"If you need to remember something, think about it while doing something noticeably unusual. This will pair the memory with the "something", so that when it is noticed later on it will trigger that particular memory.
e.g. I need to take out the garbage before going to bed.
Put your pillow at the foot of your bed."
He said when his wife is talking to someone. Her conversation. Not as in the husband is looking to his wife for answers or approval.