Articles
Research on memory, habits and mental load, and what it does and does not say. Written by us, with links to the original research.
Why your brain replays your to-do list at night
You do not need a better memory. There is a precise experiment on what actually quiets a list, and the answer is odd: you do not have to do the things, you have to plan them.
Why your to-do app died
You reopened it after five weeks away. The research on habits suggests why: a daily routine takes far longer to stick than the 21 days you were promised.
The mental load, measured
It gets talked about constantly and defined almost never. A sociologist went and found out what it is made of. She found four moves, and two of them usually fall to one person.
Why you remember things at the wrong moment
You think of the prescription in the shower, never outside the pharmacy. Researchers call this prospective memory, and there is a well-studied reason it fires at the wrong moment.
Why you stopped noticing your reminders
You stopped reading your notifications and assumed that was a discipline problem. It is a design problem, and the cost of the ones you ignore has been measured.