Taste of Heaven
Similar to the sense of smell, the sense of taste helps with recall of memories. While the taste of something may not be something that comes directly to our mind, we do recognize tastes sometimes even comparing what we’re eating with something we’ve previously eaten.
The trick here is to ensure that something you can taste is in your mouth while both memorizing your stuff as well as while you’re trying to recall it. In the past I’ve used something as simple as a stick of gum and while you don’t necessarily want to be seen chewing gum while you’re doing a presentation, I would either remove it right before with the taste still in my mouth, or hide it beside my gums….. how cheeky.
Feel the burn!
Surely you remember how you feel when fatiqued, hot, cold, or had too much caffeine and are bouncing off the walls, well obviously as our last sense in this series, it will help to use the sense of touch to memorize.
When doing a speech, it’s not like you’re going to be able to hold on to props or hit your foot against a table, but I will sometimes attempt to put myself in the same clothes, or similar ones to what I will wear while doing my dissertation, or just the shoes, anything to put yourself in a similar situation as when you are attempting to recall your project.
Finally, over the course of my personal experience, I have used just one sense, two, three, four, and sometimes even all 5 senses to memorize stuff. You may ask me, “How the heck did you use all 5?!?” I will explain, it’s simple and you can surely find your own way that makes sense for you. My method is to sit in a hot bath, say the stuff out-loud, with a mint or piece of gum in my mouth. So, while reading my piece, hearing it out-loud, smelling the shampoo that I would normally use, tasting the mint, and feeling hot and sweaty which I normally would be when I’m standing up in front of 100 people reciting my lecture.
The confidence you have and get when you are able to commit something to memory is awesome. Stick with it. If you need any more tips or advice on how to make this work in your own area, feel free to comment, reach out to me, and ensure you share my post. 🙂