How to Remember Things: Part 1 – The Acronym Method
Posted on 15. Oct, 2010 by Cham Tang in Articles
You’re walking your cat, brushing your teeth or desperately pretending to listen to somebody…and then you have a few thoughts, like “man, I need to re-order some protein powder, i’m running low”. But since you can’t write it down, you forget…and then later what happens is:
- You think, “dammit! what was that thing I had to remember?”, or
- What? No protein powder left?! My muscles are totally going to deflate now 🙁
Anyways, here’s a quick and nasty method for remembering.
1. If you thoughts or ideas are:
- Re-order protein powder
- Reschedule lunch with Jessica Alba
- Start my own cool website like DrEfficiency.com
2. Pick the key word out of all 3 sentences. The one that would jog your memory the most.
- In the above example, it could be: Protein, Alba, Website
3. Make an acronym
Pick the first letters out of each. Eg. Protein, Alba, Website spells PAW.
4. Repeat it
Repeat it in your head a few times. “P, A, W, Protein, Alba, Website, P, A, W…”
5. Write it down
As soon as you can write it down, do so! It’s only a short term memory thing…like between 1 min – 24 hours short.
In another post, I’ll go through 2 long-term memory strategies AND triggering memories (eg. When I see Jessica, I must remember to tell her something).
Thanks for reading.
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