Refrigerated Keys and Other Cool Memory Joggers

Tags: Business, General,

Did you know…hold it, I forget what I was going to tell you… Oh right: Did you know that your brain power starts to dim from as early as age 45 (not 60 as previously thought)? You’re thinking this phenomenon is a byproduct of middle age, right? Well actually, according to a recent survey by a British healthcare provider, middle age doesn’t even begin now until you’re 53. Looks like even the Gen X “latchkey kids” (born 1965-80) are starting to search around for where they left their keys.

With six living generations in America at this very moment, it’s safe to say you’ve got a lot of company when it comes to forgetting things and plenty of folks at-the-ready to help you retrieve lost memories, decades, objects or names (not to mention Google Search).

Mornings can be especially hectic when you’re trying to leave for work and get kids off to daycare or school. So years ago I started putting my car keys in the refrigerator with the packed lunches so I wouldn’t forget to take them with us. No keys, no exit.

You think you’ll remember everything you have to do to accomplish everything you have to accomplish, but you can’t. We can’t. It’s getting beyond us.

But that doesn’t mean we have to give up without a fight.

I used to pride myself on my awesome memory. I could tell you what I was wearing on the day I met you and describe your outfit in detail, to boot. I famously conjured up visuals and stories on-demand to the amazement of all (including myself).

Then something happened.

Make that a lot of things happened.

The FAX machine (OK, it’s coming through…)

Overnight mail (that was…fast).

E-mail (I’ll get right on it…!).

And that’s when my amazing memory and focus started to short-circuit.

Author John Irving said, “Your memory is a monster; you forget – it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you – and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!”

I try daily to get on better terms with this monster. To fight clever with clever.

So no more slips of paper for me, filled with TO DO’s and reminders (easily lost or illegible). I have a Notes app for that, a voice recorder, and reminder chimes on my iPhone.

My latest trick is something I learned from a physician who told me that they are trained to do things as they think of them. Given the nature of their profession -- constant stress, appointments, interruptions, crisis events (sound familiar?) – Doctors can’t afford to say “I’ll do that later.” Later never comes.  It’s now or never. (Try it, it really works).

My 21 year old son flips out when he’s talking to me about something, someone, or somewhere he’s going and I immediately Google It or put it in my Notes/Calendar (when a Millennial thinks you’re using too much technology, you know it’s time for an intervention).

But I want my memory on notice that I have “options.”

So bring on the name tags, apps, word associations, alarms, voice recorders, visual cues, chilled keys and young friends and associates with brains that are shaken, not stirred.

I just hope I don’t forget where I left my phone…

Anita Alvare (bio)/Alvare Associates/610-520-6140