Last week, when I went to our refrigerator to get a glass of cold water, I saw an unfamiliar yellow-orange dot of light glowing from the top of the display. Under the glowing dot were the words Water Filter and explanations for different color codes. Hmm. I pulled out the Frigidaire® manual which was filed away with pounds of other warranty cards and manuals. The light was telling me that it was time to order a new filter. I read the ordering instructions and noted how often filters typically needed changing (every 200 gallons) – and I then marveled.

Isn’t it great that the fridge knows when its parts need to be replaced?

I started to think about the many systems that are in place in my life so that I don’t have to spend energy trying to remember details that don’t affect me in the moment. It’s like having a maid for my memory.

Yes, I can record appointments, even phone calls, in Outlook and program alarms so that I receive notifications a week before, a day before, or an hour before a scheduled event. But there are memory maids in my life that live outside of my computer.

I get notices from Jiffy Lube or my car dealer when I need to have routine maintenance. I’ll get confirming calls from restaurants the day before a reservation to remind me of arrangements I may have made weeks earlier. I get silly postcards from my dentist, usually with grinning orange Garfield cartoons, to remind me it’s time to have my teeth cleaned. I get notices from the library when a book is a week overdue so that I don’t inadvertently rack up excessive fines.

I often balk at invitations to get me to be more organized. I am not an organized person by nature. I have mountains of legal pads and loaded Pend-o-flex file folders because I am resistant to rely on paperless computer directories. I leave myself Post-its® everywhere to help me jog my memory about things I might want to buy at the store.

But tools for helping me keep appointments or remember promises – I feel a great debt of gratitude for things that help me on these counts.

I view time as precious, and I don’t want to miss anything that may be important. I don’t want to be disrespectful of any friend or colleague with whom I made plans who may be counting on connecting at a certain time.

In some ways, I think time is one of the few things of any intrinsic value. I consider what I spend my time on to be a total reflection of what’s really important to me.

I know that while I love to test my memory (I am good at recalling zip codes, song lyrics, and menus from stellar restaurant meals eaten since I was eight years old), trying to juggle details about where I need to be or what I need to respond to based on old promises, is a mental chore I would just as well farm out.

Thanks to all the memory maids in my life, the people and systems in place that absolve me of the need to keep track of many things directly.

With my maidssilently keeping watch for me, I can give my full attention to what I am experiencing in the present moment, and that’s no small thing.