Jan

5 Life Hacks Make A Day to Remember

by Bruce Goldstone on January 23, 2014

Seven morning chores—from exercising and changing the cat littler to bringing your lunch, ID, keys, cell phone and reading glasses to work—that you can remember with a mnemonic.

Remember your morning chores—Say CLICKER.
© iStock*

A Mnemonic Device for Every Occasion

A mnemonic device is any trick that helps you remember something you tend to forget. It can be visual, verbal, or both. Use the mnemonics in these 5 life hacks to make your life a little bit easier all day long.

1. How to Remember Your Morning Routine

Tasks pile up in the morning. Suppose you want to remember to exercise, clean the kitty litter, and take your ID, lunch, keys, reading glasses, and cell phone to work.

It’s easy to let one thing slip, especially when you’re groggy. So, make a mnemonic checklist by arranging your chores to spell a word. CLICKER does the trick here.

Change kitty litter
Lunch
ID
Cell phone
Keys
Exercise
Reading glasses

2. How to Get Around Town

In any town, the order of streets can be hard to remember. For example, in New York City, the numbers are easy, but the avenues trip you up.

New York City viewed from above, representing a reason to use a mnemonic device as a useful life hack.

Can you remember which avenue is west of Third?
© janniswerner / iStock

A simple sentence memory jogger can help you stay on top of it. In New York, for example, just think pigs to remember the Upper East Side avenues.

Three piglets lead to five piglets, forming a mnemonic device that's a useful life hack to help you remember the upper east side streets in Manhattan.

Upper East Side pigs (We’re not making a judgment, really!)
© Anatolii Tsekhmister / iStock

Three Little Pigs Make Five.

Third Ave, Lexington Avenue, Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue.

3. How to Look Smart When You Help with Homework

Mnemonics can help kids of all ages in lots of subjects.

Left vs. Right For those who get left and right confused (even though they know the words well), have them hold out their thumbs and forefingers.

Thumb and forefinger of the left and right hands become a visual mnemonic device and useful life hack to help you tell left from right.

Left or right? Just look down.
© Bruce Goldstone

Like magic, the left hand shows an L.

Comparison Math The < (less than) and > (greater than) signs are easy to confuse, but not if you think of them as a hungry alligator.
The Greater Gator
© Eric Isselée / iStock

Of course, the alligator always wants to eat the bigger meal, so the open part of his mouth points to the greater amount:

10 > 2 Ten is greater than two. 2 < 10 Two is less than ten.

Memorable Life of Pi Hard to remember the first seven digits of pi? Just tell yourself: How I wish I could calculate pi. Count the letters in each word and you get 3.141592.

4. How to Get a Dinner Party Right

It’s after work, and you’re getting ready for a big dinner party. No time to waste, and then a jar decides to give you trouble and just won’t open.

A woman trying to open a jar models one way a mnemonic device can be a useful life hack.

Which way do you turn a lid to open it?
© Jan Mika / iStock

Think: Righty tighty, lefty loosey. That means the top of the jar goes to the right to tighten and left to loosen. This rule works for most screws and bolts, too. (Of course, you have to know left from right. If not, see above.)

Finally, the food is ready, but what about setting the table. Do you remember which side the fork goes on?

A place setting, modeling a situation in which a mnemonic device can be a useful life hack.

Can you remember how to place a place setting?
© Spike Mafford / Photodisc

If not, just count: Fork and left both have four letters, so put the fork to the left. Knife, spoon and right all have five letters, so the knife and spoon go to the right.

Maybe you’re adding place cards, too. Mental pictures can help you spell guests’ names correctly. Suppose one of your guests is Sherry. But does she spell her name with a final i or y?

A basketball and a martini, representing a mnemonic device that serves as a life hack to remember if a name is spelled with an i or a y.

Would Sherry prefer a basketball or a martini?
© Francesco Santalucia / iStock (L), © Richard Cote / iStock (R)

If it’s an i, think of her playing basketball, for the dot on the i. If it’s a y, think of her with a martini, which looks like a y.

5. How to Successfully Call It a Day

Whew! You made it through the whole day, and you didn’t forget anything! But don’t forget your bedtime chores. If you need to floss, charge your cell phone, take your meds, and set the alarm clock, think FACT:

Floss
Alarm
Charge Phone
Take meds

Oh, I see how mnemonic devices can hack life! What mnemonic tricks do you use to make your days a snap? Please tell us in a Comment.

*Top image credits: All images from iStock: ID © Tom Mc Nemar, lunch © Pictac, phone © Maksim Kabakou, glasses © Evgeny Karandaev, man © OSTILL, keys © cat litter © axelbueckert.

Inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Bruce Goldstone Comments

Clever Ideas/Secrets to Life

Jan

Creative Pictures Capture Time Passing

by Meredith Mullins on January 9, 2014

[nopinit]

Korean teacher reflected in mirror as younger self, one of a series of creative pictures by Tom Hussey on aging. (Photo © Tom Hussey)

A teacher sees her younger self, one of a series of creative pictures by Tom Hussey.
© Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography LLC. All rights reserved.

Tom Hussey’s Reflections on Aging

We are nine days old in the new year—a calendar transition accompanied by nostalgia for the past and hope for the future, as well as inspiration for resolution and reflection.

Today, in the spirit of reflection, OIC asks, “What happens when you look in a mirror?”

Meredith Mullins 3 Comments

Clever Ideas/The World's Photography

Dec

Before I Die, I Want to Write On a Candy Chang Wall

by Sheron Long on December 5, 2013

Girl writing on "Before I die" wall in Savannah, Georgia, where messages show that people are trying to gain perspective in their lives. Image © Trevor Coe.

Aim high to reach for your dreams and to write on a “Before I Die” wall. (Savannah, Georgia)
© Trevor Coe

Gaining Perspective at the Chalkboard

It was such a simple idea. Some colored chalk, a dusty chalkboard, a single sentence. But when it lit up the hopes and dreams of a community, it ignited similar projects in public spaces around the globe.

Candy Chang painting the "Before I die, I want to. . ." statements on a wall. Image © Kristina Kassem.

Candy Chang setting up a wall to capture a
community’s hopes and dreams.
© Kristina Kassem

Candy Chang’s first “Before I die, I want to . . .” wall went up in New Orleans in 2011. Still growing, the count as of today is more than

400 walls
60 countries
25 languages

For the communities involved, the experience is powerful. Most come to know their community better, gaining perspective on both their personal and shared values.

As Chang says, “The power of the project rests in the hands of the passerby who picks up a piece of chalk, pauses for a moment, and writes something honest, poetic, and occasionally heartbreaking.”

The First Wall—A Creative Idea Comes to Life

With degrees in Architecture, Graphic Design, and Urban Planning, Chang views our public spaces as a way to “nourish our well-being and see that we are not alone as we try to make sense of our lives.”

In New Orleans, she frequently passed by an abandoned house two blocks from her home.

Abandoned house in Candy Chang's New Orleans neighborhood where the first "Before I Die" wall was set up. Image © Candy Chang.

Abandoned house in Chang’s New Orleans neighborhood caught her eye as the site for the first wall.
© Candy Chang

One day, while grieving the loss of a loved one, she saw the old house with new eyes. She decided on a public art project that, by raising the specter of death, would invite the community to fixate on their hopes and dreams.

Like many creative ideas, this one was born through an experience, an “Oh, I see” moment, that pushed Chang to look at life differently.

Once she visualized the idea, she prepared a stencil for the statement and worked with her friends to ready the wall.

Stencil for the "Before I die" statement being created by Candy Chang. Image © Kristina Kassem.

And then Chang waited, not knowing if anyone would even understand the invitation to write. She describes the next day: “I was blown away. All eighty lines were filled and responses spilled into the margins.”

"Before I die" wall in New Orleans right after set-up. Image © Candy Chang.

"Before I die" wall in New Orleans within 24 hours after completion. Image © Candy Chang.

A very full "Before I die" wall in New Orleans. Image © Candy Chang.

Chang and her friends maintained the wall, documenting it, washing it, replenishing chalk. After seven months, the house sold and the wall came down.

More Walls and a Multitude of Messages

Walls have now popped up worldwide—in Kazakhstan, Portugal, Japan, Mexico, Denmark, Iraq, Argentina, South Africa, the USA, to name a few. And everywhere, people came to write.

Some unleashed their sense of humor, while others went in search of fame, fortune or great love. Dreams ran the gamut from purely practical pursuits to travel adventures far and wide. Most often, however, people sought well-being and a life lived long and well.

Before I die I want to. . .

hug a kangaroo. (Kézdivásárhely, Romania)
stare at the stars with the people I love. (Pohang City, South Korea)
feel comfortable in my skin. (Black Rock City, Nevada)
be tried for piracy. (New Orleans, USA—see photo)

Man writing on the New Orleans "Before I die" wall. Image © Kristina Kassem.

shake the world with my work. (Seoul, Korea)
have my own theme song. (Johannesburg, South Africa)
clean out the attic. (Dublin, Ireland)
eat all the candy and sushi in the world. (New Orleans, USA—see photo)

Mother and daughter writing on the "Before I die" wall in New Orleans. Image © Kristina Kassem.

A mother is just starting to record her dreams, but her daughter is quick to write,
“eat all the candy and sushi in the world.”
© Kristina Kassem

matter to someone. (Minneapolis, USA)
understand women. (Erfurt, Germany)
wave to the Earth from the moon. (Melbourne, Australia)
tell the world I was very happy. (Querétaro, Mexico)

Mother reaching high to write on a "Before I die" wall in Querétaro, Mexico. Image © Candy Chang.

Each “Before I die. . .” wall has its unique lifespan from a single day to months or more. But, when participants share the public space with hopes and dreams like these, they gain perspective that just may last a lifetime.

Before I Die Wall in Brooklyn, New York, part of a movement to share hopes and dreams started by Candy Chang. Image © Shake Shack.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

In Before I Die, written by Candy Chang and published by St. Martin’s Press, you can experience 48 different walls and the wisdoms recorded there.

Visit the Before I Die site to keep up with new walls or to obtain a tool kit for starting a wall in your community. You can also contribute to a “Before I Die” wall online.

Sheron Long 1 Comment

Clever Ideas/Making a Difference/Worldwide Sites

World Views:

Topics

Category Archives: Clever Ideas