Mind Tools has a good method on remember a very long list of items by linking the items with landmarks on a well-known journey and remembering all of them. This is a very effective system when you have clear and vivid image of the journey that you can associate to. For example, to remember the list: Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath tub cleaner.

You could associate this list with a journey to a supermarket. Mnemonic images could be:

1. Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat
2. Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses
3. Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver’s seat
4. End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road
5. Past garage: with its sign wrapped in kitchen roll
6. Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails
7. Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights
8. Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards
9. Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tires send up jets of tomato soup as I drive through it
10. Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the top level
11. Supermarket car park: a filthy bath tub is parked in the space next to my car!

Interesting isn’t it? The more preparation to clear your journeys in your mind, the easier it will be for you to remember the list of items using the same journeys.

Using The Journey System