Little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
I have a terrible memory too. Here's how we take on the occasional amnesia:
1) Make a calendar reminder so you get an email or text the day before an event. That way you can lay out your outfit, shave your legs and put down the bottle of wine after 2 glasses to keep from looking all coco-puff-dehydrated in the morning.
2) Set everything you need for the next part of your day by the door. In the evening before I go to bed, I put my bag, shoes, commuter reading and a note saying "Don't forget you made a ham sandwich for lunch and it's in the fridge, dummy" by the door. If I need to remember to take something home from work I do the same and put it next to my bag/shoes/book.
3) Not at home or not have a phone to put reminder dates in? Live under a rock? Put a rubberband around your wrist. I used to do this in high school when they wouldn't let you carry phones around (and to be honest, I was not cool enough to have a phone in high school). The band will be awkward enough to not be confused with jewelry and if you don't wear one everyday it will be different enough to give you that "huh, I was supposed to do something today..." feeling. Writing it on your hand works too, but cannot be taken off easily if you need to step into a meeting.
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4) The good ol' sticky note. Stick 'em. Love 'em.
5) Make a Google document of passwords. Try to keep them as vague as possible. Say, the credit card you just got has online billing and you need to remember the username and password. Don't just write that all out in the document unless you absolutely cannot remember it (then you should probably pick a different password anyway). Googled Docs are not 100% secure, so if your password is the name of your favorite Thai food place, put "Favorite Thai Place" as your reminder.
6) If you have to keep calling customer service at work or remember a product code, tape a cheat sheet next to the wall by your phone. Be professional and put it in a protective plastic sleep to keep it from getting curled in the summer humidity. Once you have the stuff memorized, file that sheet away in the recycling bin. You should have an electronic copy stored somewhere.
7) Tell a friend what you are trying to remember. I say "remind me that I have a dentist appointment tomorrow" but I don't really mean that they have to remind me. I mean, it would be nice, but I'm not totally telling them to remind me. Sometimes saying it out loud helps.
8) Write it on your bathroom mirror in a dry erase marker. "You have lunch with SoAndSo today". My sister writes her husband encouraging messages (or herself, I guess I don't know who the messages are to) on the bathroom mirror. I think it could work for reminders too.
What a lovely bathroom mirror, too! Via
9) Just like in school, make an acronym or mnemonic device. My husband's password to everything is a ba-zillion digit number/letter combo that he had to memorize when imputing code in middle school. How the flip am I gonna remember a techy little mashup like that? I made a song out of it. Yes, sir, I sing a bunch of gibberish when I login to our Mint.com account. And now that I have done it a bunch and it's in my finger's muscle memory, I can do it by just chanting it. High five to progress!
10) Make a routine. If you keep forgetting your lunch, make it part of your morning routine to open the fridge - even on weekends. If you forget to set your alarm, check it every night even when you know you have the AM and the PM correct because you reset it after you got up in the morning. If you forget to pay your credit card bill on the 15th each month, highlight all the 15ths of the month in your calendar (whether it's a desk calendar, a daily tear-off calendar or your e-calendar) and make a mid-month routine. Like watering your plants:
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Until we all descend into blissful retirement of the mind, lets keep up, shall we?
