Make Connections to Help Remember Deadlines

Quick Win

Memory prompts help you follow through on your commitments.

Try This Today

• Imagine a finished task. If your deadline involves finishing a chapter in a book for your weekly book club, visualize everyone in the group sitting around as you lead the discussion.
• Associate something with each step. Mentally break down a project into shorter tasks and associate something like an object to each task. Say you’re working on an important presentation for work, and the first step is to pull research: To help make sure you gather all the information you need on time, “picture” a book or website you’ll refer to for the research.
• Re-use connections. Imagine the same connection for similar tasks in a project. For example, if three steps of a project all involve research, picture that same book or website each time.

Why

Reliably meeting deadlines is an example of a prospective memory (PM) task, which involves remembering to follow through with plans in the future. There’s evidence that it declines with age. Fortunately, you can help sharpen your prospective memory with mnemonic devices. In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 73 studies involving a total of 3,749 middle-age to older adults, researchers found evidence that mnemonic strategies, like using visual imagery, can help improve prospective memory. The review was published in Neuropsychology in 2021.