Without looking at your wrist, tell me this. At the 12 o'clock position, does your watch have a digit, a Roman number, or just a dot?
Most people have worn the same watch for years, and they still cannot say. Now look at it. Were you right? And here is the second question. Now that you have looked, what is the exact time on your watch? Many people cannot say that either, because when they looked, they were searching for the digit or the dot, and they did not pay attention to the time.
This is the whole secret of memory in one small test. You cannot remember what you did not observe.
Seeing is not observing
The eyes see, but it is the brain that interprets. Most of us look at things all day long without observing them. Try this: read the three lines below once.
Dog in The the Manger
Many people do not notice that the word "the" appears twice. They read what they expect to read. This is why a person with a good memory is usually a person with sharp observation. It is not a gift. It is a habit of paying attention.
The same thing happens with a bus ride. Suppose you are in a bus with 60 passengers. Ten get off at the first stop and three get on. At the next stop, seven get off and two get on. And so on. If I ask how many are left in the bus, you will answer quickly, because your attention was on the passengers. But if I ask how many stops the bus made, you will hesitate, because you were not watching the stops. If you had known the question beforehand, you would have noticed the stops. Attention decides what you remember.
Think about the traffic signal. You have stopped at one thousands of times. Which colour is at the top, which one in the middle, and which one at the bottom? Many people are not sure.
Newton and the apple
Many people must have seen an apple falling to the ground. Newton did not just see it. He observed it keenly and thought about it, and that led to the basic laws of physics. Samuel Johnson said, "The true art of memory is the art of attention."
Four simple exercises
You can train your observation in a few weeks with simple practice. Here are four exercises that cost nothing.
- The party exercise. When you go to a party, observe the clothes of five people. When you return home, try to recall every detail. After a few days, raise the number to ten.
- The room exercise. Take a piece of paper and, from memory, list everything in one room of your house, the furniture, the books, the pictures, without going into the room. Then go in and check. Write down what you missed. Try again with another room.
- The shop window. Look at a display window for a minute. Make a list in your mind of everything you saw. Check again. Note what you missed.
- The person. Think of someone you know well and describe their clothes, complexion, hairstyle, ears and eyes. At your next meeting, find out what you missed. Try again.
While waiting at a traffic signal, notice the colour and make of the vehicles around you, and the drivers. Try to recall them when you reach your office. In the supermarket, see how many brands of detergent there are, how the packaging differs and what the prices are.
A quick observation test
Try these without looking.
- How many buttons are there on the shirt or blouse you are wearing now?
- On which side of the one rupee coin is the year written?
- What is the colour of your bedroom door?
- How many electrical switches are there in your house?
- What did you eat for dinner the day before yesterday?
- What colour is your toothbrush?
- Can you recall the face of the auto driver or bus conductor you met today?
If you can answer even half of them with confidence, your observation is excellent. If you cannot, do not feel bad. Start the exercises above, and test yourself again after two weeks.
Counting without thinking
One more exercise, and this one is difficult. Count slowly from one upwards and let nothing else come into your mind, only the numbers. It is harder than staring at an object, because there is nothing to hold on to. You may not even get to 4 the first time. With practice you may reach 10. If you ever reach 100 without a single outside thought, you are a genius.
This is one chapter from my book Train Your Brain.
