Huffington Magazine Issue 42 | Page 33

Voices when information is made meaningful, when it’s colorful, when we’re able to integrate it into the web of all the other things we know. Memory techniques, like the memory palace, may sound like miraculous shortcuts. But in fact they work precisely because they make you work. They take effort. They force a kind of depth of processing and a kind of mindfulness that many of us don’t normally walk around exercising. But that’s what it takes to remember — and to live a memorable life. For example, if you want to remember someone’s name, the first and most important thing you can do is pay attention — real attention — when a person introduces herself. Most of the time, we forget a person’s name because we never properly encode it in our memories. Our minds are elsewhere, or we’re too busy thinking of the first clever thing we’re going to say back. To make a name memorable, try creating a visual association in your imagination between the person’s name and face. If it’s a woman named Abby, imagine a bee stinging her eye. If it’s a guy called Bill, imagine him with a duckbill for a mouth. If it’s someone named Barbara, picture a crown of barbed JOSHUA FOER HUFFINGTON 03.31.13 We remember when we engage deeply, when information is made meaningful, when it’s colorful, when we’re able to integrate it into the web of all the other things we know.” wire around her head. Create these images in your mind’s eye with as much color, action, and meaning as possible. For example, don’t just picture a bee stinging Abby’s eye. Hear the bee buzzing, imagine her Foer’s book, which was released last year, details his year-long journey to sharpen his memory.