Journey Method For Memory
It is a way of remembering a list of information, short or small, and is particularly effective at helping you store that information for the long term.
One of the big advantages of the list is that it works really well even if the items on the list are very disparate and bear no obvious relation to one another. Secondly, by its very nature, it enables you to remember the order of the items in the list. There are many times the order is not important - for instance a shopping list - but many times where it is crucial.
The Method Explained
The first step in the use of the Journey Method is to think of a journey that is very familiar to you. Perhaps it is your daily routine when you get up in the morning before leaving the house. Perhaps it is the buildings and sights you walk past on your way to work. Perhaps it is the route through your university campus to get to your lecture halls. Whatever it is, you need to fix on a journey you are going to use.
Next, you need to break it up into a series of steps. This is because you will associate each item in the list with a step on the journey, in order. So you will need at least as many steps are there are items you want to remember in the simplest version of this method (not all, because some versions of the method have multiple associations with a step).
Example of the Journey Method
Now for an example. Here is a list of ten items:
Banana
Tennis balls
Bonfire
Snake
Clock
Tree
House
Car
Aerial
Boxer
Now, to remember that list using the journey method, you first need a journey containing ten steps. This is where you need to do some work - decide on ten steps for your journey.
For instance,
1) Get up and look at the alarm clock
2) Pull back the curtains
3) Look in the mirror
4) Have a shower
5) Go down the stairs
6) Open the breakfast cereal
7) Turn on the TV to catch the breakfast news
8) Open the fridge to get the ingredients for your packed lunch
9) Open the front door
10) Get in your car
Just pick whatever is familiar to you from your ordinary routine. For this method to be effective, the journey has to be familiar and something you know inside out, so there is no effort at all in recalling the steps in the journey anymore than there is in telling someone you meet what your name is.
Once you have your journey down, you then associate each step on the journey with an item in the list you need to remember. Here's how the start of my journey could look:
It's Monday morning, I wake up and through weary eyes look at the alarm clock. To my astonishment, the glowing digits have been replaced by glowing bananas instead! Very odd.
Dismissing this, I get out of bed and pull back the curtains. To my astonishment, I see that it is snowing, but this is no ordinary snow - it is snowing tennis balls, I look up and see hundreds of them falling through the sky... has the world gone mad, I ask? Is this a dream?
Managing to dismiss this oddity too, I then have a look in the mirror to see how I'm looking this morning. I am rather disconcerted as I see reflected in the mirror a raging fire - bright red, orange and yellow flames of a bonfire are raging in the mirror, and I even feel the heat. On turning around, there is nothing there, odd...
And so on - for each step, you create an association between the step on the journey and the item in the list.
Recalling the List
Now it is your turn - for your own journey, create the association for each item/step on the journey. The trick is to be clear, imagine it vividly, and use the range of senses. Physically see the image in your head - the more ridiculous the better, and feel free to use humour and comedy to help you remember!
Recalling the list is the rewarding part. You simply step through your journey, which is no effort at all, and recall what you see at each step. Each step triggers the powerful memory associated with it, and lets you recall the item. Without looking back at the list I can already see my alarm clock with glowing BANANA digits, the TENNIS BALLS snowing as I pull back the curtains, and the BONFIRE raging in the reflection of my mirror - and that's without even trying to remember it (I'm trying to write an article here!)
So, this is a very powerful method, and rewards greatly anyone who puts the effort into learning to use this technique. You will amaze yourself at how you can recall the list a long time later. With occasional power-refreshes, where in a quiet moment each week or so, you run through the list again to keep it fresh, you will be able to remember it indefinitely.
Finally, we would love to hear examples of the journeys you have come up with and some of the more memorable associations you perform! So please do send them to us through our contact us page.
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A clear explanation of what the journey method is, and how to use it to help you remember lists of items.
