Most people forget things because attention spans max out at 20 minutes and short-term memory holds only seven items. Start meetings with a clear purpose and end with specific actions and deadlines. Use the primacy-recency effect: people remember what comes first and last, so lead with your point and close with a summary.
Have you got a good memory? Because I don't. Most adults have an attention span of about 20 minutes. Short-term memory can hold about 7 pieces of information at the same time, and we have on average 70,000 thoughts every day. I'm exhausted just thinking about that. So, how do we get our team members and colleagues to remember important things when we speak or write to them. Forgetting and misunderstanding tasks creates lots of extra work, confusion, and wasted time. When your brain encodes a memory, it's usually easier to recall the first and the last piece of information about that experience. We call it the primacy-recency effect. For example, it's easier to remember what you did on the first and the last day of your holiday. The beginning and the end of that film you love. The first romantic date and the final showdown, end of a relationship. Create deliberate primacy and recency with your meetings and your emails every time. Start with a clear meeting purpose and finish with specific actions and deadlines. Meaningful and succinct email subject title. Not re, yesterday. And sign off with a summary of the most important points. Such an easy hack and so effective. Give it a try today. In fact, I'll do a recency for you now. Start with a bang, finish with a bang.
