The Easy Way to Remember Names
In the business world, we all know how important it is to remember a person’s name. When you call someone by name it makes them feel remembered and significant.
But what if you took it a step further and also remembered major things they talked to you about? What if you could ask about the Hawaiian vacation they told you they were taking 3 months ago? That’d be pretty cool huh?
In an ideal world, we’d remember everything about everybody we meet but that’s just not possible. We meet so many people and don’t have the mental capacity to actively store all of that information.
To help, here are 4 techniques for remembering names and other details about the people we meet.
- Quickly jot down any general information about the person. Write their name and any defining features of the person you can use to identify them later. For example, you can write that they have long blonde hair, blue eyes, and look like the fabulous Jennifer Aniston. I’ve found that this helps to visually trigger an image of the person later, when you are reviewing.
- Next, write down any information the person told you that you want to remember for later. This can be a book they like, music they listen to, or pets they own. This gives you something to talk about the next time you see the person.
- Organize all your notes based on where you know the people from. For example, you can have a stack of notes called “People from weekly luncheon”.
- The next time you anticipate seeing a particular person again, quickly review the information from the previous three tips and write a few questions to ask them.
In no time, you’ll look like the hero who remembers everybody’s name. Plus, you’ll never run out of stimulating conversation topics.
These are just my techniques to remember people and names. I’m sure you have a technique or two for doing the same. If you do, let us know. I’m always looking for new tips and ideas.
By T. DeRose
