Rhymes to Remember

Finish this sentence, "Fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus..." Almost everybody knows this little rhyme to help remember when Columbus discovered America (answer: "... sailed the ocean blue"). You probably learned this fact several years ago, and you will always remember it because it has been imprinted into your memory using a rhyme.

You can use this technique to help you remember things in your daily life. For example, if you need to remember that you have a doctor's appointment, you could remember the phrase, "When I put on my sock, remember the doc." Now, every morning when you put on your socks, it's likely that you'll remember your rhyme and thus the appointment. Likewise, if you need to remember that your boss is allergic to nuts, you could remember "I'll feel like a klutz if I feed him some nuts."