I recently had a brilliant idea. Why not give a speech on memory to my Toastmasters Club. That should be a blast. Everyone relates to memory - or lack of it.

So I headed down to the library to pick up a book on the topic. My atttention was drawn to several books of note. On the way home, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to pick up the memory book!

All of us, young and old, suffer from it - it is the scourge of the ages - the inability to remember names, dates, incidents. Don’t call memory loss a senior moment. It is truly a daunting moment faced by all of us, regardless of age. But it seems to happen more often as we get older.

Why do we lose our grasp of information? A Harvard study tells us why: multitasking. As time passes, we tend to lose the ability to handle several things at once. We find it harder to divide our attention. Multitaskers are lousy at just about everything.

Another factor may be that we don’t focus on retaining information. After all, if we need information on a particular topic today, we Google it! So blame it on Google if you must.

Authorities tell us that we can conquer the loss of memory by eating healthily and getting regular exercise; taking our medication; and avoiding stress. What senior would dare question this advice?

Stress? Who isn’t stressed out from one thing or another? On one of my better days when I tried doing far too much, I was heading for the library, but made several errand stops along the way.

From banks to libraries to schools, everyone is opting for a new way of tackling services. In the library, it is personally picking up your reserved book off the shelf where these books are placed, sorted alphabetically under the name of the borrower.

I picked up my book and headed for the checkout desk. Searching for my wallet, which contained my library card, I couldn’t find it.

So I dashed to the car where my wife was waiting.

"Charlotte," I cried. "My wallet has disappeared. We have to cancel our credit cards."  We quickly cancelled all my credit cards. Then we visited all the places where we had stopped earlier that day. No sign of my wallet.

We returned to the library. I questioned the library staff. No wallet.

At this point I retraced my steps, returning to the shelf of reserve books. My wallet was conveniently filed under S for Spillios. And some people claim that seniors aren’t organized!

Multitasking was the problem, of course. Young and old, we are all victims of the problems associated with doing too many things at once and finishing few of them well.

How can we cope, you ask? Become active. Pay attention. Deal with one thing at a time. Take advantage of your senses: read, take notes, ask questions, say it aloud, and review.

My wife claims that I never read the paper. Of course I do. I skim for relevant information.

Years ago I took a course in what was known as the Evelyn Wood System of Reading - speedreading. By the time Evelyn Wood finished with me, I hated to read. But I learned one important thing. She taught me how to skim for important information.  

It’s very simple. All you do is take your index finger and slide it ever so nimbly across the line as you read, repeat the info to yourself and write it down. That’s all there’s to it.

So deal with multitasking. Focus your attention. Cut down on the number of pieces of information you attempt to juggle at one time. Keep up your activities. Remember your index finger. And forget Google!

The above article was adapted from a speech delivered by the author at the Toastmasters Edmonton District Humorous Speech Contest, October 2009.