How to Use the Mnemonic Link System
The mnemonic link system is a technique for remembering things more easily. It’s also sometimes called the chain linking method, and it overlaps with the story method.
Example of Basic Linking
To use mnemonic links, you mentally link two facts together. You can link many items together by linking each item with the next one in a list.
Here’s an example using a to-do list. First we’ll look at a small to-do list:
- wash car
- buy a book
- do laundry
- buy a sandwich
To remember the list you could link each item together in a chain. To do that, identify a keyword or two in each item. The keyword(s) should be something that you can easily visualize.
- wash car — it’s easy to imagine washing a car
- buy a book — a book is a physical object
- do laundry — it’s easy to picture a pile of laundry
- buy a sandwich — picture a tasty sandwich
Now link each item in the list with the next item using a mental picture or short story.
For example, you wash your car which then crashes into a giant book as it leaves the carwash. The book falls over onto a pile of dirty laundry. Then you reach your hand into the laundry and pull out a sandwich. Each item in the list is linked together to make the list easier to remember.
Strange stories are easy to remember, so don’t be afraid to be creative.
The mnemonic links created by the story can help you remember all the items in your to-do list.
Try to vividly imagine that story in your mind. Then look away from the screen and see if you can recall the to-do list.
Side note: if you’re familiar with computer programming, this technique is something like the mnemonics equivalent of a linked list, whereas the memory palace technique is more like an array.
Mnemonic Linking Tips
Mnemonic links are the foundation of most memory techniques. To remember something new, you can link it to something you already know.
For example, person-action-object system is a way to memorize numbers by turning every six digits into a linked person, action, and object.
You can store multiple mnemonic images in a single location of a mind palace by using the linking method.
It can help to come up with a system for how you link images together. For example, if you always try to place the images in a certain order, it can make it easier to recall the order. One set of rules that works well for remembering the order of the images is:
- image one is above image two
- image one is to the left of image two
- image one is performing an action on object two
Types of Image Links
Member r30 in the forum proposed three 3 basic ways to link images with each other:
- Transform one image into the next image
- Make the two images interact in some way
- Chain multiple images with stories
More information and examples (with pictures) of all three linking techniques can be found at r30’s website and in the linking techniques comparison in the forum.
