Remembering Shopping Lists And Driving Directions
How can I improve my ability to remember items on a list?
Taking the items into categories is very important. Also you want to be visualizing. As a shopping list, if it's dairy products that you're going to be buying, 3 dairy items: cheese, butter, and yogurt. You want to picture those items in the dairy section. As you make your list in your mind, visualize them together. If you want the vegetables, you visualize the vegetable department: You see the apples, right? And then you see the celery, because they're in the same section. And you see the broccoli. You're visualizing them. You group them together. And then when you get to the store, this picture and this grouping will help you go right to that location. Keep it simple, but have fun doing it.
How can I remember my grocery list?
You can remember your grocery list using a very simple technique. I call it the loci technique. The Greeks called it the loci for "location." You find the location. I want you to picture the hood of your car right now. Can you see the hood of your car? You have to pick up a head of lettuce. Can you see that head of lettuce bouncing up and down on the hood of your car? You need some carrots. I want you to take the carrots and pierce them into the head of lettuce. When I say, "We need some milk." Take the carrots out of the head of lettuce and drop it into the milk. Then we need a loaf of bread. See the milk being poured all over the loaf of bread. All over the loaf of bread. You need these items. You drive me to the store and say, "Where's my grocery list?" It's on the hood of your car. What do you see on the hood of the car? The head of lettuce, right? What's piercing into it? The carrots. What did you do with the carrots? Into the milk. Where did you pour the milk? Over the bread. Make sure they don't fall off the hood of the car. They're in front of you. Get the picture.
How can I remember all of my errands?
To remember all of your errands, think of the places where you're going to go. First of all, if you're going to go to the post office, picture the post office. You have to go to the hardware store to run an errand, so picture yourself driving from the post office to the hardware store. See the two items together. You're starting to picture frame one, frame two, frame three, frame four. After the hardware store, you have to go to the dry cleaners. So, you see yourself leaving the hardware store, driving to the dry cleaners. Keep it simple but visualize errands, because the strongest part of your brain is the visual part.
