Make a Mental Memory Vault for Passwords

Here’s how to do it in the most secure way; use this technique and within thirty minutes you’ll have memorised all your computer passwords.

You’ll also have tightened up their security, making it less likely that a hacker or identity fraudster could gain access to your accounts.

In order to memorise your passwords we’re going to use the technique of remembering a list of eleven items. There are two version of this

•     The sound systems (which uses images of things which sound like each number)
•     The appearance system (which uses images of things look like each number)

Here’s an idea for you…

There are two golden rules when choosing passwords:-

1. Make them unconnected to you (don’t use your pet’s name or mother’s maiden name). Most hackers are successful simply through assuming your password is something personally related to you. Most people only use something personal to them in order to make it easier to remember, but by using the techniques here that won’t apply to you.
2. Don’t make them just letters, add in at least one number. This adds complexity, making your password harder to hack. To make this memorable, use the same number as its position in your list of eleven. For example, if your password was ‘randomword’, and  it was the third in your list, you would make the third in your list, you would make it ‘randoworld03’

“The big lie of computer security is that security is that security improves by imposing complex passwords on users. In real life, people write down anything they can’t remember”

Jakob Nielsen, computer security expert

Once you’ve worked out your list, take a break for ten minutes and then test yourself. Then take another break for an hour and test yourself again. This will give you an excellent shot at getting those passwords into your long-term memory.

A Schedule For Making Memories Stronger

So if you want to remember something long term, you're probably going to need to review it repeatedly. Follow this time plan to make a memory permanent.

Despite some cases where individuals appear to have retained an extraordinary amount of trivial information from their past, most memory experts believe that we don't remember anything.

There are three factors influencing variation from person to person:

1. The difficulty of the material
2. How meaningful it is to us
3. Our own state of mind at the time

Here's an idea for you...

Whenever you're learning something important, straight away plan to review it at least at intervals of a day, a week and a month later. Use a calendar or diary to plan out when you will  review the material. Feel free to modify the schedule to fit you're revising for an exam in two weeks' time, then the month review will obviously not be needed, but you may want to review more in the early stages. Just use the the general principle of organizing the majority of reviews soon after you first encounter the information.

Here's a suggested schedule for reviewing information you want to store in long-term memory:

• One hour
• One day
• One week
• One month
• One season (three months)
• One year

"Voters quickly forget what a man says."
                                                                                          Richard M. Nixon 

To give a memory the best possible chance to be stored longer term you need to review it at least several times. A review can simply mean reminding yourself of the information, but ideally it involves testing yourself on the information you want to encode long term. 

After learning something new, make it a habit to quickly review the main details, such as the main points that were decided upon. the review the information an hour afterwards, and just before you go to bed that night.

                        

Find The Rhythm

Ever had a tune stuck in your memory all day? Irritating perhaps, but rhythm, rhyme and melody are often overlooked as memory boosters.

People have known for thousands of years that rhythm and melody are natural memory boosters. Epic Poems and songs were encoded using this method. If you think it's amazing that information the length of a whole book could be memorized in verse think about your own ability to remember song lyrics.

Here's an idea for you...

Try remembering one poem per week. Each evening, before you go to bed, repeat the poem several times. Start by learning the first verse, then the second, and so on. Then, each week, test yourself on the whole poem from the previous week. Remember that the rhythm and rhyme within most poems will be a natural aid.

Equally, the advertising industry knows the power of rhythm and melody to put information into our memories. Music has a natural structure to it which, even if we aren't musically trained, makes it easy for us to remember. You can make information easier to remember by injecting some musical qualities into it. 

"In memory everything seems to happen to music."

Tennessee Williams

You could even turn information into a full length poem or song, if you wanted. It helps if the rhyme paints a vivid image. Also, with any of the rhymes you make up to help remember information, repetition is important. 

If you wanted to get really creative, and you had the time, you could devise alternative lyrics to a song you already know. Your new lyrics would encode the information you were trying to memorize, while fitting into the structure of the original tune.