| Today, I received an email
from a guy who needed to memorize 17 pages of script, to recite
before the VP of his company, a bit more than two weeks from now.
I haven't received permission from him to reprint his letter yet,
so I'll just give you my answer here... How should he go about memorizing
it? ...
Hi Greg,
Thanks for your mail. I've written a rather long answer, and I really
hope you take the time to read through it -- and decide which
one of the two methods I describe will work better for you.
But first of all -- I don't know if you're stressed about this or
not, but if you are, I want you to relax. A little
known secret about memory is that it actually works
better if you trust it.
It's true:
If you sort-of tell your brain "I trust you to remember this",
it gets easier.
So the first thing to do is trust your memory.
Trust your brain -- it is capable of remarkable things.
Then, knowing you will be able to memorize the whole script, you're
attacking the task at hand from a position of strength.
This might sound like kung-fu-grasshopper-mumbo-jumbo to you, I
don't know, but I hope you understand what I mean. (And I'll get
down to practicalities pretty soon, but please bear with me for
a bit more of the kung-fu- grasshopper stuff:)
Another way of looking at it, which helps me when I face something
I consider a problem, is this. As long as it's a problem -- it is
bigger than me. I'm not in control. If I can be bigger than
the problem, it is not a problem anymore -- it is just something
I have to do.
So, are 17 pages of text bigger than you -- an overwheling task
where you are out of control? Or are you bigger than 17 pages of
text? Of course you are bigger than 17 pages of text. You can hold
17 pages of text within you. It is not a problem, it is just something
you have to -- and want to -- do.
Knowing this, tell your brain to just do it, and trust that it can
remember everthing you tell it to, and that it will recall
those memories when you need them.
Two Ways
Okay. So there are two ways you can go about doing this.
1) You can use a mnemonic technique,
and memorize the whole thing (at least the structure, maybe not
verbatim), in a fairly short time. Then, when you know the structure,
you can "fill in" that structure-skelton with the actual
words (if that is necesaary for your presentation?)
This might be the quicker way, but the memories
will probably also fade quicker -- and in the end, you haven't
really trained your memory at all -- it is no better than
before. (Note that some people claim this last part is not true.
I'd say the jury is still out on this one, but now you know that
opinions differ.)
2) You can use a more natural technique -- the
one that is described in the book (and I'll give you the essence
of the book below). This will probably take you longer, but you'll
have a better understanding of the text, deeper knowledge
about what the text is about, and you'll be able to remember it
for a long time. You'll also have trained your memory, an improvement
that will last for a very long time.
Now, the book strongly recommends the second way. But I think
you have to find out for yourself what technique better suits your
immediate needs.
So I'll tell you about both ways, and I can give you a recommendation,
but you have to decide.
The Mnemonic Technique
This is an ancient technique -- dating back to the old Greeks.
What you do, is you visualize a path where you are used
to walking.
Inside or outside, or a combination of both is great, it doesn't
really matter.
I don't know, maybe you walk from home to work everyday, or something
like that. Or it could be somwhere you used to walk when
you were a kid.
So you take the starting point of your walk -- let's say the porch
of your house, and you tie it in with the first point in
your talk.
You need to really picture the porch in your minds eye, see it,
feel it, smell the smells, listen to the sounds -- be there.
Now place the first point of your talk right there on the porch.
Create a picture from what you are going to talk about. It doesn't
have to be plausible -- in fact, the more ludicrous, the
better you will remember it.
At the beginning, you might find it hard to create pictures from
the script -- it might be too abstract for you to immediately find
pictures. But just try -- anything you can think of. You'll
find that the picture only has to be loosely associated with the
content of the script for you to remember it.
Just try it, and see that it works.
Now, start your walk. At any point of the walk, you can tie in a
new point from the script. Have a point from the script dangling
from a lamp post, shouting to you from a window, climbing up a tree,
whatever.
Just make the pictures vivid, alive, full of color and sounds
and movement.
So just "plant" the whole script along the walk. I think
you'll be pleasantly surprised as to how easy it
is!
Both with this method and the next, I'm sure you'll have to practice
though, of course. But you should have plenty of time to perfect
your presentation.
The "Natural Way"
The short-short version of the book is this:
- You can only remember that which you have focused your attention
on
- Attention comes naturally with interest
- If you don't find the subject at hand particularly interesting,
find a way of making it interesting for you
- Usually, most anything will become interesting if you start
noticing the small details
This encourages you to go deep within the material
of your script. What is it really talking about? Why does it have
the structure it has?
Why are specific words chosen in stead of others?
Even outside-of-the script questions like who wrote
it, when, and why?
Can you see where this is going? It is forcing you to really attend
to the script. Not reading through it "trying" to remember
everything, but focusing, developing a keen interest -- and -- as
a result --remembering.
You of course need to pay notice to both the "whole-ness"
of the script, and the small details of every chapter, page, paragraph,
and maybe even word. You have approximately one day per page. That
should give you plenty of time, even if you can only practice for
so-much time every day.
In Conclusion
I told you it was going to be a long email. I hope it has helped,
though.
If you don't mind, I would love to hear how you go with the memorizing,
and with your recital.
I wish you the best of luck! (Of course, it is not luck, it is hard
work, and I believe you can do it!)
Sincerely,
Sten
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