Can You Trust Your Memory? Better Build a Better System!
- Julie Jones
- Jul 16
- 5 min read
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Well...more time I’ll never get back! I have replayed one moment from our league semifinal more times than I care to admit. Yep…you guessed it. We didn’t win! We lost 9 – 8 with bases loaded in the top of the 7th!
My play on repeat wasn't the only reason we lost. It wasn't. In a one-run game, there are dozens of moments that matter. We left runners on base, didn't execute perfectly in every situation and there are probably ten other plays we could point to that would have changed the outcome.
But this one has stayed with me because it was completely preventable.
Earlier in the inning, our center fielder had come in to back up second on a throw. It's something outfielders do all the time. The problem was that after the play ended, he never moved back to his normal depth.
And I didn’t notice.
My attention had shifted to something else. We were talking through strategy, watching another part of the field, thinking ahead to the next hitter, talking about making a pitching change and doing all the things coaches do during a game. Then, almost as if the baseball gods wanted to teach us a lesson, the very next hitter hit a ball over his head. Two runs scored.
We lost by one…remember?
As I drove home that night, I wasn't thinking about whether we should have called a different pitch or made a different substitution. I kept thinking about something much simpler.
I didn't have a system.
Had I simply said between innings, "Brad, you own outfield positioning. Brian, keep your eyes on baserunners. Bear, keep the pitcher’s head in it. I'll focus on hitter tendencies and game flow," someone almost certainly would have noticed our center fielder was out of position.
Instead, we were all looking at the same thing…doing the same thing our players do that drives us batty!
Not because we suddenly would have become smarter coaches. But because we would have become more intentional with our attention.
That experience reminded me of something I talk about with athletes all the time. Pressure doesn't usually make us forget what we know. Pressure exposes whether we've built systems that help us remember what matters.
A few days later, I found myself watching Jensen at a swim meet, and the same lesson appeared in a completely different setting.
As I watched him prepare for his race, I realized he really doesn't have a consistent warm-up routine. Sure, he has a few things he does behind the starting blocks just before the race and I’m all about that routine. But everything leading up to that point changes from meet to meet…or race to race!
Then I started laughing to myself. Jensen also needs reminders to brush his teeth before bed. He needs reminders to take his trombone to school. When he's watching the neighbor's dog, he needs reminders to close the garage door before he leaves.
If we're honest, don't we all need reminders?
How many times have you walked into a room and forgotten why you went there? Left something at home? Missed an appointment? Forgotten a birthday? Walked away from the house wondering if YOU actually closed the garage door?
The problem usually isn't that we don't care. The problem is that we're asking our brains to do something they were never designed to do.
Cognitive psychologist Nelson Cowan, one of the world's leading researchers on working memory, reminds us that "the focus of attention is limited in capacity." In other words, our brains can only actively manage a small amount of information at one time. Add pressure, fatigue, emotion, distractions and the pace of competition, and that capacity shrinks even further.
Suddenly, it's easy to understand why coaches miss a defensive adjustment, athletes skip part of their warm-up, or parents forget to send a permission slip to school.
It isn't a character flaw. As Michael Jackson sang in the 80s, “It’s just human nature”.
That's why I love something productivity expert David Allen wrote years ago. "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them."
Think about that for a second. Your brain is an incredible problem-solving machine. It can create, analyze, adapt, teach, coach, compete and innovate.
But it's not meant to function as your storage unit. That's why high performers build systems.
One of my favorite books is The Checklist Manifesto by surgeon Atul Gawande. In it, he describes how experienced surgeons, pilots, engineers and other professionals continue to make preventable mistakes, not because they lack knowledge, but because complexity overwhelms memory. His conclusion is simple and incredibly powerful: Under conditions of
true complexity, checklists are not a crutch. They are necessary."
I couldn't help but think about that after the semifinal.
I had systems for a ton of things in baseball and in life…I didn't have a system for directing our attention between innings.
But that can change. Not because I'll try harder. But because I know better and will prepare differently.
One of the brain's most fascinating features is the Reticular Activating System (RAS). We’ve talked about it before. It’s our brain's filtering system. Every second, it decides what information deserves our attention and what gets ignored. The amazing part is that it takes its cues from US!
If we intentionally tell ourselves what matters before competition, our brain becomes much more likely to notice it during competition.
That's why written reminders work. That's why routines work. That's why assigning responsibilities works.
We're not simply creating a checklist. We're programming our attention.
A few years ago, the night before the championship game, I talked Portland State Softball Head Coach, Meadow McWhorter, through a brilliant system (it was her idea) of writing little reminders in the margins of her scouting report. She wrote down what SHE needed to do, say, feel and how she wanted to show up. "Breathe." "Stay aggressive." "Trust your first read." "Great body language." “Be the calm.”
She wasn't writing those reminders because she didn't know them. She was writing them because she understood something every great performer eventually learns.
Pressure has a way of making us forget what we already know.
The older I get, the more I realize that I'm a creature of habit. Most mornings look remarkably similar. I eat the same foods (strawberries, blueberries, a Royo bagel with PBJ or some other healthier spread), I start my mornings in much the same way and follow routines that have become almost automatic.
Some people hear that and think it sounds boring…only because I am boring, I suppose.
But I think it's liberating.
Every routine I automate frees my brain to think about something more important.
The same principle applies to coaching, parenting, leadership, teaching, and competing.
The goal isn't to remember more. The goal is to remember less because you've built a system that remembers for you.
Here is a simple question I should have asked before our game…or season! Where am I relying on memory when I should be relying on a system?
Maybe it's creating a pre-performance routine. Maybe it's assigning responsibilities to your coaching staff between innings. Maybe it's writing reminders in the margins of your scouting report. Maybe it's putting a sticky note on your computer, setting an alarm on your phone or creating a checklist before every competition.
Whatever it is, stop assuming you'll remember. Design a system that helps you succeed when life gets busy and pressure gets high.
Because championships aren't usually won by the person with the best memory. They're won by the person with the best preparation.
And sometimes, the most powerful preparation isn't another hour of practice. It's a simple system that helps you notice what matters most.
Manage the moments…with a system!
Julie
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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