Don't forget to write it down.
Have you ever forgotten something you were supposed to do? Today as I was leaving my office, I was intending to leave my computer running to do a virus scan and performance update. I remembered that I was going to do that about 30 seconds after I had shut down my computer and walked out my door. Of course, at this moment I wasn't able or able to go back and turn my computer on and start the whole process.
It is extremely important to write things down when you think of them, don't let your brain be in charge of remembering to do things. "Writing it down" does not necessarily mean that you have to use a pen and paper. You can use a pen, or put a reminder in your task manager, or put a reminder on your calendar, or set an named alarm in your phone.
The important thing is that you need to capture the thing that you want to remember at the moment when you think of it so that later you can remember it at the appropriate time and in the appropriate context. It would have been great if I had created an alarm for myself to go off right before my alarm that was already set to remind me to pick up my son. That way I would have seen it at the right time and remembered before shutting down my computer.
Lesson learned: When you think of something that you want to do later, write it down.
Have you ever forgotten something you were supposed to do? Today as I was leaving my office, I was intending to leave my computer running to do a virus scan and performance update. I remembered that I was going to do that about 30 seconds after I had shut down my computer and walked out my door. Of course, at this moment I wasn't able or able to go back and turn my computer on and start the whole process.
It is extremely important to write things down when you think of them, don't let your brain be in charge of remembering to do things. "Writing it down" does not necessarily mean that you have to use a pen and paper. You can use a pen, or put a reminder in your task manager, or put a reminder on your calendar, or set an named alarm in your phone.
The important thing is that you need to capture the thing that you want to remember at the moment when you think of it so that later you can remember it at the appropriate time and in the appropriate context. It would have been great if I had created an alarm for myself to go off right before my alarm that was already set to remind me to pick up my son. That way I would have seen it at the right time and remembered before shutting down my computer.
Lesson learned: When you think of something that you want to do later, write it down.