Whenever I wish to remember something, I use a technique referred to as the "Mind Mansion". You may remember Sherlock Holmes from TV's Sherlock used a similar technique, though this was necessarily dumbed down for the comprehension of a television audience.
The way the Mind Mansion works is through the power of visualisation. If I wish to remember something, anything - my mum's birthday, maybe, or how to read - I simply visit the Mansion within my Mind (hence the name). Once inside my Mansion, I stroll past the tastefully decorated foyer, up the elegant spiral staircase and through the mezzanine on my way to the correct room.
Within that room, I will find a series of filing cabinets. At this point, all I have to do is select the correct drawer on the correct cabinet. Within that cabinet, I will find a series of alphabetically arranged folders. I will visualise myself sifting through the folders until I find the correct folder.
Within that folder, I will visualise myself finding a series of memory requisition forms. I will visualise myself choosing the correct form for the memory I wish to access (where I left my keys, for example) and, having visualised myself completing the form, will then take the convenient high-speed Mind Train to the Memory Requisition Office.
The Memory Requisition Office will take up an entire floor of an office building, have no windows and be dimly-lit by flickering fluorescent light tubes. The sound of ringing phones going eternally unanswered and the endless tapping of keyboards will ring out. It will be an unwelcoming space staffed entirely by pedantic middle-aged women with bad attitudes. It is an unremarkable office, exactly the same as every office I have ever visited, but as it only exists in my mind as a means of accessing memories, its purpose is functional rather than aesthetic.
I will present my request for a memory to the lady at the service counter, who will make passive-aggressive comments about how I really should have filled it out in duplicate before arriving at the office, and she now has to go to the effort of photocopying my form herself. Despite this, however, she will perform her job efficiently and accurately and my form will be accepted and processed.
I will then receive my memory in six to eight weeks.
