You might remember the meaning of the character 寂 with this easy mnemonic:
He's sitting by his lonesome self on the roof (宀), staring off at the junction (⺊) where he and his ex met. One (一) small (小) part of him hopes that she will come back again (又).
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.