I'll remember it! do you report to your colleague who, over the afternoon or over coffee, suggests sending you another reminder email for what he just asked; whether you were able to deliver that report from last month again? Then you go to the toilet where you check your social media and surf a bit more. On the way to your desk, you will be contacted twice more and when you arrive at your workplace, documents are in your chair and an urgent post-it hangs on your screen. What do you think will happen to last month's report?

Cheese and cheese!

Right, yes... chances are you'll forget it.

That doesn't happen to me!

Of course not! Hence a flair test. Just grab a pen and paper or tap it on your smartphone, just have fun participating...

Look at the number combination below for up to 10 seconds, then close your eyes and write them down on paper.

15674

Succeeded? Fine! Same exercise with different numbers, of course...

2845479

Still scored? Beautiful! Maybe your photographic memory helped you a bit? One last time now, please don't fuss:

8245298623

Right again? Tell us your secret? Memory training, exercise or just a rock-solid

However, chances are that you didn't get the latter rammed in:

Want to upgrade RAM?

Just like a computer, you have a RAM -Read Access Memory or short-term memory that can temporarily remember a few things. It's also known as the post-it space of the brain. With a computer, the RAM is simply full at some point and the operation slows down and you can add an extra RAM. Unfortunately, this is slightly different for humans.

Miller's Law of Loose Ends

George Miller, a psychology professor working at Harvard, MIT and Princeton, among others, wrote a much-cited paper in 1956 about your memory span, what your short-term memory can handle: the magic number 7 plus or minus 2.

Turns out, we can even remember 4 to 5 things for 10 to 15, max. 60 seconds. For example, do you remember - without looking at your paper - the first flair test song? That's what I mean.

They disappear somewhere in the depths of our brain to often appear in unguarded places - sometimes too late or sometimes never - check out help, my head is a flickering Christmas tree!

Unfortunately, we sometimes mistakenly forget something we would have wanted to remember.

Want to increase your short term memory?

Of course, there are techniques for this, including repeating and commanding; do you remember playing on the youth movement I'm going on a trip and taking with me... or the Ergängzungsübungen with German aus bei mit nach van zu gegenuber... ?

However, it is often more practical to apply a good reflex in the workplace, write down!

Better reflex: write down!

All the more because later research - Michigan University, 2008 - showed that short-term memory is strongly negatively influenced by, for example, a disruptive office environment.

So from now on, write down if you really don't want to forget it.

And... Action!

• Do you also sometimes forget what you promised?
• From now on, how do you avoid forgetting before you forget?

How to write down concretely and quickly?

• when you're sitting in front of your computer: long live post-its straight to your inbox!
• when you're on the go somewhere: what you don't want to forget, straight to your inbox: easy and quick app!

By the way... do you feel lost in everything on your plate: do the post-it exercise for an overview and a tidy head!