Category: Personal Development

I forgot to post on this topic last week (…pause for laughter…), but this how-to on improving your memory seemed quite useful.

It’s bad enough when you feel that you have very little time to do the tasks you need to do. Why do things twice? Improving your memory means only having to learn things once, saving you time and making you both more efficient and more effective. The how-to has a warning that improving your ability to recall does not guarantee success in life. Maybe not, but it isn’t as if being forgetful has helped me any, either. I might as well improve this skill as it can only help.

Some of the tips in the how-to relate to mnemonics, which most memory articles and books advocate. I think that habits should be made out of physical and mental exercises. Poor health will make it more difficult to remember, so to keep sharp, you need to keep healthy. Repetition helps, and repetition helps.

Some of the tips seem to have generalizations that could be more useful:

Put black ink at the end of your palm to remember any important thing for the next day or for that day itself. Whenever you see the black dot, you’ll remember what to do.

Actually, I think the general idea of using reminders, as David Allen mentions in Getting Things Done, is more useful. Recently I wanted to motivate myself to wake up early. The night before, when I was programming but needed to go to sleep, I KNEW that I wanted to wake up early so that I would have time to continue programming before leaving for my day job; unfortunately, when the morning would come, I would have a hard time getting out of bed. So I took an index card and wrote out my morning schedule:

• 5:30AM – 6:00AM — Shower and get dressed.
• 6:00AM – 6:30AM — Eat breakfast and make lunch.
• 6:30AM – 7:00AM — Brush teeth, shave, etc.

I rarely need an hour and a half to do all of those tasks, but I have cats. The idea is that by 7AM I should be ready to go no matter what, and if I get finished earlier, I can always work on Oracle’s Eye Prime for longer.

Anyway, I took the index card and placed it on top of my alarm, which was moved from my bed stand to a shelf. The next morning, when the alarm went off, I first realized that it wasn’t where it used to be. Then I realized that I couldn’t get to the alarm without touching this index card. I didn’t even need to read it as I immediately remembered why it was there in the first place. I tried it last week, and almost each day without fail I was up and ready to go. The only time it didn’t work was when I was feeling sick, and I gave myself permission to not work that day. Otherwise, I didn’t feel a need to go back to sleep because I reminded myself that I wanted to give more time to working on my project. By the end of the week, I didn’t even need to put the index card on top of the alarm as I had built the habit of waking up early.

So the reminder helped me to remember my motivation. If I can “improve my memory” with similar results, how can I not succeed?

Action asks a good question: What is the latest “BOLD” thing you’ve done?

I say that it is a good question because I had to stop and think before I could answer it. I was surprised that I had to think about it!

– I shouldn’t, because it means that I am not doing enough to be a successful indie or successful at a lot of things.
– I shouldn’t because it means that I am always getting satisfied with hitting plateaus and don’t push harder.

The bold actions I recalled:

• A little over two years ago, I kissed my current girlfriend for the first time.
• In January, I moved into an apartment with my girlfriend.
• Around March, I finally submitted the paperwork to form GBGames, LLC.
• When applying for a programming position in April, I decided to try a completely new design for my test assignment.
• A couple of weeks ago, I was at Cedar Point in Ohio. I’m terrified of roller coasters, but I went on them.

For each of these actions, I ended up with a good result. I have a great relationship, a great home, a great company (I think so, anyway), a pretty good job, and a great weekend of fun and memories. Still, I had to think back about two years, and I could only come up with a handful? Some of them weren’t all that bold when I think about it, such as my programming design or roller coaster rides. I was either going to do it myself or get a bit of peer pressure to do it. As for being bold, I find that I am lacking.

Fortune favors the bold, which is more than just a cliché. Wouldn’t I be better off, financially or otherwise, if I made it a point to do more things that scare me? At the very least, I should look at the things I have been putting off and ask myself why I am procrastinating. It’s likely that they’ll be like riding the roller coasters: intimidating, but once I do it, I’ll find that it isn’t so bad and is actually enjoyable.

What kind of bold things are we talking about here? Is trying a new recipe instead of eating what I always make considered bold? Is making a call to get a better deal with a service provider bold as opposed to doing nothing and going with the plan I already have? Is running home from work as a form of exercise as opposed to driving or walking a bold move on my part? Is boldness measured in terms of what everyone else is doing or other choices on my part?

Here’s a scary thought: I can’t immediately think of something bold I want to try. When I ask myself, “If you knew you would succeed, what one thing would you do?”, nothing springs to mind. It’s not like I believe my life is perfect, so why don’t I immediately think of at least a handful of things to do? Did I really get conditioned to “go with the flow” when I wasn’t paying attention? I’m going to work on this problem, because it is a problem. I should have at least a general sense of direction in life.

So, what is the latest bold thing you’ve done? When were you daring?