Photo courtesy of BrittneyBush
When is the best time to make your weekly shopping list? 10 minutes before you leave the house? If so, what’s the point- you may as well just get to the shops and buy on impulse. A list made at the last minute involves trying to remember all the essentials you normally buy, everything you’ve run out of, plus those special ingredients for the meal you plan to cook this weekend!
Many people find it’s easier to make and update a list as they go along. Perhaps they keep it pinned up in the kitchen or attached to the fridge. Then it’s easy to add items to the shopping list during the week whenever you realise you need something.
Ideally, you should keep the list handy - what if you’re cleaning your home and find there’s no bathroom cleaner or toilet paper remaining – you may forget to add it to the list unless you go to the kitchen immediately. You may see an advert on TV, fall for the persuasive marketing and decide to try the new product – it would be a shame if you forgot all about it!!!
Without a list, sooner or later, you’ll forget something when you go shopping, but the consequences aren’t severe.
If your memory isn’t perfect (or in our case, you can’t trust your memory) and you need to remember to do important tasks either at work or home, then you need a “system” you can rely upon: something that isn’t inside your head. (I don’t mean a computer system, just a complete process and everything that goes with it, to help you get on with your life.)
I’ve always found that making “to do” lists helped me greatly. However, I didn’t make full use of these until a work colleague introduced me to David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) technique. At a simplistic level, this is a system for making lists of tasks that need to be done, recorded onto a simple notepad that you carry with you; these tasks are then processed one at a time. David Allen talks about it being a “trusted system”, because the brain is less than 100% reliable, so it is very relevant for us.
In addition, I used to write copious notes, whether study notes or meeting notes. It took time to write these notes and more time to refer back to them when required. I was fortunate enough to attend one of Tony Buzan’s seminars and learn to use mind mapping. This is a visual representation showing the connections between related ideas. Quick to write and even quicker to reference. Mind maps were developed by psychologists to aid memory, again, very useful for us.
These are the two main aids that I will explain help:
- avoid forgetting
- avoid the stress of being unsure of whether you’ve forgotten something important
