Situations vs memory-methods chart
How to remember, for a variety of situations
I rarely ask this but please share this free weekly resource via email or LinkedIn (if you do it there, please tag me) with anyone interested in time, intentionality, agency and the like (maybe that’s everyone?) Some of you have been prolific in that regard, for which thank you.
TLDR: Different situations demand different methods to remember. Keywords really are key. Visualisation is more important to me than I had thought.
Word count: 516 words
Read time: 3 mins
The fairy dust of Substack tells me that 92% of you wanted to see the situations vs memory-methods chart. There it is, above. I’m glad you asked for it because I got a lot out of putting it together.
Here’s what I found interesting:
Keywords are useful in pretty much all situations. Whether you choose to internalise or get them down on physical paper, the encoding of the memory is likely to be via a keyword (I suppose it might also be a sketch for those with the ability and inclination). So, we should consider what makes a good keyword: relevant (if you get the keyword, you’ll get the thought back) and memorable (an uncommon word, a word you particularly like, a word that happens to mean something extra to you).
There are many situations (bottom half of table) in which making a digital or physical record won’t work. This means we will often have to rely on our mind alone to retain the thought. And for those that prefer to jot things down, help yourself by having a pencil/pen and paper around you in more situations (in your pocket, in your bag, in the car, etc).
Some activities fit snugly together. For example:
Keywords → Mnemonics > Out loud → Repeat
is a sequence that joins up nicely.
As is:
Keywords → Visualisation → Association
In fact, although I had thought that I don’t usually do visualisations, just yesterday I caught myself in the act! I was enjoying a swim when three ideas occurred. The first was that I needed to be in touch with someone at Lloyds Banking Group. The second was that I wanted to make a low-sugar apple crumble that evening. The third was that taking photos can also be a useful means of capturing a thought. Without much thought, I imagined a black horse (the iconic Lloyds Banking Group logo) eating sugar in a picture frame. That did the job, and soon after I got out of the pool I recalled the image and promptly emailed myself the three ideas, one of which is a part of this very blog.
How is all this relevant to timeboxing? First, I want to make the point that it needn’t be! This newsletter is about timeboxing of course, but about a lot else besides - including but not limited to: intentionality, making the most of our minds, productivity, serenity, inner peace, the psychology of procrastination. Not everything here is a PSA from my timeboxing soapbox! That said, timeboxing is a means of setting a good direction and staying on track. Thoughts that occur can be important for us while also take us off track. So, having ways and means of keeping the good, binning the bad, and getting back to just One Thing at a Time is in all our interests.
Have a go with some of these methods / situations, and see which work better for you. My hope is that there will be some good thoughts which will now be more resilient to the frailties of our complex, unfathomable, fickle minds.
Some fairies may yet be saved.
Links you may like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
My Insta for shorter-form content
Connect with me on LinkedIn (I will say yes!)