The Power of Forgetting

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

INTRODUCTION

A F
ORGETTABLE
S
TORY

POP QUIZ

How Well Can You Retain Information, Remember, and
Forget
?

PART I: THE POWER OF FORGETTING

CHAPTER
1

The Essence of a Productive Thinker

How It’s Possible to Develop a Clear
,
Quick Mind Regardless of IQ

CHAPTER
2

The Power of Mental Habits

It’s All About Patterns!

PART II: MASTERING THE SIX SKILLS OF A PRODUCTIVE THINKER

CHAPTER
3

Skills 1 and 2: Focus and Concentration

Can You Focus on Your Concentration?

CHAPTER
4

Skill 3: Retaining Massive Amounts of Information Without “Memorizing”

Increasing Mental Capacity Through the Fine Art of Association

CHAPTER
5

Skill 4: Thinking Outside the Box

What Hitler and Mother-in-Law Have in Common

CHAPTER
6

Skill 5: Organization

Harry Held Little Baby Bobbie, Causing
Nancy One Fantastic Nightmare

CHAPTER
7

Skill 6: Forgetting

Memory’s Linchpin

CONCLUSION

Prosperous, Productive, and Prolific

APPENDIX A

Q&A

Odds and Ends and a Few More Reminders in the Classic FAQ Style

APPENDIX B

Additional Games to Engage Everyone from Nine to Ninety-nine

Plus Tricks to Amaze Your Family and Friends

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Kathy M. gets up at 5:00 a.m. so she can sneak in a forty-five-minute jaunt on her treadmill while responding to overnight e-mails, checking her Facebook page, and catching up on the morning news. By the time she lands at her desk at 9:00 a.m.—after she’s made breakfast for the family, showered, dressed, lost and found her keys, sent several texts, shared a few photos online, opened some apps, downloaded key documents to her iPad, organized the kids’ lunches, and dropped them off at school—she’s already dealt with volumes of information and competing demands via her cell phone and home computer. Now at work, she struggles to prioritize her tasks amid the flurry of to-dos, incoming calls, and e-mails. She saves the review of an important file until later in the day because she fears her brain cannot concentrate on it yet.
Lunchtime hits and she wonders where her morning went, as she finds herself halfway through the day but feels far behind the eight ball in terms of how much she’s accomplished. Scatterbrained, she tries to calm herself back into full focus by grabbing a coffee and scrolling through her favorite Web site. But then more distracting e-mails come in. And when her boss enters the office around four o’clock and asks her a quick question, she draws a total blank in a response. Her brain has shut down. Correction: Her brain never really got to work that day.

This, unfortunately, is typical not just of Kathy but of millions of us who are blessed and cursed in our hyperkinetic world, where there’s just too much information to process and expectations to address 24-7. But the good news is there’s an answer to this modern plight. There’s a way to cut through the clutter in your brain and develop a laser focus and concentration. A way to power through tough problems so that you can move on to enjoying the rest of life and not let issues linger more than they need to. The solution lies in a little-known phenomenon: forgetfulness. That’s right: When we learn to forget information, we have the ability to remember what we need to work faster and smarter through our day.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel overwhelmed by responsibilities while at the same time drained by trying to keep up (and barely doing so). And although we think we’re doing ourselves good by, say, taking a time-out at work to troll the Internet or respond to messages from friends, we could actually be doing a great disservice to our brains. Creativity and insight cannot be born from a brain living in a culture of
distraction. Nor can fast, productive thinking happen when we’re under the duress of stimulating activities. We are living with the same brains that our caveman forebears developed for us centuries ago, and those brains are not adapted to the realities of our modern era that have us navigating so many sources of information and stimulation.

Brain clutter is a costly condition. While it may not have an official diagnosis in the medical world, it most definitely has an undeniable list of symptoms: brain fog, inability to focus or concentrate, lack of productivity and innovation, stress, anxiety, nervousness, angst, worry, dread, and even depression. (A doctor will give you more grave-sounding technical conditions.)

The average working professional spends roughly 23 percent of the workday on e-mail and glances at the in-box about thirty-six times an hour. It takes most of us more than a minute to return to a task once we’ve stopped to read a new e-mail. Imagine gaining back all that time and energy! And imagine what it can do for the next generation. This is serious, folks. I like to think of myself as a fun and hip guy who tries to crack a few jokes when teaching, but I cannot express the severity of our current crisis. In fact, my desire to reverse this trend is the whole point of writing this book.

If we can learn to minimize the idle, ineffective clutter and maximize the stuff that future successes are made of, then we can go far. Mastering the art of forgetting, as you’re about to find out, will be the ultimate key to that achievement. What’s more, training your brain to operate faster, focus intently and immediately when you need it to, and unleash its fullest potential doesn’t hinge on genetics, inherited IQ, access to the best schools, or even medical breakthroughs. The
one skill that trumps all others in becoming smarter, more productive, and exceedingly more imaginative is, in fact,
forgetting
. I realize that this may sound absurd and quite counterintuitive. How can forgetfulness and efficiency coexist? Aren’t these two concepts absolute opposites? Far from it.

In this book, I’m going to teach you everything you need to know to get your brain working more effectively for you. You’ll be able to maximize the full power of your brain and get a lot more accomplished every minute of your day. And being able to forget will provide the foundation.

Let me be clear: This is not a “memory” book. I’m not here just to teach you a trick to memorize the Declaration of Independence so that you can recall it in a heartbeat. What you’re going to learn—using a variety of exercises, shortcuts, and tools—is the art of forgetting. This single skill alone will help you become a better, more effective individual in all that you do. The “forgetting” lessons and their related exercises will enhance your ability to communicate, innovate, impress others, stand out in a crowd, get ahead of your peers, move up the corporate ladder, magnify your employability and moneymaking capacity, make excellent decisions, solve problems, plan for the future, speak publicly with ease, be a stronger player in games and sports, ask for what you want, adapt to new situations, handle crises, work under pressure, be independent, and more.

There are hundreds of abilities that can be elevated by mastering the power of forgetting. Throughout the chapters, I’ll point out specifically why you’re learning a given stratagem or being told to do something that seems impossible or impractical (such as multiply two-digit numbers in your head), but regardless of the specific lesson you’re reading
about on any given page, I want you to always keep your eye on the bigger—and much more monumental—picture and prize: Developing a mind that works super fast will allow you to live up to your greatest, most innovative potential.

Will you become the next Einstein, Edison, Oprah, Jobs, or
Fortune
500 CEO? I can’t make any promises, but I will pledge that if you read this book, wholeheartedly think about its material, and try my exercises (more than once!), you will begin to optimize the inherent power of your brain and allow your creative, inventive, and imaginative self to propagate in directions you never thought possible. You’ll also be able to achieve multiple goals smoothly without feeling like your multitasking efforts are backfiring, sapping your energy, and destroying your peace of mind. The lessons in this book will help you to set the right tone every day for what you want to accomplish and give you the skills to stay focused despite distractions so you finish that list of important tasks.

Using your brain the way I am going to teach you will open you up to mastering anything in life, from speaking foreign languages to playing music, cooking, negotiating, communicating, and even establishing better relationships with others. You will also be giving your health a boost, because my exercises will give your brain a good workout. You’ll finish this book with much more confidence in yourself, and that is perhaps the best gift I can give you. With confidence, you’ll have the courage to strive for anything—to do and be whatever you want.