Of late, people are amazed at how I remember dates. I don't use an organizer or any fancy gadget or any website that sends me reminders every morning. Some people find it difficult to remember dates while they can recollect a whole lot of other things very easily such as faces and names. I have a fasciation for dates but I'm very bad at remembering names.
Here's my memory mapping secrets for dates (umm not really):
- Rule 1: Association
As a kid, we remember a lot of things and this number wanes gradually as we grow old. The key to remembering newer dates is to map them to what you already know like your friend's and family birthdays. Naturally, the dates I can remember easily are those that fall in the months of January, February, April, May, July and September (family birthdays). It takes an effort to remember the rest.
The first step is to group the dates and remember them in patterns. For instance, Jan 21, April 21, May 6, June 21, July 13 and September 25 come naturally to me. So when I came across dates such as Jan 22, April 24, May 8 or September 23 it was easy to associate.
People who share birthdays or anniversaries are the easiest.If they occur on a National holiday such as August 15th or Jan 26th all the more easier! - Rule 2: Recency or the last year rule
Every morning when I wake up, I make it a point to see what date is. It is a mental action item to do it around 7:30 a.m. or just before I go to bed the previous night. I then do a quick mental run to see if the date seems familiar. If I have done something substantial such as wishing someone on their birthday or anniversary last year, I generally remember that by way of what responses to e-mails or calls that I received. Don't ask me how. I just have a vague remeberance. The more frequently I do that, which is successively over the next few years, it becomes a habit. Usually, if I don't remember it in the morning, the likelihood that I would through the rest of the day is very bleak! - Rule 3: Grouping Dates
This rule works best to enrol newer dates into your memory. Birthdays of people from a similar profession or friends who are associated in some way to each other are easier to remember. One such group is March 20th to 22nd, July 9th to July 15th, Sept 21 to Sept 25th. - Rule 4: Day of the week
This is an offbeat rule which hascome in handy at times. There are events and the day of the week and the month that it occurred the previous year that I remember distinctly. Such dates even if I make an effort I generally fail at it. So if it happened on a Sunday last year, it would be on a Monday this year. This cannot and will not work for long!
Despite all this, there are dates that sound quite familiar like july 19th and I can't figure out what it represents. It is probably also worth mentioning that it is selective filtering. Not anything and everything goes in. Either the date or the person associated has to be special in some way (obviously done subconsciously) to get registered.