I just can’t remember things like I used to.
When I go out, I always forget something; something to take with me or something I need to buy when I’m out. My mind is a sieve.
What to do?
How do other people remember things?
Tie a knot in a handkerchief or get your phone to remind you?
The lists which we have in our heads are ambiguous and random; the lists we write down can also be this, as it’s just a way to trigger our memory. It takes the pressure off. If we didn’t have a way to record things, our minds would be full of all the things we need to do and when to do them. A list is a support mechanism to us. They are our friends, they help us to function in life and not to get stressed out and confused.
A list can be visual too, in a form which runs top to bottom or randomly around of specifically selected reference points. Or even just parts and abbreviations of things. These lists generate a context in which we can see things; things which are personally relatable, or just a confusing collision of words and things. But that’s why they are interesting and are an important activity for our thoughts and communication.
A list of names, things and ideas are always a good place to start. When there is nothing else to determine what you are planning, a list gets it down, and you can see the relation between things. Not just from one to the next but back to the start and randomly around the group of words. Lists represent the past, the present and the future. Things you remember, things that are with us now, and things which we speculate and hope for. They give us a framework of nodes to link what we are thinking about together.
Iain Irving 