How to Turn Any Random Object Into a Memory Cue

New York Magazine:

If you jot down a reminder on a Post-it, and then forget to put the post-it someplace visible, and then your deadline comes and goes and you never even see the reminder — did it ever really happen?

For all intents and purposes, no, not really. A reminder, after all, only deserves the label if it actually reminds; otherwise, it’s just some words on a piece of paper. But a new study in the journal Psychological Science makes the case for a better, less intuitive way to leave yourself reminders: a trick called the “reminders by association” approach, which pairs up random objects and images with items on your to-do list. Rather than remembering the thing you have to do, the study authors argued, just remember that you’ve imbued a mug or a ball or what have you with special significance; when you see the object later on, the rest will come back to you.

Read the whole story: New York Magazine