I'll be the first to admit that I am a chronic list keeper. Keeping lists and "to-do notes" everywhere enables me to navigate life without too terribly many mishaps and forgotten appointments.
Lists aren't exactly something I have started keeping as a result of getting older-- I have pretty much always kept lists. They do help me, perhaps because I tend to dabble in a lot of different areas of interest.
Red Rocks, Sedona, Arizona
In general, though, it feels like I have never had much of a short term memory.
People can ask me what happened at an event eight years ago and I can give you remarkable details most people have long forgotten, but if you want a synopsis of the ideas we covered during a brainstorming session an hour ago, I will mostly draw a blank.
Does list keeping make your brain go slack?
Anyway, this morning I was looking at my lists of everything I wanted to get done this coming week... and I started wondering if the mere process of "keeping a list" actually serves as a way to make our brains less focused and slack. As in "because I wrote this down, I don't need to remember, so I am not exercising my memory, therefore I can't remember things well."
After all, isn't the brain just like a muscle-- it needs to be used, in order to be strong?
Is my brain floating away...?
I don't have a definitive answer.
When I was a child, I used to spend a lot of time staying with my elderly Aunt Ulla, who in large part raised me. My aunt was quite resistant to the idea of using the new (at the time) pocket calculators to do her bookkeeping... based on the belief that if she started to rely on a machine, her brain would slow down and she would eventually forget how to do simple calculations in her head. Similarly, she always did super hard crossword puzzles without a dictionary, in large part "to stay sharp."
I don't know if there is any actual truth to that theory.
Brain Training?
Meanwhile, I have noticed a number of online so-called "brain training" sites appear, over the years. They claim that if you join their programs and do their daily brain exercises it will improve your brain function, in some way.
Blooming Salvia in our garden
I tried one of them-- named Lumosity-- for about a year. I didn't feel significantly different, although I did enjoy the "gamification" aspect of doing a mind exercise. Even though I did the exercises as scheduled, the only thing that improved even slightly was my "reaction time." In subsequently reading reviews and forums, it seemed that some people improved and some did not.
Frankly, I feel like I can gain just as much benefit from reading good books or provocative articles that make me imagine and think about problems, in my mind.
As for whether lists will actually eat my brain? I doubt it... it seems infinitely more likely that my brain will atrophy as a result of the mindless 2nd grade drivel that passes for "content" on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Hence I have come to prefer the rather higher grade fare her on Steemit.
But that's just my opinion!
What do YOU think? Do you keep lists? Out of necessity, because you have a lot on your plate? Or do you just "remember" things? Do you consider yourself to have a good memory, or not so good? Was it always so, or has it changed with age? Do you think we can "train" our brains for more than just marginal improvement? Leave a comment-- let's discuss!
(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. The post is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
I phase in and out of list keeping. Sometimes, just too much is going on, and visualizing the priorities helps me get it all done, or atleast the important bits.
I'm a visual and audio learner, but mostly audio, so reciting my mental lists out loud provides a motivation to get it done as well.
"alright mister, you're going to shovel the drive, cook some lunch, and watch that Burst market for a potential sell."
and I'll remember the way I said it as fuel for getting the jobs done.
I have a selective memory, and I've learned what types of things stick and what doesn't. Maybe that's apart of having a good memory, knowing what your mind picks up and what it might forget.
much love!
@claritypavillion, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Interesting point about "selective memory;" I do tend to remember things I'm passionate about more effectively than (for example) daily chores.
Lists are good but for me things are always changing so I may not follow them to the tee but it's nice to have them if things slack down and you need things to fill your time. LOL
Know what you mean about change! I keep lots of lists, but it's rare that everything on them actually gets done...