It has happened to all of us: we have been forced to try and remember directions or an address and can suffer a near-panic situation when our memories fail and do not recall the information. But, there are easy tips and techniques that can be used to memorize addresses or directions. These mnemonic techniques can be used in all situations but work really well for memorizing addresses and directions.
1. Draw mind maps: Your brain stores information like branches on a tree. Visualize the main streets (like the trunk of a tree) and branch out from there. Memorize how the main roads of a town run (east to west; north to south), that way you will always know where the main roads are and have a general idea of what side streets shoot off of them pr what street you need to get back to in case you do get lost.
2. Make the directions tangible: If you can see it, touch it, taste it, hear it and smell it, you are much more likely to remember it. Since we can not actually do any of these things with addresses then try relating senses to the street names such as the sense of smell for flowers or taste for fruit names. Or visualize the object the name portrays such as “lighthouse lane”. Attach a sense or memory to state names: “Michigan St.” in your mind can be “a cold state; went there last year on vacation.” Visualize where you are going by picturing the street names in your mind.
3. Learn by doing: “Muscle memory” is a very powerful muscle. That's why you can easily ride a bike, even if you haven't been on one for 20 years. If you have the opportunity to, look at a map of where you are going before going. Or, if you can drive there before the day that you need to be there you will more likely remember it later.
4. Use linking tools as memory pegs: The key to most memory courses is “The more you link, the more you learn.” This means, attaching new information to the information you already have. If you know ½ the directions to get somewhere then remember your directions as “drive to the fairgrounds, but turn right instead of left.” You already know how to get to the fairgrounds so just attach the new directions from that point on.
5. Rhyming or Songs: Rhythm, melody, and rhyme can all aid memory. The use of rhyme, rhythm, can help people remember. If you can rhyme the directions or address you are more likely to remember them. The simple addition of familiar rhythm and melody can help, too. Try singing the directions or address to a familiar tune!
6. Practice: Repetition is always good for memorizing, take the alphabet or times tables, for example. Repeating these helps to remember them. Say the directions or address over and over in your head until you know them as well as you know your own name. Another for of repetition is to repeat the directions as they are told to you and write them on a piece of paper at the same time. This has you repeating the directions twice: once verbally and once on paper.
7. Sentences/Acrostics: Use the first letter of each street name you are trying to remember to make a sentence. For example, ELM Street can be “Elise like mangoes.” Make the sentence simple so that you do not forget it and forget your directions! For a lot of street names try making a story out of it: “Went to MICHIGAN last year. Ate APPLEs under the ELM tree by a LIGHTHOUSE.” The story or sentence does not have to make sense; it just has to be memorable.
