Simplified mental Calendar system

General Memory Chat
1

For quite some time I have been trying to figure out an optimal way to remember events in my personal and professional life.

I was looking for something simple that wouldn’t require too many loci and too much time to prepare or maintain (my first idea was to have 12 palaces holding 356 loci in total). I came up with a simplified system that has it’s pros and cons but for now seems to work quite well.

THE ‘STATUE’ CALENDAR SYSTEM

Basics

  • Everything is contained in a 12 loci memory palace. Every Loci holds a month (No mnemonics here, just common sense: 1st Loci is January, 2nd February, etc.).

  • To (1)remember the weekday for any given date and (2)Organize the events in a month (I will get to this in a minute), I use a big ‘statue’ to represent the first Monday of the month using the person from my pao system for that day.

Example: On the loci for August (A row of chairs in a big auditorium with a high ceiling) I see a massive Zorro (04 in my PAO system). A Zorro frozen in time, touching the ceiling with his head.

Planning events

  • Whenever I have an event to plan I turn it into an image using the following method: I visualize myself doing an action (A from PAO, for the date) using something (a person or Object) that represents the event (NOT FROM PAO) on either the bottom, middle or top of the ‘statue’ on that month. Dates from 1-10 go on the bottom (usually the feet), 11-20 on the middle (belly, butt or crotch area) and 21-31 on the top (usually the head).

Example: I have a meeting with Michael on the 1st of august.
In my PAO system 01 is Snoop Dogg rolling a blunt.
At Zorro’s feet (1-10th of august) I start visualizing myself rolling a human sized blunt with Michael laying inside of it.

  • When I am planning another event that happens in the same part of the month (beginning, middle or end) I use the chaining method to link the images together. This saves a lot of space and makes it easy to add things on the fly without needing a detailed memory palace where you know every loci and it’s corresponding date.

Example: I am going to the beach with my girlfriend on the 3th of august.
In my PAO system 03 is Superman flying with his cape.
After rolling Michael I start smoking the blunt and blowing the air in a beach ball. The smoke works like helium and by holding on to the ball I start hovering/flying right above the floor.

Adding time

  • Most of the time memorizing the date and the event will be enough but sometimes the time a meeting or appointment starts is crucial. To memorize this I use the object from my PAO for the specific time.

Example: The meeting with Michael starts at 11.
In my PAO system 11 is Eleven from stranger things crushing a Coca Cola can.
Just before rolling Michael inside the blunt I empty a can of Coca Cola on his head.

Sometimes events start on odd times (like 12:35) in this case you have 2 options.

  1. Using the person from your PAO for the hour (By having them perform the action instead of yourself) and the object for the minutes
  2. Using a different system for the minutes (shaper system, rhyme system,..)

Pro’s

  • No need for big palaces where you know every loci for every date
  • No separate rooms or locations. The 12 Statues allow to store events vertically allowing you to keep a good overview of all your loci
  • Quick to learn when you already have a PAO system set up

Cons

  • Ordering issue: One ‘problem’ I have using this method is that the events are often not in chronological order. I could reorganize the chain to fit the order but I worry this might get confusing or take to much time when doing this on the fly. Up till now I haven’t ever reorganized any events and this hasn’t been an issue but since I am chunking everything in beginning, middle and end, I could at least limit the re-ordering to that specific chunk.

  • Day of the week: I started out by adding a weekday image to every event but soon figured out this took extra time and started getting cloudy with all the repetition. That’s why I opted for the ‘statue’ technique. To figure out the day of the week an event happens I have to calculate using the number of my Statue. This works fine for the first week or so but gets slower at some later dates. Adding a week day number would also be annoying with recurring events like holidays or birthdays, which happen on a different day each year I have yet to figure out a more efficient solution for this problem.

WORTH MENTIONING

  • Not everyone needs a system like this. I understand people like to use things like google calendar which I still use too. These are useful both as a back-up, for recall and for notifications . The system described above helps me to have a mental overview and peace of mind. It also helps me plan things quickly by knowing when I am available without having to check my phone.
  • I have been using mnemonics sporadically for about 5 years but only regularly for about a year (Mostly to learn Spanish and Geography). I am getting faster at creating Images but still prefer set images for quick memorization in situations like this. Which is why I like the Idea of leaning onto my PAO system instead of creating fresh images for every date or time.
  • I have only been using this system for about a month and so far I like it. It does take a couple minutes every day to rehearse and a little time to get used to the format in which I transform the events, dates and times to images.
  • I have done a little research on this subject but have not found a lot of good systems that fit my needs. I would love to hear what y’all think of this system and if you have any alternatives or ways to improve it.

This is my first post on here so thanks a lot for reading it :slight_smile:
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thomas

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2

Really interesting, i also tried for a while to use a 12 loci system based on zodiac signs and as you i’ve been in troubles with chronological order.

Entity - Color - Texture Calendar System

Basics for dates:

At the base of my easy way to remember event dates i use a major system combined to a memory matrix, i assign to every day of the month his corresponding calendar number peg (that in reality are entire loci) and i assign to the single peg, objects and people that can hint me of the event.

Basics for hours

For the hour of the event i have a 24h format system based on colors and textures(such as in SEM3):

  • I assign a number to a color(usually using the resistors’ colors to let it be multipurposal but here the first number of the hour can be just 0, 1 and 2 so i assign at 0 white, 1 warm colors , 2 cold colors).

  • I assign a number to 10 texture patterns
    (0 = smooth, 1 = rough, 2 = parallel lines, 3 = zigzag parallel lines, 4 = grid, 5 = pentacles, 6 = parallel sinusoids, 7 = sinusoids and cosinusoids, 8 = circles, 9 = spirals)

Decoding

My decoding system consists of: seeing the figure and understanding which type of event it represents, looking first at the color of the figure to get the first number of the hour and then look at the texture for the second number.

example

for example if i have a bowling match at 15:00 (24h clock) of the first day of the month i would imagine a goddes (dea in my language) that grabs soil and turn it into a yellow bowling ball with a nice looking pentacles pattern.

As i said i use pegs as loci so my goddess(that has 4 to 6 arms, depending on the need) can hold at least 5 events without being confused.

Cons:

  • you have to be comfy to use colors and textures

  • for simplicity you don’t have minutes but this isn’t a problem for me because i want always to be in advance of 30 minutes.

  • you can’t exactly find the event by the hour but you have to find the hour by the event.

  • It uses 24h format but i think that it could be adapted to 12h format.

  • you have to vividly see the color and texture of the entity.

Pros:

  • you can remember the hour by image or by logical attribute.

  • if you keep the convention of reading the color first and then the texture you can’t be confused about the hour of the events.

  • you have separated days loci instead of a single month locus so you have a chronological “map” where knowing the number of the day grants you access to all events planned for it.

  • If you are used to major system and colors its easy to place somethig on the fly as you need just one entity to place in it.

  • you can use it in synergy with a PAO system to reduce images number and attach a 2 digits number to anything you want to be sure to not confuse.

PH

3

Thanks for your response. I really enjoyed reading your method! I especially like how you’ve encoded the hour using color and texture. I can see how it could work well to compress detail into a single image.

That said, I’m still a bit unclear on how you’ve structured the calendar layout itself. You mention using calendar number pegs as loci. This raises two questions:

1. How/where do you visualize all of this?

Do you place these pegs on a grid that looks like a calendar?
Do you just link events to pegs that are not connected by a location?
Do you use a memory palace?

2. How do you handle multiple months?

Am I right in thinking that you use a standard Major System peg list (1–31) to represent the days of the month? If so, do you use a separate set of 31 pegs for each month, or do all months share the same 1–31 structure with something added to distinguish them?

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Nice to hear you found my post useful.
To answer your questions:

1) Visualizing and retrieval:

  • I use spatial memory exclusively inside of palaces and mainly for supposedly long lasting informations, if i have to rememeber something by number as in this case, i rely exclusively on logical or ordered lists as an index.

  • Every peg as i’ve said is a detailed little palace with a variety of objects and backgrounds that to me are naturally connected to it (for example my 14th day is a tower but i see also that is on a mountain, i see its interior, its top details and so on).

  • Pegs are not placed in any visual rappresentation at all, i hear “day number #”, i connect instantly to its corresponding major system peg and do my stuff.

  • The main peg list is exclusively used for the current month as i think that reusable lists are better for medium term reuse(i fear a too much strong connection, difficult to erase if used for more time).

So if i learn that the 14th of the month i’ll have to backup office servers at 22:00, i come directly at my mountain tower and i place a computer freezed with blue screen of death flying around my tower on a green cloud with a parallel lines texture (usually these textures in my mind are 3D), i leave my tower and remember to return to it as often as forgetting curves say.

Usually in my palaces, if possible, i try to place events in a certain order that i choose on the moment based on palace shape and nature, sometimes vertically and sometimes orizzontally, circularly or depthly.

2) Multiple months handling:

For multiple months i switch partly my system to my old system of zodiac signs but updated.

  • Every sign is assigned to the month where that specific sign start its cycle, every sign is a palace too but this time i create loci progressively instead of having a default list(this for avoiding ghost images and data corruption).

  • The loci that i create represents the day and are merely containers made with the only criteria of being memorable while their color indicates the first digit of the date and the texture the second one.

  • The events here are extremely few, just the important ones as i prefer to assign no more than two events per day.

  • Events keep the convention as in the peg list system

Example:

If i have to present myself to the tribunal the 26th of october at 09:00, i’ll attach to my scorpio a purple electric drill with a sinusoids style case to its sting and it will drill a white judge hammer decorated with 3D spirals.

Notes:

  • in all these systems i use actions as a mere glue for letting images be memorable.

  • I use year planning careful and for the very important events as i want to avoid burden and long repetition.

Now i would like to hear from you something about how you built your PAO system itself and maybe some tips as i tried pretty everything but cards and PAO:

  • How do you prevent an action or object to return to its natural owner?

  • How do you prevent a long term connection from keeping popping up after having finished its job?

  • Do you have any tips for better managing/creating/applying it to anything?

Thanks in advance!

PH

2 Likes
5

Thank you for explaining. I like your system a lot! As long as ghost images dont become an issue this could be really usefull. Maybe alternating between the standard pegs for even months and other pegs (using the shaper system for example) for uneven months could allow for even more time to forget the associations created in the past.

For now reviewing future events in my main system is still doable (since I don’t have loads of them yet), but I will keep your seperate zodiac palace in mind if I ever need it!

I am curious though. Did you make up these little peg palaces or are they places you know?

Even though I like your color/texture method I think a PAO system might help you with numbers for times and dates.

About my PAO system
I’m not entirely sure what you mean to ask or If you fully understand the usage of a PAO system but I will try my best anyways :slight_smile:

PAO BASICS
Yes, my people, actions and objects are logically connected.
The person comes from either the Major System or from a logical connection.
the action and object are logical associations from the person.
(For example: 03 = Superman (SM in major system) is Flying using a Cape)

The PAO is used to store (up to) 6 digits by mixing People, actions and objects from different numbers. If I where to memorize the number 030303 It would just be the original combination but this almost never happens. The power of this technique lies in the way you can combine numbers.

For example: I need to memorize this date 01/05/'03
I use the Person that represent 01 (Snoop Dog) doing the Action that represents 05 (Crashing)

So, in a way each, yes, each P,A and O are paired or connected to a number. But it might be easier to look at them as 3 seperate pegs for the same number. The order tells you what digits they stand for.

How to create your own PAO system
This is a very easy process and will 100 be worth it whenever you want to memorize longer numbers (dates, telephone numbers,…). It does take some time to set up and get familiarized with but I absolutely think it will be worth it.

  1. Find a person for every two digit number 00-99
    Start by finding logical associations if you can find any (footbalplayer back number, Jesus became 33 years old,etc.)
  2. For the other numbers use the major system to find initials or first consonants (James Bond=69, Vladimir Putin=89, ToM cruise=13, etc.)

Next try finding a logical association for the action and object of every person.
This could be anything you want (usually the first thing you think of will be the best)
just make sure to never use the same object or action for another number. Objects or actions that are too similar should also be avoided.

Once you have your system it’s time to memorize it to make it second nature. You can do this by:

  1. Rote memorization or flashcards
  2. Put them all in a memory palace
  3. Start memorizing number (I started with the first 100 digits of pi using just 17 loci)

Note that you can use this for 6 digit numbers but also for 4 or 2 digit numbers by just using the objects or actions.

Btw, you can also make a PAO system for cards.
Try to make 4 categories (for example: Diamonds are Hollywood actors, Spades are ficitional charachters, Clubs are famous people from your country and Hearts are people you know) Everything else is the same. When you want to memorize a deck of cards pick a palace with at least 17 Loci.

Let me know if you found this usefull or have any other questions!

1 Like
6

Thanks for the detailed explanation and sorry for being late in my response as i was abroad for work.

i’m not new to PAO mechanics, i was curious about your implementation and i’m glad to hear from you hints like creating it synergized with major system and cards, its definitely one of the next things that i plan to do.

Also i think that 100 digits of Pi stored in just 17 loci is a pretty compact configuration.

Returning to your questions:

  1. My little palaces are entirely fictional or barely based on real places/things (i would be curious to know about yours)

  2. Yes alternating with shaper system could be a great way to avoid ghosts but i prefer to keep peg lists separate (my shaper is for dreams and knots).

  3. Ghost images are not so much of a problem as i forgot to say that my temporary palaces are a bit inconsistent, if i feel that a palace has runned out of its retentive power and i have to use it, i review it entirely, decontextualizing it and modifying it and getting out a new version until it feels fresh.

For example my tower if exausted could become a skyscraper shaped as a medieval tower until the original one doesn’t get back its freshness.

It could sound unintuitive but its my way to avoid burden.

In the end i hope to not have bored you and i enjoyed reading about your system as i think that i’ll merge it with mine (surely with a bit of customization).

Also i absolutely don’t want to monopolize your post as it could be very interesting to hear from others their techniques about dates and times.

PH.