You're staring down a hiring manager that just asked you a question you *should* know the answer to, but you're speechless.
You fumble through words trying to formulate a coherent sentence, and when your answer finally makes it out of your mouth, you can tell it doesn't connect based on their facial expression.
Two days later, you get an email saying they're moving forward with other candidates.
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That's just one way not having an answer top-of-mind can hurt you in life.
That's why, I'd argue, that mnemonics, and flash cards can be two of the most beneficial time investments you could make.
How Mnemonics And Flash Cards Can Change Your Life For The Better
While sigils might be another one of my ways to passively change your life (you charge a sigil and then allow it time to bring itself to life in *your* life), flash cards and mnemonics can have equally substantial effects on your day-to-day life.
I’d argue that flash cards can help you change your life without trying.
The reason for that is when you have something top-of-mind/when you can easily recall something, you're more likely to act on it.
You're more likely to change your behavior in a more spur-of-the-moment, natural way.
When you have a problem you've seen before, the answer can jump out of you.
And the more instantaneous it all is, the more present you can be to experience whatever that present experience requires of you.
You want to *be* a better version of yourself, not *try* to be a better version of yourself.
I could digress further but I'll just say: think about how social media puts you in a trance state with endless scrolling, and keeps certain things top of your mind. And then what your resulting behavior is like because you know about x topic.
It's powerful when you're in control of it.
How To Use Mnemonics
Let me start by saying, whether it's mnemonics or flash cards, make sure you understand what you're trying to remember *before* you try to remember it.
There's no point in being able to recall something you don't understand.
With that said, mnemonics can be good for processes and lists.
While the Harry Lorayne book, 'The Memory Book' is a great resource for this, the simple instructions are:
Create an extreme, ridiculous, provocative image for the singular idea you're trying to remember.
Then, if there's more in that group to remember, you create a second image in your mind that links itself to that first image. And so on.
An example from my own life: I wanted to remember the '7 Powers' provided by Hamilton Helmer, and the first two powers are Network Effects and Scale Economies. For network effects I had an image of an office of cublicles and people covered by cobwebs, and then incorporated scale economies by picturing each of these office workers with reptile scales forming on their skin.
The simple truth about mnemonics is: they're ridiculous, and if you talked about your personal mnemonics with someone else, they'd think you were crazy, or they'd laugh at you.
But that's the point. They're supposed to be memorable, even if they're ridiculous.
If you've connected a list of things with mnemonics, you could also create a flash card quizzing you on what image you associated with each step.
It's another way to keep the links solidified in your mind over time.
How To Use Flash Cards
There's some very helpful guides that already exist for this, namely this one made by a med school student (a profession that needs to be able to recall).
With that said, I recommend using Anki as your flash card software.
It's a pretty self-explanatory piece of software, and there's documentation on their website to help, if you need it. But here's some things to keep in mind:
- Limit each flash card to one question, for your own sake
- You can ask yourself to name something with multiple parts, but making flash cards too complicated or difficult will backfire on you
- If you made mnemonics for something with multiple parts, try to make a flash card for each part
- See if you can approach the same question from different angles to try to ensure you're able to recall it, regardless of the prompt
- Ex: Asking 'what is the capital of Montana' - asking 'What state is Helena the capital of' - and asking 'Helena is ____'
- Formulate your question as close to how you might ask yourself for the answer when you need it in real life. Don’t write a question in a way you wouldn’t speak in real life. Make it as natural as possible, because you’re likely to ask yourself for the answer in a natural way when you need it
Making flash cards (and reviewing them) is time intensive.
You may not feel like doing it, and in that case, you may want to read about how you can make it a habit (see the bonus section of this post).
But the payoff can be big. Like having the answer to your troubles without searching for it, or falling on your face.
How Mnemonics and Flash Cards Have Benefitted My Own Life (And How It Might Benefit Yours)
For me, it's kept tools that help me solve and troubleshoot problems top-of-mind, so I spend more time acting in the moment instead of feeling frustrated.
For example: if you have a process to deal with something like anxiety, you can turn that process into some linked mnemonics, and then create flash cards for each step (and, I'd recommend, each mnemonic image). And then by reviewing them, you can help to ingrain that mental toolkit, so it's easily available when you need to put it into action
Here's some other ideas for how to use it all:
- School
- Job interview question - answer prep
- Job processes and facts (if your company specializes in a certain industry, has its own software, its own knowledge base, you can use it to become an expert on those things)
- Toolkits and techniques that have worked in improving your life that you can't always remember when you need them
- Birthdays
- Building new skillsets and expertise
Final Thoughts
Flash cards and mnemonics are one of those things, like making habits, that can literally change your life pretty quickly, and yet a lot of us don't feel like putting them to use.
If you do choose to, I believe you'll start to see the benefits pretty quickly.
There's a reason why doctors use them. And their whole profession depends on how they react in the present, not what WebMD says when they hit search on Google.
So, give it a shot, and give yourself a better chance at being present with the right answers instead of second-guessing yourself, or searching for the right way to be.