I have always been terrible at multiplication and when I am forced to do it always use a method identical to the grid method. Except I didn't know it had a name. I just cheated and did this because it seemed like a non-optimal but straight forward way to an answer that was self evidently correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(division)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_diagram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_bond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_method