I have referred often to the limits of human short-term memory, but on this occasion I wanted to delve a Little deeper to evidence exactly why we forget our commitments.

“The role of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths such as weaknesses become irrelevant”

-       Peter Drucker

Understanding the memory is essential to make, as Drucker says, its weaknesses irrelevant.

Memory… What memory?

The first thing that needs to be clarified is that the brain has different kinds of memory, to simplify we will divide them in two types: “Working Memory” and “Storage Memory”

Working Memory: is the part(s) of the brain that keeps things within reach of our reasoning, it is what we “have in mind”

Storage Memory: is the filing cabinet of our brain, where everything is stored so that we can recall in the long term. The thing is, we cannot function with the information in Storage Memory, it just doesn’t work that way. In order to co-relate or “use” different data, it has to be retrieved from storage and put in Working Memory.

Studies done by Timothy Brady have proven the massive capacity of our Storage Memory, in it is contained virtually all information you have come across in your life.

So… why do I forget things?

The is a wide range of factors, but the most important are:

1. Bad Encoding: Working memory captures the stimuli that we receive and evaluates which one is the focus of attention, then tries to figure out the reason why is should be stored so it can properly encode the information and pass it to Storage Memory. Think of it as a filing process where you add a couple of labels to a file, if you put the wrong labels its impossible to find the file.A good example of this is a study performed by Dr. Cowan, where he presented people with a series of coins and asked them to remember the denomination of the currency; a very large percentage of people remembered right when asked the pertinent information, but when asked, almost no one could recall the year that was minted on the front.In this case, the coins where coded as “denomination 5, Denomination 25… Etc.” and thus there is no information on storage of the minted year.
2. Interference: The process of memory recall is directly related to the code or stimulus that fired the process, if more calls come in at the same time, the mind can wander in search of different memories; this is known as interference and is one of the reasons for the “tip of the tongue” effect, where the memory was already recalled but has not yet been delivered.
3. Interception: Memories are stored all over the brain, and as such its hard for the human body not to react as if it was re-living the event all over again, if it was a traumatic moment the recall will be intercepted by the negative reaction of the body

Why do things slip away?

Have you ever had an important call to make, and after a very busy workday you get home only to remember with anguish that to forgot?

The reason for this is that Storage Memory doesn’t allow us to reason, think of it like a DVD filled with videos on the shelf of your house, its all there but cant actually do anything with it.

You can only “think” (deducting, correlating, task execution, problem solving, pattern recognition, logic, etc.) with the things you can hold in Working Memory, here is where the limitation comes in: according to Dr. Millier, and later corroborated by Dr. Cowan, the maximum capacity of your Working Memory is between 4 and 7 “chunks” of data.

People that seem to remember more are just very adept at encoding, or can memorize large sets of data into a single chunk, for example the digits 584246609978 are biologically impossible to maintain in working memory without losing focus or sending something else over to Storage. However, the phone number +(58) (country code for Venezuela), 424 (cell phone code), 660 (area) 9978 (number) are a lot easier to remember, because in reality its just 4 “chunks” of data.

Working memory maintains information for 10-15 seconds before sending it over to storage, so what you are doing most of the time is just juggling the different stimuli you receive throughout your workday.

So if I ask you to do 7 things, then during 15 seconds I ask you to memorize a 7 number string of digits, you no longer have the biological capacity to maintain your tasks in operation; they are now filed and stored away, and unless you happen to randomly come across the proper stimulus, then recall the proper encoding, you wont remember them.

To beat this limitation you have to do one of two things:

1. Spend years training in advanced mnemotecnic methods and coplex encoding exercises to maximize recall capacity or…
2. Write things down.

Do you have any encoding tricks? What stimuli do you use to recall? I’m eager to hear from you in the comments section or on my twitter @alexmrv.

Photo by  red ice

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

When I started getting organized, I checked my email inbox to make a list of all pending issues, at the time there were close to 10.000 e-mails, from which i got only about 100 tasks, proving that a pile of stuff doesn’t always imply a pile of work. A large amount of material that reaches your attention is just background noise, the key is in being able to separate the chaff from the valuable input you need to get your work done.

The second thing I did was go to my room and check drawer by drawer, I ended up trashing 5 bags filled with paper I did not need. Later on, when thinking why my room accumulated so much paper, I discovered it just needed a trash bin by the desk, learning that sometimes a small change can solve a big problem, and that one paper at a time becomes a room full of trash.

We accumulate so much input from email, papers, cell phones, and messages that we can’t get any clarity in our lives. Each of these tools functions as constant implicit reminders of irresponsibility, and become a weight on your conscience that won’t let you move forward.

This is why i don’t want to stress you with the question: what am i going to do with my life? For now just focus on the question: What am I going to-do today?, if you can’t stop thinking about returning rental movies don’t pretend to solve the core aspects of your life and 10 year goals, there will be a time for that further on.

The first step consists in “bailing water”: Returning to a stable ground where you are in control. The key to this step is that response-ability means “being able to answer for your actions and inactions”, to do this you first need an inventory of who to answer to, starting with yourself, so that you can later take action or negotiate inaction.

The method is really simple:

1. You need to buy two things:
   1. A small pocket notebook that you can carry on you at all times.
   2. Something you can write on that feels like a reward and makes you want to open it and work on it often: A pretty notebook, a fancy new app, a cool cell phone or an elegant planner, for consistency I will refer to this as List Tool from now on.
2. Carry the planner with you to write down anything that crosses your mind, it doesn’t matter how small or large, each time you remember something you have been asked, have an idea you want to execute or are asked for something, write it down in your notebook. Tip: write down each item in a single paper, that way when you later need to check the notebook you can dedicate all your focus to each idea without distraction or angst, for example if you have on the same paper “prepare for tax audit” and “spend more time with my family”, the dissonance between the concepts can generate stress and anxiety.
3. Check your surroundings to detect responsibilities that you have pending, writing them down in your notebook: Desk, e-mail, office, etc. Tip: don’t try to do it all in one go, start modestly so the process doesn’t generate anxiety, remember you have a whole week to check, dedicate just a bit of time each day.
4. Label each page of your List Tool with every context or person that can give you responsibilities (Mom, Dad, Administration, Jhon, HR, Richard, Wendy, Home, Wife, etc.)
5. Take a couple of times every day to review  as many pages as you can from your pocket notebook, asking yourself the following questions:
   1. Do i want to do this?: Remember you can always say no, but take into account that you also need to answer for your inactions, if you don’t want to-do something just take the choice and notify those involved.
   2. Can I do this?: If it’s an idea you like, but you can’t achieve at the time, just make a page called “Someday” at the end of the List Tool, and write that down so you can just mature the idea for a better time.
   3. If the answer to both questions is “yes” now you need to think exactly what you are going to do about it and write that down on the corresponding page. Tip: After writing the task down, tear off the page in the pocket notebook. If it is filled with processed information it will generate anxiety to leaf through to the first unchecked page.

On the squeaky door example: When i hear it i write down on the notebook “the door squeaks”, when I get to the office I open up my new planner and on the page titled “My Wife” I write down: “Remind my wife to add 3M oil to the shopping list”.

Easy Right?

Even though it might appear odd to have to write down everything twice, there is a scientific reason behind it: The sections of your brain that are used to have an idea or remembering a task, are not the same that are used to plan execution. Changing patterns of thinkings and brain areas is physically hard, which makes un unconsciously avoid the planning process. By associating the notebook with ideas and the List Tool with planning, we give our brain a “heads up” on what part is needed, providing clarity to determine what the next step is.

This week, spend as much time as you can reviewing your surrounding and generating your commitments list with tasks, don’t worry to much about completing them yet, whats important is the motive behind the exercise: Taking stock of the totality of your commitments and taking active choices about each one ofthem.

The revelations that you will have when you complete your lists will be a key point in yourlife, I promise.

With list in hand, next week we will take a deeper look on how to make that list a bit shorter, remember that you can ask anything you need during the capture process in the comments section of this post, or contact me directly through twitter (@alexmrv)