I use my cell phone as a phonebook: aside from personal contacts, I store the number of nearly any business that I call regularly: Walmart, McDonald's, the bank, the county clerk, my midwife's office, 4 different auto parts stores where we compare prices before buying...
I probably have well over 100 numbers stored in my phone (with capability to store up to 1,000) and I have no expectation of ever memorizing all the speed dials, so I have a system:
My husband is #1. Did you ever doubt it?
My siblings are numbered by birth order. This is very convenient, since I would be #1 in the family and Hubby has that taken. So the single digits 2-8 are dedicated to my sibs who are old enough to have their own phone and/or household. If they have both, the household number is the default, and the sibling's cellphone number is a doubled digit: Brother #5's house is 5, and his cell is 55. Taken a step further, his wife's cell is 555.
Yes, I have a lot of siblings. I'm going to need a new system when #11 is old enough for her own cell phone.
So far, so good.
For extended family, I use 2 digits: the first 2 letters of the last name. So the Smiths, for example, would be 76 (for S-M).
For businesses and acquaintances outside of the family, I always use the first 3 letters of the business name:
WalMart is WAL, or
Auto Zone is AUT, or
You get it, right?
What if 2 numbers would get the same space in my system? I store the less used number at a location just 1 higher: for example, if it should be at 767 but that's already taken, I put it at 768. You'd be surprised how rarely this is necessary.
I have so many numbers in my phone and so few memory cells in my brain that I often don't remember if I have yet stored a particular number, so it's easy to check: just dial the first 3 letters. If it's empty, I don't have it. If it's filled, I check the next spot just in case.
Easy. No memory required. Math skills: I've got em. Memory: out of luck.
Kim C. is a Christian homeschooling mother of 8, always looking for ways to keep life sweet and simple. Learn more about her daily life at inashoe.blogspot.comLife in a Shoe: the methods and madness of one mother of 8.