Wandering through the woods

Something from Gladwell's The Tipping Point that is rolling around in my head is the idea that in order to remember something, it "sticks" best if it's both practical and personal. (Clearly, there are other memory factors, too: how long our attention span is, whether we repeat information, whether we receive the information in whatever visual/kinesthetic/auditory/however-we-learn-best format, etc. But for now, I'm interested in the practical-and-personal bit).

Somehow, in order to make our messages "stick," we need to format information in a way that really connects to people's lives. greyduck, amongst other friends, was always talking about poor memory -- having no recollection of what happened in a day, for example, or poor recollection of when to do something. But if something was important to remember, like a task, and writing it down didn't suffice, would it stick better if we tried to make up a little story about it? Would "I need to go to the post office" work better if you drew yourself a map of the post office (practical) and made up a little story about how exactly you'd interact with the postal officer (personal)? I bet it would.

Hmm. I need to think about how to format my messages in a more personal/practical way.