What new music do you listen to when you travel? Because if it goes well together, there’s a good chance that your brain will naturally associate it with the place.

You can tap into this by being open to what’s around you, as well. In one of our first weeks living in New York City, my wife and I took a car ride from the Whitney Museum back home. It was summer, and the windows were down. Our driver wore a banana yellow hat and sweater. The music was loud. Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita,” came on, and he turned the volume up. Whenever I miss NYC, I play that song.

If you stay organized—like, making playlists, and naming them by month and year—then you can more intentionally return to the past. Music is the closest thing we have to time travel, for now.