Another Toilet Experience
I went to use the toilet at work today. It was unpleasant. I kept wiping and wiping but I just couldn't get clean. The residue was sticky and uncomfortable. After a ton of wiping I saw a little bit of red on the toilet paper.
Work Schedule
I was very excited to get out of work today. Today marks the last day of winter break, work schedule wise. The break technically starts on Jan. 20th Tuesday, but my adjusted work and school schedule starts on Monday.
Schedule as Schema for Memory
To recall a given day of a week I compare what I did on that day to what I typically do as part of my schedule. Here's how my thought process might go:
- What did I do on Tuesday?
- Tuesday's I usually play Table Tennis, but I skipped that day.
- I skipped because I was lazy and felt like working on my blog instead.
- I remember thinking that there's no point on working on my blog if I don't do anything to write about.
The routine of playing Table Tennis on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday provides a schema for me to latch my memories onto. I can compare what I did on any given week to that schema to remember the days better. My guess is that better recall stems from the day-schema comparison activating higher level thinking processes than recalling the day without the comparison.
Bloom's Taxonomy
There's a hierarchical framework called Bloom's Taxonomy that describes different cognitive levels of thinking about information. The idea with Bloom's Taxonomy is that educators can use it to design lesson plans for students to gradually gain a deeper understanding of a topic.
Bloom's Taxonomy as an Evaluation Method
I can assign processes I use to remember with corresponding levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. I can then evaluate these processes based on the level of cognitive thinking they encourage. If I find a process uses low levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, I can modify the process to use higher levels of cognitive thinking.
This assumes that remembering-processes that use higher levels of cognitive thinking are more efficient. But I don't know that for sure.
Evaluation of Day-Schema Comparison
The process of comparing my day with a day-schema activates the "Analyze" level of Bloom's Taxonomy. That means I am engaging high-level cognitive processes to explore the relationship between my day, and a day from a typical week.
Evaluation of Calendar Method
The process of creating the mnemonic images activates the "Create" and "Evaluate" level of Bloom's Taxonomy. That means I am using existing information to make something new (creating the mnemonic images) and I am assessing what information takes most priority (choosing the most emotionally significant memories).
The process of recalling the mnemonic images activates the "Remember" level of Bloom's Taxonomy. I use the lowest level of cognitive thinking according to Bloom's Taxonomy for the majority of my recall.
In Conclusion
The biggest issue with my current method for remembering the year is that the recall process utilizes the lowest level of cognitive thinking according to Bloom's Taxonomy. If I could engage higher-level cognitive processes then my recall might be more engaging and memorable. What if instead of asking "What did I do on 'X' day?" I instead ask questions such as:
- Why did I do 'A'? (Understand)
- What do I usually do on 'X' day that I did not do? (Analyze)
- Do my thoughts, actions, or memories along a string of days follow a theme? (Analyze)
- Is what I did on day 'X' something that makes me happy? (Evaluate)
- Why did I feel this way on day 'X' but that way on day 'Y'? (Analyze, Evaluate)
- What would make day 'X' a better/worse day? (Evaluate)
I could also assign each day of the week with a unique task or event I do or attend to create a schema of that day to compare with. Currently, the following days of the week have the following unique task/event:
- Monday - Sketch Club
- Tuesday - Table Tennis
- Thursday - Table Tennis
- Sunday - Table Tennis, Tennis w/Alek
This means I'm missing schemas for Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. I'm not sure what unique task/event to assign to those days. Once school starts up again, next week, I might have a better idea.
No Memory Palace Method
I've decided not to use the Memory Palace Method in conjunction with the Calendar Method, for now. This may change in the future if I find a way to effectively integrate it into my current mnemonic workflow.
Mnemonic Image
The most memorable parts of today were wiping my butt on the work toilet and Maya asking me if I wanted to join her and some friends in a game of Peak. I remember buying and downloading Peak with anticipation. But then I went into my room and decided to play Peak alone, then do nothing for the rest of the night, which was great.
The mnemonic image will be of me on a tower of toilet paper next to the peak of a mountain.
The toilet paper tower corresponds to the ginormous amount of toilet paper I used to wipe my butt. The mountain peak is a reminder that my older sister invited me to play Peak.
