You first need to establish a system for remembering the date and time of the appointment. Start by forming Peg Words for the months of the year and create vivid mental associations between the month and their pegs. For example:
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January February March April May June July August September October November December |
= = = = = = = = = = = = |
Snowman Cupid Marching Band Umbrella Flower June Bug Fireworks Cloud Blowing (a gust - of wind) Scepter Witch Turkey Santa Claus |
If necessary, form a link to help you remember these keywords.
If the appointment is in the same or following week it may only be necessary to remember the day. In that case you could use pegs for the days of the week.
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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday |
= = = = = = = |
Sundae Moon (day) Giant 2 Wedding Cake Thor Frying Pan Saturn |
To associate a specific day of the month you will need to learn the phonetic peg words which means learning the phonetic alphabet if you haven’t already done so. Once that is complete you will have a system for associating the month, day of the month, and if required the name of the day that date falls on.
To set the time of the appointment you will also use the phonetic alphabet and the keywords associated with the numbers that make up the time. All the keywords are then associated using the Link System. To illustrate:
Suppose that you have a dentist appointment on February the 12th, which is a Monday at 3:40. This provides the following key words:
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Appointment Month Date (12th) Day Time (3:40) |
= = = = = |
Dentist Cupid Tan Moon Mow, Rose |
To start the link you will need a key word image to associate Dentist and a logical choice would be a tooth. To remember your dentist appointment you could picture a tooth which is in pain because it had an arrow stuck in it which was shot by Cupid. Cupid had a deep red Tan and he is sitting on a crescent Moon. He got the tan because someone was trying to Mow a field of Rose flowers and all the petals were sticking to Cupid.
If you create vivid associations and have learned the Month, Day, and Phonetic Peg Words you will be able to recall the exact date, time, and nature of the appointment.
In the absence of a reliable appointment book this is the most effective system and certainly excellent practice for your memory because it encompasses many of the important mnemonic techniques.
