Memory Magic

Where’s My Umbrella?

It’s raining when you go into the café to meet your friend for coffee. You shake out your umbrella and put it in the stand or by your chair. While you share conversation and a latte the sun comes out and everything is bright and pretty. You get up to leave, hug and say goodbye and walk out with a smile in your heart but no umbrella. You may not remember that umbrella until the next time it rains. It has joined the great collection of lost items.

This same scenario plays out thousands of times every day. Cameras, portfolios, laptop computers and countless other items are separated from their owners by the simple process of forgetting. Simple distractions separate us from our possessions or make us forget our errands. We are victims of the ‘Seldom Things.’

The item left is something out of the ordinary. We don’t always have it with us. It is the umbrella, or the box of cookies, or an errand to run. These are the ‘Seldom Things’. We almost never leave the things we use all the time. We always have our car keys. We never leave a wallet or purse or a coat behind. These are the ‘Always Things.’

To always remember the ‘Seldom’ things, we merely need to tie them to the ‘Always Things.’ That which we always do can act as an alarm to remind us of ‘Seldom Things’. If we always get our coat before we leave then we will notice anything different about the coat. If we turn one sleeve inside out, or button the second button, or turn the collar inward, we will notice it when we go to leave. This tells us that there is a ‘Seldom Thing’ today.

If our car keys are always in the left front pocket of our trousers or skirt, it will stand out in our minds if we move them to another pocket when there is something special to remember. If the strap of the purse is zipped in or tied in a knot, it will trigger our memory to the ‘Seldom Things’ that we don’t want to forget.

So, the next time you have an umbrella, or camera, or an errand you need to remember, think of it as you turn the sleeve of your coat inside out, move your keys to a different pocket or change the configuration of your purse. You’ll remember every time.

The very simplest math trick is to multiply a number by one.  Any number times one is, of course, the same number. Every body knows that, but there are corollaries and implications of this trick that are often missed. 

 We often see something like 21 x 32 as a problem of multiplying by 21.  Actually in a simpler form it is a process of multiplying by 2 and then by 1.  Consider that 2 x 32 is equal to 64. We add a zero because it was actually 20 that we multiplied by.  So 20 x 32 = 640.  Now we just have to add 1 x 32 or 32.   640 + 32 =672.  This is much easier than trying to multiply by 21 and with practice can be done very quickly.   Conversely 19 x 32 is really 20 x 32 or 640 minus 1 x 32.  So 19 x 32 = 608.  When the concept is fully grasped it takes just a second to do the calculation.