'Game Of Thrones' helps this memory athlete to forget things
What happens when a world memory champion wants to forget something? For Yanjaa Wintersoul, watching popular TV series ‘Game Of Thrones’ helps her to forget things, especially bad experiences.
The 23-year-old two-time world memory champion said, “Sometimes your mind tends to mull over those things. That’s why it’s good to watch an episode or two of ‘Game Of Thrones’ and think of other people who have it way worse.”
“I tend to distract myself by watching TV series, reading books or just browsing on my phone. That way, my mind is processing everything in the background and I’m not mulling over bad experiences,” she added.
Yanjaa, who is Mongolian but was raised in Sweden and Japan, took one week to memorise all 328 pages of the IKEA 2018 catalogue. She revises it again “five minutes before every interview” as needed, going over it in her head to check if there is something that she cannot retrieve fast enough.
As for which items were hardest to memorise in the catalogue, she said it was mattresses, because “it’s hard to know the differences between each unless you really try them.”
The easiest things to memorise were the room sets.
“There was a vibe and theme for each room, so it was easier to make it more relatable. When it’s something you can relate to, your brain tends to remember it longer because you think it’s important to you.”
She also applied this technique when she was learning Spanish in school, by imagining herself “drinking on the beach, having a bunch of Spanish friends and partying with FC Barcelona”.
A quick tip that she offered when it comes to memorising information is not to read and re-read a page. Instead, after reading, think about what you can remember, so you are actively testing yourself and not exposing yourself to information repeatedly.
When asked about the types of music she listens to while memorising, she said, “I listen to a lot of (Brazilian musician) João Gilberto because he has this set of jazz elevator music. I also listened to ‘The Sims’ original soundtrack when I was memorising the IKEA catalogue. There is this specific music that plays when you buy or decorate a house in ‘The Sims’. I recreated several room sets in ‘The Sims’ just for fun just to see how much I could remember.”
She added, “I listen to anything but death metal, because there’s too much of that in Sweden already.”
Earlier this year, Yanjaa also appeared on Sweden’s Got Talent. Watch the video here:
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