How to remember everyone’s name at a party

Have you ever been introduced to someone and immediately forgotten their name?

Chances are, you weren’t really paying attention.

Some disciplines require  practitioners to consider meeting an individual sacred. That might help you to pay more attention and soak up more of the details of this new person. But, maybe your skill of maintaining attention sucks.

There’s an exercise for that.

Actually, there are several. Here are three:

1. Develop your concentration. Grab a watch with a second hand, or use some device where you can watch the seconds move. Set a timer for five minutes and stare at the watch, repeating to yourself: “I am sitting here, staring at the second hand of a watch.” Count how many times your mind wanders.
2. Develop your attention to detail. Start small. Put a paper clip on a sheet of white paper (for contrast) and stare at the paper clip for two minutes, absorbing every detail you can. Then close your eyes and recreate the paper clip in your mind. Open your eyes and compare the image in your mind to the actual image. Any differences in the image you imagined were details that escaped your attention. Close your eyes again and repeat this process for five minutes.
3. Learn to become an introvert at will. Put the news on the radio (or iTunes) and count down by sevens from 100. Perform the countdown several times. Your objective is to entirely ignore what is happening on the radio.

The minimum time to master these exercises is one week. Pick one exercise to do for a week (or until you master it), and then move to the next. By doing these exercises, your attention resembles a beam of light emanating from your forehead to whatever you choose to focus on.

Now you just need to focus on remembering names at the party. By doing these exercises, you will.