Just as I was going out the door, my client said, "...and call me as soon as you have it delivered."
So he requested this extra service from me and I don't have a service fee for that. Anyway, this unusual request meant that I had to memorize a future event: me giving him a call in about 3 minutes as this delivery (to his assistant waiting in a lineup at his bank) would surely not take any longer than that.
I forgot to give him that call, but I remembered I was supposed to later that day, and sent him a text message of apologies.
Why or how I forgot this is interesting and contains a worthy lesson.
In a nutshell, I decided to put this request on my working memory but this memory ended up stressed and I unexpectedly had to use it again with other important things and so this memory simply fell off my mental working table.
What I should have done is use my timer on my phone and start a countdown of 4 minutes. This way, when I would reach the bank, or shortly after, the beeping alarm would have reminded me of that future event. That's easy enough, and I'll remember to do this next time.
One thing that came out of this is that when a situation feels stressful, I should simply avoid trusting my working memory.
My client had hurried me greatly to his place, then he handed me a special paper with a note that I would have to add to the waybill (which he had not prepared), and I obviously wasn't supposed to lose that either. So, this paper was then the second thing I put on my working memory. The ride to the bank was as short as anticipated but a bit stressful. Then when I arrived at the bank, the assistant was waiting outside for me. It is very unusual for people to wait for me for stuff that I deliver, and so the stress on me increased a bit again one notch. And then I had an unexpected verbal exchange of plaisanteries with the assistant. And that's it, I need to rush to my next stop now...
Later that day, someone mentioned to me he was "going to give me a call later." These words immediately brought back thoughts of my other client, and I realized then that I had forgotten the future event.
So the moral of this story is that you should consider using timers for future events even in the not so distant future, if you think your working memory is or could be stressed.
Organizer of The Canadian Memory Championships
http://www.canadianmemorychampionships.ca/