What appeals to your mind.

Lets face it if something is normal or dull we're not very likely to remember it, but before we get on to that lets give you a scenario:

Your going shopping but you don't want to have to be fumbling around with lists as well as everything else so you try to memorise it....your shopping list:

eggs
butter
door mat
earings
flour
pens
soap
water
cod

Have a go and see how many you get-give youself at most a minute then write down as many as you can get.

Now the key to this is to exagirate everything, make it all memorable and all clear. The method is basically creating a little story but useing the items in your list and it works for any lists, much longer lists too-but we will start with this one and I will use it as an example. If I were to memorise this lists here's what I would do:

I'm going out to the shops and as I step out my front door a giant egg cracks on top of my head, there everywhere pelting down and cracking on the pavement I can hear the earsplitting sounds of shell breaking and I am covered in sticky,gooey egg whites. As I'm trying to wipe the stinging egg whites out of my eyes my foot slips on a giant patch of bright yellow butter reflecting sunlight after the rain, I fall over and I can feel the butter beneath me starting to sizzle in the sun but just as I think that I am going to fry a door mat comes whizzing out of the sky and scoops me up and I'm rideing high in the air the wind whipping my face and making me laugh at the thrill, but just as I cling on to the bristles tighter, my eatrs start to feel heavier and I realize that my earings are growing weighing me down they pull sharply on my ears and the mat falls away, the pain in my ears is searing as I tear them off, falling to my death when suddenly I land in a huge pile of flour, I inhale and have to cough, the white powder nearly choking me,the flour is soft as silk under my hands.Just then something whips past my ear I turn and see an archer with a bow an arrow only his arrows are pens and he's aiming for me, the next one grazes my arm leaving me with an inky stain, I run and leap dangerously on to a sledge sized bar of soap which I am now riding like the luge, bubbles pouring out of our wake, before i know it though I'm sliding off solid groung and in to rapidly riseing water, I lose the soap and I am disoriantaded under meters of ice cold water, through bleary eyes I sense something swimming toward me, its scales shimmering, big lips obliviously opening until I am being swallowed by the fish, terrified I fight against the inside of its mouth but just when I am giveing up it spits me out at the entrance to the supermarket.

Now I have just tested to see if my crazy little story actually made remembering the list simple and it worked-but perhaps mine is a little to detailed after all its all about what works for you, detail helps me remember but some simpler or shorter images may work better for you, but have a go with ther list below and see how you do using this story exageration technique-remember to be as imaginative as you can and really see the images you create clearly!

book
cat food
cheese
washing-up liquid
lemon
bread
cups
biscuits
grapes