You sit ever so quietly in my inventory
You never bug me
You never lash out at me
You are with me when I go on killing sprees, but you never make a sound
It's like you're not even there..
How will I ever remember to actually activate you...?
Zhonya's was an item I really struggled to use when I first started playing champs it was good on. Something I found really useful was telling myself to just use it provided the situation looked at least ok to do so. Since it's a long CD it's really easy to default to a mindset of 'I won't think about it until the perfect moment', at which point it's not part of your regular combat thinking and you fail to use it at all. Forcing yourself to use it, even if it's sometimes a mediocre use, gets you in the habit of thinking about it, pushing the button, assessing how effective the use was etc.
Might not be the right approach for you, worked for me though, so figured I'd pass it on.
Karthus bot taught me how to Zhonyas.
It's even worse when I'm support/tank and has like 3 item actives + summoner's
@.@
It's why I can never play Dota
Playing Diana improved my Zhonyas usage since it's so core to her gameplay.
Dive-> 1st cycle of combo > Zhonyas > repeat combo
I found it's easiest to have a comfortable spot for it, I use 2 for zhonyas because I WASD in every game due to my fps background. I generally have similar items in similar spots. IE:
1: Archagnels/Face of the Mountain 2: Zhonya/Mecurial Scimitar 3: DFG(I miss you so much)/Ruin King
I also find it's helpful to not put your potions in spots u use for activated items because you can create a familiar muscle memory and accidentally zhonya when u meant to potion etc
Start playing Lissandra, her kit is so dependent upon zhonya's u will gain a better understanding of it.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1bQOtVu18lj I went ahead and did a recording of it, because it's so true. I main Anivia, so when I'm about to do I just go "Oh yeah I have egg I can do this" Then I remember "OH WOW I HAVE ZHONYA'S I JUST WASTED MY EGG AND THEY KILLED ME!"
EDIT: Accidently double posted.
It's kind alike how unless I but my trinket right off the bat, I always forget it.
I always activate at the very end of the game to say that I used it during the game.
xD
okay okay see a 
ult on you. ohhhhh snap gatto use mah
Whenever fiora, Yas or Zed is around i never forget to use it
Otherwise I'm always forgetting it could have saved me from Fizz' shark or Mordes ult or LB's 1hko jump
Get a feel for when they're focusing you, think about that in a fight, the moment when you can see the enemy wants to collapse on you, then mash it. Even if you're not in the best of spots, you'll likely waste a couple of their skills as they attempt to collapse on you, and get a bit of the rug being pulled out from under their feet feeling. Most likely, even if was kinda wiffed timing, it'll be made up for by how much they wiffed their timing by you doing it, putting you back on equal ground, except you got a second to check your map position and cooldowns, and they're mostly just looking at you with hungry eyes.
That should at least keep it being somewhat useful, and get you practiced at using it.
I have a problem now on some champs (
....) of mashing a button and then remembering 'Oh yah..I don't have hourglass yet, faakk'
I got into the mindset of using it to dodge the first major ability I see coming my way. If I see a stun or nuke flying towards me and using hourglass won't put me in a super shitty situation I just pop it. You'd be surprised how often you Zonya's a Ashe ult and incidentally dodge two more spells just by chance.
Soloution: Watch Keyori. (youtube.com/user/dissidiuswastaken)
"This is why I need a zhonyas!"
This is me 90% of the time. I get so excited when I actually remember it at a crucial moment.
I usually put my actives on keys 2 and 3 and try to get at least one active no matter what role I play.
I always put defensive like 
or 
on 3
I usually dont get TWO actives unless it is a sightstone. Even as top lane I'll try to at least get yellow trinket upgrade.
Here's my trick.
Whenever I have an item with an active, I move it to my 6th slot and have that bound to my spacebar. With that, I trained myself to follow the mindset of "Press spacebar to use that item you built that will save you." This could be anything from Youmuu's to Talisman to Locket to Zhonya's. If I have several items with actives, I always move the most relevant one to saving myself to the sixth item slot. If I have Zhonya's, I'll always move it to my 6th slot and bind that to spacebar. It helped me.
The only problem is that it's embarassing when I'm playing an AP support (let's say 
), and I built a Talisman and have that on spacebar for half the game. Then I build a Zhonya's and move that to my spacebar instead. Then I'm just like "Okay, here's a chase, time to activate Talisman" -Uses Zhonya's- "Oh..."
