Today we build your first real tool: a set of ten pictures, one for each digit 1 through 10, based purely on what the numeral looks like. Once you own these ten pictures, you can “hang” any list of ten things on them, in order, almost effortlessly.
Here is your Shape-Peg list. Read each one and actually picture it, don’t skim.
- Candle: a 1 is a tall, thin stick, just like a candle.
- Swan: the curve of a 2 is a swan’s neck.
- Handcuffs: two connected loops, like the double curve of a 3.
- Sailboat: a 4 looks like a sail and mast.
- Fishhook: the curl at the bottom of a 5.
- Cherry: a 6 is a round cherry hanging from a stem.
- Boomerang: the angular shape of a 7.
- Snowman: two stacked circles, exactly like an 8.
- Balloon on a String: the round top and straight tail of a 9.
- Bat and Ball: a 1 and a 0 side by side, a bat next to a ball.
Say each picture out loud as you look at its number. Once you can go 1 through 10 without hesitating, you’re ready for the exercise below: a list of ordinary objects. Attach each one to its shape-peg with the wildest, most active image you can invent, the stranger, the stickier. Then we’ll test whether you can recall the whole list, in order, from memory alone.