Storing Your Grocery List

Quick Win

Memory chunking can help break a list into easier-to-remember chunks.

Try This Today

• Organize by type. A simple approach is to organize your list by food type. Apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, spinach, milk and cheese could be chunked into three groups: fruits, vegetables and dairy. Instead of trying to memorize all the items, remember you need three fruits, two vegetables and two dairy products.
• Go by section. Sometimes, it makes more sense to chunk items based on where they are found at the market. Maybe your list has nine items, but they’re found in three sections of the store: personal care, the bread aisle and the frozen foods section. Separate your list according to those sections: toothpaste, face wash, razor blades; bagels, hot dog buns; frozen blueberries, spinach, peas, corn.
• Get creative. As you see yourself making progress, look for new and creative ways to chunk your grocery list. Can you form a word using the first letters of each item on your list? For example, mangoes, eggs, laundry detergent, tea and salt can be chunked into one word: MELTS. You can also chunk words according to length (eggs-milk-rice, bread-pears-steak, cereal-butter-cheese) and alphabetizing items (apples-avocados-almonds, broccoli-bread-bananas, carrots-cheese-coffee).

Why

Memory chunking is a memorization technique that groups similar bits of information to make them easier to remember. A study published in 2019 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition tested chunking in working memory tasks. In a series of four experiments, each with 20 to 32 participants in their 20s, the researchers found that chunking can trim the burden on working memory, freeing the capacity of the brain to handle more information.