John was furious.
He had just been told the address he was to drive to
And when he reached the street
The house number had vanished from his mind.
‘Numbers just go in one ear and out the other’
He’s not alone, of course.
The brain will only remember what John pays close attention to. This time he focused on working out where the street was and
DIDN’T listen closely enough to the number.
And that happens to us, too.
It’s quite a hard discipline, learning to focus long enough on what we want to remember.
B.U.T.
It is an essential skill that needs to be practised.
Over, and over. And over again.
Remember the 3-step process?
- Focus – on the item to be remembered
- Connect – to something you already know, an image, a name, and idea
- Rehearse – say it over, visualize it, take a mental ‘photo’
Try this two-minute exercise.
Remember that it is brain-training.
It isn’t a test so you can do it over and over.
And you can pause the video to give you more time if you need it.
To make it harder (if you need to) write down the numbers you remember in numerical order.
Then try again in reverse order.
Once you have mastered the technique, you will have a skill that transfers to other memory tasks.
For other practice in remembering, check out How to Remember Appointments and Remembering Phone Numbers
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