If I asked you to go grocery shopping without writing a list, how would you attempt to remember it? Let’s say you needed:

1. Chicken
2. Eggs
3. Milk
4. Ketchup
5. Laundry Detergent
6. Toothpaste
7. Bread
8. Mushrooms
9. Lettuce
10. Peas

Most people would use rote memorization, constantly repeating the list over and over until they thought they had it, painful stuff. Here’s a better way, which shows the power of visual memory.

First memorize these rhyming objects:

1 = Bun

2 = Shoe

3 = Tree

4 = Door

5 = Hive

6 = Sticks

7 = Heaven

8 = Gate

9 = Wine

10 = Pen

Now I’d like you to link, in as crazy way as possible, the 10 item-shopping list, to these new images representing the numbers from 1-10. I’ll start you off with the first three.

Bun to Chicken. See a gigantic Chicken sitting between the two halves of a hamburger bun, perhaps wearing the top half as a hat, see it pecking at the bottom half and the top half keeps falling off, so it keeps picking it up and placing it back on its head.

Shoe to Eggs. Imagine yourself cracking eggs into your favorite shoes. See yourself sliding your feet into your shoes and breaking the yolks. They spray out from your shoes covering the whole area with a thick yellow gooey mess.

Tree to Milk. Imagine tipping over a huge Oak tree with your hands, as it topples, gallons and gallons of Milk gush from the ground like an oil geyser. It’s a milk geyser. See yourself covered in dripping milk.

Okay, go ahead and do the same with the remaining list. Remember, the more ridiculous the image the better. Once you finish, see how many you can remember. Then come back.

So how did you do? If your images were crazy, you should not only have been able to remember all ten in order, but you should also be able to recall them out of order. If I say 3, what do you see? 3/Tree, uprooting the tree and the geyser of milk. How about 5, 8, 7? Easy isn’t it?

This is an easy demonstration of the power of visualization. The next time you go grocery shopping or go to write down a to-do list, try this method, your brain will thank you.

Bob’s book Right Brain Rapid Recall which covers this system (The Peg) in more depth is available here http://www.memoryedge.com/online-store/

Download my new app for remembering names  BOB’S APP

Funny, unique and interactive in his entertaining conference keynotes and workshops, Bob Gray reveals the untapped potential in each of us. His empowering systems and their many applications in the business world give participants immediate ‘walk away’ value. Book Bob Gray today as your next conference keynote speaker.

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It’s a common memory problem I hear about all the time, and it’s not difficult to overcome.

Let’s take a large car park with 5 areas whose locations are denoted alpha numerically.  A to E, and each location has a sub area 1-5, so we have 25 possible locations where you could park, A1-A5 thru E1-E5.

Let’s say you are parked in area E4.  The first thing we must do, as with any memory trace we wish to form, is to turn what we wish to remember into an image, and of course this holds true with letters and numbers too.

Here’s what I use for the letters:

A = Ape, B = Bee, C = Sea, D = Deer, E= Eel

And for the numbers I assign them a rhyming partner:

1 = Bun, 2 = Shoe, 3 = Tree, 4 = Door, 5 = Hive

So you are parked in spot E4, the image for the letter E is an Eel.  The image for number 4 is a Door.  Now be as creative as you can to visualize a ridiculous image combining the Eel, the Door and your car.

I would immediately visualize a huge door tied vertically to the roof of my car, and wrapped around the handle and working its way through the keyhole, is a gigantic slippery Eel.

That quick 10-second visual is all you need.  Later when you exit the mall, you visualize your car and immediately conjure up the image of the Door (4) with the slippery Eel (E). You are parked in area E4.

B2, a large Bee sitting on the roof of you car slipping on a huge pair of shoes.

A5, a gigantic hairy Ape with wings flying around a large Bee Hive.  Remember, the more ridiculous the image, the quicker the recall.

For larger numbers, there is a system called the Phonetic Index, (chapter 4 of my book) it is an ingenious system that allows you to turn any 2, 3 or longer digit numbers into an image.

Here’s a quick alternative.  Before you enter, (in this case, the mall), draw an imaginary line from the entrance of the mall, to your car. Then continue this line off into the distance, and see what it hits.  Maybe it’s an apartment building, a house or a tree.  When you exit the mall, you will have no problem remembering the distant object, then simply walk towards it.  This will at least put you in the right direction…….then you can start hitting the key fob.

Funny, unique and interactive in his entertaining conference keynotes and workshops, Bob Gray reveals the untapped potential in each of us. His empowering systems and their many applications in the business world give participants immediate ‘walk away’ value. Book Bob Gray today as your next conference keynote speaker.

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