“Pays close attention to detail” was always something I could brag about in my resume. In my 12 years in the corporate world, my coworkers could always count on me not to drop the ball. I thought it was an innate talent I could take for granted, along with an ability to spell. But years of reading typo-filled articles on the computer monitor has dulled my spelling and grammar finesse, and the sheer volume of stuff clamoring for my attention has overwhelmed my ability to remember everything I need to.

Now that *everything* is done on the Internet, it has become more and more of a challenge to stay on top of details. Instead of coming to our rescue, technology is just adding more nails to our coffin door. Yes, I’m a Luddite in geek’s clothing, as a fellow Luddite-in-geek’s-clothing (who I believe coined the term) calls us.

As an Internet consultant and gadget lover, I have enough technology in my life, so I try to balance it out by employing low-tech, old-fashioned solutions. Like a VCR instead of a DVR, or a book instead of a TV.

But maybe my way is wrong. Lately I have to admit I can no longer rely on a perfect memory. No more keeping my master to-do list in my head — my brain is starting to let me down. If I don’t write things down they frequently get lost in a black hole. And even if I do write them down, half the time I can’t remember where I stashed that envelope that I was writing on the back of… and oh crap, was that the electricity bill that I also can’t find?

Then I realized I was seeing this behavior everywhere around me as well. If it doesn’t scare you how often people drop the ball due to lack of attention to detail, you must not drive on the interstate much! I started noticing mistakes had become the rule rather than the exception. Anytime I’ve had to call a customer service rep of a store or vendor or utility to fix a problem with my account, 90% of the time they either 1) break something that was previously working fine or 2) cause a new problem. The horror stories I could tell you!

And don’t even get me started on spelling errors and other mistakes people make in their online writing. The Internet has turned every average Joe into a worldwide publisher, but spellcheck software has yet to catch up with the speed of blogging. In fact, as I type this into a blogging CMS, it highlights both “spellcheck” and “CMS” as spelling errors. No wonder people ignore all the red underlining! It depresses me when I’m reading some great information online, and suddenly there’s a wrong word that stops me in my tracks. You’d be surprised how many people type the word “not” when they mean “now” and vice versa… completely changes the meaning!

(Hint: if you want to hold your own feet to the fire, make a declaration like the above in your own online writing. If you’re like me, this will provide extra motivation to check extra carefully and even run it past a second pair of eyes to make sure there are no mistakes!)

Anyway… Rather than grow depressed realizing the sheer volume of mediocrity in the world, I decided to chock it up to information overload produced by humans trying to keep up with computers. And that’s when it hit me: Computers can upgrade their RAM. They can quadruple their already huge short-term, random-access memory storage. Humans are stuck with the amount of short-term memory their brain was blessed with and not a stick or a chip or an upgrade more.

When I started mentalRAM.com in 2001 I planned to scout out products to combat eroding memories of aging baby boomers (of which I am one!). Then I realized it wasn’t just about improving memory, it was about getting organized so we don’t have to try to remember so much! And there are many other aspects of the problem, such as stress. And even hormones. In short, it didn’t take me long to realize this was a much larger issue than I’d grasped — I realized the great mentalRAMifications!

Which brings me up to date. Here I am nearly 12 years later. Poor little mentalRAM.com has sat like a neglected houseplant over the years as seeds of ideas germinated and then died from lack of light.

Curiously, the very thing that will finally launch this site to reach its full potential is using the system of another human who used the term “RAM” to mean short-term memory in the brain. After I coined the term “mental RAM” and started the website, I created a Google alert to tell me whenever the phrase was mentioned anywhere online. I neglected to put the phrase in quotes, however, and that’s how Google figured out that I might be interested to know that a certain person named David Allen was increasing productivity with his Getting Things Done® system. Yikes, another mentalRAMification I had yet to consider — productivity tools!

I ordered his audiobook in fall of 2011, and finally, through learning David Allen’s GTD® my seeds of change are now seeing the light and coming to fruition!

Will this site become a fansite for David Allen and his Getting Things Done® system? That’s highly possible. But it’s more likely that this site will review a number of products for getting organized, improving memory, decreasing stress, increasing productivity, ending procrastination, etc.

So I am ending this post full of hope for the future of mentalRAM.com and a possible alliance with the great David Allen to get his wonderful GTD® system to the disorganized, stressed-out masses online and off!