How many times have you experienced a brilliant revelation while in the middle of something else? Ten minutes later, you go to retrieve it, and it’s gone. Or you have a task that you know you must complete, perhaps a phone call at work, but other items keep popping up. The day ends, you pull into your driveway, and realize that you never made that call.

Years ago, George A. Miller wrote an article for The Psychological Review in which he suggested that the number of items a person can keep in their short-term memory is approximately seven, plus or minus two. With everything going on in the world around us, it’s no wonder that we forget so many things. [Read more…]