Memory Tricks

I can't tell you exactly how it happened, because I am not a member; but I am on the AARP's e-mail subscription list.  When they have sage advice on certain subjects important to seniors they send them to me. And I thought my 4^th year in college was the last time I’d be a senior.  This week the subject was memory; and I thought I’d share the AARP’s seven tips to help with memory.

These suggestions are intended to address seven apparently common memory issues that strike the senior crowd.  If they have happened to me, I don't remember anything about it.  

They include forgetting the name of the person you were just introduced to, not getting everything on your grocery list, losing your keys, forgetting internet passwords, being unable to recall the name of a movie you just saw, forgetting where you parked your car, and forgetting important dates like birthdays.  

First, to remember a name, "Look, snap and connect."  You are supposed to really look at the person, listen to their name, snap a mental picture of the face and name, and then connect mentally by creating some sort of image that helps your brain connect a visual image to this person.  Really? By the time you have ordinarily forgotten the person's name you are supposed to come up with some clever image that will come to mind when you see this person, like this (let's see, his name is Jim, so I'll picture him at the gym on a treadmill, listening to music with earbuds, and the next time I see him the picture will snap in and I'll know...hey treadmill…that's Ted Mills!  No, wait, walking with earbuds… it's yeah, Bud Walker, or, he’s at the gym…is it Jim?  Yeah, Jim Nasium...  I don't think that one's gonna work for me.  How about if I take a picture of him with my smartphone and enter his contact name while he's standing there thinking--how cool is this, this guy really wants to remember my name?  Or will he be thinking just how weird is this, is he texting my picture somewhere?  (Advantage: smartphone)

For remembering the grocery list, you think up a story to include each item on the list.  I am not making this up, this is the actual example they used: "A chicken was eating cornflakes when a car burst through the wall.  A monkey was driving, throwing oranges out the window, he honked wildly as he drove off a cliff into a lake filled with milk."  Wouldn't it be simpler to write a list on paper, or better yet, on your smartphone like this--chicken, cornflakes, oranges, milk? (Advantage: smartphone) 

For recalling online passwords, create a template that you personalize for each site.  For instance, use a word number combination that's meaningful for you, like your address when you graduated from grammar school.  In my case, that's 331Taylor.  Then, you add the initials of the site, it it's your bank, Band of America, you'd use BA.  It will make sense to you but not to some hacker.  Or, you could make a list of passwords in small print and carry them around like this. Or put them on your smartphone, on one of those apps for your phone just don’t make it too obvious, if you lose your smartphone…. (Advantage: AARP)

Then there's finding your keys.  Just start using a smaller purse, ladies, or don't wear cargo pants, guys.... Oh, you mean at home--well that's easy, just keep a basket by the door and make a habit of putting them there every time you come in.  In fact, make it a bigger basket and you can put all your important stuff in it--like your wallet, spare change, old receipts, chewing gum wrappers, even your smartphone. (Advantage: AARP)

Now, coming up with the name of the movie you just saw.  You know, it's on the tip of your tongue but you just can't spit it out.  AARP says, try remembering the star of the movie with a mental picture that reminds you of the title.  Like what’s-his-name, the guy who was in Spiderman—picture that guy next to two men made of spiders, for Spiderman 2, if you can just remember what’s-his-name's name...  Or, if you ever remember his name, you could just Google it on your smartphone. (Advantage: smartphone)

Finally, how do you go about remembering everyone's birthday?  Well, you can use your Facebook account, which has an accounts notification page you can activate and it will store it under "has a birthday coming."  Not really friends with Facebook?  You can use the calendar function on your smartphone to store this information.  But first you have to find them out somehow, because—remember—you’ve forgotten them. (Advantage: smartphone)

Before I finish, in all seriousness, some people wonder if any of these occasional lapses might be cause to check in with your doctor, they aren’t.  But here are three you should take seriously: 

·      You know you've been forgetting things, but you can't remember what they were, or 

·      You not only don't remember the name of the person you just ran into, you don't recall him or her at all, or

·      You are unable to remember the name of someone quite close to you on a regular basis.  

If those things are happening to you, do this, get out the smart phone, and enter this on your to-do list app—“Make an appointment with that doctor guy before you forget his name.”

My take on this? Just get a smartphone or forget the whole thing. I have one….

By the way, have you seen it?  (Patting my pockets) I thought I put it right here.