How do you actively remember and how do you actively forget?

If I speak something, I remember it better.

For example, if you ask me to remember a phone number written on paper, the only way possible is repeating it aloud a few times.

I can make myself remember at least one thing for when I wake up, if I give the thought emphasis somehow and tuck it away in my head. This made me curious, what other people do.

I also just saw a video with Joshua Foer who wrote the book Moonwalking with Einstein

I can remember almost anything if you put it to a tune. I memorized 65 digits of pi by listening to “The Pi Song.”

This Pi song? ^

I remember stuff by making silly acronyms, like if I wanted to remember the names of the places Germany lost in the war, I’d do MAD PRUNE for Memel. Alsace Lorraine. Danzig. Posen. Rhineland. Upper Silesia. North Schleswig. Eupen Melmedy. I sometimes make silly rhymes too…
No idea how I forget them though.

K. We needed to got to the store for another gallon of paint. I also needed some thread, and I RARELY sew so that is something I could have easily forgotten. I envisioned the paint can with a hat on that looked like thread. Hair all hanging down and stuff. When I saw the paint can at the store I saw that in my mind and I remembered the thread.

Remembering

I need a lot of help with this—always have; it’s not just age, although I have gotten worse with time. I’ve been a bit absent-minded since I was a kid.

What I do depends on the type of thing I have to remember.

If it’s about a physical object, something I know I’m apt to lose track of, I’ll say aloud what I’m doing with it, preferably to someone else, and match an action to the word: “I am now putting the receipt in the zip compartment of my purse.” “I am now putting the vacuum cleaner bags on the top shelf in the hall closet.” Giving myself a visual aid reinforced with an announcement helps a lot.

For things I need to find only after a long interval (passport, replacement watch band), I leave myself reminders. First of all I try to put the thing in whatever spot I went to the last time I searched for it. Whatever I thought was logical once is probably what I’ll return to. Often when I look there I’ll find a note I don’t even remember writing: “Passport is in filing cabinet under P.” “Watch bands are in second drawer on the left.”

I also keep a file on my computer called ‘Locator’, and there I keep a list of miscellaneous things I’ve stored someplace.

If it’s for short term, I write little notes. I used to come home from work with Post-its stuck to my purse. Later I started sending myself e-mails. Once I told my husband, “The most important messages I get every day are the ones I send myself.” I also put reminders on my calendar: “Get allergy shot. Make mammogram appointment.”

When it comes to remembering information, I have to write it down. If I can’t see it in writing, it doesn’t stick. I could never do a conversational language course. I remember visually. I carry a notebook to doctors’ appointments and write everything down, beginning with what I told him by way of symptoms or results. I record stats like weight and blood pressure, what he diagnosed, and what he prescribed or advised. Sometimes we both consult my notes.

To memorize something, I write it and read it and say it over and over. I practice it with someone who prompts me when I slip. I test myself by writing it out—and check it right away so writing doesn’t reinforce a mistake. I incorporate visual cues whenever possible to help me hold onto it.

Forgetting

Deliberate forgetting is very hard, nearly impossible. Despite how hard I have to work to remember things I want to remember, remembering things I want to forget is effortless.

But I have found one thing that helped, and that is a replacement memory. For example, a dental technician once made a really stupid remark to me while cleaning my teeth, and I found that it came to mind after that every single damn time I brushed my teeth. It was incredibly annoying. So I let my mind leap to the very first alternative I thought of—an innocuous meaningless phrase—and every time I felt memory artifact 1 returning, I forced myself to jump to memory artifact 2. After a while I could go right to memory artifact 2, which was equally stupid but not annoying. I guess you could say this was the Methadone program for memory extinction.

If I had a traumatic memory to deal with, I’d be seeking therapy and probably trying EMDR, which has already worked for me on a relatively minor but troubling matter.

I have a folded paper in my pocket where I write down things that need doing and things that need remembering. : )

Did you remember to put the paper in your pocket @mazingerz88?? :)

You never forget…you just move on with your life. Remembering is a whole other challenge and why I think I got married to have someone to remind me of all sorts of things.

@Dutchess_III Yes. And only because I have a note clipped to my comb to remind me! Lol.

@everephebe Yup, that’s the one!

If I have something to memorize I start with the last paragraph/verse etc. and work back to the start. By the time I have learned the first bit the whole thing will roll out.

To remember things, I find discussing it with someone else really helps. I try to choose someone who will question me and push me to remember facts and brainstorm the topic. I also write things down or use shapes/colours to help me memorise information.

To forget things, I don’t think you do. If I don’t want to focus on something and I don’t want it in my head, I tend to compartmentalise things. I call it mentally “shoving it in a box and pushing it under the bed”. The problem or whatever it is is still there though. I am just choosing not to consider it at this time and at times my system fails when something happens and that thing is dragged from under the bed by circumstances or other people.

Remembering: plenty of sleep

Forgetting: Reframing (creating new primes)