If you use the systems I’ve shown you, remembering numbers should be easy. Recalling telephone numbers, birthdays, and appointments should no longer be a problem. Along with the practical usefulness of this skill, learning numbers is also one of the best exercises for stimulating your brain, because it makes use of both hemispheres. There are, of course, various ways to memorize numbers.

You used some of your own memory tricks before learning the techniques on this blog —tricks like rhythmic stressing or the grouping of several digits. You may also have combined some information spontaneously with one or another number.

Now, with the help of the systems you’ve learned, you can turn numbers into images and memorize them in the form of a story. This is certainly a good way to exercise your imagination as you invent the funniest and most absurd stories possible. However, as you may have realized, there are limits. For example, if a story contains more than twenty terms, it is easy to confuse the sequence of the individual points or you may leave words out. In the long run, I recommend that you learn and use both the route method and the master system. The combination of the two techniques will give you better access to your memories.

Imagination is very important as it helps you remember information easily. Here is a great post on how imagination can help improve your memory.

As you start practicing, spend plenty of time on each image and imagine it as if it were a scene in an epic film. Activate all your senses, after all, that’s one of the main goals of this training. For example, don’t just let the ball (number 95) sit on the table (route marker); visualize it in full color, spotted or striped, and have it bounce around crazily, breaking something or knocking items off the table. As you know, the livelier, more colorful, and more unusual the images are, the better your recall will be. So don’t be afraid to add humor and movement to your image, even if it’s absurd. [ Read how using bizzare images can improve your memory ]

Always remember to let your feelings flow into the pictures. For instance, you can imagine yourself forcefully throwing a red ball down on the table, breaking your favorite glass bowl. You’ve insured this bowl for a lot of money and will receive a nice amount of compensation, which eases your sadness regarding the incident and thereby combines happy feelings with the image of the ball and the table. During this process, notice that the glass bowl is just a word and not an object to be remembered. It’s important that you don’t use terms from the master system for objects like this, or you will get confused!

using mnemonics techniques for memory improvement

You may think your story is too absurd or too long, but there’s no problem with it being a bit off the wall. You don’t have to achieve top performance in record time right at the beginning! However, after a while, you will discover that images arise in your mind more naturally; they will seem to come to you without effort. If you need help with with this, read how to get started with memory training.

Don’t panic if you can’t remember an image every now and then. You still have the images of the master system in your mind. While you review them, you’ll become aware of the image you’ve forgotten. If, for example, you had forgotten the ball (number 95) that broke the glass bowl on the table, the story will surely come back to you when you think of the word ball from the list.

The route method and master system are two methods through which you can recall memories. For one thing, the combination of route markers and memorized terms (in the previous example, table and ball) will remind you. For another, if this combination did not effectively etch the data into your mind, you can always retrieve the forgotten thought using the master system and recreate the link from ball to table.

If you wish to memorize a large quantity of numbers, the same ones will often come up. Th is means you will need to create several different images of an object or word and link each one with the features of the individual route markers in order to remember them exactly. [ Read how to unlock the power of visualization for memory improvement ]

If you want to remember a lot of numbers, the link between the visualized term and the route marker needs to be intensely visual, so that you can remember the frequently repeated numbers correctly even after a long time. You can decide whether to leave the image of the ball alone—to stay with the example given here—or change its color or size. Try it; you should have fun memorizing and enjoy your unusual ideas. For example, you might imagine your boss or a teacher you hated at school, standing on a chest of drawers and clumsily juggling three balls.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and if you are looking for more great articles, i highly recommend reading how to use roman room system to improve your memory.

As always please feel free to leave your comments and feedback in the comments section below.