They say we only use 4% of our brains. Time to do something about that?

I have a confession to make. There’s a tiny package hidden deep within my subconscious. It’s usually closed shut but if you pour water on it the pieces of paper burst for a few seconds and the contents expand.

I could be on a dance floor, or in the home of someone I haven’t met before. And then, suddenly, it happens. In the background someone’s put on a song from the soundtrack of Disney’s Aladdin. Or it’s start playing from an MP3 player set on Random. It’s not important how it is that it starts playing, but the way people look at me when I know every single word, key, where to take a breath, and even know how to talk with the characters’ accent, when the princess and Aladdin sing their duet “A Whole New World.”

There are things you choose memorize. Then there are things you know without ever having made a conscious choice.

Today we’re going to work on exercising the conscious choice. The embarrassing lyrics you already know all too well.

When I worked with Filmkrönikan for SVT we decided not to use Teleprompters. A Teleprompter is a small screen located above the camera lens where your script is rolling while you’re looking into the camera and it’s supposed to give the impression that you know it all by heart. But you don’t, and your eyes give you away. Your eyes look empty because you’re not mentally present. They’re reading every word as it appears on the monitor. That’s why we during our first editorial meeting decided; No Teleprompter.

In every context I’ve found myself in, I’ve had issues with scripts. Having a few words jotted down is fine. And cue cards with a few sentences to help you out when you have a big chunk of text to get through are nothing to be ashamed about. But it’s essential and priceless to work on ones ability to learn things by heart.

Back in the day people memorized poems, passages from novels and entire ballads to be able to entertain one another at dinner parties or when hanging out. Whole rooms would go quiet while someone’s daughter, brother, grandfather or bastard child would stand up, open their mouth and begin. I worship those who know a lot of things by heart. Those who can quote movies, or go up on a stage and unprepared start singing Paul Simons You Can Call Me Al, or recite a part of a play.

An easy way to memorize a text is by following these steps:

1.Hold the text up in front of you and read it out loud. Keep doing this until you feel like you know what sentences follow one another.
2.Retell the contents to someone else.
3.Put down your text and try to remember how it goes. Read it aloud to yourself without looking down for as long as you can. When you get stuck you can look at the paper and remind yourself. But just a quick peep. Then continue for as long as you can. Do this until you feel that you know the text by heart.
4.But anchors in the text. One idea is to put them at the first and last sentence of every paragraph.
5.Keep repeating the text to yourself. In the shower, while out walking, and any time else where you have some time to yourself.