Life Hack: Use Your Memory to Accomplish More Success – Part 3 Intention Detection and Retrieval

By, Kathy Shabotynskyj & Nafije Prishtina

In the previous blogs we reminded you that using a time management system ensures continuous progress toward your goals. Your memory can be enhanced to aid your success by using external cognitive tools such as 4S for achieving your desired success.

Everyone knows it is a priority to care and nurture our own bodies, but do you provide nurturing to your mind too? Our memory energy is limited, and we have to be mindful on how we use our working memory so it doesn’t get clogged with too much info. Our brains, though very powerful, can only hold so much input at a time. Research shows that a healthy adult brain holds about seven tasks at a time. Employing mindful strategies will help maintain focus on our top tasks and top goals and avoid distractions.

Kliegel et. Al (2007) emphasizes the importance of utilizing planning aids such as 4S.  This researcher explains the concept best by saying that ; Individuals are faced with complex situations where they are required to remember to perform not just one or several similar intentions, but rather sets of diverse intentions. Moreover, performance of our intentions are often restricted in terms of order, importance, and time. Furthermore, they have to remember to carry out various jobs at different locations, such as at home and at work, and sometimes may not have enough time to complete the “to do list.” As a result, they will have to remember to switch between tasks and priorities and keep balance. From neuroscience, we learn the importance of self-monitoring and intentions and goal progress. Monitoring, a prospective memory task, is associated with increased prefrontal cortex activation; whereas automatic retrieval is associated with increased temporal cortex activation.¹

Steps to follow for daily monitoring and increased prefrontal cortex activation:

Step 1. Review your daily schedule and self-monitor: The best way to hold ourselves accountable is by checking in with yourself first thing in the morning, at noon and after work. Reviewing your daily planner every few hours will encourage the use of episodic future thought (EFT). It will keep you in charge of your life and help you make more progress on your to-do’s. You will be surprised how much you accomplish between morning and noon, and noon to 5 pm. Your brain is going to get extra happy as you write a CHECK MARK next to your completed tasks. You will be more motivated when you put a STAR on the “in progress” tasks. You will look forward to working the next day when you move an uncompleted task to the next day.

Step 2. Refocus yourself and hold yourself accountable: Though we all are striving to complete our most important tasks, sometimes life gets in the way and we may not be able to make the desired progress. When this happens, we need to clear the noise and refocus. We need to be honest with ourselves and find out what obstacles are impeding progress.  After you identify the obstacles take some time and brainstorm ideas to overcome those challenges. Remember your favorite prayers and affirmations. Nurture yourself first and foremost, both the body and mind. Your own well-being must be a top priority, even if that means scheduling your tasks for another day/time or delegating your tasks.

Step 3. Ask for help with accountability:  Holding ourselves accountable for our actions requires a lot of discipline. Let’s be honest, some goals require more attention and sometimes we benefit if we have a partner who can help us with accountability. Social accountability in prospective memory is very important. When we share our goals with others and ask them to hold us accountable, our performance increases. The external accountability serves as a “cue” for your memory and therefore you are more likely to do what you say you will do.

Think about it, at work you have so many people holding you accountable for different things, but after you come home most likely nobody is going to ask you for your agenda for the other aspects of your life.

My clients make my day when they share pictures of their daily planner with all tasks completed. They tell me that they don’t want to disappoint me, and therefore they put extra efforts to fulfilling their committed daily goals.

In Part 4 of our Life Hack Blog, we’ll show you how to accomplish more success using your memory and accountability tactics.

 Reference:
1.    cf. McCauley et al., 2009; McDaniel et al., 2013

See Earlier Blogs in this series:

Life Hack:  Use Your Memory to Accomplish More Success

Part 1:  Leverage Your Emotions and Enhance Your Productivity

Part 2: Planning, Organizing, and Prioritizing 

Career Coach Kathy Shabotynskyj:

kathy@mycareerteam.com

Life Coach Nafije Prishtina: 

shinningstarscoaching@gmail.com

Contact us today for a complimentary PDF worksheet of 4S!