When it comes to learning, memory is king. So it can really suck if you’re a student and you have a less than perfect memory! Fortunately, memory can be improved just like any other aspect of our selves. That’s where memory techniques come in.
One of the simplest and most powerful techniqes for memorization is called the Link Memory System. If you learn and practice the Link System, you’ll be able to memorize anything in half the time it takes you now, and retain it for as long as you want. And not only is the link system easy to use, but it’s fun too!
So let’s get down to it. What is the Link System and how does it work?
I first read about the Link System in a fantastic book by Harry Lorayne called Super Memory - Super Student: How to Raise Your Grades in 30 Days
. Harry sums the Link System up like this.
“In order to remember any new thing, it must be associated, in some ridiculous way, with something you already know or remember.”
That’s all there is to it really.
Putting it into action
Say for whatever reason that you needed to remember this list of 10 items:
shoe, baseball, lamp, computer, phone, nail, bottle, fish, window, wheel.
The first thing you need to do is to picture the first item on the list, in this case a shoe, in your mind’s eye. And really picture it. Visualize it. Make it big and vivid. The easiest thing to do is picture something familiar, so picture your own shoe.
Next you will “link” the shoe to the second item, the baseball. You’ll do this by visualizing the baseball interacting with the shoe in some totally crazy and ridiculous way. That’s the key to the Link System. The links have to be crazy, ridiculous, illogical or impossible. The crazier or more impossible it is, the easier it is to remember.
Really use your imagination on this. Maybe the shoe is a monster and it’s eating the baseball. Or maybe you could imagine a giant baseball wearing shoes. Know what I mean? Once you’ve got a crazy picture in your mind, stop thinking about it and move on to the next one.
Quick Tip: If your imagination is a little rusty, here are some shortcuts to get you started: Make one of the items giant. Give the items human characteristics. Picture a million of one item.
Next create an impossible association between baseball and lamp. Here are a few I can picture: A lamp with a baseball for a lightbulb. A baseball speeding across a living room and shattering a lamp. A giant baseball monster with a lampshade on his head. See, isn’t this fun?
Go onto the next item and the next, until you’re finished. Then go through your links and see if you can remember the whole list in order. You might be surprised how easy it is to recall each item in order.
The Link System is so great because it uses the same “machinery” that our brains use all the time to remember stuff. Simply put, we remember stuff that seems to stand out in some way. Boring, non-interesting things never stick very well in our memory.
Just like any other skill, this one takes time to learn. You might think this little exercise took longer than if you had tried to memorize the list the old way. It did because you were still learning the technique. Once you get some practice in you’ll be able to remember lists longer than that one in way less time!
For a little fun, come back tomorrow see if you can remember the list of items from this article. Then leave a comment telling me how you did. Good luck!
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I recently bought the rights to the ebook “Powerful Ways to Sharpen Your Memory.” And guess what? I’m gonna give it away to you. 
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