Tony Tye, Post-Gazette If you wear Wrist Reminders, you can remember those events that you might otherwise forget.

It's show time. Before the clock ticks down, you've got a ton to accomplish.

In front of you are a bunch of huge, nasty obstacles. You know some are going to fly right at you, and that there are more you won't see coming. Then there's all the noise and the other distractions. You have soooooo much to remember. Thank goodness your next several plays are written down on the band on your wrist.

No, we're not talking about Ben Roethlisberger or that other quarterback he's facing in the Super Bowl today.

You, too, can wear a script of your day's moves on your wrist, thanks to a new product called Wrist Reminders."

Stamford, Conn.-based MeadWestvaco Corp. just came out with these memory joggers, which they bill as better than tying a string around your finger (does anyone really do this?) or writing directly on your skin (we know people who do that).

Wrist Reminders are thick paper wrist bands, like what you might get at a hospital. Pop one out of the pocket-sized pack they come in, write out your reminders, then wrap it around your wrist and affix the self-adhesive ends. Voila: a sort of Post-It bracelet. They're the latest product (and oh-so-low-tech) being introduced amid a growing number of newfangled gadgets and Internet services whose goal is to help you remember things.

Yes, you -- the cubicle dweller, or school teacher, or even student -- no longer have to keep everything "up here" in your head. In the hustle and bustle of your busy day, simply look down and see what you need to do next.

The maker suggests using the bands for shopping lists and schedules. Children can use them so they don't forget homework assignments or items to bring home, even to exchange e-mail addresses and phone numbers. The idea came out of a group brainstorm at Mead's consumer and office products division in Dayton, Ohio, says associate marketing manager Theresa Moll.

She says she wears one most days (on this one, a reminder to bring a movie for a friend) but says they also can be attached to purse straps. She's heard of day-care centers and, yes, football coaches, who want to stick them on their young charges.

When you've done what you need to do, the maker says, simply "tear off and throw away!"

Would you actually wear your to-do list on your sleeve?

Ms. Moll says people don't blink an eye at hers, not in this age when everybody seems to be wearing a Lance Armstrong "Live Strong" band or some variation. "These are just the natural evolution of those."

Wrist Reminders are just showing up in stores, but she says people are snapping them up .

Anne Moyrong of Freemont, Calif., discovered Wrist Reminders at a nearby OfficeMax (the first chain to carry them) and likes them a lot.

Since her work schedule varies, her 5-year-old daughter sometimes gets confused about whether she's going to day care after school or not. In fact, she was thinking about trying sticky labels to remind the girl when she found the Wrist Reminders, which her daughter wears just about every day.

Ms. Moyrong uses them, too, and says they're "much more accessible than a list written down on a scrap piece of paper. I don't have to dig around for it in my purse."

She says her female friends all want to get them for their boyfriends and husbands to use. Her own husband "thought they were funny, so I'm assuming he would be more concerned about how they look if he were to wear one."

At a suggested retail price of $1.99 for 21, Wrist Reminders are a lot cheaper than a BlackBerry or other personal digital assistant or PDA.

Quarterbacking is tough, but NFL quarterbacks can receive assistance from their coaches via the receivers in their helmets. (Post-Gazette columnist Gene Collier says Roethlisberger wears a printout of that game's special plays, which correspond to numbers called in to him by offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.)

We average folks often are on our own as the game of life unfolds. The more complicated it gets, the more we need help.

PDAs can be programmed to sound a reminder alarm. But as one Post-Gazette editor who uses one notes, "What these things can't make you do is look at them daily." (Besides, BlackBerry addicts now have to worry that a lingering patent-infringement case could shut down service.)

If you don't have a PDA or a or a human personal assistant or secretary, you can rely on the old paper standbys: Calendars, Filofaxes and other day planners, to-do lists and Post-it products. Computer users can set their calendar programs and other software (such as Cute Reminder) to remind them of stuff.

They can also sign up for an array of Internet services that promise to e-mail reminders. Some of the free ones are MemoToMe.com (though there's a fee for its platinum edition), RememberIt.com, 101-Reminders.com and BirthdayAlarm.com (it charges for premium e-cards and messages to cell phones).

BigDates.com, subtitled "Thoughtfulness Made Easy," is, after a three-month free trial, $5.95 a year, or $15 with five pre-paid paper greeting cards. When you register, you enter big dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, and the service will remind you of them by sending messages to your cell phone or e-mail account. E-mail reminders also can include "smart suggestions" of free e-greetings, or not free paper cards and gifts, you can have sent to the person who's so special to you.

Twists on these themes include www.personalmd.com's RemindRx service that reminds forgetful subscribers via pager to take their pills on time ($24.95 a year). Especially with 78 million baby boomers starting to hit birthdays they'd as soon forget, memory is big business, from books to herbs to "brain gyms," such as MyBrainTrainer.com, that claim to whip memory into shape.

One Web resource you could check out, for an assessment of your memory and more, is the MemoryFitness Institute.org.

Just in case, you might want to write that down ...