M 'n' M // Part 11 // Memorising Faces and Names

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, are you ready for this?!

Allow me to proudly present to you.....

In the first post in this series, I discussed some of my favourite ways to remember something you are worried you'll forget.

Today I'm here to talk about some of my favourite ways to memorise names and faces.

But before I do that, can I just wish all my fellow southern-hemisphere friends a very, extremely, wonderfully happy
SPRING!!!!
Spring is finally here!!! Yay!!

(back to original post topic)

Let's face it (pun intended) - there are a ton of people out there. And an awful lot of them are going to make your acquaintance over your lifetime. How are you going to remember faces? And an even harder question: how are you going to remember the names that go with the faces?

Some people find it easier than others. I am terrible at this. :P

Idea 1: Make an effort
The best way to remember a name is to make an effort. When you are introduced to someone, shake their hand, look them in the eye and repeat their name aloud, repeating it also mentally to yourself several times. Think to yourself, "I am going to remember this person."
The more of an effort you make with this, the easier it will be. The more disinterested you are when you shake their hand, the more mindlessly you repeat their name, the harder it becomes.

Idea 2: Associate
 Make associations between the person's face and their name. Think, for example, Bob = bald head. Then hopefully you'll remember the name by seeing the man's baldness. The wackier the association the better.

Idea 3: That's unusual!
If the person has an extremely odd name or unusual face or facial characteristic you can't help but notice, lucky you! Your task just got easier. For example, there used to be a judge on Masterchef New Zealand (back in the days when we watched Masterchef) called Josh Emmett. I always thought of him as "the man with the icy eyes" long before I knew his name. Because of this, it was easy for me to remember his name when I knew it because I thought of him as "the man with the icy eyes".

Idea 4: Mentally Illustrate
Another way to attach names to faces is to imagine yourself drawing them. I sometimes do this. I look at a person's face and mentally draw it on a piece of paper in my mind. Then I mentally write their name under the drawing of their face and underline it three times. Done! It's so easy to be a good artist in your head. :) Make the drawing as elaborate as you can. Then hopefully when you see the person again, your mind will bring up the drawing you made, with the name underneath, underlined three times. Easy.


Of course, if all else fails, you could always ask the person "I'm sorry, what was your name?"

Do you have any helpful tips for memorising faces and names? Do share!
Look out for part three of this series, coming soon!