Is your memory getting worse?
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How well can you remember things? And are you worse at remembering than you used to be? In my latest YouTube video, I show how to use Apple Notes to remember anything. More than 130,000 people have watched the video so far, so clearly it’s resonating with people. One comment on the video stuck out: Good video. But soon we’ll lose our ability to think and remember. Please try to remember something manually. — Mohamed Mohamed has a point. I certainly feel more distracted now than I did in, say, 2008, when I first arrived in America to study and only had a “dumb” phone. And like many people, I feel that smartphones—as well as social media—have something to do with it. Is it just a matter of trying harder to remember? Are we all essentially getting lazy-brained because of the ubiquity of the digital world? Perhaps. But while I’m not particularly old, I am old enough to remember that when I was young, you didn’t have to do quite so many things yourself. You didn’t use self-checkout at grocery stores, for example; there were only cashiers. You didn’t book your own flights; travel agents took care of it. And you didn't have to remember 100 different passwords—because you didn’t have that many (or more) online accounts. Admittedly, my examples might resonate more if you have been around for a while and live in the rich world. There are plenty of countries where—especially if you’re wealthy—you don’t have to do very much for yourself at all. But in 2025, most of us face a bewildering array of responsibilities. My sense is that we’re asked to do ever more ourselves. Or maybe we all just chronically suffer from FOMO and we simply want too many things. That could be it, too. Whatever the reason: we have so damn much going on. Way too much to keep track of manually. This is why I believe everyone needs a personal productivity system to thrive in the 2020s and beyond. Don’t have a personal productivity system yet? Already have one? Take good care of it. It’s your only chance of staying sane in these fast-paced, turbulent times. |
Peter Akkies
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