On Our Minds

Remember Your Resolutions

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? How long do you keep them? A day? A week? This year, use reQall to help you make those changes in your life. Here’s how some of the reQall team are using reQall to keep their New Year’s resolutions. 

Fitness: One of my resolutions is to bike to the office at least 2 days a week to keep up my fitness. I’ve chosen Tuesday and Friday as my work out days. I've added two reminders to reQall. One to remind me to go to bed early the night before the ride and one to remind me to take the ride. Why two? Two reminders are better than one! – Giridhar Bandi, reQall Developer

More Fitness: I’m not big on resolutions, and 2009, the year of letting the gym membership go to waste, was no exception. For 2010, I plan to change that. I resolve to use reQall to remind me every few days to not only get in there but to reach specific benchmarks. I like to work out in the morning before the day begins to overwhelm; I’m sure that the push notifications from reQall will make a difference.  – Mark de la Viña, Consort Partners

Naughty or Nice?: Last year, I made a New Year’s resolution to have a more regular exercise regime. I knew that I would do everything possible to break it as soon as it started, so I used reQall to send me guilt-tripping messages to catch me out. One example was: ‘you think you can ignore me? This is your conscience speaking… do something, now!’ I plan to use reQall to be nicer to myself in 2010! – Dominic Johnson, Consort Partners

Resolution Locations: I'm tying locations to my New Year Resolutions for 2010. I'm going to make a concerted effort this year to eat healthy by creating a places directory of restaurants around the world that serve healthy foods. An example is Sprout Cafe in Palo Alto (http://cafesprout.com/) that has an excellent choice of delicious salads. Whenever I am in Palo Alto, I am reminded by reQall to eat there. I am also creating a places directory of running trails in different parts of world. When I am there, I am going to depend on reQall to remind me of the trails. – Ash Vasudevan, reQall Co-Founder

Diet: In 2009, I used reQall for to shift from a carbohydrate diet to protein-rich. This was important to me as I have a family history of diabetes and my readings were borderline. I set reminders on what to eat over a period of time. reQall helped during the early stages to reinforce my practices until it became a habit for me. In 2010, I’m using reQall to archive and retrieve the recipes of what I eat along with photos (stored in Evernote). Even though I’m the CEO, I paid $24.95 for reQall and got my money’s worth many times over. As a result, I‘m in perfect health.  – Rao Machiraju, reQall CEO and Co-Founder

Happiness: My resolution this year is simply to be happier. I've only read the first few pages of "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin, but already I found my first reminder–go to bed! Gretchen found that happiness is influenced by sleep and exercise. Like her, I struggle to get to bed--there's too many things to do. So, I've created a new reminder for every day at 10:30 pm that says "Remember: you'll be happier if you go to bed NOW!". I'll let you know if I find more reminders as I finish the book. – Deb Miller, VP of Products

Your Memory Jogger Unveiled

Up until now, a better memory came from sleeping well, exercising body and mind, and for some, taking herbs. Those with admirably strong will power have combatted the inevitable daily forgetting by committing themselves to mnemonics, organize-your-life “diets”, and productivity rituals. If I weren’t so busy, I might have time for one of these.

The new reQall Memory Jogger is for those who forget, but don’t want to work hard to remember. We know from decades of memory research how and why people forget. Armed with this, our journey began by asking two basic questions:

• Why are computers, email, SMS, and phones creating digital chaos in people’s lives?
• How can we apply our expertise in memory and computers to build a mobile memory aid for modern life?

Examples of things I’ve heard:

• I write things down, but I never go back and look at my notes.
• When I get to the grocery store, I want something to tell me the things I need to buy.
• If I have a meeting this afternoon, I’d like something to prepare me ahead of time.
• I forgot to call my sister/mother, can it nudge me without nagging?
• I can’t remember all the things I need to do for my kids activities.
• I’m lost without my secretary/spouse reminding me                                                                             

Today’s mobile computer is the smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.) and it doesn’t need to be a potted plant while all this forgetting is going on. It should come alive, notice what is happening, anticipate what you need, and whisper in your ear before you forget. The smartphone should make you smart.

That’s where the Jogger comes in. It works by looking at your situation and figuring out what would be the best Jogs for you at this time, place, situation, or because it thinks you are about to forget. It can use your calendar and it can use your location to pick. The more you tell it and the more it detects, the better it works.

You don’t have to do anything extra. Go about your normal day, from home to work and anywhere else along the way. Add things you want to remember into reQall and when the time is right, the Memory Jogger will remind you. No folders, no files, no sticky notes, no piles.

What auto-focus did to cameras and automatic transmission did to cars is what we feel the Jogger will do to productivity, virtual assistance, and memory aids. It makes it a lot easier for so many more of you to enjoy the empowerment and freedom that comes with a strong memory.

Please try it and tell us what you think. Our work is not done and we’d love to hear what your perfect Memory Jogger would be.

Sunil Vemuri

Chief Product Officer

Where Did Our Memory Go?

Our work revolves around helping you remember the important things of life. So naturally when Nicholas Carr raised the question ("Is Google Making Us Stupid?") in his July article in The Atlantic Monthly, I paid attention. The gist of the challenge was this: with media messaging overload, the tools available via technology and information literally at our fingertips, is this perfect storm doing something to our brains, our memory and our ability to reflect and concentrate?

Carr makes the case that as we use the web ”we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies.” He notes that because of technology, not only have our reading patterns changed, so has the way our brains appear to process information. We take info faster, don't read deeply, flit from link to link receiving parts of sources; never whole pictures. We're inundated with more messaging than ever, but we retain less. In short, we forage, we don't feast.

Neuroscience research shows that our brain's neurons are actually more plastic, for more years, than scientists used to think. It's feasible that the all-encompassing influence of the computer as our library, clock, travel guide, booking agent, diary, typewriter, scheduler, telephone, calculator and dozens of other things, is indeed doing things to our brains at the biological level.

Whether this is good or bad depends upon whom you ask.

On the one hand, we get more information, from nearly anywhere, faster than ever. This is a good thing. But we're not doing as much thinking and remembering. Maryanne Wolfe a developmental psychologist at Tufts University says “We are not only what we read, we are how we read... becoming mere decoders of information.”

As Carr points out, there isn't time for “the fuzziness of contemplation.” He makes the case that reading by jumping from link to link, “propels you forward,” but doesn't allow for deep memory retention. It uses the short-term, prefrontal lobes of our brains. To become long term, memory needs to be reprocessed in the hippocampus.

Adroit repetition can help move things you want to remember into your long-term memory; Mom's new cell phone number; the words of a poem, the steps for your company vision. If you haven't tried out the reQall Memory Jogger function, we hope you do. You may not have time for “fuzziness of contemplation,” but using technology to build a better memory? Smart!

N. Rao Machiraju
CEO

The Five Most Important Things to Know About Productivity

The word “productivity” gets thrown around a lot; it's the “holy grail” of our over-scheduled lives. What does productivity mean? Society's definition is business-oriented, the result of early 20th century creation of assembly lines and industrial measurements: “The amount of output per unit of input.” Most of us seem driven to pack 9-day weeks into 7-day time frames. We owe some of the urgency to the fact that the real meaning of being productive was hijacked.

Society's definition of productivity is ridiculously narrow. Webster's definition is broader and richer. Yes, to be productive is “the creation of economic value” and “to produce effective results.” It is also “to be abundant and fertile.” Put that way, productivity is also about quality of life, which is what reQall is about.

Underlying our broader definition of productivity at reQall are five things to improve the quality of your whole life, not just your scheduling system:

1. Have a plan. Life feels more “abundant and fertile” when you decide what you want in life. This is true both short term and long term. What do you want to happen this week, this year, five years from now? What relationships do you want strengthened? Without a plan in mind, most of us drift. As the Cheshire Cat said in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, “If you don't know where you're going – any way is fine.”
2. The right tools. It's hard to sail around the world without a boat and navigation gear. It's harder to be productive if you don't remember what needs to get done, what's important about a chance meeting, how to coordinate reminders with your “other” anywhere you are. The right tool helps.
3. Focus. Multi-tasking – trying to get everything done at once – often we don't get much done at all. Decide what's most important. Do it first. Then move on to the two-handed juggling act. Skip doing 10 things at once. You'll do none of them well. Some don't need doing.
4. Improvise. Don't overlook the serendipity of life. While you're staring at a long “To-do” list, the best thing ever to happen to you might go by. Look up or you'll miss it.
5. Refresh. Life needs people and perspective. A dynamic life plan includes better relationships, important things and time for what matters Better memory plays a big part in a productive life. Understand that and you've got a plan!

'Til next week,
Sunil

Remembering numbers – 888 versus 866

Quick update. reQall’s phone number in the U.S. is 888-9-REQALL (888-973-7255).  We were mentioned in the New York Times today (which was great) but there was a small typo in the number.  We’ve had fun getting 866-9-REQALL to work.  We’ll tell you more about it later.  For now, please remember, it’s 888!

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

Information Overload

Much of what comes at us these days – every day – comes at us fast. And it goes right past us. I don't know about you, but there are days when my age (not old), experience (not shabby) or even my education (major) cannot save me from information overload!

On average, a person is bombarded each day with around 3 million messages. I'm not kidding! It's a jumble of impressions that flies at us as words, pictures, advertising, building signs, books, news media, work documents, school documents, conversations, meetings, conference calls, snail mail, email, sticky notes on the fridge and the mint on your pillow during your latest out-of-town trip. If you're like me, there are just days you're inundated with – well – life! No wonder we can't remember things.

At reQall, we're interested in the point where life meets memory.

It's for this reason that we designed reQall as a whole life memory tool, not as a productivity aid, although it certainly can help you be more productive. (Plenty of companies are focused only on that task.) We decided that our memory strategy would be life itself. Our product's goal would be to help real people, living real lives, improve your memories and your lives at the same time. And the way to deal with those millions of impressions? Simplicity itself -- starting with your voice and your phone, linked across technologies.

We're rather proud that reQall is the only memory tool that works across so many mediums. Use reQall on cell phone or landline, email, text, the web, instant messaging, even Google Gadget. ReQall integrates them into a centralized and personalized memory-jogging system to keep you on top of life.

Life comes at us fast. We think reQall does the best job at integrating memory into your life. What do you think?

'Til next week,
Sunil

What do you fear most?

I have a friend who has a terror of spiders. He's 6'4” tall. They give him the creeps, he says. Me, it's the recurring student nightmare...the one where I'm sitting in front of the class. The professor hands out the exam that will be, like 90% of my grade. I have no memory that there was to be an exam. I see the page and my mind goes blank. Sound familiar?

We fear losing our memory more than losing our physical abilities, according to Martha Weinman Lear, author of “Where Did I Leave My Glasses?: The What, When and Why of Normal Memory Loss.” And why not? Memory, a characteristic that separates us from the animal kingdom, connects our past and our present with our future. It makes an ordinary person extraordinary upon entering a crowded room, greeting person after person, recalling the name of a spouse, a pet, a golf outing two years ago, the preference of another for vacations in the Canary Islands. Recall like this builds relationships and cements business deals.

It's an exceedingly rare person who has, as Brad Williams, a Wisconsin man does, what is called “superior autobiographical memory.” He can remember what he was doing and what was happening in the world on any given day in history; even where you sat in the restaurant where you met and what the weather was like that day.

Most of us can't remember where we parked the car in the airport parking garage after a three-day business trip. Let alone remember which second cousin attended last summer's family reunion or the exact comment made in the elevator by your boss about focus group #3, as you left the sessions. Frankly, we all need reQall.

I'm particularly excited about reQall's ability to store richer content. We can now put more of what you want to know and remember – even import web content and photographic images – into your personal memory system. I like the real memory-jogging “just-in-time” capability of reQall on instant messenger. We'd like your feedback on a “quick thought” function we're developing. It works like this: if a web page reminds you of something you want to remember, try adding a quick thought to reQall right from your browser toolbar.

What do you most fear forgetting? We'd like to know! How are you using reQall to help you remember things better?

'Til next week,
Sunil

Real reQall

I have vivid memories of the day we founded reQall sitting on an idyllic California beach. (Which shall remain nameless, as we'd like it to stay that way.) We mapped a vision for an entirely new approach to memory. We didn't envision cadres of sophisticated workers producing vast productivity schedules. Or for that matter techno geeks reading complicated reQall manuals. Our goal was more ubiquitous: to help real people, living real lives, improve their memories and their lives at the same time.

Developing reQall, we set out to put more of the things you need to know and remember into one place, accessible through whatever medium is nearest or easiest at the moment. The idea was – and is – to keep it “humanly simple, brain-fast and powerful.” We based reQall on the easiest, most natural communication – your voice. As technology goes, it's hard to get much more simple than that – at least for the user.

There has been a lot of buzz about productivity products lately. Frankly, reQall is not a productivity tool, although you can use it to be more productive. reQall is bigger than that space –it's about how you feel about life, how much more of life you can access, how much stronger your relationships can be, when your memory gets some help.

We're real people. We know that life doesn't happen in neat segments. In the middle of work, you can have a sudden inspiration about your class reunion. In the middle of bathing the baby, you can get an idea about how to solve the engineering problem at work. I don't know about you, but I'm not big on little pieces of paper stuck all over the desk – and they really don't work well near a bathtub!

So new reQall 2.0 is ready. We hope it gives you even more memory, allowing you to share thoughts and tasks with others. New keyword recognition capability sorts your memory additions into categories like tasks, thoughts, lists and due dates. It allows you to create richer reQall content and jog your memory in new ways, including AIM or Yahoo Instant Messenger. As you use the product, get even more information about our new features, at http://www.reqall.com/reqall_help/help_web.html.

We appreciate your feedback so we can continue to improve reQall. Please add your thoughts to this discussion!

'Til next week,
Sunil