Ten things.
Four minutes.
You will remember them.
Not by repeating them — repetition is what you have been doing your whole life, and it is why you are here. You will make nine small pictures instead.
Then the same trick on what you came for: the names of people you actually meet.
Three steps, and the first one takes four minutes.
- Try the exercise. Ten unrelated things, in order. You hold them with nine small pictures, each one joining a thing to the next.
- Learn the same move on names. Turn a name into a picture and pin it to something you can see on the face.
- Come back when you are asked. Short review sessions, scheduled for you, so you keep practising after the lessons end.
People who meet people, and lose the name before the handshake is over.
- Greeting someone by name the second time you meet, without the pause.
- Being the one who remembered. It tells someone they registered with you.
- Not having to dodge an introduction because the name has gone.
Who it is not for: memory competitors chasing card-deck times, or anyone after brain training. It will not make you smarter. It teaches specific techniques for material you choose to learn.
I used to be terrible with names.
I'm Jeff Brand. I think I was bad with names because I'm dismissive by default. After one hard week with Bruno Furst's course, I went to a party and came away with seventy people: first name, last name and what they did for a living. Then I stopped practising and lost most of it, which is why BetterMemory is built around a schedule rather than a course you finish.
$6 a month, or $39 a year.
Canadian dollars, with 21 days free to start. A card is needed to start the free days, and you can cancel before they end. Trying the four-minute exercise needs nothing at all.
What people ask before they try it.
Does this work on real people's names?
The techniques have evidence behind them: people trained in them get substantially better at the material they trained on. For names it is the same move as the four-minute exercise. You turn the name into a picture and pin it to something on the face. It works on the names you practise it on. It will not make your memory better in general.
Is this brain training?
No. Brain training promises a general improvement, and the evidence does not show one. This teaches specific techniques for material you choose to learn: names, numbers, a route through a room, the outline of a talk.
I have tried memory apps before and given up. Why would this be different?
Most of them drill repetition, which is what was not working. This is a different method, and we will be straight with you: it is work for a while. Making the pictures feels slow at first. That effort is the learning, and it gets quicker with practice.
Do I need an account?
Not to try it. The four-minute exercise needs nothing. The lessons after it and the review schedule need a subscription, with 21 days free to start. The review schedule is what has you practise each name again on a schedule instead of by chance.
How is this different from repeating a name to yourself?
Repeating a name gives it nothing to hold on to. A picture connects it to something you can see, which is what the classical memory techniques have done for two thousand years.
What does it cost?
$6 a month, or $39 a year, in Canadian dollars, with 21 days free to start. A card is needed to start the free days.