For some reason, lately, I have been noticing that I am getting forgetful. I love to read and yet I’ve always had an issue with remembering the contents of a book a few days after I’ve read it. I have always been good with phone numbers and names though, and that hasn’t changed, but I can’t remember what I had for supper two nights ago. I hate when people say “you remember when I told you...” and then they get mad when I don’t. It definitely makes me feel old when I can’t remember something like that.

Another example is when I was in college. My general psychology class taught me stuff that I was supposed to know and use for the rest of my college psychology classes. Teachers in the other courses would say, “you should know this, you learned it in Psych 101.” Yeah, but I forgot already. That was # years ago. Yes, the theory where if you cram instead of actually studying means you don’t remember it may apply here, but you would think I would have remembered something from those four years in college…

There is a study that Canadian Neuroscientists studied where they state that forgetfulness may be linked to people who are smart. They hypothesize that our brains are forgetting things on purpose that it believes is not important. So in my brain’s case, phone numbers are important but important facts about our country’s history is not. Huh.

Since I am great at forgetting “un-important to my brain” but “important to life” things, I decided to make you a list of things that can help you remember things that maybe your brain deems “unimportant,” as well.

1. A planner or agenda or calendar of some sort.

Planners come in different shapes and sizes. There are themed planners and simple planners. There are homemade planners and bought planners. There are digital planners (Google Calendar and iCal) and there are paper planners.

Any appointments you have, put them in your planner. If it’s digital, set it to remind you the day before and the day of. If it’s a paper, remember to look on Sunday at your week ahead and then look at it every day that week.

2. Evernote or Trello

Evernote is a great place to have an online notebook or multiple online notebooks. You can use the app and type right into the notebook from your phone or you could use the website from a computer. You can insert pictures, web clippings, notes, or drawings.

Trello is an online site to make lists. This is also an organizer for team projects. The lists can be moved around to different projects. You can also easily reorganize the lists.

3. Sticky Notes

My favorite thing to use when I am at work is sticky notes. Not the program on the computer but actual sticky notes. I write down what I need to do on a sticky note. One item per sticky note. Then when I complete that item, I throw away that sticky note. It’s simple really. It makes me feel accomplished to see so many sticky notes then to not have any anymore.