You might remember the meaning of the character 扬 with this easy mnemonic:
I used to hurl umbrellas (扌) at the sun (日) for fun, but one (一) day I tripped over a towel I wrapped (勹) around myself and slashed (丿) myself with an umbrella.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.