You might remember the meaning of the character 掌 with this easy mnemonic:
I'm in charge of giving out tickles (⺍) in my family. My daughter always tells me to put down the box (冂) or anything else I'm holding, and tickle her because she loves it so much! However, sometimes she laughs so hard she ends up slapping my mouth (口) with her hands (手).
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.