If you want to memorize a deck of cards or learn the Dominic System of a hundred characters and actions, you’ll need to designate time to practise. However, once you have the systems in place, everyday situations provide perfect practice sessions for your memory (as well as having practical use). There’s no need to delay: begin applying everything you’ve learned so far to improve both your memory and your efficiency at everyday tasks.
For example, the next time you go shopping, memorize the items in your list rather than writing them down somewhere. The Journey Method is great for this. Choose a journey that you won’t confuse with the shopping list – a journey around your home might not work so well, for example, as probably many of the items on the list will be intended for your home, so you may get conflicting images. I think a favourite walk works well, or (for me) a round of golf. Then code the items on the list into the journey. If the first stop is the stile at the entrance to a public footpath, and the first item on your list is a pack of vine tomatoes, perhaps the stile is covered with a vine, dripping with juicy, ripe red fruit. You can smell them as you lean forward to move one of them out of your way to climb over the stile. Perhaps the next stop is a bridge and you need to memorize “avocado” – I would picture the bridge smeared with slippery green avocado flesh, making it hard to walk across. As you do your shopping, all you need to do is mentally walk the journey, recall the images and so bring to mind all the items you need to buy.
Are you a seasoned traveller? I find one of the most infuriating things about arriving at an airport is having to search for a pen to note down where I’ve parked the car just when I need to be concentrating on where the bus stop is and getting to the terminal in time for my flight. If you use simple mnemonics, you don’t need a pen! For example, the last time I flew, I parked in car park C, row 8. In the NATO spelling alphabet, Charlie represents C (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and so on), so I coded the C using the image of my friend Charlie, and the 8 using number– shapes (a snowman). As I got on the coach, I imagined Charlie building a snowman at the bus stop. The image gave me a little mental shock, because I was off on my hot summer holiday, so the snowman seemed incongruous – even better for memorization.
Once I had checked in, I was told that my flight would be boarding at Gate 34. To memorize this, I created an image of Guy, a friend who used to work in a music shop, running to the gate to catch a plane. This stems from the Dominic System, in which 3 and 4 are represented by the third and fourth letters of the alphabet (C and D). Guy used to sell CDs in a shop and has provided me with a character for that number for many years.
Although these simple scenarios aren’t exactly in the same league as memorizing complete decks of cards, when you begin applying the techniques you’ve learned to everyday tasks, you’ll exercise your brain, training it in the art of memory.
Another great way to use the techniques you’ve learned is to keep a mental diary. Most of the time, I have the dates for my work schedule locked in my mind, and I’ve no need to write them down.
The Dominic System is how I memorize diary dates. Let’s say that I receive a booking to give a presentation on the 22nd of the month. Using the Dominic System, the number 22 translates to BB, which for me represents a baby. So, the image of a baby pops into my head as soon as I hear the date. If the appointment is at 11am, I picture the tennis player Andre Agassi (11 = AA) holding the baby. If I already have an appointment that day, I’ll already have an image of someone else holding the baby and I’ll know straightaway if I’m likely to be overbooking myself.
Remember that coding your numbers into letters is a personal thing. The number 22 gives me baby, but students I’ve had have used Boris Becker, Bugs Bunny, Bilbo Baggins, Barbara Bush, and a family member or friend with those initials. For the system to work properly, your stepping stones have to be personal to you.
However, this example is all very well if the date is in this month. But what if I have to add the month into the memorization? The months appear to me as the gradient of a hill. January starts low and to my left, and then the gradient starts to climb as it reaches the middle of February and continues to climb through the spring months. It flattens out a little in July for the summer months and then takes a steep incline from September through the months that run up to December. Essentially, I “see” time on the hill – the hill is so well contoured in my mind’s eye that I can pinpoint precisely each month. This works for me, but I know from talking to my students and clients that peoples’ visual representations of time vary wildly. Some see steps, others a carousel, while still others have no visual representation in their mind at all (in which case seasonal or other triggers or associations, such as Santa Claus for December, might provide a better system: see below).
I “see” the days of the week, too. It’s a bit like being on a playground slide. Sunday is where I sit at the top of the slide and I slip down through the weekdays to Friday. Then, Saturday is the ladder I climb to get back to Sunday. Again, my mental picture of the slide is so precise that I can pinpoint every day of the week – for example, I “see” Wednesday half way down. But, this is entirely personal and, like the months, it may or may not help you – you need to search your own mind for a representation that triggers each day. It may be a slide, or a hill, or a roundabout. If my visual systems don’t work for you at all, try the following.
• Word–sound associations
Let’s say you’re invited to a birthday party on Wednesday March 28. Using the Dominic System, I convert 28 to BH. You might picture the legendary singer Buddy Holly marching (March) forward into the party with guitar in hand and singing one of his popular songs. I get Wednesday from “forward”, because Wednesday is the fourth day of the week.
Coding the months into picture keys is also effective. To remind you that your daughter is appearing in the school Nativity on December 21 you might imagine the actor Ben Affleck (21 = BA) turning up at school dressed as Santa Claus. In this case, it’s not the slope of a hill that gives December, but the picture key of Santa. If you need to memorize that the date is a Thursday, you could add an image of Santa being struck by lightning (my image for Thursday is the Norse god of thunder and lightning, Thor, from whom the day gets its name).
Incidentally, to memorize the start time, I use the 24-hour clock combined with the Dominic System. So, if the play starts at 3.30pm, I convert this to 1530, which I break up into pairs according to the Dominic System: AE (=15) + CO (=30). I use a complex image to put Albert Einstein hosting a chat show (my action for Conan O’Brien) on the stage of my daughter’s school.
Here’s a complete list of my picture-key associations for the months of the year and the days of the week.
| MONTHS | |
| January | Jan, Jenny |
| February | Fab Four (the Beatles) |
| March | Marching soldiers |
| April | Rain, Umbrella (April showers) |
| May | Maypole |
| June | June, or sand dune |
| July | Julie Walters (actress) |
| August | Lion (from the star sign Leo) |
| September | Leaves falling (fall season) |
| October | Octopus |
| November | Novice priest, a book (novel) |
| December | Santa Claus, Declan Donnelly (UK TV presenter) |
| DAYS | |
| Sunday | Sun, Sunday newspapers |
| Monday | Money |
| Tuesday | Twins (“twos”) |
| Wednesday | Bride (at a wedding) |
| Thursday | Thunder, Thor |
| Friday | Fried egg |
| Saturday | Saturn’s rings |
Now that you have the tools for memorizing your appointments, try the exercise on the following page.
Although I was told I had dyslexia as a child, I believe a more accurate diagnosis of my condition would have been Attention Deficit Disorder. I couldn’t keep my attention on anything I was taught – I used to watch my teachers’ lips move, and I knew they were speaking, but my mind was far away in an imaginary world that took me anywhere but the classroom. You might not have been like that at school, but I suspect there are very few people in the world who could say that they have never tuned out during a meeting, a lecture or even perhaps a particularly boring play, show or concert.
Use your imagination to memorize the following. At first, try your memory skills on just the dates and events. Test yourself by trying to recall each event when you can see only the dates column. When you feel confident, try the exercise again, adding in the day and time, too. Once you’ve finished memorizing, cover everything but the dates and test your recall of the events, days and times. Score one point for each correct event, day and time (maximum three points per date). A score of 7–10 is good; 11–15 is excellent. (I’ve left the events out of chronological order, as appointments rarely come up in a timeline.)
| DATE | EVENT | DAY | TIME |
| October 16 | DaliÍ exhibition | Wednesday | 7pm |
| May 31 | Bank manager | Friday | 3pm |
| August 8 | Theatre | Saturday | 7.30pm |
| April 22 | Dentist | Wednesday | 4.15pm |
| March 13 | Optician | Monday | 9.20am |
As an extra test, cover the page and answer these questions:
• Who are you booked to see on May 31 and at what time?
• What are the date, day and time of your visit to the dalí exhibition?
• What is happening on August 8?
• What are the date, day and time of your dental appointment?
• What are the date, day and time of your eye test?
I’m slightly embarrassed to say that my inability to concentrate extended to conversations with my friends and family, too. For years, until I was well into teenager-hood, I was described as “Dreamy old Dom”. It’s hard to explain, but it didn’t feel voluntary. I wasn’t conscious that I was becoming absent from a conversation – it just happened. Even if I tried to stay in tune, my mind would wander. Keeping track of a conversation is a wonderful skill to have, no matter what you do (for example, politicians and lawyers need it to be good at their jobs; the rest of us should behave like this for simple good manners!). And it’s also a great way to practise your memory skills in everyday life.
Years of scientific study have shown that, compared with the brains of non-ADD sufferers, people with Attention Defiicit Disorder have decreased electrical activity in the prefrontal lobe of the brain and slow cortical blood flow. It’s believed that these are the reasons that ADD sufferers find it so hard to concentrate.
Today, doctors prescribe stimulant medication to try to control the condition in children. The aim is to speed up the brain’s activity just enough to promote attention and concentration, but not so much as to provoke any erratic behaviour.
The medication isn’t a cure, but it does seem to alleviate the symptoms of ADD. However, the drugs weren’t around in my day, and I believe I’ve overcome my condition purely as a result of training my memory. These days I’m able to listen to and retain the content of a conversation or meeting, no matter how dreary it may be. There are times when I do zone out – as do we all – but the difference is that I have a choice in the matter. In other words, I zone out because I want to, not because I can’t stop it happening.
There are two things going on here. First, I believe that training my memory has increased my powers of concentration. But also, I’m able to use my memory skills specifically to stay tuned in to the details of the information I’m being given. But how?
As you’re listening to someone speak, try to encapsulate segments of the conversation and convert them into key images. Then, anchor the images in your mind in the correct order – for a short conversation the number–shape system works best, I think (as we’ll see in a moment), although you may prefer to use a journey (I use journeys for meetings or longer conversations). If the conversation has numbers in it, or facts and figures, you can use any of the mnemonic systems in this book – including the Dominic System – to work the information into the memorization.
The number–shape system may be used as follows. Let’s say my PA calls me about a meeting I’m to have with a client. To memorize the information she gives me without need of pen or paper, I mentally number each detail. Each number becomes a number–shape that gives me the position of the detail and something that can interact with the association for the detail itself. Essentially, I use the number–shapes as hooks on which to hang the information in the correct order. Here’s an example:
“Hi Dominic, I’ve just got confirmation of the hotel you’re staying at tonight. It’s the Victoria Hotel in Bury Street.”
1 I picture Queen Victoria holding a candle standing by an open grave. My number–shape for 1 is a candle and the open grave obviously helps me to remember the name of the street.
“When you get there, ask at reception for your client, Mr Taylor. He is taking you to lunch where you can discuss the contract.”
2 I imagine a swan (number–shape for 2) with a tape measure around its neck. I always associate the name Taylor with a tape measure (such as a tailor would use).
“Just for your information, Mr Taylor is a keen clay pigeon shooter and his favourite restaurant is the Coconut Grove and that’s where he’s taking you.”
3 My image is of my client in handcuffs (my number–shape for 3) as I imagine myself shooting coconuts from the sky.
“As soon as you have agreed a price with Mr Taylor, I’d like you to send me a text message to the number 3512.”
4 I picture myself in a boat (number–shape for 4), with Clint Eastwood (35 = CE), wielding a sword. Clint is using the action of Antonio Banderas (12 = AB), star of the film The Mask of Zorro.
I’m able to construct these images in my mind instantaneously – but that comes only with practice. Have a go at memorizing the key points of the next conversation you have. As you do so, not only will you be making sure that you can impress the person who was talking to you by recalling everything they’ve said: you’ll also be getting in some valuable memory practice.