Each quarter I post a review of a leadership/motivational book I recommend to colleagues and friends. Some may be old favorites, others are hot off the press. I am always open to suggestions for books to review. If you have a favorite you'd like to share with others, please contact me.

Where are My Keys:
Memory Training You Will Absolutely LOVE™
by Judy Marcus

Talk about irony! In my usual MO of trying to fit as much as I can into the time allotted, I had decided to stop at the accountant’s office on my way to the train station. Now, fifteen minutes before the arrival of the train I am still at the accountant’s office. Not because of him, but because I can’t find my keys. Two more minutes and I won’t make the train. Intensifying my search, I began pulling things out of my briefcase. I hear my accountant guffaw. I look up with indignation.

“Is that the book you’re planning to read on the train?” he asks. He is indeed looking at the book I had planned to start on the train. I join in his chuckles. On the desk lay Judy Marcus’ Where Are My Keys.  Yep, ironic.

Where are My Keys is a quick, deceptively easy book that provides readers with quality ideas and techniques to increase memory in a world of short attention spans and a love of multi-tasking.

“Memory,” says Judy Marcus “is the invisible glue linking together all particles of experience”. She believes much of our forgetfulness is caused by doing too many things at one time and not focusing on what we need to remember. Certainly my rush to get in and out of the accountant’s office and still make my train caused me to throw my keys in my briefcase instead of jamming them in my pocket. Precious minutes lost. Needless to say, the first chapter I read in Where are My Keys was the chapter on over-multi-tasking.

Marcus preaches the LOVE™ Memory Method. LOVE stands for Look, Overstate, Visualize and Engrave.

Look: If you don’t look at (or listen to) what you want to remember chances of remembering are small. Pay attention, be in the moment. Aha! This is why I remember dog names rather than their owners names when I met another person walking their dog. I am LOOKING at the dog! I am focused on the dog. Makes perfect sense.

Overstate: Do be a drama queen, says Marcus. Dramatize something about the person or thing you want to remember. Use all your senses, not just your eyes.

Visualize: Think in pictures as well as words. Make a short film in your head about the object, person, situation, etc..

Engrave: Repeat what it is you want to remember. Keep it fresh in your mind so it is easier to remember. Review it more than one. Remember the days of looking a phone number up in the phone book and then repeating it again and again until we could get to a phone? Wonderful as it is, technology has made it unnecessary to use our memories.

In a double loop technique, Marcus plays off the word LOVE to help the reader remember some of the techniques. For example “LOVE™ Handles” are techniques to help you increase your memory through use of acronyms (SCUBA, MADD), acrostics (Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips = notes on the lines of the treble cleff), and spelling reminders (stationary = always there VS. stationery = envelope).

At the end of each chapter, Marcus provides pages for the reader to create his/her own LOVE handles and LOVE Spots (a method for remembering lists). Creating your own makes the techniques (and hence the list) even easier to remember.

One technique I decided to use was a way to remember series of numbers. You give attach a word to each number which rhymes with the number. For example: zero/hero, one/sun, two/true, three/tree, etc. Then when you have numbers you want to remember, you make up a story using the words:  “The tree shaded the hero from the sun” = 301. The longer the series of numbers, the longer the story. Stories are easier to visual and recall than a string of numbers.

Have trouble with names? The LOVE™ method can be used to remember. Look and listen to the person’s name. (Arthur Goldstein)

Overstate: Create a picture. (A knight drinking from a golden stein)
Visualize: Play this picture in your mind
Engrave: Add detail to help you remember

Try this with your own name. What is your picture?

Are you a multi-tasker? If you said “no”, think again, or better yet, take the short quiz Marcus provides in her chapter on multi-tasking.  I cringed as her questions pegged me. Thankfully there were tips on how to really get the most from my time. Fewer trips to another part of the office only to ask “now why did I come over here?” has given me more time. Since I have been putting my glasses back on my desk every time I take them elsewhere, my cries of “where are my glasses?” have been silenced. I know where they are…in their LOVE™ location. My sunglasses and keys also have permanent homes.

The last section of the book provides ideas and techniques for de-stressors. My favorite had to do with getting rid of anger or frustrations. Take a marker and, using as many sheets as necessary, write your aggravations on sheets of toilet paper. Put the sheets in the toilet. Use the toilet. Flush. Not only do the offending words go away, you laugh as you flush. This is a technique good for all ages.

At 106 pages, this book is a short read jam-packed with ideas on keeping memory sharp (or making it sharper). Throughout the book, Marcus invites you to contact her with ideas/techniques you have used or with feedback on her. If you would like to learn more or contact Judy Marcus, you may do so at judy@memorylady.com or MemoryLady.com.

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