Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

I forgot ... I forgot ... I forgot ... Does that describe you? When a person tells you fast directions do you forget details after the first two or three steps? It’s normal to lose details, unless you focus on those directions alone, and refuse to think about anything other than those specific issues. Why so?

The answer will likely surprise you. Memory involves your basal ganglia and working memory, and it  cannot focus on the moment and hold many new bits of direction, at the same time. Your working memory, which contains new facts is much smaller than your basal ganglia, which holds habits and all learned facts over time. So what is the solution?

Outsource your memory as a way to capitalize on more of it with less effort, finer results and a surefire way to stretch your brain’s  capabilities for future remembering.

Here are smart skills to help you develop acumen for outsourcing your memory in situations where it will come back to you in productivity at work.

1. Jot down direction details as people give them,  either on a daybook page, or recipe card you keep close by for keeping facts on file. Then add a few more lines and write in the destination if you will be traveling to that place frequently. Store the speedy direction in a small corner of your file systems and you’ll save time next time you plan to travel there.

2. Hang keys from a small hook, so that you can clip to a bag, a best or a nail on the wall where you work. Use a similar one-stop place at home – and you’ll outsource that need to remember where you set keys last time you used them. Add up your daily time savings and you’ll be surprised how efficient memory outsourcing becomes.

3. Start each day with core targets listed in doable action items in your daybook or calendar, and then check these off during the day as they are completed. By outsourcing that segment of memory, you free your tiny working memory to take in and hold the few new facts that will allow you to create at the cutting edge, rather than waste precious time trying to remember what needs to be done before you leave work.

These few smart skills will free up mental fuel for mind-bending productivity.  In fact, some of the outsourced routines – such keys on hook – eventually work their way over to the brain’s storage place for long term habits – the basal ganglia.

Can you see how you’d free up your brainpower for important decisions and innovative solutions in the moment, when you simply outsource key items that overstuff your limited working memory? Expect to find new challenges to inspire your day, once you reorganize and reboot your brain by outsourcing more memory.

What will you outsource to improve your day?