No, really. How do you remember things? Do they just stick like post-it notes to your refrigerator of recollection, or do you have mental filing cabinets where everything gets stored alphabetically, or what?

I myself have an awkward, reverse-polish sort of way of storing things in my head. I need to construct a kind of framework for whatever the fact in question pertains to -- a larger structure, like a mental Christmas tree that I can hang the ornaments of data onto. Of course, this makes it difficult when I'm being presented with a lot of new information at once and I have to construct my mnemonic scaffolding in a hurry, before the facts themselves fall completely out of my short-term memory. Co-workers of mine say they can see my face screw up when I'm being presented with a new project, and it's because I need to somehow visualize the project as a whole thing, from beginning to end, before I can organize my particular tasks within it.

Maybe it's an ADD thing, I dunno. I'd just always assumed that everyone's brain worked this way, and that some were just more efficient at it than others.

If I have to remember something, perhaps to call someone at a specific time, or in a specific place, I do this:

I visualise myself just arriving at the place or time when I have to remember, then I picture myself remembering. The "just arriving" bit is very important - it seems as though the sense of something happening or changing is enough for my brain to kick in, to help me to say "Aha!"

So, if I have to remember to call my Mother when I get home, I picture myself taking off my boots and remembering to call my Mother. Note I don't picture myself calling my Mother, just the act of remembering.

This works, maybe 90% of the time.

Silly question; is this mnemonics?

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