1) As I'm locking it, I'd think of something esoteric. A celebrity from my childhood; a cake I'd quite like to eat; a historical event. Then when I experience doubt about having locked the door, the memory of locking it will be attached to something. "Oh, yeah, I definitely locked the door, because I was thinking of the Battle of Stalingrad". I tend to be thinking about esoteric things most of the time, so this happens naturally for me.
2) In this circumstance, I'd recall a short-lived advertisement for Danish Bacon from many years ago, which had the jingle "Daaaanish Bacon, Daaaanish Bacon, Yummy-yummy-yummy-yummy-yummy-yummy-yum" (I have totally failed to find this advert on YouTube, but trust me when I say the jingle is memorable, and was sung in playgrounds up and down the UK in the early 1990s). I'd then sing this song to myself, replacing the words "Danish Bacon" with "Antifragile". I will probably find myself earwormed with the new Antifragile song long enough to get online and find it.
3) I'd form a fridge-shutting ritual, perhaps where I tap or drum on the internal fixtures of the fridge, and end with a vocal refrain reminding me to shut the door.
4) I would ask for the identity of a long-standing establishment near to the new business location, and search for that. More credibly, I'd probably wind up driving around aimlessly and getting hopelessly lost.
5) I'd go for a long (several mile) walk and talk to myself for a few hours about each part of the topic, imagining I'm explaining it to a second person. I'd then maintain a bullet-pointed running order on a sheet of paper while delivering the talk, and conversationally deliver each chunk. (Disclosure: I am quite terrible at presenting things in this fashion. No-one should take my advice on it, but I would suggest that memory is a relatively small part of the problem.)
6) I'd break it into three chunks of four numbers. 0004 5878 9625. Each of these chunks has its own rhythm that forms a kind of check-value for making sure I get it right. I'd say it to myself several times. I'd maybe type it out on a keypad a couple of dozen times if I really wanted to cement it. This method may be idiosyncratic to me and people like me, though. I tend to remember numbers pretty easily.
7) I don't think there's an easy solution to this, though I'd love to hear one. Prior to sleep is a really vulnerable time for memory formation.
8) This seems like asking "how can I remember something I haven't remembered?" If you don't remember something, you don't remember it.
EDIT: Looking over other people's answers it seems quite likely I've misinterpreted the above question, but I'm still not entirely sure what it's asking.
9) Personally, 700 pages doesn't seem that daunting. I'd probably break it down section by section and write out rough topic maps, so I know where in the overall space of the subject any given fact belongs. I'd also probably use Anki or something similar to reinforce specific facts and details. I find if you read stuff, write stuff and talk about stuff, that stuff tends to stick around in your head.
Personally, 700 pages doesn't seem that daunting.
Same here, I'd take that more as a challenge to my Anki (and general learning) skills. Knowing 700 pages of modern medicine? That'd be awesome! Sure sounds more interesting than 700 pages of accounting law.
The statistics textbook I carry around to read during my downtime, and some bits of which I'm ankifying, is around 500 pages long.
I'm working on a post about how best to use human memory—when it's good to store things in your own brain and why, when it's best to outsource your memory, what memory upgrades are worthwhile in what contexts, and how to integrate and apply memory systems in real life. I'm hoping the following set of memory problems will draw out approaches that haven't occurred to me so I can compare a wider range of methods.
I'll post the first solutions I thought of myself later on, but for now I'd like to hear what you would do in each of these situations and what you believe to be the pros and cons of your answers. Can you think of ways to improve upon your first thoughts and the answers of others?
(You don't have to respond to all of the questions; feel free to post as little or as much as comes to mind.)
1. I'm leaving for a week-long business trip. The last time this happened, I wasn't totally sure I'd remembered to lock my door. The worry wouldn't leave my mind and was making it hard to relax, so I eventually called a friend and asked them to stop by and make sure it was locked. Now, I'm standing in front of my door, suitcase in hand, all ready to go, and I'm about to lock it. What should I do?
2. I'm in the middle of a conversation with a friend. He mentions a book that really interests me. It's called Antifragile and I think, "I've got to remember to Google that." But the conversation continues, and it would be rude to pull out my phone right this minute.
3. I bought a new fridge. This one closes differently than my old fridge: My old fridge would swing shut and seal nicely if I just left it open, while this one requires that I push on the door even when it's mostly closed to ensure it seals. For some reason, I'm having a hard time with this transition. I've had it for a week, and I've come home from work to find my more perishable food spoiled three times already. It's not that there's a problem with the latching mechanism or that the seal is bad. The problem is that I keep forgetting.
4. I'm driving in an unfamiliar city. My GPS says my destination is somewhere around here, but I suspect it's working with slightly outdated information. Rather than driving around aimlessly in hopes that I'll randomly run across that which I seek, I sensibly stop to ask a local for directions. Unfortunately, it seems that the business I'm looking for has moved to another part of the city, and I'm going to have to remember more than seven things to get there.
5. I'm preparing a talk for an upcoming conference. It's not the kind of thing that would benefit much from a Power Point, so using one would be tacky. I don't care for the idea of flipping through note cards as I go either. And I definitely don't want to memorize an entire speech word-for-word. But neither do I want to just wing it and hope it turns out well-structured and non-rambly, and I'm afraid I'll forget one of the key points if I get nervous.
6. I've just started at a new school. I've been through this before, so I know that in the next two weeks I'm going to have to say or write my student ID number about a zillion times, after which point I'll still need it, but only occasionally. It's 12 digits long: 000458789625. I'll surely have it memorized by the end of the first two weeks just because I've repeated it so much, but it sure would be nice to not have to pull out my wallet, find my ID, switch my attention back and forth between that and what I'm writing, and then double check. Every damn time.
7. In an attempt to reduce stress, I'm trying to maintain a clear boundary between home and work by not working while I'm at home. But almost every evening, I think of several things related to work that I really want to remember. It's the worst when this happens as I'm trying to fall asleep, all snugly under the covers, and I don't even want to open my eyes to enter the thought into my phone, let alone to turn on a light, find my calendar, and pencil in a deadline.
8. This evening, I'll be going to a large and crowded party where my main goal is networking. I know of several important people who will be there (and whose favor I'd very much like to gain), and I know there will be dozens more I've never heard of with whom it will be useful to connect. But I'm getting anxious, because I'm terrible with names, and I don't want to make a fool of myself by forgetting something like which major startups one of the known important people has been funding.
9. I'm studying for the medical licensing exam. This basically means somehow turning myself into an encyclopedia of modern medicine. It's a giant mess of mostly disconnected facts, weird jargon, and lengthy procedures. I cannot even imagine fitting all of this into a single brain. I stare blankly at the table of contents of a 700 page textbook, and I begin to panic.