by Christian Garcia
Computer technology is the hub for every developed society. A program handles transactions. Applications give directions. A device the size of your hand can access every published song in the digital world, video a friend on the opposite side of the globe, and post adorable cat pictures to our social media — all within seconds!
The digital world is powerful. But even more powerful is the human brain. Though expensive computers can calculate data faster and store more information, nothing beats the efficiency of the three-pound devices inside our heads. But despite how efficient our brains may be, they all possess a near-universal flaw: they are very forgetful!
Because of how efficient our brains are, they don’t like to store a lot of “clutter.” One particular study finds that, in corporate training sessions, participants forget 50% of the information in just one hour! (1) For the average high achiever, this forgetfulness can be a problem. This is where a task manager saves the day.
A task manager is essentially a dumping tank for all the important facts the brain is bound to forget. When your short-term memory drives the dump truck to the sea of forgetfulness, the task manager sets up a huge storage container that collects all the clutter. You and your brain can now both be happy. Your brain gets to clear out the “stuff” that is spiking your stress levels, and you get to keep track of all the important data that will be used in the future. But what really makes task managers beautiful is that they don’t just stop there!
Imagine if your home functioned like your brain. You have a bedroom, where you sleep. You have the kitchen, where you make your meals. You have the living room, where you rest and rejuvenate. Each space has a purpose and items that help you achieve it. Now imagine a knock on the door followed by an army of movers that takes all your possessions out of each room and throws them into a huge container outside in the driveway. Next time you want to turn on the TV and have a relaxation session, you need to go outside, dig up the TV, remote, and the armchair, place them in the living room, and set up for recreation. Feeling rejuvenated?
That’s essentially what to-do lists do to the clutter in a person’s mind. It’s great putting all the important tasks that need to get done on a list, helping you see what all gets done. But for those of us with a high-energy job, a busy family, and long-term goals and dreams, that to-do list can quickly evolve into the size of a mountain! If you want to retrieve a specific piece of information, you have to send your brain on a dumpster dive inside the contents of your journal or to-do list to find it.
A task manager isn’t just the dumpster for your data. It’s your professional organizer. Good ones provide you the tools to assign a purpose to your task, organize it by project, set a due date if needed, and group related tasks together. And digital ones go a step further. If you still couldn’t find a specific piece of information as quickly as you would like, you could perform a search and quickly retrieve it.
Are you tired of forgetting tasks that need to get done or failing to pursue a life-long dream? Is your to-do list the size of the Amazon Jungle, forcing you to embark on a jungle safari to find that client’s phone number, that website’s promo code, or that gift idea for your mom’s birthday? Get a task manager. Since I live in the digital world, I’ve provided a list of trusted apps that function as fantastic task managers.
(1) https://learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1379/brain-science-the-forgetting-curvethe-dirty-
secret-of-corporate-training