Haven’t had a lot of time to practice the last couple of days. Had to squeeze in my rounds in between other stuff, but this morning I set a new pb: 1.25! It was the second of three decks I tried. The first one felt quite fast but I failed to put the stopwatch on, which I only found out after I finished, so I haven’t got a time for that one. The third was 1.33, also with a perfect recall.
And tonight I did three more. This time I tried it with the whole deck in my hands, as if you’re looking for a particular card: the first one was perfect, but again I failed to put on the stopwatch… ( I use online-stopwatch.com and you need to click TWICE to get the stopwatch running, and I keep forgetting … 
). The second deck was also without errors and I clocked 1.49. My third attempt was also with the whole deck in my hands, but this time I began at the bottom, like Ben Pridmore does. This one took me 1.35 but I made three errors, all at the beginning of my journey (i.e. at the bottom of the deck). I think I will keep practicing with the whole deck in my hands from now on, as it will no doubt save time once you get the hang of it. For now, I’ll try both starting at the top and at the bottom of the deck. The advantage of starting at the bottom is that it is much easier to move the cards, as you can use both your thumps. Obviously, the disadvantage is that you have to recall in reverse, but I reckon you can get used to that quickly.
What helps me speed up things up is to really try to quiet the inner voice as much as possible and use my mind only to see images. When I first began practicing digits and cards, I would hear this little voice going like ‘ ah … there’s Tony Soprano … what’s he doing? he’s playing with a ball … ah and hammer falls on his head!’ etc. Now I really try to just see the images and scenarios without describing them or commenting on them verbally (in my mind). The inner voice is much much slower than the mind’s eye! I can see it happening when the inner voice kicks is. For instance, I’m going though the deck rapidly and I notice I made an error in coding a card or skipped a locus, then I can often hear and experience the voice coming (complaining, commenting) in and immediately the tempo goes down.
And to those who are reluctant to leave their comfort zone I say “push it push it some more!” When you keep pushing it, your experience of time will somehow change. I find it very hard to describe, but when I was on 3.00 min, I really believed it was impossible to go any faster, as I filled every second of those three minutes with lots of mind activity. But when I got faster (by pushing it!) I needed less mind activity to get the images to stick, and somehow this decrease of activity in the mind has changed my experience of the same amount of time (it seems more!). Now I am around 1.30, I experience those 90 seconds in the same way I experienced 3 minutes when that was my pb. In other words, time is always completely taken up by mind activity. Reduce mind activity and time seems more. I hope this makes sense, and if it doesn’t, too bad!
@ Huggy I’d say I’m in my comfort zone around 1.45-1.50 now. With those times I can usually recall fairly easy. Are you still reviewing before the end of the deck?
@ Vonde I’m often faster after warming up, but not always. Sometimes I go like rocket the first time. When I’m too warm I have to stop cause I start mixing up images from previous sessions and my concentration decreases. I’d say 45-60 min is my max, then I have to stop or take a break. With regard to my journeys, I don’t particularly favor outdoor ones over indoor ones. I use both and if I had to choose, I would probably choose indoor ones, but the difference is only minor and I wouldn’t really know why.
It has helped me tweak my system very effectively.