Memory Improvement: How To Improve Your Memory In Just 30 Days

by Ron White

The Problem Isn't Your Memory...* Have you ever walked into a room and couldn't remember what you went there for? * Have you ever grasped the hand of a potential client and then when the handshake broke, the name seemed to disappear from your memory? * Or have you ever left a prospect or an important meeting and as you drove away remembered a key point that you should have shared with them?The problem is NOT with your memory. The problem is with the "Filing System" your brain currently uses to store and retrieve memory items. Change the filing system and you'll double and even triple your memory comprehension.Two-time USA Memory Champion Ron White will teach you the same 2,000-year-old memory method that he has already taught thousands Give presentations and speeches without notes...
 * Memorize chapters of books word for word...* Retain information from workshops or training classes…* Improve your grades and study skills…* Remember names and faces, even years later…* Routinely memorize 100 digit numbers after hearing them only once…* And lots more!--> Includes an offer for a FREE video of Easy As 1-2-3 Memory Tricks <--

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Audiobook, Psychology, Reference

156 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 22, 2011

About the author

Ron White is a two time national memory champion winning the USA Memory Championship in 2009 and 2010. He held the record for two years for the fastest time to memorize a deck of shuffled cards in only 1 minute and 27 seconds.


Note: There are several authors named "Ron White". Their books need to be properly segregated.

Reviews

[Winston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a few memory books when I wanted to embarked on a journey to improve my memory. This one stood out because Ron White shared his journey to improve his memory and that he also has a memory coach.

Other books tend to tell you the techniques but not the struggle and often when we read such books we found ourselves struggling to acquire those techniques. It is very demoralizing and without understanding how others might deal with their journey, the book will go out of the window very soon.

I have put this book as “Read”, but I know well that I will still read and re-read the teachings from this book. It has been more than 30 days after I read this book. I have managed to established the filing systems for numbers and I am now able to recall all the car numbers that I want to remember as well as their owners. This is because I practice it everyday. But till today I am still struggling with names and faces, because I havent been meeting enough people during these pandemic lockdowns hence the lack of opportunity to practice, but I am taking my time because this is not a race and only with practice comes improvement.

This book is worth a 5 stars to me because it is clear on the techniques and it also tells you the struggle. The only thing I disagree with the book is that you shouldn’t expect to get it under 30days, and more importantly don’t be demoralized if you needed more time to see the results, this is a continuous learning journey and be lenient on yourself, give yourself more time to practice. And you must practice, else this book is useless.

[Altaf Bankotkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I never do book reviews. But I decided because I was looking for help with my memory. And I want to share few thoughts with my fellow beings. Now if you're looking for such books, chances are that you are already motivated. That is why I don't like books that waste hundreds of pages on motivating us and providing only a wee bit of actual beneficial techniques. And this is the prime reason why I liked this book.

- No bullshit motivational stuff
- Clear Techniques. Practice and Apply.

If you don't find them useful... it's ok. Because the main thing is that these exercises stimulate your sleeping brain. This book rewires your brain and makes you feel smarter. No matter if you are not able to give a whole lot of speeches byheart. It rather explains not memorizing the whole speech and only remembering bullet points with the help of few techniques.
It helped me get back to studying spirits at the age of 32 because I decided to make a career change and reapplied for a Master's degree. I found this book, very short, clear, and to the point.

[Ward Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a mnemonist then you must read Lorayne, White, Buzan, Levi, and Montivier.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the first few chapters of memorising random objects, the book introduces a 5-point framework for memorising "anything": focus, location/file, code (picture/number), action and review. To that, he introduces multisensory visualisation (focus/code), file systems (file), and dynamic narratives (action). The idea is that memorising anything involves attaching codes to the files that represent that information through association. You recall it by chunking the information, associating each chunk to a coded object and attaching the object to the memory file.

The book frequently used "memory championship" tasks, which for the most part are nothing other than party tricks, but it did have dedicated chapters toward learning practical things, such as presentations, numbers and names. It also repetitively referred to the product he was selling with heavy rhetoric. This is very common in these types of books. The authors don't seem to realise that you've already bought the product and they can, therefore, stop selling it!

Also, most of the associations and examples were very American. Fonzie??? That's both American and of an entirely different era! But, it's an example of a system, not the system itself. It did get a little overbearing though: The American states, American Bill of Rights, American Presidents, American actors and brand references, American sports team references... it was offputting! Yet, he did address that this would be read all over the world. It seems he didn't fully understand the implications of that when he wrote it!

The first few chapters were a little too "random object" oriented, which made me almost give up; but, I gritted through and committed myself and it began to improve from chapter 5 and got more practical from Chapter 10+. My primary goals were to improve name memory (Goal 1) improve birthday memory (Goal 2). I would also like to remember presentations (Goal 3), although I don't give many of them so it will be a while before I can test it.

How did I do?

The Roman town file system.
I struggled with this one as a traveller with no "home base," as I move from one country to another every couple of years. I used a town I've previously lived in, although it was far from clear in my memory. It worked well eventually though and I finally got it. Although scalability is slow.

The skeleton file system.
This was much easier to remember than the town file system for me, as it's portable; but, unlike the town system, it's not easy to expand upon. While the town system is technically infinitely scalable, the skeleton system is much more limited.

The house file system.
I've used memory palaces before and never had much luck with them. The 5x5 house-file system though is a much less cognitive-heavy process with much more scalability. Rather than needing "one mega-palace" having just a house allows you to use any number of houses. I really liked that and found it a very easy system to use. Although I found quickly that I often got mixed up over memory activities, remembering previous associations instead of the one I'm supposed for the activity I'm doing. He should have introduced a way of differentiating the houses each time you use the same filing system for different tasks.

The sales presentation/speeches.
Skeleton filing was perfect for the presentation, and the house file fit perfectly with the speech hooks. I found both very intuitive. It would have been good if he provided a demonstration of layering. Goal 3: pending, but I'm feeling confident!

Numbers
Focused on the "major system" using skeleton files to remember the phonetics. This was very clever. Applying this to dates, I immediately saw its value. I tried to memorise the birthdays of 10 of my friends using two-digit words to practice this and found it worked very well using town files. It took me about an hour to set up, but I definitely remembered them all! After a few days, the images were clear and I could convert them between images and numbers very quickly. Goal number 2: achieved!

Names and faces
Chapter 18! Finally! I liked that he used the faces as files in of themselves. I wasn't sure about the face file without a primary filing system though, as I was concerned you would only remember their name when you see them, but I can see its benefit for speed. I noticed immediately, however, that I really struggled with finding associations with the names. Jessica...hmm...Jurassic? Megan? Mmmm a gun pointed at me? Me-gun? It wasn't easy! There really should be an app for this, or more associations in the book!

I'm left with having to practise this skill a lot more, and not much confidence in it. Quickly finding associations for the name is tough and I usually need a few seconds to do it + then a few seconds to consider the person's facial characteristics + a few seconds to associate it. Those seconds add up. It easily becomes 20-30 seconds of staring at a face before I've thought up an association, which I'm often not confident with ("Davey... daisy growing in a V?"), thought of the dominant facial characteristic ("his forehead? Mmm no, maybe his neck... oh I don't know, it looks very average to me... umm his ears? Are they small?"), and then applied the scene ("a daisy growing out of his ears with a V hanging off it, maybe?") with enough detail and focus that I'll remember it next time. I don't think 30 seconds of staring at their face every time I meet someone is always appropriate.

Hence, for goal number 1, I'd have to say it's still pending and much more practice will be required to get good at it. It would have been great if he'd focused more on this skill and provided much more examples!

Also, no tools for the scalability of the files were provided, nor was it discussed how not to get them mixed up. Different colours maybe? But then how do I remember the colour?

All in all, this was good, but too much was missed out to be a comprehensive system, with a lot of fluff and memory tasks thrown in that have no value to me (such as memorising serial numbers or a deck of cards).

[Scot León Pfuntner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Jim Karol's book "Ultimate Memory Magic" showed me that I was capable of using my memory, but Ron White's book "Memory Improvement" actually taught me how! I'm so thankful I found this book and my life has already been improved and more equipped for Christ by working through this book! Tremendous blessing!

I seriously would give it a 10 on this five star scale!

[Jay Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, practical, organised methods to teach standard, time proven and effective methods to improve memory skills.

This book is more effective to listen actively as a learning class vs passively reading / listening.

This is similar to some good other memory programs similar to Kevin Trudea's Mega Memory.

* Listened on Audiobook via Libby at 2x speed.

[Oviyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A scientific way to improve your memory

This method really amazes me.i actually got to know this technique from Sherlock Holmes series and I didn't believe that untill I found this book accidentally.this is a book not to read but to learn

[Mauro Fonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the contents very much, I find them very useful and I'm putting them into use. Although I felt his writing style a bit patronizing.

[Edward Loduca · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book. I selected it on a whim with skeptical reservations. However, with application I believe it will be incredibly helpful.

A true review to come.

[Gloriana EducationUK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great scientific way to improve your memory

[Ambar]

ES muy bueno en realidad no creía que podía encontrar un libro así.

[Jenael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skipped some chapters that didnt interest me but overall, a very good introductionary/companion piece for learning memory techniques. Created my first method of loci with 25 files following this.

[Nelson Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skeptical at first, but it has helped me enhance my learning and retention of information

[Neowuf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as You Can Have an Amazing Memory by Dominic O'Brien. It´s too, step by step follow me and too little concepts. What happen is, I don´t speak English as mother thong, so most of the phonetic step by step are not good for me. The technics are not wrong or worthless though, just not good explained. For this I give 2 stars.

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! This book is incredible. invest a short bit of time to read this book and it will save you so much time over your life. When you find yourself having to remember things this book will make the job so much easier. One of the most practical books i've every read

[Mark Manderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info.
Takeaways:
Create a Loci of 10 places that you can remember around town. 
Train daily of linking items to your 1-10 anchors.
To remember a person's name turn it into a picture and use an outstanding feature on their face to anchor it. 

[Roberts Smitins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author provides the reader with unconventional and revolutionary techniques in order to boost one’s memory. I think that reading this book gives you the tools and knowledge of how to further improve your memory by using those approaches that you find most effective.

[Daniel Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good material...not the best presentation.

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

I'm so happy for reading this book and I recommend this
Book

To all of the readers and to all who want to improve your life

[Cleimer]

it did not open the ebook

[Nafiul Islam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first half of this book is very useful for regular people. It helped me. Pretty sure it'll help 95% of you too.