How to Learn Almost Anything in 48 Hours

by Tansel Ali

  With coaching I get to provide people with knowledge and skills to make positive changes in their lives. Here’s my coaching formula to help you succeed.

  How it works

  1. Identify problem areas

  Make a list of the things that are stopping you from learning as you’d like to. You may find that the only barriers are ones you’ve created in your mind. Or they could be physical, financial, time-based, skills-based or geographical. Make the list as comprehensive as you can.

  2. Program development

  Now you’ve identified barriers and problem areas, list all the knowledge, skills and resources you may need to fix the problems.

  After listing your problem areas complete your resources column because you may not have the information for the knowledge and skills columns until you’ve done a little research.

  3. Goal setting

  In a similar table, list your goals—but this time instead of a ‘How does it feel?’ column, have one titled ‘How will it feel?’

  The ‘feel’ column provides a strong emotional response to the brain that stimulates further action to help you reach your goals quicker. Have a vision using emotion!

  4. Action plan

  Start the work: read those books, attend those seminars, perhaps get a coach. Whatever it takes to achieve your goal, write it down. This will become your roadmap to success.

  5. Habit plan

  You have a plan, but you need to create habits for your actions so that when working on your goals, the tasks come to you naturally. That’s the point of creating a habit. You might have all the resources and plans at your fingertips, but unless you make it a habit you simply won’t do the work.

  6. Ongoing support and review

  As you work towards your goals, make sure you have someone to check in with from time to time for encouragement and support. Don’t try and go it alone.

  Achieving goals: how I memorised the Sydney Yellow Pages in twenty-four days

  After nine long years of training, competing and coaching through my business, I decided to quit memory training. It was one of the toughest decisions I had ever made because I just loved what I did, but study, health and family issues needed to take priority at that time. Two weeks after this I received a phone call from a PR company that wanted me, as the Australian Memory Champion, to memorise the Yellow Pages phone books as part of a marketing campaign for the brand.

  My initial reaction was one of disbelief, but after discussions we worked out what I needed to memorise—over 2000 business names and their phone numbers. They gave me some time to think about it and days later I was sitting on the couch with my laptop about to write a ‘thanks, but no thanks’ email, knowing that this task would further add to the chaos that was my life at the time.

  Then suddenly something clicked.

  I knew I could memorise a phone book. I knew this was something I could do and I had to prove it to myself. I knew this opportunity had come about because of my hard work in the memory business for so many years, and to say no would have been like turning my back on that work. So I re-did the calculations in my head: if it took thirty seconds to memorise one advertisement, then I should be able to manage 2000 ads in around twenty days. If I went ahead with it, I would have to take time off work, miss some university classes and, hardest of all, go without seeing my then two-year-old son for most of the day. Still, by being super organised and making slight sacrifices, I would achieve something no one else had. I retyped my email—‘I’ll do it’—and pressed send.

  The SMART (Sensible, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely) goals that I learned in management class went out the window. In order to achieve something that had never been done before, I had to create a new plan.

  To be honest, I didn’t even think, ‘What if I can’t remember?’ or, ‘What if I get the numbers wrong?’ Somehow I just knew I could do it. I believed in myself, and belief is such a powerful thing. I had twenty-four days before I would be tested in public at a convention and also give several live TV and radio interviews.

  At last the A–K and L–Z volumes of Sydney’s Yellow Pages arrived (they were much thicker than Melbourne’s). I flicked through the pages and wondered on the best strategy to memorise this beast. I needed to ensure I had enough time to test myself and revise, and to have confidently memorised 20,000-plus digits that made up the businesses.

  I used SMASHIN SCOPE to picture the name of each business. This was critical. If I didn’t have a strong image for each business, then it would be almost impossible to recall its numbers. Then I memorised the numbers using the Major system, decoding phonetic sounds for numbers. So the process was to visualise the advertisement and then link the number of the business to my visualisation. To remember the ad for Bob’s Cleaning 9217 7747, for example, I first imagined a person bobbing down and scrubbing the floor as hard as he could. Then I linked it to the number by having cleaner Bob take out his ‘pen’(92), write his invoice on his ‘dog’(17) with the dog jumping into a ‘cake’(77). As the dog jumped into the cake, ‘Rocky Balboa’(47) jumped up yelling ‘Adriaaaaaaan’.

  It took a good thirty seconds to do this for each ad. For all you memorisers out there, there were many reasons I did not use the Method of Loci. Firstly, it would have taken longer and I couldn’t have memorised the ads in the time I had. Secondly, I didn’t have enough locations. Thirdly, as I was going to be tested at random, there was no point trying to remember the order, which is the Method of Loci’s specialty. Instead, I chose the basic linking strategy and it worked exactly how I wanted it to.

  I had also learned from a rookie mistake I made some time earlier on 1116 SEN radio when interviewed by Billy Brownless, Tim Watson and Andy Maher. They got me on the show to talk about memory and gave me a short memory test of ten words. I assumed it would be easy because we memorisers remember hundreds of words in single sittings. I had even picked my favourite location to use. (The Method of Loci is popular with memorisers in competition and one of the most powerful memory techniques there is.) I thought I had it covered. Boy, was I wrong! Of the ten items they tested me on, I only remembered three! Listeners called up the station saying I was a fake and that they had memorised more than me. I also copped it from the presenters who had a good laugh at my expense. From this I learned that you might know sensational memory techniques but if you don’t use the right one for the right occasion you’ll end up with egg on your face.

  That first night of memorisation was very nearly the last. I had memorised for seventy minutes but only got through fifty ads. My wife tested me but the results were disappointing. I didn’t know if I should continue, and I had barely even started.

  I was in this now though. I had to continue. Fortunately, work gave me two weeks off so I could focus fully on the task at hand. And I was very conscious of how important it was to remain healthy—to drink lots of fluids and eat right, remain positive and pray like crazy!

  The next day I did slightly better. The day after that, much better. Consistency was what I was looking for. Once I had gotten into a groove it was almost robotic. I was memorising sixty ads in sixty minutes. Although it doesn’t seem like much of an improvement from the first night, my recall was far better. I was memorising sixty ads and going back three more times to re-memorise them; I memorised sixty ads four times and then moved on to the next lot of sixty. I averaged around five hours a day memorising. Some days I did slack off, but the following day I would put in a solid eight hours. The longest day was memorising for ten hours, memorising in five blocks of two hours with a break in between.

  Earlier I wrote about the importance of accountabil
ity. What helped me get through this challenge was the fact that I tweeted my progress daily, which held me accountable to my followers and friends. My dedication surprised even me, because in memory competitions I rarely memorised for more than ten minutes at a sitting!

  That final week my white office table had become yellow, stained from the phone books, and I had a yucky metallic taste in my mouth from turning thousands of pages. By day eighteen I had memorised both books. So I went back to revise the ads all over again to firm up my recall. I had six days to do this. Beginning again, I almost doubled my initial speed—120 ads per hour—with even better recall.

  On arriving in Sydney I found myself swamped with television, radio and media interviews. I was tested live on national television and radio, but this time the hard work, strategy, consistency and sacrifices all paid off. I did make a couple of mistakes, it’s true, but the client and the PR company were thrilled and it was regarded as a great success.

  • List your goals

  We’ve heard it before, but listing your goals in life can be an eye-opening experience. Writing them down makes them fully conscious, and your brain will love you for it. Put the list on your fridge or desk where you’ll regularly see it. The more your goals are in the front of your mind the more progress you’ll make.

  • Remember to feel

  close your eyes and visualise how it would feel to achieve your goals. These feelings are the most important drivers you have. If you don’t have an emotional connection to a goal then you’re only looking at a set of tasks and to-do lists. Feelings put you in a mental state of accomplishment even before you’ve accomplished anything.

  • Begin now

  Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now! It could be as simple as picking up the phone and calling someone. Start acting now and you are one step closer to success.

  USING THESE TECHNIQUES

  ‘Time moves in one direction, memory in another.’—William Gibson

  DID YOU KNOW

  In 2015, the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world took forty minutes to simulate just one second of human brain activity.

  CHAPTER 6

  EVERYDAY MEMORY

  ‘You never realise what a good memory you have until you try to forget something.’—Franklin P. Jones

  According to a March 2015 Australian Bureau of Statistics media release, dementia (including Alzheimer’s) is now the nation’s second-biggest cause of death after heart disease. It is predicted that by 2050 nearly one million Australians will suffer from some sort of dementia, an alarming statistic particularly as there is no known cure for the disease at this time. It’s little wonder then that people are becoming more and more conscious of brain health and are increasingly keen to exercise it every day.

  We may not need to be memory champions, memorise books, learn languages in a month or perform amazing memory feats, yet there are so many everyday things we do that are made so much easier by having a better memory.

  Where did I leave my keys?

  A common problem around the world is remembering where we left our keys. It’s astonishing that this is such a common thing to forget and we’ve all done it at least once, but if you keep doing it maybe it’s time to fix the problem. Try the following steps to help you always remember where you put your keys.

  1. Visualise

  Create a vivid image of where you put the keys to help with recall. Since this happens in our heads, we can exaggerate to make that visualisation really stand out. As you put your keys on the table imagine that the keys grow in size and get bigger and bigger!

  • Picture your keys getting bigger and bigger.

  • Listen to the sound they make as they grow.

  2. Associate

  Linking our item to be remembered with another item allows us to recall better. Once again, since it is happening in our minds, we can be creative and make that association stand out. As the keys grow to an extraordinary size the table breaks in half, unable to carry the weight of the keys.

  • Picture the table breaking in half.

  • Imagine the keys becoming heavy enough to break the table.

  • Listen to the sound of the table breaking.

  3. Recall

  Recall can be either conscious or accidental.

  Conscious: You remember the association with ‘keys breaking the table’. Ah, table!

  Accidental: You walk around your house looking for the keys and pass the table. You stop and ask yourself, ‘Why did the table break? Oh, the keys broke it.’ Voila!—You find the keys.

  How to remember you’ve got everything before leaving the house

  As you’re about to head out the front door, visualise and associate all that you need to take with you. If you need to take your keys, phone, phone charger, bag and important contract documents for signing, individually link each item to the door. You need to visualise each story as you are about to head out the door.

  1. As you are about to exit the front door a huge metallic key whacks you in the face.

  2. Your phone is now the size of the door and as it rings it causes the front door to vibrate.

  3. The phone charger is blocking your exit as you try to leave.

  4. You trip backwards over your bag as you try and head out of the door.

  5. The front door is made of very thin paper and it needs to be signed, reminding you of the contract.

  The front door is only a trigger point to help you remember before you leave the house. Other trigger points might include when you get into your car, or as you put on your shoes.

  Remembering where you parked your car

  We’ve all forgotten at least once where we’ve parked, but walking around and around busy multi-storey carparks can be frustrating and embarrassing. If you know how to memorise numbers you can memorise the level number if there is one. If there isn’t then find something in your surroundings as a visual connection. Perhaps you parked outside and there are trees about 100 metres away roughly at a one o’clock direction. You can make a story of how trees crashed onto your car at 1 pm. The trick is to find something unique and associate it with your car—but do not involve any other car as it may not be there when you get back!

  Remembering shopping lists

  The simplest way to remember shopping lists is to use the memory techniques of linking and association. To remember the list below we need to create an imaginative story connecting one item to the other.

  1. soft drink

  2. flour

  3. beetroot

  4. Vegemite

  5. toilet paper

  6. pineapple

  7. cat food

  8. dishwashing liquid

  9. fly spray

  10. chocolate

  You walk into the supermarket and you are sprayed with soft drink by the staff. Just as you wipe yourself off, someone from the checkout accidently spills flour over you. Everyone is watching and you’re embarrassed and turn red like a beetroot. Of course you know the best cure for embarrassment—a spoonful of Vegemite right down the hatch. But the Vegemite must have been way out of date. Your tummy starts grumbling and you run as fast as you can and dive into boxes of toilet paper. As you come up for air you feel a large pineapple ring around your neck. You take a bite and realise it’s actually cat food you’re eating. Now you feel sick again and need to wash your mouth out. You grab the dishwashing liquid and give your mouth a good clean. Your mouth is frothing and bubbles are going everywhere so you grab fly spray off the shelf to spray the bubbles away. It works and you celebrate by treating yourself to your favourite chocolate.

  If you need to memorise more than twenty items it’s best to use the Method of Loci as your
story will get very long and one weak link in the story chain means you could forget everything after the last item you remembered. If, however, you memorise a lot of items and prefer to use linking and association methods, make sure your story is highly visual, imaginative and links physically to the next item.

  Remembering names

  A good way to remember names is to visualise the person first. What’s memorable about their appearance? Do they have a big nose? Long hair? Piercings? Exaggerate some feature even if they look remarkably normal otherwise. By doing this we create a strong holding spot for our information to be memorised—in this case the person’s name.

  This is Bruce.

  To make him memorable I picture him with a bald head, wearing colourful running shoes, pants and a footy t-shirt. Now that we have a memorable visual of the man, we need to create a separate visual for the name ‘Bruce’. The first thing that comes to my mind is Bruce Lee, the martial arts movie star. I could also use another Bruce, I know, but Bruce Lee makes a more interesting story involving punches, spinning roundhouse kicks and cries of ‘Hayaaaa!’

  Now for the fun part—creating the story. Visualise the person with colourful running shoes, footy t-shirt and bald head being attacked by Bruce Lee himself yelling ‘Hayaaaa!’ All that is left to do is to recall the name. Go back to the person you initially created an image for and think about what happened to them. In this example it was being attacked by Bruce Lee. As soon as you recall Bruce Lee it will trigger the name Bruce.

  These techniques are also helpful in remembering appointments, your kids’ schedules and running errands such as picking up the dry cleaning or dropping off shoes to be repaired.

  Everyday technology

  Technology is great when it helps us live more productive, better lives, but it can also cause headaches. What we presume is making us more advanced could in fact be dragging us behind. Here are some ways to help deal with annoying everyday technology problems that help exercise our minds at the same time.