How much easier would your life be if you had an incredible memory? The ability to take a list of fifty things you needed to know and memorize them within a matter of minutes…

…And not only that, you could recite this list, forwards or backwards, several days after you had studied it.

It’s easier then you might think. You just need to know the secret of how to do it.

I will be completely honest with you, I used to have the worst memory imaginable. You could have read a list of five things to me and I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that list a few minutes later.

In college, I would have to go over the material I needed to study several times. And even then I would forget most of it by the time the test came around.

And then one day I learned this technique on how to memorize things. I was so inspired by it that I simply had to give it a try. I decided to attempt to memorize the presidents of the United States.

Believe it or not, twenty minutes later I could recite every President to you forwards or backwards!

My friend who I was with couldn’t believe it. And he made the comment, “I bet you won’t remember them tomorrow.” And I of course replied, “Oh, I bet I can.”

And the thing is, I really knew I could. Because this technique allows you to retain the information that you learned for a long period of time. It magically gets implanted into your brains huge filing cabinet.

So what is this amazing technique? And how do you do it?…

It Starts With Pictures

Have you ever bumped into someone that you haven’t seen in awhile? You know you know them but you can’t even remember their name!

This happens to me all of the time!

Have you ever wondered why we can picture their face so easily, but can never remember their name? It’s because we can memorize pictures very easily. But when it comes to names and words, we can’t visualize it and it makes it very difficult to remember.

We are all born with this quality because when we are a baby, the first way we learn is through what we are seeing and observing. So it is only natural that this is the easiest way to learn and memorize things as we get older.

Think about the last time that you forgot something. You probably closed your eyes, then tried to picture a previous time that sparked your memory. If you can picture a specific thing from the past, you remembered it! Otherwise, you were out of luck.

But this still doesn’t help us memorize a large list of items in a short amount of time. After all, we can’t simply picture fifty items and remember it on the spot!

We have to have a way to store this information…

Your Brain’s Filing Cabinet

Think of your brain as this huge filing cabinet filled with all kinds of information from your past. When you try to remember something, you go searching through all of your files and try to find where it is located in your brain.

Unfortunately, your filing cabinet is one huge mess! And you often forget where you put your information.

So if you are going to memorize fifty specific things, you are going to have to put it in a file that you can easily retrieve within seconds. So how do you do that?

I bet if I asked you right now to describe the inside of your house you could do it with incredible detail. You could probably name five or ten things from each room and tell me exactly where they are located.

So if you took five items from ten rooms in your house. Hey that’s fifty items! If your house doesn’t have ten rooms, that’s perfectly OK. You can probably picture your friends house with just as much detail. So take a few rooms from their house and think of five items.

Once you have your ten rooms, here is what to do…

Picture the room that is immediately to your left when you walk in the front door. For me it is our family room. Go clockwise and picture five things in that room. Here’s an example…

In my family room, going clockwise I have a television, a red chair, a couch, a coffee table, and another couch. These five items are going to make it incredibly easy to memorize five things as you will later see.

Once you go through that room, move on to the next room. Try to go clockwise through your house when you do this. And then pick out five items from that room.

And do this until you go through your entire house. Even memorize five things in the bathroom. For me, it’s a toilet paper rack, a bath tub, a toilet, a sink, and the bathroom door.

When all is said and done, you should have a list of about fifty household items that you could easily recite if you wanted to. Backwards or forwards!

I know you’re probably thinking… “Well that is great and all, but how do we take these household items and memorize things that we need to know?”

That is where the second step comes into play…

Putting Pictures In Your Filing Cabinet

So we understand that we memorize pictures very easily. And we have a list of fifty household items we can use to put in our brain’s filing cabinet. Now all we have to do is put the two together.

Let’s take the U.S. presidents 16-20 to give you an example of how to do this. Here are the President’s and also my household items I used to memorize them…

U.S. President	Household Item
Abraham Lincoln	television
Andrew Johnson	bathroom toilet
Ulysses Grant	my bed
Rutherford Hayes	nightstand
James Garfield	chair beside the door

For Lincoln, I already know he was the 16th President. But in case I forget, I picture my television having a long beard like Lincoln did. I know this sounds a little crazy. But the crazier the better! Because when I go through my house in my head, I never forget the picture of my television having a beard!

For Johnson, that’s easy! You may know that some people call their toilet the “John.” So when I picture my toilet, I easily think “JOHNson.”

To remember Grant, I picture large amounts of money laying on my bed. When I see that picture, I think Grant because a grant deals with money.

For Hayes, I picture a whole stack of hay sitting on my nightstand. When I see that picture I always remember Hayes.

And for Garfield, I picture a stuffed animal of Garfield The Cat sitting on my chair.

I know what you’re thinking right now…

This stuff sounds a little silly! And you’re right, it is. But it makes memorizing lists of items incredibly easy! You basically can’t forget these items once you have a picture of them in your head.

You can ask me to name the President’s 16-20 five years from now and I’m sure I would be able to tell you. These pictures are so firmly implanted in my head that I have no problem retrieving them any time that I need them.

You simply need to get some practice coming up with pictures that will help you remember the items in your list. Make any kind of connection you can with the item you want to memorize and a picture.

The slightest connection, such as picturing money, will help you remember Grant. I know it might not seem like it. Because when you picture money you can probably think of a lot of things. But for some reason, when you think of a specifically vivid picture, the item you want to know will immediately pop into your head.

When To Use This Technique

From my example, you can see that this is a great way to memorize the U.S. Presidents. You can also use it to memorize all of the U.S. states and capitals. You can even use it if you want to show off to your friends by having them make a list of  for you to memorize

But what are some more really useful things we can use it for?

From my own experience, this is a great tool to use for public speaking. You simply make an outline of your speech or presentation. Then you memorize your outline by placing each topic with items in your house. Then you simply go through your house in your mind and speak about whatever topic is next!

The possibilities are really endless on what this technique can be used for.

I encourage you to find other ways that you use this memorization technique. Use it as often as you can! You can start by giving it a try right now. Make a list of twenty random items and see if you can memorize all of them in 10-15 minutes.

I bet you can.

You will instantly have everyone fooled that you have an incredible memory. Even though in reality you will still be just as likely to forget where you put the TV remote!

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