I remember watching tv when I was a kid and that old trope of tying a string around your finger was something that snagged on my consciousness. After all, how the heck does trying a string around your finger help you remember something? But a lot of tv and film characters seemed to do it, so, there must have been something to it, right?
Much later in life I realized that the finger trick and similar memory triggers are a bit of a hack—and not necessarily tied up in string.
For example, sometimes if I need to remember to bring something when I leave in the morning, the night before I’ll leave something else out of place: I’ll move my toothbrush or put a sock in my shoe. It’s stupidly simple, but the next morning I’ll see the out of place item and my brain will connect with the reason it out of place which is tied back to the little story I put in my head about needing to remember that thing and… boom, there it is.
String around the finger was just that: a memory hack. Why did I tie that string around my finger again? Oh, right… I need to do that thing.
It got me thinking about memory hacks for creative work. What’s the driving down the road and suddenly being struck with inspiration without a notebook equivalent of the string around the finger? How can I make sure I don’t lose a great idea just because I can’t immediately write it down?
I think if I figure that out, I’ll have a lot more great ideas—or at least one’s that I remember when I’m not sitting ready at my computer.