How could you manage to learn the names of all the presidents of the United States, and the years they held office? Before I started reading about memory techniques, I would have said that I couldn't do that if you paid me. Now I know that memorizing this sort of information is not really hard – anyone can do it. But we never learn the best memory techniques in schools – how to make names silly, and how to change numbers into words. Maybe no one will pay you for memorizing, but you feel pretty rich when you have done it, and know that you could do it with other information if you want to.
Here, I'll show you how to memorize names and dates, using the US Presidents as examples. You start with a list, but you don't memorize the list – that is much too hard, because names and dates are too boring to stick in our memories. Instead, you change the information on the list into visual images that are fun and easy to remember. Once you have created these images and "seen" them actively in your mind, you will remember them for a long time. When you do forget them, you can refresh your memory quickly by looking at your new list of silly images.
There is no limit to the amount of information that you can memorize in this way. If your list is twice as long, it will take twice as long to memorize, but is not more difficult. How long does it take? Maybe a few days, with a few hours each day. If you are already familiar with the names of the presidents, you might memorize the sequence in an hour or two. But the point is not to do it as quickly as possible, but to have fun doing it. You spend the time mostly closing your eyes and mentally "seeing" the silly images you use. This is not a painful or boring way to spend a few hours! Here are the steps you must go through:
First get the information on a (horrible!) list.
2. John Adams / 1797-1801
3. Thomas Jefferson / 1801-1809
4. James Madison / 1809-1817
5. James Monroe / 1817-1825
6. John Quincy Adams / 1825-1829
7. Andrew Jackson / 1829-1837
8. Martin Van Buren / 1837-1841
9. William Henry Harrison / 1841
10. John Tyler / 1841-1845
11. James Knox Polk / 1845-1849
12. Zachary Taylor / 1849-1850
13. Millard Fillmore / 1850-1853
14. Franklin Pierce / 1853-1857
15. James Buchanan / 1857-1861
16. Abraham Lincoln / 1861-1865
17. Andrew Johnson / 1865-1869
18. Ulysses Simpson Grant / 1869-1877
19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes / 1877-1881
20. James Abram Garfield / 1881
21. Chester Alan Arthur / 1881-1885
22. Grover Cleveland / 1885-1889
/ 23. Benjamin Harrison / 1889-1893
24. Grover Cleveland / 1893-1897
25. William McKinley / 1897-1901
26. Theodore Roosevelt / 1901-1909
27. William Howard Taft / 1909-1913
28. Woodrow Wilson / 1913-1921
29. Warren Gamaliel Harding / 1921-1923
30. Calvin Coolidge / 1923-1929
31. Herbert Clark Hoover / 1929-1933
32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt / 1933-1945
33. Harry S. Truman / 1945-1953
34. Dwight David Eisenhower / 1953-1961
35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy / 1961-1963
36. Lyndon Baines Johnson / 1963-1969
37. Richard Milhous Nixon / 1969-1974
38. Gerald Rudolph Ford / 1974-1977
39. James Earl Carter Jr. / 1977-1981
40. Ronald Wilson Reagan / 1981-1989
41. George Herbert Walker Bush / 1989-1993
42. William Jefferson Clinton / 1993-2001
43. George Walker Bush / 2001-
The next job is to make fun of the names. Names are hard to remember, unless you make them interesting, or silly, or fun. So you change each name into an interesting visual image.
Here is a new list, with a silly image for each of the names (except Washington and Lincoln, whose images are memorable enough).
George Washington /George Washington
John Adams / Adam wearing only his fig leaf, in EdenThomas Jefferson / a bottle of Jif peanut butter
James Madison / a mad son
James Monroe / money laid out in a row
John Quincy Adams / queens
Andrew Jackson / a car jack
Martin Van Buren / a van burning
William Henry Harrison / wild hair
John Tyler / a tiler, laying ceramic tiles
James Knox Polk / dancing a polka
Zachary Taylor / a tailor, sewing clothes
Millard Fillmore / a filmer, (camera-man) filming
Franklin Pierce / a piercing arrow in the cheek
James Buchanan / a book-cannon (cannon disquised as a book)
Abraham Lincoln / Abe Lincoln with his stovepipe hat
Andrew Johnson / a "handy john" (restroom) is well equipped
Ulysses Simpson Grant / a US grand(piano)
Rutherford Birchard Hayes / a haystack
James Abram Garfield / the cartoon cat Garfield
Chester Alan Arthur / a chess King Arthur
Grover Cleveland / Cleveland Ohio
Benjamin Harrison / a park bench made of hair
Grover Cleveland / a clover field or clover-land
William McKinley / Mount McKinley
Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt / a teddybear of felt
William Howard Taft / a piece of sticky taffy
Woodrow Wilson / a Wilson-brand sports duffel bag
Warren Gamaliel Harding / a war heart medal of bravery in war
Calvin Coolidge / Cal-cool, a cool Californian.
Herbert Clark Hoover / a Hoover vacuum cleaner
Franklin Delano Roosevelt / a rose belt, a belt made of roses
Harry S. Truman / a true-man (a real he-man)
Dwight David Eisenhower / ice-in-a-shower
John Fitzgerald Kennedy / candy
Lyndon Baines Johnson / a London john (public restroom)
Richard Milhous Nixon / knickers on
Gerald Rudolph Ford / a model-T Ford car
James Earl Carter Jr. / a cart or wagon
Ronald Wilson Reagan / a ray-gun
George Herbert WalkerBush / a big bush
William Jefferson Clinton / a clean town
George Walker Bush / a little bush
Now you can learn the sequence of the names. To do this, you must link each visual image to the next one in a sequence, something that I call a phantasmagoria. Here is a phantasmagoria that works for me. Silly visual images are usually based on personal interest and humor, so you might want to change some of my images for better ones that you make yourself.
George Washington, the first president, gives an apple to Adam, the first man
Adam eats his apple with Jif peanut butter on it
Jif peanut butter is grabbed by a greedy mad son
The mad son keeps his money in a row
Money in a row is a queen's
A queen is trying to use a car jack
A jack has lifted up a van burning.
Out of a van burning jumps a driver with wild hair
Wild hair on a tiler is getting in his way while he tries to lay ceramic tiles
A tiler, with his tiles, is dancing a polka
Also dancing a polka is a tailor sewing clothes
A tailor surrounded by clothes is filmed by a bothersome filmer
While filming, a filmer is shot in the cheek by a piercing arrow
A piercing arrow is shot out of a book cannon
A book cannon shoots Abe Lincoln, assassinating him
Dead, bloody Lincoln is washed in a handy john
In a handy john there is even a handy US grand-piano
In the open grand piano there is a haystack
Eating the haystack is the cat Garfield
Garfield is playing chess, moving the king, which is King Arthur
Chess-king Arthur is king of Cleveland Ohio
In Cleveland is a bench of hair
A bench of hair is standing in a field of clover
Clover is covering the summit of Mount McKinley
Down the slopes of Mt. McKinley comes a teddy bear
A teddy bear has taffy stuck on its face
Taffy is filling a Wilson-brand sports bag
A Wilson sports bag is carrying a war heart medal
A war heart medal is worn by a Cal-cool Californian.
A Cal-cool Californian is using a Hoover vacuum cleaner
Wrapped around a Hoover vacuum is a rose belt
A rose belt is worn shamefully by an embarassed True-man
A True-man takes an icy shower
Someone in an icy-shower, is eating candy
Candy is flushed down the toilet of a London john
In a London john, someone puts on knickers
A driver wearing old-fashioned knickers drives a Model-TFord
A Model-TFord is passed by a horse-drawn cart
A cart is blasted by a ray-gun
A ray-gun vaporizes a big bush
A big bush removed to make a clean town
In a clean town (with no big bushes) a little bush grows
By closing your eyes and visualizing these images and silly links a few times, you can learn this phantasmagoria. If you have trouble remembering any of the images or links, it means that they are not visual or silly enough for you, and you should make a better image for yourself. This phantasmagoria will help you know the names of all the presidents in the correct order. You can begin at the beginning or at the end of the phantasmagoria, it doesn't matter. If you want to know who was the 24th president, for example, you must start at the beginning of the phanatsmagoria and count the names as you run through it.