How to improve your short-term memory

Hi!  My name is Mnimi.  What’s yours?  Nice to meet you, _______!

Short-term memory includes recalling faces and their associated names.  It may probably sound easy for some but for most of us, it’s not.  I have heard many slightly embarrassing stories about forgetting one single name of a person who was just introduced to you in less than a minute ago… ⏱

Uh…  Pardon me.  What’s your name again?  …friend?

It’s really not that difficult if you just pay close attention. (“Sure” while you roll your eyes 👀) Some experts say it’s not that you can’t remember.  It’s just that you didn’t focus as much and that your brain is not “properly trained” on even the simplest short-term memory of where you put down your reading glasses 👓 . . . For.The.3rd.Time.Now…

Oh, it’s on my head.  Duh!

3 tips to remember names

According to Ron White, there are things to consider when remembering a person’s name. Let’s watch how this 2-time memory champion astonish us with his face-name and playing-card recall skills below…

• Focus on getting the person’s name.
  1. Predispose yourself to getting the person’s name by repeatedly asking yourself, “What is your name?”
• Have pre-determine interest on that person’s name.
  1. When you’re interested on something, your natural tendency is to learn it. Similarly, if you make that new person particularly intriguing, you may want to learn more of him/her during your first meeting. Thus, you’ll remember the name.
• Match the name to the owner’s feature.
  1. There should be a unique or distinctive feature on that person’s face that will make you remember. So, instead of asking yourself what that person’s name was, picture what stood out from his/her features.
  2. Examples: Iris might have pretty purple eyes while Barry might have a cool baritone voice.

4 tips to remember cards

• Chunk the cards into 3 so you only need to remember 17 plus 1 left-over, out of a deck of 52 cards.
• Use the PAO Method – person, action, object
  1. When you chunk the cards, you ‘assign’ the first card a name, 2nd, what that person is doing and 3rd, with what object.
  2. Examples: Card1 = King of Hearts = your husband or partner (person); Card2 = driving (action); Card3 = car (object).  This will make 3 cards into one image.
• Use a memory palace.
• Practice. Practice. Practice.