Even Greek orators in the fifth century BC knew special tricks to keep track of long lectures. Buddhist monks developed very similar techniques to memorize their long religious texts. Here are the most important methods of memory techniques (mnemonics):

Music as a memory aid

You've probably already experienced that the lyrics of songs, along with the melody, are usually easier to remember. The same method can be applied to other situations. Simply sing a simple melody to a list of items you want to remember. This works best with long lists. This phenomenon is also used in advertising. When advertising slogans are linked to catchy melodies, customers are more likely to remember the slogan.

Key words and phrases

Acronyms are useful for names, for example: You're at a party and want to remember the names of the other guests. Simply create a mnemonic from the first letters of their names. The names Birgitt, Richard, Anne, Ina, and Nick become the mnemonic "Brain." The same method also works with whole sentences: The first letters of the sentence "My father explains our night sky to me every Sunday" correspond to the first letters of the eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

mnemonics

If you package information in short rhymes, it's easier to remember. "Three-three-three, a fight at Issus" is probably well-known. However, mnemonics are often cumbersome and don't put the information into a meaningful context. If you only know the saying, you won't know who fought against whom at Issus and why. Nevertheless, mnemonics are useful if you simply can't remember certain facts that you use frequently. For example, the difference between convex and concave: "If the girl is good, her stomach stays concave; if she becomes convex, she must have had sex." You can find this and many other mnemonics, organized by topic at www.alle-eselsbruecken.de .

Mind maps

Your boss has tasked you with organizing a company outing. To make sure you don't forget anything, create a mind map: Take a piece of paper and divide it into four sections with two lines. In the first section, write down everything related to transporting the guests. In the second section, make notes about the social part of the trip. In the third and fourth sections, jot down everything related to the catering and the program. Write down the things that belong closely together on the paper. You'll see how this gives your planning structure. What's already on the paper reminds you of what's still missing. Mind maps are particularly useful for structuring large amounts of information or planning very complex processes.

The Roman Forum Method

You're supposed to give an anniversary speech at your company. You have to properly acknowledge the highlights of the last 25 years. You can't forget anything important. With the Forum Romanum method, you can do it without a cheat sheet: Associate each key point of your speech with a prominent spot on your commute. Then, as you mentally retrace your steps, the points will come back to you one by one. This method was invented by Roman senators: They assigned the arguments of their speeches to individual points in the city of Rome, which they then walked through in their minds.