Recall names with Look, Snap, Connect

Never forget a person’s name again.

Sound like a pipe dream? Not if you use Gary Small’s Look/Snap/ Connect technique.
“The major reason we forget people’s names, sometimes only seconds after being introduced, is that we are not truly paying attention,” says Small, author of The Memory Bible: An Innovative Strategy for Keeping Your Brain Young.

The next time you meet someone, use this method to remember his or her name, as well as other important details:

1. Look. Taking a few seconds to identify particular features will help you remember a face. Example: Rather than simply noticing hair color, take note of the small freckles on the person’s nose, an eyebrow that arches slightly higher than the other, or a broad forehead.

2. Snap a visual image of the person’s face. Choose a distinguishing feature that you’ve identified in “Look”—whether it’s a small nose, unusual hairdo or particular wrinkle—and link it to the person’s name.

3. Connect the person’s name with your “Snap” of his or her face. Let the name invoke a visual image that you can link with the person’s face.

Example: If Mrs. Beatty has thick eyebrows, imagine Warren Beatty kissing her brow. The process of thinking up the images and making the connections will fix them into memory.

This technique may not give you a photographic memory, but it will allow you to strike “What’s his name” from your vocabulary.