EP #19 – Becoming a Master of Memory with Timothy Moser

Timothy Moser shares memory improvement techniques in episode 019. Have you ever wondered what it would take to be that person who can remember every guest’s name? Or to have your entire wait staff be able to remember every tables’ orders perfectly every time? Our guest is the expert who can help you with both of those scenarios, and anything else related to memory. He is Timothy Moser, language, memory and productivity expert. On this episode of Hospitality Academy Timothy will help us learn specific memory techniques we can use right now to remember guests, proper procedures and anything else that will make us more productive and, in our personal and professional lives. Essential Learning Points From This Show: * What is the memory palace technique? * What is the most reliable way to remember people’s names? * A trick to always remember your hotel room number no matter what! * One of the best ways to connect with anyone is what? * How long should it take to become fluent in a new language? * And so much more! Timothy is the founder and creator of Master of Memory, a general purpose education site designed to help people from all walks of life enhance their everyday lives, both personally and professionally, through improved memory. And the basis for doing so is mnemonics. In essence, his site and his offerings are there to help teach people how to learn, and one of the most important ways we learn is through memory. On this episode, Timothy provides several real-life examples of how to enhance our memory in hospitality-related situations, like how a housekeeper who is new on the job can learn the proper procedure to clean a room with a specific mnemonic tactic. Or the memory technique a front desk team can learn to memorize guests and remember them the next time they visit – both of these Timothy shares today. If you are the new housekeeper learning the proper procedure to clean rooms or if you employ the new housekeepers, you can use locations from favorite places in your past to remember new things. Locations are important to our memories: we store our old favorite places in our minds, so we can use those memories to help us create new ones. In this example, if there are ten steps to the new cleaning procedure you can remember those steps by associating each one with ten rooms from your favorite place, like your childhood home. Imagine you are going through that home and each place you visit in your memory is associated with a step from the new cleaning process. Visual cues are also an important technique in memory. Imagine a bird is in the new room with you as you start your cleaning. First, the bird flies to the window, your cue to open the drapes on the window and turn on the lights. Next, the bird starts to peck at trash, your cue to pick up any trash. Next the bird pecks at crumbs on the floor, your cue to vacuum as your third step. And so on until the bird and you have finished the new cleaning process. Just imagine that bird every time you go into a room, and soon you’ll have that new procedure firmly implanted in your memory, whether or not you imagine that bird! On the subject of remembering people’s names, Timothy suggests you associate the person’s name with a visual you will remember. So if you meet a man named Logan think of his name: Logan. The emphasis is on the first syllable: log. Let’s say he has bushy eyebrows so now you can take that first syllable, log, and visualize his bushy eyebrows being combed by a log. The next time you see Logan and his bushy eyebrows you’ll remember his name on sight. This is an incredibly useful technique for front desk managers and staff or anyone who wants to make a great imp...