How to set reminders in your brain

 you need to visualize the stuff you want to remember in the location where you want to remember the stuff.

This solves a problem I sometimes have where I really want to remember something, but it is not practical to write it down or set a reminder on my phone.

This could for example be in the shower when I realize I've run out of shampoo and need to buy more. By the time I'm dry and dressed I will have forgotten. So I need a way of remembering the shampoo.

The way I do this is to pick a location where I want to be reminded of the item and then imagine the item in the location for a few seconds. Afterwards I don't need to do anything more until I get to the location where I will immediately think of the item I want to remember.

The important part here is how to go about imprinting the memory to make it stick. You have to pick a good location. For shopping, for example, I use an escalator in my local supermarket. For things I need to remember when I get home I use my front hall. next comes the item. For shampoo it's obvious, but for more complicated problems you need to find a single item to represent the problem. With all that done, you now have to imagine yourself in the location as vividly as you possibly can while including the item in the location. For my shampoo that's a giant shampoo bottle floating above the escalator at the supermarket. Now look around in your imagined location, think of the little things you are going to notice when you get there, while also thinking about how the your item would look really obvious if it were really there.

Spend 20 to 30 seconds on this in the beginning, later you can vary the timing. Afterwards you can go back to thinking whatever you want.

When you get to the location and notice the things that you always notice I guarantee you that you will also think of your item.

This kind of trick is well known to memory artists, but I think it is very easy, quick, and in my experience very reliable. I usually use it for reminder times from a few hours to 1 or 2 days, but I think it can also work over longer time frames with a more solid imprinting. I find that I actually try not to imprint too hard because I don't want to think of shampoo every singe time that I go to the supermarket, just once.