Make lists, even on paper. It will improve your productivity, but it will also exercise and active both the mind and the memory.
No matter how arcane as it may seem to be, making lists is useful in many ways.
Electronics are handy, but written lists are more beneficial.
Make lists. Write them out on paper, Write them on sticky notes. Sprinkle them around your home, under the kitchen table place mat, by the phone, on your office desk, on your tv chair. Put the lists around the house so they cannot be overlooked.
How they help memory
Writing these lists activates the brain and the memory. You are consolidating and reinforcing what you had put into memory earlier. Writing the list is part of the 3 R’s strategy with you reviewing and recalling what you need to remember.
Handwritten lists trump electronic ones
Handwriting lists are more beneficial for your mind and memory than doing them electronically. Writing is a slow process. In doing it, your brain is forced to slow down, think more, and digest everything more slowly. Additionally, by writing your list, you engage more of yourself physically. Your hand, your arm, your eyes, your shoulders…your body is into the record keeping as well as your mind and memory.
Electronic lists have some practicality, enough that they should not be disregarded totally. They are very portable and transportable. Save the note to a device into a storage location that is Internet accessible and you can view that list anywhere where WiFi is available. Today, WiFi connectivity is becoming near universal and in public places, it invariably is free. You can read your list in the library, in a coffee shop, at Mcdonald’s, in many restaurants, even in some grocery stores. So your list travels with you. If you have a smartphone, though you pay for Internet access, your notes are available 24/7.
The disadvantage to electronic notes is that there is a learning curve to the process, especially if you use applications such as NOTEZILLA, WUNDERLIST or TRELLO. These are apps which are designed for quick note making, list writing but they require some learning. Handwriting notes require no learning. Simply pick up a pen and piece of paper and begin your list. Portability? Stick the note in your pocket!
Caveat
Be aware that the best list making system in the world is totally useless unless you use it. Unless you take the note out of your pocket, unless you power up your device, the notes are completely useless.
