On Our Minds

What Better Memory Means

Here at reQall, it's a given that we're fanatical about memory. We exist to help you improve your memory and, through it, your life and your relationships.

Our interest in memory is of two kinds – one is capturing the most important bits of things you need to not forget and then providing well-timed, automatic retrieval. These bits and pieces can't stay top-of-mind because you need your reason and memory for other critical things. But often they make the difference between remembering that your wedding anniversary is Friday - and the doghouse. With reQall you're given the luxury of forgetting things until you need to remember.

There's another kind of memory that excites us and drives us to constantly improve reQall capabilities.  It's the role reQall can play in keeping "organic" memory (much prized these days) strong. Tamin Ansary noted that the days are gone when we can lie idly beside a stream and memorize the entire “Iliad” in Greek.  We need our minds for many other things - generally all at once. Time is our new luxury.  Organic recall is becoming a new, necessary, status symbol.

When a thought is fresh in our mind, our memory is stronger.  reQall's patent pending "memory jogger" capability can work in the background to keep our "organic" memory strong, automatically delivering nuggets of information to exercise our brains.  The "memory jogger" anticipates memory needs by looking forward to the things that are coming up in our lives, identifying associations among the various data given to reQall, and factoring in how we've used reQall in the past.  In the end, it’s like having a discrete personal assistant whisper in our ear the things we need to know before we need it.  

Unless someone finds a way to return to the time-stretched days of the “Iliad,” I'm thinking that the organic memory enhancement of reQall will continue to be one of the best ways to gain a better memory.  What do you think?  What tricks and techniques do you use to improve your memory? What are the hardest things for you to remember?  How have you used reQall to meet the challenge?

'Til next week,
Sunil  

reQall and What Really Matters

The other day a statistic jolted me, although it didn't surprise me. We spend most of our lives (80%) focused on things that are not important.

We make to-do lists as if our lives depended upon them. We doggedly work our way through our calendars as if we were planning D-day. (As a working Mom, my lists might save my sanity, but frankly, the things on my lists would not save me or the world.) Some of us gauge our worth by the fullness of our calendars, not by the value of our actions or the important things we can do to make our own lives healthier or more fulfilling.

You've heard us say that reQall is not just a productivity tool, although it can help you be more productive. I love being more productive with reQall. But, there's a side of reQall that can help you transform your life to begin to address the important things you want for your life. You could call it transformational reQall. Transforming begins with intention - you have to want to change your life. Then you need a tool.

That tool is the reQall memory jogger function. I've found a way to use it to help me remember my long-term goals and life aspirations. It's a simple tool. I've set up a second reQall account and directed it to give me regular phone and Yahoo Instant Messenger jogs (you could set it up with AIM too.) These messages are all about the important things of my life; my goals for health and fitness, my intention to be more present in the “now”. There's a regular jog to stop what I am doing and take more time to be with my daughter; reminders to smile more . . . laugh more . . . to do one kind thing each day.

I'm no mystic. I'm probably not going to change the world by using reQall Memory Jogger™, but with it I am changing myself. And just maybe, by using it, I'm changing the lives of those around me simply by getting a little help to transform myself as a person. What about you? We'd love to hear about ways you've found to use reQall to help you get more from your life.

Here's to transformation!

Deb