A New Year’s Resolution of mine this year was to Write Everything Down. I mean everything – from my 1:1s with my cofounder and reports, and speaker sessions I attended to what my friend told me when we caught up on the phone and random things I was thinking about that day. I wrote it all down (or tried to).

This was motivated by my distinct inability to remember things. I was having trouble managing a team across several time zones, and no one else was writing anything down. It was hard to hold people accountable if a meeting turned into people denying they had meant to accomplish something that week. Then, I kept forgetting my friend’s boyfriend’s name, and I forgot a friend’s daughter’s name. The last straw was when I tried to write about a takeaway I had had, but then couldn’t remember the thought. Or, I could remember these things, but never at the right time. It’s one of the reasons why I’m so dedicated to writing on this blog, and writing in a more personal journal, and tracking my life in my bullet journal. And why you might see me jotting random notes down in my notes app, or sending myself a reminder email.

I write everything down.

I think it has done several good things for me. Writing things down forces you to make a thought a more coherent thought, which reinforces it in my head. Writing it again reinforces it. I remember a lot more, but I also accomplish a lot more, since less brainpower is dedicated to remembering things – instead I’m focused on analyzing and doing things. It’s incredibly liberating. I started a tag, write everything down, since I think I’ll keep adding more specific anecdotes of what I started writing down and how it changed my life for the better. If you ever find yourself struggling to remember everything or anything, I recommend you open your notes and start writing things down.

Plus, now I always remember my friends’ significant others’ names.