This Tried-And-True Memory Hack Is The Easiest Way To Memorize Anything

Want to memorize like a pro? We asked Canadian memory championship competitors Braden Adams and Don Michael Vickers to share their secrets to quick recollection. The easiest way to memorize something? Build what they call a “memory palace.”

Here’s how to put it into practice to quickly memorize your grocery list:

1. Picture a location—a place that’s familiar to you, like your home.

2. Allocate each item on your list to a different area in each room of your palace. Think: a bunch of bananas hanging from your entryway coat rack, an armchair made of onions in the living room, a bathtub full of milk. Make it visceral—this will make it easier to remember.

Related: Do Memory Apps Actually Work?

3. Choose a path to walk through your palace, starting from the entrance with your banana coat rack, to create a specific order for every item. Repeat the path until you’ve got it down.

Bonus tip: Still can’t remember items? Try applying word associations to each item in your palace. If you want to remember to buy bread, imagine Brad Pitt wearing a red coat slicing up a loaf in your memory palace. Repeat the Br sound of Brad and rhyme red with bread.

Related: My Mom Had Alzheimer’s. Does That Mean I’ll Get It Too?