You just called the TV repair shop, and the voice on the other end of the line tells you, “This is Don Smith”.

About 5 minutes later you tell your wife that “this guy”will be out to fix the TV in the morning. You can’t think of his mane although you know he mentioned it on the phone.

This happens all the time to just about any of us unless we have learned to concentrate andimplant a name in our memory, right at the time we hear it. To do this, you must make a habit of repeating the name back to the person. This action will remind you to store the name in your “memory bank” each time you hear someone’s name, and within a short time the “repeating” process can be discontinued

When you meet someone in person, use the same procedure, and in addition, visualizesomething different, unusual or ridiculous about hid or her appearance, position, or actions that “ties in “with his or her name. Later, you may write the descriptive information on one side of a card and the name in the other side. Look at it repeatedly, see the “picture” in your mind’s eye as you look at the name; or when you see he name, visualize the “picture” you have assigned to the name.

Getting this system to work will require changes in your thinking, and it may take several days or several weeks to become proficient.