Forgetting people’s names can prove extremely embarrassing and a complete disaster at time. Specially if it’s that pretty girl’s name you can’t recollect even though you got introduced five minutes ago (although that’s possibly because you were staring down her cleavage at that time).

The key to remembering names lies in association and repetition. Follow these two simple steps and you’ll never be in sticky situation again:

ASSOCIATION: Examine the person’s face discretely when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, lips or any other part (without going south again). Create an association between that characteristic, the face, and the name in your mind. The association may be to link the person with someone else you know with the same name. Alternatively it may be to associate a rhyme or image of the name with the person’s face or defining feature.

REPETITION: When you are introduced, ask for the person to repeat their name. Use the name frequently during the conversation. If it is unusual, ask how it is spelled or what it means.