How to memorise anything

Hi, guys. I’m Colin Cloud and I am the deductionist. And today I’m going to change the way that you remember things forever.

But first you need to understand how your brain works. Now there are two sides to your brain: the right side and the left side. The right side is more creative and imaginative, whereas the left side is more logical and serious. Now, typically when you try to remember things, you only use the left side of your brain. The secret is to be silly and use the right side as well.

Now, I’ve been given a list of items to remember and I’m going to tell you exactly how I’m going to do it.

One: crown; two: teapot; three: clown shoes; four: strawberry cheesecake; five: rubber duck; six: Pudsey Bear; seven: sombrero; eight: guitar; nine: plant and ten: cricket bat.

So number ‘one’ sounds like the word ‘sun’, so I imagine the sun wearing a gold crown.

‘Two’ sounds like ‘shoe’, but instead of wearing shoes on my feet, I imagine wearing teapots.

‘Three’ sounds like ‘tree’, so I imagine a tree but instead of leaves coming out the tree, I imagine red clown shoes.

‘Four’ sounds like ‘door’. I imagine opening up a door, but blocking the way is a strawberry cheesecake.

‘Five’ sounds like ‘hive’. Instead of a beehive hanging from a tree, there’s a rubber duck, and the bees are zooming all around the duck.

‘Six’ sounds like ‘sticks’, so I imagine Pudsey Bear playing the drums with the sticks.

‘Seven’ sounds like ‘heaven’, so I imagine the angels in heaven, and they’re all wearing sombreros.

‘Eight’ sounds like ‘gate’. I imagine looking through a garden gate and I see a guitar.

‘Nine’ sounds like ‘line’, so I imagine drawing lines all over a plant.

And ‘ten’ sounds like ‘pen’, so I imagine a pigpen and the pigs in the pigpen are playing cricket.

As long as you make a silly connection between the number and the item and you visualise that, you will never forget it.

Challenge yourself. How many can you remember?

© BBC