{"id":6116,"date":"2019-06-12T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T14:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/5bd4f92546.nxcli.net\/?p=6116"},"modified":"2019-06-07T09:25:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T14:25:16","slug":"how-forgetfulness-can-make-you-better-at-your-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluecotton.com\/blog\/education\/how-forgetfulness-can-make-you-better-at-your-job\/","title":{"rendered":"How Forgetfulness Can Make You Better at Your Job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m sitting down for coffee with a colleague of mine, a marketing professional who works with several large brands. He casts a cursory glance at his phone as he sits down. I can tell his mind is racing even as we exchange greetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s nothing new. His mind doesn\u2019t really have an \u201coff\u201d switch. He\u2019s constantly jumping from one project to the next, constantly dreaming up new concepts and ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than once, he\u2019s admitted that he\u2019d be lost without the plethora of apps he uses to stay organized. In many ways, he\u2019s the archetypal scatterbrained artist. And while I can\u2019t say I fully understand his thought process, I greatly respect it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because absent-minded as he is, it\u2019s his tendency towards forgetfulness that actually helps him excel in his chosen career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s really not such a strange concept, really. The absent-minded professor is one of the most common tropes in modern fiction. According to a new study from the University of Toronto<\/a>, the romanticized concept of a forgetful genius isn\u2019t that far removed from reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real goal of memory is to optimize decision-making,\u201d explains Assistant Professor Blake Richards, who co-authored the study.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s important that the brain forgets irrelevant details and instead focuses on the stuff that\u2019s going to help make decisions in the real world. We always idealize the person who can smash a trivia game, but the point of memory is not being able to remember who won the Stanley Cup in 1972.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe point of memory is to make you an intelligent person who can make decisions given the circumstances, and an important aspect in helping you do that is being able to forget some information,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, if you\u2019re forgetful, it may be because you\u2019re more focused on the big picture. Your brain is cutting out the things it views as trivial and irrelevant in order to make room for deeper knowledge and insights. Of course, that offers little comfort when you overlook critical stuff like deadlines and important meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, I\u2019d like to wrap this piece up with a bit of advice on improving your memory. Or at the very least, how you can cope with your absent-mindedness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n