Your quiz results…
MEMORY
Remembering stuff (when your brain is a sieve)
What your results mean
Your quiz results show that memory is your biggest executive function challenge. This is about working memory – your brain’s scratch pad that holds information temporarily whilst you’re using it. Where did I put my keys? What was I just about to do? What did that client say in their last email? Working memory answers these questions.
This doesn’t mean you’re careless or forgetful. It means your brain’s scratch pad is genuinely smaller, and information falls off it faster. If you don’t write something down immediately, it’s gone. And that creates very real business problems.
The memory sieve problem
Here’s what makes memory challenges so shameful: forgetting things looks like you don’t care. You forget meetings, deadlines, promises you genuinely meant to keep. Mid-conversation, your mind goes blank. You’re constantly searching for things you just had. People think you’re unreliable or uncommitted. But this is neurological; your working memory capacity is significantly smaller, and information degrades faster. You’re not not paying attention. Your brain’s storage system just works differently.
Why object permanence problem
There’s also this: if something isn’t immediately visible, it essentially doesn’t exist in your awareness. Out of sight really is out of mind. Things literally disappear from your mental landscape when they’re not physically present. This includes urgent tasks, important deadlines, and people you genuinely care about. It’s not that you don’t care. It’s that your brain doesn’t hold onto things that aren’t right in front of you. Which creates compound problems when combined with the working memory issues.
How this shows up in your business
When this is a challenge, you’ll notice specific patterns across your business:
Memory friction:
Marketing
Brilliant content ideas vanish before you capture them. Forget to post consistently. Lose track of what you’ve shared and where. Result: inconsistent presence makes it harder for potential clients to build familiarity and trust.
Money
Complete work but forget to invoice until later. Can’t remember if you’ve paid a bill, so either pay it twice or miss it. Financial admin becomes messier when memory isn’t holding the details.
Systems
Can’t quite remember where you saved things or what you called them. Might have a few different filing approaches because you forgot about the previous ones. Passwords are an ongoing challenge.
People
Forget meetings or remember them later than ideal. Promise to do things with genuine intention, then forget. People might think you don’t care when actually the information just didn’t stick.
Output
Mid-task, forget what you were doing or why. Lose track of project details. Can’t quite remember what stage things are at without checking repeatedly.
Offers
Ideas for services vanish before you write them down. Can’t remember what you’ve already offered or to whom. Consistency is trickier when you can’t hold onto information reliably.
The combined impact
The frustrating thing? Memory problems look like you don’t care, when actually you care enormously. You just can’t hold onto information reliably. The business cost is relationships damaged by forgotten commitments, revenue lost to un-invoiced work, and time wasted searching for things you’ve lost.
What actually helps
You need strategies that work with memory challenges. Here are approaches that address both:
1. Make everything visible
If you can’t see it, you’ll forget it. Post-it notes, whiteboards, things left in your line of sight. Don’t put things in cupboards or folders where they disappear. Visual cues bypass the need for memory entirely. This isn’t about being organised—it’s about working around a genuine neurological constraint.
2. Capture immediately or lose it forever
The moment you think of something important, capture it. Voice notes, phone notes, whatever tool is closest. Don’t trust yourself to remember it in five minutes. You won’t. Even if you’re absolutely certain you will, you won’t. This is the single most important habit you can build.
3. Single storage locations for everything
All client documents in one folder. All invoices in another. Consistency removes the memory load of trying to remember where you put things. It also means you only have to remember one system, not seventeen. Choose locations once, then never deviate. Ever.
4. Calendar everything with multiple alerts
If it’s not in your calendar with alerts, it doesn’t exist. Meetings, deadlines, tasks, reminders to check on things. Everything. Multiple alerts if necessary. Trust the system completely, not your memory at all. Your memory has proven it can’t be trusted. Stop trying to make it work.
How Business Unmasked helps
Inside Business Unmasked, we build memory support into the programme structure:
- Regular check-ins that help you remember what you’re working on and why
- Shared documentation of goals, commitments, and progress—written down, not in your head
- Systems-building support to create external memory that actually works
- Reminders and prompts built into the programme rhythm—structure remembers for you
- A community that understands forgetting isn’t not caring
What happens next?
If memory is your biggest friction point, you don’t have to keep battling both alone. There are ways to work that address both challenges together.
Business Unmasked offers structured, ADHD-friendly support designed specifically for people dealing with these exact combinations of executive function challenges.
Ready to Unmask?
Work with your brain, not against it!
- Join Business Unmasked (spaces are limited and filling fast)
- Book a discovery call to explore how Business Unmasked can support your specific needs
- Download our free guide on the six executive functions that shape your business
You’re not failing at two things. You have two neurological differences that interact in specific ways. And there are proven strategies to build support around both.
Let’s build a business that works with your whole brain.
