Why You Should Memorize Phone Numbers (and How to Do It)

Today’s tip is about memorizing phone numbers. Yes, phone numbers. Hear me out.

I worry a lot about the zombie apocalypse. Imagine what it will be like:

The apocalypse is in full swing, power systems, internet connections, all are starting to fall apart. You decide to call your friends and loved ones, to arrange a post-apocalyptic place to meet up and fight off the zombies. Like a bowling alley.

Unfortunately, your cell phone is out of power, so you can’t dial your friends from there. You run to your desktop computer, launch a Voice over IP phone call, but the power dies, because that’s what always happens in zombie scenarios.

Fortunately, your roommate has a landline, which as I’m sure you know, is powered from the phone line and will often work in emergencies. You pick up their phone…and have absolutely no idea what anyone’s phone number is. The zombies shamble closer, and swipe left. On you. 

Connection is Key in Emergencies

This isn’t hypothetical. Category 5 hurricane Maria totaled the American territory of Puerto Rico, leaving millions of people with no power, cell phones, computers, or social media access. And in what seems to be 21st-century American tradition, rather than coming to the aid of our citizens, we’ve basically collectively left them to die and struggle to rebuild on their own. But hey, otherwise we’d have to put down our mobile devices and maybe miss Game of Thrones, so it’s definitely worth it. 

The lesson for us is that if the zombie apocalypse hits our city, it’s entirely possible we’ll be left to our own devices. And if our devices are out of power, we’ll need to use someone else’s. And their devices don’t have our phone books built in. 

Memorize Important Phone Numbers

This is why you need to memorize your most important phone numbers. You want to have them available whether or not you have use of your own phone, your own computer, or access to the “cloud.” 

At the very least, memorize these numbers:

• Your shmoopie’s phone numbers. Shmoopie managed to escape the zombies and has now teamed up with a secret military force that’s the last bastion of resistance. One phone call and shmoopie will come to your rescue! You just need shmoopie’s phone number.
• If you have many shmoopies, memorize all of their phone numbers.
• Your parents and siblings.
• Your financial advisor, bank manager, or anyone else who can help you get to your assets remotely.

Memorize Phone Numbers by Chunking

One of the weird things about brains is that they are efficient. If they know something is stored elsewhere, they don’t bother committing it to memory. If your brain knows your phone has your phone numbers, it won’t even try to remember. So here’s the best way I’ve found for remembering.

Your brain remembers things best in chunks of three or four. Phone numbers were designed to be put in those chunks. So the number 301–555–1212 can be divided into area code, prefix, and number: 301, 555, and 1212. Start by dividing the phone number into those chunks.

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Use Visual and Color Memory

Google’s amazing virtual reality Tilt Brush lets us move our fingers in the air, and trace gorgeous colored lines in the air. The lines stay there, so artists can create gorgeous paintings that no one else can see. Those of us who aren’t artists can create ugly hideous masses of lines that no one else can see. 

It’s just like what Baby Boomers called “imagination,” only it’s way better, because it requires thousands of dollars of extra equipment, and you don’t get to keep the shape once you’ve created it. Sadly, the zombie apocalypse destroyed the thousands of dollars of extra equipment, so we’re going with the “imagination” version.

Number Sequences Make Shapes

Get out a touch tone phone pad, and type in the phone number. Imagine your finger is connected to a paint brush that paints a shape as you tap in the number.

My smartphone increased the work it takes to contact someone!

"Three Zero One" is a big V, starting at the upper right on the “3,” traveling down to the zero, and then back up to the “1.” "Five Five Five" is the fairy hopping on one foot or pirouetting in place three times, and 1212 is a back-and-forth hop.

Imagine this a few times, until you can look at the keyboard and see the sparkling trail of magical dust start on the 3, zip into the V pattern, three pirouettes on the 5, and then do a little hop on the 1212. 

Add Color to Make it More Memorable

To make it more fun for your brain, you can make the design corresponding to each clump a different color. For me, the 301 is orange, 555 is green, and 1212 is blue. All of them have sparkles, of course, because… well, because sparkles!

Put in Reminders to Review the Numbers

One time though the magical sparkle machine is good, but a dozen times is better. Set up a reminder to go off every few days that says “Remember shmoopie’s phone number!” In the notes field of the reminder, put the phone number. When the reminder goes off, do your best to remember shmoopie’s phone number as a colorful design of fairy dust. Then check your answer using the note. Keep at it until you’ve memorized all the important phone numbers. Then change the reminder to be once a month, just as a refresher.

Memorized Phone Numbers Are More Efficient

I started my memorization project in response to Puerto Rico, and it’s had a very unexpected effect: once a phone number is memorized, it is much, much faster to call or text someone. Typing a name on a smartphone keyboard often involves backspacing and typos, or scanning a list of possible completions to find, tap the right contact, and then tap which of their phone numbers I want to call. 

With a memorized number, I just open the phone keypad and tap directly. No typos. No scanning, selecting, more scanning, and more selecting. It’s much less distracting, easier, and more streamlined than the high-tech solution. By saving me all the work of memorizing numbers, I now realize my smartphone increased the work it takes to contact someone. Who would have thought it?

We all hope the zombie apocalypse doesn’t arrive any time soon. But if it does, memorizing phone numbers of important people will let you call shmoopie for rescue, even if your devices and internet access lose power. Memorize the numbers as trails of colored light tracing a pattern on a touch tone keypad. Then review the numbers often enough to keep them firmly in memory. And while you’re at it, memorize the phone number of the local bowling alley, so you can call and make sure they still have open lanes when you hunker down against the zombies.

I’m Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. Want great keynote speeches on productivity, Living an Extraordinary Life, or entrepreneurship? Hire me! Find me at http://ift.tt/1l2uWN6

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