I simply can't remember anything.

[Proverbs31:28]

I am sure I am not the only one but thanks to this anxiety, depression, meds or some combination of them, I have like no short-term memory anymore. I can not remember where I put things, why I have walked into a room, where I am going when I drive somewhere (I frequently take the wrong exit or my kids tell me I am going the wrong way!), if I have started or finished a task and so on. I forget to take things out of the washer, the dryer, the microwave oven! I forget to wash sports uniforms (or sometimes think I already did it) until the day of the game! I forget to refill my kid's water bottles for school. The list goes on and on.

Does anyone have any memory tricks? I feel like I am slipping away! I used to have this sharp as a tack mind and an elephant's memory but I am now dulled and absent.

[kaudio]

Hi, I suggest writing tasks down and collecting them in a file folder or something convenient so you can refer back to it. I find simply having a small pad and one of those plastic files with multiple pockets inside is great for keeping track of tasks I want done.

As for memory tricks there is the method of loci. Legends have it that Roman orators would remember speeches by using the routes they walk. Basically, the routes would be memorized and certain points to the route are then designated 1, 2, 3... and so on. A visual representation of each part of the speech is then associated with each designated point until the entire speech is spread throughout the route memorized in their minds. Memory Olympic competitors are known to have hundreds of such designated points.

To use this method yourself, begin the route with one part of your home in your mind, designating points along a route. Points can be atop desks, chairs, beds, dressers, hallways, stairs, and anything else you can think of. Try to designate as many points as you can at each section of the route so your route doesn't take up too much of a town or a city You may want to take a walk around the neighbourhood to expand your route as the need to create more points arises.