Make Connections to Help Remember Deadlines

Try This Today

• Use your imagination. If your deadline involves finishing a chapter in a book for your weekly book club, visualize everyone in the group sitting around discussing the chapter as you lead the discussion.
• Break down a project into shorter tasks that can be accomplished one at a time. Then, use associations, such as an object, for each section. The beginning could be “A as in apple,” as you picture a bright, shiny apple in your mind. The end could be a finish line banner at the end of a race.
• Plan each detail and group similar parts of your project together. Maybe the middle part involves the same research; “picture” the book or website you’ll refer to. You can tackle that first, then move on to the next until you meet your deadline.

Why

Breaking down and placing words in groups or categories teaches your brain to learn and retain information it otherwise may discard. You can visualize locations, objects and people to help you set goals. Make sure your word associations are familiar. This way you’re more likely to remember them.