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Picture him as a dollar bill carried through the air by a flight of tiny winged fairies (from the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen.)

This is barely scratching the surface of mnemonics. There are "peg" or "hook" systems for remembering strings of numbers; for instance, the number five can be a fishhook (similar shape) or a beehive ("five" rhymes with "hive"); number eight can be an hourglass or a gate, etc. And these can be expanded into vast and orderly arrangements, such as the Major System, for storing information in your head.

However, you won't need to go that far, in ordinary circumstances. After all, you won't need to hold the information in your memory forever, just until you get back to your desk and write it down. All you need to do is make an imaginative connection in your mind; preferably, create an image that is vivid, dynamic and bizarre (also funny or rude - these are very effective as well.)

When learning about and understanding complex systems, there is a very enjoyable technique that will reap dividends for you, and it is called the mind map.

To make a mind map, all you need is a blank piece of paper and a pen or pencil (some colours would also be helpful.) What it is that you would like to memorise? Let's say you are learning about Six Sigma and you want to be able to remember all the different kinds of quality tools there are.

At the centre of your map, draw a small picture that represents quality to you. It can be anything you like, maybe a number six and the sigma symbol, or a check mark, or an Olympic gold medal. Then draw lines that radiate out from this central image. At the end of each line, draw a picture that represents one particular quality tool. A fishbone diagram? That's an obvious one. Brainstorming? A human brain being struck by lightning, perhaps. A Gantt chart? Now that's a little more difficult - a gantry? A gannet? A futuristic jet fighter aircraft? (That last one represents for me the Clint Eastwood character Mitchell Gant in the 1982 movie Firefox.)

You don't need to be a brilliant or even a competent artist to do this. And the images don't have to mean anything to anyone other than you. For example, the Gantt chart/fighter aircraft connection would work for me, but you might have to think of something equally effective, but completely different, that would work for you. The sky's the limit, really.

Once completed, you can file away or simply discard your mind map. Later, try and recreate it from memory - you will be amazed at how easy this can be, and also at the relatively effortless way you have just assimilated something that at first appeared dauntingly complex.

As with the on-the-fly memory tricks I mentioned earlier, your imagination is your ally. Make your images colourful, vivid, dynamic and bizarre (funny and rude, too, if you like!), and you will find recall much easier.

For further information about mind maps, psychology author Tony Buzan is your man; read his publication The Mind Map Book for a good introduction to this fascinating subject. In the meantime, you can try out some of the dead simple but very effective tips I have provided here, and with which I hope I'll also have persuaded you that a good memory is still an important (and fun!) factor in a successful career.

Learn more about this author, Alex Cull.
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