Like many people, I’ve never been good at remembering names. I feel guilty when I have to ask someone to repeat their name for the third time. It’s awkward when I see someone I might know and can’t make the connection. And when you start your own company, forgetting an investor or business partner’s name can be disastrous.

So I resolved to never forget a name again. Here’s how I did it:

The Magic of Name-Chaining

This is my version of a mnemonic link system. Individual pieces of information are easy to forget. When you chain information together, however, you often only need to recall one part of the chain for the rest to appear. It’s the difference between losing an earring down the drain and catching necklace before it falls away.

Here’s how it works: Whenever I meet someone new, I “chain” their name to an existing one. Instead of trying to remember, “Bob, Mark and Jamal” separately, just throw “Bob / Mark / Jamal” into a chain and try to remember all three names together as one. Repeat the names in your head and try to think of the faces in the same order.

This works very well at dinner parties and networking events, where you’ll often meet people in small groups. I find sets of three to be easiest to remember. If I meet only one or two people, I will link the name to the previous people I met or add my own name to the chain to get to three.

You can also build chains with categories. When a new guest arrives on Airbnb, I add her to a chain: “Michelle is here this week — she arrived after Paul and Joe.”

Chains don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Add names to multiple chains to build a web of memory.

You can even chain names with other pieces of information to help remember the location and setting. For example, “Bob / Thai food / Lark pitch”

Name chaining is magical because you only need to recall one name to recall the rest of the chain. This makes it much easier to commit names to long-term memory over time. It’s made me a much more effective entrepreneur in 2017.