Memorize important information

Don't count on everything being available when you need it

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to memorize important information. While we can save
so much electronically these days, you don't know for sure

(00:25):
when that might be available, Having at least a few
things memorized can make life a little calmer when things
don't go as planned. I am sure many people my
age still have our childhood friend's phone numbers memorized. If
you wanted to call your friend, you had to actually

(00:48):
call the number, and even if the digits were taped
to the wall above your phone, you got used to
pressing them. Now, since we store all of our contacts
in our phones, don't memorize people's numbers. This leads to
the funny situation where you have your childhood friend's number memorized,

(01:09):
even if you haven't seen this person in three decades,
but you don't know your own kid's cell phone number,
and most of the time you won't need to know it.
But can you say you would never need it. Maybe
someday you will lose your phone and need to reach
a friend or family member. The stranger who lends you

(01:29):
her phone isn't going to have any of these numbers
in her contacts. It would be good if you had
them memorized, So pick a few people and commit their
phone numbers to memory. There's also various random information that
you might need. For instance, you will probably need to

(01:49):
know your spouse's Social Security number for various things. You
could keep calling your spouse to get it, but it
might be easier to just know it. It might be
good to know your passport number. I memorize my family's
insurance IDs, since we have to put it on so
many camp forms. It might be helpful to memorize a

(02:10):
credit card number so you have that available for online
things without having to pull it up. I note that
if it is memorized, you don't have to store it
in quite so many places. So far, no one is
hacking people's brains. In general, it's good to get things
out of our heads. Most people can't remember tons of information,

(02:32):
which is why we have calendars and planners and to
do lists and contacts in our phones. But in life,
it's also good to think about what could go wrong
and what you would do in that situation. What if
you were in an emergency situation where you didn't have
access to your phone for some reason, and you needed
your sitter to know that you would be staying with

(02:54):
your kids for a while while things got sorted out.
Do you have her phone number memorized so you could
have emergency responders call her? I mean, if you were
truly out of it, people would figure something out. But
this is the sort of thing I spend my time
thinking about. It's not that hard to memorize some important

(03:15):
bits of information, and in some situations you would be
very happy you had the information memorized. So memorize at
information today and life might feel a little more calm
in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(03:35):
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:00):
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