Remembering the calendar for 2009

On which day does Christmas fall this year? What about your birthday? How did you work out the answer?

You probably found the nearest calendar, maybe on the computer or your mobile phone then looked up the answer. How long did that take?

How would like to memorise the calendar for one year, just like the image at the top of this article? You can do this by remembering just four words.

Here is the method for working out the day of the week for any date in the current year. This is how I did it for 2009.

1. Write down the date of the first Sunday of each month to make a list of 12 numbers. These are shown in red in the calendar above. The dates for 2009 are 4,1,1,5,3,7, 5,2,6,4,1 and 6.

2. Separate the numbers into four chunks of 3 digits, therefore: 411, 537, 526 and 416.

3. Convert the four 3-digit numbers into phonetic equivalents using the Major System. I used the 2Know program to derive the phrase: "aerated oilymuck lunch radish". How do I remember this? I image myself sitting down to lunch staring at a bowl of bubbling (AERATED) soup that looks like used engine oil (OILYMUCK). I am forced to eat this for LUNCH with a large red RADISH on top.

4. To find the date for any date is just a matter of recalling the number of the month by first recalling the appropriate word, in this case RADISH (R-D-SH). December is SH which is the equivalent for 6. Therefore the first Sunday of December is the 6th, so you have a starting point for calculations. The second Sunday will be the 13th (6 + 7), the next Sunday the 20th (13 + 7). Count forward 5 days and you reach Friday.

You should be able to perform the last step in less than a couple of seconds. People will soon start calling you the walking calendar. As well as developing your memory skills, this technique will give your arithmetic skills a further workout.