Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to snap pictures so you don't have
Speaker 1: to remember everything, leave your mind free for important stuff.
Speaker 1: Let pictures be your extra brain. So how many times
Speaker 1: have you been in a hurry at the airport and
Speaker 1: intended to note where you parked your car, only to
Speaker 1: rush into the terminal and then a week later find
Speaker 1: yourself wandering around the parking garage. If you stay in
Speaker 1: a lot of hotel rooms, the same thing can happen
Speaker 1: with room numbers. You check in and a rush, go
Speaker 1: to dinner, walk back to the hotel, and then wait,
Speaker 1: was I in room three twelve this week or last week?
Speaker 1: Maybe you look at the poster at the gym with
Speaker 1: the updated schedule of classes and tell yourself you'll remember
Speaker 1: when the new spinning option is, but once you're home
Speaker 1: it's gone. Or maybe it's a great statistic in an
Speaker 1: article you're reading. You definitely want to mention it to
Speaker 1: your spouse, but when you are talking about it later,
Speaker 1: you find you can't quite remember the way the author
Speaker 1: put it. The human brain is a leaky bucket, but
Speaker 1: The good news is we don't have to rely solely
Speaker 1: on our brains. Letting pictures be an extra brain can
Speaker 1: help avoid all these scenarios and more. We can write
Speaker 1: things down, of course, but we don't always have pen
Speaker 1: and paper handy. But we do almost always have our
Speaker 1: phones with their very convenient camera function. So when you
Speaker 1: need to remember something specific, take a picture of it.
Speaker 1: A phone number, a schedule, a location, what someone is wearing.
Speaker 1: When you use a phone to take a picture, you
Speaker 1: have a built in reminder. I keep saying more and
Speaker 1: more examples of how you can use this extra brain.
Speaker 1: My Best of Both Worlds podcast co host Sarah tells
Speaker 1: me that she uses the screenshot function on her phone
Speaker 1: to remind herself of moments and podcasts that she wants
Speaker 1: to follow up on. Maybe she's out for a walk
Speaker 1: listening to something, she hears something cool and wants to
Speaker 1: take a screenshot that reminds her both of the podcast
Speaker 1: name and critically the time stamp, so she can go
Speaker 1: re listen to that exact thing she wanted to act on.
Speaker 1: You can even use the camera and video function of
Speaker 1: your phone to remember things before you might need them,
Speaker 1: for instance, in an emergency are you sure you're going
Speaker 1: to remember what valuable things you own and exactly what
Speaker 1: they look like. If you need to file an insurance claim,
Speaker 1: take pictures and videos and then archived this file somewhere.
Speaker 1: If you think your brain is a leaky bucket, now
Speaker 1: just imagine what it will feel like after a fire
Speaker 1: or flood or burglary. Taking these pictures ahead of time
Speaker 1: is a gift to your potential future self at what
Speaker 1: might be one of the lowest moments of your life.
Speaker 1: A picture can even serve as a gentle reminder for
Speaker 1: folks who might move things about how they could put
Speaker 1: them back. If people rearrange the furniture in the conference
Speaker 1: room frequently, maybe take a photo and then post this
Speaker 1: photo of where things should go, so your next meeting
Speaker 1: will start with another furniture moving party. There is no
Speaker 1: guarantee people will take the picture into account, but at
Speaker 1: least it's a nudge, and when you get things really right,
Speaker 1: you also want a quick reminder. Gorgeous flower arrangement really
Speaker 1: knocked it out of the park this year with the
Speaker 1: holiday decorps. Take a photo. Stylist Lonnie and Lender, who
Speaker 1: was a guest on Best of Both Worlds a few
Speaker 1: years ago even advises that you put together great outfits
Speaker 1: and photograph them so who can easily repeat them. Photos
Speaker 1: let us keep track of how we want things to
Speaker 1: look so we don't have to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get them right every time. So the next time there's
Speaker 1: something you want to remember, maybe you can let a
Speaker 1: photo be your extra brain. Whether you use pictures to
Speaker 1: reinforce your visual memory of things so you can replicate
Speaker 1: them later, or to record information when you don't have
Speaker 1: a pen and paper, handy, photos can be a great
Speaker 1: way to keep track of things. Your brain only has
Speaker 1: so much capacity, well, or at least mine only has
Speaker 1: so much capacity. Let's preserve what we can for the
Speaker 1: important things in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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