I’ve been studying for a competition.
It has the type of questions that require simple memorized answers like—
What year did the Yankees win their first world series?
“Gnome” is my answer.
That’s 23…
In a system I learned nearly 2 decades ago for quickly memorizing numbers.
You turn the numerals into letters and then words that you associate to the content.
2 being N. 3 being M.
It’s a phonetic system, so the vowels are silent as is the “G.”
To link the number to the question, I see a Yankees player beating the heck out of a garden gnome.
You could do this a million different ways, and ultimately, the more “memorable,” the more it sticks in your brain.
I haven’t done this type of memorizing for years.
Nor used this memory technique so deliberately.
But it’s still stuck in my brain.
If Only I’d Known This Back In School
Back in school and university I only knew how to memorize the old-fashioned way…
Brute force, repetition.
It’s so bizarre that in a system built almost entirely on ROTE learning, memorizing…
Nobody ever teaches us even the most basic tools for quickly memorizing.
Sometimes you come across these tools—like the song kids learn to remember the States of America. (called linking)
But how valuable would it be for kids to have simple tools to remember everything?
Such as the memory palace.
How valuable would this be for your kids to remove the stress and brute force of school?
And give them the certainty they can easily remember what they need?
How valuable is this for us adults?
Save Years Of Our Lives
How many hours do kids spend “trying” to memorize stuff in school?
Maybe that’s the point!
We don’t teach them how to actually learn so we can tie them up for hours and hours more, learning worse?
So we can help many more of them feel like failures in life?
Some people tell me they “don’t believe” in memory techniques.
Like ghosts or UFOs, you believe when you see.
Yet those people who care about their kids wasting years of their lives reading and re-reading and re-reading…
And still walking into exams fearful of forgetting…
Want their kids to have every advantage, right?
The Second Skill
That would have saved years of my life…
Is another I wish I’d known about in school and university when I was investing hours and hours a day reading and re-reading, trying to remember things—
Speed reading.
Now, again, plenty of adults tell me they don’t believe in speed reading.
Perhaps thinking it a form of witchcraft, like a horseless carriage.
Having never studied it they can’t fathom how a skill you learned at age 5 can’t be improved upon!
But those of us who want to pour through reading at 3-10x+ the pace…
And remember infinitely more.
Well, you can very quickly learn to speed read as well.
This is where I got most lucky on my journey of personal development.
Coming across these tools early, I saw if my life was now about reading, as basically all of our lives are…
Why wouldn’t you want to read at 10X+ the pace?
And get through reading much faster, remembering more?
Again, I Recognize Some People Don’t Believe This
They are still reading this word for word.
Repeating every word in their head—called sub-vocalizing—which keeps us reading at the same rate we speak (250 words per minute).
But just spend a little time with Evelyn Wood’s famous program and you’ll quickly, massively ramp up your reading rate.
Just these two skills alone would have saved years of my life.
The kids I know who’ve done this find it much easier to study, faster.
And to more easily get to top of the class.
It’s not brain surgery.
Just the most basic skills for using your brain better.
That for some reason nobody ever teaches us.
How bizarre?
Nearly as bizarre as jacking up our kids on speed because nobody ever trains us in this 3rd life changing skill—
Focus.
Here’s Track 1 from the Focus Tools Masterclass:
Nearly as bizarre as jacking up our kids on speed because nobody ever trains them to focus.