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If I asked you to go grocery shopping without writing a list, how would you attempt to remember it? Let’s say you needed:

1. Chicken
2. Eggs
3. Milk
4. Ketchup
5. Laundry Detergent
6. Toothpaste
7. Bread
8. Mushrooms
9. Lettuce
10. Peas

Most people would use rote memorization, constantly repeating the list over and over until they thought they had it, painful stuff. Here’s a better way, which shows the power of visual memory.

First memorize these rhyming objects:

1 = Bun

2 = Shoe

3 = Tree

4 = Door

5 = Hive

6 = Sticks

7 = Heaven

8 = Gate

9 = Wine

10 = Pen

Now I’d like you to link, in as crazy way as possible, the 10 item-shopping list, to these new images representing the numbers from 1-10. I’ll start you off with the first three.

Bun to Chicken. See a gigantic Chicken sitting between the two halves of a hamburger bun, perhaps wearing the top half as a hat, see it pecking at the bottom half and the top half keeps falling off, so it keeps picking it up and placing it back on its head.

Shoe to Eggs. Imagine yourself cracking eggs into your favorite shoes. See yourself sliding your feet into your shoes and breaking the yolks. They spray out from your shoes covering the whole area with a thick yellow gooey mess.

Tree to Milk. Imagine tipping over a huge Oak tree with your hands, as it topples, gallons and gallons of Milk gush from the ground like an oil geyser. It’s a milk geyser. See yourself covered in dripping milk.

Okay, go ahead and do the same with the remaining list. Remember, the more ridiculous the image the better. Once you finish, see how many you can remember. Then come back.

So how did you do? If your images were crazy, you should not only have been able to remember all ten in order, but you should also be able to recall them out of order. If I say 3, what do you see? 3/Tree, uprooting the tree and the geyser of milk. How about 5, 8, 7? Easy isn’t it?

This is an easy demonstration of the power of visualization. The next time you go grocery shopping or go to write down a to-do list, try this method, your brain will thank you.

Bob’s book Right Brain Rapid Recall which covers this system (The Peg) in more depth is available here http://www.memoryedge.com/online-store/

Download my new app for remembering names  BOB’S APP

Funny, unique and interactive in his entertaining conference keynotes and workshops, Bob Gray reveals the untapped potential in each of us. His empowering systems and their many applications in the business world give participants immediate ‘walk away’ value. Book Bob Gray today as your next conference keynote speaker.

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A friend of mine will soon be taking a ‘once in a lifetime’ month’s vacation to Tuscany, she has never been to Europe and is excited, as you can imagine.  Last week over lunch, she reminded me of her poor memory, saying how concerned she is about getting older, and how she seems to be forgetting things, she joked that she’d hate to forget the ‘experience’ of her upcoming trip.

“If only there were a way of storing the experience without having to permanently have a phone or camera in my hand”, she said. I told her there is!  It is something I have been doing for years, but just for those special trips.

I told her to go sample, and buy a brand new perfume, one she obviously likes, but has never used before, then use it on her trip, and only that trip.  I told her to do the same with music, research some of her favourite artists, see which ones have a new album out and download it, again, listen to that CD on the trip.  Then, once she is back, whenever she smells that fragrance, whether by accident or on purpose, or she hears a track from that CD, she will be instantly transported back to Italy and all those wonderful memories.

It works.  How many times have you smelled something or heard a piece of music and reminded of a particular person, place or time?  I just consciously take advantage of this natural memory link.

Funny, unique and interactive in his entertaining conference keynotes and workshops, Bob Gray reveals the untapped potential in each of us. His empowering systems and their many applications in the business world give participants immediate ‘walk away’ value. Book Bob Gray today as your next conference keynote speaker.  Watch Bob in action.

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What’s the most effective way to keep your brain healthy and stave off dementia as you age? You may not want to hear the answer….but it’s physical exercise, the type most of us hate, where we elevate our heart rate for at least 30 minutes several times a week….but it’s not all bad news.

You don’t need to be on a treadmill or stationery bike looking at that dreaded clock countdown, just to have the machine tell you you’ve burned off the same calories as a chocolate chip cookie.

I’m not talking about weight loss here, that’s a whole other story. I’m talking about our ability to stay cognitive savvy in our later years…..so you can ditch the treadmill if you want, a fast walk works just as well. I have a dog and our daily walks are something I actually look forward to.

Technically the neurons in our brain need oxygen and glucose from our blood supply in order to operate correctly, and as our circulatory system ages it has a more difficult time delivering it……and exercise helps overcome this.

There’s a whole bunch of other stuff about growth factors, plasticity and proteins that support synaptic growth in the brain….but who cares? Well actually I do, but most people don’t. I just find that in most every keynote presentation or memory workshop I give, more and more people are concerned about the decline of their cognitive abilities as they age.

So don’t think it’s too late! Middle agers who exercise regularly are one-third less likely to get Alzheimer’s in their seventies as those who do not. Even people who begin exercising in their sixties can cut the risk down by up to one half.

You don’t have to join a gym, gym memberships spike every January then fall off come March. New Year’s fitness resolutions are made with the best intentions but most people don’t follow through. You don’t have to join a gym. If you don’t currently exercise, go see your doctor and ask him/her about starting an exercise program that can be done at home or involves walking. Maybe start with a walk two or three times a week, then crank up the pace….who knows, you just might get to finish that Sudoku by the time you’re ninety!

Funny, unique and interactive in his entertaining conference keynotes and workshops, Bob Gray reveals the untapped potential in each of us. His empowering systems and their many applications in the business world give participants immediate ‘walk away’ value. Book Bob Gray today as your next conference keynote speaker.  Watch Bob in action.

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They say that a good deal of success in life just comes down to who you know. That’s certainly true, but I might amend that to include the people you’ve met and can remember.

If that seems like a small distinction, it isn’t – most of us meet hundreds, and maybe thousands, of people who could help us live better lives in dozens of different ways, if only we could make the right connections and associations at the right times. In other words, if we could recall the name of that great contractor we met, the recommendation for the dentist we got, or who the boss’s nephew was again, more things would tend to go our way.

That’s why it’s important that you make the most of holiday parties this year. It’s a virtual guarantee that you’re going to meet someone you’d like to know, or at least remember, at a later date, but most of us aren’t as strong with names and faces as we would like.

With that in mind, here are some quick tips for remembering the names and faces of people you meet at holiday parties this season:

Make a quick image association. This is one of the easiest memory techniques to learn, and one of the most powerful. When you meet a new person, associate their name with some image in your mind; perhaps they remind you of someone you know or someone famous. Or simply associate them with someone you know or someone famous who has the same name. Hold it firm for a moment or two. The stronger the picture is, emotionally speaking, the easier it will be to recall later.

Remember where you are when you meet someone. If you can recall where you were when you met someone, or who you were with, you stand a much better chance of recalling their name later. So, take a quick mental snapshot of your location and associate it with the new name.

Spell their name. Spelling their name forces you to hear it, most times we don’t actually forget a name, we just don’t remember it in the first place, and this is usually because we don’t hear it.

Say or repeat their name. Use the name once or twice in your initial conversation. Say the person’s name, either out loud in conversation or quietly to yourself. Then, remind yourself again at a later time of their name, and it will likely stick in your memory.

These are only simple techniques, of course, but they work. In my keynotes and workshops, I teach attendees to quickly memorize names and faces in rapid succession, and you can easily learn to do the same. Best of all, if you practice these techniques regularly, the names won’t just stay with you, but you’ll be able to recall them later, and maybe even for years to come.

Imagine how convenient it would be to remember the names, faces, and details of everyone you met at holiday parties, industry events, and social gatherings!

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” Bob Gray has a humorous, entertaining approach to improving memory and other business skills. memoryedge.com ”

Check out the full article by Loren G. Edelstein here.

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One of the easiest ways salespeople, self-employed professionals, and just about anyone else can get ahead is to enhance their memory. Learning to remember important details about clients, executives, coworkers, and other contacts can be just the ticket. These details include names and faces, of course, but could also be things like their birthday, spouse’s name, children’s names, even the name of their dog – ask any dog lover!

For a long time, getting this kind of information together, much less remembering it, required a lot of work. You might have to make detailed notes after a conversation, keep a filing system, or even put together a set of index cards with the person’s photo, if you could even find one. That meant that your post-networking event routine could turn into something resembling an FBI profiling chart.

With that kind of hassle involved, it’s no wonder very few people took the time to try. All of that has changed with the rise of social media, however, meaning that there is literally no excuse for not knowing what you should about your most important customers or contacts. With a simple look through someone’s Facebook or LinkedIn profile, for example, you can enhance your memory and remember the details

Enhance your memory with information like:

What their face looks like
The names of their spouse and/or children
Their hobbies and interests
What city or college they come from
What sort of positions or careers they worked at in the past

… and the list could go on and on. While I’m certainly not advising you to engage in cyber stalking, what I am recommending you do is start to build a mental profile – and maybe even a quick set of reminders that you can look over at regular intervals. You can then apply a memory system so you can recall this information quickly and easily. It’s not so difficult to enhance your memory after all.

The benefit? Well, let me put this scenario to you. How often have you bumped into a client outside of a prearranged appointment, where you don’t have the luxury to reacquaint yourself with all their personal information, say at the supermarket, and you find yourself ducking down the next aisle to avoid them because you can’t remember their name? Well, now when this happens, you’ll have the confidence to ask how their spouse is doing, or whether they are still hitting the golf course on the weekends. Doing so makes you seem more sharp and professional and their estimation of you is immediately raised. Recalling important information about a client or customer is after all the foundation of all relationships, and in any client-based business, a good relationship eventually spurs into referrals.

Isn’t that worth the effort for a few minutes a week using social media as an easy info-gathering tool? Try these tips out and enhance your memory.

Bob Gray is a popular keynote speaker and memory expert. You can find out about his speaking availability, rates, and other information by contacting his office directly.

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Just to be clear, I don’t mean that there was anything unusual about the audience members themselves; rather, it’s that people have trouble understanding why such a group could use a fun and entertaining keynote presentation about memory improvement. I can see how someone would think that way, but the better question is: Who couldn’t use sharper memory skills?

While salespeople trying to remember names and faces and students attempting to learn new facts are obvious targets for what I do (and in truth, I do a lot of speaking for those groups), virtually anyone can benefit from the kinds of tools I teach.

Here are just a few of the best reasons why a memory keynote would work for you:

Improving your memory is a good way to improve your confidence. The more information you can recall at a moment’s notice, the more confidant you’re going to feel in almost any career situation. And as we all know, simply feeling more confident is a great way to improve your job performance, not to mention the impression other people have of you.

Besides, with a very small number of exceptions, being able to interact with others socially is important to your career development. So, being able to remember names, faces, and important details about a person is a good way to improve relationships with clients, supervisors, and others you’ll find in almost every organization.

Safety measures are ideal for memory training. As with our Sewer and Watermain engineers, along with Ontario’s health and environment, being dependent on these engineers, safety on the job is always a priority, for any safety procedure recalled out of sequence could potentially be fatal. There couldn’t be a more perfect situation to employ the Chain or Link method. Using this memory system, they are able to instill the procedures deeply and keep themselves safer in high-risk situations.

Nearly every job and organization has details to keep track of. You might not know hundreds of clients, but you may well need to remember dozens of product codes or various prices at any given time. The fact of the matter is that, even though the specific details themselves might change, there is always something to know and remember in any career. If it can be recalled without having to look it up, then that saves time and money.

It doesn’t matter what kind of office or setting you work in – or even if you do your best work underground. Enhancing your memory is a great way to improve your career prospects and have an easier time doing your job, and hey, it’s fun too!

Why not contact our office today to find out about Bob Gray’s entertaining memory keynote presentations?

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When I’m brought in as akeynote speaker for various conferences and events, I always enjoy talking to the attendees and audience members afterwards. Most of them don’t realize how powerful their memory truly can be, and it’s a joy to be able to teach them a life- changing skill.

One thing that I’ve noticed over the years, however, is that a lot of people don’t necessarily realize that it truly is a skill. Many tend to assume that I was just born this way, with a special mental gift for reciting names, numbers, and so on.

That’s actually not true – my memory skills are the result of practice, not any genetic gift or mutation. My first exposure to memory training came when I was about six or seven years old when I discovered a memory technique in a magic book, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

As much as I strongly advocate children learning these systems, adults can also learn, adapt and apply these systems to help them move ahead in their careers. They can be mastered and applied in a surprisingly short period of time (a topic I’ll cover in a coming post). But, if you really want to give children a head start in life, why not give them a boost with memory training?

I’ve seen myself how well it works. My own daughter was only about four years old when I started teaching her the Chain memory system, used for recalling items in a specific sequence. We played a game where several items were placed on a table, and she had one minute to try to remember all the items. A sheet was placed over the items, then I would take one item away without her seeing, then the sheet was taken away and she had to try to remember which item was missing. By initially “chaining” or “linking” the items together in a crazy story, she simply had to retrace the story in her head until she reached the missing item. This was a fun way to introduce her to the foundation of all memory systems, which is chaining visual images together in a creative way. Those tools to this day help her succeed in school, and will be a big asset to her in her coming career. I teach this same method, and more, to professionals to recall information like speeches, presentations, model numbers, prices and client names.

Here are a few things you should know about teaching memory to kids:

1. Somewhere around four years old is when I started with my daughter. Kids don’t have to be very old to learn the basics of memory improvement; the sooner the better. Arm them as soon as possible in order to take out the laborious rote memorization from the learning process. But it’s also never too late; I have taught people in their seventies!

2. Enhanced memory systems are more than “tricks.” Occasionally, teachers and administrators ask if I am teaching children more than simple tricks and gimmicks. I am, but that’s not even the point: Anything that helps kids be more knowledgeable and confident at school is a good thing, and that can carry over throughout the rest of their life. If they can remember the things they need to, who cares what you call the systems they use? All knowledge is memory; if you can find a fun, creative way for children to both store and retrieve information, then that’s a good thing in my book, no matter what you call it. Once they can do that, then you as a teacher can show them what to do with that knowledge.

3. You don’t have to be a parent to help kids with memory. I have spoken at many teachers’ conferences and other educational events. I’ve seen myself what kind of impact teachers, professors, and administrators can have on the lives of young people. You can help them take the first steps to improve their memory, and improve their lives in the process. Make memorization fun.

To learn more about an incredible memory system for recalling numerical information, which I adapted to help my daughter remember the Multiplication Tables, check out my book: Turbo Tables.

Or, contact my office to find out about my fees and availability as a keynote speaker for your next event.

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Over the years, I’ve had the chance to hold memory presentations at dozens of colleges and universities, and have always enjoyed the experience. Not only do students have a lot of fun learning about memory, but they’re amongst the people who need it the most. Sharpening your memory can do wonderful things for your grades and testing ability, of course, but it’s also a good skill to help you throughout the rest of your professional career.

So, for all of my college-aged readers out there, here are three quick tips that I always include in memory presentations to help you earn better grades and exam scores:

1. Know the difference between learning and studying. You are in college to learn, with the goal that you’ll hopefully graduate as a well-rounded person who understands key concepts and ideas well enough to succeed in your chosen profession. When you study, on the other hand, you’re typically trying to retain important facts and ideas to pass an exam. Learn to recognize the difference (between concepts and facts), and devote your attention accordingly.

2. Use both halves of your brain. Don’t just study by making lists; instead, try drawing “mind maps” with colored pencils, doodles, and other forms of pictures and imagery. While this might not seem like the most creative thing in the world, it actually engages the right half of your brain as well as the left, making key facts and details that much more real and memorable.

3. Follow the right study plan. Although all-night studying is a bit of a time-honored tradition in some circles, the fact of the matter is that it just doesn’t work very well. Just because a particular way of doing something is popular, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best.

With that in mind, repeat after me: No last-minute cramming! Studying a little at a time at fairly frequent intervals is better than studying for long periods at less frequent intervals. Thirty minutes of study every day over a week will produce better results than a week of neglect followed by a 5-hour cramming session. You’ll be less stressed, and get much better results.

4. Do not use rote memorization. Instead of using constant repetition, read something and then try to recall it. Research shows that you only gain another 7% comprehension from a second read through material, and only an additional 1% on the third. So this valuable time spent on rereading is way out of whack for the results you can expect to gain from it.

Instead, make notes in colored pens about what you are reading. Then, ask yourself questions about what you have just read.

Try to make your studying the last thing you do before going to bed and revise the material in the morning.

Interested in having Bob Gray come and do a memory presentation at your school or university? Call or e-mail our office today to check dates, fees, and availability.

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