As in remembering almost anything, review and rehearsal helps you remember by the virtue of repetition, which reinforces the information in your memory as you say it to yourself again and again. At the same time, to make your review and rehearsal more efficient, find trigger words, concepts, or summary sentences to capture the highlights. Then, as you review everything a second time, pay extra attention to these triggers, since recalling them will evoke a memory of the rest of the material in that section.

For example, here’s how I’ve been using it to study in some English classes on mythology, children’s literature, and Native American literature, where remembering the details of the story is very important. This is an approach you can adapt to learning and remembering any kind of narrative content. It is also helpful to break up the processing of new material over a period of a few days, since the consolidation that goes on in your mind overnight helps to build memory of the entire story.

First, I read over the material in full, bracketing any sections that I think are particularly important so I can read them again later. Then, the second time through, since the material is already familiar, I read it more quickly, essentially skimming for the highlights and slowing down to pay more attention to what I’ve already bracketed. I also use this second review as a chance to bracket any other sentences that seem especially important if I missed them the first time. In addition, I also underline one or a few key words in each paragraph, so I can use these as trigger words for each block of information.

You can use a similar approach when you are trying to remember a story, joke, or speech, so you can tell it effectively later. Review it a couple of times to get it into your long-term memory, noting any points you particularly want to mention. Then, select some trigger words for each major section of the story, and use various techniques to get these into your memory in sequence, such as the Loci Method (see Chapter 22). In a test or discussion of the material, the sequence of the story may be less important, since a question may trigger a discussion of different parts of the narrative. But when you are telling the complete story, you need a way to get those triggers in order.

The value of trigger words is that they become a shorthand way to recall a whole section of the story or narrative. So when you go through a story or narrative you have read and underline certain words, you are selecting them to be triggers. Once you are familiar with the story through a rehearsal and review, you can focus on remembering those triggers. If you need to have them in sequence, not just recall them, use a technique for learning these words in order Then, when you think of these words in that sequence, they will call up each section of the story.

To practice this process, pick out a story or chapter in a book or an article from a magazine or newspaper. After you have read over that material, go back with a pencil or pen and highlight one or two words or phrases that seem particularly important or help to summarize the essence of that paragraph or section. After that, go back over the material again. Skim each paragraph as you do; at the same time, focus on the key words or phrases you have underlined. These will become your trigger words. Later, focus on remembering those trigger words in sequence, using any of the methods for remembering lists in sequence (such as the links system or Loci method discussed in Chapter 22.

When you create a sequence for trigger words, you can use a list or outline format. Or if you prefer, turn them into a Trigger Words Map, as described below. In this case, you lay the words out visually to help you remember.

A Trigger Words Map is a way to make the trigger words you have identified stand out graphically. It is the graphic equivalent of the Loci Method, described in Chapter 22, where you place key words or ideas in a series of locations and retrieve them as you walk the path. In this case, you create a graphic map of the key words or concepts, and you memorize that map. Afterwards, you can retrieve the key words as you make a circuit around the map. You can retrieve these words in any order, though it is helpful to retrieve the material on the branches as a group from a larger branch.

A Trigger Words Map has parallels with the idea of mind mapping used in brainstorming. However, the difference is that in a Mind Map, you put down every idea or key word for that idea that comes to mind. These maps can become extremely detailed, with dozens of words and branches. By contrast, in a Trigger Words Map, you only put down the main concepts and some key subconcepts, which trigger your memory for the rest of that idea. This way, you don’t overwhelm your memory with too much of the less relevant detail, and can focus on learning the main triggers to each topic. Think of this process as putting the top two or three levels of an outline into a map format.

Here’s a basic Trigger Words Map for a marketing presentation on a new health product:

While you can just use words, you can make this Trigger Words Map more dramatic and memorable by using images or colors to highlight key points and help your recall. Or combine these words with other techniques, such as the self-referent technique, which highlights what these words and ideas mean to you.

If you use imagery, you can use your powers of visualization to associate an image with each word or concept—or only with the main concepts, while leaving the branches as just words. Or add your own simple drawings, as I have done below. Certainly, if you want to use this Trigger Words Map in a presentation, such as on a PowerPoint slide, dress it up with strong imagery, say by using clip art. But if it’s just for you to remember, keep it simple, as in the illustration below. You can leave the words in or not, as you prefer.

Incidentally, I’m not an artist, so in case you have trouble deciphering the images, they are the following:

As long as you can recognize and remember the images you have drawn for yourself, that’s all that matters when you are doing this just for you.