The link method is wonderful for lists, but it has one weakness. If you want item number 17, you have to run through the story from the beginning, and if you lose one link, the chain breaks. What if someone calls out items in random order, or you need just one fact from the middle?
For this I use a system called the Three-Dimensional Memory System, or 3DMS. It began as the Memory Filing System, conceived by Dr G Francis Xavier. Later I improved on it along with my friend and fellow trainer Krishna. The name tells you the idea: a person, a place and an action.
Think of your brain as an office
In a good office, correspondence is filed under subject headings in drawers and cabinets. When a file is needed, it is pulled out quickly, because the filing is good. Computers work the same way, with files in folders. Our mind works like this too. There is no time to rummage around when you are speaking on stage or meeting a person, so we need good filing.
The rule in 3DMS is simple. Divide your mind into 100 files. Each file is a person you know. Number the files from 1 to 100. Then, when you want to store anything, attach it to the person in that file.
Build your hundred files
Start with the people closest to you. Here is the order I suggest.
- File 1 is your mother. File 2 is your father.
- Then grandparents and close relatives.
- Then cousins, friends and teachers.
- Then role models, sportspersons and film actors.
- Then gods and goddesses.
One rule: put women in the odd numbers and men in the even numbers. That way, you will always know which person belongs to which number. Do not try to build all one hundred in a day. Start with the first ten and use them for a week. Then add the next ten.
How to store something
Give each person a place, and make that person do something with the object you want to remember. Let us say file number 1 is your mother, and her place is the kitchen. The first object you are given is an aeroplane. Now see your mother in the kitchen with a small aeroplane. It is flying round the stove, and she is rolling chapatis on its wing. That is one picture. A person, in a place, doing an action. The picture is yours, so it is vivid.
Next, the second object is a balloon, and file 2 is your father. Where does he sit every morning? On the verandah with the newspaper. Now see him sitting there while a giant red balloon lifts his chair a few feet off the floor. Whenever you want the second item, you think of your father, you see him on the verandah, and the balloon comes up.
Try it with this list of 25 objects: aeroplane, balloon, car, dog, elephant, fire, goat, head, inkpot, jackpot, knife, laddoo, monkey, newspaper, oil, postbox, queen, railway station, shoe, telephone, umbrella, velvet, water, Christmas tree, and a yellow piece of chalk. Put each one with a person in your file, doing something in their own place.
Why I like this system
First, you can recall the items in random order. You do not need a story, and you do not need to start at the beginning. If I say number 14, you go to person 14, and the object is there. Second, you can use it for things that are not words. It works for formulae, equations, atomic weights, random numbers, and even sections of legal acts. Third, it increases your concentration a great deal, because you have to pay full attention to make each picture. Your confidence also goes up.
You can also use it for numbers. When you are given a string of numbers, the persons in your file stand for the numbers. Then you tie each person to the peg word for the digit in order. Later, you recall the number by going back through the persons.
Try it this week
Write the first ten names of your file. Next to each one, write the place where you most often see that person. Then ask someone at home to call out ten objects in any order. Put each object with the right person and place, doing something. When you are done, ask them to call out any number between 1 and 10, and tell them the object stored there. You will see how quickly it works.
This is one chapter from my book Train Your Brain.
