I’m just going to come right out and say it: I have a really hard time remembering names. It’s not a blindness thing; it’s a me thing. I can remember the most obscure details about people, but when it comes to important stuff like names, my brain often just goes blank. I’ve often wished I had an app that would let me keep track of information about a person so that I can find their information later based on some detail I remember. In my head, I’m envisioning a sort of personal LinkedIn where I could search something like “Works at XYZ, does training, hates mushrooms” and have it return the person’s name. Now, you’re probably reading this and wondering, what do mushrooms have to do with anything? I enjoy talking to people, learning about their lives, and often, that leads to discovering things we may have in common. I don’t like mushrooms myself, and so while I may not remember a person’s name or exact job title, I likely would remember if they told me that they don’t like mushrooms.

I’ve tried keeping track of details in the Notes field of contact cards, in Microsoft OneNote, Word documents, Apple Notes, and similar systems, but while these apps work for storing information, recalling, or searching for it has not worked well for me. I can’t imagine I’m completely alone in this. My guess is that people who work in sales, regularly attend conferences, or who interact with many people for whatever reason, could have similar struggles. If you are such a person, I’d love to learn any tips, tricks, apps, or other techniques that you’ve found helpful. Please reach out directly, or if you comment right here on this post, others may find the info helpful as well. Thanks in advance… Oh, and if we meet up somewhere and I don’t seem to remember you, please be a bit patient with me. After all, I probably do remember that you love apple pie, and of course, I remember that you have great taste when it comes to the blog content you read. :)