Also referred to as "prospective remembering," this pattern is a product of imperfect human memory where people use various artifacts or memory aids to remind themselves of things they need to do in order to be successful in their complicated, highly scheduled lives. For example, leaving an unsent email on the screen so you remember to send it later, or setting an alarm 5 minutes before a meeting.

Examples of memory aids people can use are:

• notes to oneself, virtual "sticky notes"
• windows left on-screen
• annotations put directly into documents
• document stored on desktop rather than somewhere else in the filesystem
• unread emails in inbox, maybe flagged, instead of filed away