If you don’t have time to keep a detailed journal but know you’d like to write your memoirs someday—when you retire, when the kids move out, or when you feel inspired—you may be in a bit of a fix trying to remember things later. We all have trouble remembering things from day to day, not to mention 10 years ago. The question is, what is something you can do now, amidst your busy life, to help you remember details and events when you sit down to write your memoirs.
     Journaling can take plenty of time, but there is more than one way to journal your experiences, and one way that I have found to be extremely convenient is what I call the list and note method. When we need to remember things from day to day, we write lists. We make grocery lists, things to do lists, books to read, places to visit. Why let all that writing go to waste?
     The idea of a list and note method of journaling came to me when I was going through a box of things from high school. I found several lists—one of which was titled “Things I Want To Do This Summer—1993.” Reading it took me back to what I was thinking and feeling when I wrote "kiss a boy” or “climb a tree.” Some things were crossed off, and some were not, showing not only the things I did do that summer, but the things I wanted to do and didn’t.
     Another list, “Things to do before I die,” was on a bright pink sheet of paper. I looked at the list. Only a few items were crossed off. As I read it I was able to take my pen and cross off things that I had since done, like “Live in New York City” and “Try caviar.” Most of the goals on the list were things I still hope to do before I die, but some I no longer have an interest in, like being a back up singer for Enrique Iglesias; but the hot pink page was a testimony of my dreams and ambitions at 16—how I’ve changed, and how I’ve stayed the same.
     To my great surprise I had also made a list around that same time period titled “Things I want in a future husband.” Several items had been crossed off as I had decided they were not that important, like “must love country music” and “must speak Spanish.” I looked at the remaining items. “Wow,” I said out loud. I showed the list to my french speaking, R&B listening husband. “It’s a good thing I crossed those two off or you wouldn’t have made it,” I said, “but I got everything else I wanted.”
     Lists are a great way to remember not just what to buy at the grocery store but what you thought, felt, or did at a certain time. The trick is, to remember to date your lists and date your cross-outs. Some good lists to keep are: New Years Resolutions; party planning lists; things to do lists from pivotal times in your life, i.e. “Things to do before the honeymoon.”
     Lists aren’t all you can use to jog your memory later. Things like: juicy letters; agendas from conferences; prescription receipts; emails, which are often too quickly deleted; notes passed in church; favorite poems scribbled on scratch paper. These items are usually tossed because they are not pretty enough for a scrapbook, and people aren’t sure what to do with them.
     Don’t get me wrong, playbills, ticket stubs, photos, and other glossy, scrapbook-type memorabilia can also come in handy. Ticket stubs are great when trying to remember specific dates. For a year, my husband and I thought our first date was on August 13, until I found the ticket stub to the play we saw—the date said August 12th.
     Often, we don’t know the impact an occurrence has on us until much later. If you feel a nagging that something may be important someday—even if you are not sure why—make a note about the event, briefly sketch your feelings, and then date it.
     By now you may be asking, what am I going to do with tons of little scraps of paper?—at least a journal is bound and organized. Well, get yourself an easy organization system. I suggest buying some Ziplock Freezer bags, label them by month, three hole punch them, and then put them in a binder. As you find things that might jump start your memory later, throw them in the correct Ziplock bag. You may have a large stack of receipts, lists, and notes one month, and only a puppy adoption paper in the next month’s envelope, but at least you have a skeletal sketch of what happened in that month of your life. You may take remembering for granted now, but you’d be surprised what you have already forgotten. For example—can you name all of the teachers you ever had, from Kindergarden through the end of high school. I recently interviewed a woman (in perfect mental health), who couldn’t remember the name of the boy that took her to her first prom—she didn't remember whether he kissed her goodnight, or anything else about that night except her dress. This easy method of journaling is your insurance against a memory so full of experiences that some get crowded out, sorted wrong or lose their significance over time.
     When you finally sit down to write your memoirs, you will have a great store of reliable information. Your records will also be in chronological order, so that you can quickly make an accurate timeline of your life—one of the first steps in writing your memoirs.
     For more information on how to write your memoirs, contact Felice at Memoirs Ink. and ask me about our Memoir writing classes in West L.A. and online. 310-204-5929 or courses@memoirsink.com