Pegging Items to Remember the Sequence

In the previous articles, you learned techniques to remember a list of items. One item would lead to another as you formed pictures that connected the items. Yet, sometimes, you may need to remember the order of something in a list—specifically, which item is first, which is second, etc. This is called pegging.

Pegging is the best way to memorize items in their order. Just as you can hang things on a peg, and they stay there until you remove them, you can use your imagination to create pegs for numbers and be able to connect the item in the list to the peg you created.

Let’s create some peg words to represent the numbers one through ten. First, we will use rhyming:

1 – bun

2 – blue

3 – knee

4 – floor

5 – knives

6 – tick

7 – think of someone you know named Kevin

8 – skate

9 – pine

10 – Big Ben

If there are other words you feel more comfortable with other than using the rhymes, then use them. For instance, if you are a Christian, you might prefer heaven to seven.

Now you can take a list of items and create pictures to associate them with your number pegs. We can take the last 10 presidents again.

One is bun, and the first of the last 10 presidents is Johnson. Imagine again the sun sitting on the toilet for John. The sun is eating a bun.

Two is Nixon. If you remember how sad Nixon was the day he left the presidency, you could imagine him having the blues, or maybe when he boarded Air Force One for the last time and gave the two-finger peace sign—his face was blue. But if you do not know what Nixon looks like, imagine a female fox—a vixen, which rhymes with Nixon—turning blue.

Three is Knee and Ford. If you remember the Saturday Night Live skits where Ford was always doing something klutzy, imagine him falling down the stairs and bruising his leg so it seems he has three knees. Or if you are too young for that, imagine a Ford truck with a giant knee sticking out of the windshield.

Four is floor and Carter. Imagine the car from the previous exercise disintegrating on the floor.

Five is knives and Reagan. Imagine someone pulling a knife, then the knife metamorphoses into a ray gun. If you remember Reagan’s famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall,” imagine the ray gun then shoots at a wall, and it explodes.

Six is tick and George Herbert Walker Bush. It is too plain to just think of a tick in a bush. Imagine Curious George and a tick with a purse; her butting, Herbert, walks into a bush.

Seven is Kevin and Clinton. Think of someone you know named Kevin combing his hair with a lint brush (lint – Clinton). Then his hair becomes dollar bills (each strand of hair is a bill).

Eight is a skate, and the president is the other Bush. George Walker without the Herbert. Similar to the last exercise, think of George Washington walking on roller skates in a bush.

Nine is pine and Barrack Obama. Think of military barracks with bombs that are the shape of pine cones.

Ten is Big Ben and Trump. Think of Donald Duck on top of Big Ben, playing cards. ‘Donald Duck’ for Donald, and ‘playing cards’ for Trump.

If you have a mental picture of some or all of these presidents, you may not need to make the name pictures. For example, you can imagine Barrack Obama throwing pine cones, or Bill Clinton having a duel with your friend Kevin. The pictures that remind you of the name are necessary if you do not have a picture of the president in your head.

Now try reciting the list from memory using the pegs. Go through the list. If you miss any, just make the association stronger.

Answer the following questions: Who is No. 6? Who is No. 2? Who is No. 4? If you did the exercise right, you can name them.

Rhyming is one way to make the associations, and it is good if you are an auditory learner. Yet if you are a more visual learner, you might try making shapes to represent the numbers. Here are some examples:

1 – a pole

2 – a swan

3 – a pair of handcuffs

4 – a clothes hanger

5 – a wheelchair

6 – a key on a chain

7 – an open book on its side

8 – a rubber band around fingers

9 – a ball with a handle

10 – a mortar and pestle

You now have two ways to remember things by connecting them to peg words. However, suppose you have a list that has more than 10 items. You have two choices: you could continue to use rhymes for eleven, twelve, and so forth, or you could just use double the number. For example, for 11, you could use two buns or two poles, etc. By using this method, you have an unlimited number of pegs.

We have practiced using the pegs for ideas that are easily pictured. Yes, suppose you have abstract concepts that do not lend themselves easily to pictures. If you read the previous articles, you know what to do—create pictures.

You probably know who Benjamin Franklin is, even if you do not live in the United States. He was an 18^th-century statesman, diplomat, inventor and published the first almanac, Poor Richard’s. When he was 20 years old, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages took more than two months, so he had plenty of free time. While on the voyage, he wrote a plan of 13 commandments for himself.

For our next exercise, we are going to use the pegs to memorize the 13 commandments. We will use the rhyming peg system, but if you want to use the pictures, you can.

Here are Benjamin Franklin’s 13 rules (the descriptions are my own interpretations and not exact text):

1 – Temperance – Do not eat or drink too much.

2 – Silence – Speak only when necessary and do not gossip.

3 – Order – Be organized and put everything in its place.

4 – Resolution – Do what you are supposed to do and complete what you resolve.

5 – Frugality – Don’t spend on extravagance. Manage your money well and give to others.

6 – Industry – Be efficient and do not do things that are unnecessary.

7 – Sincerity – Do not lie. Say what you mean.

8 – Justice – Do not cheat anyone; be fair.

9 – Moderation – Do not do anything to excess. When someone wrongs you, do not overdue revenge.

10 – Cleanliness – Keep your body, your clothes, and your home clean.

11 – Chastity – Do not cheat on your spouse.

12 – Tranquility – Do not get upset over trivial things.

13 – Humility – Be like Jesus and Socrates.

Now, we will make picture associations of the commandments and connect them to the number pegs.

The first is temperance. Imagine a bun having a drink but putting it down before it is finished. This is how the bun avoids drinking in excess.

The second is silence. Imagine a blue emoticon pressing its lips together and making the sound ‘ssshhhhh.’

Knee and order are number 3. Think of someone with a bunch of mannequins, but just the knees, arranging them in order.

You now have a floor making a resolution. Imagine a floor with arms and hands holding a Happy New Year sign and raising a hand, saying, “I resolve.”

Next, we need to create a picture of frugal knives. Think of a bunch of knives sorting money, and then a sales person comes. They threaten to cut him if he does not leave them alone because they refuse to spend money on this product.

The sixth commandment is an industry. Think of a line of ticks working in an industrial plant.

Now, think of your friend Kevin being sincere. He starts to say something, but his nose starts to grow like Pinocchio, so he retracts what he was saying, and his nose returns to normal size. Seven is Kevin, and Commandment seven is sincerity.

Eight could be an easy one. Justice and skate. Think of a scale or gavel on roller skates.

How can we make a picture of a pine with moderation? How about a tree throwing some of its pine cones off and saying, “I have enough pine cones, so I don’t need these”?

Ten is Big Ben and cleanliness. It is too normal to think of a street cleaner cleaning Big Ben. Imagine Big Ben walking through London, cleaning the other buildings.

Now, we’ve come to where we need to create associations for eleven, twelve, and thirteen. For eleven, imagine two buns. The buns eye each other, but they refuse to have sex because one of them is married—‘bun bun’ for eleven, ‘refusing sex’ for chastity.

For twelve, imagine a blue bun for 12. ‘1’ for bun, and ‘2’ for blue. The bun tells itself that being eaten is not so bad, so it will relax—tranquility.

Finally, for 13, imagine a bun with a knee. It gets down on the knee because it is a humble bun—humility.

Now, try some of these from memory: What is Franklin’s fourth virtue? His sixth? His second?

You have now learned the best ways to memorize. They are the ways that people remember things using their imagination. Future articles will focus on how to apply these methods to specific things you need to know.