Remember Long Lists of Items with the Mnemonic Peg System

If you have a long list of things to remember (a shopping list, for example, or the names of all the US presidents), the peg system is an excellent memory technique. It's similar to the memory palace method, but instead of attaching information to geographical locations or rooms, you use a list of rhyming or alphabetical pegs.

Wikipedia offers this rhyming example:

1-gun Visualize the first item being fired from a gun
2-zoo Visualize an association between the second thing and a zoo
3-tree Visualize the third item growing from a tree
4-door Visualize the 4th item associated with a door
5-hive Visualize the fifth item associated with a hive or with bees
6-bricks Visualize the sixth item associated with bricks
7-heaven Visualize the seventh item associated with heaven
8-plate Visualize the 8th item on a plate as if it is food
9-wine Visualize a glass containing the 9th item
10-hen Visualize the 10th item associated with a chicken.

For example to remember the following grocery list of 10 items:
Apple: Picture an apple being fired from a gun
Butter: picture a gorilla stomping up and down on a stick of butter
Razor Blades: Picture a tree with razor blades for leaves
Soap: Picture a door made from soap
Bread: Picture bees flying from a loaf of bread as if it is a hive
Milk: Picture a brick house with milk jugs where the bricks should be
Cat food: Picture an open can of cat food with angel wings and a halo
Bacon: Picture bacon on a plate
Batteries: Picture a wine glass filled with batteries
Orange juice: Picture a hen being squeezed, and orange juice coming out

Although it takes awhile to learn your peg list, one advantage of this system is you can create an unlimited number of pegs (this site lists 1,000 pegs). You can use shapes instead of number rhymes to set up your system (e.g., imagine the 1 is a flagpole). If you can memorize images for all numbers from 0 to 99, you'll have a powerful system used by memory champions.

Check out Peglist.com, which builds visuals for you of 4 items in a list using the 1-gun, 2-zoo, 3-tree, and 4-door associations. Then try creating your own absurd and easy-to-remember imagery.

Peglist

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YEGHE7DOFb0/remember-long-lists-of-items-with-the-mnemonic-peg-system

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