Hi! My name is Mnimi. What’s yours? Nice to meet you, _______!
Short-term memory includes recalling faces and their associated names. It may probably sound easy for some but for most of us, it’s not. I have heard many slightly embarrassing stories about forgetting one single name of a person who was just introduced to you in less than a minute ago… ⏱
Uh… Pardon me. What’s your name again? …friend?
It’s really not that difficult if you just pay close attention. (“Sure” while you roll your eyes 👀) Some experts say it’s not that you can’t remember. It’s just that you didn’t focus as much and that your brain is not “properly trained” on even the simplest short-term memory of where you put down your reading glasses 👓 . . . For.The.3rd.Time.Now…
Oh, it’s on my head. Duh!
3 tips to remember names
According to Ron White, there are things to consider when remembering a person’s name. Let’s watch how this 2-time memory champion astonish us with his face-name and playing-card recall skills below…
- Focus on getting the person’s name.
- Predispose yourself to getting the person’s name by repeatedly asking yourself, “What is your name?”
- Have pre-determine interest on that person’s name.
- When you’re interested on something, your natural tendency is to learn it. Similarly, if you make that new person particularly intriguing, you may want to learn more of him/her during your first meeting. Thus, you’ll remember the name.
- Match the name to the owner’s feature.
- There should be a unique or distinctive feature on that person’s face that will make you remember. So, instead of asking yourself what that person’s name was, picture what stood out from his/her features.
- Examples: Iris might have pretty purple eyes while Barry might have a cool baritone voice.
4 tips to remember cards
- Chunk the cards into 3 so you only need to remember 17 plus 1 left-over, out of a deck of 52 cards.
- Use the PAO Method – person, action, object
- When you chunk the cards, you ‘assign’ the first card a name, 2nd, what that person is doing and 3rd, with what object.
- Examples: Card1 = King of Hearts = your husband or partner (person); Card2 = driving (action); Card3 = car (object). This will make 3 cards into one image.
- Use a memory palace.
- Practice. Practice. Practice.