"I can't remember anything, I feel like i'm getting dementia!"

I had a friend tell me that she feels like she’s getting dementia because she can’t remember anything is that you? 

Are you forgetting all the things you have to do during the day?

Do you have a bunch of Post-it notes in your car, in your purse and a calendar at home? let’s talk about this. Let’s organize better together.

Here's my inspiration from Brooke Castillo and her Monday Hour One program.

Jackie from Intermittent Fasting Foodie has inspired me to try OMAD or eating one meal a day and i am loving it so far!

Gin Stephens is the other awesome lady who inspired both of us, check out her book Delay, Don't Deny and her other book Jackie from Intermittent Fasting Foodie has inspired me to try OMAD or eating one meal a day and i am loving it so far!

Gin Stephens is the other awesome lady who inspired both of us, check out her book Delay, Don't Deny and her other book

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

Hey guys, how are you? I was just talking to a friend today and I've actually heard it from a few girlfriends now that we're in our 40s or some 50s. that they're saying that they're forgetful. And she was saying, oh my gosh, I feel like I have dementia. I'm just, I can't remember things. And I'm so fortunate that I have solved that problem. Well, not thanks to me, but thanks to Brooke Castillo when she introduced us to how to manage your time and your week. This is what I took away from it. The way she suggests to do it is a little bit different, but this is how I kind of adapted it to my life so here's what I do I have two ongoing lists on my phone and the girlfriend that I was talking to still does it on paper and I have another girlfriend that also does it on paper and I love paper and I used to do it on paper paper calendar paper everything it's just not practical in our daily lives now because I believe we're on the go so much with our kids, driving them around everywhere and busy that it's just so much easier with the phone. So the two lists that I have going, one of them is a grocery list, which is on the app called AnyList, which I love because I can actually share with my husband and he adds things to it all the time. And you can create... many different lists in there like we have a list of restaurants we want to visit we have a list uh a grocery list we have a list of um costco lists or christmas lists whatever anything you want to create we can share it we can add it and so we have that and so anytime i run out of something or i'm down to one item i instantly go into the app and i add the thing that's that needs to be bought. So the list is constantly being edited. So I never have to wonder what it is that I need to buy, which is so freeing because I don't have to think and go through the fridge and to the pantry. And I just added like as I go. So that's really freeing because I never have to remember what it is that I need. I just look at the list and I buy it. If it's not on the list, I will not remember it. And here's why. And this is what Brooke helped me understand is because our brain is not meant to store information. It is meant to process information, right? That's why we're so good at thinking about things and analyzing them and researching them and doing all this processing. But storing, we just get so bad at it, right? With age, we just can't store all these different little things all the time, every day, adding, adding, adding, adding. So That's why I store it on my phone so that my brain and I never have to worry that I will forget something because it's on my list. So the other list I have going is actually more helpful to me than the grocery list. And I do it in my notes. So, you know, the phone has notes like a section notes to it. And I have that going as an ongoing to do list. And I love it because I can set it up as a. like with little bullet points where I can check them off. Like once I've done it, I can go check and it checks it off as if I've done it. And once it gets too long and I've done all the things, I just delete all the things that I've done and I just leave all the new things. So also super duper helpful because I can update it anytime. So as soon as I remember that something needs to be done, whether it's super important, high priority or super low priority, It gets added to the list, and then I get this freedom of peace of mind of worrying. Am I going to forget it? Did I remember it? Is it going to get done? There's no worry. There's no panic, and I'm not afraid because I know as soon as it's on the list, it's going to get done. So the list, whenever I have something I added to the list, Then every day, and I even call this list my work today. So that includes my podcast, my kids, my paperwork, my home office, my, even sometimes groceries, like whatever comes into my head, I don't attempt to store it. I just write it on the list. So then every day I have a kind of a, you know, triage system where I look at the list and I evaluate, okay, what's, And it's not that long of a list that takes a lot of time to scan through it. So I just go through it and I decide, okay, what's more important? What's less important? What will take the most time? Sometimes I do the thing that I want to do the least. Because I just dread it so much. I'm just like, want to get it over with. And then it's just so much more fun to do things afterwards, because I feel so accomplished after I've done the thing that I don't want to do the most. Then then I feel so on a roll that I just keep on getting things done. And I love checking them off the list. And I feel so accomplished. And remember, in my other episodes, I did tell you about this, I'm pretty sure, that I do add to the list rest. I add it to the list rest. I add it to the list lunch. I add... coffee to the list because it is important to me and I feel like I need to make space for it in my day because if I don't put it on the list, I feel like I haven't honored something that's important to me. So that list reflects what's important to me and what's not important. And that is how I have full freedom from worry. I have peace of mind. I have such a peaceful mind that I don't think I have dementia. I don't think, and I also don't expect myself to remember all these things. And actually the girlfriend I was talking to, I said, well, how do you like, what do you do right now for your organizing? And she said, I have a paper at home. And I, and I said, well, what about when you're out and about? Like, what do you do? She says, well, uh, sticky notes. And I, that's just too much work. to carry. And I tried that. I thought, you know, I tried having like a notebook or it just doesn't seem practical to me. Even though I love paper, I love writing things on paper. So what are you doing right now for your organization? The way Brooke... Castillo suggests to do it the way she does it is doing that once a week you do a brain dump of what you need to do the whole thing like everything and you do that as long as you keep have something else to add you keep writing things down and then you ask yourself what else then you ask yourself what else so you write everything down then once you have everything done then you put it into your calendar and And you decide how long each thing is going to take you. And then once it's in the calendar, the list goes in the garbage because you are honoring your calendar. You will get everything done. So then the list does not need to exist anymore because it's in your calendar. It's going to get done. So that didn't work for me that well because I found that I had constantly things being added to my list. All the time. And so I felt like I couldn't, I needed either to remember like I, this is how I developed my own system of updating list. And I do it more on a daily basis. But I did kind of adapt what she suggested. And I loved that she taught me that our brain is not supposed to store information, then I feel free and I don't feel like I have dementia. I feel like my brain's functioning really well and I don't have to remember everything. Whatever I need to know, I would know. And my list is there to help me. My calendar is there to help me. So that one I'm really grateful for. And I actually taught my girlfriend that and she loves that because we do forget things. And especially on this side of 40s, The lists are great. I love my list. So I thought of sharing this with you because of my conversation with my girlfriend. And I'm hoping this will be helpful to you. I would love to hear what do you do right now for your organizing, for your timetable, for your schedule. How do you remember everything you have to do? I would love to hear some tips that you do or some some things that have worked for you. I would love to hear that. I'm sure everyone else would as well. So leave a comment and that would be very helpful. All right, guys, have a great day and I love you and I'll see you soon.