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How to remember a speech in a flash (without the flash cards)

How to remember a speech in a flash (without the flash cards)

Jul 10, 2019 | Memory Tips

Look forward to your next speech

Being confident to speak publicly from memory is an empowering skill. It isn’t hard to memorise long speeches, once you know how.

Remembering speeches or a block of writing simply requires the use of a few well-known memory techniques. In this blog we are going to look at how you go about giving a kick-arse speech, without notes or flash cards. And no, you don’t have to go over the speech endlessly, rote learning it. And yes, that is how you spell arse.

The techniques can be used for speeches and also for any prose you may want to learn, such as your favourite poetry, text or quotes for an exam. The basic methods are not new, either – Roman senators used them, back in the day. They worked for Cicero, why not you?

Overview of the method I use to remember a speech

Its actually very simple – I walk the talk. I use images and stories that I walk through as the speech is delivered.

  • Identify main headings and make images and locations to represent them, so you can learn the outline of the speech.
  • Go back and add visual detail and stories to each main heading to remember its sub points and key words of the text.
  • Make an impromptu ‘memory palace’ to locate each image in order, to avoid ‘mental blanks’ while speaking.

To recall the speech simply walk through the memory palace and describe each image and story. It is a lot like walking through an art gallery looking at each picture in turn, and each one is a thousand words. But it’s more interesting, unless you totally dig art galleries.

This is not word for word memorisation. We are ‘describing the story of the picture’ for each key point. After revision I find I do tend to learn the text nearly word for word anyway. If I keep missing one important word I add add it by simply adjusting my ‘image’ until the picture I see conjures up the correct word. Don’t worry if this seems abstract at this point, read on.

Of course practice makes perfect. Learning a speech is a great opportunity to test the patience of your friends and family.

Why is remembering a speech so valuable?

It makes you confident, and your presentation will be so much better.

I used to have a horrific and unfounded fear of public speaking. Even the thought of speaking in front of a group of people would make my heart beat fast and my palms would sweat like a teenage boy at a swimsuit party. So overwhelming was this fear that I rejected several excellent opportunities. Just in case I stuffed up. I wasn’t frightened of writing speeches, only giving them.

Now public speaking is one of my favourite things to do. I don’t find it stressful and quite look forward to it, seeking out opportunities to give talks. What made this difference?

Confidence. Once I know that I can remember everything in my speech I feel empowered. Knowing the words makes all the difference.

Now when I am asked to give a talk, I spend the bulk of my time writing the speech to make sure it says what I want, because content is the key. Then I use the simple techniques below to learn the talk. A 20 min talk takes me no more than two hours to remember entirely, every point ready to deliver. And the method I use means the speech isn’t delivered in a wooden ‘reading voice’.

Even months after I have delivered a talk, with just a quick revision I am able to deliver the same 20-minute speech, with the same level of confidence as the day first presented. This is incredibly useful.

A bonus of learning speeches in this way is that the visuals and stories behind the words encourages lots of body language and movement across the stage. This is good for public speaking – check out my video below showing what I am thinking as I move.

Detailed how-to guide

OK, so I will assume you have whipped up a well-crafted talk or have some text you want to learn. Have a printed copy of it in front of you now, along with a pen.

Step One – Mark the headings

Read through your talk/text and get an idea for what it says and its structure overall. Make notes on the text where it moves from one main point to another. Jot down a key heading that describes what the upcoming text is about. This heading is not to read out, but just a mental tag.

Step Two – Add an image and location to each heading

Create a strong visual image that represents each heading. Then, and this is important, clearly place each image in a location. Do this for every key heading, in order.

For an example let’s use a TEDx talk I gave titled Memory Fit – How I learnt to exercise my memory.

My first key heading is ‘Dinner party‘, as the talk starts with me at a dinner party three years ago. So for my image I visualised people sitting around eating and drinking convivially. I used my outdoor table as the location.

The second key heading is “My memory today“. It refers to several sentences discussing how my memory has improved and that I hold several Australian memory records.

In my image I am standing proudly flexing my muscles like I am strong mentally, while holding out my memory medals. For the location, note that the previous heading has left me at my outdoor dinner table. Since my BBQ is right there next to me I climb on top of the BBQ for my next location. My guests look a little startled, but hey it’s my barbie and I’ll stand on it if I want to.

The images should be as vibrant and interesting as possible. Make it move, add sound and smell, have fun with it. My guide How to remember a list of words has more detail on this.

Sometimes the location is intuitive – it makes sense to have a dinner party around an outdoor table. At other times you will need to come up with a location that is less obvious, but as long as it makes sense to you it will work. If a location needs to be somewhere far away because that makes sense to your image, this is also fine. Just go right there like magic. Let’s say Sweden was my next logical place. I would literally imagine jumping up high and landing in Sweden. This giant leap somehow makes sense to me, because Australia is at the bottom of the globe and I jump up to Sweden near the top. Remember, this is my reality in my head, where the physics of gravity, vacuum and atmospheric re-entry are not a problem for empowered sisters.

Just get creative and if it makes sense to you it usually works.

Step Three – Link the heading locations

Once you have an image and location for every key heading, re-read the key headings while reviewing the sequence of locations. This is building a Memory Palace, a place where you walk through images in a sequence. An example is your home.

For the brief example I have used you would visualise your dinner table with a party going on and then jump on top of the BBQ. Focus on the locations and how you get to the next one.

Walk through all of your key headings and their locations in sequence a couple of times until you know the journey. If you find this step hard at first, read how to make and use Memory Palaces

Now do same without looking at your text.

If you find your are forgetting some steps – say the leap onto the BBQ – simply invent some reason to explain the sequence. The flambé set the tablecloth on fire and you had to leap to safety! You don’t need to visualise this extra story, just make up a reason during revision. Going through that thought process once is normally enough for me to ensure on the next revision I go naturally from the dinner table to the BBQ (without having to see the smoke etc). Our minds are remarkably good at remembering pathways travelled, so with a good reason for moving to the next location you will remember it without having to revisit the logic you created the first time.

Step Four – Mark the detail

The next step is to go back over your entire written text and underline key words that you need to say in the speech.

For example, here is the detail I underlined for the first key heading in my TEDx presentation, ‘Dinner Party’. I have underlined the words that I wanted to say.

Three years ago if you invited me to a big dinner party, let’s say 10 people, I wouldn’t have remembered the names of nearly anyone< around the table. I wouldn’t have remembered the facts from the interesting stories they told, and so if I wanted to retell any of those stories, I kind of couldn’t without those credible details. And I really didn’t try to remember any of it. Because I knew I had no chance.

I, like many of us, had an average memory.

Fast forward to today… and it moves into the second key heading, ‘My Memory Today’.

Grab your speech now and underline the key words you must remember for just your first heading.

Step Five – Add images in a story for the detail

With our key words now identified for the first heading we can go back and add detail images to them in a story, in order. The easiest approach is to add detailed images for one sentence at a time, then revise that sentence. Or revise halfway through for longer sentences.

Here you can choose if you want to know the speech word for word or with allow it to slightly change each time you speak.

Add detail images

Refer to the example underlined speech above. Originally I just visualised a dinner party for the first key heading. But now I look closer and see that because it was three years ago, I did not have my new tableware. I then saw it was a big dinner party – there were 4 of us on one side of the table, 4 opposite and one at each end. A party of 10 people.

Revise

I then re-read this first half sentence while imagining this new picture with added details. Then I look away from the page and say out loud the first line while visualising the images.

Add detail images

Next, I see myself sitting at the table on of the long sides with 3 others I am rubbing my head a bit flustered because I did not know anyone’s name. Someone at the end of the table is telling an interesting story and I laugh along with the others while thinking “I won’t be able to remember the details” and so couldn’t re-tell any of it. I sip my wine and decide not to even try to remember any of it, because I know I have no chance.

Revise

Again, I repeat seeing this image while re-reading the text. I then close my eyes and say the sentences again while reliving the visual story.

Add detail images

Finally, I see myself looking around the table and noticing that perhaps others also were not remembering these things, I see myself thinking I have an average memory, like many people. As I visualise ‘fast forward to today’ I see a 1980’s cassette tape (now I’m showing my age) being fast forwarded while moving sideways to my next location. And we are suddenly on top of that BBQ.

Revise

The same re-read and then test.

Repetition and checking where you deviated from the script will reveal where you miss any important words. Simply add a strong image for that word into the correct part of the story.

Step Six – Revise this heading in detail

Now you have finished adding images for all sub points for this heading, we want to see how much we can remember of the full first heading story and its key words. This will firm up what you have learned and offer a chance to add in any missing detail.

Close your eyes and visualise that heading’s entire story and say as much of the text as possible. Then read the text again to find missing words or where you deviate from the text. Add images or make them stronger as needed. Repeat.

Step Seven – Link the headings

Once you are happy with the detail of your first heading go back to your text and repeat step 4, 5 and 6 for all of your remaining headings. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Step seven is to now confirm that each heading image in its location links well to the next heading image and location. Making these links strong in your story stops you going blank in the middle of your talk.

Close your eyes and walk through your whole speech, speaking out loud, while journeying through the locations and stories. Do you get stuck remembering the next location at any point? If you do, stop and repeatedly mentally walk from the previous heading to the next until it is clear. Add supporting stories for the transition if needed.

Step Eight – Walk the talk

Now the text is all mapped out the final step is just revision of your story.

As you revise ensure you strongly visualise the stories and images. The speech itself is simply you describing what you see.

Don’t be afraid to use body language to help describe what your mental images as you talk. Moving and gesturing energises a speech and captures attention.

This revision should include standing and walking as you will when you give the talk, moving on the stage as you move to the next location in your head. This is usually a few steps in the direction of your next location as you are finishing off the last line of your previous location But don’t be afraid to stride entirely across the stage – it’s your moment, after all. Changing your position helps you know what comes next (as you get to know the pathway traveled) and also looks good, like you are a calm natural speaker.

Practicing pathways when rehearsing a speech has saved my arse a number of times during the real talk. When the lights are on you and the crowds are staring it’s natural to feel nervous, and it’s easy to lose where you are up to in the text. When this happens I calmly think “Where am I?”and the location and story bring it back right away. And it is OK to pause while you speak – it looks natural.

The most amazing aspect of learning a speech this way is how confidently you recall the detail. You will not forget a lot of what you learned the very next day, like most of us do with rote learning. Just journey through the locations and see the stories.

Test your speech the next day without the text and review the text afterwards, checking for words that you missed or added. Adjust the images as needed. When smooth, practice your delivery on your colleagues, friends and family and invite constructive criticism. Adjust and add to the stories with any changes you make.

Within a couple of days you should be feeling confident and word perfect!

Time to walk the talk.

How to remember a list of words

How to remember a list of words

Apr 29, 2019 | Memory Tips

A long list of words is probably the best place to start when beginning memory training.

While it might appear too simple, practicing this technique is a great exercise for sharpening your memory abilities. Remember that people train in Pilates or Yoga because it makes them strong and flexible, not because they want to be able to a downward dog in a shopping center. Besides, being able to nail lists of words is a useful thing. Think shopping, or language vocabulary.

There are several different techniques used to remember lists. Best to start practicing the right way up some or all of them you will have a prodigious memory.

But I wont mislead you and say it is no effort. You will need to work hard for a while to learn the techniques. Quite apart from knowing that these techniques exist, the initial work needed stops most people from learning these skills, even though we all can. But once you have the tools and practice them you will learn nearly everything far faster than the next person for your whole life.

Sound worth the initial hard work?

As you practice visualisation and storytelling you will find that using mnemonic tools to remember new information becomes easier and automatic. I now can quickly remember new word definitions that used to seem impossible (like the word prosopagnosia!) so keep at it and you will get better and faster.

So how do you actually do it? Its all about being creative.

Here is my most common technique for remembering words – pictures in a story.

It’s a two step process for each word.

Step one – Make living images

Each word in the list gets turned into a picture. A memorable image.

For example, if the first word was ‘bike’ you would visualise a bike. But not just a stock image. The more real you can see this in your head the better. Maybe it is red and shiny and has a ribbon tied to it because it is your birthday. The best way to remember an image is to include as many senses as possible. What would it feel like? Smooth… Smell like? New paint… Taste like? Can you hear your mother yelling not to lick the bike? That ridiculous concept may well fix the bike forever in your memory.

If you can, use images that you already know. Eg your own bike or the dog from your childhood or a movie you loved and watched three times. If you don’t know the item, what does the word make you think of? However ridiculous, use the first thing that comes to mind, because it will also be the first association you make later on.

Step two – Make a story For a list of words, you need to link the items together by making a story. The story serves two purposes – it links all the items so you don’t skip any, and it also gives you the items in order. Knowing lists in order is often an important requirement.

Without linking the items together, it is easy to forget an item on the list, but once they are linked in a story it becomes easy to remember everything. For longer lists we would use ‘memory palaces’, which is a location you know well that you can walk through in your imagination. For a detailed guide read how to make and use Memory Palaces.

This story must not be boring. Go for slapstick comedy rather than Shakespeare (apologies to the Bard). The more outrageous, loud, rude and funny your story is, the more you will remember the list.

An example

So lets get started with an example. Here is a short list of words that are easy to visualise. Over time you can work up to longer lists and more difficult words.

This random list of 10 words is a mix of items to buy and things to do:

  • Bike
  • Pick up pizza
  • Toothbrush
  • Walk the dog
  • Olives
  • Bananas
  • Tim Tams (an Aussie favourite – the world’s most delicious chocolate biscuit)
  • Juice
  • Brush
  • Honey

Step one – Images Select an image for each of these items in the list above. For the bike I will use the red bike that caused so much trouble when you licked it – that metallic taste will be with you forever. Go through the list now and make your own vivid image for every item before going onto step two. Re-read the list and picture each image to make sure you have them all.

Step two – Story In this example we will use my story, but attached to your images. As you read, really picture this story in your mind, like a short video clip. The more detail you can see, feel, smell or taste the more likely you are to recall the story later.

My story for this list

Remember – add your images as you read, and it is meant to be a bit mad.

You have your shiny new bike (maybe we are a kid again), happy as anything you are sitting on it eating delicious pizza when you drop it. Quickly pick up the pizza (1 second rule). It is still hot and juicy so take another steaming bite…wait a minute??!! You bite down on something hard to see that the order is wrong and there is a toothbrush on top of the pizza! Your stomach drops, you feel sick.

You hear an animal panting and whining at your feet land and look down to see your dog, looking expectant. He wants your toothbrush pizza! With a sudden pang of guilt you decide its time to walk the dog. As you start walking you suddenly see with horror that your dog has two heads that are giant olives. Even more ridiculous is that the heads have fancy tropical hats with bananas on top. You decide your dog must be distressed and maybe hungry so you place a large plate of Tim Tams in front of him and the olive heads gobble up the world’s most delicious choccy biscuit – what a waste! Maybe he is thirsty after all that deliciousness, so you pour juice over the top of the dog. As he starts to chow down you take a little pink brush and brush his hair to calm him further. You then deciding his hair needs conditioning so you massage sticky warm honey into it.

Let’s hope this story doesn’t get told to the animal cruelty society : )

Close your eyes and go through it. Do you have all 10 items on the list? Can you say them all aloud, in order?

How many times should you review the list?

I find that going through this story once or twice would give me the list for the day. Walking though it in my imagination three days in a row cements the memory for months, and then once a month for say three months should see me remembering this list for years.

What next?

This has been a simple list, but hopefully you can already see the possibilities. Practice will rapidly improve your learning speed, and you can quickly advance to longer lists and more difficult words. You can practice in this area by consciously visualising images and the story when you read.

As you improve, you can use this technique to remember more detailed information. For example, each item on the list could be a dot point heading for something you are learning, then you can go back and add detail to each heading. This is extremely useful for anyone who wants to increase their vocabulary or learn another language. I discuss text memorisation further in How to remember a speech in a flash.

From this simple example I am sure you can see we can all remember lists, with a bit of imagination.

Just keep those crazy stories to yourself 🙂

Check out my online courses to help your Master Your Memory for work or for school.

2018 IAM Australian Memory Competition – What I learned.

2018 IAM Australian Memory Competition – What I learned.

Nov 28, 2018 | Memory Athlete, Memory Tips

Sickness stopped me, and why its not all bad.

I am going to get to learn lots of fun stuff, just because I can.

At first I was really disappointed I couldn’t compete in the 2018 IAM Australian Memory Competition, held in November.

About two days before the competition I was struck down with a particularly nasty flu. I could hardly remember my name let alone thousands of numbers and binary digits. As the weekend approached I worsened and knew that I would not be flying to Melbourne to compete.

This was a bummer.

Many 5 am wake-ups this year saw me training diligently for this competition and the hard work had been paying off with some great scores. I was confident of hitting more Aussie records and was shooting to hold the current Australian title for a 3rd year in a row.

On top of that the Australian competition was strong this year which excited me. Last year I won by a mile which somehow I found a bit depressing. I was keen to have to work hard to win again.

The truth is though that I have been burning the candle at both ends and I think my body just decided to say no. I have been working full time in finance, have 3 children and have a second job as a dance teacher. Memory training, speaking and coaching is something else I have been doing on the side.

But as I lay on the couch in my bleary state I had an epiphany.

Next year, rather than focus on training numbers and other competition events, I will use my skills to learn the things I want to learn. I love to learn new things – that is what attracted me to cognitive training in the first place.

I remember first learning these techniques and feeling I could learn as fast as inserting a usb into my head (think the Matrix). It was thrilling and liberating and I started to feel like the clever person in the room. I felt excited that I could fit two lifetimes of learning into one.

But somewhere along the way the competitive ballerina in me decided that I would become the best mental athlete, just for the sake of it. I would compete!

Then last week I saw it. Sick as a dog, fever raging high, feeling that my year of study was for naught. I suddenly saw that I did not need to be the world’s best mnemonist to get the benefits that drew me to the sport.

Mental athletics is just like physical training. You get to train your brain so you can get more out of life, like going to the gym for an hour a day. It makes you fit, happy and able to succeed at the things you do. But it doesn’t mean you need to train all day and win gold medals at the Olympics. I may well still compete, but now for enjoyment and to learn more from other athletes.

Suddenly I felt elated. Next year I am going to get to learn lots of fun stuff, just because I can.

Maybe a language or two or a whole dictionary word for word (geeky I know). It can be done. Maybe I’ll plan a long family adventure in Germany and learn German for the occasion, and chuck in a good amount of Spanish in case we decide to do that instead.

I am also going to make sharing memory techniques and dance teaching my full time gig.

Being fit mentally and also physically is just too fantastic a secret not to share with everyone.

Lots of people know the benefits of physical fitness. I’d like to give others the freedom that comes with having a fit mind as well.

Anyone can have an amazing memory – they just need to know how. Check out my online memory courses!

Why memory techniques are not just a gimmick

Why memory techniques are not just a gimmick

Jul 24, 2018 | Memory Tips

Memory athletes and the one year itch.

Argh! Did I do this all for nothing?

When I first started memory training I felt exhilarated. Suddenly I knew how to quickly remember large amounts of data of any type. Enter the “I’m a genius” honeymoon period. I could remember a lot, but it didn’t impact on my daily memory much. It just made me a pain in the arse.

Then something strange happened.

As I started to teach people how to learn these techniques something in my gut worried me. Maybe these techniques were not improving my memory or cognitive abilities but were more like a trick. There are studies showing that such training is working your cognitive skills and hence you are getting sharper, which is why we are told to do Sudoku puzzles to ward off mental aging. But studies showed mixed results when testing if your ‘memory’ actually improves. Why was I doing all this work again?

Enter the one year memory athlete slump period, with lower motivation and reduced training for about a year.

Recently though, I have a new found vigour. Why?

I started a new job. One where results are easily measurable and a lot of information picked up quickly means you succeed. I did this consciously, such as remembering every phone number as I dialed clients the first time. But I was surprised to find I also remembered many more details subconsciously. I know the past me did not have this ability to retain details so quickly, and without trying.

Why the improvement in the subconscious learning?

  • Memory training makes you focus on detail.

If you don’t see the image clearly in your head you don’t remember it. The more detail you add (eg smell/touch/sound /atmosphere /making a story for the image) the more likely it will stick. You get good at visualising information in detail.

  • Memory training teaches you how you as an individual learn.

When you are continuously trying to remember what you have just seen in training you better understand your own learning requirements. Memory training forces you to continually assess why you forgot something and how you won’t forget it next time.

All mental athletes know that feeling in recall of “Why the *%!@ can’t I remember this image!” And then the epiphany afterwards when checking your errors…oh, I did that again.

Over time, you naturally fix it. This learning how you learn is from the work your head does after recall when you are checking your errors.

  • Memory training forces you to continuously try to remember something.

The last point was how we remember things better by understanding why we forget. But you also get good at retracing your thoughts in your head to remember what you have almost forgotten.

This is from the work your head does during recall – you get terribly good at practicing how to recall information you have tried to remember.

  • Confidence

This is the elephant in the room. When we are not confident in our abilities we tend to panic when trying to remember what someone is saying. When you know you can remember you can relax. Surprise, you do remember.

It all adds up – memory training improves your ability to remember even when you are not trying. Yay, it was all worth it!

Alzheimers, Dementia, Dance and Memory.

Jul 23, 2018 | Memory Tips

Research strongly supports the hypothesis that dance can help ward off Alzheimers disease and other dementia illness. Studies also find that at any age dance improves cognitive acuity and neural connectivity – see my blog Exercise and Memory.

 

“A thorough meta-analysis of 1603 studies of exercise and dementia (Ahlskog et al 2011) showed that participants with dementia had better cognitive scores after six to 12 months of exercise compared with sedentary control groups.” And a 21-year prospective study involving elderly participants found the only activity that lowered dementia risk was dancing. Dance lowered the participant’s risk by an astonishing 76%. (Ref 1)

 

Of course dance is also social, fun, exhilarating and the exercise component releases natural endorphins. It makes you happy.

 

Personally I notice that as a competitive memory athlete, when I have taught dance or danced on a given day my memory scores are remarkably higher.

 

For the best chance at a healthy mind and body, most of us will benefit from a combination of dance and regular exercise, a healthy plant-heavy diet and memory training.

 
 
 

Reference (1) : http://journalofdementiacare.com/the-joy-and-freedom-of-dance/

 
 
 
 
 
 
A memory champion advises that you can learn to remember too

A memory champion advises that you can learn to remember too

Jul 13, 2018 | Memory Tips

Mnemonics – how did I get into this crazy sport, what does it take, and what can it offer?

2017 IAM Australian Memory Champion

When I first stumbled on a book about memory championships I didn’t know what a gigantic difference the training would make in my life. I was someone with an average short term memory, something I tried to hide. This was frustrating because I take huge enjoyment in learning new things, but I was stuck with the hardware I had. At the time I was very fit physically but had begun to feel my cognitive skills age.

So, after devouring that book and newly inspired, I set out to regain a fit mind, focusing on memory techniques in a self-designed training regime. I gathered together a wide range of memory techniques and set to work. Lucky for me my past career as a professional dancer set me up to understand what it means to work through a vigorous training regime.

Suddenly, I was the Australian Memory Champion!

I was astounded when I saw my memory and cognitive functioning respond to training in just the same way as the body does with physical training.

Five months later I was the 2016 Australian Memory Champion, apparently the best mental athlete in Australia. It was as much a shock to me as to my family and friends. The following year I won the 2017 IAM National title in the Australian Open Memory Championship

Can anyone develop an amazing memory?

Yes, you can become that freak that can remember everything.

The incredible part is that memory training does not need to be very difficult. My over-the-top perfectionist training schedule achieved great results – blame that past career. But with a little regular practice almost anyone can perform apparently impossible memory feats, without any exceptional abilities.

It’s like going to gym a couple times a week. Not an overwhelming commitment, sure some days we don’t want to go, but we do it to stay young, fit and healthy. And it’s sometimes fun.

Practicing mental athletics is not only about staying mentally fit, it is liberating. I now feel confident as I face new challenges, ones that I would have avoided in the past. I am able to learn whatever I like. Really fast, and lots of it. I retain more of it too.

Imagine how good that feels. Check out my online memory training courses.