"No, only about half an hour waiting for the other fellow to show up."
there isn't much I can do about those of you who know that you have an appointment, and get there late, anyway. But I think I can help you if you forget those appointments completely. You've already learned, in a previous chapter, how to remember your errands or appointments for each day. You can still use that idea; but if, in your particular business, or even socially, you find it necessary to keep numerous appointments during the week at certain times of day, you'll be interested in this chapter. The system contained here is one which enables you to make a conscious association as soon as you've made an appointment. By making this association, you can recall all your appointments for each day of the week without bothering with a date or memo book.
For those of you who don't care about remembering weekly appointments or schedules, I would suggest that you learn the idea behind the method anyway. You never know when you might find it useful. Please don't let the
189 length of the explanation frighten you; once you under
stand and use it, there's nothing to it.
The first thing you must do, is to give a number to each day of the week. Since there are seven days in the week, you'll number them from 1 to 7. According to our calendar, Sunday is the first day of the week; but I have found that many people refer to Monday as the first day. This, I imagine, is because of our work-a-day world, and the first day of work is Monday. I will therefore use Monday as the first day in the following explanation. If you are accustomed to considering Sunday as the first day of the week, just change the explanation as you read. From now on remember the days of the week in this manner:—
Monday—1 Thursday—4 Tuesday—2 Friday—5
Wednesday—3 Saturday—6
Sunday—7
Once you know the number of each day of the week, you can transpose any day at any hour to one of your peg words. That's right, you will use the peg words which you already know, to help you remember schedules and appointments. Each day at every hour will be represented by a peg word, and you don't have to remember anything to know the words; it works itself.
Any day at any particular hour can be transposed into a two digit number in this way:— The number of the day will be the first digit, and the hour itself will be the second digit. For example, if you wanted to remember an appointment for Wednesday at 4:00 o'clock—Wednesday is the third day, so # 3 is the first digit. The appointment is for 4:00 o'clock, so #4 is the second digit. You now have a two digit number—# 34, and the peg word for # 34 is "mower." Therefore, "mower" must represent Wednesday at 4:00 o'clock!
Monday at 2:00 o'clock would be "tin." Monday is the first day, and the time is 2:00 o'clock. In the same way, you would arrive at the following:—
Thursday at 1:00 o'clock—rod (41)
Friday at 8:00 o'clock—lava (58)
Sunday at 6:00 o'clock—cage (76)
Tuesday at 9:00 o'clock—knob (29)
Simple, isn't it? Of course, if you can transpose the day and hour to a peg word, it is just as easy to transpose a peg word to the day and hour. "Notch," for example, is your peg word for #26; so it must represent Tuesday (2) at 6:00 o'clock.
There are two hours that cannot be represented by a peg word. That is because they themselves are composed of two digits. I mean, of course, 11:00 and 12:00 o'clock. Ten o'clock can be transposed to a regular peg word, because it is thought of as zero only, instead of one and zero. In other words, Saturday at 10:00 o'clock would be transposed to #60 (cheese), because Saturday is the sixth day and 10:00 o'clock is zero. "Rose" (40) would represent Thursday at 10:00 o'clock; Monday at 10:00 o'clock is "toes," and so on.
I'll give you two methods for handling eleven and twelve o'clock, both of which have been tried and tested. The first method is the obvious one (although not the better one) because it follows the same system as the other hours. Transpose any day at eleven or twelve o'clock to a three digit number by adding the 11 or 12 onto the number of the day. I.E.—Tuesday at 11:00 o'clock—211; Thursday at 12:00 o'clock—412; Sunday at 12:00 o'clock—712; Wednesday at 11:00 o'clock—311, etc. Now, you would have to make up a peg word, following the phonetic alphabet, which would fit each day at eleven or twelve o'clock. The words you select would be used all the time for those days and hours. If you want to use this idea (don't make
up your mind until you've read the second method) I'll give you some examples of words that can be used. You can pick any of these, or any that you find by yourself.
Tuesday 11:00—knotted, knitted 12:00—Indian, noddin'
Wednesday 11:00—mated, imitate
12:00—mutton, mitten
Thursday 11:00—raided, radiate 12:00—rotten, written
Friday 11:00—lighted, loaded
12:00—Latin, laden
Saturday 11:00—cheated, jaded
12:00—jitney, shut in
Sunday 11:00—coated, cadet
12:00—kitten, cotton
The following method, I think, is the better of the two. First of all, I transpose the day at 11:00 or 12:00 o'clock into a two digit instead of a three digit number. I do this by considering 11:00 o'clock as a one, and 12:00 o'clock as a two. Now, Friday at 11:00 o'clock is thought of as 51; Friday at 12:00 o'clock—52; Sunday at 11:00 o'clock—71; Sunday at 12:00 o'clock—72, etc. Of course, you can't use your regular peg words for these, since they are already being used for one and two o'clock; so use any other word, that fits phonetically, for these numbers.
Let me give you a few examples:— For Tuesday at 11:00 o'clock, you could use the word "nut"; later on, when you picture your association (I'll explain the associations in a moment) you will know that "nut" couldn't represent Tuesday at 1:00 o'clock because you would have used your regular peg word, "net" for that. So, "nut" must stand for Tuesday at 11:00 o'clock.
Saturday at 12:00 o'clock could be represented by "chin." Your regular peg word, "chain," represents Saturday at 2:00 o'clock, so you know that "chin" must mean Saturday at 12:00. Do you get it, now? Basically, it's this:— For any day at eleven or twelve o'clock use the same sounds that you would use for that day at one or two o'clock, but do not use your regular peg word. That's all there is to that!
If all your appointments are usually made for the exact hour, on the hour, you actually need read no further about memorizing appointments; you have all the information you need right now. Supposing you have an appointment to see your dentist at 9:00 o'clock on Tuesday, and you want to be sure that you won't forget it. Well, transpose Tuesday at 9:00 o'clock, to the peg word, "knob," and associate that to dentist. You might picture a gigantic doorknob as a dentist, or you could see (and feel) your dentist pulling a knob from your mouth, instead of a tooth.
If you had to remember to make a deposit at your bank on Monday at 2:00 o'clock—you would associate "tin" to bank. You have to catch a plane on Friday at 11:00 o'clock —associate "loaded" or "lad" (according to the method you're using for 11:00 and 12:00 o'clock) to airplane. Wednesday at 10:00 o'clock you have to visit a friend— associate "mice" to your friend, etc.
If you usually have appointments with people whom you do not know too well, or if you cannot picture them, use a substitute word for their names in your associations.
That's all you have to do. If you have made an association for all your appointments for an entire week, and you want to remember what you have scheduled for, say, Tuesday— simply go over the peg words for that particular day:— Tuesday—nose, net, nun, name, Nero, nail, notch, neck,
knife, knob, knitted or knot, and Indian or neon. As soon as you reach a peg word that has been associated, you'll know it! You might reach "neck," and know immediately that you've made a picture of neck, and say, hospital. This will remind you that you have to visit a sick friend at the hospital at 7:00 o'clock on Tuesday! That's all! Again, you need only try it to be convinced that it works.
As far as I personally am concerned, this is all I use to remember my weekly schedule. Some of my appointments may be arranged for the hour exactly, and others for say, 3:15, 3:30 or 3:45, but I find that it doesn't matter. If I associate the day of the appointment at 3:00 o'clock, on the hour, true memory tells me that the date is for fifteen, thirty or forty-five minutes past the hour. However, there may be some of you who must remember the exact time, to the minute, for some appointments, such as catching trains, etc. In order to do this, you must add only one word to your mental picture. You would actually be remembering a four digit instead of a two digit number.
The second pair of digits will represent minutes, while the first two digits represent the day and the hour. For example, if your appointment with the dentist was on Tuesday at 9:42 o'clock—transpose the day and hour to "knob" (29), and get "rain" into the association to represent 42. You realize, of course, that in this case you are faced with the same problem as you were when learning to memorize the four trunk line digits of a telephone number.
In the above example, how will you be sure that your dental appointment is for Tuesday at 9:42, and not for Thursday at 2:29? This could happen if you weren't sure as to which peg word belongs first, and which belongs last. Well, the problem is solved in the same manner as it was solved for telephone numbers. The best solution is to make a "logical illogical" association, so that, even though it is a ridiculous picture, one peg must logically follow another.
If you made a picture of your dentist pulling a "knob" from your mouth, instead of a tooth, and doing it in the pouring "rain," you would know that knob came first, fol
lowed by rain. Any of the other suggestions that I gave you for telephone numbers will apply for appointments, too. If you used the Link for your picture—you would associate dentist to knob, and then knob to rain. The idea of using a word other than the regular peg word, for the last two digits (in this case, the digits representing the minutes) is just as applicable here. That would help for any day at any time, except 11:00 or 12:00 o'clock, where it wouldn't be necessary, since you are not using a regular peg for the day and time, anyway.
You are the best judge as to just which ideas to use. I would suggest trying them all; the one that comes easiest to you, of course, is the right one for you. Although, as I told you, I don't think it necessary to bother with the minutes of an appointment—If I did want to remember the minutes, I would do it this way:— On Monday at 3:25 I must remember to pick up a television set—I would picture a television set acting as a "tomb" stone, while "nails" perform on the screen.
You see, I use the logical illogical picture idea. The association above will leave no doubt that "tomb" (Monday at 3:00 o'clock) comes first, followed by "nail" (25 minutes). One other example:— On Wednesday at 12:10, I have a date to go swimming—I would make a picture of myself swimming; I hit a "mine" which injures my "toes." Now, when I go over my pegs for Wednesday of that week: mice, mat, moon, mummy, mower, mule, match, mug, movie, map, mitt and mine (I always use "mitt" to represent Wednesday at 11:00, and "mine" for Wednesday at 12:00), I will be reminded of this ridiculous picture. I know that "mine" is not one of my regular pegs, so it must represent 12:00, not 2:00 o'clock. "Toes" (10), being the last part of the association, represents the minutes; so I know that my swimming date is for Wednesday at 12:10.
These are the ideas that I use; but again let me stress that what is best for me, is not necessarily best for you. This must be left to your own discretion; which I'm sure you will use, once you understand the basic principles involved.
You might be wondering about one little thing at this point, and that is, "How do I differentiate between say, 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.?" Well, that is a good theoretical question, but if you stop to think for a moment, you will realize that there can hardly be any conflict, if you use this system for practical purposes. The appointments that you make for the evening are usually so vastly different than those made for the morning, that they couldn't possibly become confused. You will certainly know, for example,
whether you usually see your dentist in the morning or in the evening. You also would know that your dinner date is for 7:00 p.m. and not 7:00 a.m. And, if you had an appointment to meet a friend for lunch in front of the Public Library, and got there at 1:00 a.m., you'd be awfully hungry by the time you had lunch.
So you see, there's really no problem there. Of course, if you had to, you could put a word into your ridiculous association to tell you whether it was a.m. or p.m. You could use "aim" for a.m. and "poem" for p.m., or any other words that use those letters. You might even use white and black; get black into your mental picture to stand for p.m., and white for a.m. But, believe me, all this is hardly necessary; I only mention it to show that you can remember anything with the use of a conscious association.
Now you can discard your note and memo pads, if you USE the systems explained in this chapter. Remember, only if you use it, will it help you. Here are the bare bones of the system:—
When you make an appointment, transpose the day and hour (and/or minutes) to peg words.
Associate the appointment itself to these peg words.
When you arise on the morning of each day (or, if you like, the evening before) go over all your pegs for that day.
When you come to a peg that has been used in an association, you'll know it—this will remind you of what you have to do at that particular hour.
As the day goes on, you might make it a habit to check your peg words for the day, periodically. This is in case one appointment has slipped your mind, even though you were reminded of it in the morning.
In the next chapter, I will show you how to remember important dates throughout the year, such as, anniversaries, birthdays, etc., but for the time being, you should never
forget any weekly appointments, if you follow these rules.
The information you've been taught here can be practiced, or used as a memory stunt in the following manner:—
Have a friend call out certain errands for different hours of different days of the week. They needn't be called in order, since appointments are never made in any particular order, anyway. Have him write these down as he calls them off to you. After he has called about twenty of them, simply go over your peg words for Monday (toes, tot, tin, tomb, etc.) and call back all the Monday appointments. Do the same for each day of the entire week. Or, he can give you the time of day, and the day, and you give him the errand, and so on.
Then give your friend a half hour to remember the same list. The odds are he will fail miserably!