How to Easily Memorize Large Numbers
What you’re about to learn
Numbers are the kind of abstract data that our brain struggles to store. Why? Because our minds don’t like what they don’t know, but that fall beyond this article’s scope. For the curious among you, I did an article on how the brain encodes knowledge. Feel free to take a look at it!
Daniel Tammet had recited 22,514 pi digits in five hours and nine minutes back on 14 March 2004. How is it possible? Daniel suffers from Asperger syndrome that seems to have given him the ability to feel numbers. For him, each one has a texture, a sound.
In this article, we will give our brain the impression that numbers and it is old friends!
You probably clicked on this article with an idea in mind.
- Impress your friends.
- Be self-sufficient from technology.
- Strengthen your memory.
- Gain time.
- Just for fun.
The technique I wish to give you don’t come from nowhere. Memory athletes abuse it, but even at a low level, it is worth the time spent to set it up.
At the end, retain phone numbers, credit card or social security numbers will be a child’s play.
Create a number association table
Your brain cannot visualize numbers. Fine! We are going to give him fake associations then.
Associate a person for each number, let’s say from 0 to 9. It can be a member of your family, a superhero, an actor, or even a cartoon character. It just has to be a humanoid.
My character association table looks like this:
It’s also necessary to write them on a paper, a bloc-note, or a file titled: “My association table”.
Now, for each character, find an action. For it to be memorable, the golden rule is: It defines the person well. It is full of details.
For example, if your first character is Homer Simpson, you can find an action like; Watch TV lying on the couch. To make this association stronger, imagine the well-known Simpson’s living room.
Your table should now look like this:
Your first story
Now that you have set up your 10-digit association table, which is usually easy to remember. The fun part can begin!
The next relevant large number (or not) that you’re about to face, you will have a choice :
- Choose to store it the old way.
- Transform this number in a funny story.
Of course, it’s better to practice before trying to retain your credit card number by heart. So for now, let’s say we want to memorize 2354.
First, cut it in two, 23 and 54. Then, linked the character that corresponds to the number of tens with the action corresponding to the number of units.
- 23 = My sister collects shells.
- 54 = My grandma cooks a cake.
From an exterior point of view, these associations have nothing special. Don’t forget the golden rule! These are so specific to your character that seeing another one doing it is weird, funny, incongruous.
Your dad laying on the couch watching TV may not be original. But in the Simpson’s house, with this particular brown three-place couch and the iconic carpet, that’s another story.
Now, we will imagine a story around these. Here is mine :
My family and I went to the beach in the afternoon. For the diner, my grandma wanted to make a cake, unfortunately she didn’t have time in the morning. So we manage to bring the oven, and we wired it up to our car battery near the beach. All of that, while my sister was collecting shells.
Again, imagine all the details like the weather, the temperature, which beach, the ambiance. A good story is memorable and full of features that make it unique.
Write your story down on a paper, a bloc-note, or a file titled: “The yourNumberMeaning story”.
Make it stick
The numbers you want to memorize can fall into two categories: Often or rarely used.
If the story is well done, you will have no problem retrieving an often used number. If you find it challenging doing so, review your story, or even your association table.
In the other case, I recommend you to play with the forgetting curves.
On your phone, your computer, your tablet, schedule 5 reminders. The next day, three days later, 7, 1 month, and 3 months later. They are intended to remind you: “Hey, don’t forget the story of your YourNumberMeaning”.
It is essential that on each reminder date, you actively try to recall the story, with as much detail as possible. If you fail, it doesn’t matter. Review your story and your association table in case you’ve misremembered it too. Then, reschedule 5 reminder dates (and delete the others). As before, the next day, 3 days later, 7, 1 month, and 3 months later.
When you have recited your story 5 times in a row at each reminder date, you can consider the knowledge encoded in your semantic memory. Basically, you will not forget it for a while.
Translating numbers into stories is very different from translating stories into numbers. At first, you’ll be slow. Don’t worry, practicing will speed up your translation. At some point, it will be almost instantaneous.
Go further
There are two ways to improve this technique:
- Add an object column to your association table.
- Extend your association table up to 100.
Like the action, the object must be specific to your character. This extra column will have a tremendous impact on your numbers reading. Instead of groups of 2, you will now make groups of 3.
Let’s say that my grandma object is a bell. With the before example, we need to make a story with :
- 235: My sister collecting shells, by ringing my grandma bell.
- 4: My mom.
Because the number isn’t large, there is no different than without the “object” column. On a larger one though, you will inevitably have fewer actors in your story, which reduces its complexity.
Personally, I’ve not added the object column to my association table. I’ve preferred to extend it up to 100. But I want to warn you. Yes, extended your association table requires more effort and time, and no, it is not difficult to find 100 characters. I bet you know at least 1000 people!
The difficulty lies in memorizing their position. My character 23 is a friend named Hugo. My action 54 is: play the saxophone like Lisa Simpson.
So I just need to imagine:
Hugo is playing the saxophone like Lisa Simpson.
For the more motivated among us, you can also extend your table up to 1000. The only people crazy enough to do this are those who go to “YourCountry Got Talent”.
Even the simple method will grandly change your capability to store large numbers over time. Find a balance between time/effort and usage. Next, choose which version suits you best!
Our next stop in the road of “Supercharge our memory” will be The palace of memory. Another technique, another article!
