Personal productivity: the role of prospective memory in the management of commitments

Several studies (see for example, Francis-Smythe, 2006; Macan et al., 2010) showed the existence of a connection between prospective memory (PM) and personal productivity (or time management, TM): the strategies commonly used to support prospective memory (e.g., business planning, prioritizing tasks, notes, to-do list) are the same used for time management. However, there are still little empirical evidence and gaps in the study of the effectiveness of the typical methods and technologies of time management to support this memory functionality. The overall goal of this study was trying to provide a further contribute to the study of this connection through some empirical studies. The first part of this dissertation deals with the traditional approach to prospective memory study. This will include the main definitions, theories and models of PM and the main areas of investigation arisen from the analysis of literature. The second part deals with the most recent approaches focusing on the connection between prospective memory and time management. Based on the inputs identified in the literature, the third part deals with the empirical contributions to support this connection, identifying the most appropriate instruments to be used for the study of the phenomenon, evaluate their effectiveness, in some cases building ad hoc and propose new ones. Moreover, each study is introduced by the related theoretical contributions. Finally, the last part deals with the general conclusions of all studies and the future prospective of research.