“The man who is always punctual in keeping appointments
never loses anything by it.”
“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 ehapter, 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 if 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 length of the explanation frighten you; once you understand 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 1to7. 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
Tuesday-2
Wednesday-3
Thursday-4
Friday -5
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 appointment. 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 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 4:00o’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 at10:00 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 handing 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
at11:00 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.
Monday
|
11:00 – dotted, toted
12:00 – tauten, tootin’
|
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, iaden
|
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 is thought of 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
–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 kno2w 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
hover exactly, and others for say, 3:15, 3:30 or 3:45, but I find that it
doesn’t matte. 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 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 would belongs first, and which
belongs last. Well, the problem is solved in the same manner as it was 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, followed 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 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” (23
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 12:00 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 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 7:00P.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 ar 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, birthday, etc., but
for the time being, you should never forget any weekly appointments, if you
following 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 . heave 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!
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