You are walking down the aisles of the grocery store in what appears to be a daze; at home you were so clear on the three items you needed, but as soon as you arrived at the store, your mind became a blank canvas and you are desperately hoping for a sliver of memory as you walk down the sections of the store. Similarly, you are running errands and have the nagging feeling in the back of your mind that you are forgetting something really, really important. Two hours later you remember: your dentist’s appointment — for which you are now one hour late. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to remember these little things without the need of copious sticky notes, reminder messages on the voice mail, and other mnemonic aids? Is it even possible to remember so much? The answer is a resounding yes, and five simple ways will help you to remember practically everything!

1.First and foremost, determine what amount of information you would like to remember. Let’s take the grocery list we mentioned earlier. A relatively short list of items (such as the three things most commonly found on a shopping list: milk, eggs, and bread) can still be a stumbling block to many. Larger lists, such as an entire shopping list for a week’s worth of groceries, will require different methods of memorization, while very large lists, such as a shopping trip with a large shopping list and a variety of other errands that accompany the trip to the grocery store will again make use of a different technique. Once you have determined the amount of information to be remembered, you may now link this information with an adequate memorization tool

2.Know how to remember short lists. Short lists are perfect for the “link method” which is a very simple yet effective mnemonic technique. Using the items of your shopping list, create associations between them and a vivid image containing these very items. Thus, a list containing “milk, eggs, and bread” may suggest the image of a farm, where wheat is ground into flour to make bread, while the farmer’s wife is milking the cows and collecting the eggs from the henhouse. Since all the items naturally fit into the above scenario, it will be easy to retrieve this information.

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