The tool I use to cope with my terrible memory

By April 15, 2014 25 Comments on The tool I use to cope with my terrible memory

My memory is horrible. Yours is too.

A recent study says that our attention span is shorter than a goldfish.

Source: Quicksprout.com
Source: Quicksprout.com

Think about that for a minute, a FISH has a longer memory than you.

That is a problem

This used to be a massive problem for me. I would forget everything!

  1. My wifes birthday
  2. Our anniversary
  3. How much tax to set aside from each pay check
  4. <<insert important task>>

Then I ran across an app called TextExpander. It allows me to remember everything I need to know and recall it instantly.

This is how it works:

  1. Enter the important information into the app
  2. Assign a shortcode to the item (like: /anniversary)
  3. Then type the shortcode anytime you need
  4. The information instantly appears on your screen

Example 1: 

I pay myself every other week. To do that I have to log into my business bank account and create a transfer from that account to my personal account.

However, I also have to remember to go to my personal account and transfer a percentage of that amount back into another account for quarterly tax payments.

My problem is I can never remember how much that is. That causes me to procrastinate and sometimes forget to do it all together.

To make this easy I’ve set the amount I need to transfer into the shortcode “/tax”.

Now anytime I type in “/tax” the amount I need to transfer instantly appears.

Here it is in action: 

tax-textexpander
This is the not actual amount 🙂

Example 2:

I use Leadpages to create landing pages for this site and clients. One of the downsides to using Leadpages is I have to manually insert my Google Analytics tracking code into each page or else the traffic to those sites won’t register.

Each time I create a new page I have to:

  1. Login to Google Analytics
  2. Find the right account
  3. Remember where to find the tracking code
  4. Copy the code
  5. Go back to LeadPages
  6. Paste the code

Now I’ve added my Google Analytics code to TextExapnder. Anytime I type in “/gacode” my entire code snippet instantly appears.

ga-code
Example of using TextExapnder to instantly recall Google Analytics tracking code

TextExpander is one of my favorite and most used daily applications.

I use it for everything from writing blog post to daily journaling.

PS: Do you use TextExpander or another program like it? What is your favorite shortcut?