Forgetting someone’s name five seconds after an introduction is frustratingly common. So is arriving at the supermarket and remembering everything except the one thing that made the trip necessary. Fortunately, there are ways to make everyday information stick without reaching for a notebook or phone. Some of these tricks have been used for centuries, while others come from decades of research into how memory works. None is guaranteed, but each offers something useful for particular kinds of information.
1. Say It Out Loud
There’s a good reason to say “I locked the door” rather than just thinking it. Speaking information aloud can make it more memorable, a phenomenon psychologists call the production effect. Researchers at the University of Waterloo demonstrated the effect in experiments involving words read aloud and silently. The benefit appears to come partly from making the spoken information more distinctive. It works best as a deliberate action, so saying every little thing out loud probably isn’t necessary. Save it for something worth remembering.
2. Make the Mental Image Ridiculous
A carton of milk sitting on a kitchen counter isn’t particularly memorable. A giant carton of milk riding a bicycle through the kitchen is another matter. Unusual mental images can help connect information to something easier to recall, especially when the objects are concrete and familiar. Suppose you need eggs, soap, and coffee. Picture an egg taking a shower with soap before diving into an enormous coffee cup. It’s a little absurd, but that’s the idea. Creating the image takes a few seconds, and recalling one part can bring the others along.
3. Try the Ancient Memory Palace Trick
Long before smartphones, ancient Greek and Roman speakers used familiar locations to organize information they wanted to remember. The method of loci, better known as the memory palace, still has scientific support. Imagine walking through your home and placing an item from a shopping list in each room. Bread sits on the sofa, bananas hang from the bathroom mirror, and a bag of rice blocks the front door. Later, mentally retrace the route to recover the list. A 2021 study published in Science Advances found that training in this technique could produce lasting improvements in remembering word lists.
4. Divide Numbers Into Smaller Pieces
Try remembering 202620271945 as one long number. Now separate it into 2026, 2027, and 1945. The second version is easier to organize, particularly if the individual years mean something to you. Psychologists call this chunking, and it takes advantage of our ability to group several pieces of information into meaningful units. Phone numbers are commonly divided into sections for a similar reason. The catch is that random groups aren’t necessarily easier to remember. A chunk becomes much more useful when the brain already recognizes a pattern.
5. Test Yourself Instead of Repeating Everything
Reading the same information again and again can feel productive, even when very little is being retained. A more effective approach is to look away and try to remember it without help. This is called retrieval practice, and it’s among the better-supported techniques in memory research. After hearing a set of directions, for example, try mentally repeating the route before setting off. If something is missing, check it and try again. The effort involved in retrieving the information is part of what makes the exercise useful.
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6. Connect New Names to Familiar Things
Meeting someone named Baker? Picture a bakery. Someone named Rose might bring a flower to mind. These associations give an otherwise unfamiliar name something recognizable to attach to. The trick is particularly handy because names often tell us very little about the people they belong to. You can also connect the name to someone you already know, such as a relative or an actor. Just make sure to pay attention during the introduction. No memory trick can reliably recover a name that was never properly heard.
7. Build a Story From a Shopping List
A random collection of objects is difficult to hold together, but a story gives them a sequence. Imagine needing a candle, a newspaper, a toothbrush, and a pair of shoes. A candle sets fire to a newspaper, a giant toothbrush puts it out, and someone runs away wearing enormous shoes. Each scene introduces the next item. Researchers have studied narrative-based memory techniques for decades, with evidence that constructing stories can help people recall certain lists of concrete words. The story doesn’t need to make sense. It only needs to be easy to replay.
8. Space Out What You Need to Remember
Learning a new phone number or someone’s surname is one thing. Still remembering it three days later is another. Rather than repeating it ten times immediately, try recalling it after a few minutes, then later in the day, and again the following day. This approach is called spaced practice. A major 2013 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest rated distributed practice among the most effective learning strategies examined. There’s no universal schedule for every situation, but spreading out the practice generally beats cramming it into one sitting.
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9. Attach a Task to Something That Will Happen Anyway
“I must remember to take the package downstairs” is a pretty vague plan. “When I put on my shoes, I’ll pick up the package” is much more specific. Psychologists call this an implementation intention, a way of connecting a future action to an identifiable trigger. Studies have found that these if-then plans can improve prospective memory, which is the ability to remember things we intend to do later. Choose a trigger that’s likely to happen and is closely connected to the task. The more specific the plan, the less it depends on remembering at some random moment.
10. Put Information Into a Rhyme
“Thirty days hath September” has survived for generations because it’s easier to remember than a bare list of months and numbers. Rhymes provide sound patterns that can help organize verbal information. Rhythm can serve a similar purpose, which helps explain why certain songs and childhood chants remain familiar years later. For a short sequence that refuses to stick, inventing a simple rhyme may be worth trying. It doesn’t need to be particularly good poetry.
11. Leave an Object in an Unusual Place
There’s a difference between forgetting information and forgetting to do something. The second problem can sometimes be handled with a physical reminder. Put a reusable shopping bag in front of the door, or place a library book beside the shoes you’ll wear outside. These objects act as external cues, drawing attention to an intended action when the appropriate moment arrives. They’re most useful when placed somewhere you’re almost certain to notice them. A reminder hidden beneath a pile of other things isn’t much of a reminder.
12. Explain It Like You’re Teaching Someone
After learning something new, try explaining it to an imaginary listener without checking the original information. The exercise makes it harder to hide behind familiar-sounding words. When an explanation suddenly falls apart, you’ve probably found a gap worth revisiting. Research on learning by teaching suggests that explaining material can improve understanding and retention, although the benefits depend on how the explanation is carried out. Speaking from memory is generally more useful than simply reading the same sentences aloud again.
13. Find a Personal Connection
A street named Harrison might be easier to remember if your grandfather had the same surname. A date could stick because it coincides with a birthday or an important family event. Psychologists have studied this tendency under the name self-reference effect. A 1997 meta-analysis found that relating information to oneself generally improves memory compared with several less personal ways of processing it. Not every fact has an obvious personal connection, of course. But when one exists, it’s often worth using.
14. Pay Attention When Putting Something Down
Keys, glasses, wallets, and remote controls seem to disappear with remarkable regularity. Often, the problem begins when the object is put down while attention is focused elsewhere. Studies of divided attention have found that distractions during the initial learning of information can substantially weaken later recall. A small change is to stop for a moment and consciously notice where an object is being placed. You might even name the location silently: “Keys on the kitchen table.” It’s not particularly sophisticated, but the brain needs to register an event before it can remember it.
15. Give Every Number a Familiar Object
The pegword method turns numbers into mental hooks. In a common version, one becomes a bun, two a shoe, three a tree, and four a door. To remember four things in order, imagine each one interacting with its assigned object. A loaf of bread might sit inside a bun, while a carton of milk spills into a shoe. Once the number associations are familiar, they can be reused for different lists. Research has shown benefits for immediate recall in some settings, although the technique is less consistently helpful for long-term memory. It’s better suited to short, ordered lists than information you need to retain for months.
In the mood for more?
Check out 15 Ways to Fall Asleep Faster That Are Backed by Actual Sleep Research, or take a look at 15 Deals That Look Smart but Quietly Cost More. If you want to see more discoveries about everyday hacks and tricks, you can check out 18 Everyday Things You’ve Been Doing Wrong Your Entire Life.
