Now that you know how important memory tools are, which ones should you be using? Schedulers are one of the best tools you can use to organize information so that you can get things done.

Scheduling aids, such as appointment books, calendars, and electronic scheduling devices, are the most essential memory tools around. They help us keep track of things we need to remember and without them, let’s face it, we’d be lost. How can you maximize your use of a scheduler? Here are a few tried-and-true tips:

1. Use a scheduling aid that fits your lifestyle. Have you ever thought about how you keep track of your schedule? Do you buy the same appointment book year after year, without considering if it still works for you or looking to see if something better is now on the market? Perhaps you just take the book or calendar the bank sends you and use that. Yes, it may seem to work, but are you really sure it’s what you need? Consider this: If someone sent you a pair of glasses in the mail, would you use them? Of course not. After all, they probably wouldn’t be the correct prescription and might not be your style. Well, your scheduling aid is as essential a tool for your memory as glasses are for your vision. You should devote as much attention and thought to choosing a scheduler as you would to choosing new spectacles.

2. One of the biggest obstacles to using a scheduler that suits you is falling into the habit of always using the same one. Many people use the same kind of book or calendar for years, regardless of changes in their lifestyle. I was guilty of this myself. Years ago, while on maternity leave, I never changed my appointment book to something that better suited my needs as a mother at home with small children; I continued to use the book I had needed when working. This, of course, meant that I never used my book, since it was totally impractical to carry it around in a diaper bag! As a result, I often “double booked” play dates and forgot doctors appointments - all because I never thought about changing my scheduling aid. This happens with retirees as well. Retirement is a major life change, with concomitant changes in scheduling. Recent retirees understandably panic when they forget an appointment, but in most cases, their only memory problem is that they haven’t yet adopted a good organizational technique suited to their new life.

How can you know if your scheduling aid fits your lifestyle? One clue is this: If you’re not using it, it’s probably not working for you! We tend not to use things that don’t really suit us. The scheduler that you use should meet whatever your individual needs are for managing the information you need to remember daily.

3. Your Scheduler should have enough room for you to write down all your appointments clearly. You should be able to note the time of the appointment, the location, and the phone number of the person you are meeting or of the place you are going. That way you won’t have to scramble for any information you may need at the last minute.

As you may know by now, many of us forget things simply because we are unable to actively attend to information when we are getting it. This is true as well for things that we read or see. If we are not focused on something that we are reading or watching, we are not going to sufficiently acquire the information, and will not be able to have it later when we want it.

Distraction is an especially important concern in recalling information that is read or seen. When we are busy, we often try to do many things at once. Reading the newspaper, watching a TV show, or listening to the radio often happens in conjunction with other tasks, such as having a conversation, cooking a meal, or driving to work.
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Self-sabotaging behaviors prevent you from conditioning yourself for success. And changing those long, established behavior patterns like self-sabotage is as difficult as recognizing and understanding them.

How, then, can you eliminate sabotaging beliefs and emotions? First, understand and accept yourself before attempting to understand and accept others. You have to take a journey within for personal evaluation. This means looking inside yourself and listening to your inner dialogue or self-talk. Remain open minded to what you see and hear when understanding your beliefs. This is essential when making constructive changes in your behaviors. Deciding how far and deep you want to go before introspection is your decision. However, you can take your life to a new level when you discover empowering insights to eliminate damaging self-talk and undermining behaviors. (more…)

Imagine telling a significant role model in your life something new and exciting. An idea or event that has stimulated you both mentally and physically. It can be anything from trying out for a dramatic play, joining a sports team, beginning a new career, starting a new marriage, losing weight, developing a new outlook, changing your image, or continuing your education. Instead of receiving an encouraging comment, what you hear instead is: “That’s ridiculous,” “You’re always daydreaming,” or “You’ll never make anything out of yourself.”

Negative statements such as the ones mentioned above can create fear of failure and fear of rejection within a person. This situation can leave an individual on the receiving end feeling helpless. Negative attitudes create barriers toward individual accomplishment. The implicit, or unspoken message, is: “Whatever gave you the idea that you are motivated enough?.”

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Several large studies have found a lower risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease in intellectually active people compared with their mentally stagnant counterparts. And the mental activity can take many forms, such as reading, working jigsaw puzzles, woodworking, painting, knitting, and playing board games. Some studies have even found that people with mentally demanding jobs - professionals, managers, etc. - experience less memory decline as they age when compared with their counterparts who have less demanding jobs.

Dr.- Joe Verghese and his associates at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York asked 469 older adults how often they participated in leisure activities like ‘dancing, playing cards, or doing crossword puzzles. Over the years, the scientists kept track of who developed mild memory loss or full-blown dementia. They found that the people who were the most active mentally had a 63 percent lower risk of getting dementia compared with those who rarely played board games, read, or did similar activities. The people who played the most had the most productivity: doing crossword puzzles four days each week translated into a 47 percent lower risk of dementia compared with once-a-week puzzle solvers. For each day of the week that people exercised their minds, the researchers found nearly a 10 percent reduction in the risk for dementia.

Many people like to help themselves remember information by making up a rhyme for it. While the Rhyme Technique requires a lot of creative energy and a certain talent, all students who like it really take to it. They find it fun to make up rhymes and, let’s face it, if something is fun, you’re more likely to repeat it. How does the Rhyme Technique work? Let’s take the recipe list from above again, only this time let’s try to learn it using this technique:

chicken
chicken broth
wild rice
dried apples
walnuts
salt
pepper

Here’s a rhyme to help you remember this list of ingredients:

“Oh, the chicken swam into the broth.
The rice brewed wildly.
The apples dried on walnut husks on the salt and pepper sea.”

If you are musically inclined, you may even find you like to give your rhymes a little tune. Some students who are musicians or composers enjoy the Rhyme Technique. While it may seem complicated, make sure to try it. Maybe you’ll uncover an unknown talent!

Remembering Speeches

Probably the worst mistake you can make is to try to memorize a speech word for word. First of all, it isn’t really necessary. The assumption is that if you’ve been asked to deliver a speech on a particular subject, you know something about that subject. Secondly, memorizing the speech word for word will make it sound that way when you deliver it—memorized. And, finally, when you memorize a speech word for word, you’re taking the chance of fumbling over one word you can’t remember.

Reading a speech doesn’t work either, because you want to hold the group’s attention, and reading to them is likely to put them to sleep. Even if you occasionally look up at your audience as you read, it won’t help much. (more…)

Do you sometimes find yourself going to your refrigerator, opening the door, and then staring inside and wondering what it is you wanted? If you want this to stop then just simply make an association the moment you think of what it is you want from the refrigerator.

If you want a glass of milk, see yourself opening the refrigerator door and gallons of milk flying out and hitting you in the face! Try this idea, and you’ll never stare into a refrigerator again. That’s all there is to it. It’s like grabbing your mind by the scruff of the neck and forcing it to think of a specific thing at a specific moment.

Force yourself to do it at first, and it will become habitual before you know it. Forming these associations may strike you as a waste of time. You won’t feel that way once you’ve tried using the idea. You’ll see, after a short while, that the ridiculous pictures are formed in hardly any time at all. Even more important is the time that you’ll be saving.

Food allergies or sensitivities can trigger brain fog and forgetfulness in a number of ways. A food particle may leak from the digestive system into the bloodstream without being fully digested, and the immune system sees this harmless food particle as a potential invader.

White blood cells, blood vessels, and even distant organs, such as the adrenal glands,respond to the intrusion by releasing a torrent of biochemicals, including histamines, which produce allergic symptoms. An allergic reaction and its brain symptoms can occur within minutes or hours of eating the offending food, as the chemicals build up in the brain and cause inflammation.

Allergies to foods can trigger a variety of other symptoms, such as headache, sinus congestion, runny nose, cramping, diarrhea, and skin eruptions. Lesser known reactions include edema, sore throat, heart palpitations, anxiety, fatigue, mood swings, joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraine. Many people who have food allergies can eat the food to which they are allergic, but no more than once every three days—this is called a rotation diet.

Don’t Let Stress Zap Your Memory!

You return from a much-needed week’s vacation in the tropics where you didn’t take your laptop. You are relaxed, suntanned, and your wife’s hero for making a hat out of palm fronds and ordering dinner in broken Tahitian. There is no way this serene and blissful feeling is going to wear off, even after going back to the grind at the office next week. You vow to rise above it, remember the tranquil waves of paradise, no matter how stressful the situation around you. And you do, until about noon your first day back at work. (more…)