How to Develop a Perfect Memory (6 page)

97

NG

Nell Gwyn

Selling fruit

98

NH

Nigel Havers

Leading black horse

99

NN

Nanette Newman

Washing up

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

You should now have a complete list of people from 00 to 99, each one with their own individual action. I have cheated a little. One number reminds me of my late dog (47, DG). You might want to include a pet or a favourite race horse (Desert Orchid works well), but I strongly recommend that you limit yourself to the one animal. Stick with people.

When I was experimenting with this system, I found that certain numbers

were far more difficult to remember than others. Those that I had represented by intangible feelings such as love, peacefulness, and anger barely triggered off an image. Certain objects were good stimulants, but people proved to be the best all-rounders.

Committing all these characters to memory might sound like hard work, but it isn't, providing your associations are obvious. With a bit of practice, you will automatically think of two-digit numbers as people; if you can't remember the person, simply refer back to the alphabet (which is why you must learn the ten basic letters before moving on to the people). The letters are there to act as a mental prop. I suggest trying to remember twenty people a day.

HOW TO APPLY THE DOMINIC SYSTEM

Once you have memorized the cast, you have finished the hardest part of this book. They are the key to remembering telephone numbers, credit cards,

addresses, any number you want. They even hold the key to memorizing the entire twentieth-century calendar.

HOW TO MEMORIZE TWO-DIGIT NUMBERS

Let's assume that you want to memorize the number of somebody's house. A friend of yours lives at number 74, but you are always knocking at 64 and 84.

Translated into letters, 74 becomes GD, the French actor Gerard Depardieu.

Imagine him sticking his sword through the letter box of your friend's house.

(In all these examples, I am using well-known people from the list.)

Location is important. Always picture your person at the house you want to remember. You must also ensure that he or she is doing their appropriate action. This helps to link them to their location.

Let's assume another friend of yours lives at number. 79; 79 becomes the Egyptian ex-president Gamal Nasser (7 = G; 9 = N). Imagine him tying his camel up outside your friend's house.

Perhaps you want to remember the time trains leave your local station. If it is 8 minutes past the hour, imagine Oliver Hardy (0 = O, 8 = H) standing on the platform, turning around with a plank on his shoulder, sending passengers flying in all directions.

HOW TO MEMORIZE THREE-DIGIT NUMBERS

You are already equipped to remember three-digit numbers. All you have to do is break the number down into a pair of digits and a single digit. For example, 644 becomes 64 - 4. Translate the pair into a person: Sharron Davies (6 = S; 4

= D). And the single digit into a number shape: sailing boat (4). Combine the two and you have an image of Sharron Davies swimming alongside a sailing boat, trying to keep up. Now place this at a relevant location.

If you want to remember the number of a bus, the 295 for example, break it down into 29—5. This gives you an image of Barry Norman and a curtain

hook. I would imagine him drawing curtains in a bus (parked at the bus stop) and showing a film.

HOW TO MEMORIZE TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Most telephone numbers in Britain now comprize ten digits. You have already learnt how to memorize two digits by creating an image of one person. It follows that if you want to remember four digits, you have to visualize two people.

But this would only make life half as easy. To memorize someone's

telephone number, for example, you would have to visualize five people. Far too much like hard work!

I have stressed throughout this chapter how important it is to give each person an action: Eddie 'the Eagle' is always skiing; Stephane Grappelli is never without his violin. Actions are the key to remembering any number over three digits; they halve the amount of work you have to do.

FOUR, SIX, AND EIGHT DIGITS

When you see the number 2914, the first stage is to break it down into 29 - 14, which translates into Barry Norman, and Arthur Daley. But there is no need to visualize them both. Use the first two digits to give you a person, the second two digits to give you an action.

Then combine them to create one image of Barry Norman selling second

hand cars. Arthur is nowhere to be seen. You are interested only in his action, which is selling cars.

29..............................................14

Barry Norman.............selling cars

(person...............................action)

Similarly, if the number was 1429, you would visualize Arthur operating a film camera. Barry Norman would be out of shot completely. His spirit lives on, though, in the action of filming.

The first two digits always refer to the person, the second two digits to an action.

14..............................................29

Arthur Daley.....................filming

(person...............................action)

All you are doing is alternating between person and action to create a complex image.

COMPLEX IMAGES

Complex images are an efficient way to memorize longer numbers; they condense them into a manageable size. If you have to remember a six-digit number, 142968 for example, break it down into 14-29 - 68, and then visualize Arthur Daley filming Sherlock Holmes (68
=
SH = Sherlock Holmes.) I am simply continuing the process of alternating between person and action.

14.................................29.................68

Arthur Daley............... filming.........Sherlock Holmes

person..........................action............person

Taking the example a stage further, let's suppose you have to memorize

14296896. Break it down into 14-29-68-96. Then imagine Arthur Daley

filming Sherlock Holmes playing chess (96 = NS = Nigel Short, the chess

player).

14................................29......................68.................................96

Arthur Daley..............filming..............Sherlock Holmes...........playing chess person.........................action................person..........................action FIVE, SEVEN, AND NINE DIGITS

These numbers work in exactly the same way, except that you have to incorporate a number shape into your complex image to remind you of the single digit. Take 14296, for example. Break this down into 14-29-6. Then imagine Arthur Daley filming an elephant.

14..........................29..................6

Arthur Daley........filming...........elephant's trunk

person...................action............number shape

TELEPHONE NUMBERS

We now come to phone numbers themselves. Take the phone number 0122

524593, an ordinary ten-digit number. Apply exactly the same principles as before.

The first stage is to break this number down into pairs of digits. 01 - 22 -52 -

45 - 93. And then translate them into letters: OA - BB - EB - DE -NC. We are then reminded of five images of people and their actions:

Ossie Ardiles (playing football)

Betty Boothroyd (banging, order!)

Eric Bristow (playing darts)

Duke Ellington (playing piano)

Nadia Comaneci (balancing on a beam)

We combine these people, alternating between person and action, to give us one complex image:

Ossie Ardiles is banging and shouting 'Order!' at an unamused Eric Bristow, who is playing the piano, accompanying one of Nadia Comaneci's delicate

routines.

Location is, as ever, essential when remembering phone numbers. It is no good memorizing the number in isolation. It belongs to someone and we must connect the above image to that person. In most cases, the simplest way of doing this is by setting the scene at the house or office of the person whose number we are trying to recall. I remember the number of the person who

delivers our logs, for example, by setting the corresponding scene outside his house.

Or take the phone number 0606 922755. Broken down into pairs, the

number translates into the following letters: OS - OS - NB - BG - EE.

This gives us the following persons and actions:

Omar Sharif (playing backgammon)

Omar Sharif (playing backgammon)

Nigel Benn (boxing)

Bob Geldof (knighting)

Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards (skiing)

We combine these to form a complex image at a relevant location, alternating between person and action:

Omar Sharif playing backgammon with Nigel Benn, who is being knighted

by Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards.

I have outlined the process in detail. With practice, however, you will automatically see images of persons and actions when confronted with a number. I do it automatically now. Life becomes so much easier when you don't have to write down things such as phone numbers.

5

THE MENTAL

DIARY

The easiest way to honour appointments is by writing them down in a diary, but there will always be occasions when you have left it behind, or it is not practical to carry one around with you. Large yearly planners can be particularly cumbersome, and even the latest in electronic personal organizers can occasionally go on the blink.

In this chapter, I want to introduce you to an alternative way of remembering appointments: the mental diary. Sadly, our dependence on wall planners, desk charts, and pocket diaries has resulted in a steady decline in our ability to commit dates and meetings to memory. And as I have said all along, if you don't exercise the brain like a muscle, it grows weak. The Japanese, despite their fondness for electronic gadgetry, tend to rely on their memories, and many of them do away with diaries altogether. Remember, the more you exercise the brain, the fitter it becomes.

REMEMBERING APPOINTMENTS

The attraction of flashy year planners is that you can tell at a glance what lies ahead. The forthcoming two months are usually a maze of colour-coded dots, thinning out into one or two important fixtures later on in the year.

A mental diary works on the same principle. By using a journey with 31

stages, you can also tell, at a glance, what treats lie in store. And if you want to look forward to the following month, simply add another route.

THE METHOD

Each stage of the journey represents a day of the month, and appointments are placed at the corresponding stages. Let's suppose you have an appointment with the doctors on 3rd January, for example. You simply go to the third stage, where your appointment is represented by a key image. Imagine your doctor standing there in a white coat, for example, with a stethoscope around his or her neck.

THE JOURNEY

On top of a hill in Surrey, there is an old brick folly. As a young boy, I used to climb up its precarious steps, ignoring all thoughts of my own safety, and stand proudly on the top. From there I had a good view of two villages

below me. To the east lay the village of Wonersh, to the west, Bramley. It was the perfect lookout post. I could clearly make out individual roads, rivers, and people in both villages.

Today, I use this panoramic setting for all my appointments. The journey from the tower to Bramley covers all my engagements in the month ahead; the journey to Wonersh is for the second month ahead. Below, I have given you the journey to Bramley, together with a typical month of appointments.

ONE-MONTH PLANNER

STAGE JOURNEY TO

DATE JANUARY APPOINTMENTS

1

Tower

1

2

Bushes

2

3

Well

3

Doctor's

4

Secret tunnel

4

5

Fence

5

Golf lesson

6

Gardens

6

7

Driveway

7

Wedding (Steve and Caroline)

8

Stables

8

9

Stile

9

Board meeting (head office)

10

Steep path

10

Hairdressers

11

Steps

11

12

Road

12

Bank manager

13

Bomb shelter

13

14

Barn

14

15

Riverbank

15

Dinner party

16

Bridge (on top)

16

Collect Toby, Heathrow (0900

17

Jetty

17

Accountant

18

Boat

18

Jane's 40th Birthday (card)

19

Weeping willow

19

Dentist (1100 hours) Golf lesson

20

Back garden

20

Squash

21

Back door

21

22

Bridge (under)

22

23

Cricket pitch

23

School play

24

Pavilion

24

25

Golf club

25

26

Bus stop

26

Golf lesson

27

Garage

27

Chiropodist

28

Hotel

28

Car insurance due

29

Mini-roundabout 29

30

Restaurant

30

31

Library

31

REVIEWING THE DIARY

If I 'stand' on my folly, I notice immediately that there is considerable activity down by the river. I must have a lot of engagements that week. Similarly, I can see that the beginning of the month is pleasantly quiet - a solitary doctor standing by the well and my golf tutor over by the fence.

The advantage of both routes is that I can see all the stages from the same vantage point, enabling me to spot in an instant the congested areas - busy days or weeks, in other words.