You might remember the meaning of the character 鞭 with this easy mnemonic:
M dad has a leather (革) whip and a staff (亻) he brings with him all the time. One (一) day, I saw him stand under the sun (日) and slash (丿) at the air with his whip.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.