If that doesn’t get your head spinning like the possessed girl in The Exorcist then I don’t know what will. So, is it true – do you need to be exorcised? Don’t you want to re-claim your life instead of doing mindless task after mindless task?



Use Your Brain For A Change

You probably won’t be able to just throw all your lists in the trash today and still remember all the important things you need to get done. Instead – just like a drug addict – you need to ween yourself off of this nasty habit. You need to build confidence in yourself, in your mind, that you will know what you need to get done as each moment calls for it. Here are a few simple tips to get you started:

Mental notes are better

Your brain is a powerful tool, so use it! List maniacs build a habit of not trusting themselves enough to remember what to do. Because of this they never practice memorizing and find themselves becoming more and more dependent on list-making in order to keep in control of their world.

Some people are so bad at memorizing that they even forget to bring their lists out with them. Thus, they find themselves walking into the office or a grocery store without a clue on what they need to do get done. They have completely detached themselves from their own life, without a reminder written on a little piece of paper, these people end up like zombies, aimless and barely (if at all) conscious of their surroundings.



Use Your Imagination

When I first read the book, “How To Develop A Super Power Memory,” by Harry Lorayne I was pretty blown away by just how reliable and effective our memory can be.

The first thing to know is that there are essentially two main aspects of memory that are relevant to the everyday person: encoding and retrieving. The best way to encode is to build impressionable associations between you and what you want to remember. “Impressionable” meaning something that sticks in your head.

Say you need to drop something off at the post office after you are done at work. Try imagining a mile high version of yourself walking from work to your place of destination. Imagine a humongous letter in your hand (maybe the size of a small house). The more detailed you are the better the memory will be; so also imagine birds in the sky flying into you and the ground shaking as your feet hit the pavement (almost like the State Puff Marshmallow man in the movie Ghostbusters).

The more crazy you are with it the more likely you will be able to retrieve it. Often the best method is to take a situation from your everyday life (like walking home from work) and then exaggerate it in a way that reminds you what you need to do. A huge letter in your hand is a great symbol reminding you to go to the post office and drop something off.



Actively Build Associations

Now let’s say that you also want to get a haircut after your post office visit. What could you add to your “State Puff Marshmallow” version of you to remind yourself that you need to also stop off at the barbers? It could be anything, maybe a pair of scissors in your other hand or you can imagine yourself with a huge orange fro.

The idea here is to add elements to your imagination that serve as reminders. You can add as many things as you want and, theoretically, remember as much as you need without ever having to find pen and paper.