It's Monday morning and you've been preparing for a very important meeting all weekend. You suit up, head out the door, back the car out of the driveway, and head down the freeway. While you're stuck in morning traffic you see something that reminds you that you had better make another note in your presentation. You turn around, only to find that you forgot your briefcase. Now you're going to be late, and there's nothing you can do about it. You have to take the next exit, turn around, and head back home, pick up your briefcase, and start the whole thing all over again.

Sometimes forgetting is just a simple annoyance, but sometimes it can be a major inconvenience. Scientists tell us that for those memory problems, the best thing we can do is use what they call mnemonics. Mnemonics are devices that we use to help us remember. For example, some of us remember phone numbers by the patterns they make. Some of us remember streets by what's on them, i.e. a restaurant, a store, or something. Whatever it is you use, the fact is there are some things that could be forgotten if we don't find a way to remember them.

So in this How2, we're going to look at ways to make your own electronic mnemonic. It's not that hard actually, and we think you'll have a lot of fun doing it. With the few basic steps we'll provide you with enough to arm yourself to remember just about anything. So let's get started.

First of all, let's take the situation above. You've got to remember to take your notes to work. Well, one thing that might help you remember is to have something stop you before you even get out the door. Let's say a motion sensor.

• So the first thing you want to do is set up a HawkEye motion sensor so that it sees you just before you walk out the door.

You can do several things here. You can simply hook your motion sensor to a remote chime, which is relatively straightforward. But if you wanted, you could use something much more complicated. But for now, we'll just use the remote chime.

• Plug your remote chime into the wall.
• Then plug your transceiver into the wall. Make sure that your addresses all correspond, i.e. A1 to A1 and so forth.

So you're ready to walk out the door, your remote chime goes off and you will remember to ask yourself if you've remembered everything. From here on out, every time you want to remember something, simply set the remote chime and when it goes off, ask yourself, "Did I remember my..." whatever it was.

But it doesn't just need to be at the front door. You can use this before you walk out of the garage, if you've got to put the garbage on the curb before you leave. Or you can set it up where you keep your car keys so that it will provide another chance to think and make sure you've got everything.

We don't know what to tell you to avoid locking your keys in your car, but we will soon. In the meantime, never get out of your car unless your keys are grasped firmly in your hand. Perhaps it would be a good idea to lock the car from the outside, using the key. And under no circumstances should you lay your keys down anywhere in the car for any reason. Put them in your purse, your pants pocket, whatever it takes. And then double-check once you're out of the car to make sure they're there. The aggravation you save could be your own.

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