How to remember a grocery list

Give each item a job in a story. Then let one scene remind you of the next.

You don’t need to learn a number system first. Start with a few familiar objects and connect them using an action. This is called the mnemonic link method.

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Try three items first

Suppose you need lemons, pasta, and butter.

1. Give yourself a starting cue. Imagine an enormous lemon blocking your front door. Squeeze past it and feel the sticky juice.
2. Connect lemon to pasta. Twist the lemon and long ribbons of pasta spill out, winding around your shoes.
3. Connect pasta to butter. Follow a ribbon into the kitchen, where it lassos a slippery block of butter.

Look away. What blocked the door? What came out of it? What did that catch? Those questions follow the chain back to your groceries.

Build a chain for your own list

Write your list once. For each neighboring pair, invent a scene that contains both items. Let them collide, melt, sing, or move. Choose details you can describe clearly; your scenes don’t need to look like a movie.

For 10 groceries you’ll make 9 links. Replay the story from the beginning as you add each link. Then hide the list and write the items you remember. In our challenge, the order you type them doesn’t affect your score.

If an item goes missing

Find the item just before the gap. Does its scene actually contain the next grocery? A lemon rolling down the street doesn’t cue pasta. Pasta pouring out of the lemon does. Change that one connection, then try recall with the story hidden.

If imagining pictures feels awkward, try describing the action aloud or using a sound or texture. Experiment with a small list and keep whichever cues you can recall.

Check again after a break

An immediate second attempt also benefits from seeing the list twice. It doesn’t establish that the method caused an improvement. Come back tomorrow and try recall before opening your story to see what you retained.

Keep a backup list for your actual shopping trip. Practise recalling it, then check it before leaving the store.

Story links or a memory palace?

Story links connect each grocery to the next. A memory palace gives items separate places on a familiar route, such as your doorway, sofa, and sink. Art of Memory’s shopping-list tutorial demonstrates that location-based approach.

Start with the story challenge here. When you want to explore placing images along a route, visit memory palaces.