Using Numbers to Remember Names

Try This Today

• Choose a group of names you want to remember — perhaps the new members of your golf club or fellow travelers on a tour bus. 
• List the names on a piece of paper, assigning each a number, starting with “1.” 
• Make a mental note of each name with each number — using the number as a visual cue that will help you remember the name later.
• Deepen the association by envisioning the person’s face next to the name and number – sort of like a social media profile picture.
• As a variation, see if you can create a numbered list and images purely in your mind, without writing anything down.
• As a more elaborate variation, try a “peg system” that pairs each number with a rhyming word. You might pair “one” and “sun,” “two” and “shoe” and “three” and “tree,” for instance. Now list the names, linking each with a number and an image that incorporates the rhyming word. So, if number one is a man named “Harry,” you might picture him as a sunburst with long, flowing hair. Number two might be a woman named Robin that you see as a bird sitting in a shoe, and number three might be a man named Brad you turn into Brad Pitt climbing a tree. 
• Review your list a few times to deepen the associations.
• Test yourself later to see if you can remember the group members by number. If your system works, you can use it for multiple groups of people because you will remember each as a separate set.

Why

Here’s a memory challenge: You’ve just met 10 people. Could remembering their names be as easy as making a numbered list? It could be, if you link those names with memorable images. It’s a technique that could take several forms, so try some out to see what works for you.