Most everyone I know can certainly benefit from little memory jogs. They help impose at least a little structure to what often feels like a chaotic life. Here are a few of my favorites that I have found functional: Will they work for you? The only way I know to find out is to try them. If they work, that is good, adopt them. If they don’t work, adapt them to your individual situation if you can. Or, replace them with others that you can think of. The goal is to find something to help you remember important items in critical situations.
• Place your keys or some other important object on whatever is most critical to remember. The object, like keys for me, should be something that you can’t function normally without.
• Put it in your path where you must go by it. If I have something big to remember, a box, or a full briefcase, I put it in front of the door I must go out to leave.
• Just write the note and put it on wherever you know you will see it. Strategically place notes where you will see them. If you have a pill to take, place it in a small ziplock bag and tape it on a mirror in the bathroom. Tape a reminder note to your keys or on the handle to the refrigerator or a door knob. Be careful, and do not become dependent on a note system. Don’t make your house, car or office look like an advertisement for Post-it-notes. Use them as often as is functional and necessary and no more.
• Use a daily or weekly calendar and place notes you generate or receive in the correct place in the calendar. When you flip to that day or week, there your note is. It is ready for you to act on, and take with you if appropriate. Also, if a note will carry over until the next year, I place it at the very back of the calendar. There it is ready for placement in next year’s calendar. This works well for recurring items like changing smoke alarm batteries.
I keep a small note that is a log of when I’ve changed our five detector’s batteries over the past several years. Once I change the batteries during the first week of January each year, I mark it down. Then I make a note to buy five new 9-volt batteries for next year. Finally, I put the “change the battery” note in the back of the calendar for next year. I also have recurring notes, mini-logs, for taking personal retreats, paying a particularly time sensitive insurance premium, getting hair cuts, and paying property taxes in November. This approach works very well and gives you a record of your continuity on important issues.
Tim O’Brien writes continuing-education courses and presents seminars on stress management.
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