HOW TO REMEMBER A FULL DECK OF CARDS CHRONOLOGICALLY

You might think, "Are you crazy?, I can't even remember my 4 digit PIN code!".

Often, when you're not motivated enough to develop your mental skills, it's more about distrust, lack of confidence and the ability to prioritize the necessary time and just do it.

The brain is an expert in avoiding congestion and finding an excuse for not immersing itself.

But it's true, a "normal" brain is able to learn more than you can imagine. It may be that you're not the fastest thinker in the world, but everyone can learn it.

I made a card memory trainer web app, which you can get/clone from my GitHub account, for free.

WHY "Waste" THE Time?

You might think, "Why would I want to spend my precious time on trying to memorize a random deck of playing cards, chronologically?"

Because memorizing playing cards,

• is the best memory exercise ever.
• will improve your overall memory functions.
• makes you good at memorizing long lists, via memory palaces.
• develops killer abilities with memorizing and managing abstractions.
• improves your imagination.
• makes you more mentally agile.
• helps with language learning.
• improves your critical thinking.
• is a cool party stunt and a legitimate sport.
• is a transferable skill.
• will give you untold waves of accomplishment and self-esteem.
• makes you excel at card games like bridge, poker and blackjack.

But most importantly, mastering this memory skill, makes you the champion of your own mind, because you managed to force your brain to learn something new and complex, which will benefit you in the future.

I would guess that you can master this technique, in about a week, if you put some effort into it. Trust me, you can do it and you'll get a major kick and self-esteem out of it.

MEMORIZING THE CARDS

You need a technique to create a mental system for all 52 cards. Lets call it the Person-Action-Object (PAO) Matrix. This helps as a visual reference, when mentally navigating the cards in your mind.

You can create your own matrix, based on something you're good at memorizing, like Pokémons and all their skills and properties. But creating your own matrix, from scratch, takes time and energy.

GROUPING AND CATEGORIZING MENTAL SHORTCUTS

By grouping and categorizing the cards, we can create mental shortcuts in our mind map, such as who form couples together (male /female) and other valuable combinations.

• Persons are matched together in male and female pairs (columns), within a common domain or public discipline, such as sport athletes, movie stars, controversials,... powerful personalities and top celebrities etc.
• Each card has 3 properties, a person, an action and an object, which together forms a well-known, coherent and memorable sentence about this specific person represented on the card, which can be used to remember the card.

In the table, each row represents a card suit, with couples (male and female), in a shared occupational, public or social domain, except for:

• The middle columns, card 7 and 8, which holds a male scientist with a beautiful female.
• The 11th column, card Jack, holds a religious male figure (Jack), with no female partner.

RELATING A PERSONALITY TO EACH SUITE

RELATING 3 PROPERTIES TO EACH CARD

We define 3 properties to each of the 52 playing cards in the deck.

Each card has 3 properties:

• Person
• Action
• Object

Which together forms a well-known, coherent and memorable sentence about this specific person represented by the card, which can be used to remember the card.

Here are 3 random cards, lets make an example.

CREATING A MEMORY PALACE

Now lets dive into an ancient memory technique called Memory Palace.

You remember things by placing recognizable mnemonics, images or funny sentences on a known chronological route, through a mental palace of your own choice. It can be your childhood home or a route you follow to work.

You need 17 locations holding 3 cards each, to represent the first 51 cards (leaving the last card, which we'll ignore for now).

At each of the 17 locations, 3 cards are used to define a funny or crazy phrase, by combining the person name from the 1st card, the action from the 2nd card and the object from the 3rd card, as shown.

DECODING A SENTENCE BACK TO CARDS

Ben Stiller, vanish into, sea.

First card (the person): Ben Stiller

• A movie star personality column pair (3, 4), and male (odd column number).
• Humorous or absurd personalities, belonging to the card suit of Spades.
• So this card must be 3 of Spades.

Second card (the action): vanish into

• Julian Assange is the one who vanish into a puff of smoke.
• A controversial personality column pair (5, 6), and a male (odd column number).
• Admired for his courage, belonging to the card suit of Hearts.
• So this card must be 5 of Hearts.

Third card (the object): sea

• Prins William is the one who saves people from the sea.
• A royal personality column pair (12, 13), and a male (odd column number).
• Lives a bling and royal life, belonging to the card suit of Diamonds.
• So this card must be King of Diamonds.