Written by JoyGenea Schumer with support from Notion AI, Nano Banana PRO, and ChatGPT
When memory isn’t your superpower: Why smart leaders use lists and technology
I have a reverse packing list.
Yes, you read that right. Not only a list of what to pack before I leave home. A list of what to check before I leave the hotel room.
And the things I forget most? Those go at the very top. Charging cords. Headphones. Money I stashed in a drawer. The stuff that’s easy to miss when you’re rushing to catch a flight.
When I tell people this, they’re often surprised. Some think it’s excessive. But here’s what I’ve learned after years of coaching unconventional leaders and living as one myself: if your memory isn’t your strongest asset, lists and technology aren’t optional. They’re strategic tools that let you lead at your highest level.
Let me show you why running from lists is actually running from your own effectiveness.
The Memory Myth We Need to Destroy
There’s this unspoken belief in leadership culture that successful people just remember things. They have it all together. They show up prepared without visible effort. They don’t need checklists or reminders or systems because their brains just work that way.
Here’s what that myth ignores: many of the most brilliant, innovative, unconventional leaders I work with have memory challenges. Not because they’re careless or unfocused, but because their brains are wired differently.
Maybe you’re neurodivergent. Maybe you have ADHD. Maybe you’re highly creative and your brain prioritizes connections over details. Maybe you’re managing chronic stress, health conditions, or simply the cognitive load of running a business and leading a team.
Whatever the reason, if memory isn’t your natural strength, you have two choices.
You can keep pretending it is and spend enormous amounts of energy trying to compensate, feeling anxious every time you travel or manage complex projects, wondering what you’ve forgotten this time.
Or you can do what I teach my clients to do: stop treating memory as a requirement and start treating it as one variable in a system you get to design.
Why Travel Exposes Our Memory Gaps
Travel is where memory challenges become impossible to hide.
At home, your environment does some of your remembering for you. You see your supplement bottles and remember to take them. Your charger is always in the same spot. Your routines are automatic.
But travel strips away all those environmental cues. Suddenly you’re in a hotel room where nothing is where you expect it. You’re managing flight times, boarding passes, rental car confirmations, meeting locations, and a dozen other moving pieces. You’re operating in an unfamiliar environment while your brain is already taxed by travel fatigue, time zones, and sensory overload.
This is when things fall through the cracks. You leave your headphones on the plane. You forget to pack your medication. You show up to a meeting without the document you needed because you couldn’t remember which email it was in.
And then you feel incompetent. Unprofessional. Like you’re failing at something that should be basic.
But here’s the truth: you’re not failing at memory. You’re succeeding at being human. And the solution isn’t to have a better memory. It’s to have better systems.
The Technology That Changed Everything for Me
I’m going to be specific about my system because I want you to see that this isn’t theoretical. This is how I actually operate.
I use Notion for my travel lists. Everything lives there. Not scattered across apps or buried in email threads or scribbled on random pieces of paper. One place. One system.
For each trip, I duplicate my travel template. It includes:
- Pre-trip preparation (what needs to be done before I leave)
- Packing list (what goes in the bag)
- Travel day checklist (documents, confirmations, what to have accessible)
- Hotel arrival checklist (what to do when I get there)
- Reverse packing list (what to check before leaving the hotel)
- Post-trip follow-up (expenses, notes, items to restock)
Inside each list, I’ve embedded the actual information I’ll need. Flight confirmations. Hotel addresses. Meeting times. Links to the original emails. Everything is right there, in context, so I don’t have to hunt for it while I’m standing in an airport or sitting in an Uber.
This system removes so much anxiety. So much time spent wondering, “Did I do this? Did I remember that?” It’s on the list. If I check the box, it’s done. If the box isn’t checked, it’s not done.
My brain doesn’t have to hold it. The technology holds it for me.
What to Put at the Top of Your Lists
Here’s a game-changing principle I teach my clients: put the things you forget most at the very top of your lists.
Not the most important things. Not the things you think you should remember. The things you actually, consistently forget.
For my reverse packing list, that’s:
- Phone charger and cord
- Laptop charger
- Headphones
- Toiletries in the shower/bathtub
- Anything I put in a drawer (money, jewelry, supplements)
- Items plugged into bathroom outlets
- Things hung in the closet
These aren’t the most valuable items I travel with. But they’re the ones my brain doesn’t automatically track when I’m in packing mode. So, I’ve externalized that tracking into a list that I check every single time.
This is what I mean by designing for your actual brain, not your ideal brain.
Your ideal brain might remember everything effortlessly. Your actual brain has specific patterns of what it holds and what it drops. When you study your actual patterns and build systems around them, everything gets easier.
Lists as a Tool, Not a Crutch
I need to address something I hear from clients some of the time: “But won’t I become dependent on lists? Shouldn’t I be training my memory to get better?”
Let me flip that question. If you’re a leader, what’s your job? Is it to have a perfect memory? Or is it to make good decisions, support your team, drive results, and show up with the clarity and presence your work requires?
Lists aren’t a crutch. They’re a tool. Like a calendar. Like a computer. Like any piece of technology that extends your natural capabilities and lets you focus your mental resources where they matter most.
I don’t try to memorize my clients’ session notes. I document them in a tool so I can show up to every session with full context and give them my complete attention instead of straining to recall what we discussed last time.
I don’t try to remember my daily routine. I have a 47-item checklist in my SOP that removes the cognitive load of “what comes next?” so I can save my executive function for coaching, writing, and leading.
I don’t try to hold travel logistics in my head. I put them in a system so I can use my brain for the actual work I’m traveling to do.
This isn’t weakness. This is strategic allocation of cognitive resources.
And when I teach my clients to do the same thing, their stress drops, their effectiveness rises, and their leadership becomes more sustainable.
The Technology Options You Have Right Now
You don’t need my exact system. You need a system that fits your brain and your workflow. Here are the tools I recommend to clients:
Notion (my personal favorite): Great for templates, duplication, embedding information in context. You can create one master travel template and duplicate it for every trip. Everything stays connected and searchable.
Trello: I’ve used this for list-making before. The visual board layout works well for people who think spatially. You can create cards for each task and move them through stages.
Excel or Google Sheets: If you prefer something simple and familiar, a spreadsheet works beautifully. You can have tabs for different types of lists and update them over time.
Apple Notes or Google Keep: For people who want something lightweight on their phone. Great for quick checklists you can check off on the go.
AI tools: Have a conversation with ChatGPT or Claude about your travel patterns and ask it to generate a custom checklist. Then refine it based on what you actually forget. Technology can help you design the system.
The tool matters less than the principle: put your memory outside your head and into a system you trust.
How This Applies Beyond Travel
Here’s why I encourage clients to start with travel lists specifically. Because once you experience how much easier travel becomes when you externalize memory into a system, you start to see where else this applies.
You realize you can do this for:
- Client meetings (prep lists, follow-up lists)
- Project launches (what needs to happen in what order)
- Delegation (what you’re handing off and what you’re tracking)
- Weekly reviews (questions to ask yourself every Friday)
- Morning routines (the sequence that gets your brain online)
The skill isn’t list-making. The skill is identifying where your memory is unreliable and building external structure to compensate.
And the more you practice this while traveling, where the stakes are visible and the patterns are clear, the more naturally it carries over into the rest of your business and life.
What Unconventional Leaders Know About Memory
I work with brilliant leaders who run million/billion-dollar businesses, manage complex teams, and solve problems most people can’t even articulate. Many of them have memory challenges. Some are neurodivergent. Some have ADHD. Some have dyslexia. Some are just wired to think in ways that don’t prioritize rote recall.
And every single one of them has learned this: you don’t need to remember everything. You need to know where to find everything.
That’s the shift.
You’re not trying to become someone with a photographic memory. You’re trying to build a system so reliable that your memory gaps become irrelevant.
When I travel, I’m not hoping I remember to check for my charger. I’m following my reverse packing list. Memory isn’t part of the equation.
When I prep for a client session, I’m not trying to recall what we discussed three weeks ago. I’m opening their tool where everything is documented. Memory isn’t part of the equation.
This is how unconventional leaders operate. We compensate. We design. We use technology to extend our capabilities instead of fighting our limitations.
Reducing Stress Through External Systems
Let me tell you what happens when you don’t have these systems in place.
You’re standing in a hotel room, about to leave for the airport, and there’s this nagging feeling. Did I get everything? You do a visual scan. You check the bathroom. You open drawers. But you’re not following a system, so you don’t know if you’ve really checked everything or if you’ve just checked the things you happened to think of.
The anxiety follows you to the airport. The car. The flight home. And then three days later you realize your good headphones are gone.
Now contrast that with following a checklist. You go through your reverse packing list. Every item. Check, check, check. When you walk out of that hotel room, you know you got everything because you followed the system.
The anxiety is gone. Not because your memory improved, but because you removed memory from the equation.
This is what I mean when I tell clients that lists reduce stress. It’s not just about not forgetting things. It’s about not having to hold the mental weight of wondering if you forgot things.
You free up so much bandwidth when you trust your systems more than your memory.
Building Your First Travel List This Week
I’m going to make this immediately actionable. If memory challenges make travel stressful for you, here’s what to do this week:
Step 1: Brain dump your travel pain points
Think about your last three trips. What did you forget? What caused anxiety? What did you spend time hunting for? Write it all down.
Step 2: Choose your tool
Pick one tool from the options I listed or one you already use. Don’t overthink it. You can always migrate later. Just pick one and open it.
Step 3: Create your reverse packing list
Start with the list for leaving the hotel. This is the highest-impact list because it catches things right before you walk out. Put the things YOU personally forget most at the top.
Step 4: Test it on your next trip
Actually use the list. Check every item. Notice what you want to add or change. Refine it.
Step 5: Expand from there
Once your reverse packing list is working, add a pre-trip prep list. Then a packing list. Build it incrementally.
You don’t need a perfect system on day one. You need a system that’s 10% better than having no system, and then you iterate.
Technology Is Here to Help Us
I want to say this clearly because I think some leaders resist this approach out of pride or fear of dependence.
Technology is not the enemy of capability. It’s the extension of capability.
You don’t refuse to use a calendar because you should just remember what day your meetings are. You don’t refuse to use a computer because you should just write everything by hand. You don’t refuse to use a car because you should just walk everywhere.
You use tools that make your work more effective and your life more sustainable.
Lists and list-making technology are the same category. They’re tools that let you focus your brilliant, unconventional brain on the work that actually requires your unique thinking, instead of burning cognitive resources on trying to remember where you put your phone charger.
If you struggle with memory, you should absolutely be utilizing all the tools available to you. Not someday. Not when you have time to build the perfect system. Now. With whatever simple tool you can open this week.
Because the goal isn’t to someday not need the tool. The goal is to build a tool you trust so completely that memory challenges stop limiting your leadership.
The Permission You’re Waiting For
I’m going to close with the thing I wish someone had told me years ago, before I spent so much energy trying to compensate for memory challenges instead of just building systems around them.
You don’t have to remember everything.
You’re not less capable because you need lists. You’re not less professional because you use technology to track details. You’re not failing at leadership because your brain doesn’t hold information the way other people’s brains do.
You’re designing for reality. And that’s the most intelligent thing you can do.
I’m JoyGenea. I’m an international neurodiversity and leadership coach for unconventional thinkers. I have a 47-item daily checklist. I have a reverse packing list. I have templates for every trip I take and systems for every area of my business.
And I don’t apologize for any of it. Because these systems are why I can show up for my clients with full presence. Why I can travel with minimal anxiety. Why my leadership is sustainable and my work is effective.
Lists should not be run from. Especially if your memory isn’t your strongest or best thing.
So stop running. Start building. And let technology hold what your brain doesn’t need to.
That’s not accommodation. That’s strategy. And it’s how unconventional leaders turn their differently wired brains into their greatest advantage.
One list at a time.
JoyGenea
Video Transcription:
One really important thing about being an unconventional leader is the fact that part of your unconventionalness, or what also might be part of your neurology, is an issue with memory. Maybe you do not have an incredible memory. Maybe you do not have great short term memory. Maybe you don’t have great long term memory. Memory, memory, memory can be a huge factor in this, and one of the things I love to do, and that’s a big part of my life as a leader, is travel. I travel for speaking. I travel for training. I travel to give training. I travel for clients, so I travel, and I enjoy it immensely, traveling, and in particular, like I’ll use myself as an example, and my memory are not always compatible. And there’s one thing that I’ve definitely Learned, that I strongly encourage clients, is about how to travel with a list. Love a list and use that list to literally help yourself pack. I say this literally, because so many people are surprised when I’m like, I have a list for leaving the hotel room. It’s a reverse packing list, but in particular, the things I forget the most are at the very top. The charging cords, my headphones, um, money that I might have put in a drawer, uh, the the accessories in the bathroom. Those are right at the top of my, I call it the hotel end list, and they’re really important, these things. Because of technology, I gotta tell you, I’ve been doing this for years as a compensation factor, but because of technology, oh my lord, has this become really really easy. So if you are a leader and you travel quite a bit, or even just some of the time, I highly recommend that you start to build out easily duplicatable lists for yourself, what you need to pack and what you need to have. It revolutionizes things. It makes it easier. So as a different unconventional thinker, potentially, and as a leader, that applies to a variety of other places I’ve found in life and in business. But if you start to practice that while traveling, you’ll find that it carries over into other things. So my favorite, my personal favorite top um list making items are actually in Notion. In particular, I make um, I’ve made my travel lists within Notion. That way I can just duplicate them. I have them all in one area for each trip, and so then I can just go down like the, there’s the pre trip stuff, all the things that need to be prepared for that. It removes so much um anxiety, so much time spent pushing around trying to pull up, oh, did I do this, did I. It’s on the list. If I’ve, you know, if I booked the flights, the flight information is on the list, and the context of the emails right in, right in there, so I can easily grab it while I’m traveling. I don’t have to hunt it down anywhere else again. I’ve purposely and intentionally placed it in one location so I can find it later, and that is exactly what I highly recommend for clients that do struggle with memory, is that when they’re traveling, it cuts, it reduces stress so much. In particular, this is gonna sound funny, but in particular when they’re traveling with their families, cause so often the partner of the person that’s an unconventional theater thinker winds up having to utilize a lot of their energy, bandwidth, and memory, because they’re thinking of themselves and the significant other, excuse me, and potentially children. And it’s a lot. It’s a lot. Let’s get real. It’s a lot. So as a tool and as an aid, I also tell my leaders, when you are headed out with your family, it is also your job to utilize your list then and to take care and handle yourself. Your significant other will immensely thank you to not be handling that anymore, and you will enjoy not having somebody else thinking about that and dealing with it, because if it doesn’t all go perfect, and emotions can be high, and that can happen. So I hope you’ve gained some good insight. I hope this has encouraged you. You can just use simple things like Excel to make um, make lists if you want. You can use Trello. I’ve used that before to make some of my lists. There are so many options at this point. Truly, have a light conversation with AI and it will tell you all of the incredible ways that we can, that it can make a simple travel list for you, and you can customize it and then duplicate it over and over again. Technology is there to help us. Do not not use the technology that’s here to make our lives simpler and easier, and that way we have more time and bandwidth to do the incredible things that we wanted to do while we were traveling. So remember, lists should not be run from, and in particular, if you are aware that your memory is not the strongest or best thing, you should absolutely be utilizing all the tools available to you. I’m JoyGenea, unconventional thinker, international neurodiversity coach, and leadership coach for the unconventional thinker. Bye now.