To Improve Your Focus Meditation is great. Don't get me wrong. Its benefits are multiple and well proven. It helps improve concentration, mental and physical health. Even better, meditation keeps you young and happy. There is a downside to meditation though. It takes time to see the benefits. Plus, you need to commit to at least 4, 15-minute sessions per week. Well worth it, but not instantaneous. You have more pressing questions: What about that neuroanatomy revision for the exam tomorrow? Or the German phrases you need to memorize for your trip next week? Meditation is great and you should continue practicing it if you're already doing it, but for all those moments when you need a quick focus fix, here's my trick: How To Increase Focus With These Quick Environmental Hacks I admit, I don't meditate – I've tried many times and abandoned my efforts. Between my inner wriggler, uncomfortable back, tendency to fall asleep immediately when still and relaxed and a number of other effective strategies I use for my 'mental powers' – I've never been able to experience enough benefits of meditation to keep doing it. Making changes to my environment, on the other hand, has been the quickest way to make an impact and offered the most bang for my buck. What can you do with your environment to maximise your ability to focus? First, check if your workspace is ergonomic. Make sure your desk and chair are at a comfortable height so you don't strain your back. Often a simple thing such as a small cushion or a rolled-up towel to support your lower back is enough to fend off that back soreness interrupting your workflow. Adjust the position of your computer and any other work tools you use. The optimal set-up for your desk space includes your monitor being at arm's lengths away from your eyes and your wrists and hands on the keyboard straight at or below elbow level. These little tweaks will help your body stay comfortable at work. Check out this Mayo Clinic article for more info on office ergonomics. Cut Your Brain Some Slack! Noise is another vital element of work environment many people don't appreciate the effects of. Noise is not only a powerful distractor, but also forces your brain to do additional work by ignoring it. If you've ever worked in a noisy environment, you know how tiring this can be. Eliminating or minimizing noise in your environment can reap immediate benefits for your focus and memory. You don't need complete silence, but at least try to minimize/eliminate conversations and anything that resembles conversations around you. These are real focus killers, because our brain is wired to tune in to conversations (in case there are some survival benefits to it). Conversations and fragments of conversations come from many sources, For example: Colleagues Friends Family Passers-by Radio Whether these tidbits of gossip and other verbal diarrhea float in through the window, an open door or thin walls, they will keep your brain busy trying to make sense of the fragments. As a result, your focus and memory powers will be affected. Music needs special attention, because music evokes emotions, and emotions, positive or negative, affects the learning process. That's why many people find music helpful in the learning process. If you have found music that helps you memorize better, good for you. If you're still looking for the right music, be mindful that evoking emotionally powerful memories can hurt your learning process, too. And if you like to listen to music with lyrics – just mind that conversation effect: don't add any more work to what your brain is already doing by trying to tune into the lyrics and understand what they mean. If you don't have your own office/study room, don't despair. There are a number of simple devices that can help. The easiest thing is to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones or earmuffs. White noise may also provide a solution, albeit not a permanent one, as white noise can be tiring in the long run, too. I'm writing this post in our dining room (I don't have an office at home) while my husband is watching Hunger Games in the living room next door. I'm generally sensitive to noise and get distracted and tried by it, but the fact that the dehumidifier is on and it's loud really saves the day for me. Before I finish talking about your environment, let me mention one more powerful trick to improve your focus immediately. How To Manage Technology So That It Doesn't Manage You Turn technology off. Yes, technology can be helpful when it comes to learning and work productivity, but if you don't manage technology, it will manage you. I'm not telling you to go 'off the grid' completely, but you can boost your concentration and ability to memorize by simply turning off all the notifications. Or, as Anthony suggests in Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets, don't even turn any computers on until you've got your most important memory goals completed. The Ugly Truth About Popups And Notifications Here's something that might shock you: The purpose of those pesky popups and sound alerts? They're not just about announcing that you've got a new email, text message, or your friend posted something on your favourite social media network – they disrupt whatever you're doing, and they're very good at it. Every single time you let an ad or a message pull your focus away from your memory activities, you're surrendering your time and energy to stuff that doesn't necessarily help you progress to your goals of creating and living a knowledgeable life. The solution: Turn all notifications off. If you can't live without notifications (seriously?), set up 'notification-free zones' for when you're learning, memorising and practicing recall. Turn them off for those periods of time and switch them on again only when you've reached specifically identified goals or milestones. These are all simple strategies that take minutes to set up and can bring considerable improvement to your ability to focus. Body First And A Focused Mind Will Follow Now that I've told you about fixing your environment, it's time to talk about fixing your brain, right? Nope. I'm sure you've heard about all sorts of exercise to improve your brain powers. But did you know that one of the best strategies for a sharp mind has nothing to do with those 'mental workouts'? I can't emphasize this enough: Two years ago, I was struggling with focus. My memory was shockingly bad and I was constantly fighting tiredness. At that time I was doing research for one of my online courses and discovered a book by John Medina called Brain Rules. This is an excellent book, well written and full of useful, evidence-based stuff. Among many other strategies, Medina emphasises the immense mental benefits of sleep. Anthony covered the benefits that sleep brings to our memory, but it bears repeating that sleep deprivation affects also your ability to concentrate, think, problem-solve and many other tasks. One sleepless night impairs your performance as much as having 0.1% alcohol in your blood (which is above legal driving limits even in the most liberal countries). So if you want your mind to be sharp, your wit quick and your thinking top-notch, don't skimp on your zzzz … And if you happened to sleep badly last night and you can feel the effects of it – take a power nap. Power naps are 15-20 minutes long naps aimed at 'resetting your brain'. You may need to find your own sweet spot, but generally it is recommended not to exceed 30 minutes, so you don't enter the deep sleep phase as this can make you feel groggy and sluggish. Set the alarm, sleep in a quiet, dark room or use an eye mask, make sure you warm and comfortable. Why Movement Is More Important Than Meditation On top of keeping you physically well and happy, exercise can also improve your mental performance. And it happens in two ways: By increasing the flow of oxygen into your brain. By boosting the creation, survival and resistance of your brain cells. In a nutshell, exercise is the cheapest and easiest mental enhancer available. And I experienced it myself. Those 2 years ago, having read about the benefits of exercise, I decided to get back into regular running. And once I started running, my concentration, memory and thinking powers improved quickly. I was able to finish writing and recording not only the course, but also my recent best-selling book, Laser-Sharp Focus. A No-Fluff Guide to Improved Concentration, Maximised Productivity and Fast-Track to Success. The takeaway: If you're still hesitating if you should go for a walk or work out tonight – just get on with it. Do it for the health and happiness of your precious mind and memory. The Most Obvious Way To Fight Your Inner Procrastinator (Most People Ignore This!) Procrastination is a massive killer of productivity. From bills unpaid on time, to Christmas gifts bought at the last minute, to time spent on playing games, or watching stupid programs/videos instead of preparing for tomorrow's exam or that crucial presentation. We all procrastinate. But do you know, what your favorite procrastination monster is? I don't mean what you do when you procrastinate, but why you procrastinate in the first place? If you don't, I recommend next time you procrastinate, explore the underlying issue. Once you understand that, you can apply a targeted solution.. I'm going to make it easy for you. Here are the 7 most common reasons why people procrastinate: Fear of failure or success Perfectionism (which is usually p.1 in disguise) Feeling overwhelmed by the task Lack of /insufficient interest or motivation to do the task Skill or knowledge gap Disorganisation Internal (thoughts or emotional state) Explore your underlying reasons for procrastination by asking yourself why you're doing what you're doing instead of working on what you should be doing. Keep asking why (usually 5 times is enough) until you get to the bottom of the problem – or until you reach one of the reasons listed above. Why should you investigate the roots of your procrastination? Because, the better you understand your problem, the more targeted solution you can put in place to address it. And this is the point many people miss, jumping from one ineffective/partially effective anti-procrastination strategy to another. Don't waste your time and energy on strategies that are unlikely to address your problem. Diagnose your problem and apply the right strategy. Forget Motivation And Remember To Do This Instead Remember what I said at the beginning? Motivation is flimsy. Get over it and get on with your life. But, hang on, Joanna. Your tricks are clever (hopefully that's what you think :-)), but surely, we need something more substantial to carry us through all those days, weeks and months filled with stuff to do? If not motivation, what should I rely on then? Well, let me get this motivation bit straight. If you want to get somewhere where you want to get – not to a random anywhere, you need motivation. But since you're listening to Anthony's podcast, you already have motivation. Motivation to improve your memory, your mental performance and probably – also your life. Because these are all self-improvement goals. And that's awesome. You know what you need, you've done some research to identify what may help, you're listening to Anthony's podcast, reading, digesting it and maybe even implementing. That's a lot, actually. So in my books, this means you're motivated. And even if you haven't started implementing any of the advice Anthony and his guests have shared with you – it still doesn't mean you need to 'motivate yourself' to get there. No. We're all driven by some type of motivation, whether extrinsic, like money, praise or avoidance of punishment, or intrinsic – autonomy, mastery or purpose. Most of us have a mix of things that make us tick, but often there is a dominant one – one motivational driver that lights your fire. I suggest you find out what it is. Because, honestly, if you know what lights your fire, you'll be always able to put the right fuel into your motivational tank and get where you want to get without having to 'motivate yourself' again and again. I recommend you read Daniel Pink's great book: Drive. The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. If nothing else, watch his TEDTalk, The Puzzle Of Motivation: It's awesome to always feel motivated to do what you need to do, but sooner or later you'll end up feeling like you'd rather play your favorite game, watch silly cat videos, or clear your desk. The best way to prevent it from happening is to create a system that runs on autopilot. This is the way I get my writing done – my book(s), guest posts, emails, etc. Even this podcast was written using my system – a system that makes me do what I need to do even when I don't feel like it. Systems are reliable, repeatable and run on autopilot. They require some time and effort investment upfront, but once set up, they run automatically, without fuss and extra cost. I can talk for hours about building productivity and habit systems, but let me give you a few juicy tips. How To Make Achieving Your Goals A No-Brainer Want to focus on revising German vocabulary for that trip next week? Make the revision the only or the easiest thing to do. Prepare your workspace the night before, so what you find on your desk first thing in the morning – is exactly what you need for your revision and nothing else. If you revise without your computer – turn it off before you go to bed. If you use language software, before you go to bed, log out of your email inbox and any other sites you check regularly, close your browser and clear your favorites, but have the application you use for revisions open. When you open your browser in the morning, you'd have to find all those websites and log back in again – too much fuss, too hard to do first thing in the morning, isn't it? But hey, your language software is open – why don't you just get on with revising? The Sneakiest Way To Increase Focus On The Planet Don't stop at making it easy to do what you want to do. Go further. Make it hard not to do it. If you tend to procrastinate by browsing the Net, turn off your connection at the modem/router, and lock the router/modem away, so you'd have to get up and walk there and get it out to turn it back on again. That's a lot of effort. Or, if you keep walking away from your desk on various irrelevant errands – chain yourself to the desk. Well, maybe not literally, but find a way to sit at your desk so that getting up and walking away is a nuisance. I have a system where I sit to write behind a table, stuck in a corner, with a large table in front of me and another chair to the side. To get up and walk away – I need to push away my chair, the other chair and squeeze behind it. Just like with turning your Internet back on again, it takes time and it's so much fuss, and that's exactly what I need to reconsider my decision of walking away so I just stay put, extend my attention span and keep writing. Want To Put These Instant Focus-Boosting Strategies To Work In Your Life? You now know why you want your focus to be laser-sharp. This insight will fast-track your journey to your memory goals and help you become a powerful learner. Whatever the dreams you're pursuing, laser-sharp focus will make it easier and faster to achieve. It may seem like focus is a skill that takes a long time to develop and a lot of effort to perfect – and yes, traditional approaches, like meditation and motivational strategies indeed take time and practice before you can reap the rewards. But with a bunch of smart tricks, you can quickly turn your overwhelmed by distractions and defeated by procrastinations mind into a powerful machine that you can turn on with a flick of a button. Ready to get started? Great! Pick one of the strategies you've just learned and implement it this week. Sorting out your environment is always good and easy thing to start with. Whichever focus-improving technique you choose, take small, determined steps and you'll quickly realise your focus is sharp and ready, available at your service, whenever you need it. Joanna Jast is the author the bestselling books Laser-Sharp Focus and Not Another Motivation Book: A Pragmatist's Guide to Nailing Your Motivation, Keeping It, and Effortlessly Achieving Your Goals. She's also a blogger and top-performance seeker. She helps people who need to quickly learn and adapt to new environment, accelerate their success with pragmatic, evidence-based strategies. For more tips on how to get rid of those procrastination problems once and for good, grab my Laser-Sharp Focus Quick Action Guide now. This guide helps you identify the best strategies for your specific situation, depending how much time and energy you can afford to spend on fixing the problem at the given time. I deliberately separate longer term strategies that address the underlying problem(s) from quick fixes that can help you get jobs done on the spot. Click the title at the beginning of this paragraph now and let your mind powers shine. The post How To Improve Focus And Concentration: 4 Ultra-Fast Tips appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Tired Of Struggling To Learn Memory Techniques For Language Learning On Your Own? Sometimes all it takes is a powwow with a good friend. I know, I know … Your friends think you're weird when you talk about your favorite Memory Palace and the crazy images that you use to memorize information like German phrases or other parts of language learning. That's why I was so excited when John McPhedran and I started hanging out to talk about our shared passions: Heavy Metal … Movies … … & Mnemonics! You Don't Have To Memorize Vocabulary And Phrases Alone! At least two cool things happen when you share your adventures in memory: 1) You learn how to use the techniques better yourself. 2) You come up with completely new approaches. Or you learn to use the Major System for memorizing notes: All of those things happened when John and I started hanging out, and so I'm excited to share with you our wide-ranging conversation about memorizing German, music and even a bit of Mandarin. (It's funny to listen back to this interview because since then, my approach to Chinese and how much Chinese I now know has thoroughly grown!) Here's the full transcript of our discussion. To make it concrete for you, I've extracted 16 principles from the discussion you can start using right away. We're confident that you'll learn a lot and urge you to find a person to chat about your memory projects with. For starters, you can join the Magnetic Memory Method Facebook Group after downloading and listening to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. Method Number One: Invest In Memory Training Anthony: This is Anthony Metivier. You're listening to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and today we have a real special treat John McPhedran. Did I pronounce that right? John: Yeah. Anthony: It's pronounced just the way it's spelled which is awesome. Well John, how do we know each other? John: It's quite a funny story. About just over a year ago, I'll tell the whole story. Anthony: Yeah, tell it all from the beginning. John: Just over a year ago, I'm from New Zealand, and I have married a lovely German woman. I was in Germany last year, so this is my third time now, but I was here last year and I was about to fly home to New Zealand. Me and my wife, we were in a hotel in Prague, and I was just looking on my Kindle for stuff to buy on Amazon. I was always looking at German language books, things to learn German and better ways to do it, and I came across the Magnetic Memory Method mnemonics system for learning vocab. I bought that and started reading. It just sounded really cool. It wasn't something I dove into straight away. I knew that it would take a while before I got around to doing it because I had some other priorities, but I always kept it on the back of my mind. Six months after that, I came back to Germany to live, and I knew that I had to sharpen up my German skills, so I looked further into the Magnetic Memory Method and ended up buying the product on Udemy. Through the message system there, I just start typing Anthony just questions that I had. From reading his books, I knew he lived in Berlin, which is where I've moved to, and I knew that he also was a heavy metal bass player. So I thought it would be cool if I just put it out there just to you know just poke the fire I guess you could say. Just to see if he was close to where I was and just make the first step into maybe meeting because he seemed like an interesting guy. We just started talking back and forth and I kind of dropped that I was a heavy metal guitarist. That kind of sparked Anthony's interest. Basically, from there we just kind of messaged back and forth and ended up jamming together. Then the real funny part of the story I guess was that we ended up living a fifteen minute walk apart from each other. So coming from the other end of the world, from New Zealand to Berlin, to actually live fifteen minutes apart from this dude that I was learning all this cool stuff from was you know pretty awesome. So we've kind of just been friends since and have been recording music together and just talking about memory stuff. I've kind of come out with some memory things that sparked Anthony's interest. So it's why I'm here today doing this. Anthony: Yeah, and not any kind of memory stuff, but grammar and music which is, well, some very rich and detailed things to be memorizing. I'm really glad that you did email me and now you're coming to my birthday party. So things are getting real serious. John: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Anthony: So that's the end of the week. But in any case, one thing that I really admire is that you're actually taking these approaches and doing what I have suggested, and we're trading notes. We've both got Excel files open or documents, and we were looking at our process. It's so exciting to see and hear what you're doing, and how you explain your mnemonic images just put so many pictures in my mind, which I can tell why they're so memorable for you. So maybe we start with German. Do you remember the first word that you actively memorized using mnemonics? John: Well I first got into mnemonics and it wasn't through using Memory Palaces. Like I knew the technique of using mnemonics. I learned quite a lot of vocab before coming to the Magnetic Memory system. The first word, I can't remember the very first word, but maybe one of them that was within the set of words that I learned using mnemonics, not German in general, but mnemonics was der Balkon, which is balcony, and you know you don't really need a mnemonic for that. The first one that was really to help me learn something kind of hard was die Behandlung, which is like treatment. I imagine a woman with a big puffy hand because she's being stung by a bee, just the bee and she needed treatment for a sting in the hand, Behandlung. I can't remember where the lung came into it, but a lot of mnemonics are like that. Not every single detail is there. It's really just a thing to kind of instantly click your mind. That's what it was. I mean I'm still like that with my mnemonics. I don't even really necessarily go into all the details when I'm imagining them. I kind of create them, and I drill them for a bit, and then after while it is just something that really triggers your mind. Ah, that's what it was and I'm able to know what the word is. Anthony: Before we go further, you said now twice "the Magnetic Memory system." Is it really a system to you? The reason I ask is because I'm always very clear about saying this is the method. You've got to adopt it for yourself. Systems are, I mean not to correct you, if you find it so systematic, but – John: No, and I've heard you say that. No, well it's a method if that's how you describe it as a method. It really is. You have really got to try and make your own thing out it. It's the only way it will really work. It all depends on how you process things. I feel personally that I'm kind of lucky. In your book you said, you've got a decent imagination I guess or imagery in your mind if you can imagine water flowing. Do you remember writing that? Anthony: Yeah. John: So I thought, yeah, I can actually imagine a river and water flowing. Cool, I might be able to do this. I mean the first questions that I asked you were about the crossing your path. Because I want to try to have everything perfect. I am quite a perfectionist like that. So I was asking you those kinds of questions because I didn't really want to leave any stone unturned. Then just the way you replied to me, I was like yeah, I have just got to try to make this my own to see what works. I find that, in particular, the crossing the path doesn't really even matter to me necessarily because I can just be anywhere in my palace and you know I can look behind. You know what I mean, like my spacial, I don't know, spacial recognition or I don't know what that kind of word is. I should put it in a palace and learn it. But you know what I mean, I can kind of just instantly be in the center of a building and just imagine in my mind where all these places are around the things. The crossing my path doesn't even really matter. Method Number Two: Make The Memory Methods Your Own I kind of felt that you know I'll just make this my own. So it's not a system if you describe a system being rigid because it definitely is not rigid. You've got to have a bit of creativity to it. It does take effort, as far as coming up with the mnemonics. The thing is it does take effort to come up with those things and you are using your creativity to try and create these scenarios that actually represent some kind of abstract information you're trying to learn. But, on the backend the amount of time you save not having to repeat over and over and over and forget stuff, you are saving all that time at the backend. That's why I love it so much for that. You write these mnemonics and then you go back through the palace again, or what I like to do is just put them in Anki. Method Number Three: Ditch Boring Learning Methods Like you, I hate using Anki to rote memorize stuff. It frustrates you. As you say, once you start getting frustrated, it makes it harder to learn and that's when you're just like, man, am I ever gonna be able to do this. To me, using Anki just for the testing, to actually just give you these words and instantly be able to go to my palace. It doesn't always work that I instantly know it. Sometimes I'll write a mnemonic that was from a couple of days before and I've never revisited it and I'll get this word, but you kind of remember where it was supposed to be in the house, and it takes a little bit. Sometimes I do have to bring out my sheet again just to remember what I wrote down. But I mean, that's about as much as I have to do. After that, you know the word. Anthony: Just to clarify for people, you're essentially doing the memory work first, then importing or creating Anki slides and using those, what do you call them? Slides or index? John: Cards. Anthony: Cards, digital index cards to look at the German word in German? John: Yeah. Anthony: And then you go into the Memory Palace to look at the imagery to help you decode the sound and meaning? John: Yeah, I guess that's what's happening behind the scenes, but as I said, if it is something really new – like one word that I learned recently that kind of gave me a little bit of trouble was das Aufputschmittel like stimulant, and I could remember my bridging character for auf is Alf, and I had the little fluffy alien. I had him putting stuff in the middle of a plant stem and the stem represented STIMulant but that's the only information for word stimulant. That's quite often what I'll do. It will just be some little bit of information that triggers the rest. I remembered the word Aufputschmittel but I couldn't remember what the meaning was. That was one that when I got the word, I knew where it was in the palace but I couldn't remember the word. So I had to go back and open my Excel file. But I only do it once. If you forget it, which is five percent of the time, most of the time you don't forget it and you do it and you drill it and you've got it. Then, honestly, after a few times doing it, two or three times of going through these cards – you don't even have to decode the information. You know you get it. I actually think I read it in English. I don't read them in German for this. I read them in English for this. The word and I translate the word from English to German. Because I find when I'm trying to speak German if I don't know a word, you search for the word you want in English first anyway, and then if you're really stuck for words, if you don't know a word to use, and you know English, you've got to try to find the word in English and then translate it from there. Anthony: Right. John: So yeah, I'll do the English word first. Anthony: I would challenge you though to start doing it with the German word first because you want to train your mind to not go to English first. John: Yeah. Anthony: So that's why I always do the native language first. Because everything is so heavily linked on the sound of the word, using the mnemonic imagery to recall the sound and the meaning of the word in the same blow, then what I basically want to be able to do is have my mother tongue as a kind of ghost that is banished by the instant recall of the sound and the meaning of a word. Of course, I don't really use cards. So when I started with Chinese and 对 不 起 which is part of "Excuse me, may I ask" all I just see is in the Memory Palace is Mark Twain kneeing a Chi master in the face. I don't even really have anything to indicate "Excuse me, may I ask" because that's just so rude of him to do that in that context. I don't know why I don't need it. But if I were to have some sort of indicator of "Excuse me, may I ask," that to me, that trips me up from going in my mind directly to the actual Chinese. Now that may not be your experience. So I'm not suggesting that you do anything other than as you please, but that's my rationale for that. John: Yeah. Oh, it's the same with me. If I'm not drilling with the cards, if I'm just going through the Memory Palace they are like a unit like that. Anthony: Okay, I see. John: I don't have an English word sitting there. It's just an image that you just remember, oh that's what it is. And then when I'm trying to talk German, like I'm definitely well aware that you don't want to try and translate first. You do start getting better at just talking. We had a little conversation before, it was a basic conversation but I didn't translate. Unless it gets hard and I can't think of what I'm actually trying to say. If I can't kind of go further than what I just know without thinking of English then I'll have to resort to some kind of English word to actually think of the nest step. But it's really just to kick start the next step. I'm really trying not to think in English when I'm talking. Anthony: Right. Well, let's move this to grammar. You were telling me something really fascinating about working with the tenses. John: Most of my German I learned the hard way. When I first started learning it was in 2012. I had moved to Erlangen, my wife was studying there and I lived there for a year, and I spoke nothing of German or any other language. I knew nein and scheiße which most people do, maybe ja, das ist Gut. That kind of stereotypical stuff. My teacher was lovely. She was a real nice woman. I started learning quite good at the start. She was obviously a native German speaker and we started with the normal things. Like du, ich, sie, er, those kind of nominative cases of all the pronouns and basic conjugation of the verbs and it started quite good with those real basic sentences. Then within a little while, it just went from 0 to 100. I never knew anything about English. I knew how to speak it or I know how to speak it. I knew what a verb was. I knew what a noun was. But I didn't know what a subject was of a sentence. I didn't know what the direct object or the indirect object was. It was only through learning German that I've actually learned all these things and they actually relate a lot to English. So the teacher had started laying all this grammar on me and I got this big list of irregular verbs. She gave me this list and she goes you've got to remember this. And I'd only just come across the whole case system just a few weeks before which if you're an English speaker just throws you out because you've only one way to say "the." So I got all these lists of stuff to learn. I'm just like how do I learn this. It's one thing to say I have to but how do I do it? She was like I don't know. You just have to. I was like that's not an answer. It put me in a kind of bad mood with it. To be honest, it wasn't a priority of mine. I never thought that I would actually come and live here. At the time, music and playing guitar was what I really wanted to do. I had all my music that I wanted to create and had these other things. German was turning into just rote memorization. I remember my wife made this curriculum up for me for studying. It was just rote memorization of all these words that I just had to try to remember from scratch and just all these grammar concepts and I though how am I going to learn this? I didn't have a good attitude. It wasn't until after, when I got back to New Zealand after a year. I was just really disappointed in myself that I hadn't gone harder at learning. Method Number Four: Learn How To Learn That's when I started on just how to learn. You know, how to learn German. That's when I first came across mnemonics for the first time. I learned a lot of words. It worked really well but I was using other people's mnemonics. One thing I've found is that it doesn't work as well as your own. Because you remember your own creations a lot easier. The things that tripped me up most in German other than not knowing the right words to use is prepositions because they don't always translate directly as you would use them in English, and I find there is no real set rules to use them. That comes through just being exposed a lot. Like the word zu Fuß, to go by foot. In English it is "to foot." The other thing was verb tenses. I used to try and talk to my wife when we would sit down and try and practice and I would try and say these things. Because when you start you're always in the indicative active present tense. Like ich gehe and that's how you start. Then you'll move on to the indicative active. In conversation you're going to go to the present perfect tense. You get quite good at using those tenses. Then if you want to express something like "when I'm here I would have done this." Anthony: Right. John: That's when the tenses get quite complicated in German, because what I was explaining before, the verbs work differently. When you are using the passive voice like the future perfect Ich werde gehört worden sein. I will have been heard. I thought that was the thing I always got tripped up on. I was trying to say something or try and express these things and my girlfriend would say no. It's expressed like this this. I realized that I just didn't know enough. I don't know if it is spacial. Just the whole timeframe of things like when you're talking about future and past. So that's where I devised this one here. It's exactly using the same system that you give. I have basically, its' just an upstairs office block that has offices. Again, it depends on what people want to do to make it their own. I just found I knew this place that had three rooms down one side, three rooms down the other. Down the left-hand side is all the active voice tenses and moods. Down the other side was all the passive voices. The two offices up the front, they are opposite each other. At No. 1 that was all the indicative mood. The next set of offices down which was two opposite each other. That was Subjunctive 1. Then the next ones down were Subjunctive 2. So that covered all the moods and all the voices. Then within each of those palaces, there were little mini palaces inside one kind of hallway which is its own palace. In each of them I just have each tense. Some of them are really simple. I've got in this office here, this is the indicative mood for the active voice. So the present tense. It's my mom's office. I have my mom unwrapping a present. The present just represents present tense. I didn't need a mnemonic to tell me the conjugation of verbs in the present tense. Anthony: Right. John: And the same, simple past is not as hard. I've got me, that was my desk sitting in old clothes. I just imagine like any old clothes you want. I kind of imagine like old blazers or something, old English kind of styles, sipping a cup of tea. Because the tea represents like ich spielte. Like "I played" and that's what the tea represented there. Then the storage room was the future tense – Anthony: But just for people. Why does the tea help you remember spielte? John: Because you add a "T". Anthony: Ah, you add a "T". John: In the simple past you usually add the "T" to regular verbs. Anthony: Ah, perfect. John: But I didn't need it. I already knew that. But I just wanted to be thorough and have something representing each kind of station here not really just miss anything. Method Number Five: Be Illicit In Your Imagination Here we get probably a bit illicit. But in the future tense werden is the verb to represent something happening in the future. So I've got Leigh who was our receptionist. She is in space clothes. Space clothes all I mean it represents future to me. I just imagine just silver. So it's not like astronaut suits. Just something silver and shiny because it just seems a bit futuristic to me. It's easy. She passes a joint; weed represents werden to me. When you you're trying to come up with mnemonics, you go with the first thing that means something. That's what came up with me. This is probably a bit illegal but she's passing a joint to an infant. To me, an infant represents the infinitive verb. Ich werde spielen. Then moving on. Once I get to the perfect tenses, you know present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, I imagine a prefect. I did a year in a boys' school where prefects, they had the flash blazers and that. I just think of the prefect. A "prefect watches over Hamlet" represents sein. And Habibi. I was trying to think of a name that was like haben. Habibi represents haben. I imagine them playing with old game parts. The old game part, I just imagine a box of old chess pieces and I thought of parts = past participle, that's where the parts comes in and the game, I put the game in there for ge, because unless it has a prefix that is inseparable, we have the ge. So that's for that. Then again with the future perfect, I have the same thing but because in future perfect you have werden again because you have got to represent the future in this. I've got a prefect wearing space clothes while smoking weed hands out old game parts to Hamlet and Habibi. Sort of like ich werde gespielt haben or ich werde gegangen sein. Anthony: Oh yeah, because you've got to have it in "to be." John: When it's a verb using sein. So that's why I have Hamlet and Habibi. The helping verb will either be sein or haben. Then, obviously, the passive voices you only have sein. So the most complicated one, I'll give an example of because they are all just repeating after that, they kind of have a similar concept. So this is the future perfect in the indicative passive voice. A prefect in space clothes and smoking weed. So "prefect" represents future perfect, "smoking weed" is the werden, old game parts to a traffic warden who then gives it an infant Hamlet. So it means that sein will be at the end. Ich werde gehört worden sein. I will have been heard. Anthony: A lot of people ask me, don't you get confused if you're repeating stuff. So you've got Hamlet several times. You've a prefect several times. You've got an infant in different contexts. Do you find that this is difficult to manage or – John: Yeah. If I just left it and didn't come back to it, I would never remember it. This one was kind of quite hard in that respect, because sometimes you forget what's happening at certain stations, but that's just where the drilling comes in. Then after a while, once you get into especially the subjunctive, it just repeats themselves. Anthony: How much time would you say that you spent on putting this together and then how much time in the actual review of the mnemonics before it gets into your long-term memory and what would you say is the payoff, the value of it compared to another approach. Method Number Six: Stop Fooling Yourself That You Don't Have Time – You Do! John: The time it took, when I do any of this stuff, I really don't spend that much time on it. Like I can't sit down and just come with heaps of mnemonics. I mean maybe if I forced myself to I could. I come up with these goals. Here's my spreadsheet. I know that if I have all these little things that I want to do, if I just plan them instead of thinking I've got one massive task. It's that whole eat an elephant thing. I've got this one massive task. Instead of thinking I'm just going to sit down and do it, I kind of think well if I just do a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow and I plan out tiny little chunks, I know that by this time it's going to be done. It's not going to feel like too much effort. To be honest, when it comes to writing these mnemonics, maybe ten minutes a day. So maybe it took me ten minutes to come up with this one indicative mood active voice, just that one station with all those tenses may have been ten minutes. Then I would have just put it away for the day. So you're looking at six days, seven days. Anthony: Right, and then in terms of actually reinforcing it using mnemonics. John: Well at the moment, I'm doing it now. Anthony: So this is a work in progress. John: Yeah, so I've got these mnemonics down. So now, basically, I have just phrases that I've got in my Anki that I just translate using the correct tense and knowing what mnemonic I'm using with. Anthony: So you were saying before that these particular memory palaces, they just worked out perfectly. Did you seek them out or they were very convenient let's say, did you seek them out intentionally to use for this purpose or they just came to mind. John: Not for this purpose. It was just when I was doing the Magnetic Memory Method, coming up with a big list of like palaces. Where's my vocab one? Again for those that are listening I'm just going through my sheet. So it was when I came up with all my A, B, C, D, I kind of had a stockpile of leftovers. I had some leftover that I didn't use for any houses. Method Number Seven: Think And You Will Find The Solution I don't know why I used that one in particular. It just kind of made sense. It took thinking. I just thought of trying to think in my mind how am I gonna come up with some way, because I knew that with the tenses in particular, I knew that this was one block. I knew the indicative mood active voice was one block that had present, simple past, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect. I knew that that was one block and that was one block. So I was just thinking of the building in my mind and then the imperative at the end which you don't really need a palace for that. I was just kind of thinking for something in my mind that would be contained enough but have separate compartments in it that would separate these different things. Each building is right next to each other and across the hall. It was just really convenient for that. Anthony: Well, I'm really excited to be sitting here watching this because you've got it nailed. I mean you made your Memory Palace key which is a list of memory palaces organized alphabetically and so forth. I get lots and lots of email all the time and some people just say this is crazy. This is overwhelming. I look at some of the reviews of my books and there is one person who said this book came from the twilight zone. I recognize that it seems like it's over the top and just a crazy amount of work to do this, but – John: It doesn't all happen in a day. I mean just listening to your podcasts and like throughout the course like people who have trouble coming up with places. Pine Hill is my Memory Palace for "F." Forgive me for swearing but the reason I put it beside "F" was because that house was fucking cold. That's why I associate it with "F." Anthony: Right. John: Prenzlauer, that's my place I live in now. That's Z, there're not many streets with Z but Prenz has a Z in it so I put it Z. Here like Jacob, my cousin Jacob, he had a house in Hunter Crescent and just up the road there was a big empty lot of land that had this old car in it that we managed to play around in one day when we were young. It was a real funny day and the car represents that house to me. So that's what C is. So the first name of your house doesn't have to match up but just has to spark. It's not until you start doing it that you remember what these houses are. It's not like you have to write this key out and then instantly commit to memory what all these houses are. You have the spreadsheet. You have the record. If it is recorded, you're less likely to forget. It is through just returning to it that you remember that. Once you start putting the mnemonics in the houses, you don't forget them then because the mnemonics, the words you're learning, they start with the letter. So like when I'm doing A, I put the German word starting with A in the A house. I don't put the English word starting with A. So it's German orientated. Method Number Eight: Use Technology Intelligently Anthony: Well it's very cool. And you're just using Excel file with multiple tabs? John: Yeah. If you look here, I mean I have a vocab load sheet. Stations – so I have a separate sheet for stations. A is the A-framed house on Plantation Road, then I have 1, 2, 3 all the way to 17 at the moment because that's the amount of words I have in there. I kind of went for the micro. Anthony:Micro stations. John: Yeah, kind of straight away. I started off with macro stations but then I just kind of felt that I had a good memory of these places and I felt that I could easily put multiple words in a room. Again, with the room, you don't have to remember it exactly. My brother's room in this house. I know where it is. I have a memory of it but I can't remember what he had in there. So I've got like by the door, I've got a corner in the left. Then I just put a chest of drawers there. I don't know if he had one there. I just put a chest of drawers there. And then the other corner. The corner and then a bed, corner and then by the door again. And for most times that's all I have in a room. Unless it was my room, or unless I'm really intimate with all the little things in a room, most rooms are going to have a chest of drawers and a bed. Maybe a TV or something. It's not hard to add that stuff in if you can do it. Anthony: So you don't have any trouble juggling say like a virtual element that you've just invented. John: No, because you drill it. Again, if you were to write these out and never come back to it, it's not going to stick in your mind. You drill it, and then as you drill it you remember it. One thing I did, I took a bunch of words out like the verbs that use dative, that take dative and the verbs that use sein like 'ist gefahren' that use sein instead of haben for the helping verb when using the past and the perfect tenses. So I ended up taking all those words out of my palaces and putting them in a separate one because I thought it would be more helpful just to have those particular categories of verbs in their own thing. Because when I was talking to Sina and she would always correct me that I used haben instead of sein or something like that. So I decided to put these verbs on their own. So when you're talking and same with dative, like when you call someone dich when they should have been dir because the verb is dative. Anthony: Right. John: But other than that, I take these verbs out and then it's not that hard. I just put another one in there and then with drilling you forget that other one was even there. The new ones are in there now. Method Number Nine: Just. Do. It. Anthony: Well, that's amazing to hear. Because you are answering so many questions that I get all the time. People say well can I reuse Memory Palaces. What happens if I need to renovate something? It sounds for you pretty nontheatrical or nondramatic. You just do it. John: Just do it and it really is just the drilling. I can't emphasize that enough. You just walk through them. You have got to revisit them, walk through them and, if you want to, drill them on Anki. Because being able to do it like that, you get a word and you've got to instantly got to try, without tracing steps, to instantly know where something is sitting in a certain Memory Palace. It gets to the point you don't need the mnemonic. It happens kind of quickly. Anthony: That is one thing that people either criticize or don't want to do. They say I'm going to set up all this stuff just to not even need it anymore. I wonder if you have thoughts on that. Do you feel like, okay now I've got it and I spent all that time just to get these words? Is there remorse or any kind of issue around that? John: Remorse? Because I did it? Anthony: I'm just speaking the voice of what I've read from people and their feedback is they just think this is so much work to create mnemonics that they are ultimately not going to use. John: But it's not work. If you've tried to learn stuff by rote you are putting all that – I always think I'm a really lazy person. I don't really feel like I'm a full of energy person that really wants to do heaps of stuff all the time. I'm probably disciplined more than anything. So when it came to this, I watched your course, I went through it and it was effort to just have to sit down and start because it's creative. You've got to think. I think when you're drilling – you can get on Anki and you can get all other people's flash cards and it probably seems easy because you're not putting any work in to do this. This is sweet. But the amount of mental energy and the time it takes to learn the stuff by rote, and then just to forget it anyway – there's a good chance. I mean it's not always the case. I learned quite a lot of words through rote memorization, but I hated it. I couldn't stand it. It was boring and made me not want to do it. It wasn't exciting. So, yeah there is the work up front, but again it's the eat an elephant. Maybe you would sit down and you would come up with all your houses. I think I might of come up with all my houses in a day. I didn't really think that was too hard. It is effort. I kind of went above and beyond. I've categorized all my stuff. Especially in like the nouns and stuff. I put all the extra information like plural information and like if a verb is strong and uses sein or whatever. So I kind of went above what you talk about for my own personal thing. Method Number Ten: Know Where Your Time Is Really Saved To me it's the amount of time you save on the backend. That's where the time is saved. I've learned thousands of words using mnemonics and drilling with spaced repetition. Just to drill, not to learn, but honestly I think – is it a horse and cart metaphor or chicken and egg. What comes first? It is a bit of effort and coming up with mnemonics takes effort but it's not that hard. Like ten minutes a day. If you want to learn thousands and thousands of words really quickly, then of course you're not going to learn that through osmosis or through flash cards. You are going to have to put in a lot of effort to learn that anyway. Just do it every day. You have ten minutes. You have fifteen minutes. If you don't have fifteen minutes, then something is wrong. Anthony:Well I think so yeah. I mean I was just talking about my Mandarin Chinese Mnemonics And Morning Memory Secrets because I've recorded it and I don't know if it is going to come out before this one or after. I think it will come out this week about how for myself I make sure that I get this stuff done. If you go in my room right now, you'll see that there's a book on how to write Chinese characters. There's all my little colored pens there and so forth. The computer doesn't go on. The smart phone or stupid phone or whatever phone I have doesn't get looked at until that book is in my hands and I write down, I practice writing eight characters, and I practice writing eight characters eight times each. Now this where I get into systematic thinking. It is eight characters eight times each and then I go and I do my memorialization stuff working with Pimsleur. John: That was in your email. Anthony: Yeah and I just do an entire page. That's just the rule and that's a systematic sort of thing. What I'm trying to get at is that this is first thing in the morning and it's a very small investment of time but it compounds so hugely. John: Yeah. It compounds. Definitely, it builds up. I think that's the problem with learning in society in this day and age. People want the magic pill and who doesn't? Wouldn't you like to be fluent in a language like that? You know it doesn't work like that. I always thought anything worthwhile is gonna take effort. You can't get around having to put in effort. Maybe this isn't for everyone. Maybe some people are real awesome at rote learning. Rote learning wasn't my thing and I wanted a better way of doing it. First it was mnemonics and then once I coupled mnemonics with the palaces, it was just was like bang. Having mnemonics floating around in space, it was good, but I've forgotten a lot of them now too. Whereas having them in a palace, it is just boom, boom having them there. It is really awesome. Anthony: Somewhere in my slush pile of research there is an article that I read that they did some studies with polyglots. And they said that in their research that polyglots are actually very, very good at rote learning because they spend sometimes decades doing it. But I think it is the discipline. It is the consistency of consistent effort applied. Even polyglots have what is often called in that world the stubborn quintile. That is the 20 percent or whatever number percent of words that no matter what they won't stick. That's when mnemonics are a go-to method because there is really no other way. There is another way, which is just to not learn them. It is really exciting. If we can switch gears. John: Well put it this way. If you want to learn heaps of vocabulary and you think you haven't made a start at all on this and you think I've got up with all these houses and then I've got to come up with all these stations after that, then don't think of it like that. I'm a big fan of writing my goals down. I put them into chunks and put them on a calendar and I know if I spend 20 minutes today doing that and it's going to be done and I cross it off and go through all that. But if you're coming at this thinking this is a lot of work. Well yeah, it kind of is. You're learning a language! It is a lot of work but don't think that. Say today I'm going to write from A to J. I'm going to come out with those houses. It doesn't take very long. Then you do the rest. Then you do the same with the stations. You just go through. Method Number Eleven: Ditch Overwhelm You even say don't overwhelm yourself. Just go through and put your first ten stations in and then do that with all your things. Once you have the houses, the palaces and once you have a few stations, and you have it set up kind of like this, it is really quick. If you put it in perspective to learn one word, and not all words need mnemonics. I don't need to put that in the palace. It is valuable real estate as well. When you're putting these things in there. Some words you are just like I don't need to put that in there. I can remember that, and if I forget it, I mean I'm going to come across it again. I'll know what it is. To learn one word, to come up with a mnemonic shouldn't take more than two minutes. Anthony: I'm glad to hear you say that because I'm always trying to communicate exactly that. John: They don't have to be awesome. I think this probably where people trip up because it is creative. You're using something inside yourself to create something. It's just a tiny little piece of an image and that's exercising parts of your brain that feels like work. It shouldn't take more than two minutes. Then to actually really drill that and to know it, it shouldn't take more than going back to it. On a hard word, I don't think more than five times. I think to go back to a word five times would be a really hard word. You are looking at learning one word maybe five minutes. Whereas to learn a word through rote memorization is it going to take longer than five minutes? Probably. If you keep forgetting it. When you break it down, I reckon maximum one word from start to being right in your memory would take five minutes from start to finish. Anthony: People are going to think that I'm paying you to say this. John: No. Anthony: That's basically what my experience is. I was talking with this girl on Skype, and she basically was I think making a kind of suggestion that I learn how to say husband and wife in Chinese if you know what I mean. So I said all right teach what they are. It is 老公 lǎo gōng for husband and 老婆 lǎopó and my tones may not be correct there. I kind of hope that she was suggesting something there. I just said okay, you know how I'm going to do this. I'll tell you Laozi who is like a famous figure in the history of philosophy and so forth. He is hitting a gong. He's right here at this corner of this room and then he's kissing a girl on the butt for 老婆 lǎopó. You may not know this yet, but "po" is German slang for butt. So he's just kissing her on the "po – poa." And know there's a kangaroo there who is punching because that's my mnemonic for the rising tone. Then I just visited it a couple times. She said I'm going to ask you a month later if you still remember that. I'm just like no problem. I just memorize it a few times. I take every opportunity that I can to tell people what husband and wife is in Chinese to reinforce it. With my speaking partner I put it in sentences. She totally butchered me and it was like no that is not how you would say it in a sentence. Here is how you say it in a sentence. The point being is that I have established that probably for the rest of my life those words are never going to go away because of visiting it maybe five or six times, I don't remember, but then making an actual effort to go and say it and to try to put it in a sentence and make it part of your life and then you've got it. John: To me, I'm finding the tenses harder because there's more moving parts. You're putting them in structural format. But again that's just drilling. If you can take one word, like one verb and go through all those tenses with one verb, then you're going to know that verb. To learn just words on their own, the lifespan of starting it to having it in your memory I reckon five minutes. Anthony: Yeah, I agree. There are certainly some words that are a bit more challenging. What I find, and you've already touched upon it, is to limit the amount of time. Like when I'm going through Pimsleur, sometimes I'll hit a point where they're bridging from one set of words to another set of words. If I happen to hit that change over in the middle of a session, then it will get a bit overwhelming. Because now all of a sudden you are shifting gears and so the words for "let's have dinner at your place" then you start going to the words for money and amounts, then you have to scale back and take the amounts and the numbers on a different day altogether. That, I find for me, can get a bit too much. It is just amazing to me how much you can do in such a little period of time. Then you reinforce it with speaking. How do you find it speaking in German? You've already touched upon it, but do people help you out, correct you? Method Number Twelve: Practice What You've Memorized Out In The World What I find is that there is no such thing as German. I'll get in a taxi in this neighborhood and the guy will speak to me completely different than if I'm in a taxi that I get in in Schöneberg. You just start to develop a skill for decoding what that must mean. This new pronunciation and this new slang and this new keitzdeutsch and this new regional dialect whatever the case may be. John: I'm in no way real fluent in German. I start the integration course on Monday starting at B1. I'll be doing five hours a day, five days a week. Anthony: Mine was four hours. John: Four hours a day, 1:00 to 5:00, four hours a day, five days a week for about three months. I'm really looking forward to pushing a bit more and really talking every day like that. Going around and out and about asking for stuff, I usually do, especially in the East as well, because obviously back in the day people weren't brought up learning English like they probably were in West Berlin. I find when I have to do things, like I had to get my driver's license and the people don't speak English, or I had to go to the hospital one day and you quite often find that people aren't speaking English. They might know real basic English, but they won't speak English to you. In that sense, I can get around. I have to ask them to speak to me slower. Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut, können Sie mir langsam sprechen. They will speak slow and dumb it down a bit and I'm like yeah, yeah. I can understand. I can talk back. As I said, busting into the middle of a real technical conversation, I'm not going to be doing that at all, but just getting around is sweet. The other thing as well is trying to decode what people are telling you. A prime example. I'll always use German when I go out. I won't resort to using English because I want to do it German because I'm in Germany. I asked if there was any pizzas or something like the frozen pizzas. Honestly what came back to me was just (incomprehensible) but I heard Vorne and Kasse. Those two words. I was like sweet. Anthony: They're up the front by the cash register. John: Yeah, that's really how most of it works is that you pick up. When you're learning, I guess when you start learning through a teacher and if you start reading, like when you're reading books, you come across so much of the common vocabulary that once you build enough of that up, you can pick up those when people are talking to you. They are kind of like the anchor points of a sentence you know that when people say that you're like yeah. I'm definitely not at the stage where I can translate like boom and instantly narrow down to the fine point of what they've told me but I'll hear enough words and be able to decode it quick enough to actually know what they've told me. Sometimes you know, I'll walk in the wrong direction. And they're like no, no. Anthony: I should say though, for people who don't know the course system. You're being a bit modest because starting at B1 is actually quite something. So that you've developed this on your own to start at B1. Because I didn't get in that B1. I had to start at A1. So there's A1 and A2 and then B1. I did half of B1 before my program was over. I got into it relatively quickly but nonetheless the fact that you're starting at B1, and what I've heard when we've talked German it's pretty impressive. John: Thanks. Anthony: I just wanted to let people know because I don't think that they use that in North America and the audience is primarily North American for this podcast. Just what B2 means as opposed to A1. Basically there is three levels, A, B and C and you're just under halfway there. Once you're done B1 you're under half way there. That's interesting and good and great. You are also a musician. John: Yes. Method Number Thirteen: Apply The Techniques To More Than One Area Of Interest (Like Music) Anthony: And this to me is absolutely fascinating because today you told me something that I think cracks the code that I have been trying to figure out and so maybe say a little bit about that. Because we have talked about how you are a systemic thinker and you showed this chart that you made to help you be able to do rhythms. John: The sequencer. Anthony: Later you had something also for notes that was a similar chart that had to do with scales. John: I just came up with those charts. That's too hard to explain on this if you're not a musician. Just from sequencing drums and using a sequencer. I'm a guitarist first and foremost. I don't produce electronic music. I play heavy metal. In order to get drums because I pretty much haven't got a band or anything, I've had to learn how to create drum beats from using a sequencer program and programing them. I'm not someone who learned to read music. I wanted to come up with a way that I could write music without having a computer or without having my guitar with me. I came up with different charts. I've got one for like arrangements where I can write about what I'm feeling. Because a lot of it comes through like either a beat or some kind of feeling you're wanting. Is it going to be fast and slamming or is it going to be a bit more subtle. Because it is tension and release. You can kind of write notes. I've got a chart where I can write in English about certain aspects of the song. I've got a chart for writing drum beats. It's just kick, snare, hi-hat where I can just like on a computer where I would put in a kick. I can just write it out with a marker and I will know the beat in my head. I can basically write out a beat and play it. There's a song there. You can start writing a song. Then the sequencer thing, I just went overboard. I had access to a laminator. I have them all so I can write on them with wipe off markers so I can keep reusing them. Instead of having a staff where you would write notes on, I thought well I'm more used to seeing a sequence window where you have the piano roll up the side. It's keeping with the same divisions of the beat. Like the drum thing is that I showed you so I just basically wrote a grid where I can write melodies out using this. If I was to write it out I could go and then put it straight into the sequencer and hopefully it would sound like what I had in my head. I use the drumbeat thing quite a bit and try and come up with beats and then just play them on my hands and knees to try and get the feel. Other than that, that was just something I did and haven't really touched back on that. When I start writing my next batch of songs I will probably go into doing that a bit more. Anthony: About memorizing music, one of the things we had talked about is I was just telling you what I would consider a quick fix when I'm studying music which is just use the major method, and I think it's relatively manageable for quick fixes and with four strings on the bass. I never have bothered doing this with the fifth string. I play five strings but in any case that approach was major method. Each fret has a number and then creating a word for each number. The E string is Ernie, A string is Al Pacino, D string is Dracula and the G string is Grover. If I needed to remember something on the 12th fret of the G string then it would be Grover getting a tan. Because in major method 1 is T or D, 2 is N so tan. It could be a ton of bricks was falling on his or whatever. Just so it has that TN sound. What you've done is going the distance as you've shown that you do. But explain that a little bit and you're thinking behind it. John: With the notes? Anthony: Yeah. John: With the fretboard. I'm kind of going back I think memorizing music. I kind of sidestepped up there because this is kind of memorizing the notes on a fretboard. Not necessarily remembering music per se. I found when I first started playing guitar, the way I memorized, I'm definitely not a savant or those dudes who can imagine the music really clearly in their head. I can imagine certain things in my head but I definitely couldn't write it down. I don't have that real good ability to instantly play what I hear. But as far as like basic rhythms and things like that, I can imagine songs in my head. When I first started, probably even before I even started playing the thing that really helped me was learning the lyrics to songs. This obviously only works with songs that have lyrics. It wasn't something I thought about. I would listen to music when you used to buy CDs and then used to sit there and you'd listen to it and you would just read along and I'd just learn lyrics to songs that I really liked. What I'd do I would just run through my head. Smells Like Team Spirit was the big one. I'd already know the lyrics so I would sing these in my head and then instead of just doing bits and pieces and I would just try and do the whole song. Again, I'm only talking from my own experience. I don't know how easy that is for other people or if it's simple or if it's really hard. This is something I did and used to do whenever I was bored. Method Number Fourteen: Practice The Art Of Concentration One time we went on this school trip. We were camping when I was 15, and I was really tired and just trying to put my mind somewhere else and I imagined the whole Never Mind album from start to finish. From Smells Like Team Spirit to Something in the Way. I played the whole thing in my head because I knew all the lyrics. I guess it's just concentration. I used to do it with Jimmy Hendrix. I remember like Purple Haze. It is how I used to put myself to sleep. I would imagine the songs in my head. Once the lyrics kick in you kind of just imagine singing them out. I found that real invaluable. I think that was a real good skill that helped me a lot with learning structures of songs and I just think that was a really valuable thing to do. As far as what we're doing here, the notes on the fretboard. There is so much stuff in music that is rote memorization especially once you start getting into theory and stuff like that. Again, I've just learned so much of it through rote memorization. One thing, and it's probably a divided line between guitarists. You don't need to know the notes on the fretboard but I'm sure the virtuoso players probably beg to differ. I want to be able to play really well. I've tried to learn the notes on the fretboard and it's hard. Just like rote drilling and even doing things like playing the scales and trying to learn them through playing scales and stuff. I thought there must be some way to learn music with mnemonics. Like this kind of stuff. Again, just after meeting you and talking about it, it kind of fires up those things and you start thinking. I thought well if I can at least understand the fretboard. A little backstory. If you are a musician you might understand that, pianists learn to sight read and the reason it's good for pianists is because there's only one way to play a note on a piano. You might get like E at different times on a keyboard, but they are different pitches. They vibrate slower. On a guitar you can have that same E like three times, that exact same pitch three times on the fretboard. So it's like a more three-dimensional instrument. Because of this, guitarists seem to be very visual and a lot of time it comes from playing patterns of these things. But, you can't escape it. The guitar is a visual thing. What happens is you end up with all these different scales. On a piano, a scale has a certain sequence of notes to it but it's that same kind of sequence: tone, tone, semitone, tone if you are playing the major scale. Whereas guitar can work like that if you're playing along one string. But once you start going across the fretboard, across the strings, it's still if you're playing the scale one note after the other, it's still that, but if you're playing three notes per string, every three notes your breaking that pattern and you have to have it on the next string. I kind of started with that before I got onto learning the notes. I thought everything is based from learning the notes. I thought if I could learn the notes of the fretboard using mnemonics, the next thing would be, and I've already started thinking about it, I haven't put anything to paper yet, the next thing would be learning the scales, the different three note per string scale patterns. Once you know them, if you know what I'm talking about, it is kind of like you can go up, down and across. Once you learn them. They all kind of fit into each other really nicely. I've kind of started on an idea for using that. Then on top of that, I thought well if you can go there, then you can start learning the triads. Which is the next set of kind of like shapes that would sit on top of all of that. I think if you can do those three things using mnemonics, you would have a very good visual representation of the fretboard that you can imagine really well in your head instead of just being arbitrary dots on a fretboard. My first thing was well the foundation would be learning the notes. It is going to be hard to learn all these other things if you don't actually have the map of the fretboard and at the very basic the map is the notes of the fretboard. It really is just an extension of the Magnetic Memory Method. I've used one whole building. From the nut of the guitar to the 11th fret, so it is twelve different stations in this one big building. If you can't think of a big building, I think you could probably cut it after the 5th fret. You could go from the nut to 5 and then 6 to 11 you could probably have two palaces that could take up those parts and then if you really can't find buildings that're big enough for that, you'd probably be able to do it into fours. Like from the nut to the 2rd fret. From the 3th fret to the 4th fret. Kind of that. But I basically chose one big building because it was big enough and I had a good enough memory of it. It was an old tavern we used to own, my family. For anyone, that doesn't know the guitar, once you get to the 12th fret, it's just the same. It's the same as from the nut to the 11th fret. So I don't really worry about that. All I've done is I've basically created twelve different stations inside this one palace and they represent each fret on a guitar. So at the nut, I'll just read it out. It's the bottle store that is downstairs in this tavern. I've got the corner window by the spirits. The beer chiller, the shop counter, the front office and the wine area. I've got some kind of mnemonics in here that probably aren't real appropriate for a podcast. Anthony: You already forced me to put the explicit sign on this one. John: I'll try my best. This is at 5th fret. And my mnemonics are – this is the dining area next to the kitchen. I have the salad bar, the toilets, the window overlooking the car park, the table overlooking Caltex, and the cutlery station. What these are, at the salad bar that's the bottom E string. So at the 5th fret at the bottom E string, at the toilets string five. The window looking at the car park is string four. The table is string three and the cutlery station is string two, and on a guitar the first string and the sixth string are the same. So I don't bother putting a sixth micro station in there. Anthony: Right. John: By the salad bar I've Ace Ventura just dishing up some salad. So that's A. By the toilets I've Donald Duck walking in. These are basic mnemonics because I'm not trying to remember any information in them. It's just to represent a note. I've Ace Ventura. Then I've got Donald Duck. Then I've got Gandolf overlooking the car park. I've Captain America sitting at the table with his shield eating food. Then I've got Elvis Presley by the cutlery station getting some forks. So with that you've got A, D, G, C, E and then A again. So that's all your notes at the 5th fret on the guitar. Anthony: Just so it's clear for people, Captain America is C because of Captain. John: That's pretty basic. The only thing with music is that you have what are called enharmonic notes. What that means is it's like the alphabet you have A to G: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, but in between those notes you can go A, A sharp. However, A sharp can also be B flat. That one pitch can represent either an A sharp or a B flat, then C sharp/D flat, and then between E and F it just goes E, F. Then F sharp/G flat, G sharp/A flat, A sharp/B flat, B, C, C sharp/D flat. For the enharmonic things, I have two people or two characters usually battling each other. One example is at the second string of the 2nd fret C sharp/D flat and my mnemonic there is I have Cat Woman for C but I don't have the Penguin, I have Danny DeVito as the Penguin in Batman Returns, and it's by a freezer. So it's interacting with the freezer there. He's basically taking fish out, slipped up on the fish and the Cat Woman is trying to scratch him so he's D flat and she's C sharp. She's got the sharp claws. She is in the dominate position trying to scratch him who is the sub-dominate position. I don't know. Because he's going down. I have others. Like for example I've got for A sharp/B flat I've got Axl Rose with a switchblade for A sharp trying to slash up Bret Michaels from Poison. So it's A sharp/B flat. Anthony: Okay. So on A string you have C sharp/D flat like at the 4th fret if I'm correct. John: Yeah. Anthony: On the A string. Do you use the same characters on the E string where that appears? John: No, every single note has its own character. Like at the 4th fret, I haven't drilled this so like it takes me a little bit to fully remember. But if I remember right, C sharp/D flat I've got Dave Navarro going down on Carmen Electra. Anthony: Now I'm never going to forget that. John: C sharp, so C Carman Electra. Dave Navarro going down, D flat. Anthony: Oh, so you even incorporate that. John: Yeah. Anthony: Nice, nice. Well, you know, it might be explicit but it's not entirely unpleasant. Actually I don't know. We'll have to ask Dave Navarro what he thinks about that. Now let me see, Dave Navarro was the guy from Jane's Addiction. I was just thinking about that. I was looking here at my roommate. John: He was in Chili Peppers Anthony: He was in Chili Peppers. But not that album. It was – John: One Hot Minute. Anthony: One Hot Minute. Man that was good. I really like his guitar playing. Anyway, I'm not going to forget that very soon. But that's it. Right? What do you think about this whole topic of, because it's one thing that scares a lot people off is that I don't want my head filled with sex and violence. John: You're already thinking about it anyway. I mean the world is full of it man. You put on the news. This is not real violence. So what, Axl Rose is switch blading up Bret Michaels. It's not that violent. They probably do it in real life. Anthony: Well yeah, if you watch their You Tube videos where they are snipping at each other. They're definitely not kind in real life at all. John: No. It's not real violence and it's not stuff you wish upon people. But it does help you remember stuff. Anthony: So take it into practice. Let's say that you manage to use mnemonics to accomplish all these three levels that you talked about, how do you think that that's going to translate into playing ability in the short and long term? John: It's hard to really know at the moment. I know it's really important to understand. Like I don't really use notes so much. I don't sit there going this A. If I'm coming up with a solo or even trying to improvise on something you have your go to patterns. It is really pattern based. You try and use your ear as much as possible. My forte really is writing music. I can improvise somewhat over like backing and stuff and kind of like jam over stuff. But there's so many layers involved. It's like mnemonics aren't probably the be all or end all. I think the best things mnemonics would work for when trying to memorize music would be trying to memorize the theory. Like if you're trying to memorize all the key signatures and stuff like that. Obviously trying the memorize the notes on the fretboard. I've still got to drill that. I basically have just written this out and haven't really come back to it. But knowing the scales. In particular I'm talking about three-note per string scales. There is already the cage system which if you're a guitarist you might know what that is. Playing pentatonic scales like in those box positions I kind of find it all right but for the kind of stuff that I like to do, that metal kind of lead playing, I like three-note per string a lot better because you can go across the neck and then across the strings. Method Number Fifteen: Combine Acronyms With Imagery It's really hard to explain over just audio but they are like Lego pieces that really fit nicely together. I've already started thinking about mnemonics. With that stuff you're just dealing with the diatonic system like you're dealing with seven – well there's six different patterns, two of them repeat. But you're dealing with kind of like seven patterns that all lock together. For one pattern, people call them by the modes. They'll call this one pattern maybe like the Phrygian mode where the one and the second note are like right next each other. You've got that flattend second while technically the context will define what mode it is, but as far as recognizing these patterns people will name them like Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, Locrian. There's another thing I've made a mnemonic for IDPLMAL. That was my mnemonic for remembering the order of the modes. So basically the Phrygian shape, know Phrygian is context not necessarily the shape. It's not a shape at all but it's a musical context, but that particular shape with the one before it, to me I'm kind of thinking the Phrygian one kind of looks like a snake. So I already know there's going to be a snake for that pattern and then the one before that kind of like to me I imagine kind of like Bruce Lee doing a big kick like that with a straight leg. That big kind of flying kick. I kind of imagine him kicking the snake. That's the first one I've only ever really thought about it. The visualization thing is really important. If you're memorizing pieces of music, you don't necessarily need to know the scales you can really just go over where your fingers go. But if you're trying to improvise then you really need to know these patterns and being able to connect your ear to them is even better. Being able to know and anticipate what is coming up. I think if you can lay these scale patterns out and have a really good mental visualization in your head, you're going to be able to go to them a lot quicker. Sure there's different elements. You're going to have to have good technique which is a physical thing that you have to practice. Mnemonics aren't going to help there. But to be able to just go to these patterns really well through mnemonics it will be a lot better I think being able to remember mnemonics than just shapes. Then on top of that the triads. I've always thought all the different versions and inversions of triads, I always thought that would be a really important thing to be able to visualize really well and even Joe Satriani even says it himself. He says a lot of people learn arpeggio shapes all over the guitar. He says it's probably better to learn where all the three-note triads are because the arpeggios are all based around those anyway. Anthony: Right. John: And so I think application wise if you can have a real instant grasp. If you can say you've got the scales and you've got the arpeggios down, you can just instantly in your head memorize and visualize where you've got to go and what shape you're playing, that's when knowing the notes will come in because that's when you go I've got to play an A minor arpeggio in second inversion here. That's when you'll probably be able to holistically use all those three things together. But I mean this is not tested or anything. As I said, I've only started with the notes and the next things will follow. I feel confident with it. I've always thought those three things together as far as good fretboard visualization to have a fully rounded visual comprehension of the guitar I've always thought those three things together would be very important. They are something that you can definitely do with and make it easier with mnemonics. You've just got to sit down and do it. Anthony: Well that's really what it comes down to. It is sitting down and doing it. I really want to thank you for all your insights and sharing your experience because it's fantastic. Also for just leaping on the microphone with me to record an episode of the podcast. John: Interrupting the drum session. Anthony: Is it cool with you we'll end this episode with one of your songs? John: Yeah. Anthony: The one that I was learning with you. Is that cool? John: Yeah. Objective Decimation. Anthony: It's really great. John: It's brutal. Anthony: It's brutal. Actually it's kind of funny we ended up doing a different project because I don't want to have to memorize this song because it is so intense and detailed. John: It's a lot to learn. Anthony: Not because I didn't want to learn it. Actually what I wanted is for you to just tab it out for me. John: I will once I finish recording the songs, I will tab my music out. Method Number Sixteen: Publicly Admit When You're Just Being Lazy Anthony: Yeah, that's really what my laziness was. Also I'm a bit tone deaf. So when I have to try and learn by ear. If it's in standard E I can do it okay. Are you in C sharp or B. John: Well it's a transposed instrument I guess because my guitar is tuned half a step down. So I'm a half step from standard tuning. But I'm playing in – so it would be A flat minor but it switches. This is where the modal stuff comes in. If you go a fifth up from A you get E. It switches between A minor and E Phrygian dominant which is basically the same scale. If you play the A harmonic minor where you hit the raised 7th, and E Phrygian dominate you're using exactly the same notes. It's exactly the same. It's just instead of A being your home base E becomes your home base. When it cranks into the chorus that's when it switches. A minor becomes the key, the home base for the key then. So it sounds a bit different, but it's really E flat and A flat because I'm tuned half a step down. Anthony: Well any case, down tuned makes it more of a challenge for my ear to pick out the differences. I always had that problem with The Outside. I was like come on, just tab it for me. John: I will tab them. Once I finish. All my songs are written and I've got to re-record the guitars and do some work on the bass and then do the final mixing and kind of mastering of it. And then I'll have them for my website. I'll probably sort out something final for that. I'm still contemplating whether to charge or not. If I do it won't be much. It took a lot of effort to do them but I kind of want to cross-pollinate with the Fretfury Guitar Tuition thing. Kind of like niche myself in that whole guitar tuition thing. Kind of niched in that hard rock metal kind of genre and then the music is the credibility to get people in and then I can kind of do all the other teaching based around that and so I will tab the songs out because I want to be able to put them on You Tube; my video is teaching people how to play my stuff. Then who knows. If they want to learn more then there might be some kind of membership deal. The idea is that I'd give all those songs away. Not the fully finished recorded songs, but backing tracks and have all the tabs and have all the stuff there and then the videos on You Tube so people can actually learn how to play all those things. That is the ultimate goal. They will be tabbed. Anthony: I'm really looking forward to that on multiple levels. What's your website? I'll link to it. John: Yeah the one if people want to go listen to music is www.firstincharge.com. Anthony: We'll link to that. John: I've got another one. But there's nothing really on it just yet. Anthony: And you also have videos that walk people through some of your production techniques. John: Yeah, First In Charge are some basic videos of just how I did the drums. How I did the bass. It's all home recording and with technology these days you can get pretty good results from doing it. I just wanted to show that you can do it on a real tight budget. Everything is done on the cheap but at the moment I'm pretty happy with the results. I still have to re-record guitars but other than that, just very brief overviews. I don't go in depth how to program drums because then you have got to learn how to play drums a little bit to understand the concept behind them. But just a walkthrough of the drums, bass guitars and vocals at the moment. Anthony: Well it might be homemade but when I first heard it, it just sounds like totally in a studio so we're gonna roll Objective Decimation. For everybody out there, and even you don't like metal listen to it anyway because you're about hear some super talented from John McPhedran and so thanks again for being on the show. Listen to this episode a couple times. Because this is just action packed with all kinds of stuff that you can get using no matter what language you're listening to or what instrument you're playing and tell us how that you did and until next time, keep magnetic. Further Resources Memorize Bach On Bass The Story Of How To Learn And Memorize German Vocabulary This video features music John and I recorded together in Berlin based on my song, "Goin' Down." The post 16 Heavy Metal Memory Methods For German And Music appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

How I Memorized German Phrases Every Day For A Year Guest post by Richard Gilzean Note: What follows is a deconstruction of the steps I took (and continue to take) to improve my German. But rest assured, these same steps will work for memorizing phrases in any language. Sound good? Regardless of whether you've been learning a second or third language for a while, or just starting out, this approach to memorizing foreign languages will help you. In the beginning was the Word SENTENCE. You might be wondering: Why learn German phrases and not just individual words? Good question. The answer is that we all read, write, listen and speak in sentences, or fragments thereof. The sentence is at the core of any language and learning to master the sentence should be considered. Even the most basic language guide book for travelers teach simple German phrases that follow syntax. Don't get me wrong. Words are beautiful in their own right. We all should invest in the time to learn what a word means and how to best use it. And this is achieved by working those words into sentences as you work on your bilingualism. How I Built My "Internal GPS" (And You Can Too) Before launching into memorizing my first German phrase, I designed the Memory Palace system that would store them. I've been interested in the art and craft of memory training and self-improvement for a couple of years. But I only really started to study it closely after coming across Anthony's book How to Learn and Memorize German Vocabulary which, in turn, led me to the Magnetic Memory Method website. Recommended resource: The Magnetic Memory Method Masterplan. Anthony's approach to teaching anyone how to learn, memorize and recall vocabulary, names, mathematical formulas and pretty much anything that can be memorized is both well-structured and comprehensive. So I'll just highlight the essential components as they relate to learning languages and all of you who have been following Anthony's site will be familiar. Have a store of real locations to house your sentences. Imagine real concrete / tangible objects or people that are creative, vivid, colorful and zany. Therefore, not just an elephant, but a pink pygmy elephant with Dumbo-like ears and with a runny trunk. Schedule time for practice so the sentence can work its way into your long-term memory. You'll need to draw from your own personal memory bank a real location in which to store your sentences. It can be a place you know well, like the house you live in, or the place where you grew up that holds its own strong memories. It can be a route you follow regularly, such as a park or your daily commute from home to work. With a little practice you can come up with more than enough Memory Palaces. While there are some general guidelines about how to make your Memory Palace effective, there is a lot of divergent opinion on how to make best use of your own Memory Palaces because no two thought processes are alike. Because I knew I would need a large location to hold my expanding sentences, I chose a route that ran from the front door of my house, along the street, through a local park and over to my son's local primary school – some 400 meters in total. From AA to ZZ: Where I Keep My Memorized German Phrases But before you set off on your journey, you'll need to figure out your memory anchors. Think of the process like mental orienteering where you go for a jog in your mind along a set trail and arrive at control points along the way. To help, I created an excel spreadsheet with an index of initials for names of famous people, friends and cartoon characters, running all the way from AA to ZZ. This process took a little time to work through and I made some compromises along the way. In particular, I left out the letters Q – X – Y (just too hard to come up with names). I ended up with a list of 600 names running from Andre Agassi to the bearded rockers from the band ZZ Top. Six hundred names means, in theory, I am able to memorize at least 600 foreign language sentences. Running alongside my list of names I also have a separate list of 100 what I refer to as my memory tag words. These words use the well-established mnemonic Major Method which is a technique used to aid in memorizing numbers and has been used in memorize shopping lists, the sequence of a shuffled pack of card and memory competitions. The Major Method works by converting numbers into consonant sounds, then into words by adding vowels. How To Choose Which Phrases To Memorize Armed with my list of 600 names and 100 Major System tag words, I now have the memory anchors in place to hold my German sentences. I also have the memory route from my house to my son's primary school. There is a smorgasbord of foreign language sites out there to choose from, but the question is, which phrases should I memorize in order to get the best results for building fluency in German. I subscribe to the German Flashcards section of a website run by Learn With Oliver for collecting many German phrases. It contains an easy to navigate database of material to assist you in learning several of the most common languages. The site produces a daily e-letter with a word and phrase of the day, an audio recording of the text plus a whole bunch of other useful resource material. From this site I have taken almost all of my German phrases. Once I have material to work with, my approach is to review the phrases I want to memorize and make sure that I am comfortable with the grammar and etymology. I then copy the sentences and the English translation into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is made up of the following columns: Initials running from AA to ZZ The English sentence The German sentence My mnemonic interpretation (this is explained below) The full names of my AA – ZZ group My 100 tag words Here's an example: Here's how I've adapted my practice from memorizing single words to whole German phrases. As you can see, I've front-loaded three of the components into the sentence. They include the initials of a well-known/memorable name (Michelle Obama), the English translation (no problem) and the tag word (hail). By splicing these three components into the sentence I've built an imaginative cross reference for whenever I need to recall the German phrase "Keine Ursache!" the rest of this mnemonic interpretation follows some established mnemonic guidelines. German sayings like this are powerful to have in memory – just make sure to also include funny German phrases as you learn the language. Personally, however, I suggest avoid learning German insults – you might wind up blurting them out at inopportune moments! If you're stuck on finding any material to learn and memorize at all, one tip for finding good German phrases is to search Google for "German phrases PDF." Carrying on: For the word "keine" I thought of Keyser Soze, who some of you may recall as the evil dude Kevin Spacey played in the film "The Usual Suspects". For the word "Ursache" I broke it down into two images, one for "UR" and one for "SACHE" and came up with Keith URban (well-known country singer) + SACK. I then imagined Keyser (rhyming with kaiser and which just happens to be a German vocabulary word) shoving URban into a SACK. Don't forget to take the time to imagine this scenario with crazy, vivid, memorable images. Gimpy-legged Keyser shoving guitar-wielding URban into a big smelly potato SACK works for me. If You Can Imagine A Castle, You Can Use Memory Techniques To Boost Your German Fluency Let's take these ideas and incorporate them into a more challenging sentence. Is it worth visiting this castle? = Lohnt es sich diese Burg zu besuchen? Jacques Tati is king of a CASTLE in a MoVie starring Lindsay LOHAN playing the role of ESther who is throwing up SICK over DIESEL (a musician I know) after eating a BURGer served by ZUlu armed with a BAZOOKa. In this case I'm using some mnemonic shorthand. Again, I've loaded three of the components at the front of the sentence Jacque Tati / Castle / Movie. Jacque Tati (famous French film actor and director) is my famous name and CASTLE is a single image I want to use represent the entire sentence. It's a concrete image that is easy to visualize. (Is there anyone who can't imagine a castle?) The third component is the word "MOVIE" which is number 38 in my 100 memory tags. For the rest of the exercise you should be able to make the connection between my sentence and the similar sounding words in the German phrase. How To Make The Most From Mnemonic Shorthand Regardless of whatever foreign language you want to master, you'll soon figure out the high frequency words and syllables and will want settle on some shorthand images to help you form your mnemonic sentences. For example, I've settled on the following shorthand for these common German words: es = it. For this word I use an image of a family member whose name is Esther. ich = I. Here I just imagine "ItCHy", the mouse from The Simpson's cartoons. der = multiple meanings including: the (masculine definite article) (definite article for genitive and dative singular feminine and genitive plural) who which that one, this one I found some mnemonic shorthand harder to imagine than others. In what is probably an understatement, the German language has many words with the prefix 'ge'. After much trial and error, I settled on an image of GoethE as my go-to guy for the 'ge' words. But if GoethE doesn't make sense to your imagination and you encounter an issue Anthony talked about in his Remember Names At Events podcast, you might think that Agent Maxwell Smart from the GEt Smart television series works better for you. Or perhaps someone more contemporary comes to mind. The important thing is that you learn to link figures with information so that you can recall it at will. This skill comes in handy in many ways, particularly when trying to memorize German genders. For example, in all instances of "der" I use an 80's television character DERrick from the popular German detective series. How To Get Ikea To Optimize Your Memory Palace Now, you may be thinking: Do I really need to be able to recall all of my mnemonic sentences? Answer: No. I've found that once a schedule of recall practice is established you'll be able to rely on the processing power of your mind to summon the sentence. The next problem I had to solve concerned mental real estate. I now had in place my daily practice of learning and memorizing new German phrases and placing them along my chosen route. But I eventually realized I was running out of stations along my route and I wanted to get more benefit out of the site of this Memory Palace. My solution was to use a system of alphabetical modular shelving – think Ikea wall units – in which to place my mnemonic imagery. So when it came time to assign German phrases to my prepared list of EA to EZ letters, instead of using up 23 separate places (remember letters Q, X and Y are out) along the route, I imagined a rather large E-shaped white Ikea wall unit with 23 compartments at the next station along the path. And in each compartment I would place my mnemonic interpretation of whatever German sentence I was learning that day. Kind of like the dioramas I used to help my son make for his school projects. Forging The Memory Chain Using Recall And Difference The main advantage I've found with using what I call my double-bind memory link strategy (i.e. initials plus memory tag words) is that if I happen to forget one when practicing my recall I can usually rely on the other one to help me out. Take up this practice and you'll see quick results too. Memory Palaces do not have to be photographic / perfect representations – they just need to be consistent with how you recall them in your mind. Once I've memorized a batch of 23 sentences to the point where I can mentally recall the sentences forwards, backwards and in some random order, I use a simple spaced repetition system that involves setting a date in my Google calendar with a title like – "LA – LZ 1 week". I then mentally run through my recall, check my responses on the spreadsheet and, if I get them correct, will reset the next recall for two weeks, followed by 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months. If I'm not happy with my recall practice I'll review the mnemonic sentence I've constructed and practice again a few days later. I recommend you rehearse your phrases out loud because you need to hear the sounds your voice makes. Make a practice of writing them out by hand as a way of reinforcing the learning. For extra bonus points you might like to record the sentences and listen to them when you're out and about. That pretty well sums up what I've achieved in a short period of time. This method takes the key features found on Magnetic Memory Method site and tweaks them to get the best value out of your Memory Palace. Try creating warehouses in your own Memory Palaces using the alphabetical system outlined. My German phrases continues to swell and grow. So far I've gone from Andre Agassi to Van Halen. That's about 500 sentences. Sprechen, Lesen, Schreiben und Hōren (Speak, Read, Write & Listen) As I mentioned at the start of this post we all write, listen, read and speak in sentences and German phrases. Learning to speak and understand any foreign language with fluency requires application to all four components in equal measure. The method of memorizing sentences I've described ticks all four boxes. Of course, you'll need to get out there and road test your German phrases (or those in the language you're studying) in real world situations to become comfortable with your newly acquired knowledge. All good language learners say so, including polyglot Luca Lampariello when he describes language as a kind of net. If you've found this training on memorizing German phrases helpful, or you'd like some clarification on the points, please contact me at richard@richardgilzean.com. Viel Gluck! Richard Gilzean is a writer and blogger specialising in creating content for small business owners, entrepreneurs and corporate clients. He has thirty years of writing, research and training experience in corporate and government sectors. Whether you want to create great content to boost traffic to your website or you're looking for a professional writer who can tell your story in your voice, Richard can help. Check out his freelance writing website here. The post German Phrases: The Ultimate How To Memorize German Sentences Guide appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.