Remembering people’s names is tough, and if you struggle with putting together a face and a name then you’re bound to feel like a fool when you meet someone for a second time. Psychology Today suggests that one way to increase your memory skills is to practice at home with celebrities.

Photo by Christopher.

The idea here is to not just increase your memory skills by attaching a face to name while watching TV, but also to figure out where you struggle the most. Psychology Today explains:

Practising celeb’s names is a low-risk way to enhance your face memory skills. As you’re watching your favourite movies or TV shows at home, go ahead and consult a movie or TV data base, which will allow you to work on forming name-face associations with people whose feelings you can’t possibly hurt. You can also diagnose your weaknesses with this simple exercise. Perhaps you’re worse at remembering men’s names, or perhaps you look too much at the changing features of a person’s costumes and disguises. You can even work out a scoring system and track your progress as the weeks go by.

While it’s not always possible to increase your memory with practice, the point here is to also figure out why you stink at remembering names, and then adjusting your memory system from there. Remembering a name is often just about repeating it, but if you’re still struggling a little practice won’t hurt.

The One Social Skill that Can Change Your Life [Psychology Today]