The ego versus reality is a long-standing battle that at some point has taken place in every mind, including yours. If you disagree, then either you’re lying or wildly delusional.

Memory. We age and gradually life becomes more hectic than we remember in the past. Our memories are also put to the challenge of doing the impossible along the way. The challenge of remembering… everything. An unrealistic job we’ve convince ourselves we’re over qualified for. As of this Tuesday, I will have finally surfaced from my busiest time of the year, in and out of the office, but this time around it wasn’t as bad as I recall. I owe it to a tip received from a mentor over the Summer: write down EVERYTHING. I’ve learned that mybest way of staying efficient and impactful throughout the week is to purposely NOT try to remember everything on my own. Instead, it went on paper. All of it. If I couldn’t do it at that very moment, then I either wrote it down in a small notebook or scheduled a block of time on my iCal to revisit the task later.

My first few observations are 1) The cameo of a notebook being used in the tech world is sparse, at best, and WILL get you comments, 2) I was surprisingly diligent with my time, and 3) I ended up remembering most of the things I wrote down without needing to refer back.

Dr. Helen Macpherson of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (Deakin University) told The Huffington Post that “… because we can keep pace typing but we can’t keep pace with handwriting, it means we have different ways of encoding the information, which in turn leads to richer memory.” Slightly out of context, but the application is there and it makes so much more sense now. All these years I’ve been attempting to strengthen my memory by forcing it to “exercise”. In this case it was a true over extension. The most effective alternative was simple – writing helped me develop memory retention by creating a visual connection along with the act of jotting what was deemed as urgent, important, or simply worth remembering.

I’m far from not having thoughts leak through the cracks of my memory, but I’ve identified a way to patch the problem areas. Writing could quite possibility be one of the intentional actions that help me become the best version of me that I can be. The jury is still out, but ironically… writing a To-Do list is what reminded me to share this reflection. Meta.

 

-JO