I have had this happen countless times and it can be annoying, frustrating, and even costly- When I lose a thought. The idea is usually abruptly thrown out of my head to make room for something of priority. Then again I might even hang onto it for too long until it finally slips away.
None the less it is something that has happened to all of us. We may already have a method set in place for recalling these thoughts that fall into the back of our mind. Most of us however do not. So I would like to share with you my method to help you save a little time in your day.
I like to think of the thoughts that float around in my head as fragments. These are fragments of actual ideas that are not yet fully formed. They tend to come and go throughout the day and after conditioning my brain to filter out the un-wanted or un-needed thoughts, I am left with those that really matter to me.

First you have to Forget

Maybe one of the pieces of an idea is caught by my sub-conscious and brought to my attention. “This is how you can solve that problem,” echoes my mind. Depending on how urgent the subject determines how well I will retain my solution. So I push it to the side if I cannot write it down at the moment. My mind begins to wander again and finds another problem to tackle. All the while I am trying to cling to this idea as my mind multi-tasks away. All the sudden another thought pops up- Something important. But wait, what was that I was trying to remember?

First it is annoyance. My eyes dart from side to side as I attempt to recall the thought. Frustration kicks in as I am now trying to give myself a hint at what it might have been.

Finally desperation is all that remains in the wake of that idea. It seems to have been completely erased from ever having been thought moments ago. You tell yourself, “I wish I could remember that. It was a great idea.” But to no avail. You must either wait it out for that train of thought to align itself again, or accept that it is gone.
I hope I have brought back some memories of what it feels like to lose that special thought throughout the day.

All you Have to do Now is Recover the thought

Now that we have that out of the way, we can recover that lost thought. Here is the basic method that I have found to be tried and true in remembering a quickly forgotten idea.  Even though it might sound simple enough, it does take much practice. Right when the thought vanishes from your mind’s eye you must take a quick but calm approach to the loss. Stressing out will literally push remembering out of queue and place forgetting on high priority. Think about what most people say when they forget something, “I wish I could remember.” The phrase is accepting that you have forgotten the information already. The same goes with test information. You might actually know the material, but are pushing it out of view by actually unconsciously trying to forget it. So all you have to do in this instance is tell yourself these simple words, “I remember now what that was.” Feel free to change the words to fit your, “head voice.”

The concept is simple. All you do is assume that you have already remembered the thought. I know it sounds somewhat odd but it actually frees up your mind completely. I have timed the recall for my own mind; within less than two-minutes I can remember the forgotten thought.

The hard part about this exercise is that you will find it nearly impossible to try right after reading this. You must wait until you are actually preoccupied with other thoughts and forget something. Right at that moment you must apply the practice for it to work.

Once again I think the process is simple enough to be easily applied in anyone’s life. But it does take changes in the way you think and problem solve for it to become effective.