I keep forgettin'...

I was going to wait on this post until the new year. The topic has been in my "To-Blog" list for quite some time now, but after reading this article in the Huffington Post, I was inspired to go on ahead and write it. My long-term memory is impeccable...I can still spout off my old best friend's phone number from first grade (even though we had a huge falling out two years later).  I remember every detail of my grandmother's apartment.  I remember being carried back to my crib as a toddler. Short-term memory?  Ehh, not so much.

Too Young for "Senior Moments?"

When I was a kid, grown-ups used to tell me that if I had a thought that passed through my mind then disappeared (aka a "senior moment," as many people call it), it probably wasn't that important.  I've noticed that the older I've become, these senior moments have become more and more the norm.  What's super-frustrating is when you know it was something important, but you just can't freakin' remember! Take this situation, for example.  Right before break, I promised my co-workers that I would burn a CD for a school roller-skating party.  I came home, set up the playlist, then went upstairs to grab a blank CD.  When I got to my home office, I forgot why I was in the room.  So, I went back downstairs.  Five minutes later, I remembered...oh yeah, the CD!  I went back upstairs to get the CD, and almost forgot why I was there yet again.  Le sigh.

The Accident

Unfortunately, these moments happen more frequently than I'd like to admit, especially for someone my age (*cough cough* twenty-tween *cough*).  So, naturally, I attributed my shortcomings to an accident I had a little over two years ago. *cue dream sequence music and zig-zags* Two years ago, back in September 2011, I had a bad fall.  Prior to this incident, I was a freakin learning machine!  I was built for the academic life, soaking up information like a sponge, writing papers in record time, yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.  But one night, that all changed.  Dun dun dun. I will save you all of the yucky, gory details...long story short, I ended up with staples in my head, and a very bad concussion. If you've never had a concussion, let me tell you, it was quite an experience.  I found it fascinating, although quite sucky.  These are the main things I remember, from the following week:

• My mind was moving at normal speed, but my body wasn't responding.
• I'd try to send a text, but I realized that I couldn't spell anything right.
• I would sleep all day.
• Strangers started being really nice to me, for no apparent reason.

Within a few weeks, on the surface, it appeared that I had returned to normal.  However, things were far from being the same.  For over a year, I was very emotional about everything.  I had little patience, and hardly any attention span.  This made teaching and studying very difficult.  However, my family, colleagues, and professors were very supportive. Eventually, the moodiness and impatience diminished, and I found strategies to cope with the forgetfulness and lack of attention span (which never fully returned).  Most of these included technology.

My iLife

My students are always teasing me about my brand loyalty to Apple.  99.99999% of the time, I have either an iPhone or iPad or iMac somewhere within three feet of me.  However, these products help me to stay organized.  Here are a few apps that I have found useful, and you may, too (concussion or not):

1. Evernote: allows you to take notes, and sync them across all your devices.  Even supports pictures, audio, and videos.  You can create different notebooks to organize the information you collect.  Teechur bonus: You can use Evernote to create electronic portfolios of student work.
2. 30/30:  allows you to set up to-do lists with a specified amount of time to spend on each task.  This helps me with the whole attention thing, as I tend to get restless unless I'm multitasking.  Since multitasking may be counterproductive, this app helps me to stay focused on one activity, and reduces my anxiety by showing me how much time I have left.  Teechur bonus: Sound familiar?  A lot of people (including the little ones that we teach) can probably relate.
3. Pinterest/Diigo/Pocket/etc.: (includes all the apps that can bookmark interesting content for later.)  I worry less about missing important information and can stay focused on the task at hand.  Teechur bonus: All these useful links come in handy when collaborating with my PLN.  (Did you know that you can set up Diigo to sync with your favorites on Twitter?)
4. Parkmobile: never forget to run out and feed the meter again.  Also, it can even find your car for you.  Winning!
5. Calendar:  Ohhhh, this is a lifesaver.  It's pretty self-explanatory, but I have to say that I love how it auto-syncs with my Google calendars.  I must have about 15 different calendars floating around, from work to workouts, from social activities to gigs.  Electronic calendars that sync across devices?  Total game-changer.  I was sick of losing the paper one, anyway.

Closing Thought

Jerry Springer, I am not.  However, the Huffington Post article that I read today really gave me some food for thought.  After I read it, I wondered if maybe I became too reliable on all of this tech?  Is it possible that I could have made a full recovery, if not for these crutches on which I continue to lean?  *lawyer voice*  And is it not a coincidence that this aforementioned incident coincided with the release of the iPhone 4S, packaged with Siri and iOS5?  Is this just a classic case of "the butler did it?"  Just blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-accident??? Ok, I'm done lol.  Maybe one day, when I have a few weeks of leisure time to kick back, I can try to unplug totally and see what happens. Leisure time...pshhhh...who am I kidding?  I'm a "teechur."

What are your favorite productivity apps?  Chime in below.